Ogy. No maruayle Menedemus thogh you be so disposyd, for all the world cannot make me to beleue yt, not & all doctoures of dyuynyte wold swere it were trewe. But that I sawe it with myne eyes, ye with thes same eyes, dyd I proue it. But in ye meanseson me thynke you regard naturall phylosophye but litle.
Me. why so, because I wyll nat beleue ye asses flye?
Ogy. An do you nat se, how nature the worker of all thynges, dothe so excell in expressynge ye fourme bewty, & coloure of thaym maruylously in other thynges, but pryncypaly in precyous stones? moreouer she hathe gyuen to ye same stones wonderouse vertu and strêkthe that is almost incredyble, but that experience dothe otherwyse testyfye. Tell me, do you beleue that a Adamand stone wold drawe vnto him stele wtowt any towchynge therof, and also to be sepate frome him ayen of hys owne accorde, excepte that yow had sene it with yowre eyes.
Me. No verely, nat and if .x. Arystoteles wold perswade me to the contrarye.
Ogy. Therfore bycause you shuld nat say thys were a lye, in case you here any thynge, whiche you haue not sene prouyd. In a stone callyd Ceraunia we see ye fashon of lightnynge, in the stone Pyropo wyldfyre, Chelazia dothe expresse bothe the coldnes and the fourme of hayle, and thoghe thou cast in to the hote fyre, an Emrode, wyll expresse the clere water of the seye. Carcinas dothe counterfayte ye shape of a crabfishe. Echites of the serpente vyper. But to what purpose shuld I entreat, or inuestygate the nature of suche thynges whiche be innumerable, whã there is no parte of nature nor in the elementes, nother in any lyuynge creature, other in planetes, or herbes ye nature euyn as it were all of pleasure hathe not expressyd in precyous stones? Doo yow maruayle thã yt in thys stone at owre ladies fote, is the fourme and fashon of a tode.
Me. I maruayle that nature shuld haue so moche lesure, so to counterfayt the nature of althynges.
Ogy. It was but to exercyse, or occupye the curyosytye of mannes wytte, and so at the lest wyse to kepe vs frome ydlenes, and yet as thoghe we had nothynge to passe ye tyme with all, we be in a maner made apon foles, apon dyesse, and crafty iogeleres.
Me. You saye very truthe.
Ogy. There be many men of no smale grauytye, that wyll say thys kynd of stones, if that you put it in vynagre, it wyll swyme, thoge you wold thruste it downe with violence.
Me. Wherfore do thay sette a tode byfore our lady?