book_id
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| title
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|---|---|---|---|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come hither, Messer Bocca! I have just guessed what it was Messer Guido meant us to understand. He told us we were at home in a graveyard, because the ignorant be for all the world like dead men, who, according to the Epicurean doctrine, have no faculty of thought or knowledge."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah! Guido mine! what fire is it hath consumed you away thus? You burned up your life in science first, and then in public affairs. I beseech you, quench somewhat the ardour of your spirit; comrade, let us husband our strength, and, as Riccardo the blacksmith says, make up a fire to last."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hush! he whispered,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Vita di Spinello."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And so successful was Spinello with his horrible and portentous Production that it was commonly reported--so great is alway the force of fancy--that the said figure (of Lucifer trodden underfoot by St. Michael in the Altar-piece of the Church of St. Agnolo at Arezzo) painted by him had appeared to the artist in a dream, and asked him in what place he had beheld him under so brutish a form."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Life of Spinello."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "which is to reduce the universe to ashes, _teste David et Sibylla_, borrowing his deepest voice and bellowing through his hands to imitate the Archangel's last trump. But there! it was"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are rich, Spinello. Do you rest, and leave younger men to paint instead of you. It is meet a man should end his days in a gentle, religious quiet. It is tempting God to be for ever raising new and worldly monuments, mere heathen towers of Babel. Quit your colours and your varnishes, Spinello, or they will destroy your peace of mind."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Spinello, I am Lucifer. Tell me, where had you seen me, that you should paint me as you have, under so ignominious a likeness?"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Spinello, he went on,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Spinello, you have read the books that tell of me. You know of my enterprise, and how I forsook Heaven to become the Prince of this World. A tremendous adventure,--and a unique one, had not the Giants in like fashion assailed the god Jupiter, as yourself have seen, Spinello, recorded on an ancient tomb where this Titanic war is carved in marble."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is true, said Spinello,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have seen the tomb, shaped like a great tun, in the Church of Santa Reparata at Florence. 'Tis a fine work of the Romans."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Still, returned Lucifer, smiling,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "True, replied the painter,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will not deny it, said Lucifer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And how many sorts of sins do you charge me with for that?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Seven, it is like enough, the painter answered,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Seven! exclaimed the Angel of Darkness;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell me, Spinello, do you really think I am indolent? Do you take me for a coward? Do you hold that in my revolt I showed a lack of courage? Nay! you cannot. Then it was but just to paint me in the guise of a hero, with a proud countenance. You should wrong no one, not even the Devil. Cannot you see that you insult Him you make prayer to, when you give Him for adversary a vile, monstrous toad? Spinello, you are very ignorant for a man of your age. I have a great mind to pull your ears, as they do to an ill-conditioned schoolboy."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I told you so, retorted the worthy dame;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I knew all those figures you will go on painting on the walls would end by driving you mad."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am not mad, protested the painter."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I saw him with my own eyes; and he is beautiful to look on, albeit proud and sad. First thing to-morrow I will blot out the horrid figure I have drawn and set in its place the shape I beheld in my dream. For we must not wrong even the Devil himself."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You had best go to sleep again, scolded his wife."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are talking stark nonsense, and unchristian to boot."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You heap up in your folly ample riches for yourself, and refuse a crumb of bread to the poor man; lo! the day is at hand when burning in cruel flames, you shall beg for a drop of water."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Sir! he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Never fear, Nicolas Nerli, answered the Archangel;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will forget nothing."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good St. Michael! think again. You have not put this side of the balance my fine holy-water stoup I gave to San Giovanni, nor the pulpit in Sant' Andrea, where the baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ is depicted life-size. The artist charged me a pretty penny for it."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Sir! dear Archangel! he asked,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What! sighed Nicolas Nerli, his face as white as chalk."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Duomo, pulpit, basin, Hospital with all its beds, do they weigh no more than a bit of straw, a pinch of down from a bird's breast?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "See for yourself, Nicolas! said the Archangel;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then I must go to Hell,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Patience, Nicolas Nerli, returned the Weigher of Souls,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "See, Nicolas Nerli; you are good neither for Heaven nor Hell. Begone! Go back to Florence! multiply through the city the loaves you gave last night with your own hand, in the dusk, when no man saw you--and you shall be saved. It is not enough that Heaven open its doors to the thief that repented and the harlot that wept. The mercy of God is infinite, and able to save even a rich man. Do this; multiply the loaves whose weight you see weighing down my balances. Begone!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Vita di Buonamico Buffalmacco."