[007]
Moreover, 'tis patent to all that 'twas not in the Church, of
matters whereto pertaining 'tis meet we speak with all purity of
heart and seemliness of phrase, albeit among her histories there are
to be found not a few that will ill compare with my writings; nor
yet in the schools of the philosophers, where, as much as anywhere,
seemliness is demanded, nor in any place where clergy or philosophers
congregate, but in gardens, in pleasaunces, and among folk,
young indeed, but not so young as to be seducible by stories, and at
a time when, if so one might save one's life, the most sedate might
without disgrace walk abroad with his breeches for headgear, that
these stories were told.
[008]
Which stories, such as they are, may, like
all things else, be baneful or profitable according to the quality
of the hearer.
[009]
Who knows not that wine is, as Cinciglione and
Scolaio and many another aver, an
excellent thing for the living
creature, and yet noxious to the fevered patient? Are we, for the
mischief it does to the fever-stricken, to say that 'tis a bad thing?
Who knows not that fire is most serviceable, nay, necessary, to
mortals? Are we to say that, because it burns houses and villages
and cities, it is a bad thing?
[010]
Arms, in like manner, are the safeguard
of those that desire to live in peace, and also by them are men
not seldom maliciously slain, albeit the malice is not in them, but in
those that use them for a malicious purpose.
[011]
Corrupt mind did never
yet understand any word in a wholesome sense; and as such a mind
has no profit of seemly words, so such as are scarce seemly may as
little avail to contaminate a healthy mind as mud the radiance of
the sun, or the deformities of earth the splendours of the heavens.
[012]
What books, what words, what letters, are more sacred, more excellent,
more venerable, than those of Holy Writ? And yet there
have been not a few that, perversely construing them, have brought
themselves and others to perdition.
[013]
Everything is in itself good for
somewhat, and being put to a bad purpose, may work manifold mischief.
And so, I say, it is with my stories. [014]If any man shall be
minded to draw from them matters of evil tendency or consequence,
they will not gainsay him, if, perchance, such matters there be in
them, nor will such matters fail to be found in them, if they be
wrested and distorted. Nor, if any shall seek profit and reward in
them, will they deny him the same; and censured or accounted as
less than profitable and seemly they can never be, if the times or the
persons when and by whom they are read be such as when they
were recounted.
[015]
If any lady must needs say paternosters or make
cakes or tarts for her holy father, let her leave them alone; there is
none after whom they will run a begging to be read: howbeit, there
are little matters that even the beguines tell, ay, and do, now and
again.
