Desiderius Erasmus - In Praise of Folly, 1876 by gnosisclassics

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ERASMUS IN

PRAISE OF

FOLLY, Illustrated with

many

curious CUTS, Designed,

Drawn, and Etched by

Hans Holbein,

WITH PORTRAIT,

LIFE OF ERASMUS. AND

HIS

Epistle addressed to Sir

Thomas More.

LONDON: REEVES & TURNER, 1876.

196,

STRAND,

W.C.

THE LIFE OF

ERASMUS, T7 RASMUS,

so deservedly famous for his

admirable writings, the vast extent of his

learning,

his

great candour and

moderation,

and for being one of the chief restorers of the Latin tongue on this side the Alps, was born

on the 28th of October, in the The anonymous author of his life

at Rotterdam,

year 1467.

commonly printed with his Colloquies London edition) is pleased to tell us anno quo natus est apud Batavos, non

And

he himself wrote the

life

that de constat.

which we iind

before the Elzevir edition, said to be autore,

(of the

Erasmo

he does not particularly mention the

year in which he was born, but places

circa

annum 67 supra millesimum quadringentesimum. Another Latin

life,

which

above-mentioned London year 1465

;

prefixed to the it

in the

as does his epitaph at Basil.

But

edition, fixes

The Life of Erasmus.

at Rotterdam, as the inscription on his statue reasonably be supthe place of his nativity, may followed that. posed the most authentic, we have mother was the daughter of a physician

His at Sevenbergen

Holland, with

whom

his

father contracted an acquaintance, and had correspondence with her on promise of marriage,

and was actually contracted to her. His father's name was Gerard he was the youngest of ten brothers, without one sister coming between; ;

for

which reason

his parents (according to the

superstition of the times) designed to consecrate

him

His brothers liked

to the church.

the

notion, because, as the church then governed all,

they hoped,

he rose

in his profession, to

have a sure friend to advance

their

interest;

but no importunities could prevail on Gerard turn ecclesiastic.

Finding himself continually

pressed upon so disagreeable a subject, and not able longer to bear

it,

he was forced to

fly

from

his native country, leaving a letter for his friends,

which he acquainted them with the reason of his departure, and that he should never trouble them any more. Thus he left her who was to in

be his wife big with

child,

and made the best of

The Life of Erasmus. his

way

Rome.

Being an admirable master

of the pen, he

made a very

most authors of note

transcribing

ing was not in use).

genteel livelihood (for print-

some time

for

lived at

large,

but afterwards applied close to study,

made

great progress in the Greek and Latin

languages, and in the that time

was

full

civil

law

for

;

of learned men.

knew he was

Rome

When

at his

Rome, they sent him word young gentlewoman whom he had courted for a wife was dead upon which, in a melancholy fit, he took orders, and turned his friends

that the

;

thoughts wholly to the study of divinity. returned to his

own

country,

and found

to his

he had been imposed upon but it was too late to think of marriage, so he dropped

grief that

all

;

farther

would she

pretensions after

this

his

mistress

;

nor

adventure be

unlucky

induced to marry.

The father,

son took the name of Gerard after his

which

German

signifies amiable,

(after the fashion of the learned

age,

who

affected to give their

men

and

of that

names a Greek

or Latin turn) his was turned into Erasmus,

which

Greek has the same

signification.

The Life of Erasmus.

was

chorister of the cathedral church of Utrecht

which he was be instructed by the famous

he was nine years old

till

sent to Deventer to

;

after

Under so Alexander Hegius, a Westphalian. able a master he proved an extraordinary proficient and it is remarkable that he had such a ;

strength of

memory

as to be able to say all

Terence and Horace by

heart.

was now

arrived to the thirteenth year of his age, and

had been continually under the watchful eye of

who died of the plague then raging The contagion daily increasing, Deventer.

his mother,

and having swept away the family where he boarded, he was obliged to return home. father that

His

Gerard was so concerned at her death

he grew melancholy, and died soon after

neither of his parents being

when they

much above

forty

died,

Erasmus had three guardians assigned him, the chief of whom was Peter Winkel, schoolmaster of Goude and the fortune left him was amply sufficient for his support, if his executors had faithfully discharged their trust. Although he was fit for the university, his guardians were ;

averse to sending him there, as they designed

The Life of Erasmus.

him him

for a monastic

and therefore removed where, he says, he lost near life,

to Bois-le-duc,

three years, living in a

The

vii

Franciscan convent.

professor of humanity

convent,

this

admiring his rising genius, daily importuned

him to take the habit, and be of their order. Erasmus had no great inclination for the cloister not that he had the least dislike to the ;

severities of

a pious

life,

but he could not re-

concile himself to the monastic profession

therefore urged his rawness of age,

and desired

farther to consider better of the matter.

plague spreading in those parts,

;

The

and he having

struggled a long time with a quartan ague,

obliged him to return home.

His guardians employed those about him to use all manner of arguments to prevail on him sometimes threatento enter the order of monk ;

ing, and at other times making use of flattery

and

fair

When

speeches.

Winkel, his guardian,

found him not to be moved from his resolution,

he told him that he threw up his guardianship from that moment. that he took

enoup-h

now

him

Young Erasmus

at his word, since

replied,

he was old

to look out for himself.

When

The Life of Erasmus.

viii

Winkel found that threats did not avail, he employed his brother, who was the other guardian, to see what he could effect by fair means. Thus he was surrounded by them and their By mere accident, Erasmus agents on all sides. went to visit a religious house belonging to the same order, in Emaus or Steyn, near Goude, where he met with one Cornelius, who had been and though he had his companion at Deventer not himself taken the habit, he was perpetually ;

preaching up the life,

advantages of

a religious

as the convenience of noble libraries, the

helps of learned conversation, retirement from

the noise and folly of the world, and the

Thus

like.

upon this convent. Upon his admission they fed him with great promises, to engage him to take the holy cloth and though he found almost everything at last

he was induced

to pitch

;

fall

short of his expectation, yet his necessities,

and the usage he was threatened with if he abandoned their order, prevailed with him, after his year of probation, to profess himself

had the honour bishop of

mem.

Not long after this, he to Henry a Bergis, Cambray, who having some hopes of

ber of their fraternity. to

be known

The Life of Erasmus.

obtaining a cardinal's hat, wanted one perfectly

master of Latin to this

him

;

for

purpose Erasmus was taken into the bishop's

family,

The

where he wore the habit of

his order.

bishop not succeeding in his expectation at

Rome, proved tion

solicit this affair for

;

therefore

send him to

fickle

and wavering

in his affec-

Erasmus prevailed with him

Paris, to prosecute his studies in

that famous university, with the promise of an

annual allowance, which was never paid him.

was admitted

into

indisposition obliged

him

Montague

College, but

to return to the bishop,

by whom he was honourably ing his health restored, he

entertained.

Find-

made a journey

Holland, intending to settle there, but was per-

suaded to go a second time to Paris having no patron

where,

to support him, himself says,

he rather made a said to study.

;

shift

to live, than could

next visited England, where

he was received with great respect and as appears by several of his letters, he honoured it ;

next to the place of his nativity. to

Andrelinus,

speaks ladies,

inviting

him

In a letter

England, he

highly of the beauty of the

and thus describes

English

their innocent free-

The Life of Erasmus.

dom

When

a gentleman's house you are allowed the favour to salute them, :

you come

into

and the same when you take leave," particularly acquainted with Sir Colet,

dean of Saint

Latimer, and

many

was

Thomas More,

Paul's, Grocinus, Linacer,

others of the most eminent

and passed some years at Cambridge. In his way for France he had the misfortune to be stripped of everything but he did of that time

;

not revenge this injury by any unjust reflection

Not meeting with the preferment he expected, he made a voyage to Italy, at on the country. that time

little

learning.

inferior to the

Bologna

;

for

took his doctor of divinity degree

in the university of in

Augustan age

Turin

;

stayed about a year

afterward went to Venice, and there

published his book of Adages from the press of

removed to Padua, and last to Rome, where his fame had arrived long before him. Here he gained the friendship of the famous Aldus.

all

the considerable persons of the

city,

nor

made his fortune, had he not been prevailed upon by the great procould have failed to have

mises of his friends in England to return thither

on Henry Vlllth coming

to the crown.

The Life of Erasmus.

was taken

by Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, who gave him the living of Aldington, in Kent; but whether Erasmus was wanting in making his court to Wolsey, or whether the cardinal viewed him with a jealous eye, because he was a favourite of Warham, between whom and Wolsey there was perpetual into favour

clashing,

we know

pointed,

Erasmus went

interest

not

Chancellor

counsellor

Charles

;

however, being disap-

;

was

Sylvagius, of

Austria,

Charles V., emperor of Germany. several years at Basil

and by the

to Flanders,

made

afterward

resided

but on the mass being

abolished in that city by the Reformation, he retired to

Friberg in Alsace, where he lived

seven years. afflicted

Having been

with the gout, he

for left

a long time Friberg, and

Here the gout soon left him, but he was seized by a dysentery, and after labouring a whole month under that disorder, returned to Basil.

died on the 22nd of July, 1536, in the house of

Jerome Frobenius, son of John, the famous He was honourably interred, and the printer. city of Basil

memory

still

pays the highest respect to the

of so great a man.

The Life of Erasmus.

xii

â&#x20AC;˘a- iTT Y facetious

Erasmus was the most greatest critic of his

age.

man, and the carried on a

same time he and promoted a

at the

reformation in learning

advanced that of religion;

purity of style as well as simplicity of worship.

This drew on him the hatred of

who were no

"the ecclesiastics,

less bigotted to their barbarisms in

language and philosophy, than they were their superstitious

gion

;

and gaudy ceremonies

they murdered him in their dull

in reli-

treatises,

him in their wretched sermons, and in their last and most effectual efforts of malice, they joined some of their own execrable stuff to his compositions of which he himself complains libelled

in a letter addressed to the divines of Louvain.

exposed with great freedom the vices and

corruptions of his

own

church, yet never would

be persiiaded to leave her communion.

The

papal policy would never have suffered Erasmus

have taken so unbridled a range in the reproof and censure of her extravagancies, but under to

such circumstances,

when

the public attack of

Luther imposed on her a prudential necessity of not disobliging her friends, that she might with

united

strength

oppose

the

common

The Life of Erasmus.

enemy

;

and patiently bore what

time she would have resented.

man

xiii

any other

Perhaps no

has obliged the public with a greater num-

ber of useful volumes than our author several have been attributed to

;

though

him which he

book of Colloquies has passed through more editions than any of his

never

others

wrote.

Moreri

His

tells

us a bookseller in Paris

sold twenty thousand at one impression.

ERAS M

S's

EPISTLE TO

THOMAS MORE.

Sir

my late that

travels from Italy into England,

might not

trifle

the rehearsal of old wives' fables,

pertinent

reflecting

employ

upon some past

away

thought

thoughts

as well as smartly ingenious, friends

behind,

studies, or calling to

remembrance several of those highly

left

time in

among whom you

learned,

had here

(dear Sir) were

represented as the chief; whose memory, while

absent at this distance,

complacency than

respect with no less a

was wont while present

Erasmus's Epistle

xvi

enjoy your more intimate conversation, which last afforded

possibly hope to

the greatest satisfaction

Having

for.

any serious concerns,

divert myself with drawing

upon

How

Folly.

thought good

Why,

up a panegyrick

what maggot

put this in your head

the

(say you) first

hint.

was your own surname of More, which

Sir,

comes as near the

therefore resolved

be a doing, and deeming that time improper

for

could

literal

sound of the word,"

you yourself are distant from the it,

and that

in all

men's judgments

In the next place,

wide.

signification,

vastly

supposed that

this

kind of sporting wit would be by you more

by you.

especially

accepted

wont with

this sort of jocose raillery (such as,

mistake not,

of,

junior

that are if

neither dull nor impertinent)

be mightily pleased, and

converse to

Sir,

approve

for truly, as

your ordinary

yourself

a Democritus

you do from a singular vein * Moipia.

Sir Thomas More. of wit very of

much

mankind

dissent from the

by an

so,

;

humour with

hope therefore you

common herd

incredible affability

you have the

pliableness of temper,

ing your

xvii

art of suit-

sorts of companies.

all

and

not only readily accept

will

of this rude essay as a token from your friend,

but take tion, as

under your more immediate protec-

being dedicated to you, and by that

title

adopted for yours, rather than to be fathered as

own.

ing

some quarrelsome persons

their

And

it is

and

teeth,

a chance

there be want-

that will

pretend these

shew

fooleries

are

either too buffoon-like for a grave divine, or too satyrical

for

exclaim against

some old

meek

christian,

farce, or

who

were vamping up

all

things.

are offended at the lightness

pedantry of

this

consider that

example of

so will

anew the Lucian again

acted

with a peevish snarling at those

and

subject,

do not

this kind,

But

and

would have them

set myself for the first

but that the same has 5

;

Erasmus's Epistle

xviii

been

oft

done by many considerable authors.

