to others, as having had their first residence in the rue Saint Jacques in that city.

25 Gusman, otherwise called Saint Dominic, institutor of the order of Dominican Friars, was born at Calahorta, a city of Arragon, in 1170. His mother dreamed, when pregnant of him, that she bore a dog, others say, a wolf, carrying in its jaws a blazing torch with which the universe was put into a general state of conflagration · a presage too fatal of the sanguinary humor of this fanatic preacher and of the bloody massacres performed by him and his demoniac followers. Dominic was no great scholar, and being made canon of the church of Osimo, repaired to Rome in order to offer his services to Pope Clement the Third for the extirpation of the Languedocians, called Albigenses, of whom were most barbarously slaughtered through his means upwards of a hundred thousand souls, simply on account of some dogmas of religion, and surely nothing could be more abominable than to extirpate by fire and sword a prince and his subjects under the pretext that their opinions differed from those which were professed by others. Proud of the success of this expedition, Dominic then began to found his new order, which, coinciding with the genius of Innocent the Third, was approved of by that pontiff and afterwards confirmed by Honorius the Third, in 1216. It was this same saintly murderer who established the abominable Inquisition, and who was afterwards canonized by Pope Gregory the Ninth. The order of the Dominicans spread with inconceivable rapidity, so much so that in 1494 there were computed to exist upwards of four thousand one hundred and forty-three convents of the order; after which period they continued to augment in a surprising manner.

20 We are informed in Holy Writ that Balaam, the son of Beor, being desired by Balac, king of the Moabites, to utter his malediction against the people of Israel, the former, notwithstanding the ordinance of the Lord, set out upon his ass in order to journey to Balac; but on the route the animal suddenly stopped short and dropped

down, which highly incensed Balaam, who began to belabor the poor beast, when suddenly by the command of the Lord the animal was gifted with speech and demanded of Balaam the reason of this cruel treatment.- Numbers, chap. 22.

27 This war is only adverted to in a book very apocryphal, entitled Enoch, no mention whatsoever being made of it elsewhere in any Jewish work or tradition. The leader of the celestial army is stated to have been Michael, as designated by our poet; but the chief of the wicked angels was not Satan, but Semixiah. This inadvertency, however, is excusable in so long and arduous a poetic undertaking as the present.

28 Medusa, one of the three Gorgons, was daughter of Phorcys and Ceta, and celebrated for her personal charms and the beauty of her hair. Neptune, becoming enamored of her, procured her favors in the temple of Minerva, which violation of the sanctity of the place so exasperated the goddess that she changed the locks of Medusa into serpents. After Perseus had conquered Medusa he cut off her head, which was placed on the egis of Minerva and had the power of petrifying any persons who chanced to behold it.

29 Styx is the celebrated river of hell, around which it flows nine times. The gods were supposed to hold the waters of this stream in such veneration that they always swore by them-an oath which was inviolable.

Vol. 40-13

CANTO VI.

ARGUMENT.

ADVENTURE OF AGNES AND MONROSE.-TEMPLE OF FAME.TRAGICAL RECITAL CONCERNING DOROTHY,

FROM hell, that boundless gulf, my muse now turns,
Where Grisbourdon with Satan's cohort burns;
Thence wings her flight through boundless realms of
air,

To view the world, and see what's passing there.
That world alas! which is another hell,

Where innocence no longer dares to dwell;
Where hypocrites make good appear as bad;

Where sense, refinement, taste, are run stark mad;
While all the virtues, being led astray,

Have joined the party, and are flown away,

1

There empty policy as loud as weak,
Leads on the vanis merit quite unique:
Wisdom must yield to superstition's rules,
Who arms with bigot zeal the hands of fools.2
And interest, earth's king, for whom the trade
Of peace and war by potentates was made,
Pensive and sad beside its coffer dwells,
And to the stronger's crimes the weaker sells.
O wretched, guilty, senseless mortals! why
Your souls debase with crimes of such a dye?

Unhappy men! who, void of pleasure, sin;
Be wise, at least, when you the course begin;
And, since you needs must to damnation speed,*
Be damned for pleasure, 'tis the wisest deed.

Oft Agnes Sorel would this precept prove,
Whom none could blame, except for sins of love.
On her forgiveness I with joy bestow,
Nor doubt but heaven will equal mercy show;

Each saint is not a maid in Paradise,
And penitence the virtue is of vice."

When, in defence of honor, Joan was led
To sever with her heavenly sword the head
Of Grisbourdon, our ass who bent his flight
And bore through air Dunois the gallant knight,
Conceived the thought how sin will lead astray!
Of bearing Dunois from our Joan away.

What was it urged the wish! Love's ardent fire-
Love's tenderest flame the soul's new-born desire.

Yet soft, dear reader, at some future time

These feats of passion shall be told in rhyme;
Thou'lt learn that Love already held the rein,
And ruled this hero of Arcadia's plain."

This sainted animal, by fancy led,

7

Towards Lombardy its course aerial sped;
Good Denis secretly ordained it so,

The reason, friend, perhaps you wish to know.
'Twas that Saint Denis read each secret thought