1G0xxeB

Ancients and Moderns under the Empire of Circe: Machiavelli’s The Ass, Translation2 4 9promised his father to make him healthy.But, as always happens that one always believes50 those who promise the good (whence it is derivedthat so much faith is lent to doctors:and often believing them, a man deprives himselfof the good: and this one only among the other sectsfeeds and lives on the sickness of others),55 thus this person was not in the least doubt,and in his hands he put this case;because he believed in the words of this man.And so he passed a hundred scents under his nose;drew blood from his head, and then60 seemed to have dissuaded him from running.And having given his other remedies,yielded his son up to the father as healthy,with these conditions which now we shall tell you:to never let him go out alone65 for four months, but with him someonewho, if by chance he should rise to take flight,could in some good way hold him back,in part by showing his mistake,asking him to have regard for his honor.70 So he went out well over a monthhonest and well-behaved, between two of his brothers,full of reverence and awe;but coming one day into the Via de’ Martelli,whence he could see the Via Larga,75 his hair began to stand up.Nothing could keep this young man,seeing this straight and spacious path,from returning to his former pleasure;and, putting off everything else,80 the impulse to run returned to him,that swirling in his mind never rests;and having arrived at the head of the streetlet his cloak fall to the ground, and said:“Here Christ will not hold me,” and ran away.85 And from then on ran forever, while he was alive,so much so that the father lost his money