For thus several ages no more

weighty a

since,

Homer

wrote of

a war

subject than

between the frogs and mice, Virgil of a gnat

and a pudding-cake, and Ovid of a crates

commended

I Socrates,

the cruelty of Busiris

that corrects

him

and wrote

a quartan ague.

Synesius pleaded in behalf of baldness

dialogue betwixt

Gryllus

drol-

Plutarch

;

and

Ulysses

Lucian and Apuleius the story of an ass

somebody

else records the last will of

which

Hierom makes mention.

St.

they please,

let

and

;

Seneca

fly.

lingly related the deifying of Claudius

the

and

Favorinus extolled

in praise of

Lucian defended a sipping

;

much

for this, did as

for the injustice of Glaucus.

Thersites,

Poly-

nut.

;

and

a hog, of

that

themselves think the worst of

me, and fancy to themselves that

was

all this

while a playing at push-pin, or riding astride on

a hobby-horse.

For how unjust

it,

when

allow different recreations to each particular

Sir Thomas More, course of

life,

when

especially

afford trifles

serious thoughts,

so treated

may

of,

xix

no diversion

may be

to studies

;

a whet to more

and comical matters may be

as that a reader of ordinary sense

possibly thence reap

more advantage than

from some more big and stately argument

while one in a long-winded oration descants in

commendation of in

rhetoric or philosophy, another

a fulsome harangue sets forth the praise of

his nation,

a third makes a zealous invitation to

a holy war with the Turks, another confidently sets

for

and a

fortune-teller,

fifth states

questions upon mere impertinences.

nothing

But as

childish than to handle a serious

wanton

there

nothing more pleasant than so to treat of

trifles,

subject in a loose,

style,

as to

make them seem nothing

their

name

myself,

ment

imports.

must be forced

of others

be judge

;

yet,

my own

except case,

than what

less

what

relates

submit to the judg-

am too am apt to I

partial to

believe

Erasmus's Epistle

have praised Folly

such a manner as not to

have deserved the name of

now

fool for

pams.

to the objection of satyricalness,

wits have been always allowed this privilege, that they might

so be their liberty did not extend to

life, if

railing

;

be smart upon any transactions

which makes

me wonder

at the tender-

eared humour of this age, which will admit of

no address without the prefatory formal

all

preposterously devout,

wink

may

nay, you

titles;

that

repetition of

find

some

they will sooner

at the greatest affront against our Saviour,

than be content that a prince, or a pope, should

be nettled with the in

what

least

joke or

relates to their ordinary customs.

he who so blames men's lash

does as

to I

gird, especially

irregularities

But as to

no one particular person by name, (I

say)

seem

teach and instruct?

concerned to

Beside, he

who

carp so

And

make any

properly so,

how

farther excuse

his strictures

points indif-

Sir Thomas More. ferentiy at

but at

all,

he seems not angry

any singly complain they are

.particularly reflected

own

Hierom freer

one man,

all vices.

Therefore,

their

xxi

upon, they do but betray

g^ilt, at least their

dealt in the

and sharper

same argument

rate;

Saint

cowardice. at

a much

and he did not

nay,

sometimes refrain from naming the persons whereas

have not only

stifled

the mentioning

any one person, but have so tempered

style,

as the ingenious reader will easily perceive

aimed

at diversion rather than satire.

did! so

Neither

rake into the

far imitate Juvenal, as to

sink of vices to procure a laughter, rather than create a hearty abhorrence.

one that

him use

after all

If there

remains yet unsatisfied,

at least consider that there

made

since

of being reprehended

we have

keep up that character which

let

may be good

Folly,

feigned as speaking,

person introduced.

be any

which

we must

suitable to the

Erasmus's Epistle, &c.

XXll

But why do

trouble you, Sir, with

this

needless apology, you that are so peculiar a

patron

;

as,

though the cause

itself

the best, you can at least give tection.

Farewell.

be none

the best pro-

;

the

;

Argument and Design

of the

following Oration.

YyHATE'ER tlie modern satyrs To jerk Have

stage,

o' th'

the failures of a sliding

agfe,

lavishly expos'd to public view,

For a discharge to all from envy due. Here in as lively colours naked lie. With equal wit, and more of modesty. Those poets, with their free disclosing arts. Strip vice so near to its uncomely parts. Their libels prove but lessons, and they teach Those very crimes which they intend t' impeach While here so wholesome all, tho' sharp t' th' taste, So briskly free, yet so resolv'dly chaste The virgin naked as her god of bows. :

May

read or hear when blood at highest flows Nor more expense of blushes thence arise, Than while the lect'ring matron does advise

;

guard her virtue, and her honour prize. Satire and panegyric, distant be. Yet jointly here they both in one agree. The whole's a sacrifice of salt and fire So does the humour of the age require, To chafe the touch, and so foment desire.

doctrine-dangling preachers

lull

asleep

Their unattentive pent-up fold of sheep The opiated milk glues up the brain.

And

th'

;

babes of grace are in their cradles

lain

;

(

xxiv

: ;

;

)

loud. While mounted Andrews, bawdy, bold, and Like cocks, alarm all the drowsy crowd,

Whose glittering ears are prick'd as bolt-upright. As sailing hairs are hoisted in a fright. So does it fare with croaking spawns o' th' The mould o' th' subject alters the success

press.

What's serious, like sleep, grants writs of ease. Satire and ridicule can only please As if no other animals could gape, But the biting badger, or the snick'ring ape. Folly by irony's

commended

Sooth'd, that her weakness

here,

may

the

more appear.

Thus fools, who trick'd, Are made believe that they

in red and yellow shine.

When The

all's

a plot

are wondrous fine, expose them by design.

largesses of Folly here are strown.

Like pebbles, not to

pick, but trample on.

Thus Spartans laid their soaking slaves before

The Not

boys, to justle, kick,

and tumble

o'er

that the dry-lipp'd youngsters might combine

taste and know the mystery of wine. But wonder thus at men transform'd to swine And th' power of such enchantment to escape, Timely renounce the devil of the grape.

So here, Though Folly speaker be, and argument, Wit guides the tongue, wisdom's the lecture meant.

ERAS M Praise

oration,

S's

FOLLY.

of feigned tnatter, spoken by Folly in her

EOW

own person.

slightly

in the

soever

esteemed

common vogue of the world, know how disingenuously is decried even by those who

(for I well

Folly

are themselves the greatest fools,) yet

from

influence

alone

universe receives her jollity

of which

convincing

this

that

ferment of

the

whole

mirth and

may be urged

as a

argument, in that as soon as

appeared to speak before this numerous assembly all their countenances were gilded over with a lively sparkling pleasantness

you soon

Erasmus's praise of

Foi.i-v,

welcomed me with so encouraging a spurred

truly in

all

look, you

on with so cheerful a hum, that appearance, you seem now flushed

with a good dose of reviving nectar, just before as

But as

cell.

you sate drowsy and melancholy,

you were

when

lately it

come out

usual,

some

hermit's

that as soon as the

sun peeps from her eastern bed, and draws

back the curtains of the darksome night

;

as when, after a hard winter, the

restorative

spring breathes a more enlivening

air,

nature

all

things

forthwith changes her apparel, and

seem to renew their age so at the first sight of me you all unmask, and appear in more lively colours. That therefore which expert orators ;

can scarce

effect

eloquence, to wit, their this

their little artifice

a raising the attentions

all

auditors to a composedness of thought,

a bare look from

reason

you

why

shall

appear

has commanded.

in this

soon be informed

odd kind of, if

The

of garb,

for so short

while you will have but the patience to lend me

an ear

yet not such a one as you are wont to hearken with to your reverend preachers, but as you listen withal to mountebanks, buffoons, and ;

Erasmus's praise of Folly. merry-andrews

;

in short,

fastened to Midas,

humour sort

a punishment for his

For

school

boys,

and

of those ancient ones, of wise,

epithet

sophists

am now

in a

the drudgery of tyrannizing

;

teach

womanish knack of brawling lous

to act awhile the sophist, yet not of that

who undertake

over

such as formerly were

god Pan.

affront to the

who

more than

but in imitation

;

to avoid the scanda-

preferred

this

title

the task of these was to celebrate the

worth of gods and heroes.

Prepare therefore

to be entertained with a panegyrick, yet not

upon Hercules, Solon, or any other grandee, but on myself, that is, upon Folly.

And tend

here is

value not their censure that pre-

foppish and affected for any person

to praise himself: yet let

be as

please, if they will but allow

indeed what

silly as

needful

they

and

befitting than that Folly

own praise, and her own pipe ? for who can set me than myself ? or who can pretend

should be the trumpet of her

dance

after

forth better

to be so well acquainted with

And this is

yet farther,

may

condition

safely urge, that all

no more than the same with what B 2

done

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

by several seemingly great and wise men, who with a new-fashioned modesty employ some or

orator

paltry

poet,

scribbling

whom

they

them with some high-flown chashall consist of mere lies and shams

bribe to flatter racter, that

and yet the persons thus extolled

shall bristle up,

and, peacock-like, bespread their plumes, while

the impudent parasite magnifies the poor wretch to the skies,

pattern of

all

and proposes him as a complete virtues, from each of which he is

yet as far distant as heaven itself from

what

all

tricking

this

up a daw

mean

the

hell:

while, but the

a labour-

in stolen feathers;

ing to change the black-a- moor's hue, and the

drawing on a pigmy's frock over the shoulders of a giant. Lastly,

verify

the

old

observation, that

him a right of praising himself, who has nobody else to do it for him for really, I cannot

allows

but admire at that ingratitude, shall blockishness of mankind,

term

who when

it,

they

or all

pay to me their utmost devoir, and acknowledge their respective obligations;

willingly freely

that

notwithstanding

this,

there should

have

been none so grateful or complaisant as

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

have bestowed on

when

especially

a commendatory oration,

there have not been wanting

such as at a great expense of sweat, and loss of

have

sleep,

encomiums

elaborate speeches, given high

to tyrants, agues,

flies,

baldness, and

such like trumperies. I

shall entertain

meditated, but so

course.

you with a hasty and unpre-

much

venting

the more natural dis-

ex tempore,

would not

have you think proceeds from any principles of vain glory

by which ordinary

their attempts,

when they been last,

who

none of in

warning

which

their

will

whereas the reason of

lies

swear they

a great hurry, and upon very short

my humour

to define,

For

not being

only because

Next, I

let

was

speak that

no one be so

should so far

method of other

and then divide

it is

constantly to

uppermost.

invention to the

myself.

easy to observe)

own, yet they

fond as to imagine, that

first

a conceiving, nay, perhaps at

provided beforehand always

are delivered of a speech that has

thirty years

wrote

(as

orators square

stint

pleaders, as subject,

i.e.,

equally hazardous to attempt

the crowding her within the narrow limits of a

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

6 definition,

diffusive an

extent,

that, to the

whose nature is of so or to mangle and disjoin

adoration whereof Beside, to

all

nations unitedly concur.

what purpose

is it

to lay

nition for a faint resemblance,

down

defi-

and mere shadow

of me, while appearing here personally, you may

view

a more certain light

And

your

you may at first blush discern be her whom the Greeks term Mwpia, the

eye-sight

fail not,

Latins stultitia.

why need

But to

have told you

have been so impertinent

this,

sufficiently betray

what

my very looks did not I am or supposing any take me for some sage

;

be so credulous as to matron or goddess of wisdom, as if a single glance from me would not immediately correct their mistake, while

my visage,

the exact

reflex

would supply and supersede the trouble of any other confessions for I appear of

soul,

always

and

things

let

so true to

much who challenge

and an

face pretend

heart conceal another

cannot be so those

natural colours,

and never

dress,

;

nay,

unartificial

one

thing,

and

principles,

that

all

as counterfeited, even by

the

name of

wits, yet indeed

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

no better than jackanapes tricked up in gawdy clothes, and asses strutting in lions' skins are

;

and how

cunningly soever they carry

it,

long ears appear, and betray what they

These

in troth are

among

and reproach to

party,

ashamed of my shame

in others' dish for a

wherefore since they are so eager

be accounted

extremely

belong to

the vulgar they are so

relation, as to cast

are.

very rude and disingenuous,

for while they apparently

yet

their

silly,

when

wise,

what,

in truth

to give

them

they are

their due,

dub them with the title of wise fools and herein they copy after the example of some modern orators, who swell to that proportion of I

conceitedness, as to vaunt themselves for so

many

giants of eloquence,

with a double-

tongued fluency they can plead indifferently for either side, if

and deem

a very doughty exploit

they can but interlard a Latin sentence with

some Greek word, which they crowd in at a venture at a stand for

nish

up a long

for ;

seeming garnish

and rather than be

some cramp words, they scroll

will fur-

of old obsolete terms out

some musty author, and foist them in, to amuse the reader with, that those who under-

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

stand them

may be

tickled with the happiness

them

of being acquainted with

and those who

understand them not, the less they

know

more they may admire

has been

;

whereas

the

always a custom to those of our side to contemn

and undervalue whatever

strange and un-

usual, while those that are better conceited of

themselves

will

nod and

their ears, that they

apprehend

that, of

may be

for

will

much

return.

you

know

;

what

not, except

be content with that of most

foolish

under what more proper appellation can

goddess Folly greet her devotees there are few acquainted with original, I will

for this

have informed you, Sirs

additional epithet to give

you

thought easily

And

pardon the digression, now I

and prick up

which perhaps they do not

understand one word.