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Buonamico di Cristofano, known as Buffalmacco, a Florentine painter, the same that was pupil of Andrea Tafi, and celebrated as a burlesque character by Messer Giovanni Boccaccio in his _Decameron_ was as we know bosom friend of Bruno and Calendrino, also painters and of an even more witty and merry humour than himself, and as may be seen in his works scattered throughout Tuscany, of no mean judgement in his art of painting. _(Lives of the most Excellent Painters_ by Messer Giorgio Vasari.--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Life of Buonamico Buffalmacco."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They who like myself are in possession of noble secrets and excel in their art should keep both mind and hand ceaselessly active to carry out their enterprises, so as to win much wealth and leave a long memory behind them. And if I, old and broken down as I am, spare myself no trouble, you are bound to do your utmost to help me with all your strength, which is fresh, hearty and undiminished."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shell"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, ah! he cried to himself,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My lads, he said, addressing the apprentices,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Buffalmacco! Buffalmacco, I say! screamed the old fellow, coughing and spitting,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hilloa! but you're a grand sleeper. I'll have you out of your slumbers, I will, though you should be dreaming this very moment that the eleven thousand virgins are slipping into your bed, begging you to teach 'em what's what."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They're devils, he thought,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Holy Virgin, Mother of God, which for Thy merits wast exalted alive to Heaven, stretch forth Thy hand full of grace and mercy to me, to lift me up to that blessed Paradise where Thou sittest on a chair of gold."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To-morrow we will provide ourselves with a good stout rope and a pulley, and I undertake to give you the same evening a highly diverting exhibition."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get up, master Apollonius! Up with you, apprentices! Day's come; Phœbus has blown out the sky candles! Quick's the word! 'Life is short, and art long.'"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is your bed so delicious, eh? Have you got Helen of Troy there, you're so loath to quit the sheets?"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Look you, he said,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now is not a painter's trade a good one and deserving of all praise? it wins him riches in this world and happiness in the next. For be sure Our Lord Jesus Christ will welcome gratefully in His holy Paradise craftsmen like myself who have portrayed His veritable likeness."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Holy Virgin, Mother of God, which for Thy merits wast exalted alive to Heaven, stretch forth Thy hand full of grace and mercy to me, to lift me up to Paradise!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Stop, stop, sweet Lady! I never asked it should be now!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Lady! sweet Lady! don't pull so! Ho, there! Let go, I say!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You must be deaf, you wooden-head! Let go, _bitch of a Madonna_!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Jesus, unless you stop your Blessed Mother this instant, the roof of my house, which cost a fine penny, will most certainly be burst up. For I see for sure I'm going slap through it. Stop! stop! I can hear the tiles cracking."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's all up with me; pull me out of this. I'm a dying man!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My lads, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My master, said Apollonius pityingly,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not for worlds! put in the old man;"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ho! gentle Buffalmacco, here's somewhat to drink to the health of Epicurus and his disciples."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Buffalmacco, added the young nobleman,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh! spare him, they said to the Painter."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Do take care the soldiers don't see him and kill him!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "For love of you, dear sisters, I will protect him all I can. But these murderers are filled with so savage a rage, it will be a difficult matter to stop them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The baby _is_ such a little darling!..."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thank you kindly!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My lad, she bade him,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will inform my master, he went on;"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My Lord Bishop, you are good enough to admire my style of painting; but your baboon prefers a different. What need to have had me summoned here, when you had a master painter in your own household? It may be he lacked experience. But now he has nothing left to learn, my presence here is quite unnecessary, and I will back to Florence."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The scamp has given us the slip; an I catch him, I'll bang his behind with this paving-stone!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But the dying girl said, 'Satan, I give over my body to you along with my soul.'"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What an artist dies in me!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh! the loss to Art! the loss to Art!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Satan, best beloved Satan! take thou my soul and my body; Satan, gentle Satan! hear my prayer: take, take my body along with my soul."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All the life of man is full of pain, and there is no surcease of sorrow. If there be aught better elsewhere than this present life, it is hid shrouded in the clouds of darkness."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Alas! he told him,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have nothing but my gown, and the Superior has forbidden me to cut it in two so as to give away the half. Therefore I cannot divide it with you. But if you love me, my son, you will take it off me whole and undivided."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dear little children, will you suffer me to share your game?"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Truly and indeed the man is out of his wits."