h you; I have neither wish nor wit for the
task."

"Well then!" returned the Subtle Sophist, "I must needs find another
Opponent."

And in a moment, lifting the index finger of his left hand, he made with
his right out of a corner of his gown a red cap for this finger. Then
holding it up before his nose,

"Look!" he said, "look at this finger. He's a learned Doctor now, and I
am going to hold a learned argument with him. He's a Platonist, maybe
Plato himself.

"Messer Plato, what is purity? I wait your answer, Messer Plato. Oh! you
say. Consciousness is pure. Consciousness only when it is devoid of
everything which may be seen, heard, handled, in one word proved by the
senses. You grant me further,--yes! you nod your cap, that Truth will be
pure Truth under the same conditions, that is to say provided only you
make her dumb, blind, deaf, legless, paralytic, crippled of all her
limbs. And I am quite ready to allow that in this state she will escape
the delusions that make mock of mankind, and will have no temptations to
play the runagate. You are a scoffer, and you have made much mock at the
world. Doff your cap."

And the Opponent, dropping the corner of his gown, once more addressed
the holy man Giovanni:

"My friend, these old Sophists knew not what Truth was. But I, who am a
student of physics and a great observer of natural curiosities, you may
believe me when I tell you she is white, or, more strictly speaking,
whiteness itself.

"From which we must not conclude, I have told you before, that she is
pure. Consider the Lady Eletta, of Verona, whose thighs were like milk;
think you for this they were abstract from the world in general,
withdrawn in the invisible and intangible, which is the pure, according
to the Platonic doctrine? You would be much mistaken if you supposed
so."

"I do not know this Lady Eletta you speak of," said the holy man
Giovanni.

"She gave herself and her living body," said the Opponent, "to two
Popes, sixty Cardinals, fourteen Princes, eighteen merchants, the Queen
of Cyprus, three Turks, four Jews, the Lord Bishop of Arezzo's ape, a
hermaphrodite, and the Devil. But we are wandering from our subject,
which is to discover the proper character of Truth.

"Now, if this character is not purity, as I have just established it
cannot be in argument with Plato himself, it is conceivable it may be
impurity, which impurity is the necessary condition of all existing
things. For have we n