A Fable.
The lily set itself down by the shores of the Ticino, and the current carried away bank and the lily with it.
1320.
A Jest.
Why Hungarian ducats have a double cross on them.
1321.
A Simile.
A vase of unbaked clay, when broken, may be remoulded, but not a baked one.
1322.
Seeing the paper all stained with the deep blackness of ink, it he deeply regrets it; and this proves to the paper that the words, composed upon it were the cause of its being preserved.
1323.
The pen must necessarily have the penknife for a companion, and it is a useful companionship, for one is not good for much without the other.
Schemes for prophecies (1324-1329).
1324.
The knife, which is an artificial weapon, deprives man of his nails, his natural weapons.
The mirror conducts itself haughtily holding mirrored in itself the
Queen. When she departs the mirror remains there …
1325.
Flax is dedicated to death, and to the corruption of mortals. To death, by being used for snares and nets for birds, animals and fish; to corruption, by the flaxen sheets in which the dead are wrapped when they are buried, and who become corrupt in these winding sheets.— And again, this flax does not separate its fibre till it has begun to steep and putrefy, and this is the flower with which garlands and decorations for funerals should be made.
1326.
*(Of Peasants who work in shirts)
Shadows will come from the East which will blacken with great colour darkness the sky that covers Italy.
*(Of the Barbers.)*
All men will take refuge in Africa.
1327.
The cloth which is held in the hand in the current of a running stream, in the waters of which the cloth leaves all its foulness and dirt, is meant to signify this &c.
By the thorn with inoculated good fruit is signified those natures which of themselves were not disposed towards virtue, but by the aid of their preceptors they have the repudation of it.
1328.