If I condemn a spendthrift’s ways,
It follows not I therefore praise
And recommend the converse vice
Of hard and grasping avarice.
I never spake so foolishly.”
The Lover.
“Nay, but you did.”
Reason.
Reason justifies herself
“’Fore God, ye lie!6080
Think’st thou to baffle me, I pray?
’Tis not to flatter thee I say
That of old lore thou know’st but little,
And of sound logic not a tittle.
It is not thus that I have read
Of love; but ne’er my mouth hath said
That hate should thrive.
Another sort
Of love is that which I exhort
Thee to embrace, the which I find
To bring both grace and peace of mind.6090
Another love Dame Nature gives
To every bird and beast that lives
On earth, through which to birth they bring
Their young and give them nourishing.
If thou perchance shouldst wish to know
What is this love, and whence doth flow
Its force, I answer that ’tis given
To all God’s creatures under heaven,
