double propriety in the changes of which he speaks. Israel, according to S. Augustine's rendering, means, he that beholds God. Rachel, according to the unwarrantable mediæval explanation, that beholds the Beginning: i.e., Christ. Thus the change spoken of is from earth to the Beatific Vision; and has a reference also to the New Name and White Stone of the Apocalypse.—The second allegory of Leah and Rachel expounds them of the Synagogue and the Church:—to this we shall have occasion to allude in a poem of Adam of S. Victor.—The third makes them to represent earthly affliction patiently endured, succeeded by joy. So a contemporary poem on the Martyrdom of S. Thomas:
Post Agar ludibrium, Saræ natus datur:
Post Lyam, ad libitum Jacob uxoratur.
It is not without a deep mystical meaning that these stones are selected by the poet: as the reader will see by referring to pp. 63–66.
Decachord. With reference to the mystical explanation, which, seeing in the number ten a type of perfection, understands the "instrument of ten strings" of the perfect harmony of heaven.
