The parlament of foules, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed., with introduction, notes, and glossary, by T. R. Lounsbury.

12

INTROD UCTION.

parted to go to bed, a sounder sleep than usual fell upon me, partly on account of
weariness occasioned by the journey, and partly because I had staid up to a late hour.
Then Africanus appeared to me, I think in consequence of what we had been talking
about; for it often happens that our thoughts and speeches bring about in sleep something of that illusion of which Ennius writes in regard to himself and Homer, of
which poet he was very often accustomed to think and speak while awake. Africanus
showed himself to me in that form which was better known to me from his ancestral
image than from my recollection of his person. As soon as I recognized him, I was
seized with a fit cf terror; but he thereupon said, " Be of good courage, O Scipio!
Lay aside fear, and commit to memory these things whieh I am about to say.
II. " Do you see that state, which, compelled by me to submit to the Roman people, renews its former wars, and cannot endure to remain at peace? " At these words,
from a certain lustrous and bright place, very high, and full of stars, he pointed out to
me Carthage. "To fight against that city thou now coinest in a rank but little above
that of a private soldier; but, in two years from this time, thou shalt as consul utterly
overthrow it, and, in consequence, shalt gain by thy own exertions that very surname of Africanus, which up to this time thou hast inherited from us. But when
thou shalt have destroyed Carthage, shalt have had the honor of a triumph, and shalt
have been censor, thou shalt, during thy absence, be chosen consul for a second time,
shalt put an end to a great war, and lay Numantia in ruins. But, when thou shalt be
carried in thy triumphal chariot to the capitol, thou wilt find the republic disturbed
by the designs of my grandson.
"Then, 0 Scipio! it will be necessary that thou exhibit the purity and greatness
of thy heart, thy soul, and thy judgment. But I see at that time a double way disclose itself, as if the Fates were undecided; for when thy life shall have completed
eight times seven revolutions of the sun, and these two numbers (each one of which
is looked upon as perfect; the one for one reason, the other for another) shall have
accomplished for thee by their natural revolution the fatal product, to thee alone and
to thy name the whole state shall turn; upon thee the senate, upon thee all good men,
upon thee the allies, upon thee the Latins, will fasten their eyes; thou wilt be the
one upon whom the safety of the state shall rest; and in short, as dictator, it will be
incumbent on thee to establish and regulate the republic, if thou art successful in
escaping the impious hands of kinsmen." At this point, Lxelius uttered an exclamation of sorrow, and the rest groaned more deeply; but Scipio, slightly smiling, said,
" Keep silence, I beg of you. Do not awake me from my dream, and hear the rest of
his words.
III. " But, 0 Africanus! that thou mayest be the more zealous in the defence of
the republic, know this: For all who have preserved, who have succored, who have
aggrandized their country, there is in heaven a certain fixed place, where they enjoy
an eternal life of blessedness. For to that highest God, who governs the whole
world, there is nothing which can be done on earth more dear than those combinations
of men and unions, made under the sanction of law, which are called states. The
rulers and preservers of them depart from this place, and to it they return."
I had been filled with terror, not so much at the fear of death as at the prospect
of treachery on the part of those akin to me: nevertheless, at this point, I had the
courage to ask whether my father Paulus was living, and others whom we thought
to be annihilated. "Certainly," said he: "they alone live who have been set free
from the fetters of the body, as if from prison; for that which you call your life is