e divulged; and then they began to
speak modestly and to act bashfully; from which circumstance I knew that
they were not of mean descent but of honorable birth; and then I told
them, how I saw them in the forest as satyrs, twenty as calf-satyrs, six
as panther-satyrs, and four as wolf-satyrs; they were thirty in number.
They were surprised at this, because they saw themselves there as men,
and nothing else, in like manner as they saw themselves here with me. I
then taught them, that the reason of their so appearing was from their
adulterous lust, and that this satyr-like form was a form of dissolute
adultery, and not a form of a person. This happened, I said, because
every evil concupiscence presents a likeness of itself in some form,
which is not perceived by those who are in the concupiscence, but by
those who are at a distance: I also said, "To convince you of it, send
some from among you into that forest, and do you remain here, and look
at them." They did so, and sent away two; and viewing them from near the
above brothel-cottage, they saw them altogether as satyrs; and when they
returned, they saluted those satyrs, and said, "Oh what ridiculous
figures!" While they were laughing, I jested a good deal with them, and
told them that I had also seen adulterers as hogs; and then I
recollected the fable of Ulysses and the Circe, how she sprinkled the
companions and servants of Ulysses with poisonous herbs, and touched
them with a magic wand, and turned them into hogs,--perhaps into
adulterers, because she could not by any art turn any one into a hog.
After they had made themselves exceedingly merry on this and other like
subjects, I asked them whether they then knew to what kingdoms in the
world they had belonged? They said, they had belonged to various
kingdoms, and they named Italy, Poland, Germany, England, Sweden; and I
enquired, whether they had seen any one from Holland of their party? And
they said, Not one. After this I gave the conversation a serious turn,
and asked them, whether they had ever thought that adultery is sin? They
replied, "What is sin? we do not know what it means." I then inquired,
whether they ever remembered that adultery was contrary to the sixth
commandment of the Decalogue. [Footnote: According to the division of
the commandments adopted by the Church of England, it is the _seventh_
that is here referred to.] They replied, "What is the Decalogue? Is not
it the catechism? What have we men to