Alanus de Insulis: Liber de Planctu Naturae

[0431A] In lacrymas risus, in fletum gaudia verto:
     In planctum plausus, in lacrymosa jocos,
Cum sua naturam video secreta silere,
     Cum Veneris monstro naufraga turba perit.
Cum Venus in Venerem pugnans, illos facit illas:
     Cumque suos magica devirat arte viros.
Non fraus tristitiam, non fraudes fletus adulter
     Non dolus, imo dolor parturit, imo parit.

[0431A] I turn laughter into tears, joys into weeping:
     applause into lament, jests into tearful things,
when I see Nature’s own secrets fall silent,
     when by Venus’s monster the shipwrecked throng perishes.
When Venus, warring against Venus, makes those men those women:
     and with magic art unmans her very men.
Not fraud brings forth sadness, nor do frauds bring forth adulterous weeping—
     not guile; rather grief is in travail, nay, gives birth indeed.

Musa rogat, dolor ipse jubet, natura precatur,
Ut donem flendo, flebile carmen eis.
Heu! quo naturae secessit gratia?

The Muse asks, pain itself bids, Nature prays,
That I bestow, by weeping, a plaintive song to them.
Alas! whither has Nature’s grace withdrawn?

morum
Forma, pudicitiae norma, pudoris amor!
Flet natura, silent mores, proscribitur omnis
Orphanus a veteri nobilitate pudor.
Activi generis sexus, se turpiter horret
[0431B]
Sic in passivum degenerare genus.

of morals
Form, norm of pudicity, love of modesty!
Nature weeps, morals are silent, every
orphaned Modesty is proscribed from ancient nobility.
The sex of the active genus shudders shamefully
[0431B]
thus to degenerate into the passive genus.

Femina vir factus, sexus denigrat honorem,
     Ars magicae Veneris hermaphroditat eum.
Praedicat et subjicit, fit duplex terminus idem,
     Grammaticae leges ampliat ille nimis.
Se negat esse virum, naturae factus in arte
     Barbarus.

A woman become a man, he denigrates the honor of sex,
     the art of magical Venus hermaphroditizes him.
He predicates and subjoins, the same term becomes double,
     he amplifies the laws of grammar excessively.
He denies that he is a man, made, in the art of nature,
     a Barbarian.

Ars illi non placet, imo, tropus.
Non tamen ista tropus poterit translatio dici;
In vitium melius ista figura cadit.
Hic modo est logicus, per quem conversio simplex
Artis, naturae jura perire facit.

Art does not please him; rather, a trope.
Yet that translation cannot be called a trope;
more fittingly does this figure fall into a fault.
Here he is only a logician, by whom a simple conversion
makes the laws of art and of nature perish.

Cudit in incude, quae semina nulla monetat
     Horret et incudem malleus ipse suam.
Nullam materiam matricis signat idaea,
     Sed magis in sterili littore vomer arat.
[0431C]
Sic pede dactilico Veneris male iambitur usus,
     In quo non patitur syllaba longa brevem.

He forges on an anvil which mints no seeds,
     and the hammer itself shudders at its own anvil.
The Idea signs no material of the matrix,
     but rather the ploughshare plows on a sterile shore.
[0431C]
Thus with a dactylic foot the practice of Venus is badly iambed,
     in which a long syllable does not permit a short.

Quamvis femineae speciei supplicet omnis
     Forma viri, semper hujus honore minor;
Quamvis Tyndaridi vultus formetur, Adonis
     Narcissique decor victus adoret eam:
Spernitur ipsa tamen, quamvis decor ille peroret
     Et formae deitas disputet esse deam.
Qua Jovis in dextra fulmen langueret, et omnis
     Phoebi cessaret otia nervus agens:
Qua liber fieret servus, propriumque pudorem

Venderet Hippolytus, hujus amore fruens.
Queis impressa semel, mellirent oscula succo,
     Queis mellita darent, mellis in ore favum.

Although every form of man supplicates the feminine species,
     always lesser than this one in honor;
Although a face be fashioned like the Tyndarid’s, and the decor
     of Adonis and Narcissus, conquered, adore her:
She herself is scorned nevertheless, although that decor may perorate
     and the deitas of beauty dispute that she is a goddess.
At whom the thunderbolt would languish in Jove’s right hand, and every
     string that drives Phoebus’s leisures would cease;
At whom a free man would become a slave, and his own modesty

Hippolytus would sell, enjoying the love of this one.
By which kisses, once imprinted, would mellify with juice,
     by which, honeyed, they would give a honeycomb of honey in the mouth.

[0431D]
Spiritus exiret ad basia deditus ori,
     Totus et in labiis luderet ipse sibi.
Ut dum sic moriar, in me defunctus, in illa
     Felici vita perfruar alter ego.
Non modo Tyndaridem Phrygius venatur adulter,
     Sed Paris in Paridem monstra nefanda parit.

[0431D]
My spirit would go forth, devoted to kisses at her mouth,
     and wholly upon the lips would sport for itself.
So that, while I thus die, having expired in me, in her
     I, an alter ego, might fully enjoy a happy life.
Not only does the Phrygian adulterer hunt the Tyndarid,
     but Paris begets against Paris unspeakable monstrosities.

Non modo per rimas rimatur basia Thysbes
[0432A]
Pyramus, huic Veneris rimula nulla placet.
Non modo Pelides mentitur virginis actus,
     Ut sic virgineum se probet esse virum;
Sed male naturae munus pro munere donat,
     Cum sexum lucri vendit amore suum.
A Genii templo tales anathema merentur,
     Qui Genio decimas, et sua jura negant.

Not only through the cracks does he search out the kisses of Thisbe
[0432A]
Pyramus; no little chink of Venus pleases him.
Not only does the son of Peleus counterfeit the acts of a maiden,
     so that thus he may prove himself to be a virgin man;
But ill he gives the gift of nature in exchange for a gift,
     when for the love of profit he sells his sex.
From the temple of the Genius such men earn anathema,
     who deny to the Genius the tithes and its rights.

Cum hanc elegiam lamentabili modulatione crebrius recenserem, mulier ab impassibilis mundi penitiori dilapsa palatio, ad me maturare videbatur accessum; cujus crinis non mendicata luce, sed propria scintillans, non similitudinarie radiorum repraesentans effigiem, sed eorum claritate nativa naturam praeveniens, in stellare corpus caput effigiabat [0432B] puellae; quod duplex tricatura diffibulans, superna non deserens, terrae non dedignabatur osculo arridere. Quoddam vero lilioli tramitis spatium, sub obliquitate decussata, crinis dividebat litigium, nec illa unquam obliquitas vultui erat detrimento, sed praeerat decori. Crinale vero aureum in legitimi ordinis choream crinis aurum concilians, vultum mirabatur invenisse conformem.

When I was more frequently reviewing this elegy with a lamentable modulation, a woman, slipped down from the more inner palace of the impassible world, seemed to be hastening her approach to me; whose hair, not with a begged light, but sparkling with its own, not representationally presenting the effigy of rays, but with their native brightness outstripping nature,
was shaping the maiden’s head into a starry body [0432B]; which, unfastening the double plaiting, not deserting the things above, did not disdain to smile upon the earth with a kiss. But a certain space of a little-lily path, under a crosswise obliquity, divided the hair’s contention, nor was that obliquity ever a detriment to the face, but presided over comeliness. And a golden fillet, reconciling the gold of the hair into a dance of legitimate order, marveled to have found the face conforming.

Phantasia enim coloris aurum consequentis, paralogismum visui concludebat. Frons vero in amplam evagata planitiem, lacteo liliata colore, lilio videbatur contendere.

For the phantasy of a color consequent upon gold was concluding a paralogism for the sight. The forehead, however, into an ample evagated plain, lilied with a lacteal color, seemed to contend with the lily.

[0432] Supercilia aureo stellata fulgore, non in silvam evagantia, nec in nimiam demissa pauperiem, inter utrumque medium obtinebant. Oculorum serena placiditas [0432C] amica blandiens claritate, gemelli praeferebat sideris novitatem. Naris utraque odore imbalsamata mellito, nec citra modum humilis, nec injuste prominens; quoddam repraesentabat insigne.

[0432] The eyebrows, starry with golden radiance, neither wandering into a forest nor lowered into excessive poverty, held the mean between the two. The serene placidity of the eyes [0432C], coaxing with friendly brightness, displayed the newness of a twin star. Both nostrils, embalmed with honey-sweet fragrance, neither low short of measure nor unjustly prominent, presented a certain emblem.

Oris nardus naribus delicatas odoris epulas offerebat. Labia modico tumore surgentia Veneris tyrones invitabant ad oscula. Dentes quadam sui coloris consonantia eboris faciem exemplabant.

The mouth’s nard was offering to the nostrils delicate banquets of odor. The lips, rising with a modest swelling, invited the tyros of Venus to kisses. The teeth, by a certain consonance of their own color, presented the appearance of ivory.

Genarum ignis purpureus, rosarum succensus murice, dulci flamma faciem amicabat: candore namque grato amicam sentiebat temperiem, purpura vultus sindoni maritata. Menti expolita planities crystallina luce circumspectior, argenteum induebat fulgorem. Colli non injusta proceritas sub gracilitate moderata, [0432D] cervicem maritari humeris non sinebat.

Of the cheeks
the purple fire, kindled with the purple of roses, with a sweet flame favored the face: for by a pleasing whiteness it felt a friendly tempering, the purple of the countenance married to a sindon of fine linen. The well-polished plain of the chin, more surrounded with crystalline light, put on an argent splendor. The not-unjust tallness of the neck, under a moderated slenderness, [0432D] did not allow the neck to be married to the shoulders.

[0432] Mamillarum pomula gratiose juventutis maturitatem spondebant. Brachia ad gratiam inspectoris prospicua, postulare videbantur amplexus. Laterum aequata convallatio, justae moderationis impressa sigillo, totius corporis speciem ad cumulum perfectionis eduxit.

[0432] The little apples of the breasts promised the ripeness of gracious youth. The arms, conspicuous to win the beholder’s favor, seemed to solicit embraces. The leveled hollowing of the flanks, impressed with the seal of just moderation, brought forth the appearance of the whole body to the culmination of perfection.

[0433A] Caetera vero quae thalamus secretior absentabat, meliora fides esse loquebatur. In corpore etenim latebat vultus gratior, cujus facies ostentabat praeludium. Et quamvis tanta esset pulchritudinis laetitia, hujus tamen risum decoris, fletus inaestimabilis exstinguere conabatur: nam ex oculorum scaturigine derivatus fluxus, doloris praedicabat mentem.

[0433A] But the other things which the more secret bridal-chamber withheld, faith was saying were better. For within the body there lay hidden a more gracious charm, of which the face was displaying the prelude. And although so great was the joy of pulchritude, yet an inestimable weeping was striving to extinguish the smile of this comeliness: for a stream derived from the spring of the eyes was proclaiming a mind of grief.

Ipsa etiam facies in terram casto pudore demissa, ipsi puellae illatam quodammodo loquebatur injuriam; regalis autem diadematis corona rutilans, gemmarum scintillata choreis, in capite superne fulgurabat; cujus non adulterina auri materies ab ipsius honore degenerans, luce sophistica oculos parallogizans, sed ipsius nobilitas ministrabat [0433B] essentiam. Miraculoso vero circuitu, aeternaque volatione ipsum diadema ab oriente peregrinans in occidens, reciprocando crebrius referebatur in ortum. Idemque perenniter exercendo, ex nimia ejusdem petitione principii, nugatoria motio videbatur.

Even her very face, lowered to the earth in chaste modesty, was in a certain manner speaking of the injury inflicted upon the maiden herself; but the crown of the regal diadem, rutilant, scintillated with the dances of gems, and flashed above upon her head; whose material of gold was not adulterated, degenerating from its own honor, paralogizing the eyes with a sophistic light, but its very nobility supplied [0433B] the essence. By a miraculous circuit, and by an eternal volation, the diadem itself, peregrinating from the Orient into the Occident, by frequent reciprocation was borne back to the rising. And by perpetually exercising the same, from an excessive seeking of that same origin, the motion seemed nugatory.

Praedictarum vero gemmarum aliae ad tempus nova Dei miracula, novo sui luminis sole, visibus offerebant; ad tempus autem, suae coruscationis eclipsi, videbantur a diadematis exsulare palatio. Aliae insertae solio, suae scintillationis vigiliam perennantes, perennes faciebant excubias. Inter has, circulus elucens ad zodiaceae obliquitatis similitudinem pretiosorum lapidum stellatus, monilibus sidereae contiguitatis oscula syncopabat.

But certain of the aforesaid gems, for a time, were offering to the sight new miracles of God, with a new sun of their own light; for a time, however, with an eclipse of their own coruscation, they seemed to be exiled from the palace of the diadem. Others, inserted in the throne, by prolonging the vigil of their own scintillation, were making perpetual watches. Among these, a circle shining forth, starred with precious stones in the likeness of the obliquity of the zodiac, was syncopating, by necklaces, the kisses of sidereal contiguity.

In [0433C] quo cohors duodena gemmarum, successivo privilegialique splendore inter alias praerogativam poscere videbatur. In anteriori quoque ipsius diadematis parte, tres pretiosi lapides audaci suae radiationis superbia, reliquis novem antonomastice praefulgebant. Lapis primus, noctis frigus in luminis incendio pati jubeat exsilium, in quo, ut faceta picturae loquebantur mendacia, leonis effigiata fulminabat effigies.

In [0433C] which a twelvefold cohort of gems, with successive and privilegial splendor, seemed to demand the prerogative among the others. In the anterior part also of the diadem itself, three precious stones, by the bold pride of their own radiation, shone forth before the remaining nine antonomastically. The first stone bids the chill of night to suffer exile in the conflagration of light, in which, as the witty lies of painting were saying, a lion’s effigy, effigiated, fulminated.

Lapis secundus, et priori non secundus in lumine, in praefatae partis audaciori loco praefulgens, quasi ex quadam indignatione, reliquos lapides deorsum aspicere videbatur. In quo, prout veritatis simia, pictura docebat, sub mutatoria conflictione progrediendo retrogradus, incedendo recedens, [0433D] cancer post se incedere videbatur. Lapis tertius oppositi lapidis splendorem pauperculum abundantibus suae claritatis recompensabat divitiis.

The second stone, and not second to the former in light, shining forth in a more audacious place of the aforesaid part, as if from a certain indignation, seemed to look down upon the remaining stones. In it, as the ape of truth, the painting taught, under changeful contention—by advancing retrograde, by proceeding while receding—[0433D] Cancer seemed to walk behind itself. The third stone compensated the scant splendor of the opposite stone with the abundant riches of its own brightness.

In quo, sicut picturae veritas praedicabat, umbratilis Ledea proles sibi mutuo amplexu congratulans incedebat. Ad hunc modum, tres eodem dignitatis honore pollentes, thronum in contradictoria parte locaverunt. Quorum primus sudoris guttulis lacrymas exemplando, quodam imaginario fletu contristabat aspectum.

In which, just as the verity of the painting proclaimed, the shadowy Ledaean progeny, congratulating itself with mutual embrace, advanced. In this manner, three, excelling with the same honor of dignity, placed a throne on the opposite side. Of whom the first, by exemplifying tears with little drops of sweat, with a certain imaginary weeping saddened the countenance.

In quo, prout curialis scripturae phantasia imaginando docebat, adolescentis cujusdam urceolus, fluentem excipiebat torrentem. Lapis secundus a suo regno caloris hospitia glaciali torpore repellendo, hiemem sibi hospitem vindicabat: in quo, ex caprinae lanae [0434A] adulterino vellere, capricorni tunicam pictura texuerat. Lapis tertius, vultum lucis induens crystallinae, hiemis prophetabat adventum.

In which, as the phantasy of curial writing, by imagining, was instructing, the little pitcher of a certain adolescent was receiving the flowing torrent. The second stone, by repelling from its own realm the hospitalities of heat with glacial torpor, was claiming winter as its guest: in which, from the adulterine fleece of goat’s wool [0434A], the painting had woven Capricorn’s tunic. The third stone, putting on the visage of crystalline light, was prophesying the advent of winter.

In quo assidua sui arcus inflexione senex Chironius vulnera minabatur, nunquam tamen minis recompensabat effectum. Alteri quoque lateri blandienti lasciviens gemmarum benigna oculis gratiabatur serenitas. Quarum prima rosei coloris flammata murice, rosam visibus praesentabat: in qua taurus suae frontis insignia praeferens, sitire praelium videbatur.

In which, by the assiduous inflexion of his own bow, the Chironian old man menaced wounds, yet never recompensed his menaces with effect. To the other flank as well, flattering, a wantoning benign serenity of gems was gratifying to the eyes. Of which the first, of a rosy color, enflamed with murex-purple, presented a rose to the sight: in which a bull, bearing the insignia of his own forehead, seemed to thirst for battle.

Alia, suae lucis privilegiata temperie, bonitatis gratia sororum trahebat collegia, in qua aries frontis honore superbiens, gregis postulabat dominium. Tertia vero, viriditatem praeferens smaragdineam, [0434B] refocillationis oculorum in se gerebat antidotum, in qua, sub imaginario flumine, pisces suae naturae nando littoris exercitium frequentabant. In contradicenti latere throni, siderum pulchritudo jucundo scintillabat applausu.

Another, privileged by the temperateness of its own light, by the grace of goodness was drawing the collegia of its sisters into fellowship, in which a ram, exulting in the honor of its forehead, was demanding dominion of the flock. The third, indeed, displaying an emerald greenness, [0434B] bore within itself an antidote for the refocillation of the eyes, in which, beneath an imaginary river, fishes, swimming by their nature, were frequenting the exercise of the shore. On the opposing side of the throne, the beauty of the stars was scintillating with a cheerful applause.

Horum lapidum primus, suae fulgurationis aureo sole radians indefesse pulchritudinis gratiam efferebat, in qua, sicut sculpturae tropica figura demonstrabat, quadam sui praerogativa fulgoris, astris contendebat Astraea. Secundus, non superfluo splendore luxurians, nec penuriosi splendoris mendicans scintillas, flamma moderata gaudebat: In quo quoque sub aequo examine juxta artis pictoriae normam, [0434C] libra ponderum spondebat judicia. Tertius, vultus alternando vicarios, nunc serenitatis benevolentiam spondebat, nunc obscuritatis nubes inducebat: in quo resultans facies scorpionis, vultu risum, fletum caudae minabatur aculeo.

Of these stones the first, radiating with the golden sun of its own fulguration, was unweariedly exalting the grace of beauty, in which, as the tropic figure of the sculpture was showing, by a certain prerogative of its own brilliance, Astraea was contending with the stars. The second, luxuriating in no superfluous splendor nor begging the scintillas of a penurious splendor, rejoiced in a moderated flame: In which likewise, under an even balance according to the norm of the pictorial art, [0434C] the balance-scale of weights was pledging judgments. The third, by alternating vicarious faces, now was pledging the benevolence of serenity, now was bringing on clouds of obscurity: in which the flashing-back face of the scorpion, with its countenance threatened laughter, with the sting of its tail weeping.

Sub his autem duodecim lapidum domiciliis, septena gemmarum pluralitas, motum circularem perennans, miraculoso genere ludendi, choream exercebat plausibilem; nec ipsi choreae sua deerat suavitas harmoniae, nunc semi tonis lasciviens, nunc mediocri tonorum sonoritate juvenescens, nunc maturiori tuba melidioma procedens, sua modulatione nostrarum aurium excitabat libidinem, et oculis offerebat dormiendi praeludia. Sed cui audiendi parcitas auris promeretur offensam, [0434D] prodigalitas educit fastidium; nam ex abundanti copia audiendi fastidita auris elanguet. Hi septem lapides, quamvis nullis juncturarum ligaturis ipsi diademati tenerentur obnoxii, nunquam tamen sui absentatione superiorum lapidum orphana faciebat collegia.

But beneath these twelve domiciles of stones, a sevenfold plurality of gems, sustaining a circular motion, by a miraculous kind of playing, was performing an applaudable round-dance; nor was the dance itself lacking its own sweetness of harmony, now wantoning in semitones, now rejuvenating with a moderate sonority of tones, now proceeding with a riper trumpet-melody, by its modulation it was arousing the desire of our ears, and offering to the eyes the preludes of sleeping. But if sparingness in listening would incur the ear’s offense, [0434D] prodigality brings forth disgust; for from an overabundant supply of hearing, the cloyed ear grows languid. These seven stones, although by no ligatures of joints were they held subject to the diadem itself, nevertheless by their absence never made the fellowships of the superior stones orphaned.

Lapis autem superior, adamas erat, qui caeteris motu avarior, prodigalior in desidia, in amplioris sui circuli peragragratione, nimiam temporis moram trahebat. Qui tanti frigoris gelicido segnescebat, ut ipsum ex Saturno sidere genitum genialis naturae probaret conformitas. Secundus Achates erat, qui dum sui cursus vicinia caeteris fiebat familiarior, quorumdam inimicitias transformabat: in quo, dum gratiam etiam quorumdam, et puerilem benevolentiam imperiali [0435A] suae virtutis potentia reddebat adultam; quoniam propinqua naturae cognatione, Joviali fidei esset familiaris, gratialis disputabat effectus.

But the higher stone was adamant, which, more avaricious in motion, more prodigal in idleness, in the traversal of its ampler circle was dragging an excessive delay of time. Which was becoming sluggish with the frost of so great cold, so that a congenial conformity of nature proved it to have been begotten from the Saturnine star. The second was Achates, which, while the nearness of its course became more familiar to the others, transformed the enmities of certain persons; in which, while it rendered even the favor of some and a puerile benevolence adult by the imperial [0435A] potency of its virtue, since by a near kinship of nature it was familiar to Jovial fidelity, it was arguing a gracious effect.

Tertius astrites erat, in quo, caloris principatu castra metente, quadam proprietatis continuitate, Martii sideris legebatur effectus: qui minaci suae figurationis vultui terribilis, caeteris minabatur perniciem. Quartus erat carbunculus, qui solis gerens imaginem, sub radiationis cereo proscribens umbraculum, fratrum lampades soporabat eclipticas, nunc caeteros regali suae majestatis auctoritate deviare praecipiens, nunc quietam agitationi tribuens potestatem. Cum sapphiro vero hyacinthus ejus insistendo vestigiis, ipsi velut assecla ancillando, praefati luminis nunquam fraudabatur aspectu, brevique [0435B] in superjecta distantia, ejus orbem currunt pariter aut sequuntur, aut una sequens stella, alteri praeeundi concedit obsequia.

The third was the Astrites, in which, with the principate of heat pitching its camp, by a certain continuity of property, the effect of the Martial star was read: terrible in the visage of its threatening configuration, it menaced the rest with perdition. The fourth was the Carbuncle, which, bearing the image of the sun, under the candle of radiation proscribing the little shade, was lulling to sleep the eclipsed lamps of its brethren, now commanding the others to deviate by the authority of its regal majesty, now granting to agitation the power of repose. With the Sapphire indeed the Hyacinth, by stepping in its footprints, serving it as a follower like a handmaid, was never defrauded of the sight of the aforesaid light; and shortly [0435B] in the overlaid distance, they run together around its orb or follow it, or the one star, following, grants obeisance to the other to go before.

Horum duorum lapidum alter suae naturae congruentia, Mercurialis stellae; reliquus vero Dionei sideris redolebat effectum. Lapis ultimus margarita erat, quae rutilantis coronae margini insita, luce lucens aliena, a carbunculo luminis mendicabat suffragia. Quae aliquando lumini vicina praefato, proficiens, sive prolongata deficiens, in crescendo radios sui luminis quasi carbunculum venerata, submittit, ut fraternis ignibus rursus ornata, renovata sui splendoris ornamenta circumferens, nunc supplementis solemninibus attriti orbis nutriens damna, nunc propriis [0435C] orphanata luminibus, jacturam conquerens propriae majestatis.

Of these two stones, the one, by the congruence of its nature, was of the Mercurial star; the remaining, indeed, was redolent of the effect of the Dionean sidus. The last stone was a pearl, which, inset in the margin of the rutilant crown, shining with an alien light, begged the suffrages of light from the carbuncle. Which sometimes, being near to the aforesaid light, waxing, or, when prolonged, waning, in increasing, having as it were venerated the carbuncle, she submits the rays of her own light, so that, adorned again by fraternal fires, carrying around the renewed ornaments of her own splendor, now with solemn supplements nursing the losses of the worn orb, now, orphaned of her own lights [0435C] she bewails the forfeiture of her own majesty.

Quae crystallino inargentata fulgore, lunaris sideris resplendebat effectu. His omnibus lapidum splendoribus praefati diadematis serenata nobilitas, in se firmamenti repraesentabat effigiem. Vestis autem ex serica lana contexta, multifario protecta colore, puellae pelli serviebat in usum, quam discolorando colorans alteritas, multiplici colore faciem alterabat; quae primitus candore lilii dealbata, intuitum offendebat.

Which, silvered with crystalline sheen, was resplendent by the effect of the lunar star. By all these splendors of the stones the nobility of the aforesaid diadem, made serene, represented within itself an effigy of the firmament. But the garment, woven of seric wool, protected with manifold color, served for the girl’s skin in use; which, otherness, coloring by discoloring, altered the face with multiple color; which at first, whitened with the whiteness of the lily, offended the gaze.

Secundo, velut penuria ducta, quasi laborans in melius, ruboris sanguine purpurata splendebat. Tertio, ad cumulum perfectionis, virore, quasi smaragdo, oculis applaudebat. Haec autem nimis subtilizata, subterfugiens [0435D] oculorum indaginem, ad tantam materiae tenuitatem devenerat, ut ejus, aerisque eamdem crederes esse naturam, in qua, prout oculis pictura imaginabatur, animalium celebrabatur concilium.

Secondly, as if led by penury, as if laboring toward the better, it shone, purpled with the blood of rubor. Thirdly, to the pinnacle of perfection, with viridity, as with an emerald, it applauded the eyes. This, however, over-subtilized, evading [0435D] the inquest of the eyes, had come down to such tenuity of matter that you would believe it and the air to be of the same nature, in which, just as the picture was imagined to the eyes, a council of animals was being celebrated.

Illic aquila post juvenem secundo senem induens, iterum in Adonidem revertebatur a Nestore. Illic accipiter violentia et tyrannide a subditis redditus exposcebat. Illic venatoris induens personam milvus, veneratione furtiva, larvam gerebat accipitris.

There the eagle, after the youth, next putting on the old man, was returning again from Nestor into Adonis. There the hawk, by violence and tyranny, was exacting revenues from his subjects. There the kite, putting on the persona of a hunter, under furtive veneration, was bearing the mask of a hawk.

Illic falco in ardeam bellum excitabat civile, non tamen aequali lance divisum; non enim pugnae debet appellatione censeri, ubi tu pulsas, ego latito tantum. Illic struthio vita saeculari postposita, vitam solitariam, quasi eremita factus, desertorum solitudines incolebat. Illic olor sui funeris praeco, [0436A] mellitae citharizationis organo, vitae vaticinabatur apocham.

There the falcon was stirring up a civil war against the heron, yet not divided with an equal balance; for it ought not to be reckoned by the appellation of “battle,” where you strike, I merely lie hidden. There the ostrich, with secular life set aside, as if made a hermit, was inhabiting the solitudes of deserts. There the swan, a herald of its own funeral, [0436A] by the organ of honeyed citharization, was vaticinating life’s quittance.

Illic in pavone tantum pulchritudinis compluit natura thesaurum, ut eam postea crederes mendicasse. Illic phoenix in se mortuus, redivivus in alio, quodam naturae miraculo, se sua morte a mortuis suscitabat. Illic ciconia prolem decimando, naturae persolvebat tributum.

There nature downpoured such a treasure of beauty into the peacock that you would believe she afterwards had to beg. There the phoenix, dead in itself, revived in another, by a certain miracle of nature, was raising itself from the dead by its own death. There the stork, by tithing its offspring, was paying the tribute to nature.

Illic, passere in atomum pigmeae humilitatis relegato, grus ex opposito in giganteae quantitatis evadebat excessum. Illic phasianus natalis insulae perpessus angustias, principum futurus deliciae, nostros evolabat in orbes. Illic gallus, tanquam vulgaris astrologus, suae vocis horologio, horarum loquebatur discrimina.

There, with the sparrow relegated into an atom of pygmy humility, the crane, on the opposite side, was passing into an excess of gigantic quantity. There the pheasant, having endured the straits of its natal island, destined to be the delight of princes, was flying out into our orbs. There the cock, as though a common astrologer, by the horologe of his own voice, was speaking the distinctions of the hours.

Illic gallus silvestris, domestici galli deridens desidiam, peregre proficiscens, nemorales peragrabat [0436B] provincias. Illic bubo profanus miseriae psalmodias funere lamentationis percinebat. Illic noctua tantae deformitatis sterquilinio sordescebat, ut in ejus formatione naturam fuisse crederes somnolentam.

There the wild cock, deriding the idleness of the domestic cock, setting out abroad, was traversing the woodland provinces [0436B]. There the profane eagle-owl was precenting the psalmodies of misery with a funereal lamentation. There the little owl, of such deformity, was becoming filthy on the dung-heap, that in its formation you would have believed nature to have been somnolent.

Illic cornix ventura prognosticans, nugatorio concitabatur garritu. Illic pica, dubio picturata colore, curam logices perennabat insomnem. Illic monedula laudabili latrocinio recivas thesaurizans, innatae avaritiae argumenta monstrabat.

There the crow, prognosticating things to come, was stirred to nugatory garrulity. There the magpie, painted with a doubtful color, was making perennial the sleepless care of logic. There the jackdaw, by laudable brigandage treasuring up receivables, was displaying proofs of innate avarice.

Illic columba dulci malo inebriata Diones Cypridis laborabat in palaestra. Illic corvus zelotypiae abhorrens dedecus, suos fetus non sua esse fatebatur pignora, usque dum, nigri argumento coloris, hoc quasi secum disputando probabat. Illic perdix nunc aeriae potestatis insultus, nunc venatorum sophismata, nunc canum [0436C] latratus propheticos abhorrebat.

There the dove, inebriated with the sweet evil, was laboring in the palaestra of Dione’s Cypris. There the raven, abhorring the disgrace of jealousy, was admitting that his offspring were not his own pledges, until, by the evidence of the black color, he was proving this, as if disputing with himself. There the partridge now abhorred the assaults of aerial power, now the sophisms of hunters, now the prophetic barkings of dogs [0436C].

Illic anas cum ansere sub eorum jure vivendi, hiemabat in patria fluviali. Illic turtur suo viduata consorte, amorum epilogare dedignans, bigamiae refutabat solatia. Illic psittacus, cum sui gutturis incude, vocis monetam fabricabat humanae.

There the duck with the goose, under their law of living, wintered in their fluvial fatherland. There the turtledove, widowed of her consort, disdaining to epilogue her loves, was rejecting the consolations of bigamy. There the parrot, with the anvil of its own throat, was fabricating the coinage of a human voice.

Illic coturnicem figurae draconis ignorantem fallaciam, imaginariae vocis decipiebant sophismata. Illic picus propriae architectus domunculae, sui rostri dolabro clausulam fabricabat in ilice. Illic curruca novercam exuens, materno pietatis ubere, alienam cuculi prolem adoptabat in filium; quae tamen capitali praemiata stipendio, privignum agnoscens, filium ignorabat.

There the quail, ignorant of the deceit of the dragon’s figure, was being deceived by the sophisms of an imaginary voice. There the woodpecker, architect of his own little house, with the adze of his beak was fashioning a closure in the holm-oak. There the warbler, stripping off the stepmother and with the maternal breast of piety, was adopting the alien offspring of the cuckoo as a son; which nevertheless, rewarded with a capital stipend, recognizing the stepson, was ignorant of the son.

Illic hirundo, a sua peregrinatione [0436D] reversa, sub trabe nidi lutabat hospitium. Illic philomela suae deflorationis querelam reintegrans, armonica tympanizans dulcedine, parvitatis dedecus excusabat. Illic alauda quasi nobilis citharista, non studii artificio, sed naturae magisterio musicae perdocta scientiam, citharam praesentabat in ore, quae tonos in tenues subtilizans particulas, semi tonia in gumphos divisibiles dividebat.

There the swallow, returned from her pilgrimage [0436D], under a beam was daubing with mud the lodging of a nest. There the nightingale, renewing the complaint of her defloration, with harmonic, tympanizing sweetness excused the disgrace of smallness. There the lark, as a noble citharist, not by the artifice of study but by the magistery of nature, thoroughly taught in the science of music, presented a cithara in her mouth, which, refining the tones into thin subtle particles, divided the semitones into divisible gomphs (pegs).

Illic vespertilio avis hermaphroditica, cifri locum inter aviculas obtinebat. Haec animalia, quamvis illic allegorice viverent, ibi tamen esse videbantur ad litteram. Sindon, virorem adulterato candore, quam puella inconsutibiliter postea ipsa discrete texuerat, non plebea vilescens materia, artificio subtili lasciviens, [0437A] pallii gerebat officium; quae multis intricata amplexibus, colorem imaginabatur aquatilem, in qua, supra animalis aquatilis naturam, multifarias particulatam in species, fabula commentabatur picturae.

There the bat, a hermaphroditic bird, held the place of a cipher among the little birds. These animals, although there they lived allegorically, nevertheless seemed to be there to the letter. The sindon, a green hue adulterated with whiteness, which the girl afterward herself had discretely woven seamlessly, not debasing into plebeian material, sporting with subtle craftsmanship, [0437A] bore the office of a cloak; which, entangled in many embraces (folds), imagined an aquatic color, in which, beyond the nature of an aquatic animal, broken into many-diverse species, the painting was composing a fable.

Illic cetus rupibus contendens, suae scopulo quantitatis, turriti corporis incursu, navium arietabat oppidula. Illic canis marinus, cum latrabili sui nominis aequivocatione, nullis indulgendo latratibus, sui generis lepores maris venabatur in saltibus. Illic sturgio sui corporis nobilitatem individuali sui corporis benedictione, mensis offerebat regalibus.

There the whale, contending with the crags, at a crag of its own magnitude, with the onrush of its turreted body, was ram-butting the ship-townlets. There the sea-dog, with the barking equivocation of its name, indulging in no barkings, was hunting the sea-hares of its kind in the glades. There the sturgeon, the nobility of its body by the individual benediction of its body, was offering to regal tables.

Illic halex piscis generalissimus, ampla sui corporis communitate, pauperum solabatur jejunia. Illic plays sui corporis dulcoratis saporibus, in quadragesimali austeritate, carnis redimebat absentiam. Illic [0437B] mulo dulcibus suae carnis irritamentis, palata seducebat gustantium.

There the salt-fish, the most general of fishes, by the broad commonness of its own body, was consoling the fasts of the poor. There the plaice, with the sweetened savors of its body, in Lenten austerity, was redeeming the absence of flesh. There [0437B] the mullet, with the sweet allurements of its flesh, was seducing the palates of those tasting.

