They can do no harm, for they know not even what they say, and their words are not followed by any kind of action whatsoever.

But the principle of the thing is bad, Giovanni.

Your brave old ancestors used to fight us Churchmen outright, and unless the Lord is especially merciful, their souls are in an evil case, for the devil knoweth his own, and is a particularly bad paymaster.

But they fought outright, like gentlemen; whereas these people--_foderunt foveam ut caperent me_--they have digged a ditch, but they will certainly not catch me, nor any one else.

Their conciliabules, as Rousseau would have called them, meet daily and talk great nonsense and do nothing; which does not prove their principles to be good, while it demonstrates their intellect to be contemptible.