General Defense of the Honorable Women's Craft

he wanted, like a heathen, to let it out on his mother, the dear Venus, who according to his teaching is the author of that hidden fire which can set the human heart into such, as it were, supernatural flames. It seems to me, however, that in this matter it was also said among the ancients: So many heads, so many minds. Or that it is a different thing to slander a matter against one's will with the pen, than to punish its effect in the heart in the same way. Especially since I have an example in the otherwise, as it were, Christian Seneca in his style of writing, who, when the blood, already cooled, did not want to flow from the veins after they were opened, and was in need of a mediator from the outside to facilitate it. Yet in this hand full of blood of this dying philosopher, that heat of love for his Paulina, whom he loved so much, must still have remained, who was so incited for her