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look! little Brother Giovanni's here,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come away; the fellow is a mere dunce and dullard!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A kind thief took my gown, and some children deemed me worthy to play with them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He feels no compunction, they declared,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are very right, my Brethren; I deserve these punishments, and worse ones still. I am good for nothing but foolishly to waste and squander the goods of God and of my Order."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hear him! he talks like a hypocrite; that honeyed voice of his issues from a whited sepulchre."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Brother Marcian, I am indeed capable of every infamy--but for God's good help."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My brethren, he said at length,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This, Brother, is the penance I lay upon you. In the name of that holy obedience you owe St. Francis, I command you go forth into the country, and the first beggar you meet, beg him to strip you of your tunic. Then, when he has left you naked, you must come back into the city, and play in the Public Square With the little children."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In very truth, my Brethren, this man is the good God's plaything."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Go, Brother, and enjoy your meal. I will guard the Church, as Our Lord would have it guarded."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have nothing, the holy man replied;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Those little bells are but idle vanities. The true ornament of yonder Altar is the body of St. Francis, which reposes naked under the flags with a black stone for a pillow."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never trouble, my brother, about the little bells that belonged to the lamp. I have given them away to a poor woman who had need of them."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Brother Bonaventure, free my mind of the doubt that is tormenting me, and tell me: Can an ignorant man love God with as great love as a learned Doctor of the Church?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will tell you the truth, Fra Giovanni; a poor old woman may not only equal but surpass all the Doctors of Theology in the world. And seeing the sole excellence of man lies in loving, I tell you again--the most ignorant of women shall be exalted in Heaven above the Doctors."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ho! you poor women, ignorant and simple-minded, you shall be set in Heaven above Brother Bonaventure."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Go, beg your bread from door to door,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He is laughing at us, said the townsmen to each other."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is a born fool--or say rather a vagabond impostor and a drunkard. He has over-drunk himself with wine. It were a sin and a shame to give him so much as a crumb of bread from our hutch."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You say true, my friends; I am not worthy to stir your pity, nor fit to share the food of your dogs and your pigs."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Madman! Madman!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O God, how good art Thou, to send Thy poor man bread by the hand of one of Thy Angels; O blessed poverty! O very glorious and most sumptuous poverty!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Woe, woe to the rich!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are the chosen sons of Jesus Christ."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My brother, you are Lucido, and no precious stone is purer than your heart, in the eyes of God."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Friend Lucido, dear Lamb of the Lord, while the very air they breathe in this place is pestilence, in the gardens of Santa Maria degli Angeli we inhale the sweet scent of the laburnums. Come you with me to the House of the Poor Brethren, and you will find relief."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Open! he cried,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Stay there outside, with the man. You are a senseless fool to expose your brethren thus to contagion."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Brother! said he,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am grieved you are made sad because of me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Will you suffer me, my Father, to stay outside the Gate with this man, and share my meal with him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Even do as you please, seeing you set up yourself above the holy rule of obedience."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Forgive me, Fra Giovanni, for having given you offence. I am come hither now to share your meal."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Forasmuch as I am the Enemy of Mankind and the Adversary of God, therefore will I tempt these Monks, and I will tell them what is kept hid by Him who is their Friend. Lo! I will afflict these men of Religion by telling them the truth, and I will darken their spirit, uttering to them words of verity and reasonableness. I will plunge reflexion like a sword in their reins; and so soon as they shall know the reality of things, they will be unhappy. For joy there is none but in illusion, and peace is only to be found in ignorance. And because I am the Master of such as study the nature of plants and animals, the virtue of stones, the secrets of fire, the courses of the stars and the influence of the planets, for this reason men have named me the Prince of Darkness. Likewise they call me the Wily One, because by me was constructed the plummet-line whereby Ulpian straightened out the Law. And my kingdom is of this world. Well then, I will try these Monks, and I will make them to know their works are evil, and that the tree of their Charity bears bitter fruit. Yea! I will tempt them without hate and without love."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My house is the house of joy and delight, because it is the house of poverty."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lo! here is one of those men I am come to tempt"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Give me an alms for the love of Him who is your friend, and whom I am not worthy so much as to name."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It happens so, I have with me a little silver cup a nobleman of the countryside gave me, to have it melted down and used for the Altar of Santa Maria degli Angeli. You may take that, lady; and I will go to-morrow and ask the nobleman to let me have another of the same weight for the Blessed Virgin. Thus will his wishes be accomplished, and over and above, you will have gotten an alms for the love of God."