[Chapter IX.]

Talkative, idle, winebibbing, curious tent-fellows,96    i.e., here “female companions.” do the very greatest hurt to the purpose of widow-hood.  Through talkativeness there creep in words unfriendly to modesty; through idleness they seduce one from strictness; through winebibbing they insinuate any and every evil; through curiosity they convey a spirit of rivalry in lust.  Not one of such women knows how to speak of the good of single-husbandhood; for their “god,” as the apostle says, “is their belly;”97    Phil. iii. 19. and so, too, what is neighbour to the belly.

These considerations, dearest fellow-servant, I commend to you thus early,98    Comp. c. i. handled throughout superfluously indeed, after the apostle, but likely to prove a solace to you, in that (if so it shall turn out99    i.e., if I be called before you; comp. c. i.) you will cherish my memory in them.

CAPUT IX.

Loquaces, otiosae, vinosae, curiosae contubernales, vel maxime proposito viduitatis officiunt. Per loquacitatem irrepunt verba pudoris inimica; per otium a severitate deducunt; per vinolentiam quidvis mali insinuant; per curiositatem aemulationem libidinis convehunt. Nulla hujusmodi foeminarum de bono univiratus loqui novit: Deus enim illis (ut ait 1288B Apostolus) venter est (Phil., III, 19), ita et quae ventri propinqua. Haec tibi jam hinc commendo, conserva carissima, post Apostolum quidem ex abundanti retractata, sed tibi etiam solatio futura, quod meam memoriam, si ita evenerit, in illis frequentabis.