Part 10 (1/2)
”We accord to Montezuma,” said Lucifer, ”the Spaniards who conquered Mexico, with the exception of the tailors, whom we reserve for our own table.”
After that came an abbot, who took the t.i.tle of ten abbeys, besides priories, and eighteen cures. ”Behold,” said Lucifer, ”an abbot, with as many t.i.tles as a Roman emperor: speak, of whom do you complain? had you not a sufficient income to live honourably in the world, according to your degree? How have you employed your revenue? Play, women, good cheer, horses, dogs, equipage, dress, and relations, have eaten it. You demand, without doubt, justice against the authors of your ruin: I grant it amply and promptly. For the mortification of your enemies, I surrender you to the troop of beggars who throng the avenues of my palace, and who would not have been d.a.m.ned, if, by alms which would have cost you but little, you had removed from them the necessity of becoming thieves and robbers: go, learn in h.e.l.l to spend but little yourself.”
The minettes, the bigots, and hypocrites, demanded audience. ”These are very pleasant people,” said Lucifer to Jupiter; ”they will divert us.”
”An Italian comic writer,” said one of them, ”has burlesqued us, as if it was wrong to _seem_ honest men in the public eye. When one has not the substance of virtue, is it reprehensible to set a good example? It is true, that if our lives, hidden under this cloak, had been exposed, our hypocrisy and spurious piety would have been easily detected; but we injured no person, and if any one was scandalized by our example, it was for conscience sake.”
The Italian writer, who happened to be present, and whom I had not before perceived, cried out, ”satyrists of France and Italy, our cause is common.”
Immediately there appeared a number of comic writers, ranged under their respective masters, among whom I saw, with pleasure, Juvenal, Terence, Plautus, Seneca the tragedian, and Greek, Latin, and French authors, ancient and modern. The writer, behind whom they were ranged, decried the manners of his age, and exposed the wickedness of hypocrites, who, abusing all that is sacred in religion, to deceive men, dupe the simple, and gain an unmerited reputation. Who would believe that a man was wicked enough to wish to deceive, at the same time, both G.o.d and man?
This is what hypocrites do, when under the veil of divine love, and with an air of humility, more haughty than vanity itself, they conceal sensual affections, hatred of brethren, and a licentious life, unknown but to those who partic.i.p.ate in it.-A woman wishes to hide from her husband an amorous intrigue; she is at her devotions in the morning, and in the evening still goes to a lecture, where she knows she shall see her friend. Often the church itself is the theatre of a love scene-the preacher, a fine young man, whose manners are more fascinating than his discourse. Frequently some broad-shouldered fellow sets at nought truth, chast.i.ty, continence, the money of husbands, and so forth. Affairs of business are conducted on the same principle, as those of love. ”Who would believe that this devout man was a usurer: that he had possession, almost for nothing, of the meadow, the vineyard, and the house of a peasant! Oh, this is a holy man! he is full of conscience; every day constantly at church, his piety is exemplary. Behold the fate of a hypocrite: this knavery, is it any thing but a dead loss? for of what service is it to bigots to live in such uneasy constraint, if that does not procure them pleasure, property, or the gratification of their vanity?
”And I,” said a woman, ”can I be accused of hypocrisy? My virtue, my science, my writings, do they not demonstrate the unfeignedness of my devotion? Should I be spoken of in any other way than as Saint Therese?
Have I not had, in that character, apparitions, visions, a spirit of prophecy, and a discernment into the heart and conscience?”
”Contemplate, sirs,” said the satirist, ”the people of the spirit, if such a thing is not above your comprehension. What is this but to deceive the world by spiritual artifices? What is this incomprehensible new grace? What devotee but has possessed it; and what mystick but has held the same language? Truly, madam, grace is very much obliged to you, and fanaticism owes you thanks; visionaries and lunaticks have gained their causes; the ancient heretics and comforters owe you a statue and a chapel.”
Another woman said, ”I have not had visions; but I have experienced realities: I have seen what I thought I saw; and if I had any devotion it was for my directors. I had one whom I looked upon as my guardian angel; I had for him an extreme friends.h.i.+p; I made him presents and he never failed in any thing towards me; I saw him every day, and should have preferred deceiving my father rather than him. Was he sick, I suffered also; and to solace him, sent meats, confections, fruits, and even money.
I was so chagrined at his absence that I could not bear my own house; I became unquiet, impatient and melancholy; every thing vexed me. His superiors having ordered his change, I almost expired with grief; I wrote to him by every mail; if I received not his letters, I felt new sorrow: a thousand phantoms presented themselves to my imagination. I fancied him as bestowing his pains upon another object, and thought that absence and change of residence had altered his inclination. He returned: what rapture! I ran to his house, although in dishabille: on the morrow I was at his feet; each day of the week I go to recount to him my pleasures and pains. In the mean time an honest man sought me in marriage; I consulted my director; he charged me to dismiss this man, who accordingly received his farewell. Another brave cavalier offered himself and received the same answer. Behold me now in my thirty-fifth year; my director exhorted me to consecrate to G.o.d my virginity: I retired to a monastery, but he was not willing that I should take the veil. At length he died; I wept, I regretted him; I observed a nine days' devotion for his death. When my grief was a.s.suaged, I reflected upon my age: the time of youth was past; I took the veil, contracted some amiable acquaintances, founded funeral obsequies for the repose of my soul, bequeathed my estate to the convent, and died. This is my history; this is true devotion.”
”And I,” said another menette, ”had no such object to fix my imagination; I wore invariably a modest dress, my veil always drawn over my eyes, and sleeves to my very hands: I rose early in the morning to go to church, and was constantly seen at all devotional exercises; for me there was neither parties, a.s.semblies, nor feasts: I did not attach myself to my confessor, although often at his grate. In the mean time, I had some good friends, who went about preaching my virtue far and wide, and princ.i.p.ally to those rich men whom they knew not to be fond of gallantry, and yet exceedingly fearful of what generally happens to men of their years after marriage. Your affair is finished, say they to the marrying men; I have discovered a girl of superlative virtue, who knows not a single man in the world, and who is so unsophisticated with respect to love matters, that she does not even know the name of masculine garments; always engaged in her domestic duties; without luxury, without vanity, rich withal, and beloved of her father. 'This is a girl that will exactly suit me,' said an opulent citizen with sixty years and the gout; 'I shall have a nurse for the remainder of my life; I will make her fine presents, and after my death she shall have the enjoyment of my estate.'