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good brother, suffer a poor widow-woman to kiss your hand. For verily the hand that gives gifts is soft and fragrant."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lady, be heedful not to kiss my hand. On the contrary, begone with all speed. For, methinks, you are winsome of face, albeit black as the Magian King that bore the frankincense and myrrh; and it is not becoming I should look on you longer, seeing how danger is forever dogging the lonely man's steps. Wherefore suffer me now to leave you, commending you to God's care. And forgive me, if I have failed aught in politeness towards you, lady. For the good St. Francis was used to say: 'Courtesy shall be the ornament of my sons, as the flowers bedeck the hill-sides.'"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good Father, inform me at the least of a guest-house, where I may pass the night honestly."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go, mistress, to the House of St. Damian, where dwell the poor ladies of Our Lord. She who will welcome you is Clare, and indeed she is a clear mirror of purity; the same is the Duchess of Poverty."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My Father, I am an adulterous woman, and I have lain with many men."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lady, if I really deemed you laden with the sins you tell of, I would crave of you as a high honour to kiss your feet, for I am less worth than you, and your crimes are little compared with mine. Yet have I received greater favours of Heaven than have been accorded to you. For in the days when St. Francis and his twelve disciples were still upon earth, I lived with Angels of Heaven."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My Father, when I asked you an alms for the love of Him who loves you, I was cherishing in my heart a wicked intent, and I am fain to tell you what this was. I wander the roads a-begging, in order to collect a sum of money I destine for a man of Perosa who is my paramour, and who has promised me, on handling this money, to kill traitorously a certain knight I hate, because when I offered my body to him, he scorned me. Well! the total was yet incomplete; but now the weight of your silver cup has made it up. So the alms you have given me will be the price of blood. You have sold a just man to death. For the Knight I told you of is chaste, temperate and pious, and I hate him for this cause. 'Tis you will have brought about his murder. You have laid a weight of silver in the scale of crime, to bear it down."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "O Lord, make this crime to fall neither on this woman's head nor on mine nor on that of any of Thy creatures, but let it be put beneath Thy feet, which were pierced with the nails, and be washed in Thy most precious blood. Distil on me and on this my sister of the highway a drop of hyssop, and we shall be purified, and shall overpass the snow in whiteness."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This man I have not been able to tempt by reason of his utter simplicity."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will tempt that man yonder."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Peace be with you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This Bishop, who gives me the salutation of peace, was doubtless in his lifetime a sainted Pontiff and a blessed Martyr unshakable in his constancy. That is why Jesus Christ has changed the wooden cross to a golden in the hands of this gallant Confessor of the Faith. To-day he is powerful in Heaven; and lo! after his holy and happy death, he walks in these meadows that are painted with flowers and broidered with pearls of dew."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sir! you are exceeding gracious to appear to a poor man such as I. But indeed these meadows are so lovely, 'tis no wonder if the Saints of Paradise come to walk here; they are painted with flowers and broidered with pearls of dew. The Lord did very kindly when he made them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is not the meadows, it is your heart I am fain to look at; I have come down from the Mountain to speak with you. I have, in bygone Centuries, held many high disputations in the Church. Amid the assembled Doctors my voice would boom forth like thunder, and my thoughts flash like lightning. I am very learned, and they name me the Subtle Doctor. I have disputed with God's Angels. Now I would hold dispute with you."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fra Giovanni, the Venetian ladies amuse their leisure and show their adroitness in fitting a multitude of little pieces of ivory into a box of cedar-wood, which at the set-off seemed all too small to contain so many. In the same fashion I will pack ideas into your head that no one would have dreamed it could ever hold; and I will fill you with a new wisdom. I will show that, thinking to walk in the right way, you are straying abroad all the while like a drunken man, and that you are driving the plough without any heed to draw the furrows straight."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is most true I am a fool, and do nothing but what is wrong."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What think you of poverty?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think it is a pearl of price."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You pretend poverty is a great good; yet all the while you are robbing the poor of a part of this great good, by giving them alms."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The alms I give, I give to Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose poverty cannot be minished, for it is infinite. It gushes from Him as from an inexhaustible fountain; and its waters flow freely for His favourite sons. And these shall be poor always, according to the promise of the Son of God. In giving to the poor, I am giving not to men, but to God, as the citizens pay tax to the Podestà, and the rate is for the City, which of the money it so receives supplies the town's needs. Now what I give is for paving the City of God. It is a vain thing to be poor in deed, if we be not poor in spirit. The gown of frieze, the cord, the sandals, the wallet and the wooden bowl are only signs and symbols. The Poverty I love is spiritual, and I address her as _Lady_, because she is an idea, and all beauty resides in this same idea."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your maxims, Fra Giovanni, are the maxims of a wise man of Greece, Diogenes by name, who taught at their Universities in the times when Alexander of Macedon was waging his wars."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is it true you despise the goods of this world?