440 Had stalked in robbery; whoe'er by fraud
His clients had deferred; whoe'er with mind
Unfriendly had behaved himself, or stained
His palms with blood of men, or poison mixt
Wherein death lurked, or robed with wicked guise
445 His breast, or at his neighbour's ill, or gain
Iniquitous, was wont to joy; whoe'er
Committed whatsoever wickedness
Of evil deeds: him mighty heat shall rack,
And bitter fire; and these all shall endure,
450 In passing painful death, their punishment.
Thus shall the vast crowd lie of mourning men!
This oft as holy prophets sang of old,
And (by God's inspiration warned) oft told
The future, none ('tis pity!) none (alas!)
455 Did lend his ears. But God Almighty willed
His guerdons to be known, and His law's threats
'Mid multitudes of such like signs promulged.
He 'stablished them [1338] by sending prophets more,
These likewise uttering words divine; and some,
460 Roused from their sleep, He bids go from their tombs
Forth with Himself, when He, His own tomb burst,
Had risen. Many 'wildered were, indeed,
To see the tombs agape, and in clear light
Corpses long dead appear; and, wondering
465 At their discourses pious, dulcet words!
Starward they stretch their palms at the mere sound, [1339]
And offer God and so--victorious Christ
Their gratulating homage. Certain 'tis
That these no more re-sought their silent graves,
470 Nor were retained within earth's bowels shut; [1340]
But the remaining host reposes now
In lowliest beds, until--time's circuit run--
That great day do arrive.
Now all of you
Own the true Lord, who alone makes this soul
475 Of ours to see His light [1341] and can the same
(To Tartarus sent) subject to penalties;
And to whom all the power of life and death
Is open. Learn that God can do whate'er
He list; for 'tis enough for Him to will,
480 And by mere speaking He achieves the deed;
And Him nought plainly, by withstanding, checks.
He is my God alone, to whom I trust
With deepest senses. But, since death concludes
Every career, let whoe'er is to-day
485 Bethink him over all things in his mind.
And thus, while life remains, while 'tis allowed
To see the light and change your life, before
The limit of allotted age o'ertake
You unawares, and that last day, which [1342] is
490 By death's law fixt, your senseless eyes do glaze,
Seek what remains worth seeking: watchful be
For dear salvation; and run down with ease
And certainty the good course. Wipe away
By pious sacred rites your past misdeeds
495 Which expiation need; and shun the storms,
The too uncertain tempests, of the world. [1343]
Then turn to right paths, and keep sanctities.
Hence from your gladsome minds depraved crime
Quite banish; and let long-inveterate fault
500 Be washed forth from your breast; and do away
Wicked ill-stains contracted; and appease
Dread God by prayers eternal; and let all
Most evil mortal things to living good
Give way: and now at once a new life keep
505 Without a crime; and let your minds begin
To use themselves to good things and to true:
And render ready voices to God's praise.
Thus shall your piety find better things
All growing to a flame; thus shall ye, too,
510 Receive the gifts of the celestial life; [1344]
And, to long age, shall ever live with God,
Seeing the starry kingdom's golden joys.
------------------------
[1281] The reader is requested to bear in mind, in reading this piece, tedious in its elaborate struggles after effect, that the constant repetitions of words and expressions with which his patience will be tried, are due to the original. It was irksome to reproduce them; but fidelity is a translator's first law.
[1282] Luciferas.
[1283] Helicon is not named in the original, but it seems to be meant.
[1284] i.e., in another clime or continent. The writer is (or feigns to be) an African. Helicon, of course, is in Europe.
[1285] Virtus.
[1286] Sæculo.
[1287] Mundum.
[1288] Compositis.
[1289] I have endeavoured to give some intelligible sense to these lines; but the absence of syntax in the original, as it now stands, makes it necessary to guess at the meaning as best one may.
[1290] Venturi ævi.
[1291] "But in them nature's copy's not eterne."--Shakespeare, Macbeth, act iii. scene 2.
[1292] Sæcula.
[1293] Sæcula.
[1294] Sermone tenus: i.e., the exertion (so to speak) needed to do such mighty works only extended to the uttering of a speech; no more was requisite. See for a similar allusion to the contrast between the making of other things and the making of man, the "Genesis," 30-39.
[1295] Dicto.
[1296] i.e., from the solid mass of earth. See Gen. i. 9, 10.
[1297] Faciem.
[1298] "Auram," or "breeze."
[1299] "Immemor ille Dei temere committere tale! Non ultra monitum quidquam contingeret." Whether I have hit the sense here I know not. In this and in other passages I have punctuated for myself.
[1300] Munera mundi.
