It is a monstrous confusion of fine and rare morality with filthy corruption.

Where it is bad, it goes beyond the worst; it is the delight of the basest of men.

Where it is good, it reaches the exquisite, the very best; it ministers to the most delicate tastes.' Putting aside the rather slight connection established between two men of whom one is of very little importance compared with the other, this is otherwise very admirably said, and the judgment is a very just one, except with regard to one point--the misunderstanding of the atmosphere in which the book was created, and the ignoring of the examples of a similar tendency furnished by literature as well as by the popular taste.

Was it not the Ancients that began it?
Aristophanes, Catullus, Petronius, Martial, flew in the face of decency in their ideas as well as in the words they used, and they dragged after them in this direction not a few of the Latin poets of the Renaissance, who believed themselves bound to imitate them.

Is Italy without fault in this respect?
Her story-tellers in prose lie open to easy accusation.