Of my name

smile,

But

;

the

since

family and

now give you some account of my

extraction.

First then,

nor

hell,

father

was neither the

chaos,

nor Saturn, nor Jupiter, nor any

worn out, grandsire gods, but Plutus, the very same that, maugre Homer, Hesiod, nay, those old,

in spite of

Jove himself, was the primary

father

Erasmus's praise of Folly. of the universe

and

ages, religion

cessively

;

whose alone beck,

civil policy,

for all

have been

undermined and re-established

whose powerful

suc-

;

influence war, peace, empire,

debates, justice, magistracy, marriage, leagues,

compacts, laws,

arts, (I

have almost run myself

out of breath, but) in a word,

and

state,

of church

and business of private concern, are and administered

severally ordered

whose

assistance

nay,

may be

all affairs

all

;

without

the Poets' gang of deities,

so bold as to say the very major-

domos of heaven, would

either dwindle

into

nothing, or at least be confined to their respective

homes without any ceremonies of devotional whoever he combats with as an enemy,

address

nothing can be armour-proof against his assaults

;

may

and whosoever he sides with as a

friend,

grapple at even hand with Jove, and

all his bolts.

Of such a

father

may well brag and he begot ;

me, not of his brain, as Jupiter did the hag Pallas, but of a pretty young nymph, famed for wit no less

and

was not done amidst the embraces of dull nauseous wedlock, but what gave a greater gust to the pleasure, it was done than beauty

this feat

a stolen bout, as

we may modestly

phrase

it.

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

But

to prevent

your mistaking me,

you understand that

would have

was not

father

that

Plutus in Aristophanes, old, dry, withered, sapÂŤ less and blind; but the same in his younger and brisker days,

and when

were more im-

his veins

pregnated, and the heat of his youth somewhat

higher inflamed by a chirping cup of nectar, which for a

whet

to his lust

he had just before drank

very freely of at a merry-meeting of the

gods.

And now presuming you may be inquisitive after my birth-place (the quality of the place we are born

in,

being

now looked upon

gredient of gentility), floating Delo's, nor

as a main

was born neither

on the frothy

in-

in the

sea, nor in any

of these privacies, where too forward mothers are

wont

to retire for

an undiscovered delivery

but in the fortune islands, where without the

toil

all

things grow

of husbandry, wherein there

no drudgery, no distempers, no old in the fields

grow no

daffodills,

age, where

mallows, onions,

pease, beans, or such kind of trash, but there

give equal divertisement to our sight and smelling, rue, all-heal, bugloss,

roses, violets, hyacinth,

marjoram, herb of

and such

life,

like fragrances!

as perfume the gardens of Adonis.

And

being

Erasmus's praise of Folly. born amongst these delights, infants,

up, face.

come crying

did not, Hke other

into the world, but

and laughed immediately

And

there

i i

no reason

perked

mother's

should envy

Jove for having a she-goat to his nurse, since I

was more creditably suckled by two

nymphs

the

;

name

of the

first

jolly

drunkenness, one

of Bacchus's offspring, the other ignorance, the

daughter of Pan

;

both which you

behold among several others of attendants, fain

know,

whose I will

particular

gait,

Self-Love.

here

and names, if you would

give you in short.

goes with a mincing so high,

may train

This,

who

and holds up her head

She

that looks so spruce,

and makes such a noise and bustle, is Flattery. That other, which sits hum-drum, as if she were half asleep,

She

called Forgetfulness.

that

leans on her elbow, and sometimes yawningly stretches out her arms,

Laziness.

This, that

wears a plighted garland of flowers, and smells so perfumed,

Pleasure.

The

other,

which ap-

pears in so smooth a skin, and pampered-up flesh, is

and

Sensuality.

rolls

She

about her eyes,

those two gods

that stares so wildly, is

whom you

Madness. see playing

As to among

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

name of the one is Intemperance, Sound Sleep. By the help and service

the lasses the the other

of this retinue

bring

power, lording

all it

things under the verge

over the greatest kings

and potentates.

You have now heard

descent,

edu-

may

not be

taxed as presumptuous in borrowing the

title of

cation,

and

a goddess,

attendance

come now

that

;

in the

next place to

quaint you what obliging favours

bestow, and for is

if,

ac-

everywhere

how largely my jurisdiction extends:

as one has ingenuously noted, to be a god

no other than to be a benefactor to mankind

and

they have been thought deservedly deified

who have

invented the use of wine, corn, or any

other convenience for the well-being of mortals,

why may

not

justly bear the

whole troop of gods, who

all,

van among the and toward all,

exert an unparalleled bounty and beneficence

For instance, in the first place, what can be more dear and precious than' life itself ? and yet for this are none beholden, save to me alone. For it is neither the spear of throughly-begotten Pallas,

nor the buckler of cloud-gathering Jove,

that multiplies

and propagates mankind

but

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

who

at a dis-

that prime father of the universe,

pleasing nod

makes heaven

itself to

tremble, he

(I say) must lay aside his frightful ensigns of majesty, and put aWay that grim aspect where-

with he makes the other gods to quake, and, stage player-like, must lay aside his usual cha-

he would do

racter, if

cannot refrain from,

getting of children.

i.e.,

next place to the gods Stoicks

can

but give

;

make

if I

The

challenged by the

me one

him, and

to part with

the doing whereof he

that,

as stoical as ill-nature

do not prevail on him bush of wisdom,

his beard, that

(though no other ornament than what nature in

more ample manner has given to goats,) yet at least he shall lay by his gravity, smooth up his brow, relinquish his rigid tenets, and in despite of prejudice become sensible of some passion in wanton sport and dallying. In a word, this dictator of wisdom shall be glad to take Folly for his diversion, if ever

of a father.

out

he would arrive to the honour

And why should

proceed then

is it

not

tell

my story

the head, the face,

the breasts, the hands, the ears, or other

comely ration

}

parts, that serve for I

trow not, but

it is

instruments of genethat

member of our

.Erasmus's praise of Folly.

odd and uncouth as can scarce be mentioned without a smile. This part, I say, is that fountain of life, from which originally body which

spring

things in a truer sense than from the

all

elemental seminary.

would be so lar of

wont

silly

Add

what man

as to run his head into the col-

a matrimonial noose, to do)

to this,

(as wise

men

are

he had before-hand duly considered

the inconveniences of a

wedded

life ?

indeed

what woman would open her arms to receive the embraces of a husband, if she did but forecast the pangs of child-birth, and the plague of being

a nurse

Since then you

bride-bed,

owe your

birth to the

and (what was preparatory to

solemnizing of marriage to

that) the

waiting-woman

Madness, you cannot but acknowledge

how

much you are indebted to me. Beside, those who had once dearly bought the experience of their folly,

would never re-engage themselves

the same entanglement by a second match,

were not occasioned by the forgetfulness of

past

dangers.

And Venus herself (whatever Lucretius

pretends to the contrary), cannot deny, but that

without

assistance, her procreative

would prove weak and

ineffectual.

power

was from

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

sportive and tickling recreation that pro-

ceeded the old crabbed philosophers, and those

who now and

supply their stead, the mortified

friars

and popes, nay,

as also kings, priests,

;

monks

the whole tribe of poetic gods,

who

are at last

grown so numerous, as

camp

of heaven

in the

(though ne'er so spacious), to jostle for elbow

But

room.

appear that life,

except

life

pleasure

me your assent you so wise

;

and pretend

it,

and

disposal.

And what

said properly to

You will give none I know among

denied ? is

silly,

as to be of a

Stoics indeed contemn,

but this

;

only

a putting the vulgar out

that they

to themselves

all

the benefits

say, or so

The

trick,

of conceit with

to confess

all

that

to banish pleasure

a dissembling

for there

shall

contrary opinion.

engross

shew

Why, can any one be

whom

made

the source and original of

likewise

are equally at

are such live to

not sufficient to have

it is

but

what one stage of

choly, dull, tiresome, tedious,

may more I

quietly

dare them

life

now

not melan-

and uneasy, unless

we spice it with pleasure, that hautgoust of Folly. Of the truth whereof the never enough to be commended Sophocles is sufficient authority,

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

who

gives

tence of

the highest character in that sen-

his,

To know nothing is

the sweetest

life.

Yet abating from this, let us examine the case more narrowly. Who knows not that the first scene of infancy is far the most pleasant and delightsome

What

makes us so

kiss,

then

is it in

children that

hug, and play with them, and

enemy can

that the bloodiest

heart to hurt them

;

but

scarce have the

their ingredients

innocence and Folly, of which nature out of

providence did purposely compound and blend their tender

of pleasure

amends

education

;

youth, and

this

were

a future

the next advance from childhood

how

favourably

and

and how ready all

and give

for the discharge of

kind, courteous,

it ?

upon

that

for their parents' trouble,

caution as

how

by a frank return they might make some sort of infancy,

occasions

happiness

this dealt with

respectful

become indeed,

are

all

serviceable

And whence

Whence

reaps

but from

by whose procurement it is furnished with Httle of wisdom, and so with the less of only,

disquiet

And when

once lads begin to grow

109

Erasmus's praise of Folly. up,

and attempt

to write

blood grows cold in years,

;

their jolHty ceases,

their

burden

till

waspish old age

to itself as well as others,

and

heavy and oppressive, as none would bear

the weight ings.

and

the more they grow backward in the

on, a

that so

flags, their

and the farther they proceed

enjoyment of themselves,

comes

man, their prettlness

does then soon decay, their briskness

humours stagnate,

unless out of pity to their suffer-

of,

again intervene, and lend a helping-hand,

assisting

them

at a

dead

lift,

in the

same method

the poets feign their gods to succour dying men,

by transforming them into new creatures, which I do by bringing them back, after they have one foot in the grave, to their infancy again

there

proverb. Once an old man,

â&#x20AC;˘

;

so as

a great deal of truth couched in that old

and twice a child.

Now

any one be curious to understand what course

tcike to effect this alteration,

this

bring them to

(the fountain

and the it),

river

my well

whereof is Lethe

in the

in hell

of forgetfulness,

Fortunate Islands,

but a small stream of

and when they have there

and washed down

my method

filled their bellies

by the virtue and operation whereof they become young again.

full,

care,

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

Ay, but (say you) they merely dote, and play the why yes, this is what I mean by growing fool :

young again

what

for

than to be a fool and an

else

is it

be a

such that makes that age so acceptable

does not esteem

somewhat ominous

boy endowed with the

child

It is the being

idiot ?

for

who

to see a

discretion of a man, and

therefore for the curbing of too forward parts

we have

a disparaging proverb, Soon

rotten?

And

farther,

ripe, soon

who would keep company

or have any thing to do with such an old blade, as, after

the wear and harrowing of so

many years

should yet continue of as clear a head and sound

a judgment as he had at any time been middle-age

;

and therefore

of me that old

men grow fools,

in his

great kindness

since

it is

hereby

only that they are freed from such vexations as

would torment them

they were more wise

they can drink briskly, bear up stoutly, and lightly pass

constitution

over such

infirmities, as

a far stronger

could scarce master.

Sometime,

with the old fellow in Plautus, they are brought

back to their horn-book again, to learn to their fortune in

they needs be

love.

spell

Most wretched would

they had but wit enough to be

Erasmus's praise of Folly, sensible of their hard condition

respective friends

but by

;

assistance, they carry off all well,

and to

their

approve themselves good,

Thus Homer makes

sociable, jolly companions.

aged Nestor famed

for a

smooth oily-tongued

was but rough, harsh, and hesitant and the same poet elsewhere tells us of old men that sate on the walls, and spake with a great deal of flourish and

orator, while the delivery of Achilles ;

And

elegance.

in this point indeed they sur-

pass and outgo children, in

too

pretty forward

innocent prattle, but otherwise are

'softly,

much

who are

tongue-tied,

and want the

other's

most

acceptable embellishment of a perpetual talkativeness.

Add

to this, that old

men

love to

be playing with children, and children delight as

much

them, to verify the proverb, that Birds

of a feather flock together. And indeed what difference can be discerned between them, but

more furrowed with wrinkles, and has seen a little more of the world than the other ? For otherwise their whitish hair, their want of teeth, their smallness of stature, their

that the

milk

one

diet, their

bald crowns, their prattling, their

playing, their short

memory,

their heedlessness,

Erasmus's praise of Follv.

and all their other endowments, exactly agree and the more they advance in years, the nearer they come back to their cradle, till like children ;

indeed, at last they depart the world, without

any remorse

at the loss of

or sense of the

life,

pangs of death.

And now of

let

any one compare the excellency

metamorphosing power

that which

Ovid attributes to the gods; their strange feats in some drunken passions we will omit for their credit sake, and instance only in such persons as they pretend great kindness for

transformed

times serpents

somewhat

;

but

alas, their

man

;

whereas

and some-

very change

what

can restore the same

;

yea,

what

would but so far consult their all

into

to his pristine state of youth,

health and strength

to discard

these they

else argues the destruction of

they were before numerical

;

into trees, birds, insects,

more,

own

men

interest, as

thoughts of wisdom, and entirely

resign themselves to

guidance and conduct,

old age should be a paradox,

years a perpetual spring.

and each man's

For look how your

hard plodding students, by a close sedentary confinement to their books, grow mopish, pale, and

Erasmus's praise of Folly. meagre, as

by a

if,

continual wrack of brains,

and torture of invention, dry,

and

whereas

their veins

were pumped

whole body squeezed sapless followers are smooth, plump,* and

their

many

bucksome, and altogether as lusty as so bacon-hogs, or sucking calves

;

never

their

career of pleasure to be arrested with old age,

they could but keep themselves untainted from the contagiousness of wisdom, with the leprosy whereof,

any time they are

only for prevention,

lest

infected,

they should otherwise

have been too happy.

For a more ample confirmation of the truth of what foregoes, it is on all sides confessed, that Folly is the best preservative of youth, and the most effectual antidote against age. And it is a never-failing observation rnade of the

people of

Brabant, that, contrary to the proverb of Older

more ancient they grow, the more and there is not any one country, fools they are whose inhabitants enjoy themselves better, and rub through the world with more ease and quiet.

and

wiser, the

;

these are nearly related, as well

of customs, as of neighbourhood,

Hollanders: mine

may well

call

affinity

friends the

them, for they

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

stick so close

and lovingly

styled fools to a proverb,

me, that they are

and yet scorn

to be

ashamed of their name. Well, let fond mortals go now in a needless quest of some Medea, Circe, Venus, or some enchanted fountain, for a restorative of age,

whereas the accurate performance

of this feat lies only within the ability of

and

art

skill.

It is I

that

who have

only

the receipt of making

Memnon's

wherewith

liquor

daughter

lengthened out her grandfather's declining days it is I

that

that Venus,

the languishing Phaon, as

deeply herbs,

Mine

are those

mine those charms, that not only

lure back

in love

swift time,

with his beauty.

when

be admired,

to*

verdict,

past and gone, but what clip its wings,

and prevent

then,

the being young, nor any thing

loathed^,

than contemptible old age, you must needs

knowledge

all

you will all agxee, to..^ that nothing is more desirable than

farther flight.

who so far restored to make Sappho fall

ac-

as an unrequitable obligation from

me, for fencing off the one, and perpetuating^the_ other.

But why should

confine

my discourse' to

the

Erasmus's praise of Folly. narrow subject of mankind only

whole heaven

itself,

and then

tell

View

the

me what one

mean and my name did not lend him some

of that divine tribe would not be despicable,

Why is

respect and authority.

Bacchus always

painted as a young man, but only because he freakish, drunk,

and mad; and spending

in toping, dancing,

have nothing

Nay, so

far is

his time

masking, and revelling, seems

in the least to

he from the

accounted wise, that he

do with wisdom ?

affectation of being

content,

all

the rights

of devotion which are paid unto him should

and

consist of apishness

what

scoffs

they, that smells in,

and so

on.

O swinish punch-gut god,

say

rank of the sty he was sowed But prithee, who in this case,

always merry, youthful, soaked

drowned

Farther,

and jeers did not the old comedians

throw upon him

drollery.

in pleasure,

who,

say, in

wine,

and

such a case,

would change conditions, either with the

lofty

menace-looking Jove, the grave, yet timorous Pan, the stately Pallas, or indeed any one other of heaven's landlords

Why is Cupid feigned as

a boy, but only because he

an under-witted

whipster, that neither acts nor thinks any thing

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

with discretion

Why

Venus adored

for the

mirror of beauty, but only because she and

with

father Plutus,

tates

same complexion

claim kindred, she being of the

and therefore called by Homer the Golden Goddess ? Beside, she imibeing always a laughing,

believe the poets, or their near

either

kinsmen the

painters, the first mentioning, the other drawing

Add

her constantly in that posture.

farther, to

what deity did the Romans pay a more

cere-

monial respect than to Flora, that bawd of obscenity ?

And

any one search the poets he

historical account of the gods, all

famous

It is

for

shall find

for

them

lewd pranks and debaucheries.

needless to insist upon the miscarriages of

when

others,

the lecherous intrigues of Jove

himself are so notorious, and

when

the pretend-

edly chaste Diana so oft uncloaked her modesty to run a hunting after her beloved Endimion.

But

will

say no more, for

had rather they

should be told of their faults by Momus, who was want formerly to sting them with some close

by his abusive they kicked him out of heaven for his

reflections,

raillery,

nettled

till

sauciness of daring

reprove such as were

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

beyond correction and now in his banishment from heaven he finds but cold entertainment here on earth, nay, is denied all admittance into :

the court of princes, where notwithstanding

handmaid Flattery finds a most encouraging welcome but this petulant monitor being thrust :

out of doors, the gods can

and

and take

revel,

now more

their

whole

freely rant

swinge

Now the beastly Priapus may recreate

pleasure.

himself without contradiction in lust and ness

;

now

filthi-

the sly Mercury may, without dis-

covery, go on in his thieveries, and fingered juggles

;

the sooty Vulcan

nimble-

may now

renew his wonted custom of making the other gods laugh by his hopping so limpingly, and coming off with so many dry jokes, and biting Silenus, the

repartees.

old

doting

lover,

shew his activity, may now dance a frisking jig, and the nymphs be at the same sport naked. The goatish satyrs may make up a merry ball, and Pan, the blind harper may put up

his

bawdy catches, to which the when they are almost drunk,

bagpipes, and sing gods, especially shall give

would

a most profound attention.

any farther

rip

But why

open and expose the

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

weakness of the gods, a weakness so childish and absurd, that no man can at the same time

and make a relation of it? Homer's wandering muse, I

keep

his countenance,

Now

therefore, like

will

take

leave of heaven, and

again here below, where

come down

shall find nothing

happy, nay, nothing tolerable, without .

pre-

sence and assistance.

And in the first place consi-

how providently

nature has took care that in

der all

her works there should be some piquant smack

and

relish of Folly

wisdom

fo r since the Stoics defi ne

be conducted^ by reason, and Jolly

nothing else but the being hurried byi passio n,

our

life

should otherwise have been too dull -and

inactive, that creator,

pered and made

who

out of clay

fiEst-J;eni-

us up, put into the composition

of our humanity more than a "to

lest

an ounce of reason

;

pound of

passions

and reason he confined

within the narrow cells of the brain, whereas he left

passions the whole body to range

ther,

he set up two

in.

Far-

sturdy champions to stand

perpetually on the guard, that reason might

make

anger, which no assault, surprise, nor in-road keeps its station in the fortress of the heart; and lust, which like the signs Virgo and Scorpio, :

Erasmus's praise of Folly. rules the belly

and secret members..

the forces of these two warriors

Against

how unable

reason to bear up and withstand, every day's

experience does abundantly witness

while

;

let

reason be never so importunate in urging and reinforcing her admonitions to virtue, yet the

passions bear offer of rious,

by the least grow but more impe-

before them, and

all

curb or restraint

till

reason

itself,

forced to desist from !/But because

all

for quietness

sake,

further remonstrance.

seemed expedient

that man,,

who was born

for the transaction of business,

should have so

much wisdom

capacitate

him

as should

fit

and!

for the discharge of his duty|

and yet lest such a measure as is requisite this purpose might prove too dangerous and

herein, for

fatal,

was advised with

for

an antidote, who

prescribed this infallible receipt of taking a wife,

a creature so harmless and

silly,

and yet so useful

and convenient, as might mollify and make' and morose humour of man. which made Plato doubt under what

pliable the stiffness

Now

that

genus to rank woman, whether among brutes or

was only meant to denote the extreme stupidness and Folly of that sex,

rational

creatures,

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

a sex so unalterably simple, that for any of them

and reach

to thrust forward, is

make themselves

but to

fools,

name of wise, more remarkable

at the

the

such an endeavour, being but a swimming

against the stream, nay, the turning the course of nature, the bare attempting whereof

extravagant as the effecting of for as

it is

ape,

trite

it is

impossible

proverb. That an ape will be

though clad in purple ; so a woman

be a woman,

i.e.,

And

takes up.

should take

fool,

will

whatever disguise she

yet there

no reason women

amiss to be thus charged

they do but rightly consider they

;

for

will find

to Folly they are beholden for those endow-

ments, wherein they so far surpass and excel

man

;

the

charm whereof they tyrannize over

first,

for their unparalleled beauty,

greatest tyrants

;

for

what

is it

by the

but too great a

smatch of wisdom that makes men so tawny and thick-skinned, so rough and prickly-bearded, like an emblem of winter or old age, while women have such dainty smooth cheeks, such a low gentle voice, and so pure a complexion, as if nature had drawn them for a standing pattern of all symmetry and comeh'ness ? Beside, what

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

greater or juster aim and ambition have they

than to please their husbands

In order where-

'unto they garnish themselves with paint, washes, curls,

perfumes, and

ment; vet_after

them only

all

other mysteries of orna-

they, begsiaÂŁ_accaBtaMg.iQ.

allowed their humouf, yet for titillation

kittle,

it is

are always

only in exchange

and pleasure, which indeed are but

other names for Folly consider

Wives

for their Folly.

;

who

as none can deny,

how a man must

hug, and dandle, and

and play a hundred little tricks with his when he is disposed to make that

bed-fellow

use of her that nature designed her then,

Well,

for.

you see whence that greatest pleasure

{to

which modesty scarce allows a name), springs

and proceeds. But now some blood-chilled old men, that are more for wine than wenching, will pretend, that in their opinion the greatest in feasting

and drinking.

certainly in the is

happiness consists

Grant

be so

;

yet

most luxurious entertainments

Folly must give the sauce and relish to the

daintiest cates

and

delicacies

;

no one of the guests naturally played upon by the

rest,

so that fool

there be

enough

they must procure some

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

comical buffoon, that

and blunders split

shall

his jokes,

make

and

flouts,

the whole company

themselves with laughing

for to

what pur-

pose were it to be stuffed and crammed with so many dainty bits, savoury dishes, and toothsome epicurism of the belly, the

rarities, if after all this

and the whole mind of man, were not as well foistred and relieved with laughing,

eyes, the ears,

and such

jesting,

like divertisements,

which

second courses serve for the promoting of gestion

And

as to

all

di-

those shooing horns of

drunkenness, the keeping every one his man, the throwing hey-jinks, the

filling

of bumpers,

the drinking two in a hand, the beginning of mistress'

healths

;

and then the roaring out

drunken catches, the

calling in a fiddler, the

leading out every one his lady to dance, and

such like riotous pastimes, these were not taught or dictated by any of the wise

but of

Gotham

rather,

being

men

of Greece,

invention, and

by me prescribed as the best preservative of health each of which, the more ridiculous it is, the more welcome it finds. And indeed to jog :

sleepingly

through the world,

a dumpish

melancholy posture cannot properly be said

Erasuvs's praise o/ live,

but to be

sheet before

wound up

Foi.iA'.

were

winding-

in a

are dead, and so to be shuffled

quick into a grave, and buried alive.

