Now, ladies, you cannot say I do not praise the virtues which God has given you, and which show the more when possessed by one of lowly condition.
Why, we are not sorry, said Oisille, to hear you praise the mercies of Our Lord, for in truth all virtue comes from Him; but we must confess that man assists in the work of God as little as women. Neither can by heart or will do more than plant. God alone giveth the increase.
If you have studied Scripture, said Saffredent, you know that St. Paul says that Apollos planted and he himself watered; (3) but he does not speak of women as having set hand to the work of God.
3 The text is just the contrary: I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.--I _Corinthians_ iii. 6.--Ed.
You would follow, said Parlamente, the opinion of those wicked men who take a passage of Scripture that is in their favour and leave one that is against them. If you had read St. Paul to the end, you would have found that he commends himself to the ladies, who greatly laboured with him in the work of the Gospel.
However that may be, said Longarine, the woman in the story is well worthy of praise both for the love she bore her husband, on whose behalf she risked her own life, and for the faith she had in God, who, as we see, did not forsake her.
I think, said Ennasuite, as far as the first is concerned, that there is no woman present but would do as much to save her husbands life.
I think, said Parlamente, that some husbands are such brutes that the women who live with them should not find it strange to live among their fellows.
Ennasuite, who took these words to herself, could not refrain from saying--
Provided the beasts did not bite me, their company would be more pleasant to me than that of men, who are choleric and intolerable. But I abide by what I have said, that, if my husband were in a like danger, I should not leave him to die.
Beware, said Nomerfide, of loving too fondly, for excess of love will deceive both him and you. There is a medium in all things, and through lack of knowledge love often gives birth to hate.
Methinks, said Simontault, you have not carried your discourse so far without having an instance to confirm it. If, then, you know such a one, I give you my place that you may tell it to us.