DISCOURSE IL Cabalistic aversion to monks which I perceive you to entertain, I cannot help siding with them on this occasion. I believe that there would not be so much harm in absolutely denying that Oracles ever existed as there is in saying it was not the Devil who spoke through them because, in short, the Fathers and the theologians ———” “Because, in short,” he interrupted, “do not the theologians agree that the learned Sambethe, the most ancient of the Sibyls was the daughter of Noah?” “Eh! what has that to do with it?” I retorted. “Does not Plutarch say,” he rejoined, “that the most ancient of the Sibyls was the first to deliver Oracles at Delphi? Therefore the Spirit which Sambethe har- boured in her breast was not a devil nor was her Apollo a false god, for idolatry did not begin until long after the division of languages, and it would be far from the truth to attribute to the Father of Lies the sacred books of the Sibyls, and all the proofs of the true re- ligion which the Fathers have drawn from them. And _then, too, my Son,” he laughingly continued, ‘‘it is not for you to annul the marriage of David and the Sibyl which was made by a celebrated cardinal, nor to accuse that learned personage of having placed side by side a great prophet and a wretched demoniac. Since either David strengthens the testimony of the Sibyl or the Sibyl weakens the authority of David.” 81 LIX LXLIX LX COMMENTARY. SAMBETHE, THE DAUGHTER OF Noau, Note W, Com- MENTARY CONTINUED, Sacrep Booxs or THe Sisyis—Under the title of “Oracles of the Sibyls”’ there exists a collection of verses in Greek hexameter in fourteen books, which has long been regarded as an authentic collection of the prophecies of the pagan Sibyls. In Libri Divin- arum Rerum, Lactantius quotes Varro as saying that these books are not all written by one Sibyl, but are called Sibylline because by the ancients all prophet- esses were called Sibyls. And Diodorus Siculus states that the Sibyl was actuated by the spirit of God and that the name Sibyl signifies ‘being full of God,” As these books accurately prophesied the mission, teaching, and miracles of Christ as well as his death upon the cross and resurrection, the church fathers ac- cepted and made use of them without hesitation, The pleasantry of the Comte as to the marriage of David and the Sibyl is a reference to the words occuring in the Mass for the Dead, ‘Teste David cum Sibylle.”” (By the witness of David and the Sibyl). The original Sibylline Books were kept concealed in the Capitol at Rome, and were lost when it was destroyed by fire in 405, A.D. They were held in 82DISCOURSE II. “Sir,” I exclaimed, “I entreat you again to become serious.” “Willingly,” said he, “ provided you will not accuse me of being too much so. Is it your opinion that the Devil is sometimes divided against himself and against his own interests?” “Why not?” said I. “Why not!” said he, “Because that which Ter- tullian has so felicitously and so grandly termed ‘the Reason of God’ does not find it fitting. Satan is never divided against himself. It therefore follows either that the Devil has never spoken through the Oracles, or that he has never spoken through them against his own interests; and therefore if the Oracles have spoken against the interests of the Devil, it was not the Devil who was speaking through the Oracles.” “But,” said I, “has not God been able to compel the Devil to bear witness to the truth and to speak against himself?” “But,” he answered, “ What if God has not com- pelled him to do so?” “Ah, in that case," I replied, “ you are more in the right than the monks.” 83