So far from entertaining designs of a severe of cruel nature, he scarcely possessed sufficient power to raise his arm, and perform with a faint hand the office that was expected from him. His bosom was filled with the softest passions. Intirely lost in the contemplation of the lovely object that made application to him, already did he begin to have thoughts of employing remedies of a more obvious and natural kind,--already, forgetting all Mankind, did he attempt to inclose her in his arms; when the acclamations of the spectators and the sudden explosion of the musical instruments, at once recalled him to himself; he flew from the amiable person who had thus so thoroughly engaged his attention, and hastened to other objects equally amiable, who likewise came to crave his assistance. If I was called upon to give my vote for any ceremony of the kind here mentioned, I would give it for the festival of the Lupercalia, especially with the improvements that had been made in it about the time of Pope Gelasius. (See p. 94.) [116] In a certain Spanish book, the name of which I do not remember, a Man is reproached with having besmeared himself with sheep’s blood, in order to make people believe he had flagellated himself in a distinguished manner. [117] _Aliâ vice intravit Viterbium, & dùm esset in portâ, fœmoralibus positis in capite, habitu in modum fardeli ligato ad collum, sic nudus ad plateas ivit civitatis, ubi multas verecundias perpessus est; & nudus ad locum fratrum ivit, omnibus contrà eum clamantibus, ipso tamen de us parùm curante, tam sanctus fuit iste fratricellus._ CHAP. XXIV. _The last Chapter, in which the Abbé Boileau is personally introduced: he is of opinion that the lower discipline is contrary to decency, and the upper discipline is liable to bring defluxions on the eyes_[118]. Several Divines, as we have seen, have united in blaming the cruel severity with which certain persons used to inflict disciplines upon themselves, by which those persons assimilated themselves to Idolaters and Pagans; besides, it is well worth observing that, by this very severity, those zealous performers of disciplines in the issue obstruct their own piety, and defeat their own ends. In fact, Physicians and Anatomists inform us, that such is the secret, or open, communication between all parts of the human body, that it is impossible to do any material and continual kind of injury to any, without the other parts being, sooner or later, affected by it: hence it follows that those persons who execute disciplines upon themselves with the great severity we mention, in process of time fall into serious distempers of some kind or other; so that they at length find themselves disabled from continuing those practices by which they intended to procure the improvement of their morals.