the essays of montaigne, v15-第19章
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take a fancy to possess over her companions the glory of this chaste
love? I may well say chaste;
〃Nam si quando ad praelia ventum est;
Ut quondam in stipulis magnus sine viribus ignis;
Incassum furit:〃
'〃For when they sometimes engage in love's battle;
his sterile ardour lights up but as the flame of a straw。〃
Virgil; Georg。; iii。 98。'
the vices that are stifled in the thought are not the worst。
To conclude this notable commentary; which has escaped from me in a
torrent of babble; a torrent sometimes impetuous and hurtful;
〃Ut missum sponsi furtivo munere malum
Procurrit casto virginis a gremio;
Quod miserae oblitae molli sub veste locatuat;
Dum adventu matris prosilit; excutitur;
Atque illud prono praeceps agitur decursu
Huic manat tristi conscius ore rubor。〃
'〃As when an apple; sent by a lover secretly to his mistress; falls
from the chaste virgin's bosom; where she had quite forgotten it;
when; starting at her mother's coming in; it is shaken out and rolls
over the floor before her eyes; a conscious blush covers her face。〃
Catullus; lxv。 19。'
I say that males and females are cast in the same mould; and that;
education and usage excepted; the difference is not great。 Plato
indifferently invites both the one and the other to the society of all
studies; exercises; and vocations; both military and civil; in his
Commonwealth; and the philosopher Antisthenes rejected all distinction
betwixt their virtue and ours。 It is much more easy to accuse one sex
than to excuse the other; 'tis according to the saying;
〃Le fourgon se moque de la paele。〃
'〃The Pot and the Kettle。〃'
End