Illic tritula sinus marinos ingrediens, in aequore baptizata, salmonis nomine censebatur. Illic delphinus suae apparitionis perennio, maris invectiones futuras praedicebat. Illic in sirenum renibus piscis, homo legebatur in facie.

There the trout, entering the marine bays, baptized in the level sea, was reckoned under the name of salmon. There the dolphin, by the perennity of its apparition, foretold the future inrushes of the sea. There, in the sirens’ loins—a fish—, a man was read in the face.

His marinae regionis incolis pallii portio concessa fuerat medialis; reliqua vero chlamidis portio, pisces peregrinos habebat, qui diversis fluctibus evagantes, in dulcioris aquae patria sedes posuerant. Illic lucius exactione tyrannica, non exigentia meriti, subditos, corporis proprii incarcerebat ergastulo. Illic barbulus non minoris sui corporis dignitate famosus, cum plebecula piscium familiarius habitabat.

To these inhabitants of the sea-region the middle portion of the pallium had been conceded; but the remaining portion of the chlamys contained peregrine fishes, who, wandering through diverse billows, had placed their native seats in the sweeter water. There the pike, by tyrannical exaction, not by any requirement of merit, incarcerated his subjects in the ergastulum of his own body. There the little barbel, no less famous for the dignity of its own body, lived more familiarly with the plebeians of the fishes.

Illic alosa tempus comitata vernalescum, veris [0437C] deliciis sui saporis delicias offerens, sui corporis adventu, gustus salutabat humanos. Illic muraena multiplici fenestrata foramine, febrium introductiones lectitabat prandentibus. Illic anguilla colubri naturam imaginans quadam proprietatis similitudine, neptis credebatur esse ejusdem.

There the alosa, having accompanied the vernal time, offering to spring’s [0437C] delights the delights of its own savor, by the arrival of its body greeted human tastes. There the muraena, fenestrated with multiple apertures, would read out to those lunching the introductions of fevers. There the eel, imagining the nature of the serpent by a certain likeness of property, was believed to be the granddaughter of the same.

Illic perca, spermatis jaculis loricata, aquatilis lupi minus abhorrebat insultus. Illic capito quod inferioris corporis parvitate perdebat, strumoso recuperabat in capite. Hae sculpturae, tropo picturae, eleganter in pallio figuratae, natare videbantur pro miraculo.

There the perch, mail-clad with the javelins of seed, shrank less from the assaults of the aquatic wolf. There the capito, what it lost by the smallness of the lower body, recovered in the head with a goitrous swelling. These sculptures, paintings by trope, elegantly figured on the pallium, seemed to swim as a marvel.

Tunica vero polymita opere picturata plumario, infra se corpus claudebat virgineum. Quae multis stellata coloribus, in grossiorem materiam conglobata, [0437D] in terrestris elementi speciem aspirabat. In hujus vestis parte primaria, homo sensualitatis deponens segnitiem, ducta ratiocinationis aurigatione, coeli penetrabat arcana.

Truly the tunic, polymitous, pictured in plumary work (embroidery), enclosed beneath itself a virginal body. Which, starred with many colors, conglobated into a thicker material, [0437D] aspired to the aspect of the terrestrial element. In the primary part of this garment, the man, laying aside the sloth of sensuality, being guided by the charioteering of ratiocination, was penetrating the arcana of heaven.

In qua parte, tunica suarum partium passa dissidium, suarum injuriarum contumelias demonstrabat. In reliquis tamen locis, partes eleganti continuatione concordes, nullam divisionis in se sustinebant discordiam. In quibus quaedam picturae incantatio, terrestria animalia vivere faciebat.

In that part, the tunic, having suffered a dissidium of its own parts, was displaying the contumelies of its own injuries. In the remaining places, however, the parts, concordant by an elegant continuation, sustained within themselves no discord of division. In which a certain incantation of the painting made terrestrial animals live.

Illic elephas monstruosa corporis quantitate progressus in aera, os sibi a natura conditum multiplici fenore duplicabat. Illic camelus strumoso corpore deformis, quasi servus emptitius, hominum usibus ministrabat. Illic cornua vicem cassidis usurpando, bubali frontem videbantur armare.

There the elephant, with monstrous magnitude of body, advancing into the air, was duplicating for himself, with manifold usury, the mouth that nature had fashioned. There the camel, deformed with a scrofulous body, as if a purchased slave, ministered to the uses of men. There horns, by usurping the place of a helmet, seemed to arm the buffalo’s forehead.

[0438A] Illic taurus terram pedibus vexando, mugitibus intonando, sui duelli fulmina praecinebat. Illic boves, taurorum recusantes militiam, quasi rustici, servilibus negotiis inhiabant. Illic equus ferventi provectus audacia, suo assessori commilitans, hastam frangebat cum milite.

[0438A] There the bull, by harassing the earth with his feet, by thundering with bellowings, was preluding the thunderbolts of his duel. There the oxen, refusing the military service of the bulls, like rustics, were gaping after servile tasks. There the horse, carried forward by fervent audacity, fighting as a fellow-soldier with his own rider, was breaking the lance together with the warrior.

Illic asinus clamoribus horridis aures fastidiens, quasi per antiphrasim organizans, barbarismum faciebat in musica. Illic unicornis virginali soporatus in gremio, ab hostibus somnum mortis incurrebat. Illic leo, rugitus carmina auribus natorum immurmurans, in illis vitae suscitabat igniculum.

There the ass, with horrid clamors offending the ears, as if by antiphrasis “organizing,” was committing barbarism in music. There the unicorn, lulled to sleep in a virginal lap, was incurring from enemies the sleep of death. There the lion, murmuring songs of roars into the ears of its offspring, was kindling in them a little spark of life.

Illic ursa, per portas narium fetus enixa deformes, ipsos stylo linguae crebrius delambendo monetans, meliorem ducebat in formam. Illic lupus, latitando, [0438B] furis usurpabat officium. Illic pardus, apertiori latrocinio neronizans, pecudum vulgus non solum in vestibus, verum etiam in propria praedabatur persona.

There the she-bear, having borne deformed offspring through the gates of the nostrils, by more frequently licking them with the stylus of her tongue, minting them, was leading them into a better form. There the wolf, by lurking, [0438B] was usurping the office of a thief. There the leopard, Nero-izing with more open latrociny, preyed upon the common herd of livestock not only in garments but even in his own person.

Illic tigris pecualium civium rempublicam crebra innocentis sanguinis effusione violabat. Illic onager, asini exuens servitutem, naturae manumissus imperio, montium incolebat audaciam. Illic aper dentis armatura fulmineus, mortem propriam canibus multiplici vendebat in vulnere.

There the tiger was violating the commonwealth of the herd-keeping citizens by frequent effusion of innocent blood. There the onager, stripping off the servitude of the ass, manumitted by the command of nature, inhabited the audacity of the mountains. There the boar, lightning-like with the armature of tooth, was selling his own death to the dogs at the price of manifold wounds.

Illic canis autem phantasticis vexando vulneribus, aera dentium importunitate mordebat. Illic cervus et dama, pedum velocitate volatiles, vitam praeeundo lucrantes, subsequentium canum morsus defraudabant iniquos. Illic caper lana vestitus sophistica, nares fastidire quadriduano videbatur [0438C] odore.

There the dog, however, by vexing with phantastic wounds, was biting the air with the importunity of his teeth. There the stag and the fallow-deer, winged by the swiftness of their feet, gaining life by running ahead, were defrauding the iniquitous bites of the hounds following. There the he-goat, clothed with sophistic wool, seemed to disdain the nostrils [0438C] with a four-days-old odor.

Illic aries tunica nobiliore trabeatus, uxorum pluralitate gavisus, matrimonii defraudabat honorem. Illic vulpecula idiotam bruti exuens animalis, ad meliorem hominis anhelabat astutiam. Illic lepus melancholico arreptus furore, non somno, sed timoris sopore perterritus, canum somniabat adventum.

There the ram, arrayed in a nobler tunic, trabeate, rejoicing in a plurality of wives, was defrauding the honor of matrimony. There the little fox, stripping off the idiocy of the brute animal, was panting after the better astuteness of man. There the hare, seized by melancholic frenzy, terrified not by sleep but by the sopor of fear, was dreaming of the advent of the hounds.

Illic cuniculus pelle nostri frigoris iram temperando, carne propria nostrae famis debellabat insultus. Illic castor, ne ab hostibus totius corporis patiatur dicresim, corporis partes amputabat extremas. Illic lynx, tanta luminis limpiditate vigebat, ut ejus respectu lippire caetera animalia viderentur.

There the rabbit, by tempering with its pelt the wrath of our cold, with its own flesh was vanquishing the assaults of our hunger. There the beaver, lest it suffer a dismemberment of its whole body at the hands of enemies, would amputate the extremest parts of the body. There the lynx was thriving with such limpidity of light, that in comparison with it the other animals seemed to be bleary-eyed.

Illic martes et sabelo, semi-plenam palliorum pulchritudinem eorum postulantem subsidia, [0438D] suarum nobilitate pellium, ad plenum deducebant. Has animalium figuras, historialis figurae repraesentatio, quasi jucunditatis convivia, oculis donabat intuentium. Quid vero in caligis camisiaque, in superioribus vestibus consepultis picturae industria somniabat, nulla certitudinis auctoritate probavi; sed tantum, ut quaedam fragilis probabilitatis remedia docuerunt, opinor in herbarum arborumque naturis, ibi picturae lusisse lasciviam.

There the martens and sables, the half-full beauty of their pallia (cloaks) demanding supports, [0438D] by the nobility of their own pelts brought it to fullness. These figures of animals, the representation of the historical figure, bestowed upon the eyes of the beholders, as though banquets of jocundity. But what the industry of painting was dreaming in the boots and the chemise, buried beneath the upper garments, I have verified by no authority of certainty; but only, as certain remedies of fragile probability have taught, I suppose that in the natures of herbs and trees there the sportiveness of painting played.

Illic arbores, nunc tunicis vestiri purpureis, nunc foliis criniri virentibus, nunc florum parturire redolentem videro infantiam, nunc fetum senescere potiorem. Sed quoniam solius probabilitatis lubrico, non certitudinis fide hujus seriem picturationis agnovi, hanc sub silenti pace sepultam praetereo [0439A] Calcei autem, ex allutea pelle traducentes materiam, ita familiariter pedum sequebantur ideas, ut in ipsis pedibus nati, ipsisque mirabiliter viderentur inscripti. In quibus vix a vera degenerantibus essentia, sub picturae ingenio flores amoenabantur umbratiles.

There the trees, now to be clothed with purple tunics, now to be hair-crowned with greening leaves, now to bring forth a fragrant infancy of flowers, now to have the fruit grow old into a choicer ripeness. But since I recognized this series of picturing by the slipperiness of probability alone, not by the faith of certainty, I pass this by, buried beneath the peace of silence [0439A] But the shoes, drawing their material from alum-tawed leather, so familiarly followed the ideas of the feet that they seemed born upon the very feet and marvelously inscribed upon them. In these, scarcely degenerating from the true essence, under the ingenuity of the painting, shadowy flowers were made delightful.

Illic forma rosae, picta fideliter,
A vera facie devia paululum,
Aequabat proprio murice purpuram,
Telluremque suo sanguine tinxerat.
Concludens sociis floribus, adfuit
Flos illic redolens gratus Adonidis,
Argentoque suo nobile lilium,
Praedicabat agros, imaque vallium.
Illic ore thymus disparere disputans[0439B]
Certabat, reliquis floribus invidens
Narcissi sociis flore, jocantia
Ridebant tacito murmure flumina.

There the form of the rose, faithfully painted,
slightly deviating from the true face,
matched the purple with its own murex-dye,
and had stained the earth with its own blood.
Concluding with companion flowers, there was present
the flower there, fragrant, pleasing to Adonis,
and the noble lily with its own silver,
was proclaiming the fields and the depths of the valleys.
There thyme, with its mouth striving to disappear,[0439B]
was contending, envying the other flowers;
with the companions of Narcissus’s flower, the playful
rivers were laughing with a silent murmur.

Vultu florigero flos aquileius
Florum praenituit lucifer omnium,
Vernalisque loquens temporis oti
Stellabat violae flosculus arbuta,
Picturae facies plena favoribus:
Hic florum speciem vivere jusserat
Quae regalis erat chartula nominis,
Scribentisque tamen nescia pollicis.
Hae sunt veris opes, et sua pallia,
Telluris species, et sua sidera,
Quae pictura suis artibus edidit,
[0439C] Flores effigians arte sophistica.
His florum tunicis prata virentibus
Veris nobilitat gratia prodigi.

With a flower-bearing countenance, the Aquilegia flower
shone forth as the lucifer of all flowers,
and, speaking of the leisure of the springtime,
was studding the arbutus with the little violet flower,
the face of the picture full of favors:
here he had commanded the semblance of flowers to live,
which was a little chart of a royal name,
and yet unknowing of the writing thumb.
These are spring’s riches, and its own mantles,
the earth’s aspects, and its own stars,
which painting has brought forth by its arts,
[0439C] fashioning flowers with sophistic art.
With these tunics of flowers, the green meadows
spring’s prodigal grace ennobles.

Haec byssum tribuunt, illaque purpuram;
Quae texit sapiens dextra favonii.

These grant byssus, and those purple;
which the wise right hand of Favonius weaves.

De curru, auriga et comitatu naturae

On the chariot, the charioteer, and the retinue of nature

Haec vestium ornamenta quamvis plenis suae splendicitatis flammarent ardoribus, earumdem tamen splendor sub puellaris splendoris sidere patiebatur eclipsim. In lateritiis vero tabulis arundinei styli ministerio, virgo varias rerum picturales sociabat imagines; pictura tamen subjacenti materiae familiariter non cohaerens, velociter evanescendo moriens, nulla imaginum post se relinquebat vestigia. Quas cum saepe suscitando puella crebro vivere [0439D] faciebat, tamen in scripturae proposito, imagines perseverare non poterant.

These ornaments of garments, although they flamed with the full ardors of their own splendor, yet the same splendor, under the star of the girl’s splendor, suffered an eclipse. On brick tablets, in truth, by the ministry of a reed stylus, the maiden was joining together various pictorial images of things; yet the painting, not familiarly cohering to the subjacent material, dying by swiftly evanescing, left behind no vestiges of the images. Which images, though the girl, by often resuscitating them, kept making live again frequently [0439D], nevertheless, in the intent of writing, the images were not able to persevere.

Virgo igitur ut praetaxavimus a coelestis regionis emergens confinio, in mundi passibilis tugurium, curru vitreo ferebatur, qui Junonis alitibus, nullius jugi ministerio disciplinatis, sed sibi spontanea voluntate conjunctis, trahebatur; homo vero virginis capiti supereminens, cujus vultus non terrenitatis, sed potius deitatis redolebat arcanum; impotentiam sexus supplendo feminae, modesto directionis ordine, currus aurigabat incessum. Ad cujus contemplandam pulchritudinem dignitatis, dum tanquam manipulos, oculorum radios conlegarem [0440A] visibiles, ipsi tantae majestatis non audentes obviare decori, splendoris hebetati verberibus, nimis meticulosi ad palpebrarum contubernia refugerunt. In praefatae autem virginis adventu, quasi suas renovando naturas, omnia solemnizare crederes elementa.

Accordingly the Maiden, as we have prefaced, emerging from the confine of the celestial region, was borne in a glassy chariot into the hut of the passible world, which was drawn by the birds of Juno, disciplined by the service of no yoke, but joined to one another by spontaneous will; but a man, towering above the virgin’s head, whose face breathed out the secret not of earthliness but rather of deity, by supplying the weakness of the woman’s sex, with a modest order of direction charioteered the advance of the chariot. To contemplate the beauty of whose dignity, while I was gathering, as if into handfuls, the visible rays of my eyes [0440A], they themselves, not daring to meet the grace of so great majesty, under the lashes of a splendor that made them dull, too timorous, fled back to the quarters of the eyelids. And at the arrival of the aforesaid virgin, you would think all the elements were solemnizing, as though renewing their natures.

Firmamentum quasi suis cereis virgineum iter illuminans, ut solito plenius radiarent, suis imperavit sideribus. Unde et ipsa lux divina tantam eorum admirari videbatur audaciam, quod in ejus conspectu quasi nimis insolenter auderent apparere. Phoebus etiam vultum solito laetiorem in occursum virginis ostendens, totas sui luminis effundebat divitias.

The firmament, as if with its candles illuminating the maidenly path, commanded its own stars to radiate more fully than usual. Whence even the divine light itself seemed to admire so great an audacity of theirs, that in her sight they dared to appear as if too insolently. Phoebus too, displaying a countenance more cheerful than usual to meet the virgin, poured forth the whole riches of his light.

Sororem etiam quam sui splendoris depauperaverat ornamentis ei veste jucunditatis reddita [0440B] reginae venienti jubet occurrere. Aer vultus nubium exuens lacrymosos, sereni vultus benevolentia, virgineis ardebat incessibus: qui primum aquilonaris irae vexatus insania, nunc in Favonii favorabili gremio conquiescebat. Aves, quasi naturae inspiratione, alarum ludo plausibili joculantes, virgini venerationis faciem exhibebant.

He also bids the sister, whom it had impoverished of the ornaments of its own splendor, with a garment of jocundity restored to her [0440B], to go meet the coming queen. The air, stripping off the tearful faces of the clouds, was burning with the benevolence of a serene countenance at the virgin’s processions: which, first harassed by the madness of Aquilonian wrath, now was coming to rest in the favorable bosom of Favonius. The birds, as if by an inspiration of nature, sporting with an applauding play of their wings, were exhibiting to the virgin the visage of veneration.

Juno, quae jampridem joviales tactus fuerat dedignata, tanta fuit inebriata laetitia, ut crebro oculum praeludio, maritum ad venereas incitaret illecebras. Mare, tumultuosis prius fluctibus debacchatum, nunc puellaris adventus feriando solemnia, tranquillitatis pacem spondebat perpetuam. Eolus namque tempestatis ventos ne in conspectu virginis amplius civilia bella [0440C] moverent in suis vinculavit ergastulis.

Juno, who long since had disdained Jovian touches, was so inebriated with gladness that, with frequent prelude of the eye, she incited her husband to venereal allurements. The sea, which earlier had raved with tumultuous waves, now, by observing the solemnities of the maiden’s advent, was pledging the peace of tranquillity perpetual. For Aeolus bound the winds of storm in his own prisons, lest, in the virgin’s sight, they any longer stir civil wars [0440C].

Pisces in aquarum superciliis enatantes, in quantum sensualitatis patiebatur inertia, quadam festivitatis hilaritate, suae dominae ornabant adventum. Thetis, etiam nuptias agens cum Nereo, Achillem alterum concipere destinabat. Puellae vero aquarum pulchritudo non solum hominibus suam furaretur rationem, verum etiam coelestes suae deitatis cogeret oblivisci, locis fluvialibus emergentes, quasi tributariae reginae venienti, pigmentarii nectaris praesentabant munuscula; quibus favorabiliter susceptis a virgine, jugi complexuum innexione, crebraque repetitione osculi, virgo virginibus suum intimabat amorem.

The fishes, swimming along on the brows of the waters, so far as the inertia of sensuality allowed, with a certain festivity’s hilarity adorned the advent of their lady. Thetis, even celebrating nuptials with Nereus, was intending to conceive another Achilles. But the beauty of the maidens of the waters would not only steal away men’s reason, but would even compel the celestials to forget their own deity; emerging in riverine places, as if tributaries to the queen who was coming, they presented little gifts of perfumed nectar; which, being favorably received by the virgin, by a continual interlacing of embraces, and by the frequent repetition of a kiss, the maiden intimated her love to the maidens.

Terra, jampridem hiemis latrocinio suis ornamentis denudata, [0440D] a veris prodigalitate, spirantem florum tunicam usurpavit, ne vestibus pannosis ingloria, adolescentulae aspectui indecenter compareret. Ver etiam quasi artifex peritus in arte textoria, ut virginis applauderet incessibus, vestimenta texebat arboribus, quae demissione comarum, sub quadam adorationis specie, quasi flectendo genua, virgunculae supplicabant. E quibus egressae virgines, suae pulchritudinis die materialis diei locupletantes divitias, ex antonomasticis herbarum confecta speciebus, in cedrinis vasculis ferebant aromata, quae tanquam suos redditus puellulae persolvendo, ejus favorem suis emebant muneribus.

Earth, long since denuded of her ornaments by the brigandage of winter, [0440D] by the prodigality of spring assumed a breathing tunic of flowers, lest, inglorious in ragged garments, she might be indecently compared to the young maiden’s aspect. Spring also, as an artificer skilled in the textile art, that it might applaud the maiden’s steps, was weaving garments for the trees, which, by the lowering of their tresses, under a certain guise of adoration, as if bending the knee, were supplicating the little maiden. And from these the maidens, having gone forth, enriching the riches of the material day by the day of their own beauty, from antonomastic species of herbs compounded, in cedrine little vessels were carrying aromatics, which, as by paying their own revenues to the little girl, were buying her favor with their gifts.

Napae, floribus [0441A] saturantes regium currum, quandoque roseis floribus sanguinabant; aliquando florum foliis liliabant albentibus. Flora, camisiam byssinam quam marito texuerat, ut ejus mereretur amplexus, prodigaliter virgini praesentavit. Proserpina, toro mariti fastidito tartarei, ad superna repatrians, suae imperatricis noluit defraudari praesentia.

The Napaeae, saturating the royal chariot with flowers [0441A], sometimes blooded it with rosy flowers; at other times they lily-ified it with the whitening leaves of flowers. Flora, the byssine chemise which she had woven for her husband, that she might merit his embrace, prodigally presented to the maiden. Proserpina, her Tartarean husband’s couch disdained, repatriating to the upper regions, did not wish to be defrauded of the presence of her empress.

Terrestria etiam animalia, nescio qua docente natura, jocis indulgendo lascivius, virginalem didicere praesentiam. Sic rerum universitas ad virginis fluens obsequium, miro certamine laborabat sibi virginis gratiam comparare.

Even the terrestrial animals, I know not by what teaching of Nature, by indulging in jests more playfully, learned the virginal presence. Thus the universe of things, flowing to the virgin’s obsequy, strove in marvelous contest to procure for itself the virgin’s favor.

Floriger horrentem Zephyrus laxaverat annum,
Exstinguens Boreae praelia pace sui.
Grandine perfusus florum, pluit ille ligustrum,
[0441B] Et pratis horum jussit inesse nives.
Ver, quasi fullo novus, reparando pallia pratis
Horum succendit muricis igne togas.

The flower-bearing Zephyr had loosened the shivering year,
extinguishing Boreas’s battles with his own peace.
Drenched with a hail of flowers, he rained privet,
[0441B] And he ordered the snows of these to be present in the meadows.
Spring, as a new fuller, by repairing garments for the meadows
kindled the togas of these with the fire of murex.

Reddidit arboribus crines quos bruma totondit;
     Vestitum reparans, quem tulit ipsa prius.
Tempus erat quo larga suas expandit in agris,
     Applausu Dryadum, gratia veris opes.
Quo dum major inest virtus infantia florum,
     Altius emergens, matre recedit humo.

It has given back to the trees the tresses which winter sheared;
     repairing the vesture which she herself had borne before.
It was the time when the bountiful grace of spring spreads her riches in the fields,
     with the applause of the Dryads.
When, while a greater virtue is present in the infancy of the flowers,
     emerging higher, it withdraws from its mother soil.

Quo violae speculum terrae cunabula lingens,
Aeris afflatus postulat ore novo.
Tempus erat quo terra caput stellata rosarum,
Contendit coelo sidere plena suo.
Quo vexilla gerens aetatis amygdalus ortum
[0441C] Praedicat, et veris gaudia flore vocat.

When the violet, the mirror of the earth, licking the cradles of the earth,
asks for the breath of the air with a new mouth.
It was the time when the earth, her head starred with roses,
contends with heaven, full of its own star.
When the almond-tree, bearing the banners of its season,
[0441C] proclaims the rising, and summons the joys of spring with blossom.

Quo vitis gemmata sinus, amplexa maritos
     Ulmi, de partu cogitat ipsa suo.
Proscribit brumae solaris cereus umbram
     Cogens exsilium frigora cuncta pati
Altis cum bruma latuit phantastica silvis,
     Quam silvae foliis fecerat umbra recens.
Jam flori parvo Juno dedit ubera roris,
     Quo primum partus lactet alumna suos.

At which time the bud-gemmed vine, having embraced her husbands, the elms,
     thinks about her own childbirth.
The solar wax-torch proscribes winter’s shadow,
     compelling all cold to suffer exile.
When the phantasmal winter has hidden in the lofty forests,
     under the fresh shade which the woods had made with their leaves.
Now Juno has given to the small flower the breasts of dew,
     whereby the nursling first may suckle her offspring.

Tempus erat Phoebi quo mortua gramina virtus
     Suscitat, et tumulis surgere cuncta jubet.
Quo mundum facies vernalis laeta serenat,
     Et lacrymas hiemis tergit ab ore suo.
AÎris ut fidei se flos committere possit,
     Nec florem primum frigoris urat hiems.

It was the time of Phoebus when the virtue revives dead grasses
     and bids all things to rise from their tumuli.
When the cheerful vernal face makes the world serene,
     and wipes the tears of winter from its own mouth.
So that the flower may entrust itself to the faith of the air,
     and winter may not scorch the first blossom with cold.

[0441D] Quo mundum Phoebus hiemis torpore gementem
     Visitat, et laeta luce salutat eum.
Proxima quo senium deponit temporis aetas,
     Et mundus senior incipit esse puer.
Quo Phoebus noctem propriis depauperat horis,
     Pigmaeusque dies incipit esse gigas.

[0441D] When Phoebus visits the world groaning with the torpor of winter,
     and greets it with glad light.
When the next age of time lays aside its senility,
     and the elder world begins to be a boy.
When Phoebus depauperates night of its own hours,
     and the Pygmy day begins to be a Giant.

Quo parat hospitium Phoebo, solvitque tributum
     Grex ovium, gaudens hospite sole pecus
Quo Philomela sui celebrat solemnia veris,
     Odam melliti carminis ore canens:
In cujus festo sua gutturis organa pulsat,
     Ut proprio proprium praedicet ore deum.
[0442A] Quo dulci sonitu citharam mentitur alauda,
     Cum volat ad superos, colloquiturque Jovi.
Splendor lascivas argenteus edidit aves,
     In fluviisque diem jusserat esse suum.

At which time the flock of sheep prepares lodging for Phoebus and pays tribute,
     the herd rejoicing in the sun as guest;
at which time Philomela celebrates her solemnities of spring,
     singing with her mouth an ode of honeyed song;
on whose feast she strikes the organs of her throat,
     that with her own mouth she may proclaim her own proper god.
[0442A] When, with sweet sound, the lark counterfeits a cithara,
     as it flies to the supernal ones, and converses with Jove.
The silvery splendor has brought forth playful birds,
     and has bidden day to be its own upon the rivers.

Discursus varii fontis garrire videres,
Prologus in somnum murmur euntis erat.
Splendorisque sui facie fons ille rogabat,
Ut sua defessus pocula sumat homo.

You might see the varied courses of the spring chatter,
a prologue to sleep was the murmur of one going into it.
And by the face of its own splendor that fountain was asking,
that a weary man might take its cups.

Natura Alano loquitur.

Nature speaks to Alan.

Hac igitur amoenantis temporis juventute, nullis rerum exhilarata favoribus, priorem virgo non potuit temperare tristitiam, sed currum in terra humilians, propriis humum venustando vestigiis, ad me pudico pervenit incessu. Quam postquam mihi quadam loci proximitate perspexi, [0442B] in faciem decidens, mentem, stupore vulneratus, exui, totusque in exstasis alienatione sepultus, nec vivus, nec mortuus inter utrumque laborabam. Quem virgo amicabiliter erigens, pedes ebrios sustentando, manuum confortabat solatio, meque suis innectendo complexibus, meaque ora pudicis osculis dulcorando, mellifluo sermonis medicamine a stuporis morbo curavit infirmum.

Thus, in the youth of the delightful season, cheered by no favors of circumstances, the maiden could not temper her former sadness, but, humbling her chariot to the earth, making the ground lovely with her own footprints, she came to me with a modest gait. When after I had clearly beheld her, by a certain nearness of place, [0442B] falling upon my face, wounded by stupor, I put off my mind, and, wholly buried in the alienation of ecstasy, neither alive nor dead, I labored between the two. The maiden, kindly raising me, supporting my drunken feet, was strengthening me with the solace of her hands, and, entwining me in her embraces, and sweetening my lips with chaste kisses, with the mellifluous remedy of speech she cured me, sick, of the disease of stupor.

Quae postquam mihi me redditum intellexit, in mentali intellectu materialis vocis mihi depinxit imaginem, cum quasi archetypa verba idealiter percontexta, vocaliter produxit in actum. Heu! inquit, quae ignorantiae caecitas, quae alienatio mentis, quae debilitas sensuum, quae infirmatio [0442C] rationis, tuo intellectui nubem apposuit, animum exsulare coegit, sensus hebetavit potentiam, mentem compulit aegrotare, ut non solum tuae nutricis familiari cognitione tua intelligentia defraudetur, verum etiam tanquam monstruosae imaginis novitate percussa, in meae apparitionis ortu, tua discretio patiatur occasum?

After she understood that I had been returned to myself, in mental intellection she painted for me the image of a material voice, and, the archetypal words as it were ideally interwoven, she brought them forth into act vocally. Alas! she said, what blindness of ignorance, what alienation of mind, what debility of the senses, what infirmation [0442C] of reason has set a cloud before your intellect, has compelled your spirit to go into exile, has dulled the potency of sense, has driven the mind to be sick, so that not only is your intelligence defrauded of the familiar cognition of your nurse, but even, as if struck by the novelty of a monstrous image, at the rising of my apparition, does your discretion suffer a downfall?

Cur a tua memoria mei facis peregrinari notitiam, in quo mea munera me loquuntur, quae te tot beneficiorum praelargis beavi muneribus? quae a tua ineunte aetate, Dei auctoris vicaria, rata dispensatione, legitimum tuae vitae ordinavi curriculum? quae olim tui corporis materiam adulterina primordialis materiae essentia fluctuantem, in verum esse produxi?

Why do you make the knowledge of me peregrinate from your memory, in whom my gifts speak me, which have blessed you with the over-bountiful gifts of so many benefactions? which, from your commencing age, as the Vicar of God the Author, by a ratified dispensation, I have ordered the legitimate curriculum of your life? which once brought into true being the matter of your body, fluctuating in the essence of adulterine primordial matter?

cujus vultum miserata deformem, quasi ad me crebrius declamantem [0442D], humanae speciei signaculo sigillavi, eamque honestis figurarum orphanam ornamentis, melioribus formatis vestibus honestavi? in qua ad corporis clientelam diversas membrorum ordinans officinas, in eadem, sensus quasi corporeae civitatis excubias vigilare praecepi, ut quasi exterorum hostium praevisores, corpus ab exteriori importunitate defenderent, ut sic totius corporis materia nobilioribus naturae purpuramentis ornata, ad nuptias gradiens, marito Spiritui gratius jungeretur; ne maritus suae conjugis deformitatem fastidiens, ejus refutaret conjugium? Tuum etiam [0443A] spiritum vitalibus insignivi potentiis, ne corpore pauperior, ejus successibus invideret.

having pitied whose deformed countenance, as if declaiming to me more frequently [0442D], I sealed it with the signet of human species, and I honored her—orphanned of the decent ornaments of figures—with better, well‑formed garments? in her, appointing for the body’s clientage the diverse workshops of the members, in the same I ordered the senses to keep watch as the sentries of a corporeal city, so that, as lookouts of foreign enemies, they might defend the body from exterior importunity, that thus the matter of the whole body, adorned with the nobler purples of nature, going forward to the nuptials, might be joined more graciously to the husband, the Spirit; lest the husband, loathing the deformity of his spouse, should refuse her conjugium? Your [0443A] spirit also I insigned with vital potencies, lest, poorer than the body, it should envy its successes.

Cui ingenialis virtutis destinavi potentiam, quae rerum venatrix subtilium, in notitiae indagine easdem intellectas concluderet. Cur etiam rationis impressi signaculum, quae suae discretionis ventilabro, falsitatis inania a seriis veritatis discernat. Per me etiam tibi memorialis ancillatur potentia, quae in suae recordationis armario, nobilem censum scientiae thesaurizat.

To whom I destined the potency of ingenial virtue, which, a huntress of subtle things, by the indagation of knowledge might conclude the same things once understood. Why also I impressed the seal of reason, which, with the winnowing-fan of its discretion, discerns the emptinesses of falsity from the serious things of truth. Through me also a memorial potency is made ancillary to you, which, in the cabinet of its recollection, treasures up the noble register of knowledge.

His ergo utrumque beavi muneribus, ut neuter vel suam gemeret pauperiem, vel de alterius affluentia quereretur. Sicut ergo praefatae nuptiae meo sunt celebratae consensu, sic pro meo arbitrio, eadem cessabit copula maritalis. Nec in te solo particulariter, verum etiam in unoquoque [0443B] universitatis, meae potentiae largitas elucescit.

Therefore by these I have endowed both with gifts, so that neither would groan over his own poverty nor complain of the other’s affluence. Just as therefore the aforesaid nuptials were celebrated by my consent, so, at my discretion, the same marital bond will cease. Nor in you alone particularly, but also in each single one of the universe, does the largess of my power shine forth [0443B].

Ego sum illa, quae ad exemplarem mundanae machinae similitudinem, hominis exemplavi naturam; ut in eo velut in speculo, ipsius mundi scripta natura appareat. Sicut enim quatuor elementorum concors discordia, unica pluralitas, consonantia dissonans, consensus dissentiens, mundialis regiae structuras conciliat, sic quatuor complexionum compar disparitas, inaequalis aequalitas, deformis conformitas, divisa identitas, aedificium corporis humani compaginat. Et quae qualitates inter elementa mediatrices conveniunt, hae eaedem inter quatuor humores pacis sanciunt firmitatem.

I am she who, after the exemplary likeness of the machinery of the world, exemplified the nature of man; so that in him, as in a mirror, the written nature of the world itself might appear. For just as the concordant discord of the four elements, a single plurality, a consonant dissonance, a consenting dissension, conciliates the structures of the world’s royal palace, so the matched disparity of the four complexions, an unequal equality, a deformed conformity, a divided identity, binds together the edifice of the human body. And the qualities which, as mediatrices, agree among the elements, these same sanction the firmness of peace among the four humors.

