Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/233

 THE LYING-IN WOMAN. 229 but his mother 1 Fa. Why not 1 it is the fashion. Eu. You quote the worst author in the world, Fabulla, the fashion; it is the fashion to do amiss to game, to whore, to cheat, to be drunk, and to play the rake. Fa. My friends would have it so ; they were of opinion I ought to favour myself, being young. Eu. But if nature gives strength to con- ceive, it doubtless gives strength to give suck too. Fa. That may be. Eu. Prithee, tell me, do not you think mother is a very pretty name ] Fa. Yes, I do. Eu. And if such a thing were possible, would you endure it that another woman should be called the mother of your child 1 Fa. By no means. Eu. Why, then, do you volun* tarily make another woman more than half the mother of what you have brought into the world ? Fa. Oh fie ! Eutrapelus, I do not divide my son in two; I am entirely his mother, and nobody in the world else. Eu. Nay, Fabulla, in this case nature herself blames you to your face. Why is the earth called the mother of all things ? Is it because she produces only ? Nay, much rather because she nourishes those things she produces ; that which is produced by water is fed by water. There is not a living creature or a plant that grows on the face of the earth that the earth does not feed with its own moisture, nor is there any living creature that does not feed its own offspring. Owls, lions, and vipers feed their own young, and does womankind make her offspring offcasts 1 Pray, what can be more cruel than they are that turn their offspring out of doors for laziness not to supply them with, food ? Fa. That you talk of is abominable. Eu. But womankind do not abominate it. Is it not a sort of turning out of doors to com- mit a tender little infant, yet reeking of the mother, breathing the very air of the mother, imploring the mother's aid and help with its voice, which they say will affect even a brute creature, to a woman perhaps that is neither wholesome in body nor honest, who has more regard to a little wages than to your child? Fa. But they have made choice of a wholesome, sound woman. Eu. Of this the doctors are better judges than yourself. But put the case : she is as healthful as yourself, and more too, do you think there is no difference between your little tender infant's sucking its natural and familiar milk, and being cherished with warmth it has been accustomed to, and its being forced to accustom itself to those of a stranger ? Wheat being sown in a strange soil degenerates into oats or small wheat. A vine being transplanted into another hill changes its nature. A plant when it is plucked from its parent earth withers, and as it were dies away, and does in a manner the same when it is transplanted from its native earth. Fa. Nay. but they say plants that have been transplanted and grafted lose their wild nature, and produce better fruit. Eu. But not as soon as ever they peep out of the ground, good madam. There will come a time, a grace of God, when you will send away your young son from you out of doors to be accomplished with learn- ing and undergo harsh discipline, and which indeed is rather the province of the father than of the mother, bu t now its tender age calls for indulgence. And besides, whereas the food, according as it is, con- tributes much, to the health and strength of the body, so more especially it is essential to take care with what milk that little, tender, soft body be seasoned. For Horace's saying takes place here, What is bred in o