XXVIIII. De scurrililate.

XXVIIII. De scurrililate.

For the first image reveals mockery, and among other vices, it precedes twice over the vice of deceit, because it does not love the truth, but now provokes this one, now that one, playfully to evil, nor does it allow them to have peace. From the top of the head to the loins, it takes on the youthful form of a man, because this vice leads those who are diligent to a vice of their own mind, pushing them toward incontinence in both words and actions. They adopt lust in every way, embracing vanity for themselves, while in ignorance of their hearts they scatter every cause here and there according to their own will. From the loins down, it appears in the shape of a crab, just as a crab is formed from the head down. For these people, descending from uncontrollable desires to a downward instability, move forward in praise before them and in blame behind them, concluding a wicked beginning with a wicked end. From this, he has dark hair on his head and is completely naked all over, and because he creates a foul and excessive impurity, this same vice operates in the minds of these people, stripping them of all modesty and chastity in every way, and persuading them to express their words and actions now in flattery, now in the slander of others, just as he also reveals in his speech above through himself. Reverence responds to God, and it counts as dirt beneath the soles of shoes.