“Made for thy use,” the Doctor would say, “tyrant that thou art, and weak as thou art tyrannical! Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind him with his band in the furrow; or will he harrow the vallies after thee? Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook, will he make a covenant with thee, wilt thou take him for a servant! Wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? Shall thy companions make a banquet of him? Shall they part him among the merchants? Made for thy use,—when so many may seem to have been made for thy punishment and humiliation!” There is a use indeed in these, but few men are so ready to acknowledge, and act upon it as Bellarmine was, who being far more indulgent to musquitos and other small deer than to heretics, allowed them free right of pasture upon his corporal domains. He thought they were created to afford exercise for our patience, and moreover that it is unjust for us to interrupt them in their enjoyment here, when we consider that they have no other paradise to expect. Yet when the Cardinal Controversialist gave breakfast, dinner, or supper of this kind, he was far from partaking any sympathetic pleasure in the happiness which he imparted; for it is related of him that at one time he was so terribly bitten a _bestiolis quibusdam nequam ac damnificis_, (it is not necessary to enquire of what species) as earnestly to pray that if there were any torments in Hell itself so dreadful as what he was then enduring, the Lord would be pleased not to send him there, for he should not be able to bear it. What could the Cardinal then have thought of those Convents that were said to have an apartment or dungeon into which the Friars every day during the warm season, brushed or shook the fleas from their habits thro' an aperture above (being the only entrance) and where whenever a frail brother was convicted of breaking the most fragile of his vows, he was let down naked and with his hands tied! This earthly Purgatory was called _la Pulciara_, that is the Fleaery, and there the culprit was left till it was deemed that he had suffered punishment enough in this life for his offence. _Io tengo omai per infallibil cosa, Che sian per nostro mal nati gl'insetti Per renderci la vita aspra e nojosa. Certo in quei primi giorni benedetti Ne gli orti del piacer non abitaro Questi sozzi e molesti animaletti; Ne' con gli altri animali a paro a paro Per saper come avessero a chiamarsi Al cospetto d'Adam si presentaro:_ * * * * * _Nacquero dunque sol per nostro male Queste malnate bestie, e fur prodotte In pena de la colpa originate._ * * * * *