V1VES ON THE CITY OF LOUVAIN. [To TER EDITOR OF
1111 "SrscrAroa."] Srn,—A few days ago I came across a passage in Vives which struck me as very pathetic in its contrast with the present state of Louvain. But then I felt how fruitless is all expression in this terrible matter. A friend, however, to whom I spoke and narrated the passage begged me to make it known, and said he was sure others would wish to know of it, though its interest is sad now. So I forward the words on the chance you may care to use them.—I am, Sir, Ste., The following is a translation of a passage in the Somnium of Juan Luis 'V Ives, a work published at Antwerp about 1520. The reference to Louvain has an unspeakable pathos at the present time " When Night emerged from the lower world, and fixed the seat of her kingdom on this earth, she brought with her one-and-twenty children, sons and daughters—love, beauty, labour, envy, fear, artifice, deceit, obstinacy, want, anxiety, hunger, quarrelsomeness, disease, old age, terror, darkness, death, Charon, day, the clear air and sleep. When night herself, the daughter of the earth, had obtained her mother's realm, she shared with her child, the day, the kingdom and sovereignty of all her provinces, and the empire [of the whole earth] was divided equally between the two. . . . Each took it in turn to bear rule over the same provinces, as well as over the rest of the children, and willed that there should be no city, no district, no place of assembly, not even a house, in which all the children should not have a settled right and power; for everywhere there is love, everywhere labour, everywhere fear, deceit, anxiety, want, envy, hunger, quarrelsomeness, and the rest of ills--except at Louvain, from which city are banished envy, deceit, crime, and obstinacy, and all things are full of love and charm."
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