To call passengers who go right on their ways. With shameless effrontery she cries to all that pass by, she addresses her solicitations to persons who are going straight on their way, thinking nothing of her, having no idea of deviating from their pursued object. As they walk in the path of right and duty, she tries to turn them aside. Septuagint, "Calling to herself ( προσκαλουμένη) those that pass by and are keeping straight in their ways." The Fathers find here a picture of the seductions of heretical teaching, which puts on the mask of orthodoxy and deceives the unwary. Wordsworth notes that, in the Apocalypse, the false teacher bears some emblems of the Lamb (Revelation 13:11). All false doctrine retains some element of truth, and it is because of this admixture that it procures adherents and thrives for a time.
These verses contain the invitation which Vice, in imitation of Virtue, and assuming her voice and manner, offers to the wayfarers.