Pietro of Abano had the reputation of being a wizard; and though his skill in curing sickness, as in building, star-reading, and yet other things, conferred invaluable services on his fellow-men, he received only kicks and curses for his reward.  His power seemed, nevertheless, so enviable, that he was one day, in the archway of his door, accosted by a young Greek, who humbly and earnestly entreated that the secret of that power might be revealed to him.  He promised to repay his master with loving gratitude; and hinted that the bargain might be worth the latter’s consideration, since nature, in all else his slave, forbade his drinking milk (this is told of the true Pietro):  in other words, denied him the affection which softens and sweetens the dry bread of human life.  Pietro pretended to consent, and began, to utter, by way of preface, the word “benedicite.”  The young Greek lost consciousness at its second syllable; and awoke to find himself alone, and with a first instalment of Peter’s secret in his mind.  “Good is product of evil, and to be effected through it.”  Acting upon this doctrine, he traded on the weaknesses of his fellow-creatures wherever the opportunity occurred; and attained by this means, first, wealth; next temporal, and then spiritual, power; rising finally to the dignity of Pope.  At each stage of this progress, Peter came to him in apparent destitution, and claimed the promised gratitude in an urgent, but very modest prayer for assistance.  And each time Peter’s presence infused into him a fresh power of unscrupulousness, and sent him a step farther on his way.  But each time also the pupil postponed his obligation, till he at last disclaimed it; and—­enthroned in the Lateran—­was dismissing his benefactor with insult:  when the closing syllables—­“dicite”—­sounded in his ear; and he became conscious of Peter’s countenance smiling back at him over his shoulder, and Peter’s door being banged in his face.  And he then knew that he had lived a lifetime in the fraction of a minute, and that the magician, by means of whom he had done so, justly declined to trust him.

Mr. Browning, however, bids the young Greek persevere; since he might ransack Peter’s books, without discovering a better secret for gaining power over the masses, than the “cleverness uncurbed by conscience,” which he perhaps already possesses.[107]

“DOCTOR ——­” is an old Hebrew legend, founded upon the saying that a bad wife is stronger than death.  Satan complains, in his character of Death, that man has the advantage of him:  since he may baffle him, whenever he will, by the aid of a bad woman; and he undertakes to show this in his own person.  He comes to earth, marries, and has a son, who in due time must be supplied with a profession.  This son is too cowardly to be a soldier, and too lazy to be a lawyer; Divinity is his father’s sphere.  So Satan decides that he shall be a doctor; and endows him with a faculty which will enable him to practise Medicine, without