XXXIV.

_Vincula sponte decidunt._ Act. xii. 7.

Qui ferro Petrum cumulas, durissime custos,

A ferro disces mollior esse tuo.

Ecce fluit, nodisque suis evolvitur ultro:

I, fatue, et vinc'lis vincula pone tuis.

_The chains spontaneously fall off._

Who loadest him with chains, thou jailer stern,

To be more kind e'en from those chains shalt learn.

Lo, they dissolve, and their own knots untie.

Go, fool, and chains with chains to fetter try. G.

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