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do despise them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look you! in scorning these, you are scorning at the same time the hard-working men who produce them, and so doing, fulfil the order given to your first father, Adam, when he was commanded, 'In the sweat of thy face, thou shalt eat bread.' Seeing work is good, the fruit of this work is good too. Yet you work not, neither have any care for the work of others. But you receive and give alms, in contempt of the law laid on Adam and on his seed through the ages."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Alas! sighed Brother Giovanni,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am laden with crimes, and at once the most wicked and the most foolish man in all the world. Wherefore never heed me, but read in the Book. Our Lord said, 'Consider the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin.' Again he said, 'Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Giovanni, Giovanni! what was written in one sense, you read in another; you are less like a Doctor at his desk than an ass at the manger. So must I correct you, as a master corrects his scholar. It is written the lilies of the field have no need to spin--because they are beautiful, and beauty is a virtue. Again it is written how Mary is not to do the household tasks, because she is doing lovingly to Him who has come to see her. But you, who are not beautiful nor yet instructed, like Mary, in the things of love, you drag out a contemptible existence wandering the highways."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sir! just as a Painter will depict on a narrow panel of wood an entire city with its houses and towers and walls, so you have painted in a few words my soul and my similitude with a wondrous exactness. And I am altogether what you describe. But if I followed perfectly the rule etablished by St. Francis, that Angel of God, and if I practised spiritual poverty to the full, I should be the lily of the fields and I should have the good part of Mary."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You profess to love the poor, yet you prefer the rich man and his riches, and adore Him who possesses treasures to give away."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He I love possesses not the good things of the body, but those of the spirit."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All good things are of the flesh, and are tasted of through the flesh. This Epicurus taught, and Horace the Satirist said the same in his Verses."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sir! I cannot tell what you mean."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My words are exact and literal, yet the man cannot tell what I mean. I have disputed with Augustine and Jerome, with Gregory and him of the Golden Mouth, St. Chrysostom. And they comprehended me still less. Miserable men walk groping in the dark, and Error lifts over their head her monstrous canopy. Simple and sage alike are the plaything of eternal falsehood."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Have you won happiness? If you have happiness, I shall not prevail against you. A man's thoughts are only stirred by sorrow, and their meditations by grief. Then, tortured by fears and desires, he turns anxiously in his bed and rends his pillow with lies. What use to tempt this man? He is happy."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sir! I am less happy since listening to you. Your words trouble my mind."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Friend, be comforted. I am the Evil Spirit."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I salute you, because it is I who visit the simple-minded, and announce the mysteries to virgins."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "By virtue of this fire shall your lips remain pure, and they shall glow with eloquence. I have burned them, and they shall be burned. Your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall speak to your fellows. For men must hear the word of life, and learn how they shall not be saved but by innocency of heart. For this cause the Lord has unloosed the tongue of the simple and innocent."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "For Thy reason is contrary to the reason of men. Nevertheless Thy will be done."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Verily I say unto you, Bankers and Money-changers shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, nor yet bakers, nor dealers in drugs, nor such as practise the trade of wool, which is the boast of the City of the Lily. Forasmuch as they give a price to gold, and make a profit out of exchange, they are setting up idols in the face of men. And when they declare 'Gold has a value,' they tell a lie. For Gold is more vile than the dry leaves that flutter and rustle in the Autumn wind under the terebinths. There is nothing precious save the work of men's hands, when God gives it His countenance."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Peace be with you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Peace be with you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shall have no peace till I am dead. Begone, cursed black crow! you wish me peace; that shows you are a glozing cheat! Go to, and caw to simpler fools than I! I know very well the quarryman's lot is an utterly miserable one, and there is no comfort for his wretchedness. I hale out stones from dawn to dark, and for price of my toil, all I get is a scrap of black bread. Then when my arms are no longer as strong as the stones of the mountain, and my body is all worn out, I shall perish of hunger."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Brother! said the holy man Giovanni;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Master Monk, said he,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Brother, I see the walls of the City."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And above them?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Above them I see the roofs of the houses, which crown the ramparts."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And higher still?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The tops of the pines, the domes of the Churches and the Belltowers."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And higher still?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see a Tower overtopping all the rest, and crowned with battlements. It is the Tower of the Podestà."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Monk, what see you above the battlements of that Tower?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see nothing, brother, above the battlements save the sky."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But I, cried the quarryman,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I see upon that Tower a hideous giant brandishing a club, and on the club is inscribed: OPPRESSION. Yea! Oppression is lifted up above the citizens' heads on the Great Tower of the Magistrates and the City's Laws."