ΤΟ

15

me to descend from the innerm heavenly mystery to the common If thou wert willing to gather up

pathy of thy mind and to treasur thy heart that which I would say, I labyrinth of thy perplexity.'

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

'For nothing,' said I, 'O heat I hunger with a more eager desire ation of this question.'

Then said she:

'Since all things are by the la 20 held subject to my laws, and ough rightful and established tribute, alm dues and with seemly presentation my commands; but from this gener is excluded by an abnormal excepti 25 of the cloak of decency, and prostitu less brothel of unchastity, dares to strife not only against the majesty also to inflame the madness of inte his mother. Other creations, on whic 3o the lesser gifts of my favor, throug

their activities are bound in willing subjection to the inviolability of my commands. But man, who exhausted the treasury of almost all my riches, tries to overthrow the natural impulses of nature, and arms against me the violence of wicked lust. Consider 35 how almost all things, according to the proclamation of my command, perform, reasonably as their native character demands, the fixed duties of my law. The firmament, according to my principle and teaching, leads all things not in vain in daily circuit, and with 40 identity of turning advances its course, and retreats from whither it has advanced. The stars, as they shine for the glory of the firmament itself, and clothe it with their splendors, and complete the short day of their journey, and compass the celestial space with 45 their various orbits, serve my majesty. The planets, according to the going forth of my command and order, restrain the rapid motion of the firmament, going to their rising with contrary steps, and afterward repairing to the place of their setting. Thus, 50 too, the air, disciplined under my instruction, now rejoices with a kindly breeze, now weeps in the tears of the clouds as if in sympathy, now is angered by the raging of the winds,1 now is shaken by the threatening rumble of thunder, now is parched in 55 the furnace of heat, now is sharpened with the severity of cold. The birds, which have been fashioned in various forms under my supervision and ordering, marvel greatly at my teachings, as they cross the floods of air on the oarage of their wings. Because 60 of my intervening mediation, the sea is joined closely to the earth by the firm bonds of friendship, and does not dare to violate its solemn obligations of

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

.75 untiring production at the creation

not to be parents of the various s The terrestrial animals beneath my management do not profess activitie the sovereignty which is over their 80 earth now whitens with the hoarine is fringed with flowery vegetation. has grown its leafy hair, now is sh razor of winter. Winter holds the in the lap of mother earth, spring 85 free, summer ripens the harvests, her riches. But why should I perm my narration to stray to instances? the music of my harp, and raves u frenzied Orpheus. For the human ra 90 its high birth, commits monstrous of genders, and perverts the rules of tice of extreme and abnormal irregula man, become the tyro of a distorte the predicate into direct contraposi 95 rules. Drawing away from power aright, he is proved an unlettered sop ? the fitting relation of the Dionean

1 Reading tantum, with Mign

vicious perversion. And while he subverts me with such pursuit, he also in his frenzy plots execution against me. I grieve that I have widely adorned 100 men's natures with so many privileges and beauties, for they abuse and bring the honor of honor to disgrace, deform the fairness of the body with the ugliness of lust, mar the color of beauty with lurid paint -the hue of adulterous desire-and even, as they 105 blossom into vices, deflower the bloom of Flora. Why did I deify the countenance of Helen with divine grace, who forced the use of her beauty awry into the abuse of harlotry, breaking her faith with her royal couch, and binding herself in marriage with Paris? Pasiphaë, also, driven by the madness of inordinate lust, in the form of a cow corruptly celebrated her bestial nuptials with a brute animal, and, concluding with a viler error, ended by the miscreated enormity of the bullock. Myrrha, roused by the stings 115 of myrrh-breathing Venus, and fallen from the affection of a daughter to a lust for her father, filled and renewed with her father the office of her mother. Medea, cruelly treating her own son in order that she might erect the inglorious work of love, destroyed love's 10 small and glorious work. Narcissus, when his shadow falsely told of another Narcissus, was filled with dreamy thoughts, and, believing his very self to be another, ran to the danger of passion for himself. And many other youths, clothed by my favor with noble beauty, as who have been crazed with love of coin, have turned their hammers of love to the office of anvils. Such a great body of foul men roam and riot along the breadth of the whole earth, by whose seducing contact chastity herself is poisoned. Of such of these 130 men as profess the grammar of love, some embrace only the masculine gender, some the feminine, others

38

The Complaint of Nature

[PROSE IV the common or indiscriminate. Some, as of heteroclite gender, are declined irregularly, through the winter 135 in the feminine, through the summer in the masculine. Some, in the pursuit of the logic of love, establish in their conclusions the law of subject and the law of predicate in proper relation. Some, who have the place of the subject, have not learned how to form 140 a predicate. Some only predicate, and will not await the proper addition of the subject's end. Others, scorning to enter into the court of Dione, devise a miserable sport below its vestibule. Against all these justice makes her complaint, the law is armed, and 145 together they strive to avenge their wrongs with the sword of retribution. Thou wilt not marvel, then, if I depart into these strange, unholy words, since unholy men dare to practice licentiousness. For I throw them forth indignantly, to the end that virtuous men 150 may respect the character of chastity, and that the shameless may be restrained from the lewd practices of lust. Indeed, a knowledge of evil is expedient for security, for it punishes the guilty, branding them with the mark of shamelessness, and fortifies those who 155 are without the armor of caution. Now my explanation has filed away and erased the worry of thy doubt. For these reasons, then, did I pass from the secret places of the heaven's court above, and descend to the lowlands of this mortal earth, that I might. 160 with thee as with my friend and confidant, lay down my sad burden of the accursed vices of men, and with thee determine what answering punishment should be given to such rebellion in crime, in order that the sting of the punishment might be made as 165 great as the scourge of those crimes, and might equal them in retribution."

Then said I: