AN ANSWER, truth, but by trying her in such a manti proof may manifest the perfection of her goodness as fire does that of gold." "For these reasons," said he, "my desire is, that my wife may pass through these trials, and be purified and refined in the fire of courtship and solicitation, and that by some person worthy of placing his desires on her; and if she comes off from this conflict, as I believe she will, with the palm of victory, I shall applaud my matchless fortune: I shall then have it to say, that I have attained the utmost of my wishes, and may safely boast that the virtuous woman is fallen to my lot, of whom the Wise Man says, 'Who can find her?' And if the reverse of all this should happen, AN ANSWER, &c. ONCE upon a time, according to a story in Don Quixote, there lived in Florence two friends called Anselmo and Lothario. The former was married, much to his satisfaction; yet could not rest contented until the virtue and fidelity of his wife, of which he had no suspicion, had been put to the test of seductive and insidious offers from some other lover. He professed himself disquieted by a desire to know whether she were as good and perfect as he imagined her to be; "and," he argued, "I cannot be thoroughly informed of this truth, but by trying her in such a manner that the proof may manifest the perfection of her goodness as fire does that of gold." "For these reasons," said he, "my desire is, that my wife may pass through these trials, and be purified and refined in the fire of courtship and solicitation, and that by some person worthy of placing his desires on her; and if she comes off from this conflict, as I believe she will, with the palm of victory, I shall applaud my matchless fortune: I shall then have it to say, that I have attained the utmost of my wishes, and may safely boast that the virtuous woman is fallen to my lot, of whom the Wise Man says, 'Who can find her?' And if the reverse of all this should happen, the satisfaction of being confirmed in my opinion will enable me to bear, without regret, the trouble so costly an experiment may reasonably give me." To these and similar arguments by which Anselmo urged Lothario to carry out his design, his friend replied, "Methinks, Anselmo, you are at this time in the same disposition that the Moors are always in, whom you cannot convince of the error of their sect by citations from Holy Scripture, nor by arguments drawn from reason, or founded upon articles of faith; but you must produce examples that are plain, easy, intelligible, demonstrative, and undeniable; as when it is said, If from equal parts we take equal parts, those that remain are also equal.' And that you may clearly see that it is so, say, Anselmo, have you not told me that I must solicit her who is reserved, persuade her who is virtuous, bribe her who is disinterested, and court her who is prudent? If then you know that you have a reserved, virtuous, disinterested, and prudent wife, what is it you would have? And if you are of opinion she will come off victorious from all my attacks, as doubtless she will, what better titles do you think to bestow on her afterwards than those she has already? Or what will she be more then than she is now? Tell me, Anselmo, if heaven or good fortune had made you master and lawful possessor of a superlatively fine diamond, of whose goodness and beauty all jewellers who had seen it were fully satisfied, and should unanimously declare, that in weight, goodness, and beauty, it came up to whatever the nature of such a stone is capable of, and you yourself should believe as much, as knowing nothing to the contrary, would it be right that you should take a fancy to lay this diamond between the anvil and the hammer, and by mere dint of blows try whether it was so hard and so fine as it was thought |