CXVI.
“Banished from heaven so long, what there transpires
This weary exiled ear may rarely meet.
But it is whispered that the Unquelled desires
Another Spirit for each forfeit seat
“Left vacant by our fall.
It was an idea generally entertained by the fathers, that the many vacancies caused by the different orders of angels who fell through love or ambition were to be filled up by souls selected from the human species. Another opinion afterwards arose, and was favored by one or more of the popes, “that it was only the tenth order of the celestial hierarchy which supplied angels, who, by falling, assimilated themselves to the inhabitants of earth; and that it is only to supply the deficiencies of that grade that the best of mortals will be promoted.” Much interesting speculation on this subject may be found in the works of Dionysius, to which I had free access while at Paris, but no time to make extracts or translations.
That Spirit placed
In mortal form must every trial bear
'Midst all that can pollute; and, if defaced
But by one stain, it may not enter there.
