THE PASTOR.
BOOK FIRST.—VISIONS.
VISION FIRST.
AGAINST FILTHY AND PROUD THOUGHTS, AND THE CARELESSNESS OF HERMAS IN CHASTISING HIS SONS.
Chap. i.
E who had brought me up, sold me to one Rhode in Rome.[1] Many years after this I recognised her, and I began to love her as a sister. Some time after, I saw her bathe in the river Tiber; and I gave her my hand, and drew her out of the river. The sight of her beauty made me think with myself, "I should be a happy man if I could but get a wife as handsome and good as she is." This was the only thought that passed through me: this and nothing more. A short time after this, as I was walking on my road to the villages,[2] and magnifying the creatures of God, and thinking how magnificent, and beautiful, and powerful they are,[3] I fell asleep. And the Spirit carried me away, and took me through a pathless place,[4]
- ↑ The commencement varies. In the Vatican: "He who had brought me up, sold a certain young woman at Rome. Many years after this I saw her and recognised her." So Lips.; Pal. has the name of the woman, Rada. The name Rhode occurs in Acts xii. 13.
- ↑ "On my road to the villages." This seems to mean: as I was taking a walk into the country, or spending my time in travelling amid rural scenes. So the Æthiopic version. "Proceeding with these thoughts in my mind."—Vat. "After I had come to the city of Ostia."—Pal. "Proceeding to some village."—Lips.
- ↑ Creatures. Creature or creation.—Lips., Vat., Æth.
- ↑ Pathless place. Place on the right hand.—Vat.
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