Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/344

340 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. to very few neither. Now let us make a lucky beginning. Qu. Well, let it be so j but we had best have the doors shut, lest our queen of the kitchen should happen to see us playing at children's play. Ch. Nay, we rather play at old men's play. But have you got a blab of a servant then '? Qu. So great a gossip, that if she cannot find anybody else to tell what is done at home, she will hold a long discourse with the hens or cats about it. Ch. Soho, boy ! shut the door and lock it, that nobody come and surprise us ; that we may play our bellyful.

 

Co. Since so many of you are assembled here to-day, and in so good humour, for the good and happiness of this convention, and the whole commonwealth of women, it gives me the greatest hope that every one's good genius will suggest to her those things that concern the dignity and advantage of the whole sex. I believe you all know what a prejudice it has been to our affairs, that while the men have had their daily meetings for transacting their affairs, we have been sitting at our spinning-wheels and neglected the management of our own cause. Whence things are now come to that pass that there are not the least footsteps of discipline and government left amongst us ; and the men make a mere jest of us, and scarce allow us the title of rational creatures. So that if we go on as we have done, you may easily foresee what will come of it in a short time ; and, indeed, I am afraid to utter it : and if we should take no care at all of our dignity, yet we ought to have some regard to our safety. And the wisest of kings has left it upon record, that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. The bishops have their synods, and the flocks of monks their con- venticles ; the soldiers their councils of war, and thieves and pick- pockets their clubs ; and even the pismires themselves have their meetings. And we women, of all living creatures, are the only ones that have had no meeting of members at all. Ma. Oftener than is becoming. Co. Do not interrupt there ; let me conclude my speech, and you shall have all time to speak in your turns. That which we now do is no new thing; we only revive an old ciistom. For, if I am not mistaken, about 1300 years ago that most praiseworthy emperor, Heliogabalus Pe. Most praiseworthy ! when it is certain he was dragged about with a hook, and thrown into a house of office. Co. Here I am interrupted again. If we approve or disapprove of any person by this way of arguing, we must allow Christ was an ill person because he was crucified ; and Domitian a good man because he died in his bed. The worst thing that was laid to the charge of Heliogaba- lus was his flinging down to the ground the sacred fire that was kept by the vestal virgins, and that he had the pictures of Moses and Christ hanging up in his private ( chapel, whom, by way of contempt, they called Chrestus. This Heliogabalus published a proclamation, that as he being 