Orpheus.
Amphion.
Musaeus.

The human voice as an instrument of music. Oratory and Poesy as
branches of the art.

The power of song: Ulysses and the Sirens.

David the author of the Psalter, who by his melody three (?) times
drove away the evil spirit from Saul.

The lyre is called 'chorda,' because it so easily moves the hearts
(corda) of men.

As the diadem dazzles by the variegated lustre of its gems, so the
lyre with its divers sounds.

The lyre, the loom of the Muses.

Mercury, the inventor of the lyre, is said to have derived the idea of
it from the harmony of the spheres. This astral music, apprehended by
reason alone, is said to form one of the delights of heaven. 'If
philosophers had placed that enjoyment not in sweet sounds but in the
contemplation of the Creator, they would have spoken fitly; for there
is truly joy without end, eternity abiding for ever without weariness,
and the mere contemplation of the Divinity produces such happiness
that nothing can surpass it. This Being furnishes the true
immortality; this heaps delight upon delight; and as outside of Him no
creature can exist, so without Him changeless happiness cannot
be[273].

[Footnote 273: 'Bene quidem arbitrati, si causam celestis beatitudinis
non in sonis sed in Creatore possuissent; ubi veraciter sine fine
gaudium est, sine aliquo taedio manens semper aeternitas: et inspectio
sola Divinitatis efficit, ut beatius esse nil possit. Haec veraciter
perennitatem praestat: haec jucunditates accumulat; et sicut praeter
ipsam creatura non extat, ita sine ipsa incommutabilem laetitiam
habere non praevalet.']

'We have indulged ourselves in a pleasant digression, because it is
always agreeable to talk of learning with the learned; but be sure to
get us that _Citharoedus_, who will go forth like another Orpheus to
charm the beast-like hearts of the Barbarians. You will thus both obey
us and render yourself famous.'

41. KING THEODORIC TO LUDUIN [CLOVIS], KING OF THE FRANKS.

[Sidenote: Victories of Clovis over the Alamanni.]

Congratulates him on his recent victories over the Alamanni. Refers to
the ties of affinity between them (Theodoric having married the sister
of Clovis). Clovis has stirred up the nation of the Franks, 'prisca
aetate residem,' to new and successful encounters. 'It is a memorable
triumph that the impetuous Alaman should be struck with such terror as
even to beg for his life. Let it suffice that tha