Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/232

 228 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. Well, I will resolve you that if you answer me tliis question, -whether or no it is given to men alone to be the members of Christ ? Eu. God forbid ; that is given to all men and women too by faith. Fa. How comes it about, then, that when there is but one head, it should not be common to all the members ? And besides that, since God made man in His own image, whether did He express this image in the shape of his body or the endowments of his mind 1 Eu. In the endowments of his mind. Fa. Well, and I pray, what have men in these more excellent than we have ? In both sexes there are many drunkennesses, brawls, fightings, murders, wars, rapines, and adulteries. Eu. But we men alone fight for our country. Fa. And you men often desert from your colours, and run away like cowards ; and it is not always for the sake of your country that you leave your wives and children, but for the sake of a little nasty pay; and, worse than fencers at the bear-garden, you deliver up your bodies to a slavish necessity of being killed, or yourselves killing others. And now after all your boasting of your warlike prowess, there is none of you all but if you had once experienced what it is to bring a child into the world, would rather be placed ten times in the front of a battle than undergo once what we must so often. An army does not always fight, and when it does, the whole army is not always engaged. Such as you are set in the main body, others are kept for bodies of reserve, and some are safely posted in the rear; and lastly, many save themselves by surren- dering, and some by running away. We are obliged to encounter death hand to hand. Eu. I have heard these stories before now ; but the question is, whether they are true or not ? Fa. Too true. Eu. Well, then, Fabulla, would you have me persuade your husband never to touch you more ? for if so. yoii will be secure from that danger. Fa. In truth, there is nothing in the world I am more desirous of, if you were able to effect it. Eu. If I do persuade him to it, what shall I have for my pains ? Fa. I will present you with half a score dried neats- tongues. Eu. I had rather have them than the tongues of ten night- ingales. Well, I do not dislike the condition, but we will not make the bargain obligatory before we have agreed on the articles. Fa. And if you please you may add any other article. Eu. That shall be according as you are in the mind after your month is up. Fa. But why not according as I am in the mind now ? Eu. Why, I will tell you, because I am afraid you will not be in the same mind then; and so you would have double wages to pay, and I double work to do, of persuading and dissiiading him. Fa. Well, let it be as you will then. But come on, shew me why the man is better than the woman. Eu. I perceive you have a mind to engage with me in discourse, but I think it more advisable to yield to you at this time. At another time I will attack you when I have furnished myself with arguments, but not without a second neither ; for where the tongue is the weapon that decides the quarrel, seven men are scarce able to deal with one woman. Fa. Indeed, the tongue is a woman's weapon, but you men are not without it neither. Eu. Perhaps so, but where is your little boy 1 Fa. In the next room. Eu. What is he doing there, cooking the pot 1 Fa. You trifler, he is with his nurse. Eu. What nurse do you talk of? Has he any nurse