he heap is made are white. Truly this white appearance is
more in the grains in the first place, and in the second place it
results in the whole heap, and thus secondarily it is possible to call
it white; and in such a way it is possible to call a race Noble.
Wherefore it is to be known, that as in order to make a white heap the
white grains must be most numerous, so to make a Noble race the Noble
Men must be more numerous than the others, so that their goodness,
with its good fame or renown, may cover the opposite quality which is
within. And as from a white heap of corn it would be possible to pick
up the wheat grain by grain, and substitute, grain by grain, red
maize, till, finally, the whole heap or mass would change colour, so
would it be possible for the good men of the Noble race to die out one
by one, and the wicked ones to spring up therein, who would so change
the name or fame thereof, that it would have to be called, not Noble,
but vile, or base.

And let this be a sufficient answer to the second question.

CHAPTER XXX.

As it has been shown previously in the third chapter of this treatise,
this Song has three principal parts, whereof two have been reasoned or
argued out, the first of which begins in the aforesaid chapter, and
the second in the sixteenth (so that the first through thirteen, and
the second through fourteen chapters, passes on to an end, without
counting the Proem of the treatise on the Song, which is comprised in
two chapters), in this thirtieth and last chapter we must briefly
discuss the third principal part, which was made as a refrain and as a
species of ornament for this Song; and it begins: "My Song, Against
the strayers."

Here it is chiefly to be known that every good workman, at the end of
his work, ought to ennoble and embellish it as much as possible, that
it may leave his hands so much the more precious, and more worthy of
fame. And this I endeavour to do in this part, not as a good workman,
but as the follower of one.

I say, then, "My Song, Against the strayers." "Against the strayers"
is a phrase, as, for example, from the good friar, Thomas of Aquinas,
who, to a book of his, which he wrote to the confusion of all those
who go astray from our Faith, gave the title "Contra Gentili," Against
the Heathen. I say, then, that thou shalt go, which is as much as to
say: "Thou art now perfect, and it is now time, not to stand still,
but to go forward, for thy enterprise is