But there are yet others perhaps that have no gust in this sort of pleasure, but place their greatest content in

the enjoyment of friends,

be preferred

telling us that true friendship is to

other acquirements

before

all

useful

and necessary, as the very elements could

;

that

it is

a thing so

not long subsist without a natural combination so pleasant that

affords as

as the sun itself

;

so honest,

warm (if

;

an influence

honesty in this

case deserve any consideration), that the very

philosophers have not stuck to place this as one

among

the rest of their different sentiments of

But what

the chiefest good. that I also this

if I

make

appear

the main spring and original of

endearment

Yes,

can easily demonstrate

and that not by crabbed syllogisms, or a crooked and unintelligible way of arguing, but

it,

can

make

(as the

nose on your face.

proverb goes)

Well then,

curry one another, to wink at a nay, to cry

up some

commendable,

As plain

as the

to scratch

and

friend's faults

failings for virtuous

;

and

not this the next door to the

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

being a fool

When

one looking

a beauty spot

when another swears

;

stinking breath

and pretends

child,

his lady's

a most redolent perfume

at another time the fond parent

eyed

stedfastly in

mole as much as

his mistress's face, admires a

it is

and

;

hugs the squint-

rather a becoming

glance and winning aspect than any blemish of the eye-sight, what

is all

of Folly

say) that both

Folly

and keeps them only,

so.

among whom

some small fewest. If

faults

they have so

but the very height

little

of friendship

true

and

;

hearty.

friends

there are none but have

most happy that has

pass to the gods,

much

makes

speak of mortal men

;

this

we shall find

that

of wisdom, as they have very nay, nothing of that which

The

reason

why men make

greater improvement in this virtue,

only be-

cause they are more credulous and easy natured for friends

must be of the same humour and

in-

clinations too, or else the league of amity, though

made with never so many protestations, will be soon broke. ^ Thus grave an d morose men seldom prove

;

they are too captious

will

not bear with one

fast friends

and censorious, and another's infirmities

;

they are as eagle sighted as

â&#x20AC;¢t^ffeiia*^'

E Rasmus's praise may be

of Folly.

they

in the espial of others' faults, while

wink upon themselves, and never mind the beam

own

in their

man being by humoursome and

eyesT] In short,

nature so prone

to frailties,

and guilty of so many

cross-grained,

miscarriages, there could be

no firm friendship

contracted, except there be such

made term

for each other's defaults,

'Er^j^eia,

which

what

which the Greeks

and we may construe good nature,

Is not Cupid,

an allowance

And

but another word for Folly.

relation, is not

that first

he stark

father of

blind, that as

us as mope-eyed in judging falsely of

and wheedle us

concerns,

are always in the right

sticks to his

own trull

;

own

Jill

;

yet,

however all

love

Thus every Jack suiter prefers

Joan

my lady's daughters.

These things are true, and are and

all

into a thinking that ?

and the hob-nailed

hence only that

make

every tinker esteems his

the milk-maid before any of

at,

all

he cannot

himself distinguish of colours, so he would

and

slips

ordinarily laughed

ridiculous they seem,

societies receive their

cement

and consolidation.

The same which much more

has been said of friendship

applicable to a state of marriage,

;

E Rasmus's praise of Folly.

which

but the highest advance and improve-

ment of

friendship in the closest

Good God

What

union.

frequent divorces, or worse

would

and

were so discreet as

oft sadly

man

happen, except

mischief, wife,

bond of

to pass over light

occasions of quarrel with laughing, jesting, dis-

sembling, and such like playing the fool

Nay,

? '

how few matches would go forward, if the lover did but first know how many little of lust and wantonness (and perhaps

oft before

happy,

more gross

been guilty of ?

And how

when consummated, would

marriages,

tricks

coy and seemingly bashful mistress

failings) his

had

hasty

fewer

continue

the husband were not either sottishly

insensible

or did not purposely wink at and

of,

pass over the lightness and forwardness of his

good-natured wife is

owing

This peace and quietness

management,

for there

would

jars, and broils, and mad want of wit only did not at the same

otherwise be continual doings,

time if

make

contented cuckold and a

still

house

the cuckoo sing at the back door, the un-

thinking cornute takes no notice of the unlucky

omen

of others' eggs being laid in his

but laughs

own

over, kisses his dear spouse,

nest,

and

Erasmvs's praise o/ Folly. all

And

well.

patiently to

indeed

much

be such a hen-pecked

better

than

frigot,

always to be wracked and tortured with the grating surmises of suspicion and jealousy.

no one

fine,

there

men

stand

in,

no one relation

society,

would be comfortable, or indeed

tolerable, without

assistance; there could

no right understanding betwixt people, lord

and

man and

friend,

servant, tutor wife,

pupil, friend

buyer and

any persons however otherwise

and

prince

and

seller,

related, if

they

did not cowardly put up small abuses, sneakingly cringe and submit, or after

and

flatter

each other.

all

but you shall yet hear what then, can

himself

way

likely

say

first

is it

fallen

man would be

tell

hates

first

own

probable he should be any

who

paradox that none can be so

much,

out with his

plague and trouble to himself ?

if I

;

any one should agree with

pleasing to another,

Well, but

will

any one love another that

a friend that

judgment

fawningly scratch

This you

a perpetual

This

mad as

such a

to maintain.

excluded and barred out, every

so far from being able to bear

with others, that he would be burthensome to

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and consequently incapable of any ease or satisfaction. Nature, that toward some of her himself,

products plays the step-mother rather than the indulgent parent, has

endowed some men with

unhappy peevishness of disposition, as to nauseate and dislike whatever is their own, and much admire what belongs to other persons, so

that

what their birth upon them for what

as they cannot in any wise enjoy

or fortunes have bestowed

grace

there in the greatest .bÂŁauty>.if.

always clouded with frowns and sulliness

what vigour Jn youth,

dogged, waspish,

pettish,

sure.

Nor indeed can

but

be harassed jjoBLa

humour?

ill.

None,

there be any

creditable

any one

station of

acquirement of ourselves in life,

should sink without rescue into

misery and despair,

and supported by elder sister (as

we were

self-love,

not buoyed up

which

but the

were) of Folly, and her own

For what is or can be more silly than to be lovers and admirers of ourselves ? And yet if it were not so there constant friend

will

be no

and

relish to

assistant.

any of our words or

Take away

this

orator shall

become

one property of a as

dumb and

fool,

actions.

and the

silent as the

Erasmus's praise of Folly. pulpit his

he stands

the musician shall hang up

;

untouched instruments on the wall be hissed

pletest actors shall

;

the com-

off the stage

poet shall be burlesqued with his

rhymes

own

the

;

doggrel

the painter shall himself vanish into an

;

imaginary landscape

want food more than

;

and the physician do

shall

physic.

short, without self-love, instead of beautiful,

you

shall think yourself

his patients

an old beldam of fourscore

instead of youthful, you shall into the grave

stammerer sant,

you

clown;

;

just dropping

instead of eloquent, a

mere

and in lieu of gentle and complai-

shall

;

seem

appear like a downright country

being so necessary that every one

should think well of ,hiRiSÂŁlf before he can expect

good opinion of others. Finally, when it is the main and essential part of happiness to desire to be no other than what we already are; this expedient is again wholly owing to self-love, which so flushes men with a good the

conceit of their own, that

no one repents of

his

shape, of his wit, of his education, or of his

country

;

so as the dirty half-drowned Hollander

would not remove Italy,

into the pleasant plains of

the rude Thracian would not change his

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

boggy

soil for

the best seat in Athens, nor the

Scythian

brutish

thorny deserts to

his

quit

become an inhabitant of the Fortunate Islands. And oh the incomparable contrivance of nature, who has ordered all things in so even a method that wherever she has been less bountiful in her gifts,

there she

makes

up with a larger dose

of self-love, which supplies the former defects,

and makes

all

even.

enlarge farther,

may

well presume to aver, that there are no considerable exploits performed, no useful arts

vented, but what

manager

first,

of: as

heroical than

war

what

and

than for some petty,

in-

the respective author and

what

yet,

lofty

trivial affront, to

and

foolish

take such

a revenge as both sides shall be sure to be losers,

and where the quarrel must be decided

at the price of so

when they come

many

limbs and lives

And

an engagement, what service

can be done by such pale-faced students, as by

drudging at the oars of wisdom, have spent their strength

and

activity

No, the only use

of blunt sturdy fellows that have so the

more of

make a

soldier of such another

resolution

little

all is

of wit, and

except you would

Demosthenes

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

threw down his arms when he came within

sisrht

of the enemy, and lost that credit in the

camp

which he gained deliberation,

in the

and advice

But counsel,

pulpit.

(say

are very

you),

necessary for the management of war

very

true,

but not such counsel as shall be prescribed by

wisdom and justice for a be more successfully fought by

the strict rules of battle

shall

serving-men, gaol-birds,

;

porters, bailiffs,

and such

padders, rogues,

like tag-rags of

mankind,

than by the most accomplished philosophers

how unhappy they are in

the manage-

which

last,

ment

of such concerns, Socrates (by the oracle

adjudged to be the wisest of mortals)

example

;

who when he appeared

a notable

in the

attempt

of some public performance before the peoplp,

faltered in the first onset,

and could never

recover himself, but was hooted and hissed

again

home

yet this philosopher was the less a

for refusing

fool,

the appellation of wise, and not

accepting the oracle's compliment

;

as also for

advising that no philosophers should have any

hand

in the

government of the commonwealth

he should have likewise

at the

that they should be banished

same all

;

time, added,

human

society.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

And what made

this great

man

poison himself

to prevent the malice of his accusers

made him

the instrument of his

own

only his excessiveness of wisdom

What

death, but

whereby,

while he was searching into the nature of clouds, while he was plodding and contemplating upon while he was exercising his geometry

ideas,

upon the measure of a

flea,

and diving

into the

how

little in-

recesses of nature, for an account sects,

when they were

great a buzz and

upon these world, or

fooleries

its

so small, could

hum

;

make

while he was intent

he minded nothing of the

ordinary concerns.

to Socrates

comes

his scholar Plato, a

famous orator indeed, that could be so dashed out of countenance by an

demur, and hawk, and

illiterate rabble, as to

hesitate, before

he could

get to the end of one short sentence. phrastus was such another coward,

ning to

make an

down with

fear,

or hobgoblin.

who

Theobegin-

was presently struck as if he had seen some ghost, Isocrates was so bashful and oration,

timorous, that though he taught rhetoric, yet he

could never have the confidence to speak in public.

Cicero, the master of

Roman

eloquence.

-/y

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

was wont

to begin his speeches with a low, qui-

vering voice, just like a school-boy, afraid of not saying his lesson perfect enough to escape whip-

and yet Fabius commends this property of Tully as an argument of a considerate orator, ping

sensible of the difficulty of acquitting himself

with credit

but what hereby does he do more

than plainly confess that wisdom

and impediment

How

affair ?

to the well

but a rub

management

any

would these heroes crouch, and

shrink into nothing, at the sight of drawn swords, that are thus quashed

very of bare words

Now up,

then

that

where

and stunned

at the deli-

let Plato's fine

happy are

those

sentence be cried'

commonwealths

either philosophers are elected kings, or

kings turn philosophers."

from bein^

true, that if

Alas, this

consult

so far

historians

all

an account of past ages, we shall find no prmces more weak, nor any people more slavish and wretched, than where the administrations of for

affairs

fell

on the shoulders of some learned

bookish governor.

the truth whereof, the

two Catos are exemplary instances of which embroiled the

city,

and

the

first

tired out the

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

senate by his tedious harangues of defending himself, and accusing others the younger was ;

an unhappy liberty,

occasion of the loss of the peoples'

while by improper methods he pretended

to maintain

these

may be added

two Gracchi, and Cicero

Cassius, the

who was no

it.

Rome, than

less fatal to

Demosthenes was cus Antoninus,

Athens

been a good emperor, yet the

less

such for

affairs,

Commodus proved

his

own

as he did mis-

by leaving such a degenerate

son

his

and certainly he did not

;

prudent management of

his

his parallel

allow to have

half that kindness to his empire

chief

himself,

as likewise Mar-

whom we may

being a philosopher

Brutus,

to be;

successor as

but

it is

common observation, that A_wise father has many times a foolish son, nature so contriving it, lest the taint of

wisdom,

pers, should otherwise

Thus

Tully's

son

like hereditary -distem-

descend by propagation.

