PROSE IV.

Præfata igitur virgo hujus quæstionis solutionem in vestibulo excubare demonstrans.

Then the virgin, showing that the answer to this question lay watchful on its threshold, said:

'Can it be that thou dost not know that the transgression of the earthly sphere, that the disorder in s the ordering of the world, that the carelessness of governinent, that the unjustness of law, have forced me to descend from the innermost sanctuaries of heavenly mystery to the common brothels of earth? If thou wert willing to gather up in the loving sympathy of thy mind and to treasure in the closet of thy heart that which I would say, I would unfold the labyrinth of thy perplexity.'

To these words I returned, with strict restraint of my voice, a fitting reply.

'For nothing,' said I, 'O heavenly queen, do I hunger with a more eager desire than the explanation of this question.'

Then said she:

'Since all things are by the law of their being 20 held subject to my laws, and ought to pay to me a rightful and established tribute, almost all, with just dues and with seemly presentation, regularly obey iny commands; but from this general rule man alone is excluded by an abnormal exception. He, stripped "s of the clock of decency, and prostituted in the shameless brothel cef unchastity, dares to stir tumult and strife not only against the majesty of his queen, but also to inflame the madness of intestine war against his mother. Other creations, on which I have bestowed 30 the lesser gifts of my favor, throughout the rank of

their activities are bound in willing subjection to the inviolability of my commands. But man, who exhausted the treasury of almost all my riches, tries to overthrow the natural impulses of nature, and arms against me the violence of wicked lust. Consider 35 how almost all things, according to the proclamation of my command, perform, reasonably as their native character demands, the fixed duties of my law. The firmament, according to my principle and teaching, leads all things not in vain in daily circuit, and with identity of turning advances its course, and retreats from whither it has advanced. The stars, as they shine for the glory of the firmament itself, and clothe it with their splendors, and complete the short day of their journey, and compass the celestial space with: s their various orbits, serve my majesty. The planets, according to the going forth of my command and order, restrain the rapid motion of the firmament, going to their rising with contrary steps, and afterward repairing to the place of their setting. Thus, so too, the air, disciplined under my instruction, now rejoices with a kindly breeze, now weeps in the tears of the clouds as if in sympathy, now is angered by the raging of the winds, now is shaken by the threatening rumble of thunder, now is parched in ss the furnace of heat, now is sharpened with the severity of cold. The birds, which have been fashioned in various forms under my supervision and ordering, marvel greatly at my teachings, as they cross the floods of air on the oarage of their wings. Because 60 of my intervening mediation, the sea is joined closely to the earth by the firm bonds of friendship, and does not dare to violate its solemn obligations of

1 Migne has also nunc coruscationibus illuminatur, 'now flashes with lightning.'

By

faith sworn with its sister, and fears to stray further 65 into the habitations of earth than the limit established for its wandering. At my mere1 will and wish it is now vexed into the wrath of the storm, now returns to the peace of tranquillity, now, borne aloft by its swelling pride, rises to the likeness of a mountain, 70 now is leveled out into a smooth plain. The fish, bound to their vow of my acknowledgment, fear greatly to detract from my rules and canons. iny order and edict, the rains are married to the earth in a kind of imperial embrace. They, laboring with 75 untiring production at the creation of progeny, cease not to be parents of the various species of things. The terrestrial animals beneath my examination and management do not profess activities at variance with the sovereignty which is over their obedience. The so earth now whitens with the hoariness of frosts, now is fringed with flowery vegetation. The forest now has grown its leafy hair, now is shorn by the sharp razor of winter. Winter holds the buried seeds deep in the lap of mother earth, spring sets the captives 85 free, summer ripens the harvests, autumn displays her riches. But why should I permit the course of my narration to stray to instances? Man alone rejects the music of my harp, and raves under the lyre of frenzied Orpheus. For the human race, derogate from , its high birth, commits monstrous acts in its union of genders, and perverts the rules of love by a practice of extreme and abnormal irregularity. Thus, too, man, become the tyro of a distorted passion, turns the predicate into direct contraposition, against all 95 rules. Drawing away from power to spell of love aright, he is proved an unlettered sophist. He avoids the fitting relation of the Dionean art, and falls to 1 Reading tantum, with Migne.

vicious perversion. And while he subverts me with such pursuit, he also in his frenzy plots execution against me. I grieve that I have widely adorned 100 men's natures with so many privileges and beauties, for they abuse and bring the honor of honor to disgrace, deform the fairness of the body with the ugliness of lust, mar the color of beauty with lurid paint -the hue of adulterous desire-and even, as they 105 blossom into vices, deflower the bloom of Flora. Why did I deify the countenance of Helen with divine grace, who forced the use of her beauty awry into the abuse of harlotry, breaking her faith with her royal couch, and binding herself in marriage with 10 Paris? Pasiphaë, also, driven by the madness of inordinate lust, in the form of a cow corruptly celebrated her bestial nuptials with a brute animal, and, concluding with a viler error, ended by the miscreated enormity of the bullock. Myrrha, roused by the stings us of myrrh-breathing Venus, and fallen from the affection. of a daughter to a lust for her father, filled and renewed with her father the office of her mother. Medea, cruelly treating her own son in order that she might erect the inglorious work of love, destroyed love's 120 small and glorious work. Narcissus, when his shadow falsely told of another Narcissus, was filled with dreamy thoughts, and, believing his very self to be another, ran to the danger of passion for himself. And many other youths, clothed by my favor with noble beauty, 15 who have been crazed with love of coin, have turned their hammers of love to the office of anvils. Such a great body of foul men roam and riot along the breadth of the whole earth, by whose seducing contact chastity herself is poisoned. Of such of these 130 men as profess the grammar of love, some embrace only the masculine gender, some the feminine, others

the common or indiscriminate. Some, as of heteroclite gender, are declined irregularly, through the winter 135 in the feminine, through the summer in the masculine. Some, in the pursuit of the logic of love, establish in their conclusions the law of subject and the law of predicate in proper relation. Some, who have the place of the subject, have not learned how to form 140 a predicate. Some only predicate, and will not await the proper addition of the subject's end. Others, scorning to enter into the court of Dione, devise a miserable sport below its vestibule. Against all these justice makes her complaint, the law is armed, and 145 together they strive to avenge their wrongs with the sword of retribution. Thou wilt not marvel, then, if I depart into these strange, unholy words, since unholy men dare to practice licentiousness. For I throw them forth indignantly, to the end that virtuous men 150 may respect the character of chastity, and that the

shameless may be restrained from the lewd practices of lust. Indeed, a knowledge of evil is expedient for security, for it punishes the guilty, branding them with the mark of shamelessness, and fortifies those who 155 are without the armor of caution. Now my explanation has filed away and erased the worry of thy doubt. For these reasons, then, did I pass from the secret places of the heaven's court above, and descend to the lowlands of this mortal earth, that I might, 160 with thee as with my friend and confidant, lay down my sad burden of the accursed vices of men, and with thee determine what answering punishment should be given to such rebellion in crime, in order that the sting of the punishment might be made as 165 great as the scourge of those crimes, and might equal them in retribution.'

Then said I: