"It is not the meadows, it is your heart I am fain to look at; I have
come down from the Mountain to speak with you. I have, in bygone
Centuries, held many high disputations in the Church. Amid the assembled
Doctors my voice would boom forth like thunder, and my thoughts flash
like lightning. I am very learned, and they name me the Subtle Doctor. I
have disputed with God's Angels. Now I would hold dispute with you."

Fra Giovanni made answer:

"Nay! but how should the poor little man that I am hold dispute with the
Subtle Doctor? I know nothing, and my simplicity is such I can keep
nothing in my head but those songs in the vulgar tongue where they have
stuck in rhymes to help the memory, as in

'Jesus, mirror of my soul,
Cleanse my heart and make it whole.'

or in

'Holy Mary, Maid of Flowers,
Lead me to the Heavenly Bowers.'"

And Satan answered:

"Fra Giovanni, the Venetian ladies amuse their leisure and show their
adroitness in fitting a multitude of little pieces of ivory into a box
of cedar-wood, which at the set-off seemed all too small to contain so
many. In the same fashion I will pack ideas into your head that no one
would have dreamed it could ever hold; and I will fill you with a new
wisdom. I will show that, thinking to walk in the right way, you are