[149] “Desse,” seat.
[150] Usually called Charity: but this virtue in its full sense is one of the attendant spirits by the Throne; the Kindness here meant is Charity with a special object; or Friendship and Kindness, as opposed to Envy, which has always, in like manner, a special object. Hence the love of Orestes and Pylades is given as an instance of the virtue of Friendship; and the Virgin’s, “They have no wine,” at Cana, of general kindness and sympathy with others’ pleasure.
[151] The “Faerie Queen,” like Dante’s “Paradise,” is only half estimated, because few persons take the pains to think out its meaning. I have put a brief analysis of the first book in [Appendix 2], Vol. III.; which may perhaps induce the reader to follow out the subject for himself. No time devoted to profane literature will be better rewarded than that spent earnestly on Spenser.
[152] Inscribed, I believe, Pietas, meaning general reverence and godly fear.
[153] I have given one of these capitals carefully already in my folio work, and hope to give most of the others in due time. It was of no use to draw them here, as the scale would have been too small to allow me to show the expression of the figures.
[154] Lord Lindsay, vol. ii. p. 226.
[155] Lord Lindsay, vol. ii. letter IV.
[156] Selvatico states that these are intended to be representative of eight nations, Latins, Tartars, Turks, Hungarians, Greeks, Goths, Egyptians, and Persians. Either the inscriptions are now defaced or I have carelessly omitted to note them.
[157] The comma in these inscriptions stands for a small cuneiform mark, I believe of contraction, and the small s for a zigzag mark of the same kind. The dots or periods are similarly marked, on the stone.
[158] Can they have mistaken the ISIPIONE of the fifth side for the word Isidore?