THE "LABYRINTH OF THE WORLD"
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women should take superior rank. A few years ago, they add, a noble example of this was given in the kingdom of England under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for she decreed that all men should give their right hand to women, a worthy custom that still endured. Solomon, who had hitherto listened attentively to the petitions and to the queen's answers, now suddenly exclaims, " Vanity of vanities, and everything is vanity." He then tears away the mask which the queen wore, and she appears as a hideous hag. Yet shortly afterwards Solomon by means of flattery, again won over to her side and conducted to the street of married people, where he unable to resist the female attractions that offer themselves to him. Fearful calamities are the consequence of Solomon's weakness, and the pilgrim despairingly exclaims, " Oh, that had never been born, never passed through the gate of life for after.having surveyed all the vanities of the world, nothing but darkness and horror are my part. there God, God God, " The pilgrim, whom his have mercy on wretched me companions have meanwhile abandoned, now hears voice from on high which exclaims, " Return from where you came into the house of your heart, and then close that of Christ, who appears to the doors." The voice the teachthe pilgrim and instructs him in true religion strictly in accordance with the ing, needless to say, then received into doctrine of the Unity. The pilgrim prayer to heaven, and the last chapter consists in Christ, ending with the Latin words, Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonm voluntatis. impossible to render justice to the Labyrinth in few pages, and no book lends itself less to quotation. Komensky, who generally diffuse and addicted to repe-