Marcus, though bred

Athens, proved but a

dull,

insipid soul

;

and

Socrates his children had (as one ingeniously

expresses

it)

"more of

the

mother than

father," a phrase for their being fools. it

the

However, were the more excusable, though wise men

Erasmus's praise of Folly. are so

awkward and unhandy

public in the tic

affairs, if

seek

;

in the ordering of

they were not so bad, or worse

management of

concerns

but

shall, either

and domes-

their ordinary

much

here they are

alas,

for place a formal wise

and he

his

man

morose

at a feast,

silence put

the whole table out of humour, or by his frivolous questions disoblige

near him.

Call

him out

and

tire

out

and he

to dance,

move no more nimbly than a camel to

any public performance, and by shall

and

damp

at last

theatre, because

the mirth of

all

that sit

all

invite

his

any

him

very looks

the spectators,

forced, like Cato, to leave the

he cannot unstarch

his gravity,

nor put on a more pleasant countenance.

engage

shall

discourse,

he either breaks

he off

abruptly, or tires out the patience of the whole

company, sale,

he goes on

he have any

contract,

or purchase to make, or any other worldly

business to transact, he behaves himself like

a senseless stock than a rational

as he can be of

no use nor advantage

to his friends, or to his country

;

man

;

to himself,

because he

knows nothing how the world goes, and is wholly unacquainted with the humour of the

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

44 vulgar,

who cannot but

hate a person so

dis-

agreeing in temper from themselves.

And

indeed the whole proceedings of the

world are nothing but one continued scene of Folly,

the actors being equally fools and

all

madmen

and therefore if any be so pragmatically wise as to be singular, he must even turn a second Timon, or man-hater, and by retiring

some unfrequented

into

from

desert,

to return to in

what

I first

but only

flattery,

For there

one of

first

proposed, what

made

into civil societies,

chiefest virtues

nothing else meant by the fables

Amphion and Orpheus

the

recluse

the infancy of the world that

men, naturally savage, unite

become a

mankind.

all

But

was

;

with their harps;

making the stones jump

into a well-

built wall, the other inducing the trees to pull

their legs out of the ground, rice after him.

appeased the

and dance the mor-

What was it that quieted and Roman people, when they brake

out into a riot for the redress of grievances

Was

any sinewy starched oration

No,

alas,

was only a silly, ridiculous story, told by Menenius Agrippa, how the other members of

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

the body quarrelled with the belly, resolving no longer to continue her drudging caterers, till

by the penance they thought thus

in revenge soon found their own strength

to impose, they

so far diminished, that paying the cost of experiencing a mistake, they willingly returned to their respective duties.

of Athens gistrates,

murmured

Thus when

the rabble

at the exaction of the

another tale of the fox and the hedge-hog first flies

ma-

Themistocles satisfied them with such

whereof being stuck

fast in

;

the

a miry bog, the

came swarming about him, and almost

sucked out

his blood, the latter officiously

all

offers his service to drive

the fox,

them away

;

no, says

these which are almost glutted be

come a new hungry set that will be ten times more greedy and devouring the moral of this he meant applicable to frighted

off",

there will

the people,, who

removed

they had such magistrates

as they complained of for extortion,

yet their successors would certainly be worse.

With what

â&#x20AC;˘'

highest advances of policy could

Sertorius have kept the Barbarians so well in '

awe, as by a white hart, which he pretended was

presented to him by Diana, and brought him

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

intelligence of all his enemies' designs

was Lycurgus strating

his

grand argument

for

What demon-

the force of education, but only the

bringing out two whelps of the same bitch, differently dish,

and a

brought up, and placing before them a live

hare

;

the one, that had been bred

to hunting, ran after the

game

whose kennel had been a

kitchen, presently

licking the platter.

Sertorius

made his

Thus

while the other,

;

fell

the before-mentioned

soldiers sensible that wit

and

contrivance would do more than bare strength,

by setting a couple of men to the plucking off two horses' tails the first pulling at all in one ;

handful, tugged in vain

much

;

while the other, though

the weaker, snatching off one by one,

soon performed his appointed

task.

Instances of like nature are Minos and king

Numa, both which fooled the people obedience by a mere cheat and juggle the ;

into first

by pretending he was advised by Jupiter, the latter by making the vulgar believe he had the goddess -^geria assistant to him

and

transactions.

wheedles

that

the

And

indeed

common

gulled and imposed upon.

in all debates it

by such

people are best

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

For

farther,

what

city

would ever submit

the rigorous laws of Plato, to the severe injunctions of Aristotle? or the more unpracticable tenets

of Socrates?

No, these would have

been too straight and allowance enough

being

galling, there not

made

for the infirmities of

the people.

pass to another head, what was

made

the Decii so forward to offer themselves up as a sacrifice for

an atonement

angry gods,

to the

rescue and stipulate for their indebted country

What made rately

Curtius, on a like occasion, so despe-

throw away

his

but only vain-

life,

is condemned, and unanimously voted main branch of Folly by all wise men ? What is more unreasonable and foppish (say they) than for any man, out of ambition to some

glory, that for a

office, to

bow, to scrape and cringe to the gaping

rabble, to purchase their favour

donatives, to have their streets, to

sight their

names

be carried about as

bribes

cried it

were

and the

for a fine

upon the shoulders of the crowd, to have effigies carved in brass, and put up in the

market place larity ?

Add

for a to this,

monument

of their popu-

the affectation of

new

titles

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and

distinctive

badges of honour

;

nay, the very

deifying of such as were the most bloody tyrants.

These are so extremely ridiculous, that there is need of more than one Democritus to laugh at

And yet hence only have been

them.

occasioned

those memorable achievements of heroes, that

have so much employed the pens of many

labo-

rious writers. It is

tures

Folly

that, in

a several dress, governs

appoints magistrates, and supports judica-

cities,

makes the whole course

and, in short,

;

man's

mere

life

children's

arts

invention of

and sciences are likewise owing

cause

for

have beat

what

and worse

play,

The

than push-pin diversion.

to the

their brains in the search

little

not egged on by the bub-

glittering flash of vain-glory all

same

men would of new and They think

bling hopes of credit and reputation ?

reward for

all

sedentary, thoughtful

unheard-of-mysteries,

their sweat,

and

toil,

a sufficient

and tedious

drudgery, while they that are supposedly more foolish,

reap advantage of the others' labours.

And now

since

have made good

valour and industry, what

share of wisdoip

How

if I !

title to

challenge an equal

this (you will say) is

Erasmus's praise of Folly. absurd and contradictory

;

will

Well, but have a

warrant you

First then,

wisdom

little

make

will

(as

may Wisdom be

the east and west

as soon shake hands* as Folly and reconciled.

patience and

out

claim.

must be confessed)

no more than a readiness of doing good, and an expedite method of becoming serviceable to the world, to

belong

whom does this virtue more properly To the wise man, who partly out of

modesty, partly out of cowardice, can proceed resolutely in

no attempt

;

or to the fool, that

goes hand over head, leaps before he looks, and so ventures through the most hazardous under-

taking without any sense or prospect of danger In the undertaking any enterprize the wise shall

}

man

run to consult with his books, and daze

himself with poring upon musty authors, while the dispatchful fool shall rush bluntly on, and

have done the business, while the other is thinkFor the two greatest lets and impeing of it. diments to the issue of any performance are rnodesty,

which

casts a mist before men's eyes

;

makes them shrink back, and both these are recede from any proposal banished and cashiered by Folly, and in their and fear, which,

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

stead such a habit of fool-hardiness introduced, as

Farther,

enterprizes.

taken

judgment of wise

men

fall

First, then,

will

all

have wisdom

other sense, of being a right

the

you

success of

the

mightily contributes to

things,

it is

you

how

shall see

short

in this acceptation.

certain that all things, like so

many J anus's, carry a double

face,

or rather bear

a false aspect, mostjiiinga.being_really- in themselves far different, fram

whatthey areâ&#x20AC;&#x17E;in._appÂŁar-

ance to others^ so as that which at proves

alive, is

which appears as dead, to

alive

beautiful

scandalous

dead

in truth at

ugly, wealthy poor,,

creditable,

prosperous

passes for unlucky, friendly for what opposite,

and

In short,

pernicious. all

innocent for if

blush

first

and that again

a nearer view proves

seems

thought

;

what

most

hurtful

we change

and

the tables,

things are found placed in a quite different

posture from what just before they appeared to stand in. If this

seem too darkly and

expressed,

will

explain

some great king or every one shall suppose to swim instance of

unintelligibly

by the

familiar

prince,

whom

in a luxury of

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

wealth, and to be a powerful lord and master

;

on the one hand he has poverty of enough to make him a mere beggar, and

when,

alas,

spirit

on the other side he

own

to his

lusts

and

worse than a galley-slave

passions.

had a mind farther to expatiate, I could enlarge upon several instances of like nature, but If

may

one

this

at present suffice.

Well, but what of

Why, observe

all this ?

any one

the application.

a play-house be so impertinent and

rude as to clothes,

the meaning (will some say)

rifle

the actors of their borrowed

make them

assumed, and force

lay

them

down

the character

to return to their naked

would not such a one wholly discompose and spoil the entertainment ? And would he not deserve to be hissed and thrown stones at

selves,

till

the pragmatical fool could learn better man-

ners

.''

For by such a disturbance the whole

scene will be altered will

such as acted the

perhaps appear to be

women

men

he that was

dressed up for a young brisk lover, will be found

a rough old fellow

;

and he that represented a

king, will remain but a

man.

The

mean ordinary

laying things thus open

serving-

marring

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

52, all

the sport, which consists only in counterfeit

and

Now

disguise.

the world

nothing else

but such another comedy, where every one the tire-room

to act

;

habited suitably to the part

is first

and as

successively their turn,

it is

out they come on the stage, where he that

now

personates a prince, shall in another part of the

same play all

alter his dress,

things being in a

and become a beggar,

mask and

particular disguise,

or otherwise the play could never be presented.

Now

there should arise any starched, formal

don, that would point at the several actors, and tell

how

seems a petty god,

this, that

is in

truth

worse than a brute, being made captive to the tyranny of passion

;

character of a king,

that the other, is

who bears

the

indeed the most slavish of

serving-men, in being subject to the mastership of lust and sensuality

much

;

of his pedigree,

for degenerating

from

that a third, is

who vaunts

no better than a bastard

virtue,

which ought

to be

of greatest consideration in heraldry, and so shall

go on

exposing

all

the rest

;

would not any one

think such a person quite frantic, and ripe for

bedlam

For

as nothing

preposterous wisdom, so

silly

than

there nothing more

Erasmus's praise ^/ "Folly.

6^^

indiscreet than an unreasonable reproof.

therefore he

be hooted out of

all

humour with other

men's,

as the rest

suit

remembering the

law of clubs and meetings, that he

society that

be pliable, conformable, and willing to

will not

his

And

who

will not

must get him out of the company.

And it is certainly one

great degree of wisdom for

every one to consider that he

is bu.t_a,

man, and

therefore he should not pitch his soaring tlipvights

beyond the

imp the wings

level of mortality, but

of his towering ambition, and obligingly submit

and condescend being

many

weakness of

to the

others,

times a piece of complaisance to go

out of the road for company's sake. you), this

yet

a grand piece of Folly

our living

all

fooling

it is

whom the far

(say

but

may seem

harsh to

out

might perhaps

invoke the aid of the muses, to

poets devoutly apply themselves upon

more slender

assist,

No true,

not so strange as true.

For the better making be requisite

no more than such kind of

which though

assert, yet

ye Heliconian

prove that there

Come

occasions.

lasses,

while

no method

for

then and

attempt to arrival at

wisdom, and consequently no track to the goal

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

of happinesSj without .the mstructions and directions of Folly.

And here,

in the first place

acknowledged, that

under

all

has been already

the passions are listed

my regiment, since this is resolved to be the

only distinction betwixt a wise that this latter

guided by reason

man and

fool,

governed by passion, the other :

and therefore the Stoics look

upon passions no other than as the infection and malady of the soul that disorders the constitution

by putting the spirits into a feverish ferment many times occasion some And yet these, however mortal distemper.

of the whole man, and

decried, are not only our tutors to instruct us

towards^ the attainment of wisdom, but even

bolden us likewise, and spur us on to a quicker dispatch of

all

our undertakings.