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What one man sees, another cannot see, and it may be the horrid shape you describe is set on the Tower of the Podestà yonder, in the city of Viterbo. But is there no remedy for the ills you endure, my brother? The good St. Francis left behind him on this earth so full a fountain of consolation that all men may draw refreshment therefrom."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Men have said, 'This mountain is ours.' And these men are my masters, and it is for them I hew stone. And they enjoy the fruit of my labour."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Surely men must be mad to believe they own a mountain."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nay! they are not mad; and the Laws of the City guarantee them their ownership. The citizens pay them for the stones I have hewn, which are marbles of great price."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And labour shall be a joyful thing, when it is no longer paid. 'Tis gold only, the cursed gold, that makes the sharing uneven. When each man shall go severally to the Mountain for his stone, and carry his load to the city on his own back, the stone shall weigh light and it shall be the stone of cheerfulness. And we will build the house of joy and gladness, and the new city shall rise from its foundations. And there shall be neither rich nor poor, but all men will call themselves poor men, because they will be glad to bear a name that brings them honour."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This man clad in a shroud and girt with a cord has proclaimed new tidings. I shall not see the end of my miseries, for I am going to die of hunger and exhaustion. But I shall die happy, for my eyes, before they close, will have beheld the dawn of the day of Justice."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "These have done well, and we shall reward them. For it behoves that goodness be rewarded, and it is our bounden duty to pay the price of it, being as we are the first and foremost citizens of the city."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is goodness?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who was it spoke?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It was a Monk, by name Giovanni, who is the disgrace of his Cloister. He goes naked through the streets, carrying his clothes on his head, and gives himself up to all sorts of extravagances."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is a madman or a miscreant! He begs his bread at the Bakers' doors."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Leave the man in peace, so that he may hear me and be confounded. He asks what goodness is, because goodness is not in him and he is devoid of virtue. I answer him, 'The knowledge of goodness resides in virtuous men; and good citizens carry within them a proper respect for the laws. They approve what has been done in the city to insure to each man enjoyment of the riches he may have acquired. They support the established order of things, and are ready to fly to arms to defend the same. For the duty of the poor is to defend the good things belonging to the rich; and this is how the union betwixt citizens is maintained. This is goodness and good order. Again, the rich man has his serving-man bring out a basket full of bread, which he distributes to the poor; and this is goodness again.' These are the lessons this rough, ignorant fellow required to be taught."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God was not with him; but He is with the humble and simple-minded. Learn not to will and He will put His will in you. Seek not to guess the riddles of the Beast. Be ignorant, and you shall not fear to go astray. 'Tis only wise men that are deceived."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The miscreant has insulted me, and I willingly forgive him the insult. But he has spoken against the laws of Viterbo, and it is meet he should be punished."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If ever, brother, we are restored to liberty, seeing you think as I do, you shall help me to persuade the citizens that they ought to set up above them the empire of just laws."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Set not up laws against laws, nor raise tables of marble and tables of brass before men's eyes. For whatever is written on the tables of the Law, is written in letters of blood."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Comrade, you have spoken well. Know you, I will never set up law against law, right rule against crooked rule; my wish is to destroy the law by violence and compel the citizens to live thenceforth in happy freedom. And know further that I have slain both judges and soldiers, and have committed many crimes for the public good."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If we have not the good fortune to be poor in very deed, let us not make ourselves rich men in spirit, and heartbound to the things of this world that make folk unjust and unhappy. Let us suffer persecution with gentleness, and be those chosen vessels that turn into balm the gall poured into them."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are alongside of the guilty because you are not on our side. For whosoever is not with good citizens is with evil."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I said, 'I am the friend of the wretched.' But you never thought I was your friend, because in your pride, you know not that you are wretched. Nevertheless the wretchedness of the master is more cruel than that of the slave. My tender pity for your woes only made you think I was mocking you; and the oppressed deemed me to be of the party of the oppressors. 'He has no bowels,' they said. Nay! but I am on the side of love and not of hate. This is why you scorn me; and because I preach peace on earth, you hold me for a fool. You think my words wander all ways, like the steps of a drunken man. And it is very true I walk your fields like those harpers who on the eve of battles, come to play before the tents. And the soldiers say, as they listen: ''Tis some poor simpletons come playing the tunes we heard long ago in our mountains.' I am this harper that roams between the hosts in battle array of hostile armies. When I think whither human wisdom leads, I am glad to be a madman and a simpleton; and I thank God that He has given me the harp to handle and not the sword."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Truth shall go along with me to the scaffold. She shall look at me and weep and say, 'My tears flow, seeing it is for my sake this man is going to his death.'"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is your name, subtle sir, that slips through prison walls?