Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/216

42 his wife. The other he retained himself; and as their love had been, such was the power of the rings. The wife presently forgot her husband, and the husband cared but little for the memory of his wife. Seeing, therefore, that his object was achieved, he departed joyfully to his own dominions, and never afterwards returned to the lady. So he ended his days in peace.

My beloved, by the Emperor understand the human soul, which ought to return to its own country—that is, to Heaven, by which path alone it can arrive at security. Therefore, the Psalmist says—"Save me, O God," &c. The wife is our body, which holds the soul in sensual delights, which encumber and bar its passage to that eternal life, where the empire and hope of the soul is. And why does it so impede it? Because the flesh rebels against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh. Do ye, therefore, as the Emperor did; make