Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/80

 42 Readings in European History long it be deferred: they will content themselves with the joys of heaven only when they must finally surrender the pleasures of this world, to which they lovingly cling. The trader, the soldier, and the judge think that they can clean up the Augean stable of a lifetime, once for-all, by sacrificing a single coin from their ill-gotten gains. They flatter themselves that all sorts of perjury, debauchery, drunkenness, quarrels, bloodshed, imposture, perfidy, and treason can be compounded for by contract and so adjusted that, having paid off their arrears, they can begin a new score. How foolish, or rather how happy, are those who promise themselves more than supernal happiness if they repeat the verses of the seven holy psalms ! Those magical lines are supposed to have been taught to St. Bernard by a demon, who seems to have been a wag ; but he was not very clever, and, poor fellow, was frustrated in his attempt to deceive the saint. These silly things which even I, Folly, am almost ashamed of, are approved not only by the common herd but even by the teachers of religion. Petitioning How foolish, too, for religious bodies each to give prefer- ence to its particular guardian saint ! Nay, each saint has his particular office allotted to him, and is addressed each in his special way: this one is called upon to alleviate tooth- ache ; that, to aid in childbirth ; others, to restore a stolen article, bring rescue to the shipwrecked, or protect cattle, — and so on with the rest, who are much too numerous to mention. A few indeed among the saints are good in more than one emergency, especially the Holy Virgin, to whom the common man now attributes almost more than to her Son. And for what, after all, do men petition the saints except for foolish things ? Look at the votive offerings which cover the walls of certain churches and with which you see even the ceiling filled ; do you find any one who expresses his gratitude that he has escaped Folly or because he has become a whit wiser ? One perhaps was saved from drown- ing, another recovered when he had been run through by the saints.