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Brother, what use to tell you the names folk give me? For you I will bear the one you shall call me by. Know this, I am come to you full of helpfulness and goodwill, and being informed you dearly love the Truth, I bring you a word touching this same Truth that you have taken for lady and companion."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wherefore I say to you, Fra Giovanni, seeing you have chosen peradventure to take Truth for your Lady and darling, it behoves you greatly to know concerning her all that may be known. Well then, know that she is _white_. And from her appearance, which I will describe you, you shall gather her nature, which will be very useful to you in making up to her and kissing her fair body with all sorts of pretty caresses, after the fashion of a lover fondling his mistress. Therefore take it as proven, brother mine, that she is _white_."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Subtle Sir, the meaning of your discourse is not so hard to guess as you would seem to fear. And my wit, albeit naturally thick and dull, was instantly transfixed by the fine point of your allegory. You say that Truth is white to manifest the perfect purity that is in her, and show clearly she is a lady of immaculate virtue. And truly I picture her to myself such as you describe, overpassing in whiteness the lilies of the garden and the snow that in winter clothes the summits of Monte Alverno."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nay! Fra Giovanni, that is not the meaning of my words, and you have in no wise broken the bone to extract the marrow. I instructed you that Truth is white, _not_ that she is pure; and it shows little discernment to think that she is pure."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Even as the Moon, when the Earth hides the Sun's light from her, is darkened by the thick shadow of this World, where was wrought the crime of our mother Eve, so, most Subtle Sir, you have obscured a plain saying under baffling phrases. Thus we have you astray in the dark; for indeed Truth is pure, coming from God, the fountain of all purity."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fra Giovanni, your logic is at fault, or you would know that purity is an inconceivable quality. This is what the shepherds of Arcady did, so they say, who named pure gods the gods they knew not the nature of."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sir! your words are dark and wrapped in sadness. At times in my sleep angels have visited me. Their words I could not comprehend; but the mystery of _their_ thought was full of joy."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come, Fra Giovanni, let us argue it out both of us according to the rules of syllogism."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Nay! I cannot argue with you; I have neither wish nor wit for the task."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well then! returned the Subtle Sophist,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I must needs find another Opponent."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Messer Plato, what is purity? I wait your answer, Messer Plato. Oh! you say. Consciousness is pure. Consciousness only when it is devoid of everything which may be seen, heard, handled, in one word proved by the senses. You grant me further,--yes! you nod your cap, that Truth will be pure Truth under the same conditions, that is to say provided only you make her dumb, blind, deaf, legless, paralytic, crippled of all her limbs. And I am quite ready to allow that in this state she will escape the delusions that make mock of mankind, and will have no temptations to play the runagate. You are a scoffer, and you have made much mock at the world. Doff your cap."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "From which we must not conclude, I have told you before, that she is pure. Consider the Lady Eletta, of Verona, whose thighs were like milk; think you for this they were abstract from the world in general, withdrawn in the invisible and intangible, which is the pure, according to the Platonic doctrine? You would be much mistaken if you supposed so."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do not know this Lady Eletta you speak of,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, if this character is not purity, as I have just established it cannot be in argument with Plato himself, it is conceivable it may be impurity, which impurity is the necessary condition of all existing things. For have we not just seen how the pure has neither life nor consciousness? And you must yourself, I trow, have learned amply from experience that life and all pertaining thereto is invariably compound, blended, diversified, liable to increase and decrease, unstable, soluble, corruptible--never pure."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Doctor, replied Giovanni,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you would read your books more carefully, my son, you would see it is said of Him you have just named, _not_, 'He exists,' but, 'He is.' Now to exist and to be are not one and the same thing, but two opposite things. You are alive, and do you not say yourself, 'I am nothing; I am as if I were not'? And you do not say, 'I am he who is.' Because to live, is each moment to cease to be. Again you say, 'I am full of impurities,' forasmuch you are not a single thing, but a blending of things that stir and strive."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now do you speak wisely, answered the holy man,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By the body of Bacchus, exclaimed the other,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is, and that perfectly and universally. Wherefore are we dispensed from seeking Him in any single place, being assured He is to be discovered neither more nor less in any one spot than in any other, and that you cannot find so much as a pair of old spatterdashes without their due share of Him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Admirably put, and most true, returned Giovanni."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But it is right to add that He is more particularly in the sacred elements, by the way of transubstantiation."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "More than that! added the learned Doctor;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is actually edible in them. Note moreover, my son, that He is round in an apple, long-shaped in an aubergine, sharp in a knife and musical in a flute. He has all the qualities of substances, and likewise all the properties of figures. He is acute and He is obtuse, because He is at one and the same time all possible triangles; his radii are at once equal and unequal, because He is both the circle and the ellipse--and He is the hyperbola besides, which is an indescribable figure."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why do you laugh?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am laughing, replied the Doctor,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What other is it you speak of?"