Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/237

 THE LYING-IN WOMAN. 233 say, in houses where it rains in, that are dai'k, exposed to all winds, that are smoky, damp, decayed, and ruinous, and such as are filthy and infected ; and yet Cato accounts it the principal happiness of a man to dwell handsomely. Fa. It were tolerable, if there was any passing out of one house into another. Eu. There is no going out before the land- lord calls oiit. But though we cannot go out, yet we may by our art and care make the habitation of our mind commodious.; as in a house the windows are changed, the floor taken up, the walls are either plastered or wainscotted, and the situation may be purified with fire or perfume. But this a very hard matter in an old body that is near its ruin. But it is of great advantage to the body of a child to take the care of it that ought to be taken presently after its birth. Fa. You would have mothers and nurses to be doctors. Eu. So, indeed, I would as to the choice and moderate use of meat, drink, motion, sleep, baths, unctions, frictions, and clothings. How many are there, think you, who are exposed to. grievous diseases and vice, as epilepsies, leanness, weakness, deafness, broken backs, crooked, limbs, a weak brain, disturbed minds, and for no other reason than that their nurses have not taken a due care of them 1 Fa. I wonder you are not rather a Franciscan than a painter, who preach so finely. Eu. When you are a nun of the order of St. Clare, then I will be a Franciscan, and preach to you. Fa. In truth, I would fain know what tho, soul is, about which we hear so much and talk of so often, and nobody has seen. Eu. Nay, everybody sees it that has eyes. Fa. I see souls painted in the shape of little infants ; but why do they put wings to them as they do to angels'? Eu. Why, because, if we can give any credit to the fables of Socrates, their wings were broken, by their falling from heaven. Fa. How, then, are they said to fly up to heaven ? Eu. Because faith and charity make their wings grow again. He that was weary of this house of his body begged for these wings, when he cried out, Who will give me the wings of a dove, that I may fly away and be at rest. Nor has the soul any other wings, being incorporeal, nor any form that can be beheld with the eyes of the body. But those things that are perceived by the mind are more certain. Do you believe the being of God ] Fa. Yes, I do. Eu. But nothing is more invisible than God. Fa. He is seen in the works of creation. Eu. In like manner the soul is seen in action. If you would know how it acts in a living body, consider a dead body. When you see a man feel, see, hear, move, understand, remember, and reason, you see the soul to be in him with more certainty than you see this tankard ; for one sense may be deceived, but so many proofs of the senses cannot deceive you. Fa. Well, then, if you cannot shew me the soul, paint it out to me just as you would the king, whom I never did see. Eu. I have Aristotle's definition ready for you. Fa. What is it, for they say he was a very good decipherer of everything. Eu. The soul is the act of an organical physical body, having life in potentia. Fa. Why does he rather call it an act than a journey or way ? Eu. Here is no, regard, either to coachmen or horsemen, but a bare definition of the soul. And he calls the form act, the nature of which is to act, when it is the property of matter to suffer. For all natural motion of the body