Therein would I have you instructed like Gothoniel, not
so much in letters as in the spirit, and so to grasp the
Scriptures that you may take delight in searching out their inner
sweetness.... Farewell.[80]
(3) DESCRIPTION OF PARIS ABOUT 1175 BY GUY DE BASOCHES
To a youth who is noble and so like himself as to be a second
self, Guy de Basoches [seeks] to match his nobility of birth by
high-bred manners....
My situation then is this: I am indeed in Paris, happy because of
soundness of both mind and body, happier were you enjoying it
too, and happiest had it but been my lot to have you with me. I
am indeed in Paris, in that City of Kings, which not only holds,
by the sweet delight of her natural dowry, those who are with
her, but also alluringly invites those who are far away. For as
the moon by the majesty of its more brilliant mirror overwhelms
the rays of the stars, not otherwise does said city raise its
imperial head with its diadem of royal dignity above the rest of
the cities. It is situated in the lap of a delightful valley,
surrounded by a coronet of mountains which Ceres and Bacchus
adorn with fervent zeal. The Seine, no humble stream amid the
army of rivers, superb in its channel, throwing its two arms
about the head, the heart, the very marrow of the city, forms an
island.
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