Et sicut contra ratam firmamenti volutionem, motu contradictorio exercitus [0443C] militat planetarum, sic in homine sensualitatis rationisque continua reperitur hostilitas. Rationis enim motus ab ortu coelestium oriens, per occasum transiens terrenorum, coelestia considerando regyrat. Econtrario vero sensualitatis motus planetici erratici, contra rationis firmamentum, in terrestrium occidentem aliquando labuntur.

And just as, against the fixed revolution of the firmament, with a contradictory motion the army [0443C] of the planets makes war, so in man a continual hostility of sensuality and reason is found. For the motion of reason, arising from the rising of the celestials, passing through the setting of the terrestrials, by considering the celestial things gyrates back. On the contrary, the planetary, erratic motion of sensuality, against the firmament of reason, sometimes slips into the setting of earthly things.

Haec mentem humanam in vitiorum occasum deducit, ut occidat, illa in orientem virtutum ut oriatur invitat. Haec hominem in bestiam degenerando transmutat, ista hominem in deum potentialiter transfigurat. Haec concupiscentiae nocte mentis lumen eliminat; illa contemplationis lumine mentis noctem illuminat.

This leads the human mind into the Occident of vices, so that it may set; that invites it into the Orient of virtues, so that it may rise. This, by degenerating, transmutes man into a beast; that transfigures man into a god, potentially. This, in the night of concupiscence, eliminates the light of the mind; that, with the light of contemplation, illuminates the night of the mind.

Haec hominem debacchari facit cum brutis; ista eumdem disputare facit cum [0443D] angelis. Haec a patria cogit hominem exsulare; ista in exsilio docet hominem invenire patriam. Nec in hac re hominis natura potest meae dispensationis ordinem accusare: de rationis enim consilio, tale contradictionis duellum inter hos pugiles ordinavi, ut, si in hac disputatione, ad redargutionem ratio possit sensualitatem inclinare, antecedens victoria praemio consequente non careat.

This makes a man debauch and rave with brutes; that makes the same man dispute with [0443D] angels. This forces a man to go into exile from his fatherland; that in exile teaches a man to find his fatherland. Nor in this matter can human nature accuse the order of my dispensation: for by the counsel of reason I have ordained such a duel of contradiction between these pugilists, that, if in this disputation reason can incline sensuality to refutation, the preceding victory may not lack the consequent prize.

Praemia etenim victoriis comparata, caeteris muneribus pulchrius elucescunt; munera etiam empta laboribus, [0444A] jucundius omnibus elucescunt gratuitis. Majoris enim laudis meretur praeconia, qui laborando munus recipit, quam qui recipit otiando: labor namque antecedens, quamdam consequenti praemio infundens dulcedinem, majori favore praemiat laborantem. In his ergo, amplioribusque naturae muneribus, mundus in homine suas invenit qualitates Dei providentia cuncta gubernat.

For prizes acquired by victories shine forth more beautifully than other gifts; gifts too bought by labors, [0444A] shine more joyously than all gratuitous ones. For he deserves the proclamations of greater praise who by laboring receives a gift than he who receives it otiosely: for the labor that goes before, infusing a certain sweetness into the reward that follows, with greater favor rewards the laborer. In these, therefore, and in the ampler gifts of nature, the world finds its own qualities in man; the providence of God governs all things.

Attendite qualiter in hoc mundo velut in nobili civitate, quaedam reipublicae majestas moderamine rato sancitur. In coelo enim velut in arce civitatis humanae, imperialiter residet imperator aeternus, a quo aeternaliter exiit edictum, ut singularum rerum notitiae in suae providentiae libro scribantur. In aere vero, velut in urbis medio, coelestis angelorum exercitus ministrans administratione [0444B] vicaria, suam adhibet homini diligentem custodiam; homo vero velut alienigena habitans in mundi suburbio, angelicae militiae non denegat obedientiam exhibere.

Attend how in this world, as if in a noble city, a certain majesty of the commonwealth is sanctioned by ratified governance. In heaven, indeed, as in the citadel of the human city, the eternal Emperor sits imperially, from whom there went forth eternally an edict, that the notices of individual things be written in the book of his providence. In the air, truly, as in the middle of the city, the celestial army of angels, ministering with vicarious administration [0444B], applies to man its diligent guardianship; but man, as a foreigner dwelling in the suburb of the world, does not refuse to render obedience to the angelic soldiery.

In hac ergo republica Deus est imperans; angelus operans, homo obtemperans. Deus operando hominem creat, angelus operando procreat; homo obtemperando se recreat. Deus rem auctoritate disponit; angelus actione componit; homo se operantis voluntati supponit.

In this commonwealth, therefore, God is commanding; the angel is operating; the man is obeying. God, by operating, creates the man; the angel, by operating, procreates; the man, by obeying, re-creates himself. God disposes the matter by authority; the angel composes it by action; the man subjects himself to the will of the one operating.

Deus imperat auctoritatis magisterio; angelus operatur actionis ministerio; homo obtemperat regenerationis mysterio. Jam nimis nostrae ratiocinationis [0444C] series evagatur, quae ad ineffabile deitatis arcanum, tractatum audet attollere, ad cujus rei intelligentiam, nostrae mentis languescunt suspiria. Hujus ergo ordinatissimae reipublicae in homine resultat simulacrum.

God commands by the magistery of authority; the angel operates by the ministry of action; man obeys by the mystery of regeneration. Already the series of our ratiocination [0444C] wanders too far, which dares to lift its tractate toward the ineffable arcanum of the Deity; at the understanding of which matter the sighs of our mind grow languid. Therefore, the image of this most well-ordered commonwealth echoes in man.

In arce enim capitis, imperatrix sapientia conquiescit, cui tanquam deae, caeterae potentiae velut semi deae obsequuntur. Ingenialis namque potentia, potestasque logistica, virtus etiam praeteritorum recordativa, diversis capitis thalamis habitantes, ejus fervescunt obsequio. In corde vero, velut in medio civitatis humanae, magnanimitas suam collocavit mansionem, quae sub prudentiae principatu, suam professa militiam, prout ejusdem imperium deliberat, operatur.

For in the citadel of the head, empress wisdom comes to rest, to whom, as to a goddess, the other powers, as if semi-goddesses, render obsequy. For the ingenial power, and the logistic power, and even the virtue recordative of things past, inhabiting the diverse bedchambers of the head, grow fervent in obedience to her. In the heart, indeed, as in the middle of the human city, magnanimity has placed its mansion, which, under the principate of prudence, having professed its militia, works according as the imperium of that same deliberates.

Renes autem tanquam suburbia cupidinariis voluptatibus [0444D] partem corporis largiuntur extremam, quae magnanimitatis imperio obviare non audentes, ejus obtemperant voluntati. In hac ergo republica, sapientia imperantis suscipit vicem; magnanimitas operantis sollicitudinem: voluptas obtemperantis usurpat imaginem. In aliis etiam corporis humani partibus, mundi figuratur effigies.

The reins, moreover, as suburbs, bestow to concupiscent pleasures [0444D] the extreme part of the body, which, not daring to oppose the command of magnanimity, obey its will. In this republic, therefore, wisdom takes up the role of the one commanding; magnanimity the solicitude of the one acting: pleasure usurps the image of the one obeying. In other parts also of the human body, the effigy of the world is figured.

Sicut enim in mundo, solaris caloris beneficium rebus medicatur languentibus, sic in homine, calor a cordis fundamento procedens, humani corporis partes vivificando exhilarat. [0445A] Sicut etiam luna in machina mundiali, multorum humorum mater existit, sic hepar in hominem, membris humorem impertitur conformem. Et sicut luna solis lumine defraudata languescit; sic virtus hepatis solatio cordis vivificante viduata, torpescit.

Just as in the world, the beneficence of solar heat medicates things that are languishing, so in man, the heat proceeding from the foundation of the heart, by vivifying, exhilarates the parts of the human body. [0445A] Likewise, as the moon in the world-machine exists as the mother of many humors, so the liver in man imparts to the members a humor conformable. And as the moon, defrauded of the sun’s light, languishes; so the virtue of the liver, widowed of the heart’s vivifying solace, grows torpid.

Et sicut aer, solis absentatione, obscuritate vestitur; sic sine cordis beneficio, vitalis potentia spirat inaniter. Praeter haec vide qualiter mundus variis temporum protheatur successibus. Nunc veris lascivit infantia; nunc aestatis juventute progreditur; nunc virilitate maturescit autumni; nunc hiemis senectute canescit.

And as the air, at the absentation of the sun, is clothed with obscurity; so without the benefit of the heart, the vital potency breathes vainly. Besides these things, see how the world is set forth by the various successions of times. Now in the spring, infancy sports wantonly; now in the youth of summer it advances; now in the virility of autumn it ripens; now in the old age of winter it grows hoary.

Compar vicissitudo temporis, eademque varietas hominis immutat aetatem. Cum enim humanae aetatis aurora consurgit, ver homini oritur matutinum; cumque [0445B] vitae curriculum metas aetatis perficit longiores, homo juventutis meridiatur aestate. Sed, cum vita prolixior quasi nonam aetatis horam complevit, homo in autumnum virilitatis evadit; aetateque in occidens inclinata, jam vitae vesperam senio nuntiante, hiemale gelicidum senectutis, hominem cogit suis albicare pruinis.

Comparable is the vicissitude of time, and that same variety alters the age of man. For when the aurora of human age rises, a matutinal spring dawns for man; and when [0445B] the curriculum of life reaches the longer bounds of age, the man keeps the meridian in the summer of youth. But, when a more prolix life has, as it were, completed the ninth hour of age, the man passes into the autumn of virility; and with the age inclined toward the setting, now with senility announcing the evening of life, the hiemal ice-fall of old age compels the man to whiten with its own hoar-frosts.

In his omnibus, ineffabiliter meae potentiae resultat effectus, sed tamen plerisque meae potestatis faciem palliare decrevi figuris, defendens a vilitate secretum, ne si ejus de me familiarem impertirem scientiam, quae apud eos primitus ignota, pretiosa vigebant, postmodum jam nota vilescerent. Ut enim vulgare testatur proverbium: "Familiaris rei communicatio, contemptus [0445C] mater existit." Aristotelicaeque auctoritatis tuba proclamat, quod: "Ille majestatem minuit secretorum, qui indignis secreta divulgat". Sed ne in hac meae potestatis praerogativa, Deo videar quasi arrogans derogare, certissime summi magistri me humilem profiteor esse discipulam. Ego enim operans, operantis Dei non valeo expresse inhaerere vestigiis, sed a longe, quasi suspirans, operantem respicio.

In all these things, the effect of my potency resounds ineffably; yet nevertheless for very many I have decreed to veil the face of my power with figures, defending the secret from cheapness, lest, if I were to impart a familiar knowledge of it concerning me, those things which among them, unknown at first, flourished as precious, afterwards, once known, would grow cheap. For, as the common proverb bears witness: "The sharing of a familiar thing proves to be the mother of contempt." And the trumpet of Aristotelian authority proclaims that: "He diminishes the majesty of secrets who divulges secrets to the unworthy." But lest in this prerogative of my power I seem as if arrogantly to derogate from God, most certainly I profess myself to be a humble disciple of the highest Master. For I, working, am not able expressly to cleave to the footprints of the God who works, but from afar, as if sighing, I look upon the Worker. [0445C]

Ejus operatio simplex, mea multiplex; ejus opus sufficiens, meum deficiens; ejus opus mirabile, meum opus mutabile. Ille innascibilis, ego nata; ille faciens, ego facta; ille mei opifex operis, ego opus opificis; ille operatur ex nihilo, ego mendico opus ex aliquo; ille suo operatur nomine, ego operor illius sub nomine; [0445D] ille, rem solo nutu jubet existere, mea vero operatio nota est operationis divinae. Et ut, respectu potentiae divinae, meam potentiam impotentem esse cognoscas, meum effectum scias esse defectum, meum vigorem, vilitatem esse perpendas.

His operation simple, mine multiplex; his work sufficient, mine deficient; his work marvelous, my work mutable. He unbegotten, I born; he doing, I done; he the craftsman of my work, I the work of the craftsman; he works out of nothing, I beg a work out of something; he works in his own name, I work under his name; [0445D] he bids a thing to exist by a nod alone, but my operation is a sign of the divine operation. And so that, with respect to divine potency, you may recognize my potency to be impotent, you may know my effect to be a defect, you may weigh that my vigor is vileness.

Auctoritatem consule theologicae facultatis, cujus fidelitati potius quam mearum rationum firmitati, dare debes assensum. Juxta enim ipsius fidele testimonium, homo mea actione nascitur, Dei auctoritate renascitur. Per me, a non esse vocatur ad esse; per ipsum, ad melius esse perducitur.

Consult the authority of the theological faculty, to whose fidelity rather than to the firmness of my reasons you ought to give assent. For according to its faithful testimony, man is born by my action, and is reborn by the authority of God. Through me, he is called from non-being to being; through him, he is led on to a better being.

Per me enim homo procreatur ad mortem, per ipsum recreatur [0446A] ad vitam. Sed ab hoc secundae nativitatis mysterio, meae professionis ministerium ablegatur; nec talis nativitas tali indiget obstetrice; sed potius, ego natura hujus nativitatis ignoro naturam, et ad haec intelligenda mei intellectus habet acumen, meae rationis confunditur lumen: intelligentia vero intellecta mutatur, insensibilibus sensus confunditur. Et cum in his omnibus naturalis ratio langueat, sola fidei firmitate, tantae rei veneramur arcanum.

For through me, man is procreated unto death; through him he is re-created [0446A] unto life. But from this mystery of the second nativity, the ministry of my profession is dismissed; nor does such a nativity need such a midwife; but rather, by nature I am ignorant of the nature of this nativity, and for understanding these things my intellect has acumen, the light of my reason is confounded: indeed intelligence is altered by the intelligibles, in respect to insensibles sense is confounded. And since in all these things natural reason languishes, by the firmness of faith alone we venerate the mystery of so great a matter.

Nec mirum, si in his theologia suam mihi familiaritatem non exhibet, quoniam in plerisque non adversa sed diversa sentimus. Ego ratione fidem, illa fide comparat rationem; ego scio, ut credam, illa credit ut sciat; ego consentio sciens, illa sentit consentiens; ego vix visibilia video, illa incomprehensibilia [0446B] comprehendit in speculo; ego vix minima metior intellectu, illa immensa ratione metitur; ego quasi bestialiter in terra deambulo, illa vero coeli militat in secreto. Et cum de praedictis tractare non sit mei officii, tamen ad haec sermonem evagari permisi, ut respectu superlativae Dei potentiae, meam potentiam diminutam esse non dubites.

Nor is it a wonder, if in these matters theology does not display to me her familiarity, since in most things we feel not adversaries but different things. I by reason attain faith, she by faith procures reason; I know, in order that I may believe, she believes in order that she may know; I assent as one who knows, she senses while assenting; I scarcely see things visible, she comprehends incomprehensibles [0446B] in a mirror; I scarcely measure the least things by intellect, she measures the immense by reason; I, as it were, beast-like, walk about upon the earth, she indeed does military service of heaven in secret. And although to treat of the aforesaid is not my office, nevertheless I have allowed my speech to wander to these points, so that, with respect to the superlative power of God, you may not doubt that my power is diminished.

Sed quamvis meus effectus divinae potentiae comparatus deficiat, tamen humanae potentiae coaequatus praepollet. Et sic in quodam triclinio comparationis, tres potestatis gradus possumus invenire, ut, Dei potentia superlativa, naturae comparativa, hominis, positiva dicatur. Haec omnia sine omni scrutinio quaestionis, de me [0446C] tibi familiarem largiuntur notitiam.

But although my effect, compared with divine potency, falls short, yet when equated with human potency it preponderates. And thus, in a certain triclinium of comparison, we can find three grades of power, so that God’s power is called superlative, nature’s comparative, man’s positive. All these things, without any scrutiny of questioning, bestow upon you from me [0446C] a familiar acquaintance.

Et, ut familiarius loquar, ego sum natura, quae meae dignationis munere, te meae praesentiae compotem feci, meoque sum dignata beare consortio.

And, to speak more familiarly, I am Nature, who, by the gift of my condescension, have made you a partaker of my presence, and have deigned to bless you with my consortship.

Quomodo Alanus loquatur naturae.

How Alan speaks to Nature.

Cum per haec verba, mihi natura suam faciem develaret, suaque admonitione quasi clave praeambula, cognitionis suae mihi januam reseraret, a meae mentis confinio stuporis evaporat nubecula, et per hanc admonitionem velut quodam potionis remedio, omnes phantasiae reliquias quasi nauseans, stomachus mentis evomuit. A meae mentis igitur peregrinatione ad me reversus, ex integro, ad naturae devolutus vestigia, salutationis vice, pedes osculorum multiplici impressione signavi. Tum [0446D] me explicans erigendo, cum reverenti capitis humiliatione velut majestati divinae, ei voce viva salutis obtuli libamentum.

While through these words Nature unveiled to me her face, and by her admonition, as by a preambulatory key, she unbarred for me the door of her cognition, from the confine of my mind’s stupefaction a little cloud evaporated, and through this admonition, as by a certain remedy of a potion, the stomach of the mind, as though nauseating, vomited up all the remnants of phantasies. From the wandering of my mind, therefore, returned to myself, afresh, cast down at Nature’s footsteps, in the stead of a salutation I marked her feet with the manifold imprint of kisses. Then [0446D] unfolding myself in rising, with a reverent humiliation of the head as to divine majesty, to her, with living voice, I offered a libation of greeting.

Consequenter vero ad excusationis auxilium confugiens, precibus humilitatis melle conditis, ejus benevolentiam exorabam (ne vel meae tenuitatis assignaretur errori, vel indignationis supercilio deputaret, vel ingratitudinis venenis adscriberet, quod ejus adventui nullam hilaritatis festivitatem persolveram, sed potius ejus apparentia velut monstruosi phantasmatis anomala apparitione percussus, adulterina exstasis morte fueram soporatus), [0447A] dicens non esse mirandum, si in tantae dignitatis praesentia, meae umbra mortalitatis expalluit, si in tantae majestatis meridie, meae discretionis radiolus in vesperem exorbitationis evanuit; si in tantae felicitatis apparentia, mea parvitas erubuit, cum humanae fragilitatis ignorantiae tenebrosa caligo, admirationis impotens hebetudo, frequensque stuporis concussio, quodam germanitatis foedere socientur, ut ex horum sociabili contubernio, humanae naturae fragilitas sit quasi discipulus a disciplinante convictus suorum mores informante, qui in novorum primitiis, in magnorum stipendiis, etiam ignorantia tenebrari, et stupore percuti, et admiratione saepe solet vulnerari. Dum haec excusatione via reginae aditum mihi pararet favorabilem, [0447B] ejusque gratiam favorabilius mereretur, insuper majora audiendi mihi compararet fiduciam, cujusdam meae dubitationis ambiguum, quod nimiae inquietationis impulsu meae mentis conturbabat hospitium, ejus exponens examini, in haec verba quaestionis exivi:

Consequently, indeed, fleeing to the aid of excuse, with prayers of humility seasoned with honey, I was beseeching her benevolence (lest either it be assigned to the error of my slightness, or be attributed to the superciliousness of indignation, or be ascribed to the poisons of ingratitude, because I had rendered no festivity of hilarity to her advent, but rather, struck by her appearance as by the anomalous apparition of a monstrous phantasm, I had been lulled asleep by the counterfeit death of ecstasy), [0447A] saying it was not to be marveled at if, in the presence of so great dignity, the shadow of my mortality grew pale; if, at the noonday of so great majesty, the tiny ray of my discretion faded into the evening of deviation; if, at the appearance of so great felicity, my smallness blushed—since the shadowy gloom of the ignorance of human fragility, the powerless dullness of admiration, and the frequent concussion of stupor are joined by a certain pact of kinship, so that from their sociable companionship the fragility of human nature is as it were a pupil, convicted by a disciplining instructor shaping his habits, who, at the first-fruits of novelties, in the campaigns of great undertakings, is also wont to be darkened by ignorance, struck by stupor, and often wounded by admiration. While by this excuse the royal road was preparing for me a favorable access, [0447B] and was more favorably earning her grace, moreover procuring for me the confidence of hearing greater things, I set forth to her examination a certain ambiguity of my doubt, which by the impulse of excessive disquiet was disturbing the lodging of my mind, and I went forth into these words of questioning:

Verba Alani ad naturam.

Words of Alan to nature.

O Dei proles, genitrixque rerum,
Vinculum mundi, stabilisque nexus,
Gemma terrenis, speculum caducis,
Lucifer orbis.
Pax, amor, virtus, regimen, potestas,
Ordo, lex, finis, via, dux, origo,
Vita, lux, splendor, species, figura
[0447C] Regula mundi.
Quae tuis mundum moderas habenis,
Cuncta concordi stabilita nodo
Nectis et pacis glutino maritas
Coelica terris.

O offspring of God, and genitrix of things,
Bond of the world, and a stable nexus,
A gem to earthly things, a mirror to the perishable,
Light-bringer of the world.
Peace, love, virtue, regimen, power,
Order, law, end, way, guide, origin,
Life, light, splendor, species, figure
[0447C] Rule of the world.
You who moderate the world with your reins,
You tie all things, made steadfast by a concordant knot,
You bind, and with the glue of peace you marry
Heavenly things to earth.

Quae noys plures recolens ideas
Singulas rerum species monetans,
Res togas formis, chlamidemque formae
     Pollice formas.
Cui favet coelum, famulatur aer,
Quam colit Tellus, veneratur unda,
Cui velut mundi dominae, tributum
     Singula solvunt.
Quae diem nocti vicibus catenans
Cereum solis tribuis diei,
[0447D] Lucido lunae speculo soporans
     Nubila noctis.

Who, the nous recollecting more ideas,
minting the individual species of things,
you robe things with togas by forms, and the chlamys of form
     you shape with the thumb into forms.
Whom heaven favors, the air serves,
whom Tellus cultivates, the wave venerates,
to whom, as mistress of the world, each thing
     pays tribute.
Who chaining day to night by turns
you assign to day the waxen torch of the sun,
[0447D] lulling to sleep by the shining mirror of the moon
     the clouds of night.

Quae polum stellis variis inauras,
Aetheris nostri solium serenans
Siderum gemmis, varioque coelum
     Milite complens.
Quae novis coeli faciem figuris
Protheans mutas aridumque vulgus
Aeris nostri regione donans,
     Legeque stringis.
Cujus ad nutum juvenescit orbis,
Silva crispatur folii capillo,
Et tua florum tunicata veste,
     [0448A] Terra superbit.

You who gild the pole with various stars,
making serene the throne of our aether with the gems of the stars,
and filling the heaven with diverse soldiery.
     You who, Protean, change the face of the sky with new figures,
and, granting the region of our air to the arid throng,
bind it with law.
     At whose nod the world grows young again,
the forest is crisped with the hair of leaf,
and, tunicked with your garment of flowers,
     [0448A] the Earth is proud.

Quae minas ponti sepelis, et auges,
Syncopans cursum pelagi furori
Ne soli tractum tumulare possit
Aequoris aestus.

Who bury and also augment the menaces of the deep,
syncopating the course of the pelagic sea in its fury
lest the tract of soil might be tumulated
by the flood-tide of the level sea.

Alani prima quaestio

Alan’s first question

Tu viae causam resera petenti,
Cur petis terras, peregrina coelis?
Cur tuae nostris deitatis offers
Munera terris?

You, unlock the cause of the journey to the seeker,
Why do you seek the lands, O wanderer from the heavens?
Why do you offer the gifts of your deity
to our lands?

Quaestio secunda.

Question second.

Ora cur fletus pluvia rigantur?
Quid tui vultus lacrymae prophetant?
Fletus interni satis est doloris
Lingua fidelis.

Why are faces moistened with the rain of weeping?
What do the tears of your countenance prophesy?
Weeping is the faithful tongue of inward pain enough
A faithful tongue.

[0448B]

Ratio naturae.

Reason of nature.

Praefata igitur virgo hujus quaestionis solutionem in vestibulo excubare demonstrans, ait: An ignoras, quod terreni orbis exorbitatio, quod mundani ordinis inordinatio, quod mundialis curiae incuria, quod juris injuria, ab internis penetralibus coelestis arcani, in vulgaria terrenorum lupanaria me declinare coegit? Si in affectuoso mentis affectu colligere, et in pectoris armario thesaurizare velles quod dicerem, tuae dubitationis labyrinthum evolverem. Ad haec, ergo sub castigato vocis moderamine, responsionis reddidi talionem: Nihil, inquam, o regina coelestis, affectuosiori desiderio, quam hujus quaestionis enodationem esurio. [0448C]

Therefore the aforesaid virgin, showing that the solution of this question keeps vigil in the vestibule, said: Do you not know that the exorbitation of the earthly orb, that the inordination of the mundane order, that the incuria of the world’s curia, that the injury of law, has compelled me to decline from the inner penetralia of the heavenly secret into the vulgar lupanaria of earthly things? If you were willing to gather, in the affectuous affect of the mind, and to treasure in the armarium of the breast what I would say, I would unroll the labyrinth of your hesitation. To these things, therefore, under a chastised moderation of voice, I rendered a talion in reply: Nothing, I say, O heavenly queen, do I hunger for with a more affectuous desire than the untying of this question. [0448C]

Solutio primae quaestionis.

Solution of the first question.

Tunc illa: Cum omnia lege suae originis meis legibus teneantur obnoxia, mihique debeant jus statuti vectigalis persolvere, fere omnia tributarii juris exhibitione legitima, meis edictis regulariter obsequuntur; sed ab hujus universitatis regula, solus homo anomala exceptione excluditur, qui pudoris trabea denudatus, impudicitiaeque meretricali prostibulo prostitutus, in suae dominae majestatem, litis audet excitare tumultum, imo etiam in matrem intestini belli rabiem inflammare. Caetera quibus meae gratiae humiliora munera commodavi, per suarum professionum conditionem subjectione voluntaria meorum decretorum sanctionibus alligantur; homo vero qui fere totum divitiarum mearum [0448D] exhausit aerarium, naturae naturalia denaturare pertentans, in me scelestae Veneris armat injuriam. Attende, quomodo fere quaelibet juxta mei promulgationem edicti, prout ratio nativae conditionis expostulat, mei juris statuta persolvant.

Then she: Although all things, by the law of their origin, are held subject to my laws, and owe to me to discharge the right of a statutory impost, nearly all, by the legitimate exhibition of tributary right, regularly obey my edicts; but from the rule of this universality, man alone is excluded by an anomalous exception, who, stripped of the trabea of modesty, and prostituted to the meretrical brothel of shamelessness, against the majesty of his mistress dares to rouse the tumult of litigation, nay even to inflame against his mother the rage of intestine war. The rest, to whom I have accommodated the humbler gifts of my favor, through the condition of their professions, by voluntary subjection, are bound to the sanctions of my decrees; but man, who has drained almost the whole treasury of my riches [0448D], attempting to denature the natural things of nature, arms against me the injury of wicked Venus. Mark how almost each thing, according to the promulgation of my edict, as the rationale of native condition demands, pays in full the statutes of my law.

Firmamentum quotidiana circuitione circumagens universa, juxta meae disciplinae doctrinam, non nugatoria volutionis identitate, unde procedit, regreditur, et quo vadit progreditur. Stellae ad ipsius firmamenti fulgurantes honorem, ipsum suis ornatibus vestiendo, breves sui itineris dietas explentes, varia gyratione ejusdem spatia metienda, meae militant majestati. Planetae, prout a me dispositionis [0449A] meae exivit edictum, firmamenti impetum refrenantes, ad ortum nisu contrario, peregrinant, postque ad suam occasus regionem repatriant.

The firmament, circling all things with its daily circuit, according to the teaching of my discipline, not in a nugatory identity of volution, returns to whence it proceeds, and advances to whither it goes. The stars, flashing forth the honor of the firmament itself, clothing it with their ornaments, completing the brief day-stages of their journey, measuring its spaces with varied gyration, serve my majesty as soldiers. The planets, as the edict of my disposition has gone forth from me [0449A], restraining the impulse of the firmament, peregrinate toward the rising with contrary exertion, and afterwards repatriate to their own region of setting.

Aer meis disciplinatus doctrinis, nunc aura benevola gratulatur, nunc nubium fletibus quasi compatiens lacrymatur; nunc corrixationibus ventorum irascitur; nunc coruscationibus illuminatur; nunc tonitruum minaci mugitu concutitur; nunc clibano caloris decoquitur; nunc austeritate frigoris asperatur. Aves variis sigillata naturis, meae directionis regimine, sub alarum remigio fluctus aeris transfretantes, praecordialiter meis inhiant disciplinis; meae meditationis interventu aequor terrae firmis amicitiae nexibus glutinatum, conjuratae fidei sacramentum sorori violare non audens, ultra diffinitae [0449B] evagationis terminum, in terrae domicilia evagari formidat. Ad meae tantum voluntatis arbitrium, nunc tempestatis stomachatur in iram, nunc in tranquillitatis pacem revertitur, nunc elatum tumoris superbia, in montis evadit imaginem: nunc in aequatam lineatur planitiem.

The air, disciplined by my doctrines, now with a benevolent breeze rejoices; now, as if compassionate, it weeps with the weepings of clouds; now it grows wrathful at the quarrelings of the winds; now it is illuminated by coruscations; now it is shaken by the threatening bellow of thunders; now it is stewed in the kiln of heat; now it is roughened by the austerity of cold. Birds, stamped with varied natures, under the governance of my direction, crossing the billows of the air beneath the oaring of their wings, from the heart gape after my disciplines; by the intervention of my meditation the sea, glued to the earth by firm bonds of friendship, not daring to violate the sacrament of confederated faith to its sister, fears to wander beyond the limit of defined [0449B] evagation into the dwellings of the land. At the mere arbitration of my will, now it is vexed into the wrath of tempest, now it returns into the peace of tranquility, now the uplifted pride of swelling passes into the image of a mountain; now it is drawn into a leveled plain.

Pisces meae provisionis voto astricti, reformidant regularum mearum canonibus derogare. Meae etiam edictionis imperio, quodam nuptiali complexu, terris pluviae maritantur; quae prolis laborantes ad fabricam, indefessa parturitione, varias rerum species parentare non desinunt. Terrestria animalia sub meae districtionis examine, diversas suorum obsequiorum meo imperio profitentur militias.

Fishes, bound by the vow of my providence, shrink from derogating from the canons of my rules. By the authority of my edict as well, in a certain nuptial embrace, the rains are wedded to the lands; which, laboring for the workshop of progeny, with unwearied parturition, do not cease to bring forth various species of things. Terrestrial animals, under the examination of my strictness, profess at my command diverse militias of their obediences.

Terra enim nunc brumali albescit [0449C] canitie, nunc florum crinitur caesaria. Silva, nunc frondium crinibus capillatur, nunc acuta hiemis novacula decalvatur. Hiems semina sepulta gremio terrae matris inviscerat, ver inclusa excarcerat, aestas decoquit messes, autumnus suas exhibet ubertates.

For the earth, indeed, now whitens with brumal [0449C] hoariness, now is tressed with the head of hair of flowers. The forest, now is hair-clad with the tresses of leaves, now is shaved bald by the sharp razor of winter. Winter inwombs the seeds buried in the bosom of mother earth; spring excarcerates the enclosed; summer decocts the harvests; autumn exhibits its abundances.

Et quid per singula meae narrationis curriculum evagari permitto? solus homo meae moderationis citharam aspernatur; et sub delirantis Orphei lyra delirat: humanum namque genus a sua generositate degenerans, in conjunctione generum barbarizans, venereas regulas immutando, nimis irregulari utitur metaplasmo: sicque homo a venere tiresiatus anomala, directam praedicationem in contrapositionem [0449D] inordinate convertit. A Veneris igitur orthographia homo deviando recedens, sophista falsigraphus invenitur.

And why do I permit the course of my narration to wander through each particular? man alone spurns the cithara of my moderation; and under the lyre of a delirious Orpheus he delirates: for the human race, degenerating from its own nobility, barbarizing in the conjunction of genders, by altering the Venereal rules, employs a too irregular metaplasm: and thus man, Tiresiased by Venus, anomalously, the direct predication into contraposition [0449D] inordinately converts. Therefore, from the orthography of Venus deviating and receding, man is found a falsigraph sophist.

Consequenter etiam Dioneae artis analogiam devitans, in anastrophem vitiosam degenerat; dumque in tali quaestione me destruit, et in sua phraenesi, mihi themesim machinatur. Poenitet me tot venustatum praerogativis hominum plerumque privilegiasse naturas, qui decoris decus abusione dedecorant: qui formae formositatem venerea deformitate deformant, qui pulchritudinis colorem, fusco adulterini cupidinis colore decolorant: qui Florae florem in vitia efflorando [0450A] deflorant. Cur decore deifico vultum decoravi Tyndaridis, quae pulchritudinis usum in meretricationis abusum abire coegit, dum regalis tori foedus deserens, foede se Paridi foederavit?

Consequently also, shunning the analogy of the Dionean art, he degenerates into a vicious anastrophe; and while in such a question he overturns me, in his phrenesis he machinates against me a thesis. It repents me that I have for the most part privileged the natures of men with the prerogatives of so many charms, who by abuse dis-honor the honor of decor: who deform the form’s formosity with venereal deformity; who discolor the color of beauty with the dusky color of adulterine cupidity; who, by flowering out into vices, deflower Flora’s flower [0450A]. Why with deific decor did I adorn the visage of the Tyndarid, who drove the use of beauty to pass over into the abuse of meretrication, while, deserting the covenant of the royal couch, she foully bound herself by a pact to Paris?

Pasiphae etiam hyperbolicae Veneris furiis agitata, sub facie bovis sophistice cum bruto bestiales nuptias celebrans, paralogismo sibi turpiori concludens, stupendo bovis conclusit sophismate. Mirrha etiam cupidinis aculeis stimulata in patris dulcore, a filiae amore degenerans, cum patre matris exemplavit officium. Medea vero proprio filio novercata, ut inglorium Veneris opus quaereret, gloriosum Veneris destruxit opusculum.

Pasiphaë too, agitated by the furies of hyperbolic Venus, under the guise of a cow sophistically celebrating bestial nuptials with a brute, concluding for herself with a more shameful paralogism, closed with a stupendous sophism of the bull. Myrrha also, pricked by the goads of Cupid in her father’s sweetness, degenerating from a daughter’s love, with her father exemplified a mother’s office. But Medea, in truth, having step-mothered her own son, that she might pursue the inglorious work of Venus, destroyed the glorious little work of Venus.

Narcissus etiam sui umbra alterum mentita Narcissum, umbratiliter occupatus, seipsum credens esse alterum [0450B] se, de se sibi amoris incurrit periculum. Multi etiam alii juvenes mei gratia pulchritudinis honore vestiti, debriato amore pecuniae, suos Veneris malleos in incudum transtulerunt officia. Talis monstruosorum hominum multitudo, totius orbis amplitudine degrassatur, quorum fascinante contagio, castitas venenatur.

Narcissus too, his own shadow having feigned another Narcissus, being preoccupied in a shadowy way, believing himself to be another self, [0450B] upon himself incurred the peril of love from himself. Many other youths also, clothed with the honor of the grace of my beauty, drunken with a love of money, have transferred the offices of their hammers of Venus onto the anvil. Such a multitude of monstrous men struts through the amplitude of the whole world, by whose bewitching contagion chastity is poisoned.

Eorum siquidem hominum qui Veneris profitentur grammaticam, alii solummodo masculinum, alii feminum, alii commune, sive promiscuum genus familiariter amplexantur: quidam vero quasi heterocliti genere, per hiemem in feminino, per aestatem in masculino genere irregulariter declinantur. Sunt qui in Veneris logica disputantes, in conclusionibus suis, subjectionis, praedicationisque legem relatione mutua sortiuntur. Sunt, [0450C] qui vicem gerentes supposito, praedicari non norunt.

Indeed, of those men who profess the grammar of Venus, some familiarly embrace only the masculine, others the feminine, others the common, or promiscuous, gender: certain ones, moreover, as if heteroclites in gender, through the winter are irregularly declined in the feminine, through the summer in the masculine. There are those who, disputing in the logic of Venus, in their conclusions obtain by mutual relation the law of subjection and of predication. There are, [0450C] who, bearing the role by a supposit, do not know how to be predicated.

Sunt, qui solummodo praedicantes, subjecti subjectionem legitimam non attendunt. Alii autem Diones regiam ingredi dedignantes, sub ejusdem vestibulo ludum lacrymabilem comitantur. Contra hos omnes conqueruntur jura, leges armantur, cum ultore gladio suas affectant injurias vindicari.

There are those who, solely preaching, as subjects do not heed legitimate subjection. Others, disdaining to enter the regal palace of Dione, under that same one’s vestibule attend a lamentable play. Against all these the rights complain, the laws are armed, and with an avenging sword they strive to have their injuries vindicated.

Ne igitur mireris, si in has verborum profanas exeo novitates, cum profani homines profanius audeant debacchari. Talia enim indignanter eructo, ut pudici homines pudoris characterem revereantur; impudici vero ab impudentiae lupanaribus arceantur. Mali enim cognitio, expediens est cautela, quae culpabili nota inverecundiae cauteriatos puniat; et ab [0450D] ejusmodi immunes praemiet.

Therefore do not wonder if I go out into these profane novelties of words, since profane men dare to rage in Bacchic frenzy more profanely. For I belch forth such things indignantly, so that modest men may revere the character of modesty; but the shameless may be warded off from the brothels of impudence. For the cognition of evil is an expedient caution, which may punish those cauterized with the culpable mark of shamelessness; and may reward those immune from [0450D] suchlike.

Jam meae solutionis lima tuae quaestionis scrupulum eliminavit.

Already the file of my solution has eliminated the scruple of your question.

Solutio secundae quaestionis Alani.

Solution of Alan's second question.

Ideo enim a supernis coelestis regiae secretariis egrediens, ad hujus caducae terrenitatis occasum deveni, ut de exsecrabilibus hominum excessibus, tecum quasi cum familiari et secretario meo, querimoniale lamentum exponerem, tecumque decernerem, tali criminum oppositioni, qualis poenae debeat dari responsio: ut praedictorum facinorum morsibus coaequata punitio, poenae talionem remordeat. [0451A] Tunc ego: O rerum omnium mediatrix, nisi vererer mearum quaestionum copia tuae benevolentiae fastidium provocare, alterius meae dubitationis tenebras luci tuae distinctionis exponerem. Tunc illa: Imo, omnes tuas quaestiones non solum adolescentes, verum etiam vetustatis rubigine antiquas, audientiae meae communices, ut nostrarum solutionum firmitate, tuarum dubitationum tranquilletur impulsus.

Therefore, indeed, going forth from the supernal secretariats of the celestial royal palace, I came down to the downfall of this caducous earthliness, that, about the execrable excesses of men, I might set forth with you—as with my familiar and my secretary—a querimonial lament, and with you determine what sort of response of penalty ought to be given to such an opposition of crimes: so that punishment, equated to the bites of the aforesaid misdeeds, may bite back with the talion of penalty. [0451A] Then I: O mediatrix of all things, unless I feared that the abundance of my questions would provoke a distaste in your benevolence, I would expose the darkness of another of my doubts to the light of your discrimination. Then she: Nay rather, you should communicate to my hearing all your questions, not only those adolescent, but even those antiquated with the rust of age, so that by the firmness of our solutions, the onrush of your doubts may be made tranquil.

Tertia quaestio Alani.

The third question of Alan.

Tunc ego: Miror cur poetarum commenta pertractans, solummodo in humani generis pestes, praedictarum invectionum armas aculeos, cum et eodem exorbitationis pede, deos claudicasse legamus? [0451B] Jupiter enim adolescentem Ganymedem transferens ad superna, relativam Venerem transtulit in translatum; et quem in mensa per diem propinandi sibi statuit praepositum, in toro per noctem sibi fecit suppositum. Bacchus etiam et Apollo, paternae cohaeredes lasciviae, non divinae virtutis imperio, sed superstitiosae Veneris praestigio, verterunt in feminas, pueros mentiendo.

Then I: I marvel why, while handling the fictions of the poets, you direct the barbed weapons of the aforesaid invectives only against the pests of the human race, since we read that the gods too limped with the same foot of exorbitance? [0451B] For Jupiter, transferring the adolescent Ganymede to the heights, transferred relative Venus into the translated; and the one whom at table by day he appointed preposed for pouring him drink, on the couch by night he made for himself subposed. Bacchus also and Apollo, co-heirs of their paternal lasciviousness, not by the command of divine virtue but by the illusion of superstitious Venus, turned boys into females, by misrepresenting boys.

Responsio naturae.

Response of nature.

Tunc illa authenticae serenitatis vultum tumultuose figurans, ait: An interrogationem, quae dubitationis facie indigna est, usurpando, quaestionis vestis imagine? an umbratilibus poetarum figmentis quae artis poeticae depinxit industria, fidem adhibere conaris? Nonne ea quae in puerilibus [0451C] cunis poeticae disciplinae discutiuntur, altiori distinctionis lima, senior philosophiae tractatus eliminat?

Then she, tumultuously fashioning a countenance of authentic serenity, said: Are you, by usurping an interrogation that is unworthy of the face of doubt, under the image of a question’s vesture? or do you strive to lend faith to the umbratile figments of the poets, which the industry of the poetic art has painted? Do not those things which are discussed in the childish [0451C] cradles of the discipline of poetry, the elder treatise of philosophy eliminate with a loftier file of distinction?

An ignoras, quomodo poetae sine omni palliationis remedio, auditoribus nudam falsitatem prostituunt, ut quadam mellita dulcedine velut incantatas audientium aures inebrient? Quomodo ipsam falsitatem quadam probabilitatis hypocrisi palliant, ut per exemplorum imagines, hominum animos moriginationis incude sigillent? At, in superficiali litterae cortice falsum resonat lyra poetica, sed interius, auditoribus secretum intelligentiae altioris eloquitur, ut exteriore falsitatis abjecto putamine, dulciorem nucleum veritatis secrete intus lector inveniat.

Do you not know how poets, without any remedy of palliation, prostitute naked falsity to their hearers, so that with a certain honeyed sweetness they inebriate, as if the ears of the audience were enchanted? How they cloak that falsity itself with a certain hypocrisy of plausibility, so that through the images of examples they seal the minds of men upon the anvil of moral formation? Yet, on the superficial bark of the letter the poetic lyre resounds with the false, but inwardly it speaks to the hearers the secret of higher intelligence, so that, the outer husk of falsity cast away, the reader may secretly find within the sweeter kernel of truth.

Poetae tamen aliquando historiales [0451D] eventus joculationibus fabulosis quadam eleganti fictura confoederant, ut ex diversorum competenti conjunctura, ipsius narrationis elegantior pictura resultet. Sed tamen, cum a poetis deorum pluralitas somniatur, vel ipsi dii venereis ferulis manus subduxisse dicuntur, in his, falsitatis umbra lucescit, nec in hoc, poeta a suae proprietatis genere degener invenitur. Cum enim Epicuri jam soporentur somnia, Manichaei sanetur insania, Aristotelis arguantur argutiae, Arii fallantur fallaciae, unicam Dei unitatem ratio probat, mundus eloquitur, fides credit, Scriptura testatur; in quo nullo nulla labes invenitur, quem nulla vitii pestis aggreditur, cum quo nullus tentationis motus congreditur.

Poets, however, sometimes confederate historical [0451D] events with jesting fables by a certain elegant feigning, so that from the suitable conjunction of diverse things there results a more elegant picture of the narration itself. But yet, when by poets a plurality of gods is dreamed, or the gods themselves are said to have withdrawn their hands from venereal rods, in these the shadow of falsity glimmers, nor in this is the poet found degenerate from the genus of his own propriety. For when now the dreams of Epicurus are lulled to sleep, the insanity of the Manichaean is healed, the subtleties of Aristotle are argued down, the fallacies of Arius are foiled, reason proves the unique unity of God, the world proclaims it, faith believes it, Scripture attests it; in whom no stain at all is found, whom no plague of vice assails, with whom no motion of temptation comes to grips.

Hic est splendor nunquam deficiens, vita indefessa, [0452A] non moriens, fons semper scaturiens, seminale vitae seminarium sapiens, principale principium, initiale bonitatis initium. Quamvis ergo, ut poetae testati sunt plerique homines talibus Veneris terminis sint abusi ad litteram, narratio tamen illa vel deos esse, vel ipsos in Veneris gymnasiis latuisse, mentitur, et in nimiae falsitatis vesperascit occasum: ideo, ista nube taciturnitatis obduxi, alia vero in luce verae narrationis explicui. Ad haec ego: Jam meam quaestionem agnosco redolere nimiae ruditatis favillam, sed si alia quaedam paupercula quaestio dignitatis tuae audientiam comparare auderet, quidpiam quaerendo quaererem.

This is the splendor never failing, a life indefatigable, [0452A] not dying, a spring ever gushing forth, a sapient seminary of seminal life, the principal principle, the initial inception of goodness. Although therefore, as the poets have attested, most men have misused such terms of Venus to the letter, nevertheless that narration lies in saying either that they are gods, or that they themselves have lain hidden in the gymnasia of Venus, and it dusks into the sunset of excessive falsity: therefore I have covered those matters with the cloud of taciturnity, but others I have unfolded in the light of true narration. To this I said: Now I acknowledge my question to smell of the cinder of excessive rawness, but if some other rather poor little question should dare to acquire the audience of your dignity, I would by inquiring inquire something.

Ad haec illa: Nonne jam pridem absque omni refrenationis obstaculo, liberas quaerendi habenas exposui? [0452B]

To this she: Have I not long since, without every obstacle of refrenation, set forth the free reins of inquiring? [0452B]

Quaestio quarta.

Fourth question.

Tunc ego miror, cur quaedam tuae tunicae portiones, quae texturae matrimonii deberent esse confines, in ea parte suae conjunctionis patiantur divortia, in qua hominis imaginem picturae repraesentant insomnia?

Then I marvel why certain portions of your tunic, which ought to be confines to the texture of matrimony, suffer divorces in that part of their conjunction in which dreams represent to the picture the image of a man?

Solutio quaestionis.

Solution of the question.

Tunc illa: Jam ex explicatis potes elicere, quid mysticum figuret scissurae figurata parenthesis: cum enim ut diximus, plerique homines in suam matrem vitiorum armentur injuriis, inde inter se et ipsam maximum chaos dissensionis firmantes, in me violentas manus violenter injiciunt, mea sibi particulatim vestimenta diripiunt, et quam reverentiae deberent honore vestire, me vestibus orphanatam [0452C] (quantum in ipsis est) cogunt meretricaliter lupari; hoc ergo in tegumento per hanc scissuram depingitur, quod in solius hominis vitiosis insultibus, mea pudoris ornamenta scissionis contumelias patiuntur. Tunc ego: Jam mearum dubitationum fluctus tuarum solutionum serenitate sedati, meae menti interpellandi largiuntur inducias. Si tuo complaceret affectui, affectuose affectarem cognoscere.

Then she: Now from the things explained you can elicit what the figured parenthesis of the scissure figures mystically: since, as we have said, very many men are armed against their own mother with the injuries of vices, and from that, establishing between themselves and herself the greatest chaos of dissension, they violently lay violent hands on me, they tear my garments bit by bit for themselves, and her whom they ought to clothe with the honor of reverence, me, orphaned of garments [0452C] (so far as is in them) they compel to play the harlot meretriciously; therefore in this tegument through this scissure there is painted that, in the vicious assaults of man alone, the ornaments of my modesty suffer the contumelies of scission. Then I: Now the waves of my doubts, calmed by the serenity of your solutions, grant to my mind a truce for interpellating. If it should please your affection, I would affectionately strive to know.

Quinta Alani quaestio.

Fifth question of Alan.

Quae rationabilis ratio, quae indiscreta indiscretio, quae indirecta dilectio ita in homine dormire coegit rationis scintillam, ut homo lethaeo sensualitatis poculo debriatus, in tuis legibus apostata fieret; imo [0452D] etiam tuas leges illegitime debellaret?

What reasonable reason, what indiscrete indiscretion, what indirect love has so compelled the spark of reason to sleep in man, that the man, inebriated with the Lethean cup of sensuality, should become an apostate from your laws; nay, [0452D] should even unlawfully wage war against your laws?

Quaestionis solutio.

Solution of the question.

Cui illa: Si turpissimae pestis originem velis agnoscere, altius mentis accendas igniculum, appetentius intelligendi reperies appetitum: hebetudinem ingenii depellat subtilitas, cogitationum fluctus, attentionis compescat stabilitas. Ab altiori enim sumens initium, excellentiori quaesito meae volo narrationis seriem contexere. Nolo enim ut prius plana verborum planitie explanare proposita, vel profanis verborum novitatibus profanare profana; verum, pudenda aureis pudicorum verborum phaleris inaurare, variisque venustorum verborum coloribus investire.

To this, she: If you wish to recognize the origin of the most shameful pestilence, kindle higher the little spark of the mind, you will find a more eager appetite for understanding: let subtlety drive away the dullness of wit, let the stability of attention restrain the billows of thoughts. For taking my beginning from a higher point, with a more excellent inquiry I wish to weave together the series of my narration. For I do not wish, as before, to explain the proposals by the flat plainness of words, nor to profane the profane with profane novelties of words; but rather to gild the shameful things with the golden trappings of modest words, and to invest them with various colors of graceful words.

Consequens est enim, praedictorum vitiorum scoriam [0453A] deauratis lectionibus purpurare, vitiosumque fetorem verborum imbalsamare mellifluo, ne si tanti sterquilinii fetor in nimiae promulgationis aures evaderet, populum ad indignationis stomachum, et nauseantis vomitum invitaret. Sed tamen aliquando, ut superius libavimus, quia rebus, de quibus loquimur, cognatos oportet esse sermones, rerum informitati locutionis debet deformitas conformari. In sequenti vero tractatu, ne locutionis cathephaton lectorum offendat auditum, vel in ore virginali locum collocet turpitudo, praedictis vitiorum monstris euphoniae orationis volo pallium elargiri.

For it is fitting to purple-dye the scoria of the aforesaid vices [0453A] with gilded readings, and to embalm the vicious stench of words with the mellifluous, lest, if the reek of so great a dunghill should escape into the ears of excessive promulgation, it invite the people to a stomach of indignation and a nauseating vomit. Yet nevertheless, sometimes, as we have touched upon above, since the discourses ought to be cognate to the things of which we speak, to the unformedness of the matters the deformity of locution ought to be conformed. But in the following treatise, lest the cathephaton of speech offend the hearing of the readers, or turpitude establish a place in a virginal mouth, I wish to bestow upon the aforesaid monsters of vices a mantle of the euphony of oration.

Tunc ego: Jam mei intellectus esuries, ingenii flagrantis acies, mentis inflammatae flagrantia, attentionis stabilitas et constantia, ea [0453B] postulant quae promittis. Tunc illa: Cum Deus ab ideali praeconceptionis thalamo mundialis palatii fabricam voluit enotare, etiam mentale verbum quod ab aeterno de mundi constitutione conceperat, reali ejusdem existentia, velut materiali verbo depingere, tanquam mundi elegans architectus, tanquam aureae fabricae faber aurarius, velut stupendi artificii artifex artificiosus, velut admirandi operis opifex, non exterioris instrumenti laborante suffragio, non materiae praejacentis auxilio, non indigentiae stimulantis flagitio, sed solius arbitrariae voluntatis imperio, mundialis regiae admirabilem speciem fabricavit Deus, qui mundiali palatio varias rerum species ascribendo, quas discrepantium generum litigio disparatas, legitimi ordinis [0453C] congruentia temperavit, leges indidit, sanctionibus alligavit: sicque res generum oppositione contrarias, inter quas, locus ab oppositis locum posuerat, cujusdam reciprocae habitudinis relativis osculis foederando in amicitiae pacem, litem repugnantiae commutavit. Subtilibus igitur invisibilis juncturae catenis concordantibus universis, ad unitatem pluralitas, ad identitatem diversitas, ad consonantiam dissonantia, ad concordiam discordia, unione pacifica remeavit.

Then I: Already the hunger of my understanding, the edge of my blazing ingenuity, the fervency of an inflamed mind, the stability and constancy of attention, [0453B] demand the things which you promise. Then she: When God, from the ideal bridal-chamber of preconception, wished to mark out the construction of the world-palace, and also to paint the mental word which from eternity he had conceived concerning the constitution of the world with the real existence of the same, as it were with a material word, as an elegant architect of the world, as a goldsmith of a golden fabric, as a craftsman artistic in a stupendous artifice, as a workman of an admirable work, not by the toiling suffrage of an external instrument, not by the aid of pre-lying matter, not by the demand of goading indigence, but by the command of his sole arbitrary will, God fashioned the admirable aspect of the world-palace; who, by ascribing to the world-palace the various forms of things, which the litigation of discrepant genera had made disparate, tempered them by the congruity of legitimate order [0453C], imposed laws, bound them with sanctions: and thus, the things contrary by the opposition of genera—between which place had set place from opposites—by federating with the relative kisses of a certain reciprocal habitude into the peace of friendship, he transformed the quarrel of repugnance. Accordingly, by the subtle chains of invisible conjunction, with all things in concord, plurality returned to unity, diversity to identity, dissonance to consonance, discord to concord, by a pacific union.

Sed postquam universalis artifex universa suarum vultibus naturarum investivit, omniaque sibi invicem legitimis proportionum connubiis maritavit, volens ut nascendi, occidendique mutuae relationis circuitu per instabilitatem [0453D] stabilitas, per finem infinitas, per temporabilitatem aeternitas rebus occiduis donaretur, rerumque series seriata reciprocatione nascendi jugiter texeretur, statuit, ut expressae conformationis monetata sigillo, sub derivandae propagationis calle legitimo, ex similibus similia educerentur. Me igitur tanquam sui vicariam, rerum generibus sigillandis monetariam destinavit, ut ego in propriis incudibus rerum effigies commonetans, ab incudis forma conformatum deviare non sinerem, sed mei operante solertia, ab exemplaris vultu, nullarum naturarum dotibus defraudata exemplati facies nullatenus deviaret. Imperantis igitur imperio ego obtemperans, [0454A] operando quasi varia rerum sigillans cognata ad exemplaris rei imaginem exempli exemplans effigiem, ex conformibus conformando conformia, singularum rerum reddidi vultus sigillatos.

Sed after the universal artificer invested the universals with the faces of their natures, and married all things to one another by the legitimate connubia of proportions, willing that, by the circuit of the mutual relation of begetting and of dying, through instability [0453D] stability, through finitude infinity, through temporability eternity should be bestowed upon perishable things, and that the series of things should be woven continually by the serialized reciprocation of being born, he decreed that, coined with the seal of expressed conformation, under the legitimate path of derivational propagation, from similars similar things should be brought forth. Therefore he appointed me, as his vicaria, a moneyer for sealing the genera of things, so that I, hammering the effigies of things upon their proper anvils, would not allow what had been conformed from the form of the anvil to deviate, but, by my operative skill, the face of the exemplatum, defrauded of the endowments of no natures, should nowise deviate from the visage of the exemplar. Therefore I, obeying the command of the commander, [0454A] by working, as it were sealing with a stamp the kindred things to the image of the exemplary thing, exemplifying the effigy of the example, from conformeds conforming conformities, rendered the visages of individual things sealed.

Ita tamen sub divinae potestatis imperio ministerium hujus operationis exercui, ut meae attentionis manum dextera supernae majestatis dirigeret, quia meae scripturae calamus exorbitatione subita deviaret, nisi supremi dispositoris digito regeretur. Sed quia sine subministratorii artificis artificio suffragante, tot rerum species expolire non poteram, mihique in aethereae regionis amoenante palatio placuit commorari, ubi ventorum rixa serenitatis pacem non perimit, ubi accidentalis nox nubium aetheris indefessum non sepelit, ubi nulla [0454B] tempestatis saevit injuria, ubi nulla debacchantis tonitru minatur insania, Venerem ineffabili scientia peritam, meaeque operationis subvicariam in mundiali suburbio collocavi, ut meae praeceptionis sub arbitrio, hymenaei conjugis, filiique Cupidinis industria suffragante, in terrestrium animalium varia effigiatione desudans, fabriles malleos suis regulariter adaptans incudibus, humani generis seriem indefessa continuatione contexeret, Parcarumque manibus intercisorum injurias repararet. Dum in hoc narrationis contextu sermo de Cupidine nasceretur, praefatae narrationi, meorum verborum parenthesi syncopatae, tenorem hujus quaestionis inserui.

Thus, however, under the empire of divine power I exercised the ministry of this operation, so that the hand of my attention might be directed by the right hand of the supernal majesty; for the pen of my writing would by sudden exorbitation deviate, unless it were governed by the finger of the supreme Disposer. But because, without the art of a subministrant artificer giving suffrage, I could not polish so many species of things, and it pleased me to dwell in the delightful palace of the aetherial region, where the quarrel of the winds does not destroy the peace of serenity, where the accidental night of clouds does not bury the indefatigable aether, where no [0454B] injury of tempest rages, where no insanity of raving thunder threatens, I placed Venus, skilled in ineffable science, as sub-vicaress of my operation in the world’s suburb, so that, under the arbitration of my precept, with the industry of Hymenaeus the spouse and of her son Cupid lending support, sweating in the various effigiation of terrestrial animals, fitting the smithy hammers regularly to their anvils, she might weave by indefatigable continuation the series of the human race, and repair the injuries of those cut off by the hands of the Fates. While, in this texture of narration, discourse about Cupid was being born, into the aforesaid narration, syncopated by a parenthesis of my words, I inserted the tenor of this question.

Sexta quaestio Alani.

Sixth question of Alanus.

[0454C] Ha, ha, nisi injuria tuae locutionis syncopatae, mearumque quaestionum venatione timerem tuae benignitatis offensam incurrere, vellem Cupidinis naturam, de quo aliquantulam mentionem tua praelibavit oratio, pictura tuae descriptionis agnoscere. Quamvis enim plerique auctores sub integumentali involucro aenigmatum, ejus naturam depinxerint, tamen nulla certitudinis nobis reliquerunt vestigia: cujus in humano genere tanta per experientiam legitur potentialis auctoritas, ut nullus vel nobilitatis sigillo signatus, vel, sapientiae privilegiantis venustate vestitus, vel fortitudinis armatura munitus, vel pulchritudinis chlamide trabeatus, vel aliarum gratiarum praeditus honoribus, se valeat a cupidinariae [0454D] dominationis generalitate excipere.

[0454C] Ha, ha, unless, by the injury of your syncopated locution and by the venation, as it were, of my questions, I feared to incur an offense against your benignity, I would wish to recognize, in the picture of your description, the nature of Cupid, of whom your oration has prelibated a small mention. For although most authors have depicted his nature under the integumental wrapper of enigmas, nevertheless they have left to us no vestiges of certainty: whose potential authority in the human race is read—attested—by experience as so great that no one, whether marked with the seal of nobility, or clothed with the grace of privileging wisdom, or fortified with the armature of fortitude, or robed with the chlamys of beauty, or endowed with the honors of other graces, is able to except himself from the generality of cupidinarian [0454D] domination.

Quaestionis solutio.

Solution of the question.

Tunc illa, cum temperato capitis motu, verbisque increpationem spondentibus, ait: Credo te in Cupidinis castris stipendiarie militantem, et quadam interfamiliaritatis germanitate eidem esse connexum: inextricabilem etenim ejusdem labyrinthum affectanter investigare conaris, cum potius meae narrationi sententiarum locupletatae divitiis, mentis attentionem attentius adaptare deberes. Sed tamen antequam ad sequentia meae orationis evadat excursus, quia tuae humanitatis imbecillitati compatior, ignorantiae tuae tenebras, pro meae possibilitatis [0455A] volo modestia exstirpare. Insuper, tuarum quaestionum solutionibus ex voto promissionis astringor; idcirco sive certa descriptione describens, sive legitima diffinitione diffiniens, rem immonstrabilem demonstrabo, inextricabilem extricabo; quamvis ipsa nullis naturae obnoxialiter alligata complexionibus, intellectus indaginem non exspectans, nullius posset descriptionis signaculo designari. Ergo, circumscriptae rei haec detur descriptio, inexplicabilis naturae haec exeat explicatio; haec de ignoto habeatur notitia, haec de scibili comparetur scientia, styli tamen altitudine castigata:

Then she, with a tempered motion of the head and words promising increpation, said: I believe you serve as a stipendiary in Cupid’s camp, and that by a certain germanity of interfamiliarity you are connected to him: for you try eagerly to investigate his inextricable labyrinth, when rather you ought to adapt more attentively the attention of your mind to my narration, enriched with the riches of sentiments. But yet, before the excursus of my speech escapes to the things that follow, because I sympathize with the weakness of your humanity, I wish, by the modesty of my possibility, to extirpate the darknesses of your ignorance [0455A]. Moreover, I am bound by the vow of a promise to the solutions of your questions; therefore, whether describing by a sure description, or defining by a legitimate definition, I will demonstrate the undemonstrable, I will untie the inextricable; although it itself, subject to no compoundings of nature, not waiting for the investigation of the intellect, could be designated by the signet of no description. Therefore, let this description be given of the circumscribed thing, let this explication go forth of the inexplicable nature; let this notice be had concerning the unknown, let this science be procured concerning the knowable, the loftiness of the style, however, chastened:

Pax odio, fraudique fides, spes juncta timori,
     Est amor, et mistus cum ratione furor.
Naufragium dulce, pondus leve, grata Charybdis,
     [0455B] Incolumis languor, et satiata fames.
Esuries satiens, sitis ebria, falsa voluptas,
     Tristities laeta, gaudia plena malis.

Peace to hatred, and faith to fraud, hope joined to fear,
     There is love, and frenzy mingled with reason.
A sweet shipwreck, a light weight, a pleasing Charybdis,
     [0455B] Unharmed languor, and hunger satisfied.
A satiating hunger, a drunken thirst, false pleasure,
     Joyful sadness, joys full of evils.

Dulce malum, mala dulcedo, sibi dulcor amarus,
     Cujus odor sapidus, insipidusque sapor.
Tempestas grata, nox lucida, lux tenebrosa,
     Mors vivens, moriens vita, suave malum.
Peccatum veniae, venialis culpa, jocosa,
     Poena, pium facinus, imo, suave scelus.

Sweet evil, evil sweetness, a sweetness to itself bitter,
     Whose odor is sapid, and whose savor insipid.
A pleasing tempest, a lucid night, a tenebrous light,
     A living death, a dying life, a sweet evil.
A sin of pardon, a venial fault, a jocose,
     Punishment, a pious crime, nay, a sweet crime.

Instabilis ludus, stabilis delusio, robur
     Infirmum, firmum mobile, firma movens.
Insipiens ratio, demens prudentia, tristis
     Prosperitas, risus flebilis, aegra quies.
Mulcebris infernus, tristis paradisus, amoenus
     Carcer, hiems verna, ver hiemale, malum.

Unstable play, stable delusion, strength
     infirm, a firm mobile, a firm mover.
Foolish reason, demented prudence, sad
     prosperity, a tearful laugh, a sickly quiet.
Soothing hell, sad paradise, pleasant
     prison, vernal winter, hiemal spring, an evil.

[0455C] Mentis atrox tinea, quam regis purpura sentit,
     Sed nec mendici praeterit illa togam.
Nonne per antiphrasim, miracula multa Cupido
     Efficiens, hominum protheat omne genus.
Dum furit iste furor, deponit Scylla furorem,
     Et pius Aeneas incipit esse Nero.

[0455C] The mind’s fierce moth, which the king’s purple feels,
     But neither does that pass by the beggar’s toga.
Surely, by antiphrasis, Cupid, accomplishing many miracles,
     transforms the whole race of humans.
While that fury rages, Scylla lays down her frenzy,
     and pious Aeneas begins to be Nero.

Fulminat ense Paris, Tydeus mollescit amore,
     Fit Nestor juvenis, fitque Melincta senex.
Thersites Paridem forma mendicat, Adonim
     Davus, et in Davum totus Adonis abit.
Dives eget Crassus, Codrus et abundat egendo,
     Carmina dat Bavius, musa Maronis hebet.

Paris fulminates with the sword, Tydeus softens with love,
     Nestor becomes a youth, and Melincta becomes old.
Thersites begs Paris’s beauty, Davus begs for Adonis,
     and all Adonis goes wholly into Davus.
Crassus, rich, is in want, and Codrus abounds by lacking,
     Bavius gives songs, the muse of Maro grows dull.

Ennius eloquitur, Marcusque silet; fit Ulysses
     Insipiens, Ajax desipiendo sapit.
[0455D] Qui prius auctorum solvendo sophismata vicit,
     Vincitur hoc monstro, caetera monstra domans.
Quaelibet in facinus mulier decurrit, et ultro,
     Ejus si mentem morbidet iste furor,
Nata patrem, fratremque soror, vel sponsa maritum
     Fraude necat, fati praeveniendo manum.

Ennius speaks out, and Marcus is silent; Ulysses becomes
     foolish, Ajax by playing the fool is wise.
[0455D] He who previously conquered the authors by dissolving sophisms,
     is conquered by this monster, while taming the other monsters.
Any woman rushes into a crime, and even unbidden,
     if this madness makes her mind morbid,
A daughter her father, and a sister her brother, or a bride her husband
     kills by fraud, forestalling the hand of fate.

Sicque per ascensum male syncopat illa mariti
     Corpus, furtivo dum metit ense caput.
Cogitur ipsa parens nomen nescire parentis,
     In partuque dolos, dum parit ipsa parens.
Filius in matre stupet invenisse novercam,
     Inque fide fraudes, in pietate dolos.

And thus by ascent she ill syncopates her husband’s body,
     while with a furtive sword she reaps the head.
She, the parent herself, is compelled not to know the name of the parent,
     and, in parturition, deceits, while the parent herself gives birth.
The son is stupefied to have found a stepmother in his mother,
     and, in faith, frauds; in piety, deceits.

Sic in Medea pariter duo nomina pugnant,
Dum simul esse parens, atque noverca cupit.
Nesciit esse soror, vel se servare sororem,
[0456A] Dum nimium Cauno Byblis amica fuit.
Sic quoque Myrrha suo nimium subjecta parenti,
In genitore parens, in patre mater erat.

Thus in Medea alike the two names contend,
while she desires to be at once a parent and a stepmother.
She did not know how to be a sister, nor to preserve herself as a sister,
[0456A] while Byblis was too much a friend to Caunus.
Thus too Myrrha, too much subject to her parent,
in her begetter was a parent, in her father a mother.

Sed quid plura docebo, Cupidinis ire sub hasta
     Cogitur omnis amans, juraque solvit ei.
Militat in cunctis, ullum vix excipit hujus
     Regula, cuncta ferit fulmen et ira sui.
In quem non poterit probitas, prudentia, formae
     Gratia, fluxus opum, nobilitatis apex.
Furta, doli, metus, ira, furor, fraus, impetus, error,
     Tristities, hujus hospita regna tenent.

But why shall I teach more? to go under Cupid’s spear
     every lover is compelled, and he pays tribute to his laws.
He soldiers in all things; scarcely does this rule exempt any:
     his thunderbolt and his ire smite all.
Into whom can not probity, prudence, the grace of beauty,
     the flow of riches, the apex of nobility prevail?
Thefts, deceits, fear, ire, fury, fraud, impetus, error,
     sadness, as guests hold the realms of his dominion.

Hic ratio, rationis egere, modoque carere
     Est modus, estque fides non habuisse fidem.
Dulcia proponens assumit amara, venenum
     Infert, concludens optima fine malo.
[0456B] Allicit illiciens, ridens deridet, inungens
     Pungit, et afficiens inficit, odit amans.

Here the rationale is to lack reason, and to be without a mode
     is the mode; and there is faith not to have had faith.
Proposing sweets, it takes up bitters; poison
     it brings in, concluding the best things with an evil end.
[0456B] It entices, enticing; laughing, it derides; anointing
     it pricks, and by affecting it infects; the lover hates.

Ipse tamen poteris ipsum frenare dolorem,
     Si fugias, potior potio nulla datur.
Si vitare velis Venerem, loca, tempora vita,
     Nam locus et tempus, pabula donat ei.
Si tu persequeris, sequitur; fugiendo fugatur;
     Si cedis, cedit; si fugis, illa fugit.

You yourself, however, will be able to bridle the pain itself,
     if you flee; no more potent potion is given.
If you wish to avoid Venus, avoid places, times,
     for place and time give fodder to her.
If you pursue, she follows; by fleeing she is put to flight;
     if you yield, she yields; if you flee, she flees.

Jam ex hoc meae doctrinae artificio, cupidinariae artis elucescit theorica, per librum vero experientiae, tibi practicam poteris comparare. Nec mirandum, si in praefata Cupidinis depictione notulas reprehensionis intersero, quamvis ipse mihi quadam germanae consanguinitatis fibula connectatur; [0456C] non enim vel detractoriae malignitatis caliginosa rubigo, vel incandentis odii fervor foras egrediens, vel invidiae tyrannus extra desaeviens, ad has invectivas accusationis me impulit, sed ne veritatis per se loquentis evidentiam videor silentio strangulare. Non enim originalem Cupidinis naturam in honestate, redarguo, si circumscribatur frenis modestiae, si habenis temperantiae castigetur; si non germen excursionis limites deputatos evadat, vel in nimium tumorem ejus calor ebulliat, sed si ejus scintilla in flammam evaserit vel ipsius fonticulus in torrentem excreverit, excrementi luxuries amputationis falcem expostulat, exuberationis tumor solatium medicamenti desiderat.

Now from this artifice of my doctrine, the theory of the Cupidinary art shines forth; but through the book of experience, you will be able to procure the practical for yourself. Nor is it a marvel if, in the aforesaid depiction of Cupid, I intersperse little notes of reproof, although he himself is fastened to me by a certain clasp of genuine consanguinity; [0456C] for neither the murky rust of detractive malignity, nor the outgoing fervor of incandescent hatred, nor the tyrant of envy raging outside, has impelled me to these invectives of accusation, but lest I seem by silence to strangle the evidence of truth speaking for itself. For I do not arraign the original nature of Cupid, in so far as it stands in honesty, if it be circumscribed by the reins of modesty, if it be chastened by the bits of temperance; if the sprout of excursion does not overstep its appointed limits, nor its heat boil up into excessive swelling; but if its spark has passed into flame, or its little spring has grown into a torrent, the luxuriance of the excrescence demands the sickle of amputation, the swelling of exuberance desires the solace of a medicament.

Quoniam omnis excessus, temperatae mediocritatis incessum disturbat, [0456D] et abundantiae morbidae inflatio quasi in quaedam apostemata vitiorum exuberat. Praevia igitur theatralis oratio joculatoriis evagata lasciviis, tuae puerilitati pro ferculo propinatur; nunc stylus paululum maturior ad praefinitae narrationis propositum revertatur. Ut supra praelibando docui, terrestrium animalium materiandae propagini Venerem destinavi, ut varias materias in rebus materiandis excudendo substerneret, ego vero in naturarum purificatione multiplici, ut operibus manum supremae expolitionis apponerem, et ut instrumentorum fidelitas pravae operationis fermentum excluderet, ei duos legitimos malleos efformavi, quibus et Parcarum caveret insidias, resque multimodas essentiae praesentaret.

Since every excess disturbs the gait of tempered mediocrity, [0456D] and the inflation of morbid abundance exuberates, as it were, into certain apostemes of vices. Therefore the preliminary theatrical oration, having wandered into joculatory lasciviousnesses, is served up as a dish to your puerility; now let a style somewhat more mature return to the aim of the pre-defined narration. As I taught above by a foretaste, I destined Venus for furnishing matter to the propagation of terrestrial animals, so that, by hammering out, she might underlay various matters for things to be given matter; but I, in the manifold purification of natures, that I might set the hand of supreme polish upon the works, and that the fidelity of the instruments might exclude the ferment of crooked operation, I fashioned for her two legitimate hammers, by which she might both beware the snares of the Fates, and present to Essence things of many modes.

Incudum etiam nobiles [0457A] officinas ejusdem artificio deputavi, praecipiens ut his eosdem malleos adaptando, rerum effigiationi fideliter indulgeret, ne ab incudibus malleos aliqua exorbitatione peregrinare permitteret. Ad officium etiam scripturae, calamum praepotentem eidem fueram elargita, ut in competentibus schedulis ejusdem calami scripturam poscentibus, quarum meae largitionis beneficio fuerat compotita, juxta meae orthographiae normulam, rerum genera figuraret, ne a propriae descriptionis semita in falsigraphiae devio eumdem divagari sustineret. Sed cum ipse genialis concubitus ordinatis complexionibus res diversorum sexuum opponi dissimiles ad exsequendam rerum propaginem, connectere teneretur, ut in suis connexionibus artis grammaticae constructiones [0457B] canonicas observaret, suique artificis nobilitas nullius artis ignorantia suae ferret gloriae detrimentum, curialibus praeceptis sub magistrali disciplina, eam videlicet disciplinam instruendam docui, quae artis grammaticae regulas in suarum constructionum unionibus artificiosis admitteret; alias vero extra ordinarias nullius figurae excusatione redemptas excluderet.

Moreover I assigned noble [0457A] workshops of anvils to the same by that same craft, ordering that, by adapting to these those same hammers, he should faithfully devote himself to the figuration of things, lest he permit the hammers by any exorbitation to wander away from the anvils. To the office of writing also I had bestowed upon him a prepotent reed-pen, so that, on suitable sheets calling for the writing of that same pen—of which by the beneficence of my largess he had been made a partaker—he might, according to the small norm of my orthography, figure the kinds of things, nor suffer him to stray from the path of proper description into the byway of falsigraphy. But since nuptial coupling, with the complexions set in order, was bound to connect unlike things of different sexes, set opposite to carry out the propagation of things, that in his conjunctions he should observe the canonical constructions [0457B] of the art of grammar, and that the nobility of his artisan should suffer no detriment of his glory through ignorance of any art, by courtly precepts under magisterial discipline I taught that discipline to be instructed—namely, the discipline which would admit the rules of the art of grammar in the artful unions of its constructions, but would exclude the others outside the ordinary, redeemed by the excuse of no figure.

Cum enim attestante grammatica, duo genera specialiter, masculinum et femininum, ratio naturae cognoverit, quamvis dum quidam homines depauperati signaculo, juxta meam opinionem, possent neutri generis designatione censeri, tamen Cypridi sub intimis admonitionibus minarum tonitru ingessi, ut in suis conjunctionibus ratione exigentiae, naturalem constructionem solummodo [0457C] masculini femininique generis celebraret. Cum enim masculinum genus suum femininum exigentia habitudinis genialis adsciscat, si eorumdem generum constructio anomale celebretur, ut res ejusdem sexus sibi invicem construantur, illa quidem constructio nec evocationis remedio, vel conceptionis suffragio, apud me veniam poterit promereri. Si enim genus masculinum genus consimile quadam irrationabilis rationis deposcat injuria, nulla figurae honestate illa constructionis junctura vitium poterit excusare, sed inexcusabilis soloecismi monstruositate turpabitur.

Since, with grammar attesting, reason of nature has specially recognized two genera, masculine and feminine, although, while certain men, impoverished of the sign, in my opinion could be rated under the designation of the neuter gender, nevertheless upon Cypris, under the most inward admonitions of the thunder of threats, I enjoined that in her conjunctions, by exigency of reason, she should celebrate only the natural construction [0457C] of the masculine and feminine gender. For since the masculine gender, by the exigency of genial (nuptial) habitude, takes to itself its feminine, if the construction of those same genera be celebrated anomalously, so that things of the same sex are constructed with one another, that construction can by no remedy of evocation, nor by the suffrage of conception, merit pardon with me. For if the masculine gender, by a certain injury of irrational reason, should demand a consimilar gender, no honesty of figure will be able to excuse the fault of that juncture of construction, but it will be befouled by the monstrosity of a solecism.

Praeterea, Cypridi mea indixit praeceptio, ut ipsa in suis constructionibus, suppositiones appositionesque [0457D] ordinarias observando, rem feminini sexus charactere praesignitam, suppositionis destinaret officio; rem vero specificatam masculini generis, sede collocaret appositi, ut nec appositum in vicem suppositi valeat declinare, nec suppositum possit in regionem appositi transmigrare; etiam cum utrumque regatur ab altero, appositum sub adjectiva proprietate, suppositum subjectivae proprietatis proprium retineret, exigentiae legibus invitatum. Praeterea, adjunxi, ne Dyonea conjunctio in transitivae constructionis habitum uniformem, vel reciprocationis curriculum, vel retransitionis anfractum reciperet, solius transitionis recta directione contenta, vel alicujus etiam disgressantis naturae nimia intercisione sufferret, ut genus activum in [0458A] passivum valeat usurpativa assumptione, vel idem in activum suae proprietatis dispositione redire, vel sub passivi litteratura activi retinendo naturam, sibi legem termini deponentis assumere: Nec mirandum, si pleraeque maximae, titulo grammaticae facultatis adscriptae, a venereae artis domicilio patiantur repulsam, cum ipsa eas quae suae praeceptionis regulis obsequuntur, in sinum suae familiaritatis admittat; eas vero quae eloquentissimae contradictionis insultibus ejus leges expugnare conantur, aeterni anathematis exclusione suspendat, cum philosophicae assertionis auctoritas maximarum plerasque diversis facultatibus fateatur esse communes; quasdam vero ultra suarum disciplinarum domicilia, nullam habere licentiam excursandi. [0458B] Sed quia tantas Parcarum argutas oppositiones Venerem novi agonistae disputationis ingressuram conflictum, alicujus tergiversatione fallaciae Venus ab Atropos coarctantes conclusionis subtimeret argutias, ipsam disciplinam docendo juxta quae dissertivae disciplinae praecepta suarum argutionum formas excederet.

Moreover, my prescript enjoined upon Cypris that she herself, in her constructions, observing the ordinary suppositions and appositions [0457D], should assign the thing of the feminine sex, pre-marked by its character, to the office of supposition; but the thing specified of the masculine gender she should place in the seat of the apposition, so that neither may the apposition be able to decline into the turn of the suppositum, nor the suppositum migrate into the region of the apposition; even when each is ruled by the other, the apposition, under adjectival property, and the suppositum, retaining what is proper to subjective property, should keep their own, invited by the laws of exigency. Moreover, I added that the Dionean conjunction should not receive, within the uniform habit of transitive construction, either the course of reciprocation or the winding of retransition, content with the straight direction of transition alone, nor should it endure by any excessive incision a nature that digresses; so that the active voice may, by a usurpative assumption, be able to pass into the passive [0458A], or the same may return into the active by the disposition of its own property, or, under the lettering of the passive while retaining the nature of the active, assume for itself the law of the term deponent. Nor is it a wonder, if very many of the greatest, enrolled under the title of the grammatical faculty, suffer a repulse from the domicile of the Venereal art, since she admits into the bosom of her familiarity those who comply with the rules of her precept; but those who attempt to storm her laws by assaults of most eloquent contradiction, she suspends by the exclusion of an eternal anathema, since the authority of philosophical assertion avows that very many of the greatest are common to diverse faculties, but that certain ones, beyond the domiciles of their disciplines, have no license of making excursions. [0458B] But since I knew that Venus, as a new agonist of disputation, would be about to enter a conflict with such subtle oppositions of the Fates, and that by some tergiversation of fallacy Venus would somewhat fear the subtleties of Atropos, who constrains conclusion, I taught the discipline itself, according to which, by the precepts of the discursive discipline, she might surpass the forms of her own quibblings.

Et quomodo in adversarii argutionibus fraudulentis, fallaciae latibulum inveniret, ut disputationis agoniam contra adversariae partis insidias posset securius celebrare, et per instantiam similia oppositionum argumenta refellere. Injunxi etiam ut syllogistica ejus complexio duorum terminorum contenta compendio, nullis Aristotelicis figuris obnoxia, trium propositionum ordinatione congrua texeretur, in tantum, ut in singulis propositionibus, [0458C] major extremitas praedicationis fungeretur officio, minor vero subjiciendi legibus teneretur. In prima vero propositione nullo verae inhaerentiae modo, sed sola ratione contractus intrinseci, subjecto inhaereat praedicatum; in assumptione vero relativorum oculorum, reciprocis impressionibus, expressius minori major annectatur extremitas.

And how, in the adversary’s fraudulent quibbles, she might find a hiding-place of fallacy, so that she could more securely celebrate the agony of disputation against the ambushes of the adversarial party, and by insistence refute similar arguments of oppositions. I also enjoined that her syllogistic complexion, contained within the short compendium of two terms, subject to no Aristotelian figures, be woven with a congruent arrangement of three propositions, to such an extent that in each proposition [0458C] the greater extremity should perform the office of predication, while the lesser be held under the laws of being subjected. But in the first proposition, by no mode of true inherence, but by the sole rationale of an intrinsic contract, let the predicate inhere in the subject; and in the assumption of relative “eyes,” by reciprocal impressions, let the greater extremity be more expressly bound to the lesser.

Sed in conclusione expressissimae inhaerentiae, vinculo veriori subjecti praedicatique carnalis celebretur connexio. Hoc etiam mei fuit consilii, ut nullius conversionis retrogradatione pestifera, venereae complexionis termini analogicae praedicationis jura servantes, suarum vices sedium alternarent. Et ne consequentis fallacia, ex similium conformatione [0458D] progenita, posset industriam Veneris impedire, terminos specialibus specificavi signaculis, ut familiari liberae agnitionis intuitu, audenter agnosceret quos terminos subjectionis gradus inferior, quos vero praedicationis apex superior ex suae habitudinis jure deposceret, ne si complexio terminorum inconsequens proportionatam habitudinem non teneret in commune, nugationis uniformis deformitas nasceretur.

But in the conclusion of the most express inherence, let the carnal connection of subject and predicate be celebrated by a truer bond. This also was my counsel: that, with no pestiferous retrogradation of conversion, the terms of the venereal complexion, preserving the rights of analogical predication, should alternate their turns of seats. And lest the fallacy of the consequent, begotten from the conformation of similars [0458D], could impede the industry of Venus, I specified the terms with special signs, so that, by the familiar gaze of free recognition, she might boldly recognize which terms the lower grade of subjection, and which indeed the higher apex of predication, would demand by the right of its habitude; lest, if the complexion of terms inconsequent should not keep a proportioned habitude in common, a deformity of uniform nugacity should be born.

Sicut autem quasdam grammaticae dialecticaeque observantias inimicantissimae hospitalitatis incursu volui a Veneris anathematizare gymnasiis; sic metonymicas rhetorum propositiones, quas in suae amplitudinis gremio rhetorica mater amplectens, multis suas rationes conflat honoribus, Cypridis artificii interdixi, ne si nimis durae translationis [0459A] excursu a suo reclamante subjecto, praemium alienet in aliud, in facinus facetia, in rusticitatem urbanitas, tropus in vitium, in decolorationem color nimius convertatur. His apparatuum nobilitatisque praesignibus Veneris, terrestris incolatus transivit in patriam. Quae cum suffraganeis instrumentis ad humanae geneseos seriem contexandam, desudando laborans, Parcarumque manibus interfecta subtili resarciens acu, subtilius haec renodat.

Just as, moreover, by the incursion of a most inimical hospitality I wished to anathematize from the gymnasia of Venus certain observances of grammar and of dialectic; so I interdicted to the craft of Cypris the metonymic propositions of the rhetors, which the mother Rhetoric, embracing in the bosom of her amplitude, forges her reasonings together with many honors, lest, if by an excursion of too hard a translation [0459A] with its subject protesting, it alienate the prize into something other, wit be turned into crime, urbanity into rusticity, the trope into vice, excessive color into discoloration. With these pre-signs of the apparatus and nobility of Venus, the earthly sojourn passed over into the fatherland. Which, with suffragan instruments for weaving together the series of human genesis, laboring with sweat, and—when slain by the hands of the Parcae—mending with a subtle needle, more subtly ties these things anew.

Sicque stipendiariae administrationis jura, officiosissima curiositate persolvit. Sed quoniam ex maternae satietatis identitate fastiditus animus indignatur, quotidianique laboris ingruentia exsequendi propositum appetitus exstinguitur. Unitas operis toties repetita Cytheream [0459B] infestat fastidiis, continuataeque laborationis effectus, laborandi excludit affectum.

Thus she discharges, with most dutiful diligence, the rights of a stipendiary administration. But since, from the identity of maternal satiety, the fastidious spirit grows indignant, and by the inrush of daily labor the appetite for executing the purpose is extinguished. The unity of the work, so often repeated, assails Cytherea [0459B] with disgusts, and the effect of continued labor excludes the inclination for laboring.

Illa igitur magis appetens otii effeminari sterilibus, quam fructuosis exerceri laboribus, ferialis operationis exercitatione, negotiali praeposita, nimiae otiositatis desideriis coepit infantibiliter juvenisci. Et quoniam apud quem desidiae torpor castrametatur, ab eo omnis virtutis militia relegatur, otiique sterilitas, pravae sobolis, solet fecunditatem efficere. Potus etiam inundans diluvium, in nimias despumat libidines, cibique effrenis ingurgitatio consimiles nauseas superfluitatis eructat.

She therefore, more appetent of leisure to be effeminated by sterile things than to be exercised by fruitful labors, under the exercise of ferial operation, set over business, by the desires of excessive idleness began childishly to grow young. And since, with whom the torpor of sloth encamps, from him every militia of virtue is relegated, and the sterility of leisure is wont to produce the fecundity of a depraved offspring. The inundating deluge of drink too foams off into excessive libidines, and the unbridled ingurgitation of food belches forth similar nauseas of superfluity.

Venus his furiis aculeata lethalibus, in suum conjugem hymenaeum, tori castitatem peste adulterationis incestans, cum Antigamo coepit concubinarie fornicari, suique adulteri suggestionibus [0459C] irretita lethiferis, liberale opus in mechanicum, regulare in anomalum, civile in rusticum inciviliter immutat, meumque inficiata praeceptum, malleos ab incudis exhaeredans consortio, adulterinis damnat incudibus. Ipsae etiam incudes nativae, suorum malleorum deplorantes absentiam, eosdem lacrymabiliter videntur deposcere. Et, quae gladio Atropos universa demetenti solebat clypeum defensionis opponere, jam eidem stabilitate conciliationis mutuo foedere ligatur, fatique falcem in messem humani generis nimium excursare permittens, damnum nulla novi seminis pensat origine; sed potius se grammaticis constructionibus destruens, dialecticis conversionibus [0459D] invertens, rhetoricis coloribus decoloratis suam artem in figuram, figuramque in vitium transfert: dumque fornicariis excessibus cum adultero perpetuat concubinatus illecebras, ab eodem suscipiens, pro filio, spurio compotitur.

Venus, pricked by these lethal furies, into her own conjugal hymenaeum, defiling the bed’s chastity with the pest of adulteration, began to fornicate in concubinage with Antigamus; and, ensnared by the deadly suggestions of her adulterer [0459C], she uncivilly changes the liberal work into mechanical, the regular into anomalous, the civil into rustic, and, having tainted my precept, disinheriting the hammers from the fellowship of the anvil, condemns them to adulterine anvils. Even the native anvils themselves, lamenting the absence of their hammers, seem tearfully to demand the same. And she who used to oppose a shield of defense to Atropos as she reaped all with her sword, now to that same is bound by a mutual covenant with the stability of conciliation, allowing the sickle of Fate to course out excessively into the harvest of the human race, she compensates the loss by no origin of new seed; but rather, destroying herself by grammatical constructions, inverting by dialectical conversions [0459D], with rhetorical colors decolorated she transfers her art into figure, and the figure into vice: and while by fornication excesses she perpetuates the allurements of concubinage with the adulterer, receiving from the same, in place of a son, she is computed with a spurious one.

Qui dum nullius delectationis amoenitate gaudet, nullius jocosae jucunditatis vult meridiari deliciis, ut quasi per antiphrasim, jocus a jocasitate dicatur, ei nomen usus impressit. Duo igitur Dionae dati sunt filii, discrepantia generis disparati, nascendi lege dissimiles, mox titulis discrepantes, artificio deformes. Hymenaeus namque uterinae fraternitatis in affinis confinio quem excellentioris dignitatis extollit prosapia, ex Venere sibi Cupidinem propagat in filium; Antigamus vero scurrilis vel ignobilitatis genere derivatus, [0460A] adulterando, adulterinum filium jocum sibi joculatorie parentat.

He who, while he rejoices in the amenity of no delectation, wishes to take a noonday rest in the delights of no jocose jocundity, so that, as if by antiphrasis, “joke” may be said from “jokosity,” on him usage stamped the name. Two sons, therefore, were given to Dione, discrepant with the discrepancy of a disparate stock, dissimilar by the law of being born, soon differing in titles, deformed in artifice. For Hymenaeus, within the confine of affinity of uterine brotherhood—whom a lineage of more excellent dignity exalts—propagates for himself from Venus Cupid as a son; but Antigamus, derived of a scurrile or ignobility kind, [0460A] by adulterating, in jester-fashion sires for himself an adulterine son, Joke.

Illius nativitatem, matrimonii excusat solemnitas; hujus propaginem divulgati concubinatus accusat vulgaritas. In illo, paternae civilitatis elucescit urbanitas; in hoc, paternae inurbanitatis tenebrescit rusticitas. Iste inargentatos nitoribus argenteos fontes inhabitat; hic loca perenni ariditate damnata indefesse concelebrat.

The former’s nativity the solemnity of matrimony excuses; the latter’s progeny the vulgarity of divulged concubinage accuses. In the former, the urbanity of paternal civility shines out; in the latter, the rusticity of paternal inurbanity grows dark. The former inhabits argent fountains silvered with lustres; the latter indefatigably frequents places condemned to perennial aridity.

Iste in grata planitie fixit tentoria; huic vallium complacent nemorosa. Iste in tabernaculis indeficienter pernoctat, hic sub dio dies noctesque continuat. Iste aureis venabulis vulnerat quem venatur; hic, quem ferit, ferreis jaculis lanceat.

This one fixed his tents on a pleasing plain; to this one the woodlands of the valleys are pleasing. This one spends the night without failing in tabernacles, this one under the open sky strings together days and nights. This one with golden hunting-spears wounds whom he hunts; this one, whom he strikes, he lances with iron javelins.

Iste suos hospites debriat nectare subamaro, hic suos absynthii potu perimit acetoso. Jam mea oratio chartulae tuae [0460B] mentis inscripsit, qualiter otii damnosa pernicies Venerem educavit emphaticam, qualiter diluviosi potus inundatio venenosum patrat incendium; qualiter ex cibi ingurgitatione ducens originem, plerosque luxuriae elephantina lepra percussit. Ecce, super hominibus acuta Veneris febre languentibus, aerumnosae lamentationis carmen cecini querulosum; nunc similiter aliis quos aliorum vitiorum morbida turba conturbat, sub cantu elegiaco querimoniosae orationis citharam temperemus.

This man makes his guests drunk with sub-bitter nectar; that one destroys his with an acetous draught of absinthe. Already my speech has inscribed upon the little paper of your [0460B] mind how the baneful perdition of leisure has reared an emphatic Venus, how the inundation of diluvian drink perpetrates a venomous conflagration; how, drawing its origin from the ingurgitation of food, the elephantine leprosy of luxury has smitten many. Behold, concerning men languishing with the acute fever of Venus, I have sung a querulous song of toilsome lamentation; now likewise for others whom the morbid mob of other vices throws into confusion, let us tune the cithara of plaintive speech to an elegiac song.

Multi enim dum Charybdis ingluviosae hiatus voraginosos subterfugiendo devitant, in Scyllae malignantis abysso inopinata periclitatione naufragantur. Plerique etiam dum impetuosi torrentis occursus tumidos evadunt, [0460C] stagni limositate viscantur. Alii dum dependentis montis praecipitia, cautela consulente declinant, in coaequata planitie praecipitatione spontanea colliduntur.

For many, indeed, while by subterfuge shunning the voraginous gaping mouths of gluttonous Charybdis, are shipwrecked with unlooked-for peril in the abyss of malignant Scylla. Very many also, while they evade the swollen onsets of an impetuous torrent, [0460C] are glued fast by the limosity of a stagnant pool. Others, while, with caution advising, they decline the precipices of an overhanging mountain, on a leveled plain they collide by spontaneous precipitation.

Ea igitur quae disseram, tuae menti clavo memoriae tenacis affigas, animique vigilantia somnum torporis excutias, ut mecum maternis excitatus visceribus, periclitantium hominum naufragiis compatiendo condoleas, et praeambulae admonitionis clypeo loricatus, monstruoso exercitui vitiorum occurras, et si quae prava semina in horto tuae mentis audeant pullulare, falce maturae sectionis exstirpes. Tunc ego: Jam pridem mea mens exhilarata tuae disciplinationis compendio, tuis correctionibus libentissimam aurem inclinat. Tunc illa:

Therefore, the things which I shall discourse, fasten to your mind with the nail of tenacious memory, and by vigilance of spirit shake off the sleep of torpor, so that, awakened with me in maternal viscera, you may, by sympathizing, condole with the shipwrecks of men in peril, and, loricated with the shield of preambulatory admonition, you may run to meet the monstrous army of vices, and if any depraved seeds in the garden of your mind dare to pullulate, you may extirpate them with the sickle of mature cutting. Then I: Long since already my mind, exhilarated by the compendium of your discipline, inclines a most willing ear to your corrections. Then she:

[0460D] Heu, quam praecipiti passu ruinam
Virtus sub vitio victa laborat?
Virtutis species exsultat omnis,
Laxantur vitio frena furoris,
Languet justitiae Lucifer, hujus
Vix umbrae remanet umbra superstes
Exstinctumque sui sidus honoris
Deflet, lucis egens, noctis abundans
Dum fulgur scelerum fulminat orbem,
Nox fraudis fidei nubilat austrum:
Virtutumque tamen sidera nulla
Istius redimunt noctis abyssum,
Incumbit fidei vespera mundo
Nocturnumque chaos fraudis abundat.
Languet fraude fides, fraus quoque fraudem
[0461A] Fallit fraude, dolo sic dolus instat,
Mores moris egent moribus orbi,
Leges lege carent, jusque tenoris
Perdunt jura sui; jam sine jure
Fit jus omne, viget lex sine lege.

[0460D] Alas, with how headlong a step toward ruin
Virtue, conquered under Vice, labors?
Every semblance of Virtue exults,
By vice the reins of frenzy are loosened,
The Lucifer of justice languishes; of this
Scarcely the shadow of a shadow remains surviving,
And, needy of light, abounding in night,
it laments the star of its honor extinguished,
While the flash of crimes fulminates the world,
The night of fraud clouds Faith’s south wind:
And yet no stars of virtues redeem
the abyss of this night,
The evening of faith leans upon the world
and the nocturnal chaos of fraud abounds.
Faith languishes through fraud, and fraud also
[0461A] defrauds fraud by fraud; thus by deceit deceit presses on,
Mores lack mores; the world is bereft of mores,
Laws lack law, and the right of its tenor
loses the rights that are its own; now without right
every right is made, and law thrives without law.

Mundus degenerat, aurea mundi
Jam jam degenerant saecula, mundum
Ferri pauperies vestit, eumdem
Olim nobilitas vestiit auri,
Jam jam hypocrisis pallia quaerunt
Fraudes, et scelerum fetor odorus
Ut pravo chlamidem donet odori
Virtutum sibimet balsama quaerit.
Sic urtica rosis, alga hyacinthis,
Argento scoria, murice fucus
[0461B] Formae pauperiem palliat, ut sic
Interdum redimant crimina vultus.
Sed crimen phaleras exuit omnes,
Nec se justitiae luce colorat:
Nam sese vitium glossat aperte,
Fit fraus ipsa sui lingua furoris,
Quid tuti superest, cum dolus armat
Ipsas in propria viscera matres?

The world degenerates, the golden ages of the world
now, now degenerate; the world
is clothed with the poverty of iron, the same
once the nobility of gold clothed;
now, now hypocrisy seeks palls
for frauds, and the odorous stench of crimes
that it may bestow a cloak upon a crooked odor,
seeks for itself the balms of virtues.
Thus the nettle by roses, the seaweed by hyacinths,
scoria by silver, dye by murex
[0461B] palliates the poverty of form, so that thus
at times crimes may wreathe faces.
But crime strips off all trappings,
nor colors itself with the light of justice:
for vice openly glosses itself,
fraud itself becomes the tongue of its own fury,
what of safety remains, when guile arms
mothers themselves against their own flesh?

Cum fraternus amor fraude laborat,
Mentiturque manus dextra sorori?
Censetur reprobum jus probitatis,
Observare probos, et pietatis
Lex, est improbitas, esse pudicum
Jam cunctis pudor est.
Absque pudor[0461C]
Humanos hominis exuit usus
Non humanus homo.

When fraternal love labors under fraud,
and the right hand lies to the sister?
The right of probity is reckoned reprobate,
to observe the upright, and the law of piety,
is impropriety; to be pudic
is now a shame to all.
Without modesty[0461C]
man strips off the human usages of man—
an inhuman man.

Degener ergo
Bruti degeneres induit actus,
Et sic exhominans exhominandus.

Degenerate therefore
he puts on the degenerate acts of a brute,
And thus, dehumanizing himself, to be dehumanized.

Septima quaestio Alani.

Seventh question of Alan.

Ad haec ergo: Quoniam in aere generalitatis hujus intellectus oberrat excursor, intelligere vero specialitas amicatur, vellem, quod vitia quae in quodam generalitatis implicas glomicello, speciosissimarum specierum interstitiis discoloribus explicares.

To these things then: Since in the air of this generality the excursive intellect wanders astray, whereas understanding in truth is befriended by speciality, I would wish that you would explicate the vices which you entangle in a certain little skein of generality, by the variegated interstices of the most beautiful species.

Responsio Naturae.

Response of Nature.

Quoniam tuae postulationis rationem emeritam indecens est adimpletionis merito defraudari, tibi [0461D] singula vitia aequum est sigillatim notulis singularibus adnotari. Quia ergo jam dictum est, quomodo totus orbis impurae Veneris fere generali periclitatur incendio, nunc restat dicendum qualiter idem generalissimo gulositatis naufragatur diluvio. Quoniam gulositas est quasi quoddam Venereae exsecutionis prooemium, et quasi quoddam antecedens ad venereum consequens.

Since it is unbecoming that the merited rationale of your petition be defrauded of the merit of fulfillment, it is equitable that to you [0461D] each several vice be annotated severally with singular little notes. Since therefore it has already been said how the whole orb is nearly endangered by a general conflagration of impure Venus, now it remains to be said how the same is shipwrecked in the most general deluge of gulosity. For gulosity is, as it were, a certain prooem of venereal execution, and, as it were, a certain antecedent to the venereal consequent.

Nota ergo quasdam filias idololatriae veteris medullitus exstirpatae, in praesenti instanti suae matris imperium reparare conari, et eam quibusdam praesagiosis carminibus redivivam a mortuis excitare; [0462A] quae meretricali officio, vultu phantasticae dilectionis faciem dealbantes, amasios alliciendo, fraudulenter illiciunt: quae sub tristi laetitia, sub amica saevitia, sub hostili amicitia, tanquam Syrenes usque ad exitium dulces, delectationis melodiam facie tenus praeferentes, suos amatores ad idololatriae perducunt naufragium: harum una, ut ficto loquar vocabulo, congruentia proprietatis, bacchilatria poterit nuncupari.

Note, then, certain daughters of old idolatry, extirpated to the marrow, trying in the present instant to repair their mother’s dominion, and to rouse her, revived from the dead, by certain presageful incantations; [0462A] who, in a meretricial office, whitewashing the face of phantastic dilection with their countenance, by alluring lovers, fraudulently entice them: who, under sad joy, under friendly savagery, under hostile friendship, like Sirens sweet even unto destruction, putting forward the melody of delectation only to the face, lead their lovers to the shipwreck of idolatry: one of these, to speak with a feigned word, by congruence of propriety, could be named “bacchilatria.”

De superfluo potu.

On superfluous drinking.

Bacchilatria haec suum amasium rationis privans igniculo, eumdem tenebris brutae sensualitatis exponit, suum etiam, more meretricio, in tantum debriat amatorem, ut idem Bacchum nimis emphatice affectare cogatur, in tantum ut potator [0462B] Baccho nimiae delectationis vinculo alligatus, eidem divinae majestatis cultum exhibere credatur: Adeo ut homo bacchilatra, Bacchum plerumque locali interstitio a se sejungi non ferens, in alienis vasculorum capsulis suum deum diu perendinare non patiatur, sed ut sibi ejusdem dei familiarius assistat divinitas, illum dolio sui ventris includat. Sed quia plerumque stomachi capsula tanti hospitis divinitatem diu sustinere non potest, idem deus aut per orientalis portae polum arcticum, aut per occiduae regionis antarcticum turpiter evaporat. Multoties etiam Bacchi cultor in scyphis materiae honore pollentibus Baccho architectatur hospitium, ut ejusdem divinitas divinius in aureo [0462C] vase praefulgeat.

This bacchilatry, depriving her lover of the tiny spark of reason, exposes the same to the darkness of brute sensuality; she also, in a meretricious manner, so inebriates her lover that he is compelled to affect Bacchus too emphatically, to such a degree that the drinker, [0462B] bound to Bacchus by the bond of excessive delectation, is believed to render to him the cult of divine majesty. So much so that the bacchilatrous man, not bearing that Bacchus be separated from himself by local interval, does not allow his god to sojourn long in others’ caskets of vessels, but, that the divinity of that same god may more familiarly attend him, encloses him in the tun of his belly. But because the capsule of the stomach is for the most part unable to sustain for long the divinity of so great a guest, that same god shamefully evaporates either through the arctic pole of the eastern gate, or through the antarctic of the western region. Many times also the worshiper of Bacchus, in cups abounding in the honor of their material, architects a lodging for Bacchus, that the same divinity may shine forth more divinely in a golden [0462C] vessel.

Unde idem aethereis nitoribus claritate concertans, et smaragdinis coloribus viriditate contendens, ac plerosque sapores sui saporis majestate praecellens, potationum filios suarum proprietatum dignitatibus irritat sophisticis, ut ipsa Bacchum tanquam ineffabilis divinitatis arcanum ineffabili amore concelebrent. Qui etiam his animati, ne divinitatis illius aliquid remaneat inexhaustum, usque ad faeces Bacchum deglutiunt, sicque suum deum in tartaream abyssum ventris cogunt inhoneste descendere, et dum sic a speciali ad generalissimum genus potationis deveniunt, superlativum gradum ebrietatis ascendunt. Haec pestis non solum plebeae vulgaritatis inimicatur hominibus, verum [0462D] etiam praelatorum superciliosas sibi facit inclinare cervices, quibus Bacchi gratiae non sufficiunt, quas in eum gratia naturae diffudit, verum etiam arundineam usurpantes attractionem; nunc Bacchum et rosarum connubio gloriantem, nunc floris alterius fragrantiam respirantem, nunc hyssopi consortio sibi quoddam privilegium arrogantem; nunc aliarum rerum dotibus locupletatum extrinsecus, impetuosa gulae Charybdi deglutiunt, in tantum, ut sine mari naufragium, sine tristitia fletum, sine infirmitate lethargium, sine sopore somnum ebrietatis incurrant.

Whence the same, vying in brightness with ethereal gleams and contending in greenness with emeraldine colors, and surpassing most flavors by the majesty of its own savor, provokes the sons of potations by sophistic dignities of its properties, so that they celebrate Bacchus himself, as the arcanum of ineffable divinity, with ineffable love. And they, animated by these things, lest anything of that divinity remain unexhausted, swallow Bacchus down to the dregs, and thus compel their god to descend dishonorably into the Tartarean abyss of the belly; and while thus they come down from a special to the most general genus of potation, they ascend the superlative grade of drunkenness. This pestilence not only is inimical to men of plebeian vulgarity, but [0462D] even makes the supercilious necks of prelates bow to itself, for whom the graces of Bacchus do not suffice, which the grace of nature has poured into him; nay rather, usurping a reed-drawing attraction—now boasting Bacchus in a marriage with roses, now breathing the fragrance of another flower, now by a companionship with hyssop arrogating to itself a certain privilege; now, enriched from without by the dowries of other things, they gulp him down in the impetuous Charybdis of the gullet, to such an extent that they incur shipwreck without the sea, weeping without sadness, lethargy without infirmity, the sleep of drunkenness without drowsiness.

