Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/324

320 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. he would bring a mangy scoundrel cur to a well-bred bitch 1 Pe. No ; he would with the utmost diligence look for a dog that upon all accounts was of a good breed, to line her, that he might not have a litter of mongrels. Ga. And if a lord had a mind to have a good breed of horses, would he admit a diseased good-for-nothing stallion to leap a most excellent mare 1 Pe. No, he would not suffer a diseased stallion to enter his stable door, lest he should infect other horses. Ga. And yet at the same time they do not matter what sort of a son- in-law they give their daughters to, from whom those children are to be produced that are not only to inherit their estates, but also to govern the state. Pe. Nay, a country farmer will not suffer any bull to leap a young cow, nor every horse his mare, nor every boar to brim his sow ; though a bullock is designed for the plough, a horse for the cart, and a swine for the kitchen. See now how perverse the judgments of man- kind are. If a poor fellow should presume to kiss a nobleman's daughter they would think the affront a foundation enough to go to war upon. Pe. And very hotly too.

Ga. And yet these persons voluntarily, knowingly, and deliber- ately give up the dearest thing they have in the world to such an abominable monster, and are privately unnatural to their own flesh and blood, and publicly to their country. Pe. If the bridegroom does but halt a little, although as to anything else he is perfectly sound, how is he despised fora husband ! And is the pox the only thing that is no inconvenience in a married life 1 Ga. If any man should marry his daughter to a Franciscan, what an abominable thing would it be accounted ! what an outcry would there be, that he had thrown his daughter away ! But yet, when he has pulled off that dress, he has every way well-made sound limbs ; while the other must pass her days with a rotten carcase, that is but half alive. If any one is married to a priest, he is bantered on account of his unction; but one that is married to one that has the pox has one whose unctions are worse by abund- ance. Pe. Enemies that have taken a maid captive will not be guilty of such barbarity as this ; nor will kidnappers themselves to those they have kidnapped away ; and yet parents will be guilty of it against their only daughter ; and there is no magistrate ordained to prevent the mischief. Ga. How should a physician cure a madman, if he has a spice of the same distemper himself. Pe. But it is a wonder to me that princes whose business it is to take care of the commonwealth only in those things which relate to the body, of which nothing is of greater moment than the health of it, should find out no remedy for this evil. This egregious pestilence has infected great part of the earth, and" in the meantime they lie snoring on, and never mind it, as if it were a matter not worth their notice. Ga. Have a care, Petronius, what you say as to princes. But hark you, I will tell you a word in your ear. Pe. Oh, wretched ! I wish what you say were not true. Ga. How many diseases do you think are caused by bad wine, a thousand ways sophisticated ? Pe. Why, if we may believe the physicians, they are innumerable. Ga. Well, and do the ministers of state take any care of the matter. Pe. They take care enough as to the collecting the excise, but no further. Ga. She that knowingly marries a husband that is not sound, perhaps may deserve to suffer the punishment she has brought upon herself;