[1301] These lines, again, are but a guess at the meaning of the original, which is as obscure as defiance of grammar can well make it. The sense seems to be, in brief, that while the vast majority are, immediately on their death, shut up in Hades to await the "decreed age," i.e., the day of judgment, some, like the children raised by Elijah and Elisha, the man who revived on touching Elisha's bones, and the like, are raised to die again. Lower down it will be seen that the writer believes that the saints who came out of their graves after our Lord's resurrection (see Matt. xxvii. 51-54) did not die again.
[1302] Cf. Ps. xlix. 14 (xlviii. 15 in LXX.).
[1303] i.e., the dust into which our bodies turn.
[1304] i.e., the surface or ridge of the furrows.
[1305] i.e., the furrows.
[1306] "Some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, some an hundred-fold." See the parable of the sower.
[1307] Mundo.
[1308] Fuligine.
[1309] Mundo.
[1310] Virtutibus. Perhaps the allusion is to Eph. ii. 2, Matt. xxiv. 29, Luke xxi. 26.
[1311] Mundi.
[1312] Vel quanta est. If this be the right sense, the words are probably inserted, because the conflagration of "the earth and the works that are therein" predicted in 2 Pet. iii. 10, and referred to lower down in this piece, is supposed to have begun, and thus the "depths" of the earth are supposed to be already diminishing.
[1313] I have ventured to alter one letter of the Latin; and for "quos reddere jussa docebit," read "quos reddere jussa dolebit." If the common reading be retained, the only possible meaning seems to be "whom she will teach to render (to God) His commands," i.e., to render obedience to them; or else, "to render (to God) what they are bidden to render," i.e., an account of themselves; and earth, as their mother, giving them birth out of her womb, is said to teach them to do this. But the emendation, which is at all events simple, seems to give a better sense: "being bidden to render the dead, whom she is keeping, up, earth will grieve at the throes it causes her, but will do it."
[1314] Subitæ virtutis ab alto.
[1315] Comis, here "the heads."
[1316] This passage is imitated from Virgil, Æn., vi. 305 sqq.; Georg., iv. 475 sqq.
[1317] i.e., "the king." The "Atridæ" of Homer are referred to,--Agamemnon "king of men," and Menelaus.
[1318] Or, "Powers."
[1319] Insigni. The allusion seems to be to Ezek. ix. 4, 6, Rev. vii. 3 et seqq., xx. 3, 4, and to the inscribed mitre of the Jewish high priest, see Ex. xxviii. 36; xxxix. 30.
[1320] I have corrected "his" for "hic." If the latter be retained, it would seem to mean "hereon."
[1321] Cardine, i.e., the hinge as it were upon which the sun turns in his course.
[1322] See the "Genesis," 73.
[1323] Or, "there." The question is, whether a different tree is meant, or the rose just spoken of.
[1324] This seems to be marshmallows.
[1325] Here again it is plain that the writer is drawing his description from what we read of the garden of Eden.
[1326] "Salus," health (probably) in its widest sense, both bodily and mental; or perhaps "safety," "salvation."
[1327] Reliquam vitam, i.e., apparently his life in all other relations; unless it mean his life after his parents' death, which seems less likely.
[1328] i.e., "appeals to." So Burke: "I attest the former, I attest the coming generations." This "attesting of its acts" seems to refer to Matt. xxv. 44. It appeals to them in hope of mitigating its doom.
[1329] This seems to be the sense. The Latin stands thus: "Flammas pro meritis, stagnantia tela tremiscunt."
[1330] Or, "banished."
[1331] I adopt the correction (suggested in Migne) of justis for justas.
[1332] This is an extraordinary use for the Latin dative; and even if the meaning be "for (i.e., to suffer) penalty eternal," it is scarcely less so.
[1333] Gehennæ.
[1334] Or, "in all the years:" but see note 5 on this page.
[1335] Mundo.
[1336] Mundo.
[1337] "Artusque sonori," i.e., probably the arms and hands with which (as has been suggested just before) the sufferers beat their unhappy breasts.
[1338] i.e., the "guerdons" and the "threats."
[1339] "Ipsa voce," unless it mean "voice and all," i.e., and their voice as well as their palms.
[1340] See note 1, p. 137.
[1341] Here again a correction suggested in Migne's ed., of "suam lucem" for "sua luce," is adopted.
[1342] "Qui" is read here, after Migne's suggestion, for "quia;" and Oehler's and Migne's punctuation both are set aside.
[1343] Mundi.
[1344] Or, "assume the functions of the heavenly life."
5. Five Books in Reply to Marcion.
(Author Uncertain.)