_"Christusque nobis sit cibus
Potusque noster sit fides;
Laeti bibamus sobriam
Ebrietatem Spiritus."_
_Translation._
"May Christ be now the Bread we eat,
Be simple Faith our potion sweet:
Let our intoxication be
The Spirit's calm sobriety."
The idea is familiar to readers of Herbert and Herrick, though it
is elaborated by them with quaint conceits somewhat foreign to the
Latin poet. Cf. Herbert, _The Banquet_:--
"O what sweetnesse from the bowl
Fills my soul!
* * * * *
Is some starre (fled from the sphere)
Melted there,
As we sugar melt in wine?
* * * * *
Doubtless neither starre nor flower
Hath the power
Such a sweetnesse to impart:
Only God, Who gives perfumes,
Flesh assumes,
And with it perfumed my heart."