[0463A] Qui dum ebrietatis energia percussi, operam psalmodiis impendunt, versus nimia intercalatione rumpentes crapulae boream importunum interserunt.

[0463A] Who, when struck by the energy of ebriety, expend effort on psalmodies, and, breaking the verses with excessive intercalation, insert the inopportune Boreas of crapulence.

De superfluitate ciborum.

On the superfluity of foods.

Nec solum praetaxata potus cupiditas, verum etiam, cibi plerosque canina inescat aviditas, quorum voluptates inordinatae, cogitationes inconcinnae, novos sibi cibi somniant apparatus. Qui dum exactori quotidianum escae debitum nimis abundanter exsolvunt, exactor superabundans suo cogitur reddere debitori. Isti, quidquid possident, in arca stomachi thesaurisant.

Not only the afore-mentioned cupidity for drink, but also a dog-like avidity for food baits very many, whose pleasures are disordered, whose cogitations inconcinnate, they dream up for themselves new apparatus of food. Who, while they pay out too abundantly to the collector the daily debt of victual, the collector, overflowing, is compelled to render back to his debtor his own. These men, whatever they possess, they treasure up in the coffer of the stomach.

Et quamvis illud commissum non rubigo corrosionis dente demordeat, nec vel peculantis furis sophisma subripiat, [0463B] ipsum tamen decoquentis caloris latrocinio turpiori, turpius evanescit. Isti, bursam ad nummorum vomitum, arcam pecuniarum invitant ad nauseam, ut exactori stomacho possint accuratius adulari. Interius ventrem ciborum locupletant divitiis, exterius in nuda et pura positi paupertate.

And although that thing entrusted is not gnawed by rust with the tooth of corrosion, nor does even the sophism of a peculating thief steal it away, [0463B] yet by the more shameful latrociny of decocting heat it more shamefully vanishes. These men invite the purse to a vomiting of coins, the coffer of monies to nausea, so that they may more accurately flatter the exactor, the stomach. Inwardly they enrich the belly with the riches of foods, outwardly they are set in naked and pure poverty.

Haec pestilentia etiam non vulgari humilitate contenta, profundius progreditur ad praelatos, qui salmones et lucios, caeterosque pisces aequipollenti generositate praesignes, variis decoctionum cruciatos martyriis, baptizandi adulterantes officium, sacri piperis fonte baptizant, ut ex tali baptismate baptizati, multiformis saporis gratiam consequantur. In eadem mensa terrestre animal piperis inundatione submergitur, [0463C] piscis natat in pipere, avis ejusdem viscositate ligatur: dumque tot animalium genera uno ventris ergastulantur in carcere, aquatile animal secum terrestre, aeriumque genus in eodem sepulcro tumulari miratur. Quibus si detur licentia exeundi, egressuris vix portae sufficit amplitudo.

This pestilence, not content even with no ordinary humility, goes further down to the prelates, who, salmons and pikes and the other fishes distinguished by equipollent nobility, tortured with various decoction-martyrdoms, adulterating the office of baptizing, baptize at a font of sacred pepper, so that from such a baptism the baptized may obtain the grace of multiform savor. At the same table the land-animal is submerged by an inundation of pepper, [0463C] the fish swims in pepper, the bird is bound by the same viscosity; and while so many kinds of animals are prisoned in one jail of the belly, the aquatic animal marvels that the terrestrial with it, and the aery kind, are entombed in the same sepulcher. To whom, if license of going out be granted, the amplitude of the gate scarcely suffices for those about to go forth.

Hae praefatae pestes pontem faciunt, per quem ad luxuriae lupanaria pervenitur. Hae sunt introductiones per quas quis furandi artem ingreditur. Hae morbos pariunt, seminant paupertates.

These aforesaid plagues make a bridge, through which one reaches the brothels of luxury. These are the introductions by which one enters the art of stealing. These beget diseases, they sow poverties.

Hae sunt nutrices discordiae, sorores insaniae, intemperantiae matres, immunditiae venatrices. Per has, humanum genus modestiae limites excedit, temperantiae frena postponit, castitatis sigilla confringit, meae largitionis gratiam non attendit. Cum enim [0463D] mea largitas tot hominibus fercula procuret, tot fercula copiosa compluat, ipsi tamen gratiae ingrati, nimis illicite licitis abutentes, frena gulae laxantes, dum comedendi mensuras excedunt, lineas potationis in infinitum extendunt; qui palata salsorum seducentes acumine, ut saepe et multum bibant, saepius sitire coguntur.

These are nurses of discord, sisters of insanity, mothers of intemperance, huntresses of uncleanness. Through these, the human race oversteps the limits of modesty, postpones the reins of temperance, breaks the seals of chastity, does not attend to the grace of my largess. For when [0463D] my largess provides dishes for so many men, when so many copious courses rain down, yet they, ungrateful to the grace itself, abusing what is licit too illicitly, loosening the reins of the gullet, while they exceed the measures of eating, stretch the lines of potation to infinity; who, seducing palates by the acumen of savories, that they may drink often and much, are more often compelled to thirst.

De avaritia.

On avarice.

Est et alia idololatriae filia, quam (si nominis proprietas suam significationis germanitatem in voce retineat) convenienti vocabulo conveniens est [0464A] nummulatriam nuncupari. Haec est malitia, per quam in animis hominum deificatur pecunia, nummo divinae venerationis exhibetur auctoritas, per quam, ubi nummus loquitur, Tulliani eloquii tuba raucescit; ubi nummus commilitat, Hectoreae militiae fulgura conticescunt; ubi pugnat pecunia, virtus expugnatur Herculea. Si quis enim armatur pecunia, tanquam loricis argenteis torrentis impetus Tulliani, fulgur incursus Hectorei, robur virtutis Herculeae, versipellis Ulyssea calliditas floccipenditur, in tantum enim habendi fames involvit, ut dialecticae muta sit subtilitas, rhetoricae languescat civilitas.

There is also another daughter of idolatry, which (if the property of the name keep the genuineness of its signification in the word) it is fitting by a suitable vocabulary to be named nummolatry [0464A]. This is the malice by which money is deified in the souls of men, by which to the coin the authority of divine veneration is exhibited; by which, where the coin speaks, the trumpet of Tullian eloquence grows hoarse; where the coin serves as a comrade-in-arms, the flashes of Hectorian soldiery fall silent; where money fights, Herculean virtue is taken by storm. For if anyone is armed with money, as with silver cuirasses, the torrent of Tullian onrush, the lightning of Hectorian assault, the strength of Herculean virtue, the versipellous Ulyssean cunning are reckoned a trifle; for such a hunger of having wraps one round, that the subtility of dialectic is mute, the civility of rhetoric languishes.

Ubi nummorum perorat plenitas, jam Tullius sui monetam vendit eloquii, sui pudoris monilia in aurum commutat Lucretia; Penelope [0464B] suae vicennariae castitatis pudorem deponit in pretio; Hippolytus etiam si nummi preces audiat susurrantis, suae novercae non vult precibus novercari. Nam si in aure judicis susurret pecunia, Orphei lyra, carmen Amphionis, musa Virgilii voce pecuniae suffocantur. Jam dives, divitiarum naufragus in profundo, hydropicae sitis incendiis sitit opes, et in medio ipsarum positus Tantalizat.

When the fullness of coins perorates, then Tullius sells the coinage of his eloquence, Lucretia commutes the necklaces of her pudor into gold; Penelope [0464B] lays down for a price the modesty of her vicennial chastity; Hippolytus too, even if he should hear the prayers of the whispering coin, does not wish by the prayers of his own stepmother to be “stepmothered.” For if money whispers in the ear of the judge, the lyre of Orpheus, the song of Amphion, the Muse of Virgil are suffocated by the voice of money. Now the rich man, a shipwrecked man of riches in the deep, thirsts for wealth with the conflagrations of a hydropic thirst, and, set in the midst of them, he Tantalizes.

Pauper etiam, quamvis materialem avaritiam realiter exercere non valeat, intus tamen archetypam retinet parcitatem. Proh dolor! metallorum onera largiuntur honores, ad metalli pondera ponderatos.

Even the pauper too, although he cannot really exercise material avarice, nevertheless within retains the archetypal parsimony. Alas! the burdens of metals lavish honors, honors weighed according to the weights of metal.

Jam non Caesar, sed nummus est omnia, quia ab individualibus usque ad generalissimam, honores [0464C] singulos tanquam mediator percurrit. Nummus patriarcha noster est, episcopos et archiepiscopos inthronizat. Alios archidiaconalibus adaptat officiis; alios denique aliarum dignitatum et officiorum coaequat negotiis.

Now not Caesar, but coin is everything, because from the most individual things up to the most general, it runs through the several honors [0464C] like a mediator. The coin is our patriarch; it enthrones bishops and archbishops. It adapts others to archidiaconal offices; finally, it matches others to the affairs of other dignities and offices.

Quid plura? nummus vincit, nummus mundum regit, nummus imperat universis. Quid prodest cum Ptolomaeo subterfugientis astronomiae fugas consequi subtilitatis curriculo; stellarum prophetias, spontaneos planetarum investigare errores; cum Euclide, geometricorum aenigmatum secreta scrutari; intellectu in profundum maris descendere; coeli altitudinem intelligibilibus mensuris attingere; cum Milesio, musicarum proportionum consonantes amicitias invenire; cum Pythagora pugnas numerorum virtute multiplicationis [0464D] inspicere; cum Tullio, orationem rhetoricis colorum stellare sideribus; cum Aristotele, ancipiti dialecticae gladio a veris falsa dividere; cum Zenone falsitatem probabilitate tunicare sophistica; cum Donato in accidentium congruentia nectere dictiones, cum sapientia nostris temporibus nullius fructus praemietur stipendiis, nullius famae eam aura favorabilis extollat, ipsa vero pecunia honoris titulos et laudis emat praeconia?

What more? money conquers, money rules the world, money commands all. What does it profit, with Ptolemy, to pursue the flights of evasive astronomy in the chariot of subtlety; to investigate the prophecies of the stars, the spontaneous wanderings of the planets; with Euclid, to scrutinize the secrets of geometry’s enigmas; to descend by intellect into the depth of the sea; to reach the height of heaven with intelligible measures; with the Milesian, to find the consonant friendships of musical proportions; with Pythagoras to behold the battles of numbers by the virtue of multiplication [0464D] to inspect; with Tullius, to star an oration with the constellations of rhetorical colors; with Aristotle, to divide false things from true by the two-edged sword of dialectic; with Zeno to clothe falsehood with sophistic probability; with Donatus to bind phrases in the congruity of accidents, when wisdom in our times is rewarded with stipends of no fruit, when the favorable breeze of no fame lifts it up, while money itself buys the titles of honor and the proclamations of praise?

Sola tamen sapientia revera super omnem praeeminet possessionem. Generosa possessio, quae sparsa colligitur, erogata revertitur, publicata suscipit incrementum! [0465A] per quam nobilis scientiae thesaurus secretis penetralibus mentis innascitur, fructus internae delectationis acquiritur.

Yet wisdom alone in truth stands preeminent above every possession. A generous possession, which, when scattered, is gathered; when disbursed, returns; when made public, receives increase! [0465A] through which the noble treasure of science is born within the secret inner chambers of the mind, and the fruit of inward delectation is acquired.

Haec est sol, per quem mens diescit in tenebris, cordis oculus, deliciosus animi paradisus. Haec in coeleste terrenum, in immortale caducum, in deum hominem, deificae mutationis auctoritate convertit. Haec est verum peregrinationis remedium, solum humanae calamitatis solatium, humanae noctis lucifer singularis, tuae miseriae redemptio specialis, cujus aciem nulla aeris caligo confundit, non densitas terrae operam ejus offendit, non altitudo aquae respectum ejus obtundit.

This is the sun, by which the mind is made day in the darkness, the eye of the heart, the delicious paradise of the soul. This turns the earthly into the heavenly, the perishable into the immortal, the man into God, by the authority of deific mutation. This is the true remedy of pilgrimage, the sole solace of human calamity, the singular light-bearer of human night, the special redemption of your misery, whose keenness no mist of the air confounds, nor does the density of the earth offend its operation, nor does the depth of the water blunt its regard.

Haec igitur, quamvis apud multos qui sensuali mobilitate brutescunt, nimia langueat vilitate, apud illos tamen qui in ignem originalem [0465B] rationis redegerunt scintillam praeconii, et famae munere non fraudatur. Quamvis enim prudentia phantasticae adulationis plausibiles dedignetur applausus, tamen quia verae famae haec est gloriosa proprietas, ut appetitores sui contemnat, et appetat contemptores; famam fugiendo consequitur, quam perdet insequendo. Igitur etsi videas apud quosdam regnare pecuniam, jacere prudentiam, militare divitias, sapientiam exsulare, ignavia tamen opum pondera animo victori calcata subjicias, et intestino affectionis amore prudentiam consecteris, ut penitus sapientiae matris cubiculum inoffenso intuitu valeas intueri.

This, therefore, although among many who grow brutish by a sensual mobility it languishes in excessive cheapness, yet among those who have brought back the spark of proclamation into the original fire of reason [0465B], is not defrauded of the gift of fame. For although prudence disdains the plausible applauses of phantastic adulation, nevertheless, because this is the glorious property of true fame, that it despises its suitors and seeks its despisers, by fleeing fame it attains it, which by pursuing it it will lose. Therefore, even if you see money reigning with certain people, prudence lying prostrate, riches doing service in arms, wisdom in exile, nevertheless, with sloth trampled underfoot, you should cast the weights of wealth beneath a conquering spirit, and with the inward love of affection you should pursue prudence, so that you may be able with an unhindered gaze to behold thoroughly the bedchamber of mother Wisdom.

Tunc ego: Vellem ut laxatis habenis reprehensionis, praecordialius avaritiae filias impugnares. [0465C] Tunc illa ad acerrimas invectionis demorsiones gyrans suae narrationis incessum, ait:

Then I: I would that, with the reins of reprehension loosened, you would more-from-the-heart assail the daughters of avarice. [0465C] Then she, wheeling the progress of her narration toward the very sharp bitings of invective, said:

Postquam sacra fames auri mortalia pungit
Pectora, mens hominis nescit jejuna manere.
Laxat amicitias, odium parit, erigit iras,
Bella serit, lites nutrit, bellumque renodat,
Rumpit nodata, disrumpit foedera, natos
Excitat in patres, matres in viscera, fratres
Dat fratrum nescire togas, et sanguinis omnes
Unio quos unit, furor hos male dividit unus.
Dum stomachum mentis hydropicat ardor habendi,
[0465D] Mens potando sitit, et Tantalus alter in istis
Ardet aquis, viresque siti dat copia census.

After the sacred hunger for gold pricks
mortal hearts, the mind of man does not know how to remain fasting.
It loosens friendships, begets hatred, raises angers,
it sows wars, nourishes litigations, and knots war anew,
it breaks what is knotted, bursts asunder treaties, it rouses
sons against fathers, mothers against their own entrails, brothers
it makes not to know the togas of brothers, and all whom the union
of blood unites, one fury wickedly divides.
While the ardor of having makes the stomach of the mind dropsical,
[0465D] The mind, by drinking, thirsts, and another Tantalus in these
waters burns, and the abundance of wealth gives strength to thirst.

Esurit ergo satur, sitit ebrius, optat abundans
Unus cuncta cupit, ipsoque cupidine pauper
Efficitur, divesque foris, manet intus egenus.
Nil habet ergo miser, cum nil se credit habere,
Divitiis, cum pauperiem sua vota repensant,
Hospitium cordis, et moenia mentis avarae
Invadunt hostes multi, multoque tumultu
Totam sollicitant humani pectoris arcem.
[0466A] Nam timor aggreditur mentem, pariterque cupido
Concutit, et totam mentis depauperat urbem.

Therefore the sated man hungers, the drunken thirsts, the abundant one desires;
one man covets all things, and by that very cupidity he is made poor, and, rich outwardly, he remains needy within.
Therefore the wretch has nothing, since he believes he has nothing,
even amid riches, since his own wishes, when they reckon it up, account it poverty;
the guest‑house of the heart, and the walls of the avaricious mind,
many enemies invade, and with much tumult
they trouble the whole citadel of the human breast.
[0466A] For fear attacks the mind, and likewise desire
shakes it, and impoverishes the whole city of the mind.

Curarum geminus turbo sic turbat avarum;
Cumque timenda timet, mens somniat ipsa timores,
Saepe novos fingitque metus, damnique timore
Damna luit, damnique malum formidine pensat:
Sic casus varios terroris somnia monstrant.
Uxoris fraudes, furisque sophismata, terror
Nuntiat, insultus hostis, juguloque minaces
Mentitur gladios, et flumina dira potentum.
Nunc pestes, ignes recolit, nunc concipit iras
Oceani, soloque metu jam naufragus exstat.

The twin whirlwind of cares thus disturbs the avaricious man;
and while it fears things to be feared, the mind itself dreams fears,
often it fashions new dreads, and by fear of damage
it pays damages, and with dread it weighs the evil of loss:
thus dreams of terror display various mishaps.
The terror announces the wife’s frauds and the sophisms of thieves,
the assaults of an enemy, and swords menacing the throat
it feigns, and the dire floods of the powerful.
Now it recalls plagues, fires; now it conceives the wraths
of the Ocean, and by fear alone already stands forth as shipwrecked.

Divitis in nummo mens philosophatur in arca
Dum nummum sepelit, nummusque sepultus avari [0466B]
Usibus emoritur, illum non ille, sed arca
Possidet, et totum nummi sibi vindicat usum.
Ut loculis varia nummorum fercula donet,
Injungit proprio dives jejunia ventri.
Horret avaritiam venter, propriosque negari
Miratur reditus, loculi suffragia quaerit,
Sed ventri loculus surdas accommodat aures.

Over the rich man’s coin the mind philosophizes in the strongbox;
while he buries the coin, and the coin, buried, dies away to the uses of the miser [0466B]
it is possessed not by him, but by the chest,
and claims for itself the whole use of the coin.
So that he may gift to the coffers varied dishes of coins,
the rich man enjoins fasts on his own belly.
The belly shudders at avarice, and marvels that its own returns
are denied; it seeks the suffrages of the coffers,
but the coffer lends deaf ears to the belly.

Pabula visus habet, et convivatur ocellus,
Solus in argento, sed venter philosophari
Cogitur, et longo patitur jejunia voto.
Non lacrymae, non mella precum, non ipsa perorat
Pauperies hominum, quin foenore dives egenum
Devoret, et tenuem miseri facit esse crumenam.
Pauperis in lacrymis ridet, miserique labore
Pascitur, et poenam sibimet facit esse quietem.

The sight has fodders, and the little eye banquets,
only on silver; but the belly is compelled to philosophize,
and under a long vow it suffers fastings.
Not tears, not the honey of prayers, not even Poverty herself
of men pleads; rather, the rich man with usury the needy
devours, and makes the wretched man’s slight purse to be scant.
He laughs at the tears of the poor, and on the labor of the wretched
he feeds, and makes punishment to be, for himself, repose.

[0466C] Hunc dolor, hunc risus, jocus hunc, moeror tenet illum,
Hic gemit, hic ridet, dolet hic, dum dedolet ille.
Omnis in affectum nummi laxatur avari
Divitis affectus, nec enim datur ulla voluptas
Menti, qua possit alias deflectere vultum.
Divitias non dives habet, sed habetur ab ipsis,
Non est possessor nummi, sed possidet ipsum
Nummus, et in nummis animus sepelitur avari.

[0466C] This one is held by pain, this one by laughter, jest holds this one, mourning holds that one,
Here he groans, here he laughs, this one grieves, while that one ceases to grieve.
All the affect of the miser is relaxed into affection for the coin,
The rich man’s affect; for no pleasure is given
To the mind by which it could deflect its face elsewhere.
The rich man does not have riches, but is had by them,
He is not the possessor of the coin, but the coin possesses him,
And in coins the spirit of the miser is sepultured.

Hos colit ipse deos, haec idola ditat honore
Divini cultus, et nummis numina donat.
Sic hominum ratio calcata cupidine, carni
Servit, et ancilla famulari cogitur illi.
Sic oculus cordis, carnis caligine caecus
[0466D] Languet, et eclipsim patiens, agit otia solus.

He himself worships these gods, he enriches these idols with the honor
of divine worship, and he endows the divinities with coins.
Thus the reason of men, trampled underfoot by cupidity, serves
the flesh, and as a handmaid is compelled to be in servitude to it.
Thus the eye of the heart, blind by the gloom of the flesh,
[0466D] languishes, and, suffering an eclipse, spends its leisure alone.

Sic jubar humani sensus male palliat umbra
Carnis, fitque nummis ingloria gloria mentis.
Divitiis vel divitibus non derogat iste
Sermo, sed vitium potius mordere laborat.
Non census, non divitias, non divitis usum
Damno, si victor animus ratione magistra
Subjectas sibi calcat opes, si denique census
Nobilis auriga ratio direxerit usum.

Thus the radiance of human sense is ill-cloaked by the shadow
of flesh, and the glory of the mind becomes inglorious by coins.
This discourse does not derogate riches or the rich,
but labors rather to bite at vice.
Not the census, not riches, not the use of the rich man do I condemn,
if the conquering spirit, with reason as mistress,
tramples underfoot the wealth subjected to itself, if at last the census
has its use directed by reason, the noble charioteer.

Nam cunctas si spargat opes, si munera fundat
[0467A] Dives, et in laudem spiret, tentetque favorem
Munere lucrari, tamen hujus muneris auctor,
Ductor et auriga nisi sit discretio, nullus
Fructus erit, quoniam laudem non dona merentur,
Sed potius mercantur eam, nisi facta decenter
Discrete fuerint, pro munere namque frequenter
Laus datur hypocrita, famae simulatio falsa,
Simia laudis, horum umbratilis umbra favoris.

For even if he should scatter all his wealth, if he should pour out gifts,
[0467A] the Rich Man, and aspire to praise, and try to gain favor
by a gift, nevertheless, unless Discretion be the author of this gift,
its leader and charioteer, there will be no fruit,
since it is not gifts that merit praise,
but rather they buy it, unless the deeds have been done becomingly
with discretion; for in return for a gift, very often,
praise is given to a hypocrite—a false simulation of fame,
the ape of praise, a shadowy shade of such favor.

Ecce habes quomodo tenacis avaritiae viscus humanae mentis alis auferat libertatem.

Behold, you have how the birdlime of tenacious avarice takes away liberty from the wings of the human mind.

De arrogantia.

On arrogance.

Nunc intuendum est qualiter insolentis arrogantiae ampullositas humanas mentes erigat in tumorem, cujus infirmitatis contagione funesta vitiata [0467B] hominum multitudo, dum se supra se insolenter extollit, infra se ruinosa descendit, sibi derogans arrogando, se deprimens erigendo, se sibi auferens efferendo. Horum autem hominum aut verborum solemnis pompositas, aut suspicionis mater taciturnitas, aut quaedam actus specificatio, aut insolens gestus exceptio, aut nimia corporis corruptio exterius interiorem arguit superbiam. Alii namque quos servilis conditionis demittit humilitas, augustam jactitant libertatem; alii, dum scurrilis generis vilitate plebescunt, verbo tenus se sanguinis generositate exaltant.

Now it must be considered how the ampullosity of insolent arrogance lifts human minds into a swelling, by the deadly contagion of whose infirmity the multitude of men, vitiated [0467B], while it insolently exalts itself above itself, descends ruinously beneath itself, derogating from itself by arrogating to itself, depressing itself by erecting itself, carrying itself away from itself by exalting itself. But in these men either the solemn pomposity of words, or taciturnity, the mother of suspicion, or a certain specification of act, or an insolent exception in gesture, or an excessive corruption of the body outwardly argues an interior pride. For some, whom the lowliness of a servile condition casts down, vaunt august liberty; others, while by the vileness of a scurrilous lineage they become plebeian, in word only exalt themselves by nobility of blood.

Alii, dum in artis grammaticae vagientes cunabulis, ejusdem lactantur uberibus, Aristotelicae subtilitatis apicem profitentur. [0467C] Alii, dum leporinae timiditatis gelicidiis torpescunt, solo verbositatis remedio, animositatem efferunt leoninam. Sunt alii, qui ea quae internae indignationis supercilium claudit interius, exteriori evidenter eloquuntur silentio: Nam aliis inferiori morum gradu jacentibus, vel eis parilitate probitatis comparibus, vel etiam elatiori fastigio dignitatis pollentibus, mutuae collocutionis communicare participium dedignantur: a quibus, si quis interrogationis suffragio verbum expostulet, tanta taciturnitatis intercapedine a quaestione omittetur responsio, ut eidem haec nulla cognatione videatur affinis.

Others, while wailing in the cradles of the grammatical art, being suckled at its very breasts, profess the apex of Aristotelian subtlety. [0467C] Others, while they grow torpid in the gelicides of leporine timidity, by the sole remedy of verboseness, carry forth a leonine spiritedness. There are others who clearly declare by exterior silence those things which the brow of inward indignation shuts up within: For to others lying in an inferior grade of morals, or to those comparable to them by parity of probity, or even to those excelling with a loftier summit of dignity, they disdain to communicate a share of mutual colloquy: from whom, if anyone should demand a word by the suffrage of interrogation, the response will be omitted from the question with such an interval of taciturnity that to the same it seems akin by no kinship.

Alii, suos actus specificare gaudentes, in multitudine singulares, in generalitate speciales, in universalitate adversi, in unitate diversi [0467D] omnifariam esse laborant. Dum alii namque exercentur colloquiis, isti indulgent silentiis, dum alii lasciviis solvuntur, isti seriis implicari videntur; dum alii seriis implicantur negotiis, isti otiantur lasciviis. Dum alii quadam serenitatis festivitate hilarantur in facie, isti in vultu quamdam malevolae severitatis praeferunt tempestatem.

Others, rejoicing to specify their own acts, strive to be in the multitude singular, in generality special, in universality adverse, in unity diverse [0467D] in every way. For while others are exercised in colloquies, these indulge in silences; while others are dissolved in lasciviousness, these seem to be entangled in serious matters; while others are entangled in serious businesses, these idle in lasciviousness. While others are gladdened in the face by a certain festivity of serenity, these on the countenance display a certain tempest of malevolent severity.

Alii interioris superbiae gestus, exterioris gestus exceptione figurant: qui tanquam terrena omnia despiciant, supini coelestia suspiciunt, oculos indignanter obliquant; supercilia exaltant, mentum superciliose [0468A] supinant, brachia in arcus exemplant. Horum etiam pedes terram sola articulorum contractione delibant. Alii vero sua corpora femineis compositionibus nimis effeminant, qui suorum capillorum conciliorum pectinis subsidio in tanta pace conciliant, ut ne lenis aura in eis possit suscitare tumultum: luxuriantis etiam supercilii fimbrias forficis patrocinio demetunt, aut ab ejusdem silva superflua exstirpando decerpunt; pullulanti etiam barbae crebras novaculae apponunt insidias, ut nec eadem paululum audeat pullulare: brachia manicarum angustias conqueruntur; pedes in angustis calceorum ergastulis carcerantur.

Others fashion the gestures of interior superbia by the affectation of exterior gesture: as if they despised all things earthly, they look up, supine, at the heavenly, they slant their eyes indignantly; they exalt their eyebrows, they tilt the chin superciliously [0468A] backward, they model their arms into arches. Even their feet just graze the earth by the mere contraction of their joints. Others, indeed, over-effeminate their bodies with feminine compositions, who, with the aid of the comb, conciliate the councils of their hairs in such peace that not even a gentle breeze can rouse a tumult in them: they also cut off the fringes of the luxuriant eyebrow under the patronage of the scissors, or pluck them by extirpating the superfluous from the same forest; they also set frequent ambushes of the razor for the sprouting beard, so that it may not dare to sprout even a little: the arms complain of the narrownesses of sleeves; the feet are incarcerated in the narrow prison-houses of shoes.

Heu! homini unde isti fastus, ista superbia? cujus aerumnosa est nativitas, cujus vitam laboriosa demolitur poenalitas, [0468B] cujus poenalitatem poenalior mortis concludit necessitas; cujus omne esse, momentum, vita est naufragium, mundus exsilium: cujus vita aut abest, aut spondet absentiam, mors autem instat, aut minatur instantiam.

Alas! for man, whence this fastuousness, this superbity? whose nativity is aerumnous, whose life a laborious penality demolishes, [0468B] whose penality a more penal necessity of death concludes; whose whole being—just a moment—, life is a shipwreck, the world an exile: whose life either is absent, or pledges absence, but death is at hand, or threatens instancy.

De invidia.

On envy.

De superbia vero, filia nascitur, quae maternae malignitatis haereditate potitur. Haec est invidia, quae continuae detractionis rubiginosa demorsione, hominum animos demolitur. Haec est vermis, cujus morsu morbi data mentis sanitas contabescit in saniem; mentis sinceritas computrescit in cariem; mentis requies liquatur in [0468C] laborem.

But from pride, indeed, a daughter is born, who obtains the inheritance of her maternal malignity. This is envy, which, by the rusty gnawing of continual detraction, demolishes the spirits of men. This is the worm, at whose bite the sanity of mind, delivered over to disease, wastes away into putrid ichor; the sincerity of mind putrefies into decay; the repose of mind is liquefied into [0468C] labor.

Haec est hospes, qui apud suum hospitem hospitio exceptus, ejus labefactat hospitium. Haec est possessio, pessime possidens suum possessorem, quae dum alios detractionis latratibus vexat, sui possessoris animum intestino morsu perfodiens, inquietat. Haec est invidia, quae in illos quos vitiorum absorbet infernus, a quibus corporis dotes ratio naturae proscribit, quos in paupertatem insanae fortunae evomit, indignantis suae detractionis aculeos facit otiari.

This is the guest who, received with hospitality by his own host, undermines his hospitality. This is the possession, most badly possessing its possessor, which, while it vexes others with the barkings of detraction, by an internal bite piercing the mind of its own possessor, disquiets it. This is envy, which makes the stings of its own indignant detraction lie idle against those whom the hell of vices swallows, from whom the endowments of the body the rule of nature proscribes, whom mad fortune vomits into poverty.

Sed, si quis in torrente divitiarum natat cum Croeso, opes spargit cum Cyro, in specie disputat cum Narcisso, animositate tonat cum Turno, Herculi colludit in robore, cum Platone facie ad faciem philosophiam speculatur, cum Hippolyto castitatis speculo sigillatur, in hunc [0468D] omnes suarum detractionum aculeos expendit. Nam audaciam furori temeritatis assignat, prudentiam animi in fraudis versutias, aut in verbositatis ampullositatem obliquat. Per hujus etiam detractionem, pudor in hypocrisim degenerat.

But, if someone swims in the torrent of riches with Croesus, scatters wealth with Cyrus, disputes about appearance with Narcissus, with spiritedness thunders with Turnus, colludes with Hercules in strength, with Plato face to face speculates upon philosophy, with Hippolytus is sealed by the mirror of chastity, upon this man [0468D] he expends all the stings of his detractions. For he assigns boldness to the frenzy of rashness, he bends the prudence of mind into the craftinesses of fraud, or into the ampullosity of verbosity. Through his detraction as well, modesty degenerates into hypocrisy.

Haec invidiae tabes plerosque tabefacit, qui dum alienae famae nitorem detrahere conantur, primi suae probitatis sentiunt detrimenta. His aliena prosperitas adversa, aliena adversitas prospera judicatur. Hi in aliena gratulatione tristantur, in aliena tristitia gratulantur.

This rot of envy wastes away the many, who, while they strive to drag down the luster of another’s fame, are the first to feel the detriments to their own probity. By them another’s prosperity is judged an adversity, another’s adversity a prosperity. They are saddened at another’s rejoicing, and in another’s sadness they rejoice.

Isti suas in aliena paupertate divitias, [0469A] suam paupertatem in alienis divitiis metiuntur. Isti aut alienae famae serenitatem detractionis nubilo nubilare conantur, aut ejusdem gloriam sola taciturnitate furari. Isti aut pravis interpretationibus alienae probitatis sinceritatem fermentant, aut veris fermenta falsitatis maritant.

These measure their riches in another’s poverty, [0469A] their own poverty in others’ riches. These either try to cloud the serenity of another’s fame with the cloud of detraction, or to steal that same glory by mere taciturnity. These either ferment the sincerity of another’s probity with crooked interpretations, or marry the ferments of falsity to truths.

Proh dolor, invidia quod monstruosius monstrum? quod damnosius damnum? quae culpabilior culpa?

Alas, what monster is more monstrous than envy? what loss more damaging? what fault more culpable?

quae poenalior poena? haec est erroneae caecitatis abyssus, humanae mentis infernus, contentionis stimulus, anxietatis aculeus. Qui sunt invidiae motus, nisi humanae tranquillitatis hostes, mentalis depraedationis satellites?

what penalty more penal? this is the abyss of erroneous blindness, the inferno of the human mind, the stimulus of contention, the sting of anxiety. what are the motions of envy, if not the enemies of human tranquility, satellites of mental depredation?

animi laborantis vigiliae hostiles, alienae felicitatis excubiae? Quid prodest alicui, si ei serenitas fortunae prosperantis applaudat, corpus [0469B] etiam purpuramento pulchritudinis hilarescat, mens insuper sapientiae splendore praefulgeat, cum liventis invidiae latrocinium, mentis depraedatur divitias? fortunae prosperantis serenitatem adversitatis vertat in nubila?

hostile vigils of a laboring soul, sentry-watches over another’s felicity? What does it profit anyone, if the serenity of prospering fortune applaud him, if the body [0469B] even be made cheerful with the purple-ornament of beauty, and the mind moreover shine forth with the splendor of wisdom, when the brigandage of livid envy plunders the riches of the mind, and turns the serenity of prospering fortune into the clouds of adversity?

decoris aurum turpitudinis convertat in scoriam? prudentiae gloriam degloriet livor inglorius?

will turpitude turn the gold of decorum into scoria? will inglorious livor deglorify the glory of prudence?

Remedia contra invidiam.

Remedies against envy.

Si quis tamen livoris rubiginem, invidiae tineam a mentis thesauro velit proscribere, in alieno dolore suum dolorem inveniat condolendo, alienum gaudium suum faciat congaudendo, in alienis opibus suas penset divitias, in aliena paupertate suam lugeat paupertatem. Si alienam probitatem [0469C] videas famae solemniis celebrari, festum praeconii diem nulla facias detractione profestum, sed tuae declarationis meridie, alienae probitatis lucerna in commune deducta clarius elucescat. Si quos in titulos alienae famae detractionum latratibus videas indulgere, a grege latrantium canum te excipias, aut admonitionis objecto, detrahentes linguas hebetes, corrosionis dentes conteras, detractionum demordeas morsus.

