age of a manuscript by the writing. I shall now preserve a vision
which a French antiquary had long ago given, merely with the design to
show how the monks abused the simplicity of our Gothic ancestors, and
with an utter want of taste for such inventions, he deems the present
one to be "monstrous." He has not told us the age in which it was
written. This vision, however, exhibits such complete scenes of the
_Inferno_ of the great poet, that the writer must have read Dante, or
Dante must have read this writer. The manuscript, with another of the
same kind, is in the King's library at Paris, and some future researcher
may ascertain the age of these Gothic compositions; doubtless they will
be found to belong to the age of Alberico, for they are alike stamped by
the same dark and awful imagination, the same depth of feeling, the
solitary genius of the monastery!

It may, however, be necessary to observe, that these "Visions" were
merely a vehicle for popular instruction; nor must we depend on the age
of their composition by the names of the supposititious visionaries
affixed to them: they were the satires of the times. The following
elaborate views of some scenes in the _Inferno_ were composed by an
honest monk who was dissatisfied with the bishops, and took this covert
means of pointing out how the neglect of their episcopal duties was
punished in the after-life; he had an equal quarrel with the feudal
nobility for their oppressions: and he even boldly ascended to the
throne.

"The Vision of Charles the Bald, of the places of punishment, and the
happiness of the Just.[282]

"I, Charles, by the gratuitous gift of God, king of the Germans, Roman
patrician, and likewise emperor of the Franks;

"On the holy night of Sunday, having performed the divine offices of
matins, returning to my bed to sleep, a voice most terrible came to my
ear; 'Charles! thy spirit shall now issue from thy body; thou shalt go
and behold the judgments of God; they shall serve thee only as presages,
and thy spirit shall again return shortly afterwards.' Instantly was my
spirit rapt, and he who bore me away was a being of the most splendid
whiteness. He put into my hand a ball of thread, which shed a blaze of
light, such as the comet darts when it is apparent. He divided it, and
said to me, 'Take thou this thread, and bind it strongly on the thumb of
thy right hand, and by this I will lead thee through the infernal
labyrinth of punishments.'

"The