This,

sup-

by the stoleal Seneca, the only emblem of w;^i sdonL is

pose, will be stomached

who pretends that the man without passion whereas the supposing any person to be so, is perfectly to unman^m, ;

or else transforming him into some fabulous deity that never was, nor ever will be

more statue,

plain,

;

nay, to speak

but the making him a mere

immoveable, senseless, and

alt ogethe r

J'.Kf. J.-

Erasmus's praise of Folly. inactive.

And if this be their wise man,

let

them

take him to themselves, and remove him into Plato's

some For who would not hate and

commonwealth, the new

other-like fairy land.

Atlantis, or

avoid such a person as should be deaf to dictates of

common

more power

sense

that should

the

all

have no

of love or pity than a block or stone,

that remains heedless of all dangers

that thinks

he can never mistake, but can foresee

all

tingencies at the greatest distance, and

con-

make

provision for the worst presages ? that feeds upon

himself and his

own

thoughts, that monopolises

health, wealth, power, dignity, self

that loves no man, nor

that has the

vidence of

;

and

wise man.

contrivance,

this is

he that

to him-

beloved of any

and proudly grudges,

all is

other men's reputa-

the Stoic's complete

But prithee what

such a magistrate to serve

all

impudence to tax even divine pro-

ill

nay, tramples under foot tion

and

city

would choose

what army would be

under such a commander

woman would be content with such husband ? who would invite such a

willing

or what

a do-little guest

what servant would be retained by such a master ?

The most illiterate mechanic would

in all respects

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

be a more acceptable man, who would be

some with a

feast,

his wife, free with his friends, jovial at

pliable in converse,

company. But subject,

frolic-

and obliging

to all

am tired out with this part of my

and so must pass

And now were any

some other

topics.

one placed on that tower,

from whence Jove is fancied by the poets to survey the world, he would all around discern how

many

grievances and calamities our whole

on every side encompassed with

how

life is

unclean

how troublesome our tendance in the cradle, how liable our childhood is to a thousand misfortuneSj how toilsome and full of drudgery our riper years, how heavy and uncomfortable our old age, and lastly, how unwelcome the our

birth,

unavoidableness of death.

Farther, in every

how many wracks there may be of torturing diseases, how many unhappy accidents may casually occur,-liow many unexpected disasters may arise, and what strange alterations may one moment produce ? Not to mention such miseries as men are mutually the cause of, course of

life

poverty,

imprisonment,

revenge, treachery,

malice,

and so many more, as

slander,

reproach,

cousenage,

reckon them

all

deceit,

would

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

be as puzzling arithmetic as the numbering of the sands.

How

mankind became environed with such hard circumstances, or what deity imposed these plagues, as a penance on rebellious mortals,

not

now at

leisure to enquire

but whoever

seri-

ously takes them into consideration must needs

commend

the valour of the Milesian virgins,

who

voluntarily killed, themselves to get rid of a trou-

blesome world

and how many wise men have

taken the same course of becoming their executioners

;

among whom,

not to

own

mention

Diogenes, Xenocrates, Cato, Cassius, Brutus, and other heroes, the self-denying Chiron

enough

be commended

;

never

who, when he was

by Apollo the privilege of being exempted from death, and living on to the world's end, he

offered

refused

thinking

But

the enticing it

if all

proposal,

deservedly

a punishment rather than a reward.

were thus wise you see how soon the

world would be unpeopled, and what need there

would be of a second Prometheus, the decayed image of mankind.

and stand

this

up come

to plaister

therefore

gap of danger, and prevent

farther mischief; partly

by ignorance, partly by

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

inadvertence

be grating to

may be

ever ing

all

by the oblivion of whatever would remember, and the hopes of what-

grateful to expect, together palliat-

griefs with

an intermixture of pleasure

make men so far from being weary of lives, that when their thread is spun to its

whereby their

;

length, they are yet unwilling to die, and

full

mighty hardly brought to take their of their friends.

Thus some

last farewell

decrepit old fellows,

that look as hollow as the grave into which they

are falling, that rattle in the throat at every word

they speak, that can eat no meat but what

tender enough to suck, that have more hair on their beard than they

have on

their head,

and go

stooping toward the dust they must shortly

whose skin seems already drest into parchment, and their bones already dried to a skeleton these shadows of men shall be wonreturn to

;

derful ambitious of living longer,

and therefore

fence off the attacks of death with

all

and impostures

sleights

;

one

shall

imaginable

new dye

his

grey

hairs, for fear their colour

age

another shall spruce himself up in a light

;

periwig

;

should betray his

a third shall repair the loss of his teeth

with an ivory set

;

and a fourth perhaps

shall fall

Erasmus's praise of Folly. deeply in love with a young court her with as

much

girl,

and accordingly

of gaiety and briskness

as the liveliest spark in the

whole town

cannot but know, that for an old

man

and we

marry

a young wife without a portion, to be a cooler to other men's

grown so common,

lust, is

that

it is

become the a-la-mode of the times. And what is yet more comical, you shall have some wrinkled old women, whose very looks are a sufficient antidote to lechery, that shall be canting out,

Ah,

life is

a sweet thing, and so run a cater-

wauling, and hire

some strong-backed

stallions

to recover their almost lost sense of feeling

;

and

to set themselves off the better, they shall paint

and daub

their faces, always stand a tricking

up themselves

at their looking-glass,

go naked-

necked, bare-breasted, be tickled at a smutty jest,

dance among the young

girls,

write love-letters,

and do all the other little knacks of decoying hotblooded suitors and in the meanwhile, however ;

they are laughed full,

live

nothing that

at,

they enjoy themselves to the

to their hearts' desire,

may complete

for those that think I

and want

their happiness.

them herein so

for

ridiculous,

would have them give an ingenuous answer

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

one query, whether

this

they had not

left to their choice,

like fools,

Their

than die like dogs

much xather live But what matter

these things are resented

is it if

ill

word

no injury

hanging w-ere

folly or

by the vulgar ?

to fools,

who

are either

altogether insensible of any affront, or at least lay

not

much

If they

to heart.

on the head, or had

their brains

would have some cause

were knocked

dashed

to complain

slandcTj calumny, and^disgrace, are

evil,

harm if

is it

but

alas,

no other way

injurious than as they are interpreted

wise

;

out, they

;

nor other-

than as they -are-thought, to be so: what then ji"

all

you bear but up

persons-derideand scoff you,

your own thoughts, and be

yourself thoroughly conceitedjof your -deserts

Andprithee, why should to

be a

fool,

be thought any scandal

since the being so

nature and essence

;

and as

so,

one part of our

our not being wise

can no more reasonably be imputed as a than

fault,

would be proper to laugh at a man because

he cannot

fly in

the air like birds and fowls

be-

;

cause he goes not on all four as beasts of the field

;

because he does not wear a pair of visible horns as a crest on his forehead, like bulls or stags

the

same

figure

we may

call

a horse unhappy.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

because he was never taught his grammar

;

and

an ox miserable, for that he never learnt to fence but sure as a horse for not knowing a letter

nevertheless valuable, so a man, for being a fool, is

never the more unfortunate,

and providence so ordained

being by nature

for each.

Ay, but (say our patrons of wisdom) the knowledge of arts and sciences

by men,

purposely attainable

that the defect of natural parts

supplied by the help of acquired

may be it

were

probable that nature, which had been so exact

and curious and

flowers, herbs,

should have bungled most in her mas-

flies,

terpiece,

mechanism of

in the

and made man as

were by halves,

be afterward polished and refined by his own industry, in the attainment of such sciences as

the Egyptians feigned were invented

god Theuth, to

as a sure plague

their

and punishment

mankind, being so far from augmenting their

happiness, that they do not answer that end they

were

first

designed

ment of memory,

for,

which was the improve-

as Plato in his Phaedrus does

wittily observe.

In the

firet

golden .age- of the world there was

no need of these perplexities

;

there

was then njOL

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

other sort of learning but what, was naturally col-

Jected from every man's xommojj sens^impro ved

by an easy experience. What use could there have been of grammar, when all men spoke the same mother-tongue, and aimed at no higher pitch of oratory, than barely to be understood by each other

What need of logic, when

too wise to enter into any dispute

they were

Or what

occasion for rhetoric, where no difference arose to require

any laborious decision

And

little

reason had they to be tied up by any laws, since

common morality were

the dictates of nature and

and obligation

restraint

sufficient

and as

the mysteries of providence, they

all

made them

rather the object of their wonder, than their curiosity

;

and therefore were not so presumptuous

as to dive into the depths of nature, to labour for the solving all

wrack

astronomy, or

their brains in the splitting of entities,

and unfolding the it

phenomena

a crime for any

nicest

man

speculations, judging

aim

what

put

beyond the reach of his shallow apprehension. Thus was ignorance, inâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the-4afanr y of the world, as

much

the parMitjofLhappiness as

has been since of devotion

but as soon as the

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

golden age began by degrees to degenerate into

more drossy invented

yet at

;

were

metals, then

arts

likewise

but few in number, and

first

those rarely understood,

in farther process of

till

time the superstition of the Chaldeans, and the

spawned so many subscarce the work of an age

curiosity of the Grecians, tleties,

that

now

it is

be thoroughly acquainted with

ticisms in

grammar

all

And among

only.

several Arts, those are proportionably

teemed that come nearest

the

all

cri-

the

most

weakness and

es-

folly.

For thus divines may bite their nails, and naturalists may blow their fingers, astrologers may

know

own fortune is to be poor, and the may shut his fist and grasp the wind.

their

logician

While all these hard-namedfellows cannot make So great a figure as a single quack.

And

in this

profession, those that

confidence, though the least

of the greatest custom art as

now

;

skill,

shall

and indeed

practised,

have most be sure

this

whole

but one incorpo-

compound of craft and imposture. Next to the physician comes (he, who perhaps will commence a suit with me for not being rated

placed before him,

mean) the lawyer, who

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

so silly as to be igjioramus to a proverb, and yet

by such sies

are

determined, and

own

their

resolved,

all difficulties

all affairs

managed

much

which they are employed

to recover for their clients

mean time

shall

while the poor divine

have the

gown, before, by

his thread-bare

drudgery, he can get

a new one.

controver-

advantage, that they get those

estates to themselves

in the

all

lice

crawl upon

all his

money enough

sweat and

to purchase

those arts therefore are most

advantageous to their respective professors which are farthest distant from wisdom, so are those

persons incomparably most happy that have

to^QjvitlTany at

all,

jog on

tÂťut

least

common

in the

road o f nature, which will _neyer mislead except

we voluntarily leap over those boundaries

which she has cautiously Nature

glitters

most

set to our finite beings.

her

own

homely

plain,

garb, and then gives the greatest lustre

she

unsullied from

Thus

creatures,

are

us,

left

in bees,

we we

all artificial

find

all

dumb

those fare best that

nature's conduct

what

garnish.

enquire into the state of shall

when

instance

be admired than the

industry and contrivance of these litde animals

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

What

architect could ever

form so curious a

they give a model of

structure

inimitable

combs

What kingdom

their

can be go-

verned with better discipline than they exactly observe in their respective hives

by turning a

horse,

rebel to nature,

While the and becoming ?

a slave to man, undergoes the worst of tyranny

sometimes spurred on to battle so long

he draw his guts last falls

grass

;

after

him

for trapping,

down, and bites the ground instead of

not to mention the penalty of his jaws

being curbed, his

tail

docked, his back wrung,

his sides spur-galled, his close

a stable, his rapshin and fetters grass,

and

till

imprisonment

when he runs a

and a great many other plagues, which he

might have avoided, station of

he had kept to that

first

freedom which nature placed him

in.

How much

more desirable is the unconfined range of flies and birds, who living by instinct, would want nothing to complete their happiness, if some well-employed Domitian would not persecute the former, nor the sly fowler lay snares

and gins if

for the entrapping of the other

And

young birds, before their unfledged wings can them from their nests, are caught, and pent

carry

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

in a cage, for the being taught to sing, or

whistle, all their

new

tunes

make

not half so

sweet music as their wild notes, and natural melody so much does that which is but rough:

by nature surpass and excel all the And we additional paint and varnish of art. cannot sure but commend and admire that drawn

Pythagorean cock, which

(as

Lucian

relates)

been successively a man, a woman, a subject, a fish, a horse,

and a frog

;

had

prince, a

after

all his

summed up his judgment in man was the most wretched

experience, he

this

censure, that

and

deplorable of

all

creatures, all other patiendy

grazing within the enclosures of nature, while

man

only broke out, and strayed beyond those

safer limits,

which he was justly confined

to.

