When God had finished Master Messerin, He really thought it something to have done: Bird, man, and beast had got a chance in one, And each felt flattered, it was hoped, therein. For he is like a goose i’ the windpipe thin, And like a camelopard high i’ the loins, To which for manhood, you’ll be told, he joins Some kind of flesh hues and a callow chin. As to his singing, he affects the crow, As to his learning, beasts in general, And sets all square by dressing like a man. God made him, having nothing else to do, And proved there is not anything at all He cannot make, if that’s a thing He can. Among other collections of tales was the _Novellino_, collected by Massuchio di Salerno, about the middle of the Fifteenth Century. We quote _THE INHERITANCE OF A LIBRARY_ Jeronimo, who had inherited the place of master and head of the house, found himself in possession of many thousand florins in ready money. Wherefore the youth, seeing that he himself had endured no labor and weariness in gathering together the same, forthwith made up his mind not to place his affection in possessions of this sort, and at once began to array himself in sumptuous garments, to taste the pleasures of the town in the company of certain chosen companions of his, to indulge in amorous adventures, and in a thousand other ways to dissipate his substance abroad without restraint of any kind. Not only did he banish from his mind all thought and design of continuing his studies, but he even went so far as to harbor against the books, which his father had held in such high esteem and reverence and had bequeathed to him, the most fierce and savage hatred. So violent, indeed, was his resentment against them that he set them down as the worst foes he had in the world. On a certain day it happened that the young man, either by accident or for some reason of his own, betook himself into the library of his dead father, and there his eye fell upon a vast quantity of handsome and well-arranged books, such as are wont to be found in places of this sort. At the first sight of these he was somewhat stricken with fear, and with a certain apprehension that the spirit of his father might pursue him; but, having collected his courage somewhat, he turned with a look of hatred on his face toward the aforesaid books and began to address them in the following terms: