Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/240

 236 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. little fire that is buried as it were under too great a quantity of green wood, it cannot exert its power. Fa. Why, then, is the soul bound to the body that it acts and moves? Eu. No otherwise than a tortoise is bound or tied to the shell that he carries about. Fa. He does move it, indeed ; but so at the same time that he moves himself too as a pilot steers a ship, turning it which way he will, and is at the same time moved with it. Eu. Ay, and as a squirrel turns his wheel-cage about to make the bells ring, and is himself carried about with it. Fa. And so the soul affects the body, and is affected by the body. Eu. Yes, indeed, as to its operations. Fa. Why, then, as to the nature of it, the soul of a fool is equal to the soul of Solomon. Eu. There is no absurdity in that. Fa. And so the angels are equal, inasmuch as they are without matter, which, you say, is that which makes the inequality. Eu. We have had philosophy enough. Let divines puzzle them- selves about these things ; let us discourse of those matters that were first mentioned. If you would be a complete mother take care of the body of your little infant, so that after the little fire of the mind has disengaged itself from the vapours, it may have sound and fit organs to make use of. As often as you hear your child crying think this with yoiirsclf, he calls for this from me. When you look upon your breasts, those two little fountains, turgid, and of their own accord streaming out a milky juice, remember nature puts you in mind of your duty. Or else, when your infant shall begin to speak, and with his pretty stammering shall call you mammy, how can you hear it without blushing 1 when you have refused to let him have it, and turned him off to a hireling nipple, as if you had committed him to a goat or a sheep. When he is able to speak, what if, instead of calling you mother, he should call you half-mother ? I suppose you would whip him ; although, indeed, she is scarce half-a-mother that refuses to feed what she has brought into the world. The nourishing of the tender babe is the best part of geniture ; for he is not only fed by the milk, but with the fragrancy of the body of the mother. He requires the same natural, familiar, accustomed moisture, that he drew in when in her body, and by which he received his coalition. And I am of that opinion that the genius of children are vitiated by the nature of the milk they suck, as the juices of the earth change the nature of those plants and fruits that it feeds. Do you think there is no foundation in reason for this saying, He sucked in this ill humour with the mirse's milk ? Nor do I think the Greeks spoke without reason, when they said like nurses, when they would intimate that any one was starved at nurse : for they put a little of what they chew into the child's mouth, but the greatest part goes down their own throats. And, indeed, she can hardly properly be said to bear a child that throws it away as soon as she has brought it forth that is to miscarry; and the Greek etymology of M/JTIJ/O from /LITJ r?jp/v, i.e., from not looking after, seems very well to suit such mothers. For it is a sort of turning a little infant out of doors to put it to a hireling nurse, while it is yet warm from the mother. Fa. I would come over to your opinion, unless such a woman were chosen against whom there is nothing to be objected. Eu. Suppose it were of no moment what milk the little infant sucked, what spittle it swallowed with its chewed