_Perguntoulhe quem era, e donde vinha, Por ver no pobre traje gram portento; El Rey lhe respondeo como convinha Sem declarar seu posto, ou seu intento; Pediulhe confissam, e o Monge asinha Lha concedeo e o Santo Sacramento Era força que el Rey na confissam Lhe declarasse o posto e a tencam._ _Como entendeo o bom Religioso Que aquelle era seu Rey que por estranhas Terras andava roto e lacrimoso, Mil ays tirou das intimas entranhas: Lançouselhe aos pes, e com piedoso Affecto o induziu e varias manhas, O quizesse tambem levar consigo Por socio no desterro e no perigo._—P. 27. * * * * * _The fourth week of their painful pilgrimage._—I. p. 10. _Dias vinte e sete na passagem Gastaram, desviandosse do humano Trato, e maos encontros que este mundo Tras sempre a quem busca o bem profundo._ Destruiçam de Espanha, p. 279. * * * * * _Some new austerity, unheard of yet In Syrian fields of glory, or the sands Of holiest Egypt._—II. p. 17. Egypt has been, from the earliest ages, the theatre of the most abject and absurd superstitions, and very little benefit was produced by a conversion which exchanged crocodiles and monkies for monks and mountebanks. The first monastery is said to have been established in that country by St. Anthony the Great, towards the close of the third century. He who rests in solitude, said the saint, is saved from three conflicts,—from the war of hearing, and of speech, and of sight; and he has only to maintain the struggle against his own heart. (_Acta Sanctorum_, t. ii. p. 143.) Indolence was not the only virtue which he and his disciples introduced into the catalogue of Christian perfections. S. Eufraxia entered a convent consisting of an hundred and thirty nuns, not one of whom had ever washed her feet; the very mention of the bath was an abomination to them.—(_Acta Sanctorum, March 13._) St. Macarius had renounced most of the decencies of life; but he returned one day to his convent, humbled and mortified, exclaiming,—I am not yet a monk, but I have seen monks! for he had met two of these wretches stark naked.—_Acta Sanctorum_, i. p. 107. The principles which these madmen established were, that every indulgence is sinful; that whatever is gratifying to the body, must be injurious to the soul; that in proportion as man inflicts torments upon himself, he pleases his Creator; that the ties of natural affection wean the heart from God; and that every social duty must be abandoned by him who would be perfect. The doctrine of two principles has never produced such practical evils in any other system as in the Romish. Manes, indeed, attributes all evil to the equal power of the Evil Principle, (that power being only for a time,) but some of the corrupted forms of Christianity actually exclude a good one!