The following is very tender. After quoting the text, _My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand_ (Cant. v. 10), he breaks forth into the following passage: “White is my Beloved in His purity and His innocence, but ruddy in His burning charity, through which He shed His blood. White is He in His nativity, girded about with virgin flesh, but ruddy in His circumcision, sprinkled with His gore. White at the transfiguration, in His glistering raiment, ruddy on the Mount of Olives, bleeding in His sweat. White is He in the palace of Herod, dressed in the white robe, ruddy in that of Pilate in the purple garment. White upon the Cross, in the water which flowed from His side, but ruddy, bathed wholly in His Blood. White is He in the Sacrament, under the species of bread, ruddy under the veil of wine. White in His mercy, ruddy in His justice; white in His Body mystical, in the virgins, but ruddy in the purpled martyrs.” (114.) “_He is the chiefest among ten thousand_, through His passion exalted above all creatures and above all glory of the elect. “The chiefest among ten thousand, as leader of His people Israel to the Promised Land, by the pillar, the rod, and the Red Sea; the pillar, forsooth, at which He was scourged, the rod of His Cross, and the Red Sea of His Blood. “The chiefest among ten thousand, as the great High Priest entering into the holiest of all with His own blood. “The chiefest among ten thousand, as the Mediator between God and man, ever presenting before the Father those wounds by which He was constituted Mediator. “The chiefest among ten thousand, as the Shepherd of either fold, that of Jew and that of Gentile; by the pastoral staff of His Cross reducing them into one fold under one Shepherd. “The chiefest among ten thousand, as Head of the militant and triumphant Church. “The chiefest among ten thousand, as Head and King of angels and men, of both making one society, one kingdom. “The chiefest among ten thousand, as the Judge of living and dead.” (110.) I make no apology for translating, almost entire, the following exquisite passage on the wound in our Lord’s side, so redolent with spiritual fragrance, so rapturous in heavenly ardour:— “Not only ought the dove to dwell in the clefts of the rock, but she should also flee to the _cavernam maceriæ_ (English vers., ‘secret places of the stairs’): that is, the wound in the side.… There make thy nest, and enter, O dove! therein lurk many mysteries: for why was that side opened?