If anyone, however, should wish to proscribe from the treasury of the mind the rust of malice, the moth of envy, let him find his own pain in another’s pain by condoling, let him make another’s joy his own by congauding, let him weigh his own riches in another’s resources, let him mourn his own poverty in another’s poverty. If you see another’s probity [0469C] being celebrated with the solemnities of fame, do not by any detraction make the festal day of proclamation a workday, but let the lamp of another’s probity, brought forth for the common good, shine more brightly at the noonday of your own declaration. If you see some people indulging in the barkings of detractions to the titles of another’s fame, withdraw yourself from the pack of barking dogs, or, by the interposition of admonition, blunt the detracting tongues, grind down the teeth of corrosion, bite back the bites of detractions.

De adulatione.

On adulation.

Huic praetexato vitiorum symbolo, suae malignitatis portionem adnectit adulatio. Hujus pestilentia percutiuntur principum laterales, palatini canes, adulationis artifices, fabri laudum, figuli falsitatis. Hi sunt qui magniloqua commendationis tuba in [0469D] divitum auribus clangunt; qui mellitae adulationis favos foras eructant; qui, ut emungant munera, caput divitis oleo adulationis inungunt; praelatorum auribus pulvinaria laudum subjiciunt, qui ab eorumdem palliis aut fictitium excutiunt pulverem, aut tunicam sophistice deplumant implumem.

To this purple-bordered symbol of vices, flattery adds its portion of malignity. By its pestilence the side-attendants of princes are struck, the palatine dogs, the artificers of adulation, the smiths of praises, the potters of falsity. These are they who with the magniloquent trumpet of commendation clang in [0469D] the ears of the rich; who belch forth honeyed honeycombs of adulation; who, in order to squeeze out gifts, anoint the head of the rich man with the oil of adulation; who set cushions of praises under the ears of prelates; who from those same cloaks either shake off counterfeit dust, or sophistically pluck a tunic that is featherless.

Isti divitum actus in quos favor famae conspuit indignantis, suffragiis laudum redimunt mendicatis. Isti penes munera laudes, penes dona favores, penes pretium praeconia famae blandientis constituunt. Nam si in domo divitis prodigalitatis torrens eniteat, adulator in prodigalitatis laudem totus effunditur; [0470A] si vero hiemalis avaritiae torporem divitis munus redoleat, adulator avarus in laude commendationis, algescit in munere: sed si munus antonomastice videatur laudum tympana postulare, adulationis poeta stylo commendationis turget altiloquo.

These men redeem the acts of the rich, upon which the favor of an indignant fame spits, by mendicated suffrages of praises. These men place praises under the control of gifts, favors under that of donatives, proclamations of a blandishing fame under that of a price. For if in the house of a rich man a torrent of prodigality shines forth, the adulator is poured out wholly into the praise of prodigality; [0470A] but if the rich man’s gift smacks of the wintry torpor of avarice, the avaricious adulator grows cold in the praise of commendation, he grows numb in regard to the gift: but if the gift, antonomastically, seems to demand the drums of praises, the poet of adulation swells, altiloquent, with the style of commendation.

Si vero muneris pauperies famae mendicat suffragia, humiliori stylo famae depauperat dignitatem; quoniam ubi muneris perorat altitudo, adulator hypocriticas laudes, famas umbratiles, de thesauro sui cordis eructat. Nam si ille pro quo munus eloquitur, tanta fuerit turpitudinis tempestate dejectus, ut in eo vix naturalium donorum fragmenta resultent, ei pulchritudinis praerogativam adulationis poemata somniabunt: minimas pusillanimitatis angustias, magnanimitatis mentientur [0470B] esse palatia; humiles etiam torpentis avaritiae latebras, prodigalitatis proferent in excessum; humilitatem etiam plebescentis generis, titulo Caesareae nobilitatis mentientur augustam. Quid amplius?

If, however, the poverty of the gift begs the suffrages of fame, with a humbler style he impoverishes the dignity of fame; since where the loftiness of the gift perorates, the adulator eructates hypocritical praises, umbratile reputations, from the treasury of his heart. For if he, for whom the gift speaks, has been cast down by so great a tempest of turpitude that in him scarcely fragments of natural endowments show forth, the poems of adulation will dream for him a prerogative of beauty: the tiniest straits of pusillanimity they will falsely assert to be palaces of magnanimity [0470B]; even the low hiding-places of torpid avarice they will bring out into an excess of prodigality; the lowness too of a plebeianizing lineage they will falsely style august with the title of Caesarean nobility. What more?

Si apud aliquem nulla virtute a vitiis excusatum castrametetur scelerum multitudo, dum munus mediator occurrit, laudum mercenarius adulator, superficiali commendationis tunica vitiorum tenuiter colorat aspectum. E contrario vero, si totius decoris meridies alicujus hilarescat in facie, lingua argenteis eloquentiae resplendeat margaritis, mentis thalamus virtutum fulguret ornamentis, tamen, si adulationis artifex muneris gratiam non exspectet, tantae honestatis luci cum [0470C] vitiorum fastigiis, nebulas immiscere laborat. Quid est igitur adulationis inunctio, nisi donorum emunctio?

If with someone, with no virtue to excuse from vices, a multitude of crimes should encamp, so long as the gift as mediator presents itself, the mercenary flatterer of praises, with the superficial tunic of commendation, thinly colors the aspect of the vices. On the contrary, if the meridian of all decor beams in someone’s face, if the tongue shines resplendent with the silver pearls of eloquence, if the thalamus of the mind flashes with the ornaments of virtues, nevertheless, if the craftsman of adulation does not await the favor of a gift, he labors to mix clouds into the light of so great honorableness together with the pinnacles of vices [0470C]. What then is the unction of adulation, if not the exaction of gifts?

Quid commendationis allusio, nisi praelatorum illusio? Quid laudis arrisio, nisi eorumdem derisio? Nam cum loquela, fidelis intellectus interpres, verbaque fideles animi picturae vultus voluntatis signaculum, lingua mentis soleat esse propheta, adulatores a voluntate vultum, ab animo verbum, a mente linguam, ab intellectu loquelam, amplo discessionis intervallo diffibulant.

What is the allusion of commendation, if not the illusion of prelates? What is the smiling of praise, if not the derision of those same men? For when speech, the faithful interpreter of intellect, and words, the faithful countenances of the mind’s picture, the face the seal of the will, and the tongue is wont to be the prophet of the mind, the flatterers unbuckle the face from the will, the word from the soul, the tongue from the mind, the speech from the intellect, by an ample interval of discession.

Plerisque etenim forinseca dealbationis laude arrident, quos interna mentis subsannatione derident, plerosque exterius plausibiliter applaudendo collaudant, quos interius contradictoria derisione defraudant. Foris vultu applaudunt virgineo, intus [0470D] scorpionis pungunt aculeo; foris mellitos adulationis compluunt imbres, intus detractionis evomunt tempestates.

For indeed, they smile upon very many with the external praise of whitewashing, whom they deride with an inner mockery of the mind; and they coll Laud very many outwardly by plausibly applauding, whom inwardly they defraud by contradictory derision. Outside they applaud with a virginal countenance, inside [0470D] they sting with the scorpion’s barb; outside they pour down honeyed showers of adulation, inside they vomit forth tempests of detraction.

Supplicat Alanus Naturae.

Alan supplicates Nature.

Tunc ego continuae narrationis aurigationem refrenans, dixi: Vellem ut rationabilibus tuae disciplinationis propugnaculis contra furiales istorum vitiorum exercitus, meae mentis roborares oppidulum. Tunc illa:

Then I, reining in the charioteering of the continuous narration, said: I wished that, with the rational bulwarks (propugnacles) of your discipline, against the furial armies of those vices, you would strengthen the little town of my mind. Then she:

Remedia contra vitia.

Remedies against vices.

Ne te gulosae Scylla voraginis
[0471A] Mergat profunda nocte libidinum
Praebe palato frena modestiae,
Ventri tributum solve modestius,
Imbrem Lyaei semita gutturis
Libet modeste Bacchica pocula:
Pota parumper, ut quasi poculis
Bacchi putetur os dare basia.
Frangat Lyaei lympha superbiam,
Bacchi furorem flumina temperent:
Nuptam Lyaeo se Thetis offerat,
Frenet mariti nupta tyrannidem.
Plebaea, simplex, rara comestio
Carnis superbae murmura conterat.

Let not the Scylla of a gluttonous whirlpool
[0471A] plunge you into the deep night of lusts;
Offer to the palate the reins of modesty,
Pay the tribute to the belly more modestly,
For the rain of Lyaeus let the pathway of the gullet
Bacchic cups please, modestly:
Drink a little, so that, as if by the cups,
the mouth may be thought to give kisses to Bacchus.
Let the water of Lyaeus break arrogance,
let rivers temper the fury of Bacchus:
Let Thetis offer herself as bride to Lyaeus,
Let the bride bridle the tyranny of the husband.
Plebeian, simple, rare eating
Let it crush the murmurs of proud flesh.

Ut te tyrannus parcius urgeat,
Semper in ista carne superbiens,
[0471B] Lentus Cupido sic aget otia,
Frenentur in te frena libidinis,
Languens stupescat carnis aculeus,
Ancilla fiet sic caro spiritus:
Largire visus pessula januae,
Frenes ocellos, ne nimis improbe
Venentur extra luminis impetus,
Praedamque menti nuntius offerat.
Si quos habendi fervor inebriat,
Exire cogant, mente pecuniam,
Mentis triumphum sentiat ambitus,
Victi premantur colla Cupidinis.
Non in crumenis ipsa pecunia
Clausis moretur, pigraque dormiat,
[0471C] Nulli vacando, sed magis excubet,
Custos honoris divitis usibus:
Si tempus adsit, si locus exigat,
Surgat sepultae massa pecuniae,
Nummos crumenae funditus evomant.

That the tyrant may press you more sparingly,
always exulting in that flesh,
[0471B] let slackened Cupid thus pass his idleness,
let the reins of libido be reined in upon you,
let the stinger of the flesh, languishing, grow numb,
thus the flesh will become the handmaid of the spirit:
Bestow the bolt of the door upon your sights,
rein in your little eyes, lest too shamelessly
they hunt outside the onrushes of the light,
and the messenger offer prey to the mind.
If any are inebriated by the fervor of having,
let them, by the mind, drive money out,
let ambition feel the triumph of the mind,
let the conquered necks of Cupidity be pressed down.
Let money itself not tarry in purses shut
nor sleep slothful,
[0471C] helping no one by idling, but rather let it keep watch,
a guardian of honor for a rich man’s uses:
if time be at hand, if the place demand it,
let the mass of buried money rise,
let the purses vomit coins from the depths.

Quaevis honori munera militent.
Calcare si vis colla superbiae,
Flatus tumoris, fulmina spiritus,
Pensa caducae pondus originis,
Vitae labores mortis et apocham.

Let whatever gifts be enlisted for honor.
If you wish to trample the necks of pride,
the gusts of swelling, the thunderbolts of spirit,
weigh the weight of your perishable origin,
the labors of life and the receipt of death.

Adventus Hymenaei.

The Arrival of Hymenaeus.

Cum in hanc specialis disciplinae semitam oratio Naturae procederet, ecce vir subitae apparitionis miraculo, sine omni nostrae praeconsiderationis vexillo, suam praesentiam nostris conspectibus praesentavit. [0471D] Qui nullius aetatis legi videretur obnoxius, nunc enim juventutis vere pubescebat, nunc maturioris aevi facies seria loquebatur, nunc vultus senectutis sulcis videbatur arari. Qui sicut multimodae aetatis vicaria facie fluctuabat, sic ejus staturam ancipitem, nunc quantitas minor humilius dehumabat, nunc aequilibratae mediocritatis libramina, staturae ampliabant inopiam, nunc audaci proceritate quantitatis, giganteis contendebat excessibus.

As the discourse of Nature was proceeding into this path of special discipline, behold, a man, by the miracle of a sudden apparition, without any banner of our preconsideration, presented his presence to our sight. [0471D] He seemed subject to the law of no age: now indeed he was truly burgeoning with youth; now the serious face of a more mature age was speaking; now a countenance of old age seemed to be ploughed with furrows. And just as he was fluctuating with the vicarious face of a manifold age, so his stature too was ambivalent: now a lesser quantity abased him more humbly; now the poises of an equilibrated mediocrity amplified the deficiency of his stature; now, with a bold tallness of quantity, he strove with gigantic excesses.

Hujus in facie nulla femineae mollitiei vestigia resultabant, sed sola virilis dignitatis regnabat auctoritas. Hujus facies nec fletus imbribus compluta, nec risus erat lasciviis serenata, [0472A] sed ab utroque feriata, modestius magis aspirabat in lacrymas. Caesaries inducias adepta litigii, artificiosi pectinis fatebatur industriam, moderatae tamen comptionis libramine jacebat ornata, ne si comptionibus vagaretur anomalis, in femineam demigrare videretur mollitiem.

In his face no traces of feminine softness rebounded, but the authority of virile dignity alone reigned. His face was neither drenched with the showers of weeping, nor was it made serene by the wantonness of laughter, [0472A] but, being kept free from both, it inclined more modestly toward tears. His hair, having obtained a truce from strife, acknowledged the industry of an artful comb; yet, by the balance of a moderate coiffure, it lay adorned, lest, if it were to wander in anomalous adornments, it might seem to descend into feminine softness.

Et ne frontis aream comae sepeliret nubecula, forficis morsum capillorum sentiebat extremitas. Hujus facies, prout virilis dignitas exposcebat, a nulla pulchritudinis gratia deviabat. Hujus mentum nunc primam germinabat lanuginem, nunc ibidem herba fimbriat prolixior, nunc luxuriantis barbae vellere silvescere videbatur.

And, lest a little cloud of hair should bury the area of the brow, the extremity of the hairs felt the bite of the shears. His face, as manly dignity required, deviated from no grace of beauty. His chin now was germinating its first down, now in that same place a longer fringed herbage, now it seemed to grow shaggy with the fleece of a luxuriant beard.

Nunc novaculae severitas barbae castigabat excessum. Annuli vero lapidum gemmati sideribus, manus [0472B] fulguratione serenantes eximia, solem reddebant novitium.

Now the severity of the razor chastised the excess of the beard. But the rings, gemmed with stones like the stars, the hands [0472B] making serene with exceptional fulguration, were rendering the sun new.

De vestibus Hymenaei.

On the garments of Hymenaeus.

Vestes vero nunc grossioris materiae vulgari artificio plebescere, nunc subtilioris materiae artificiosissima contextione crederes superbire. In quibus picturarum fabulae, nuptiales somniabant eventus. Picturatas tamen imagines vetustatis fuligo fere coegerat aspirare.

Truly the garments, now you would believe to be becoming plebeian through the vulgar workmanship of a coarser material, now to be growing superb through the most artful contexture of a subtler material. In them the fables of paintings were dreaming nuptial events. Yet the painted images the soot of antiquity had almost forced to do no more than breathe.

Ibi tabulam sacramentalem testimonii, finem matrimonii, connubii pacificam unitatem, nuptiarum inseparabile jugum, nubentium indissolubile vinculum, lingua picturae fatebatur intextum. In picturae etenim libro umbratiliter legebatur, quae nuptiarum exsultationis applaudit [0472C] solemnitas, quae in nuptiis melodiae solemnizet suavitas, quae connubiis convivarum arrideat generalitas specialis, quae matrimonia citharae concludat jucunditas generalis. Organicorum quoque artificum decuriata pluralitas, praedicti hominis decorabat incessum.

There the sacramental tablet of testimony, the end (telos) of matrimony, the pacific unity of connubium, the inseparable yoke of nuptials, the indissoluble bond of those marrying, the tongue of painting confessed to be woven in. For in the book of painting it was read in shadowy fashion, what solemnity applauds the exultation of weddings [0472C] what sweetness of melody solemnizes at nuptials, what special generality of guests smiles upon unions, what general gladness of the cithara closes out marriages. A decuriated plurality, too, of organ-artificers adorned the progress of the aforesaid man.

Ipsi vero artifices in se sui magistri figurantes tristitiam, suis silentium indixerant instrumentis. Unde, instrumentorum officinae quas silentii torpor faciebat elingues, aspirare videbantur in gemitum. Igitur, postquam naturae vicinitati eum localis viciniat affinitas, haec illum signans ex nomine, cum salutis libamine, ei osculi libamen apposuit.

But the craftsmen themselves, portraying within themselves the sadness of their master, had imposed silence upon their instruments. Whence the workshops of the instruments, which the torpor of silence was making tongueless, seemed to breathe into a groan. Therefore, after local affinity had neighbored him to nature’s vicinity—this, marking him by the name— with a libation of salutation it set upon him the libation of a kiss.

Ex ipsius autem nominis signaculo, caeterarumque circumstantiarum loquentibus signis, Hymenaeum qui venerat recognovi, quem natura [0472D] sua locans in dextra, suae dextrae dignitate donavit.

From the seal of his very name, and from the speaking signs of the other circumstances, I recognized Hymenaeus who had come, whom nature [0472D] placing at her right hand endowed with the dignity of her right hand.

Adventus Castitatis.

Advent of Chastity.

Cum inter Naturam Hymenaeumque quaedam colloquii celebraretur festivitas, ecce virgo suae pulchritudinis aurora blandiens universis, repentina sui adventus praesentia, sui directione itineris ad nostram aspirare videbatur praesentiam. In cujus pulchritudine tanti artificii resultabat solemnitas, ut in nullo naturae polientis claudicaret digitus. Hujus facies nullius adventitii coloris mendicabat hypocrisim, sed rosam cum lilio disputantem in facie, mistione naturae mirabili, plantaverat [0473A] dextera Omnipotentis.

While a certain festivity of colloquy was being celebrated between Nature and Hymenaeus, behold, a virgin—the aurora of her beauty—caressing all, by the sudden presence of her advent, by the direction of her journey, seemed to breathe toward our presence. In whose beauty there rebounded the solemnity of so great an artistry, that in nothing did the finger of polishing Nature falter. Her face begged the hypocrisy of no adventitious color, but the right hand of the Omnipotent had planted upon her face, in a wondrous mingling of Nature, a rose disputing with a lily, plantaverat [0473A] dextera Omnipotentis.

Oculi, simplicitatis disciplinati modestia, nullius petulantiae lasciviebant excursibus. Labia proprii retentiva vigoris, nec exhausta suaviis, nec osculis videbantur Veneris sensisse praeludia. Hujus tamen faciem desudantem in lacrymas, lacrymarum flumine crederes naufragari.

The eyes, disciplined by the modesty of simplicity, were not wantoning in the excursions of any petulance. The lips, retentive of their own vigor, neither exhausted by sweet kisses nor by kisses did they seem to have sensed the preludes of Venus. Yet you would suppose her face, sweating into tears, to be shipwrecked in a flood of tears.

Sertum vero materialiter ex liliis decussatae insertionis connubio fibulatis, sui capitis arriserat ornamentis. Cignei tamen crinis candor dedignatus liliorum supplicare candoribus, contradictoriam jactitabat albedinem. Vestes etiam suis verioribus albedinis argumentis nivibus conclusissent, nisi pictura varios commentata colores, earum fefellisset albedinem.

The garland, indeed, materially fashioned from lilies, clasped by the connubium of a decussate insertion, had smiled upon the ornaments of her head. Yet the swan-like hair’s candor, disdaining to supplicate to the candors of lilies, was vaunting a contradictory albedo. The garments also, by truer arguments of whiteness, would have concluded against the snows, unless painting, having contrived various colors, had cheated their whiteness.

In his etenim, sub commento picturae, videbatur intextum, qualiter Hippolyti castitas [0473B] muro vallata constantiae, novercalis luxuriae oppositionibus institit refellendo. Illic Daphnes, ne virginalis ferae jacturam sustineret, fuga Phoebi fugabat illecebras. Illic Lucretia fracti pudoris dispendium mortis excludebat compendio.

In these indeed, under the fiction of painting, it seemed woven how Hippolytus’ chastity [0473B], walled round by a wall of constancy, stood its ground refuting the oppositions of stepmotherly lust. There Daphne, lest she suffer the loss of the virgin quarry, by flight from Phoebus put to flight his allurements. There Lucretia shut out the dispendium of broken modesty by the compendium of death.

Illic in speculo picturae, castitatis speculum Penelopem poteram speculari. Et, ut brevi narrationis tramite subterfugienda picturae multiloquia comprehendam, nullam nativitatis filiam suo commendationis ferculo, depictionis industria defraudavit. Aurei vero sigilli nobilitas, quae ut jaspidum stellabat siderea multitudo, praefatae virginis diescebat in dextera.

There, in the mirror of the picture, I could behold Penelope, the mirror of chastity. And, so that by a brief pathway of narration I may comprise what must slip past the picture’s much-speaking, the industry of depiction defrauded no daughter of birth of her platter of commendation. But the nobility of the golden signet, which was be-starring like a sidereal multitude of jaspers, was dawning on the right hand of the aforesaid virgin.

Super sinistram autem residens turtur, sub facie elegiaci carminis, calamitosis ejulationibus, suae vocis citharam adaptabat. Adolescentularum vero cohors, [0473C] ad itineris solatium et ad obsequiale ministerium, ejus adhaerebat vestigiis. Quam postquam Natura prospexit sibi loci proximitate vicinam, solemni occursu ei obviam veniens, salutis prooemio, osculi praeludio, amplexus connubio, mentalem foris depinxit affectum; dumque praedictae virginis in praefatione salutis, nomen enituit, praesentialem agnovi Castitatis adventum.

Moreover, a turtledove, sitting upon the left, under the guise of an elegiac song, with calamitous ululations, was adapting a cithara to its own voice. But a cohort of young maidens, [0473C] for the solace of the journey and for obsequial service, was adhering to her footsteps. Whom, after Nature, by the proximity of the place, had perceived to be near to herself, coming to meet her with a solemn encounter, with a proem of greeting, a prelude of a kiss, a connubial union of embrace, she painted outwardly the mental affection; and while, in the preface of greeting to the aforesaid virgin, the name shone forth, I recognized the present advent of Chastity.

Adventus Temperantiae.

The Arrival of Temperance.

Cumque Natura eidem festivitate collocutionis applauderet, ecce matrona regulari modestia disciplinans incessum, ad nos videbatur sui itineris tramitem lineare. Hujus statura mediocritatis erat circumscripta limitibus. Aetas vero meridianam [0473D] tendebat ad horam, vitae tamen meridies in nullo pulchritudinis obviabat amori; ruina etiam senectutis, crinem suis nivibus tentabat aspergere, quem ipsa virgo humerorum spatio inordinaria fluctuatione non permiserat juvenari, sed sub disciplina ejus cogebat excessum.

And when Nature was applauding her with the festivity of colloquy, behold, a matron, disciplining her gait with regular modesty, seemed to us to draw in a line the track of her journey. Her stature was circumscribed within the limits of mediocrity. Her age indeed was tending to the meridian [0473D] hour; yet life’s meridian in no way met in opposition the love of beauty; the ruin of old age too was trying to sprinkle her hair with its snows, which the virgin herself had not permitted to be made youthful by an inordinate undulation over the space of the shoulders, but under her discipline she constrained the excess.

Vestes nec nobilis materiae superbire gloria, nec vilitatis videbantur deflere jacturam; sed mediocritatis obedientes canonibus, nec nimiae brevitatis decurtatione truncatae, a terrae superficie peregrinantes evaserant, nec portionibus superfluis terrae faciem tunicabant, sed eam brevi osculi degustatione libabant: zona namque tunicae moderando decursum, enormitatem revocabat [0474A] in regulam. Monile autem sinus excubando vestibulis, manui negabat ingressum. In vestibus, pictura suarum litterarum fidelitate docebat, quae in hominum verbis debeat esse circumcisio, quae in factis circumspectio, quae in habitu mediocritas, quae in gestu severitas, quae in cibis refrenatio oris, quae in potu castigatio gutturis.

The garments seemed neither to be proud with the glory of noble material, nor to bewail the loss of cheapness; but, obedient to the canons of mediocrity, neither truncated by a curtailment of excessive shortness, they, as pilgrims, had escaped the surface of the earth, nor did they tunic the face of the earth with superfluous portions, but touched it with a brief tasting of a kiss: for the zone of the tunic, by moderating the course, recalled enormity [0474A] into rule. Moreover, the necklace, with the bosom keeping watch at the vestibules, denied the hand an entrance. On the garments, the picture of her letters taught with fidelity what circumcision there ought to be in the words of men, what circumspection in deeds, what mediocrity in attire, what severity in bearing, what restraining of the mouth in foods, what chastening of the throat in drink.

Praefatam igitur virginem pedissequarum paucitate vallatam, festinae obviationis applausu natura suscipiens, multiplici osculorum epilogo, specificataeque salutationis auspicio, suae dilectionis cumulum figuravit; expressaque proprii nominis expressio, Temperantiae favorabilem ingessit adventum.

Therefore, Nature, receiving the aforesaid virgin, encircled by a paucity of handmaidens, with the applause of a hasty encounter, with a manifold epilogue of kisses, and under the auspice of a specified salutation, figured the accumulation of her own affection; and, the expression of her own name expressed, she introduced a favorable advent of Temperance.

Adventus Largitatis.

The Advent of Largess.

Cumque amicae salutationis munere Natura veneraretur [0474B] praesentiam Temperantiae, ecce mulier cujus pulchritudinis adjuta fulgore materialis dies, serenioris vultus speciem jactitabat, iter festinando maturans, ad nos sui gressus lineas visa est ordinare. Hujus statura dedignata pauperiem, humanae staturae regulam evadebat. Hujus caput non in terram humiliando depressum, faciem faciebat encliticam, sed erecta cervice ad superna suspendens intuitum, ad altiora visus legebat excursum.

And while Nature, with the gift of a friendly salutation, was venerating [0474B] the presence of Temperance, behold, a woman, by whose beauty’s aided splendor the material day was vaunting the semblance of a more serene countenance, hastening and maturing her journey, seemed to set in order the lines of her steps toward us. Her stature, disdaining poverty, was evading the rule of human stature. Her head, not by humbling pressed down to the earth so as to make the face leaning, but with neck erect, suspending her gaze to things above, was reading the course of her sight toward loftier heights.

Hujus speciem Natura expolitione limata exsculpsit, ut in ea sui artificii industriam posset admirari. Diadema vero, non operis insignitate materiae redimens paupertatem, nec ejusdem nobilitate materiae vilitatem recuperans, sed in utroque singularem referens monarchiam, sine morsu peremptoriae proprietatis [0474C] ardebat in capite. Aureus tamen crinis gratiori igne flammantior, aureo diademati indignando videbatur praestare subsellia: qui nec forficis apocopatus industria, nec in tricaturae manipulos colligatus, sed pigressiori excursione luxurians, limites humerorum transgrediens, terrae videbatur condescendere paupertati.

Her appearance Nature, filed smooth by expolition, sculpted, so that in her she might admire the industry of her own artifice. The diadem, however, neither redeeming a poverty of material by the distinction of workmanship, nor recovering a baseness by the nobility of that same material, but in both referring a singular monarchy, blazed upon the head without the bite of peremptory proprietorship [0474C]. Yet the golden hair, more flammant with a more pleasing fire, seemed, in disdaining, to furnish the golden diadem with its benches: which was neither apocopated by the industry of the scissors, nor gathered into bundles of hairdressing, but, luxuriating in a lazier excursion, overstepping the boundaries of the shoulders, seemed to descend to the poverty of the earth.

Brachia, non brevitatis damnata pauperie, sed proceritatis excursu fluentia, non retro reciproca, sed in anteriora crederes transitura; manus, nullius complosionis arctationis reciprocae, sed largae expositionis explicatione productiles, largiendi affectabant officia. Vestes etiam ex aureis, sericisque filis insertionis osculo conjugatis materiam sortientes, ut a materiae generositate [0474D] operis commendata subtilitas, tanti artificii gratulabatur insignibus, ut non materialem, verum etiam coelestem manum operi crederes insudasse. In quibus, imaginaria picturae probabilitas sophistico procurationis suae praestigio, homines notorio avaritiae crimine laborantes, anathematis damnabat opprobrio; largitatis vero filios famae praeconiis titulatos, benedictionis gratia compensabat.

Arms, not condemned by the poverty of shortness, but flowing with the excursion of tallness, not reciprocally turning back, but you would think about to pass into the forward; the hands, of no reciprocal compression of constriction, but, by the unfolding of liberal exposition, extendable, were aspiring to the offices of largessing. The garments also, drawing their material from golden and silken threads conjoined by the kiss of insertion, such that, from the nobility of the material, [0474D] the subtlety of the work, commended, was rejoicing in the insignia of so great an art, so that you would believe not a material, but even a celestial hand had sweated upon the work. In these, the imaginary plausibility of painting, by the sophistic prestidigitation of its own contrivance, was condemning to the opprobrium of anathema men laboring under the notorious crime of avarice; but the sons of largess, entitled by the proclamations of fame, it recompensed with the grace of benediction.

Praefata igitur mulier solo asseclarum vallata ternario, cum sui gressus maturationi insisteret, ecce, Natura celebri occursu illius amicans incessus, osculum salutatione dimidians, salutationem osculo syncopabat. Ejus formae specialis insignitas, habitus [0475A] specificati curialitas, gestus individualitas, Largitatis dum promulgarent adventum, nomen in salutatione resultans, ejusdem rei fidem a nube dubitationis excepi.

Therefore the aforesaid woman, walled about by a mere ternary of attendants, as she was insisting on the maturation of her steps, behold, Nature, with a celebrated encounter, befriending her advance, by halving the kiss with a salutation was syncopating the salutation with a kiss. The distinctiveness of her special form, the courtliness of the [0475A] specified habit, the individuality of her gesture, while they were promulgating the advent of Largity, the name resounding in the salutation, I received the confirmation of the same thing out of the cloud of dubitation.

Adventus Humilitatis.

The Arrival of Humility.

Dum Natura Largitati primitivae salutationis, amicaeque applausionis jura persolveret, ecce puella lentitudine pigritantis gressus morosior, columbini vultus placiditate serenior, modicitate staturae castigatioris humilior, ad nos divertere testudinei gressus modestia, videbatur. Staturae tamen humilitati, gratia pulchritudinis venerat in patronum: quae mechanicis humani artificii usurpata fallaciis, sed vivo fonte naturae scaturientis, totum corpus decoris afflaverat ornamento. Hujus crinis tanta [0475B] fuerat forficis demorsione succisus, ut apocopationis figura fere in vitium transmigraret.

While Nature was discharging to Largess the rights of primitive salutation and of friendly applause, behold, a maiden, more deliberate with the slowness of a sluggardly step, more serene with the placidity of a dove-like countenance, humbler by the modesty of a more chastened stature, seemed to turn aside toward us with the modesty of a tortoise-like gait. Yet to the humility of her stature the grace of beauty had come as a patron: which, not by the usurped fallacies of human mechanic artifice, but from the living fount of Nature welling forth, had breathed upon the whole body an ornament of comeliness. Her hair had been so shorn by the biting of the shears [0475B] that the figure of apocopation had almost migrated into a fault.

Capillos vero quodam exorbitationis diversiclinio devagantes, inexplicabili intricatione complicitos, inter se crederes litigare. Caput demissione profunda dejectum, humiliter encleticabat in terram. Vestes non a nativo colore materiae appositivi coloris adulteratione degeneris, suburbanae materiae vulgaritatem artificiosae operationis defendebant subsidio.

But the hair, straying by a certain side-leaning of exorbitation, plaited in an inexplicable intricacy, you would think to be litigating among itself. The head, cast down with a profound demission, was humbly inclining toward the earth. The garments, not degenerated from the native color of the material by the adulteration of an applied color, were defending the vulgarity of suburban material with the aid of artificious workmanship.

Ibi fabulosis picturae commentis legebatur inscriptum, qualiter in virtutum catalogo Humilitas insignitatis vexillo praefulgeret; Superbia vero sacramentali virtutum synodo excommunicationis suspensa charactere, extremae relegationis damnaretur excidio. Huic igitur adventanti, Natura enixiori [0475C] festinatione veniens in occursum, salutationis suae ferculum osculorum melliniens condimento, vultum dilectionis exhibuit medullatae. In specificationis vero personae idiomatibus, mihi Humilitatis resultavit adventus.

There, by the fabulous contrivances of painting, it was read as inscribed how, in the catalog of virtues, Humility shone forth under the banner of distinction; but Pride, in a sacramental synod of the virtues, suspended with the character of excommunication, was condemned to the ruin of extreme relegation. To her therefore as she was arriving, Nature, coming to meet with more strenuous [0475C] haste, honeying the platter of her salutation with the condiment of kisses, exhibited a visage of marrow-deep dilection. And from the idioms specifying the person, the advent of Humility resounded to me.

Querulosa Naturae collocutio cum Hymenaeo, et virginibus praedictis.

Querulous colloquy of Nature with Hymenaeus, and the aforesaid virgins.

Cum Hymenaeus, praetaxataeque virgines in Naturae facie, intestinae conquestionis faciem exemplarent, internique doloris ideas in forinsecae lacrymationis icones producere molirentur, ecce Natura verbis verba praeveniens, ait: O sola humanae tenebrositatis luminaria, occidentis mundi sidera matutina, naufragorum tabulae speciales, Portus [0475D] mundialium fluctuum singulares! radicatae cognitionis maturitate cognosco quae sit vestri conventus ratio, quae adventus occasio, quae lamentationis causa, quae doloris exordia. Homines etenim sola humanitatis specie figurati, interius vero belluinae enormitatis deformitate dejecti, quos humanitatis chlamide doleo investisse, a terrenae inhabitationis patrimonio vos exhaeredare conantur, sibi terrenum funditus usurpando dominium, vos ad coeleste domicilium repatriare cogentes.

When Hymenaeus and the virgins with purple-bordered robes, before the face of Nature, were modeling the visage of inward complaint, and were striving to bring forth the ideas of interior pain into icons of outward weeping, behold, Nature, forestalling words with words, said: O sole luminaries of human tenebrosity, morning stars of the westering world, special planks of the shipwrecked, unique Havens of the world’s billows [0475D]! by the maturity of rooted cognition I know what is the rationale of your gathering, what the occasion of your arrival, what the cause of lamentation, what the beginnings of sorrow. For men, fashioned only in the appearance of humanity, but within cast down by the deformity of bestial enormity, whom I grieve to have invested with the mantle of humanity, strive to disinherit you from the patrimony of earthly habitation, by utterly usurping for themselves the earthly dominion, forcing you to repatriate to the heavenly domicile.

Quoniam ergo res mea agitur, cum familiaris paries inflammatur incendio, vestrae compassioni compatiens, vestro dolori condolens, in vestro gemitu meum lego gemitum, in vestra adversitate meum invenio detrimentum. De contingentibus igitur nihil omittens, [0476A] in me finem proprium consecuta, prout valeo brachium meae potestatis extendere, eos vindicta vitio respondente percutiam. Sed quia excedere limitem meae virtutis non valeo, nec meae facultatis est, hujus pestilentiae virus omnifariam exstirpare, meae possibilitatis regulam prosecuta, homines praedictorum vitiorum anfractibus irretitos anathematis cauteriabo charactere.

Since therefore my affair is at stake, when the household wall is inflamed by fire, sympathizing with your compassion and condoling with your grief, in your groan I read my groan; in your adversity I find my own detriment. Therefore, omitting nothing of the contingent matters, [0476A] having in me reached its proper end, so far as I am able to extend the arm of my power, I will strike them with vengeance answering to the vice. But because I cannot exceed the limit of my virtue, nor is it within my faculty to extirpate on every side the virus of this pestilence, following the rule of my possibility, I will cauterize with the character of anathema the men ensnared in the anfractuous windings of the aforesaid vices.

Genium vero qui mihi in sacerdotali ancillatur officio, decens est suscitari, qui eos a naturalium rerum catalogo, a meae jurisdictionis confinio, meae judiciariae potestatis assistente praesentia, vestrae assensionis conveniente gratia, pastorali virga excommunicationis eliminet. Cujus legationis Hymenaeus erit probatissimus exsecutor; penes quem [0476B] stellantis elocutionis astra lucescunt, penes quem examinatoris consilii locatur armarium.

But indeed the Genius who, as a handmaid, serves me in the sacerdotal office, is meet to be roused, to eliminate them from the catalog of natural things, from the boundary of my jurisdiction, with the assisting presence of my judicial power, with the fitting grace of your assent, by the pastoral rod of excommunication. Of which legation Hymenaeus will be the most approved executor; with whom [0476B] the stars of stellar elocution shine, with whom the repository of an examiner’s counsel is placed.

Legatio Hymenaei cum Naturae litteris ad Genium.

The embassy of Hymenaeus with Nature’s letters to Genius.

Tunc astantes a suae conquestionis lacrymis feriantes, profunda capitum demissione, submisse gratiarum actiones naturae abundanti professione solvunt; Hymenaeus vero in praesentiali Naturae conspectu sese genibus arcuatis humilians, destinatae legationi sese fatebatur obnoxium. Tunc illa schedulam papyream hujusmodi exemplaris carminis inscriptione signavit. Natura, Dei gratia, mundanae civitatis prima vicaria procreatrix, Genio sibi alteri similem, eique per omnia serenatis fortunae blanditiis amicari.

Then those standing by, refraining from the tears of their complaint, with a deep lowering of their heads, humbly discharge thanksgivings with abundant profession to Nature; but Hymenaeus, indeed, in Nature’s present sight, humbling himself with knees arched, confessed himself obligated to the destined legation. Then she sealed a papyrus slip with the inscription of an exemplar of a poem of this kind. Nature, by the grace of God, the first vicarial procreatrix of the mundane city, to Genius like to herself as an other, and for him in all things to be befriended by the soothed blandishments of Fortune.

[0476C] Quoniam similia dissimilium aspersione, et similium sociali habitudine gratulantur, in te velut in speculo Naturae radiante similitudine inveniendo me alteram, nodo dilectionis praecordialis astringor, aut in tuo profectu proficiens, aut in tuo defectu aequa lance deficiens, quare circularis debet esse dilectio, ut tu talione dilectionis respondeas. Patrati sceleris evidentia, clamoris gerens imaginem, humani generis naufragium tibi evidenter eloquitur. Vides enim qualiter homines originalis naturae honestatem bestialibus illecebris inhonestent, humanitatis privilegialem exuentes naturam, in bestias, morum degeneratione transmigrant, Veneris in consequentia affectus proprios [0476D] consequentes, gulositatis vorticibus naufragantes, cupiditatis vaporibus aestuantes, alis superbiae ficticiis evolantes, invidiae morsibus indulgentes, adulationis hypocrisi alios deaurantes.

[0476C] Since similars take joy by the aspersion of dissimilars, and by the social habitude of similars, in you, as in a mirror of Nature, with a likeness radiating, finding myself a second self, I am bound by a knot of precordial love—either advancing in your advance, or, with an equal scale, failing in your failure; wherefore love ought to be circular, so that you may answer by the talion of love. The evidence of the perpetrated crime, bearing the image of a clamor, clearly declares to you the shipwreck of the human race. For you see how men dishonor the honesty of original nature by bestial allurements, stripping off the privilegial nature of humanity, migrating into beasts by a degeneration of morals, in the consequence of Venus pursuing their own affections, [0476D] being shipwrecked in the vortices of gulosity, burning in the vapors of cupidity, flying off on the fictitious wings of pride, indulging the bites of envy, gilding others by the hypocrisy of adulation.

His vitiorum morbis nemo medicinalibus instat remediis; hunc scelerum torrentem nemo obice defensionis castigat: hos facinorum fluctus, nemo portus stabilitate refrenat. Virtutes etiam tantam hostilis conflictus ingruentiam sustinere non valentes, ad nos tantum defensionis asylum, et vitae remedium confugiunt. Quoniam ergo res nostra communi degrassatione vexatur, et precibus melliens, tibi obedientiae virtute praecipiens, et jubendo moneo, et monendo jubeo, quatenus omni excusationis sophismate relegato, ad nos matures accessum, ut mei [0477A] mearumque Virginum assistente praesentia, abominationis filios a sacramentali Ecclesiae nostrae communione sejungens, cum debita officii solemnitate, severa excommunicationis virga percutias.

No one presses upon the diseases of vices with medicinal remedies; no one chastises this torrent of crimes with the obstacle of defense; no one curbs these waves of misdeeds by the stability of a harbor. The virtues too, not able to sustain so great an onrush of hostile conflict, flee for refuge to us alone as an asylum of defense and a remedy of life. Since therefore our affair is vexed by a common degression, and, honeying with prayers, by the virtue of obedience I enjoin upon you, and by commanding I warn, and by warning I command, that, every sophism of excuse set aside, you make mature access to us, so that, with the assisting presence of me [0477A] and of my Virgins, separating the sons of abomination from the sacramental communion of our Church, you may smite with the severe rod of excommunication with the due solemnity of office.

Post haec, illa epistolam sigillari signaculo consignatam, in quo nomen imaginemque Naturae peritia artificialis exsculpserat, legato tradidit delegandam. Tunc Hymenaeus solemniori vultu laetitiae gratiarum actiones epilogans, et legationem destinatam initians, suosque a sopore pigritiae excitans consodales, jussit ut suis invigilantes organicis instrumentis, a somno silentii eadem excitarent, et ad harmonici melodiomatis modulos invitarent. Tunc illi quibusdam prooemiis sua illicientes [0477B] instrumenta, vocem deformiter uniformem, dissimilitudine similem, multiformi modulo picturabant:

After these things, she handed over to the legate, to be delegated, an epistle sealed with a sigillary signet, in which, by artificial skill, she had engraved the name and image of Nature. Then Hymenaeus, with a more solemn countenance of joy, epilogizing thanksgivings and initiating the destined embassage, and rousing his fellow-companions from the slumber of sloth, ordered that, keeping watch over their organic instruments, they should awaken the same from the sleep of silence, and invite to the measures of harmonic melody. Then they, by certain proems enticing their [0477B] instruments, were limning a voice deformedly uniform, similar by dissimilarity, with a multiform module:

Jam tuba terribili bellum clangore salutans
Intonuit, cognati loquens praeludia belli,
Mugitu simili similem signando tumultum.
Aera laedebat mendaci vulnere cornu,
Devia vox hujus, vox hujus anormala nescit
Organicis patere modis, artique favere
Spernit, et effrenem miratur musica cantum.
Grataque vox citharae serenans gratius istis
Mellitae tribuit auri convivia vocis,
Quae cantus varii faciem variando colorans,
Nunc lacrymas in voce parit, mentita dolorem;
Nunc falsi risus, sonitu mendacia pingit,
[0477C] Et lyra quae semper cantu philomenat amoeno,
Dulcius alliciens, oculisque prooemia somni
Lectitat, et sepelit offensae murmura mentis
Fistula, quae noctu solers vigil excubat, imo
Excubiis voce compensat damna soporis:
Auribus arrisit per quem fit caetera cordis
Saxea durities, mentisque liquescere durae
Cogitur asperitas, propriumque fugare rigorem.

Now the trumpet, saluting war with terrible clangor,
thundered, speaking the preludes of a kindred war,
by a like bellow marking a like tumult.
A horn was wounding the air with a mendacious wound,
the stray voice of this one, this anomalous voice, does not know
to lie open to organical modes, nor to favor art—
it spurns, and admires the unbridled chant of music.
And the pleasing voice of the cithara, more pleasantly serenading than these,
granted banquets of voice to the honeyed ear,
which, coloring the face of varied song by varying it,
now brings forth tears in the voice, feigning grief;
now of false laughter, with sound it paints mendacities,
[0477C] And the lyre, which always nightingales with pleasing song,
enticing more sweetly, and for the eyes the prooemia of sleep
it reads over, and buries the murmurs of an offended mind—
the pipe, which by night, skillful, watchful, keeps watch; nay,
with its watches it compensates by voice the losses of sleep:
it has smiled upon the ears, whereby the remaining stony hardness
of the heart, and the harshness of the hard mind, are compelled to melt,
and to put to flight their own rigidity.

Hunc vocis cursum, tantumque volucris acumen
Obtusae vocis tardabant tympana gressu.
Nec tamen omnino cantus fraudatur honore,
Verbere si quis ea subtili verberet ictu,
Suscitet atque manus tractu delibet amico,
Aeris exhausti tractu sociata profundo.
[0477D] Cum dulci strepitu ructabant organa ventum,
Dividitur juncta, divisaque jungitur horum
Dispar comparitas cantus, concordia discors,
Imo dissimilis similis dissensio vocum.

This course of the voice, and so great a winged acumen of a blunted voice,
the drums were slowing with their step.
Yet nevertheless the song is not altogether defrauded of honor,
if someone should beat them with a subtle stroke by a blow,
and rouse them, and with the hand’s friendly sweep skim them,
joined with the deep draught of exhausted air.
[0477D] When with sweet clatter the organs belched the wind,
the joined is divided, and the divided is joined—of these
the disparate comparity of song, a discordant concord,
nay, a dissimilar similar dissension of voices.

Plebaeo sonitu mendica voce sonabant,
Cymbala, quae nostris nunquam clamando perorant
Auribus, auditus hominum vix digna mereri.
Nullus erat major, melior, vel gratior illo,
Quo concludebat praedictis cantibus unus,
Dulcis pentasonae cantus, vestigia cujus,
Cujus adorabat vocem plebs aemula cantum.
Et quae cum cithara discordi disputat ore,
Psalterii condita favo, mellita sapore,
Insonuit vox grata ferens munuscula cantus.

They were sounding with plebeian din, with a mendicant voice,
The cymbals, which by clamoring never perorate to our ears,
Scarcely worthy to merit the hearings of men.
There was none greater, better, or more pleasing than that
By which one sweet song of the pentachord concluded the aforesaid songs,
Whose traces,
Whose voice in song the emulous plebs adored.
And that which argues with the cithara with a discordant mouth,
Seasoned with the honeycomb of the psaltery, with honeyed savor,
A pleasing voice resounded, bearing little gifts of song.

Sistra puellaris tactum poscentia dextrae,
[0478A] Linguae femineae, Martis bellique prophetae,
Vocis inauditae miracula voce canebant.

Sistra, maidenly, asking for the touch of the right hand,
[0478A] tongues feminine, prophets of Mars and of war,
were chanting with voice the miracles of an unheard-of voice.

Resumit Natura suam querulosam locutionem.

Nature resumes her querulous locution.

Igitur Hymenaeo mysticae legationis mysteriis in dulgente, Natura aerumnosae conquestionis elegiacam orationem contexens, illorum recensebat injurias, quorum ingruente flagitio, suae reipublicae majestas, profundi detrimenti abundantem senserat laesionem. Inter quos, unum prae caeteris accuratius stimulis reprehensionis arguebat, qui prae aliis incurialius certabat dedecorare Naturam. Cum quaevis gratia nobilitatis blandiretur naturae, cum suis muneribus amicaretur prudentia, cumque magnanimitas erigeret, largitas erudiret, tamen, quia [0478B] universa massa modici fermenti asperitate laborabat, unius virtutis occidens, caeterarum virtutum orientem funditus nubilabat.

Therefore, as Hymenaeus was indulging the mysteries of the mystic legation, Nature, weaving an elegiac oration of woeful complaint, was recounting the injuries of those at whose rushing-in crime the majesty of her commonwealth had felt an abundant lesion of deep detriment. Among whom, one before the rest she was more closely arraigning with the goads of reprehension, who, more than the others, uncourtly, strove to disgrace Nature. Although whatever grace of nobility would flatter Nature, although Prudence with its gifts would make itself her friend, and Magnanimity would raise her up, Liberality would instruct, nevertheless, because [0478B] the whole mass was laboring under the harshness of a little leaven, the setting of one virtue was utterly clouding the rising of the other virtues.

Unius probitatis eclipsis, caeterarum probitatum sidera recessu ecliptico mori cogebat. Cumque Largitas ad suum alumnum ista spectare videret convitia, non audens defensionis pallio ejusdem vitia colorare, cum humili capitis demissione decidua, ad lacrymarum confugit remedia.

The eclipse of one probity compelled the stars of the other probities to die by an ecliptic recession. And when Generosity saw that these revilings were aimed at her own alumnus, not daring to color that same one’s vices with the cloak of defense, with a humble demission of the head, drooping, she fled for refuge to the remedies of tears.

Natura consolatur Largitatem et Prodigalitatem reprobat.

Nature consoles Largess and reproves Prodigality.

Natura perpendens quid capitis demissio, quid lacrymarum figuraret emissio, ait: O Virgo, cujus praesignii architectatione humana mens virtutum destinatur palatium per quam homines favorabilis [0478C] gratiae praemia consequentur; per quam aetatis aureae antiquata saecula reviviscunt; per quam homines se glutino amicitiae praecordialis astringunt; aeterna usia aeternali suae noys osculo generando producens, mihi sororem largita est uterinam. Non solum te mihi nativae consanguinitatis zona confibulat, verum etiam, perdux amoris nexus concatenat. Unde a meae voluntatis examine, tuae discretionis libra voluntatem tuam non patitur aberrare: tanta enim unio conformitatis, imo, unitas unitionis fideli pace nostras mentes conciliat, ut non solum illa unio simulatoria, unitatis vestiatur imagine, verum etiam unitionis phantasia deposita, ad identitatis aspiret essentiam.

Nature, weighing what the lowering of the head, what the outpouring of tears was figurating, said: O Virgin, by whose presign’s architectation the human mind is destined a palace of virtues, through whom men will obtain the prizes of favorable [0478C] grace; through whom the antiquated ages of the Golden Age revive; through whom men bind themselves with the glue of precordial friendship; the eternal ousia, by generating, bringing forth with the eternal kiss of its own nous, has bestowed on me a uterine sister. Not only does the girdle of native consanguinity fasten you to me, but also a strong bond of love concatenates us. Whence, from the assay of my will, the balance of your discretion does not suffer your will to stray: for so great a union of conformity—nay, a unity of unition—by faithful peace conciliates our minds, that not only that feigned union is clothed with the image of unity, but also, the phantasy of unition laid aside, it aspires to the essence of identity.

Quare, in neutram alicujus injuria debacchatur, quae non [0478D] grassetur in alteram, neutri alicujus illecebra novercatur, quae non inimicetur et alteri. Quare, qui impudicae patrationis clamante blasphemia, meae dignitatis titulum effeminare laborat, injuriosae vexationis instantia, tuo honori derogare conatur. Ille etiam qui excedentis prodigalitatis effluxu naturae donis abutitur, fortunae muneribus damno nimiae dilapidationis exuitur.

Wherefore, the injury of anyone runs riot against neither party which does not also [0478D] range into the other; the enticement of anyone plays the stepmother to neither which does not also be inimical to the other. Wherefore, he who, with the blasphemy of an impudent perpetration crying out, strives to effeminate the title of my dignity, by the urgency of injurious vexation endeavors to derogate from your honor. He also who, by the outflow of excessive prodigality, abuses the gifts of nature, is stripped of the gifts of fortune by the damage of immoderate dilapidation.

Sic quoque prodigalitatis meretricata communitas, mentiendo largitatis profitetur honorem, divitiarumque torrens, paupertatis derivatur in aridum; sapientiae splendor fatuitatis deviat in occasum; magnanimitatis rigor laxatur in temeritatis audaciam. Quadam ergo admiratione fatigor, cur in damnatione illius qui nos [0479A] caeteris damnosius damnificare contendit, lacrymarum diluvium non valeas refrenare. Tunc Largitas, certiori remedio a regione vultus rivulum lacrymarum absentans, capitisque demissionem revocans ad superna, ait: O nativorum omnium originale principium!

Thus too a community prostituted to prodigality, by lying professes the honor of largess, and the torrent of riches is diverted into the dryness of poverty; the splendor of wisdom swerves into the sunset of fatuity; the rigor of magnanimity is relaxed into the audacity of temerity. Therefore I am wearied with a certain wonder, why, at the condemnation of him who strives to damage us [0479A] more ruinously than the rest, you are not able to restrain the deluge of tears. Then Liberality, by a more certain remedy removing from the region of the face the little stream of tears, and recalling the downcast of the head to things above, said: O original principle of all the born!

O rerum omnium speciale subsidium! O mundanae regionis regina! O suprema coelestis principis fidelis vicaria, quae sub imperatoris aeterni auctoritate, fidelem administrationem nulla fermentatione corrumpis.

O special aid of all things! O queen of the mundane region! O supreme faithful vicar of the celestial prince, who, under the authority of the eternal emperor, do not corrupt your faithful administration by any fermentation.

Cui universitas mundialis originis speciei exigentia obedire tenetur, prout intimae cognitionis expressa parilitas exigit, me tibi aurea dilectionis catena connectit. Illi igitur qui suam naturam damno venundans, [0479B] te insultu nimiae rebellionis impugnat, mihi coequatae concussionis importunitate repugnat. Qui, quamvis umbratili credulitatis deceptus imagine, meis se credat commilitare comitiis, hominesque histrionali prodigalitatis figuratione decepti, in eo Largitatis odorent vestigia, tamen a nostrae amicationis beneficio longa relegatione suspenditur.

To whom the universality of the world is held to obey by the exigency of the species of origin, in accordance as the expressed parity of inmost cognition requires, a golden chain of dilection connects me to you. Accordingly, he who, vending his own nature to damage, [0479B] assails you with the insult of excessive rebellion, opposes me with the importunity of a concussion matched thereto. Who, although deceived by a shadowy image of credulity, believes himself to be campaigning as a fellow-soldier at my comitia, and men deceived by a histrionic figuration of prodigality scent in him the footprints of Largitas; nevertheless he is suspended from the benefit of our amity by a long relegation.

Sed, quia nostrum est erroneae divagationis anfractibus compati condolendo, in ejus insensatae voluntatis exhibitione pestifera, non valeo non moveri.

But, since it is ours to sympathize by condoling with the windings of erroneous divagation, at the pestiferous exhibition of his insensate will, I am not able not to be moved.

Adventus Genii.

The Advent of the Genius.

Cum inter has virgines dragmaticae collocutionis intercalaris celebraretur collatio, ecce Genius, organicorum instrumentorum applaudente laetitia, [0479C] nova apparitionis resultatione comparuit. Cujus statura mediocritatis canone modificata decenter, nec de diminutione querebatur apheresis, nec de superfluitatis prothesi tristabatur, cujus caput pruinosis canitiei crinibus investitum, hiemalis senii gerebat signaculum: facies tamen juvenili expolita planitie, nulla erat senectutis exaratione sulcata. Vestes vero opere sequente naturam, hujus vel illius nescientes inopiam, videbantur nunc serenari hyacintho, nunc colore succendi coccineo; nunc bysso expressius candidari: in quibus, rerum imagines momentanee viventes, toties exspirabant, ut a nostrae cognitionis laberentur indagine.

While among these virgins an intercalary conference of dogmatic colloquy was being celebrated, behold, the Genius, as the organic instruments applauded with joy, [0479C] appeared with the resounding of a new apparition. His stature, decorously modulated by the canon of mediocrity, neither had apheresis complaining of diminution nor prothesis grieving over superfluity; his head, invested with frosty hairs of hoariness, bore the signet of wintry age: yet his face, polished with the smoothness of youth, was furrowed by no ploughing of senescence. His garments, with workmanship following nature and knowing the lack of neither this nor that, seemed now to be made serene with hyacinth, now to be set aflame with scarlet color, now to be made more expressly white with byssus; in which the images of things, living for a moment, expired so often that they slipped from the pursuit of our cognition.

Ille vero calamum papyreae fragilitatis nunquam a suae inscriptionis ministerio feriantem manu ferebat in dextera; [0479D] in sinistra vero, pellem novaculae demorsione pileorum caesarie denudatam, in qua styli obsequentis subsidio, imagines rerum ab umbra picturae ad veritatem essentiae transmigrantes, vita sui generis donabantur; quibus deletionis morte sopitis, novae nativitatis ortu, aliae revocabantur ad vitam. Illic Helena, suo decore semidea, quae mediante pulchritudine sua, pulchritudo poterat nuncupari. Illic in Turno fulmen audaciae, vigor regnat in Hercule.

He, for his part, was carrying in his right hand a calamus, a reed-pen of papyrean fragility, never idling from the ministry of his inscription; [0479D] in his left, however, a skin laid bare, by the razor’s nibbling (demorsion), of the tresses of pelts, in which, with the aid of an obsequious stylus, the images of things, migrating from the shadow of painting to the verity of essence, were endowed with a life of their own kind; and when these were lulled by the death of deletion, at the rising of a new nativity others were called back to life. There Helen, by her own comeliness a demigoddess, who, her beauty mediating, could herself be named Beauty. There in Turnus the thunderbolt of audacity; vigor reigns in Hercules.

Illic in Capaneo gigantea ascendebat proceritas; in Ulysse vulpina vigebat calliditas. Illic Cato pudicae sobrietatis nectare debriabatur mirabili. Plato ingenii splendore rutilabat sidereo.

There, in Capaneus a gigantic loftiness was ascending; in Ulysses fox-like cunning was flourishing. There Cato was being intoxicated with the nectar of pudic sobriety, wondrously. Plato was glowing with the sidereal splendor of genius.

Illic stellata cauda Tulliani pavonis rutilabat. Illic Aristoteles sententias aenigmaticarum locutionum latibulis [0480A] involvebat. Post hujus inscriptionis solemnitatem, dexterae manui continuae depictionis fatigatae laboribus, sinistra manus tanquam sorori fessae subveniens, picturandi officium usurpabat; dextera manu pugillaribus potita; quae ab orthographiae semita falsigraphiae claudicatione recedens, rerum figuras, imo, figurarum larvas umbratiles semiplena picturatione creabat.

There the stellate tail of the Tullian peacock was glowing. There Aristotle was wrapping sentences in the hiding-places of enigmatic locutions [0480A]. After the solemnity of this inscription, the left hand, coming to the aid of the right hand wearied by the labors of continuous depiction as of a tired sister, usurped the office of painting; the right hand having taken possession of the tablets; which, departing from the path of orthography by the limp of falsigraphy, was creating the figures of things—nay, the shadowy masks of figures—by a half-full picturation.

Illic Thersites turpitudinis pannositate vestitus, peritioris fabricae solertiam postulabat. Illic Paris incestuosae cupidinis mollitie figurabatur. Illic Ennii versus a sententiarum venustate jejuni, artem metricam effreni transgrediebantur licentia.

There Thersites, clothed in the raggedness of turpitude, was demanding the cleverness of a more skillful workmanship. There Paris was being portrayed by the softness of incestuous desire. There the verses of Ennius, jejune of the charm of sentiments, were transgressing the metrical art with unbridled license.

Illic Pacuvius nesciens narrationis modificare curriculum, in retrograda serie sui tractatus locabat initium. [0480B]

There Pacuvius, not knowing how to modulate the course of narration, placed the beginning of his treatise in a retrograde series. [0480B]

Quomodo Veritas comitabatur Genium.

How Truth accompanied the Genius.

His ergo picturae solertiis Genio solemniter operam impendenti, Veritas tanquam patri filia verecunda ancillatione obsequens assistebat, quae non pruritu aphrodites promiscuo propagata, sed hoc solo Naturae natique geniali osculo fuerat derivata, cum Ilem speculum formarum meditantem, aeternalis salutavit idea, eam iconiae interpretis interventu vicario osculata. Hujus in facie divinae pulchritudinis deitas legebatur, nostrae mortalitatis aspernata naturam. Vestes vero coelestis artificis dexteram eloquentes, indefessae rutilationis splenditatibus inflammatae, nullis poterant vetustatis tineis cancellari: quae virgineo corpori tanta fuerant [0480C] connexione conjunctae, ut nulla exuitionis diaeresis eas aliquando faceret virginali corpori pharisaeas.

Therefore, as Genius was solemnly expending effort upon these ingenuities of painting, Truth, like to a father a modest daughter, standing by and compliant with handmaid-service, attended; who was not propagated by the promiscuous itch of Aphrodite, but had been derived by this alone, the nuptial kiss of Nature and of the begotten, when the eternal Idea greeted him pondering the mirror of forms, kissing her by the vicarious intervention of an interpreter of icony. In her face the deity of divine beauty was readable, scorning the nature of our mortality. Her garments, indeed, eloquent of the right hand of the celestial craftsman, inflamed with the splendors of unwearied rutilation, could be cancelled by no moths of old age: which had been conjoined to the virginal body with so great a connection [0480C] that no diaeresis of disrobing would ever make them “Pharisees” to the virginal body.

Aliae autem tanquam adventitiae naturae, praecedentibus appendiciis, nunc oculis visus offerebant libamina, nunc oculorum sese figurabantur indagini. Ex opposito, veritati falsitas inimicans stabat attentior, cujus facies turpitudinis nubilata fuligine, nulla in se naturae munera fatebatur, sed senectus faciem rugarum vallibus submittens, eam universaliter implicans collegerat. Caput nec crinis vestimento videbatur indutum, nec pepli velamentum excusabat calvitiem, sed panniculorum infinita pluralitas, quos filiorum pluralis infinitas ei texuerat vestimentum.

But others, as though of an adventitious nature, with antecedent appendages, now offered libations of sight to the eyes, now were being fashioned for the investigation of the eyes. On the opposite side, Falsehood, inimical to Truth, stood the more intent, whose face, clouded with the soot of turpitude, acknowledged no gifts of nature in itself; but Old Age, submitting to the face valleys of wrinkles, had gathered it up, universally entangling it. The head seemed clothed neither with a vestment of hair, nor did the veiling of a peplum excuse the baldness, but an infinite plurality of little rags, which the plural infinity of sons had woven for her, served as a garment.

Haec autem, picturae veritatis latenter insidians, quidquid illa conformiter [0480D] informabat, ista informiter deformabat.

But this one, stealthily lying in wait for the painting’s truth, whatever that one conformably [0480D] was giving form to, this one, formlessly, was deforming.

Quomodo Natura occurrat Genio adventanti.

How Nature meets the approaching Genius.

Natura igitur suo gressui laxiores concedens habenas, solemnem occursum solemniter exhibendo, oscula nullo illicitae Veneris fermentata veneno, sed mystici signantia cupidinis amplexus, etiam mysticae dilectionis concordiam figurantes, Genio exhibuit adventanti.

Therefore Nature, granting to her own step looser reins, by solemnly exhibiting a solemn encounter, offered to the arriving Genius kisses not leavened with any poison of illicit Venus, but marking the embraces of mystical desire, also figuring the concord of mystical love.

Alloquitur Genius Naturam.

Genius addresses Nature.

Mutua gratulatione expletionis termino consummata, Genius induxit silentium, manu postulante silentia, consequenter vero in hanc locutionis formam suae vocis monetavit materiam: O Natura, non sine internae spirationis afflatione divina, a tuae discretionis libra istud imperiale processit edictum, [0481A] ut omnes qui abusiva desuetudine, nostras leges aboletas reddere moliuntur, et in nostrae solemnitatis feria feriantes, anathematis gladio feriantur. Et quia lex hujus promulgationis legitimae, legem justitiae non oppugnat, tuique libra judicii meae discretionis sedet examini, tuae edictionis regulam ocius roborare maturo. Quamvis enim mens mea hominum vitiis angustiata deformibus, in infernum tristitiae peregrinans, laetitiae nesciat paradisum, tamen in hoc amoenantis gaudii odorat primordia, quod te mecum videat ad debitae vindictae suspiria suspirare.

With the mutual congratulation consummated at the term of fulfillment, the Genius induced silence, his hand requesting silences, and then he framed the matter of his voice into this form of locution: O Nature, not without the divine afflation of inward inspiration, from the balance of your discretion this imperial edict has proceeded, [0481A] that all who by abusive desuetude strive to render our laws abrogated, and who keep holiday on the festival of our solemnity, be smitten by the sword of anathema. And since the law of this legitimate promulgation does not attack the law of justice, and the balance of your judgment sits at the assay of my discretion, I hasten apace to strengthen the rule of your edict. For although my mind, straitened by the misshapen vices of men, a pilgrim into the hell of sadness, is ignorant of the paradise of joy, nevertheless in this it scents the beginnings of pleasant gladness, that it sees you with me sighing sighs for due vindicta.

Nec mirum, si nostrarum voluntatum unione conformi, concordiae reperio melodiam, cum unius ideae exemplaris notio nos in nativum esse produxerit, unius officialis administrationis [0481B] conformet conditio, cum nostras mentes non superficiali dilectionis vinculo amor jungat hypocrita, sed interna animorum nostrorum latibula, casti amoris pudor inhabitet. Dum hoc verborum compendio Genius suae orationis formaret excursum, suae exclamationis quasi aurora nascente, tristitiae tenebras paulisper abstractans, salvo suae dignitatis honore, Natura Genio gratiarum jura persolvit.

Nor is it a wonder, if by the conforming union of our wills I find the melody of concord, since the notion of a single exemplary idea has brought us forth into native being, the condition of a single official administration [0481B] conforms us, since love does not yoke our minds with the hypocritical bond of superficial affection, but the modesty of chaste love inhabits the inner hiding-places of our souls. While, with this compendium of words, the Genius was shaping the course of his speech, with the dawn of his exclamation, as it were, being born, for a little while drawing away the darknesses of sadness, with the honor of her dignity preserved, Nature paid to Genius the dues of thanks.

Hic promulgat Genius excommunicationem praetaxatis.

Here the Genius promulgates excommunication upon the aforesaid.

Tunc Genius post vulgaris vestimenti depositionem sacerdotalis indumenti ornamentis celebrioribus infulatus, sub hac verborum imagine, praetaxatam excommunicationis seriem a penetralibus [0481C] mentis forinsecus evocavit, hoc locutionis praecedente curriculo: auctoritate superessentialis Usiae, ejusque notionis aeternae, assensu coelestis militiae, naturae etiam, caeterarumque virtutum ministerio [0482A] suffragante, a supernae dilectionis osculo separetur, ingratitudinis exigente merito, a naturae gratia degradetur, a naturalium rerum uniformi concilio segregetur, omnis qui aut legitimum Veneris obliquat incessum, aut gulositatis incurrit naufragium, aut ebrietatis sentit insomnium, aut avaritiae sitiens experitur incendium, aut insolentis arrogantiae umbratile ascendit fastigium, aut praecordiale patitur livoris exitium, aut adulationis amorem communicat fictitium. Qui autem a regula Veneris exceptionem facit anormalam, Veneris privetur sigillo. Qui gulositatis mergitur in abysso, mendicitatis erubescentia castigetur.

Then the Genius, after the laying aside of the common garment, wearing the more celebrated ornaments of the sacerdotal vestment and girt with the infula, under this image of words called forth outwardly from the inner sanctuaries [0481C] of the mind the aforesaid series of excommunication, this course of speech going before: by the authority of the superessential Ousia, and of its eternal Notion, with the assent of the celestial soldiery, and with Nature also and the ministry of the other virtues [0482A] giving their suffrage, let him be separated from the kiss of supernal love, let him be degraded from the grace of Nature, let him be segregated from the uniform council of natural things, everyone who either bends aside the legitimate gait of Venus, or incurs the shipwreck of gluttony, or feels the nightmare of drunkenness, or, thirsting, experiences the conflagration of avarice, or climbs the shadowy summit of insolent arrogance, or suffers the deep-heart ruin of envy, or shares a fictitious love of adulation. But whoever makes an anomalous exception from the rule of Venus, let him be deprived of the seal of Venus. Whoever is plunged into the abyss of gluttony, let him be chastised by the blush of beggary.

Qui ebrietatis lethaeo flumine soporatur, perpetuatae sitis vexetur incendiis. Ille in quo sitis incandescit habendi, perpetuatas [0482B] egestates incurrat. Qui in praecipitio arrogantiae exaltatus, spiritum elevationis eructat, in vallem dejectae humilitatis ruinose descendat.

Who is lulled to sleep by the Lethean river of ebriety, let him be tormented by the fires of perpetuated thirst. That man in whom the thirst of having grows incandescent, let him incur perpetuated [0482B] indigences. Whoever, exalted on the precipice of arrogance, belches forth the spirit of elevation, let him ruinously descend into the valley of cast-down humility.

Qui alienae felicitatis divitias tinea detractionis invidendo demordet, primo se ibi hostem inveniat. Qui adulationis hypocrisi a divitibus venatur munuscula, sophistici meriti fraudetur praemio. Postquam Genius hujus anathematis exterminio finem orationi concessit, huic imprecationi applaudens Virginum assistentia festino confirmationis verbo Genii roboravit edictum, lampadesque cereorum in manibus virginum suis meridiantes luminibus in terram cum quadam aspernatione et demissione, exstinctionis videbantur sopore dejectae.

Whoever, by envying, nibbles at the riches of another’s felicity with the moth of detraction, let him there first find himself the enemy. Whoever by the hypocrisy of adulation hunts little gifts from the rich, let him be defrauded of the reward of sophistic “merit.” After the Genius, by the extirpation of this anathema, had granted an end to the oration, the attendance of the Virgins, applauding this imprecation, with a hasty word of confirmation strengthened the Genius’s edict, and the torches of wax-candles in the virgins’ hands, shining with their meridian lights, seemed, with a certain disdain and abasement, to be cast down to the earth by the slumber of extinction.

[0482C] Conclusio operis.

[0482C] Conclusion of the work.

Hujus imaginariae visionis subtracto speculo, me ab exstasi excitatum in somno, prior mysticae apparitionis dereliquit aspectus.

With the mirror of this imaginary vision withdrawn, the prior aspect of the mystical apparition left me, roused from ecstasy in sleep.