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Know then that Truth, your well-beloved mistress, is made up of elements compacted of wet and dry, hard and soft, cold and hot, and that it is with this lady as with women of common humanity, in whom soft flesh and warm blood are not diffused equally in all the body."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Such is the learning we are taught at School. I am a Theologian, I!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I regret to leave you, friend; but I cannot tarry longer with you. For I have many contradictions to pose to many men. I can taste no rest day nor night; but I must be going ceaselessly from place to place, setting down my lantern now on the scholar's desk, now at the bed's head of the sick man who cannot sleep."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why did this Doctor say, Truth was white, I wonder?"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O Lord! Thy loving-kindness is infinite toward me, and Thy favour manifest, seeing Thou hast so willed I should lie on a dunghill, like Job and Lazarus, whom Thou didst love so well. And Thou hast given me to know how filthy straw is a soft and sweet pillow to the just man. And Thou, dear Son of God, who didst descend into Hell, bless Thou the sleep of Thy servant where he lies in the gloomy prison-house. Forasmuch as men have robbed me of air and light, because I was steadfast to confess the truth, deign to enlighten me with the glory of the everlasting dayspring and feed me on the flames of Thy love, O living Truth, O Lord my God!"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "These mottoes are like the flowers young men and maidens pluck in the water-meadows by the Arno, to make them into posies. For these flowers are readily gathered together by the tails, while the heads keep separate and fight amongst themselves in hue and brilliancy. And it is the same with the opinions of human beings."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "On this rock have I built my Church and committed thereto the crowns of all the world."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then I am never to find on the wheel of the universe the pure, white Truth, the immaculate and candid Truth, I would find."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Truth! Truth! for whose sake I am to die, show yourself before your martyr's eyes."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Behold that same white Truth you were fain to contemplate. And know it is built up of the divers contradictory truths, in the same fashion as all colours go to make up white. The little children of Viterbo know this, for having spun their tops striped with many colours on the flags on the Great Market. But the doctors of Bologna never guessed the reasons for this appearance. Now in every one of the devices was a portion of the Truth, and all together make up the true and veritable device."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Alas! and alas! replied the holy man,"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Friend, never set your heart on reading what is not written. Only know this, that whatsoever a man has thought or believed in his brief lifetime is a parcel of this infinite Truth; and that, even as much dirt and disorder enter into what we call the order of nature, that is the clean and proper ordering of the universe, so the maxims of knaves and fools, who make the mass of mankind, participate in some sort in that general and universal Truth-which is absolute, everlasting and divine. Which makes me sore afraid, by the by, it may very like not exist at all."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have no hope or wish left to know Truth, if, as has just been manifested to me, she only shows herself in contradictions and inconsistencies. How shall I dare by my death to be witness and martyr of what men must believe, now the vision of the wheel of the universe has made me see how every particular falsehood is a parcel of general Truth, absolute and unknowable? Why, O my God, have you suffered me to behold these things, and let it be revealed to me before my last sleep, that Truth is everywhere and that she is nowhere?"
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Take his chains off him. For every person accused should appear freely before us."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why does the Judge pronounce words that are not straight?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Giovanni, bad man that you are, being thrown in prison by the august clemency of the laws, you have spoken against those laws. You have contrived with wicked men, chained in the same dungeon as yourself, a plot to overthrow the order stablished in this city."
}
]
|
18728 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Speak! tell us who are the men of violence."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are for milking the cow that has given all her milk, and would learn of me more than I know."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your tongue has discharged the arrow of your discourse, and its shot was aimed at the Republic. Only it has lighted lower, and turned back upon yourself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You judge me, not by my acts and my words, which are manifest, but by my motives, which are visible only to God's eye."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nay! if we could not see the invisible and were not gods upon earth, how would it be possible for us to judge folk? Do you not know a law has just been passed in Viterbo, which punishes even men's secret thoughts? For the police of cities is for ever being perfected, and the wise Ulpian, who held the rule and the square in the days of Cæsar, would be astonished himself, if he could see our rules and squares, improved as they are."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Giovanni, you have been conspiring in your prison against the common weal."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The gaoler has given testimony against you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What weight will my testimony have in one scale, when that of the gaoler is in the other?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why! yours will kick the beam."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Anon you were talking, and the words you said proved your perfidy. Now you say nothing, and your silence is the avowal of your crime. So you have confessed your guilt twice over."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The illustrious city of Viterbo speaks by my voice, and my voice shall be grave and calm, because it is the public voice. And you will think you are listening to a bronze statue speaking, for I make accusation not with my heart and bowels, but with the tables of bronze whereon the Law is inscribed."
}
]
|
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