368 ARIADNE FLORENTINA. 



these you shall compare with Michael Angelo's. But first 1 

 must put you in mind what the sibyls were. 



31. As the prophets represent the voice of God in man, the 

 sibyls represent the voice of God in nature. They are prop- 

 erly all forms of one sibyl, A cos BouA.7?, the counsel of God ; 

 and the chief one, at least in the Roman mind, was the Sibyl 

 of Cumae. From the traditions of her, the Romans, and we 

 through them, received whatever lessons the myth, or fact, of 

 sibyl power has given to mortals. 



How much have you received, or may you yet receive, think 

 you, of that teaching ? I call it the myth, or fact ; but re- 

 member that, as a myth, it is a fact. This story has concen- 

 trated whatever good there is in the imagination of visionary 

 powers in women, inspired by nature only. The traditions 

 of witch and gipsy are partly its offshoots. You despise both, 

 perhaps. But can you, though in utmost pride of your su- 

 preme modern wisdom, suppose that the character say, even 

 of so poor and far-fallen a sibyl as Meg Merrilies is only the 

 coinage of Scott's brain ; or that, even being no more, it is 

 valueless ? Admit the figure of the Cumaean Sibyl, in like 

 manner, to be the coinage only of Virgil's brain. As such, it, 

 and the words it speaks, are yet facts in which we may find 

 use, if we are reverent to them. 



To me, personally, (I must take your indulgence for a mo- 

 ment to speak wholly of myself,) they have been of the truest 

 service quite material and indisputable. 



I am writing on St. John's Day, in the monastery of Assisi ; 

 and I had no idea whatever, when I sat down to my work this 

 morning, of saying any word of what I am now going to tell 

 you. I meant only to expand and explain a little what I said 

 in my lecture about the Florentine engraving. But it seems 

 to me now that I had better tell you what the Cumaean Sibyl 

 has actually done for me. 



32. In 1871, partly in consequence of chagrin at the Revo- 

 lution in Paris, and partly in great personal sorrow, I was 

 struck by acute inflammatory illness at Matlock, and reduced 

 to a state of extreme weakness ; lying at one time unconscious 

 for some hours, those about me having no hope of iny life. I 



