Dom Casmurro

by Machado de Assis

LVII - Preparation

Ah! but it was not only the seminarians who came out of those old leaves of the Panegyrico. They also brought me past sensations, so many that I could not tell them all, without taking away the rest. One of these, and one of the first ones, I might have contented here with Latin. It is not that matter does not find us honest in our language, which is chaste for the chaste ones, as it could be awkward for the dull. Yes, reader of the castissima, as my late Jose Dias would say, you can read the chapter to the end without fright or vexation.

I already set the story in another chapter. No matter how much I get out of it, there is always something less austere in the subject, which calls for a few lines of rest and preparation. Serve this in preparation. And this is too much, reader my friend; the heart, when it examines the possibility of what is to come. the proportions of events and the copy of them, is strong and disposed, and evil is less evil. Also, if it does not stay then, it never stays. And here you will see how clever I am; for as you read what you read, it is probable that you are less raw than you expected.