thrilling eloquence was used to persuade the willing and ignorant multitudes that religion is not spirituality, but unqualified submission to the doctrines and observances of the Roman Church. He was an ally of the Inquisition, and it has been said of him that "his auto sacramentale led the way to the auto da fé."

THE SCHOLAR'S TEMPTATION.

(From the "Wonder-Working Magician." Translated by P. B.

Shelley.)

Cyprian as a student; Clarin and Moscon as poor scholars, with books.

Cyprian. In the sweet solitude of this calm place,

This intricate wild wilderness of trees

And flowers, and undergrowth of odorous plants,
Leave me; the books you brought out of the house
To me are ever best society.

And whilst with glorious festival and song
Antioch now celebrates the consecration

Of a proud temple to great Jupiter,
And bears his image in loud jubilee

To its new shrine, I would consume what still
Lives of the dying day in studious thought,

Far from the throng and turmoil.

You, my friends,

Go and enjoy the festival; it will
Be worth the labor; and return for me
When the sun seeks its grave among the billows,
Which among dim gray clouds on the horizon
Dance like white plumes upon a hearse; and here
I shall expect you.

Moscon. I cannot bring my mind,

Great as my haste to see the festival

Certainly is, to leave you, Sir, without

Just saying some three or four hundred words.

How is it possible, that, on a day

Of such festivity, you can bring your mind

To come forth to a solitary country

With three or four old books, and turn your back
On all this mirth?

Clarin. My master's in the right;

There is not anything more tiresome

Than a procession day, with troops of men
And dances, and all that.

Mos. From first to last,

Clarin, you are a temporizing flatterer;

You praise not what you feel, but what he does;
Toad-eater!

Cla. You lie-under a mistake,—

For this is the most civil sort of lie

That can be given to a man's face. I now
Say what I think.

Cyp. Enough, you foolish fellows!

Puffed up with your own doting ignorance,
You always take the two sides of one question.
Now go, and as I said, return for me

When night falls, veiling in its shadows wide,

This glorious fabric of the universe.

Mos. How happens it, although you can maintain The folly of enjoying festivals,

That yet you go there?

Cla. Nay, the consequence

Is clear; who ever did what he advises
Others to do?

Mos. Would that my feet were wings! So would I fly to Livia.

[Exit.

Cla. To speak truth,

Livia is she who has surprised my heart;
But he is more than half-way there.-Soho!
Livia, I come! good sport, Livia! soho!

Cyp. Now, since I am alone, let me examine

The question which has long disturbed my mind
With doubt, since first I read in Plinius

The words of mystic import and deep sense

In which he defines God. My intellect

Can find no God with whom these marks and signs

Fitly agree. It is a hidden truth,

Which I must fathom.

[Exit.

[Reads.

[Enter the Devil, as a fine Gentleman.

Dæmon. Search even as thou wilt,

But thou shalt never find what I can hide.

Cyp. What noise is that among the boughs?

Who moves? What art thou?

Dam. 'T is a foreign gentleman.

Even from this morning, I have lost my way
In this wild place; and my poor horse, at last
Quite overcome, has stretched himself upon
The enamelled tapestry of this mossy mountain,
And feeds and rests at the same time.
I was
Upon my way to Antioch, upon business.
Of some importance; but wrapt up in cares,
(Who is exempt from this inheritance?)

I parted from my company, and lost

My way, and lost my servants and my comrades.
Cyp. 'Tis singular, that, even within the sight
Of the high towers of Antioch, you could lose
Your way.
Of all the avenues and green paths
Of this wild wood there is not one but leads

As to its centre, to the walls of Antioch;
Take which you will, you cannot miss your road.
Dæm. And such is ignorance! Even in the sight
Of knowledge, it can draw no profit from it.

But as it still is early, and as I

Have no acquaintances in Antioch,

Being a stranger there, I will even wait

The few surviving hours of the day,
Until the night shall conquer it. I see

Both by your dress and by the books in which
You find delight and company, that you
Are a great student; for my part, I feel
Much sympathy with such pursuits.

Much pains must we expend on one alone,
And even then attain it not; but you

Have the presumption to assert that you

Know many without study.

Dam. And with truth;

For in the country whence I come, sciences
Require no learning,-they are known.

VIII-14

Cyp. Oh, would

I were of that bright country! for in this,
The more we study, we the more discover
Our ignorance.

Dæm. It is so true, that I

Had so much arrogance as to oppose

The chair of the most high professorship,

And obtained many votes; and though I lost,

The attempt was still more glorious than the failure Could be dishonorable: if you believe not,

Let us refer it to dispute respecting

That which you know best; and although I Know not the opinion you maintain, and though It be the true one, I will take the contrary.

Cyp. The offer gives me pleasure. I am now
Debating with myself upon a passage

Of Plinius, and my mind is racked with doubt
To understand and know who is the God
Of whom he speaks.

Dam. It is a passage, if

I recollect it right, couched in these words:
"God is one supreme goodness, one pure essence,
One substance, and one sense, all sight, all hands."
Cyp. 'T is true.

Dam. What difficulty find you here?

Cyp. I do not recognize among the Gods The God defined by Plinius: if he must

Be supreme goodness, even Jupiter

Is not supremely good; because we see

His deeds are evil, and his attributes

Tainted with mortal weakness: in what manner
Can supreme goodness be consistent with
The passions of humanity?

Dam. The wisdom

Of the old world masked with the names of Gods The attributes of Nature and of Man:

A sort of popular philosophy.

Cyp. This reply will not satisfy me; for
Such awe is due to the high name of God,
That ill should never be imputed. Then,
Examining the question with more care,
It follows that the Gods should always will

That which is best, were they supremely good.

How, then, does one will one thing,--one another?
And you may not say that I allege
Poetical or philosophic learning:

Consider the ambiguous responses

Of their oracular statues; from two shrines.
Two armies shall obtain the assurance of

One victory. Is it not indisputable

That two contending wills can never lead
To the same end? and being opposite,

If one be good is not the other evil?
Evil in God is inconceivable;

But supreme goodness fails among the Gods,
Without their union.

Dam. I deny your major.

These responses are means towards some end
Unfathomed by our intellectual beam;
They are the work of Providence; and more
The battle's loss may profit those who lose,
Than victory advantage those who win.

Cyp. That I admit, and yet that God should not

(Falsehood is incompatible with deity)

Assure the victory; it would be enough

To have permitted the defeat: if God

Be all sight,-God, who beheld the truth,
Would not have given assurance of an end
Never to be accomplished. Thus, although
The Deity may, according to his attributes,
Be well distinguished into persons, yet,
Even in the minutest circumstance,
His essence must be one.

Dæm. To attain the end,

The affections of the actors in the scene
Must have been thus influenced by his voice.
Cyp. But for a purpose thus subordinate,
He might have employed genii, good or evil,--
A sort of spirits called so by the learned,
Who roam about, inspiring good or evil,
And from whose influence and existence we
May well infer our immortality:
Thus God might easily, without descending
To a gross falsehood in his proper person,