45. Judge fairly, and you
are deserving of censure in this,
4554
that in your common conversation you
name Mars when you mean
4555
fighting, Neptune when you mean the seas, Ceres when you mean bread,
Minerva when you mean weaving,
4556
Venus when you mean filthy lusts.
For what reason is there, that, when things can be classed under their
own names, they should be called by the names of the gods, and that
such an insult should be offered to the deities as not even we men
endure, if any one applies and turns our names to trifling
objects? But language,
you say
, is contemptible, if
defiled with such words.
4557
O modesty,
4558
worthy of praise! you blush to name
bread and wine, and are not afraid to speak of Venus instead of carnal
intercourse!
4554
Lit., “are in this part of censure.”
4555
Lit.,
“for.”
4556
Lit., “the warp,”
stamine.
4557
i.e., if things are spoken of under their proper names.
4558
The
ms.
reads
ac
unintelligibly.