"The library is testimony to truth and to error," Jorge said.
"Undoubtedly Apuleius and Lucian were reputed to be magicians,"
William said.
"But this fable, beneath the veil of its fictions, contains also a good moral, for it teaches how we pay for our errors, and furthermore, I believe that the story of the man transformed into an ass refers to the metamorphoses of the soul that falls into sin."
"That may be," Jorge said.
"But now I understand why, during that conversation of which I was told yesterday, Venantius was so interested in the problems of comedy; in fact, fables of this sort can also be considered kin to the comedies of the ancients. Both tell not of men who really exested, as tragedies do; on the contrary, as Isidore says, they are fiction; 'fabulas poetae a fando nominaverunt, quia non sunt res factae sed tantum loquendo fictae..."
(중략)
"Baths are a good thing," Jorge said, "and Aquinas himself advises them for dispelling sadness, which can be a bad passion when it is not addressed to an evil that can be dispelled through boldness. Baths restore the balance of the humors. Laughter shakes the body, distorts the features of the face, make man similar to the monkey."
"Monkeys do not laugh; laughter is proper to man, it is a sign of his rationality," William said.
---pp.130-131
"The library is testimony to truth and to error," Jorge said.
"Undoubtedly Apuleius and Lucian were reputed to be magicians,"
William said.
"But this fable, beneath the veil of its fictions, contains also a good moral, for it teaches how we pay for our errors, and furthermore, I believe that the story of the man transformed into an ass refers to the metamorphoses of the soul that falls into sin."
"That may be," Jorge said.
"But now I understand why, during that conversation of which I was told yesterday, Venantius was so interested in the problems of comedy; in fact, fables of this sort can also be considered kin to the comedies of the ancients. Both tell not of men who really exested, as tragedies do; on the contrary, as Isidore says, they are fiction; 'fabulas poetae a fando nominaverunt, quia non sunt res factae sed tantum loquendo fictae..."
(중략)
"Baths are a good thing," Jorge said, "and Aquinas himself advises them for dispelling sadness, which can be a bad passion when it is not addressed to an evil that can be dispelled through boldness. Baths restore the balance of the humors. Laughter shakes the body, distorts the features of the face, make man similar to the monkey."
"Monkeys do not laugh; laughter is proper to man, it is a sign of his rationality," William said.
---pp.130-131