And Gryllus is to be adjudged wiser than the much- counselling Ulysses, in as much as when by the enchantment of Circe he had been turned into a hog, he would not lay down his swinishness, nor forsake his

beloved

sty, to

run the

peril

of a hazardous voyage.

mation whereof

that captain of

all

mankind

For a farther confirhave the authority of Homer, poetry, who, as

he gives

general, the epithet of wretched

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and unhappy, so he bestows Ulysses the

title

in particular

upon

of miserable, which he never

attributes to Paris,

Ajax, Achilles, or any other

commanders and that for this reason, because Ulysses was more crafty, cautious, and of the

;

any of the

wise, than

rest.

those therefore fall shortest-of ..happiaessr

that reachjhjghest at \yisdom, jxieeting with the

greater repulse for soaring beyond the boundaries of their nature,

and without remembering

themselves to be but men, like the fallen angels, daring

them

giant-like scale

own

brain

road of

;

with Omnipotence,

and

heaven with the engines of

their

vie

so are those most exalted in the

bliss that

degenerate nearest into brutes,

and quietly divest themselves of

all

use and

exercise of reason.

And As

this

we can prove by a

familiar instance.

namely, can there be any one sort of

men

that enjoy themselves better than those which

we It

and naturals ? may perhaps sound harsh, but upon due call idiots,

consideration

changelings, fools

will

that these persons in

and

live

be found abundantly all

true,

circumstances fare best,

most comfortably

;

first,

they are

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

68 void of to

all fear,

which

be exempted from

;

a very great privilege

they are troubled with no

remorse, nor pricks of conscience frighted with

world

;

any bugbear

they are not

;

of another

stories

they startle not at the fancied appear-

ance of ghosts, or apparitions

;

they are not

wracked with the dread of impending

mischiefs,

nor bandied with the hopes of any expected

enjoyments j_Jn

short,

they are unassaulted_j3y

those legions of cares that war against the

rail

quiet of rational

.saiilg

they are ashamed of

;

nothing, fear no man, banish the uneasiness of ambition, envy, and love

;

and

add the

rever-

sion of a future happiness to the enjoyment of a

present one, they have no sin neither to answer for

;

divines

unanimously maintaining, that a

gross and unavoidable ignorance does not only

extenuate and abate from the aggravation, but

wholly expiate the guilt of any immorality.

Come now

then as

many

of you as challenge

the respect of being accounted wise, ingenuously confess

how many

insurrections

of rebellious

thoughts, and pangs of a labouring mind, ye are

perpetually thrown and tortured with all

;

reckon up

those inconveniences that you are unavoid-

Erasmus's praise of Folly. ably subject

to,

and then

by being exempted from

are not infinitely

yourselves

Add

tell all

whether

fools,

these embroilments,

and happy than

free

to this, that fools

do not

barely laugh, and sing, and play the good-fellow

alone to themselves

;

but as

the nature of

to be communicative, so they impart their

good

mirth to others, by making sport for the whole are at any time engaged

company they

in,

providence purposely designed them for an an-

melancholy

tidote to

whereby they make

all

persons so fond of their society, that they are

welcomed

to all places, hugged, caressed,

and

defended, anberty given them of saying or doing

anything offer

so well beloved, that^ none dares to

;

them the least

ous beasts of prey as

instinct

injury

;

nay, the

most raven-

them by untouched, they were warned that such will pass

innocence ought to receive no hurt. their converse princes, that

Farther,

so acceptable in the court of

few kings

will banquet, walk, or

take any other diversion, without their attend-

ance

;

nay,

and had much rather have

their

company, than that of their gravest counsellors,

whom

they maintain more for fashion-sake than

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

good-will

;

nor

is it

so strange that these fools

should be preferred before graver politicians, these

since

and

last,

ill-timing

sour advice,

their harsh,

the truth, are

fit

only to put a

prince out of the humour, while

and

laugh,

talk,

the

others

and joke, without any danger

of disobliging. It is

one farther very commendable property

of fools, that they always speak the truth, than

which there

For

so,

nothing more noble and heroical.

though Plato

relate

as a sentence of

Alcibiades, that in the sea of drunkenness truth

swims uppermost, and so wine of truth, yet this character

assumed by me, as

who

jLtwpos Xeyei,

he betrays

justly be

lays

down

notifying, discovers

in his face it

this as

Children and fools

Whatever the

always speak the truth. in bis heart

may more

teller

can make good from the

authority of Euripides,

an axiom /Awpa

the only

his

;

fool has

or what

words

while

the wise man, as Euripides observes, carries a dojjble tongue.; the

speak what

may be

what ought to be the one what the other what the time requires whereby

said, the other

truth,

one

he can

;

a trice so alter his judgment, as to

Erasmus's praise of Folly. prove that to be

now

white, which he

before swore to be black porridge, blowing

breath

;

had

Hke the satyr

just

at his

hot and cold at the same

in his lips professing

in his heart

he means

one

thing,

when

another.

Furthermore, princes in their greatest splen-

dour seem upon

this

account un happy in that ,

they miss the advantage of being told the truth,

and are shammed

off

parcel ofTnsinuating

acquit themselves as flatterers

courtiers,

that

more than

as friends.

object, that

by a

But some

prmces do not love

will

perchance

to hear the truth,

and therefore wise men must be very cautious

how

they behave themselves before them,

they should take too great a liberty

what

true, rather

than what

acceptable.

This must be confessed, truth indeed palatable to the ears of kings

;

lest

in speal<ing

seldom

yet fools have so

great a privilege as Jo have free leave, not only to

speak bare

truths,

but the most bitter ones

same reproof, which had it come from the mouth of a wise man would have cost him his head, being blurted out by a fool, is not only pardoned, but well taken, and rewarded. For truth has naturally a mixture of pleasure, if too

;

so as the

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

72 it

carry with jt nothing of j)ffence to

whoni

it is

ordering

applied to so

bestowed only on

same reason

for the

;

person

happy knack

and the

'Tis

fools,

that this sort of

men

are

more fondly beloved by women, who like their tumbling them about, and playing with them, pretending to though never so boisterously take that only in jest, which they would have to ;

be meant

in earnest, as that sex is

in palliating,

wanton

very ingenious

and dissembling the bent of

inclinations.

But to return.

additional happiness of

these fools appears farther in

this,

they have run merrily on to their life,

their

that

when

last stage of

they neither find any fear nor feel any pain

march contentedly to the other world, where their company sure must be as acceptable as it was here upon earth. Let us draw now a comparison between the condition of a fool and that of a wise man, and

to die, but

see

how

infinitely the

one outweighs the

other.

Give me any instance then of a man as wise as you can fancy him possible to be, that has spent

all

his

younger years

poring upon

books, and trudging after learning, in the pur-

Erasmus's praise of Folly, suit

']2)

whereof he squanders away the pleasantest

time of his Hfe in watching, sweat, and fasting

and ful

in his latter

;

days he never tastes one mouth-

of delight, but

always stingy, poor, dejected,

melancholy, burthensome to himself, and unwel-

come

thin-jawed, sickly,

to others, pale, lean,

contracting

his

sedentaririess

such hurtful

distempers as bring him to an untimely death, like roses

Thus

plucked before they shatter.

have you the draught of a wise man's happiness,

more the object of a commiserating

pity,

than of

an ambitioning envy.

But now again come the croaking tell

mood and

figure, that

miserable than the being fool

mad

nothing

but a

and

but the being a

the being mad, therefore there

more miserable than the being a this is

Stoics,

nothing

fool.

Alas,

the discovery whereof solves

fallacy,

the force of the whole syllogism.

they argue subtlely,

'tis

true

;

Well

then,

but as Socrates

makes two Venuses and two Cupids, and shews how their actions and properties ought Plato

not to be confounded -

they had not been

;

mad

distinguished between

so these disputants,

themselves, should have

double

madness

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

74 others

and there

certainly a great difference

in the nature as well as in the

degrees of them,

and they are not both equally scandalous for Horace seems to take delight in one sort, when :

he says

Does welcome frenzy make me thus mistake f

And

Plato in his Phsedon ranks the madness

and of lovers among those happy life. And ^neid, gives this epithet to

of poets, of prophets,

properties which conduce to a Virgil, in the sixth

his industrious

^neas

Ifyou will proceed to

And

indeed there

these your

mad attempts.

a two-fold-sort of madness

the one that which the furies bring from hell those that are herewith possessed are hurried on to

wars and contentions, by an inexhaustible

thirst

of power and riches, inflamed to some

in-

famous and unlawfunusf7~enraged to act the parricide,

seduced to become guilty of

sacrilege, or

crimes

;

some other

or, finally, to

incest,

of those crimson-dyed

be so pricked

in conscience

as to be lashed and stung with the whips and

snakes of grief and remorse.

But there

ano-

ther sort of madness that proceeds from-Zolly,

Erasmus's praise of Folly. so far from being any

way

injurious or distaste-

thoroughly good and desirable

ful that

and

happens when by a harmless mistake

this

;

judgment of things the mind is freed from those cares which would otherwise gratingly afflict it, and smoothed over with a content in the

and

satisfaction

stances

could not under other circum-

so happily

comfortable

apathy

enjoy.

And

this

insensibleness

that

which

Cicero, in an epistle to his friend Attieus, wishes

himself master

of,

that he might the less take to

heart those Insufferable outrages committed

the tyrannizing triumvirate, Lepidus, Antonius,

That Grecian likewise had a happy time of it, who was so frantic as to sit a whole day in the empty theatre laughing, shouting, and clapping his hands^ as if he had really seen some pathetic tragedy acted to the life, when indeed all was no more than the strength of imagination, and the efforts of delusion, while in all other respects the same

and Augustus.

person behaved himself very discreetly was, Sweet

to his friends, to his wife, obliging, kind.

And so

averse from a revengeful tnind.

That had his men unsealed his

bottled wine,

zuould not fret, nor doggedly

rej)ine.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

And when by covered from

a course of physic he was

re-

he looked upon

his

this frenzy,

cure so far from a kindness, that he thus reasons the case with his friends This remedy,

Than

my friends,

the disease, the cure

worse i

main

tJi

augments the pain ;

My only hope is a relapse again. And

certainly they

were the more mad of the

two who endeavoured

bereave him of so

pleasing a delirium, and recall his I

all

the aches of

head by dispelling the mists of his brain. have not yet determined whether it be

proper to include

all

understanding under

the defects of sense and the

common

genius of

madness.

For if anyone be so short-sighted take a mule for an ass, or so shallowpated

admire a paltry ballad for an elegant poem,

not thereupon immediately censured as

But if anyone let not only his senses but his judgment be imposed upon in the most ordinary common concerns, he shall come under the mad.

scandal of being thought next door to a

madman.

As suppose any one should hear an ass bray, and should take it for ravishing music or if any ;

/'aa. J IP.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

'j']

one, born a beggar, should fancy himself as great

But

as a prince, or the like. ness, if (as is

most usual)

mad-

this sort of

be accompanied with

pleasure, brings a great satisfaction both to those

who who

are possessed with

deride

in others,

And

equally frantic.

themselves, and those

though they are not both

this species of

sport

Thus among

another ing

him

the whole tribe of

themselves, while one laughs at

he that

;

that

commonly imamadmen make

of larger extent than the world gines.

madness

more mad many times

But indeed the greater

less so.

each man's madness

jeer-

is,

the greater

his happi-

nessTif it be but such a sort as proceeds from an

excess of

per that

folly,

it is

which

so epidemical a distem-

hard to find any one

fected as not to

some

have sometimes a

There

sort of frenzy.

between the several

patients,

out more ado sentenced for a

pens

;

fit

so unin-

or two of

only this difference

he that

a broom-stick for a strait-bodied

this is so strange

man

shall take

woman

with-

madman, because

a blunder as very seldom hap-

whereas he whose wife

that keeps a warehouse free for

and vet swears she

as chaste as

common

all

jilt,

customers,

an untouched

; :

Erasmus's praise, of Folly.

/8 virgin, is

and hugs himself in

scarce taken notice

of,

his contented mistake,

because he fares no

worse than a great many more of natured neighbours.

Among

his good-

these are to be

ranked such as take an immoderate delight

hunting, and think no music comparable to the

sounding of horns and the yelping of beagles

and were they

to take physic,

;

would no question

think the most sovereign virtues to be in the

album Grcecum of a dog's turd. When they have run down their game, what strange pleasure they take in cutting of

sheep

may be

but what

slaughtered by

killed in hunting

Cows and

common

butchers,

must be broke up

by none under a gentleman, who shall throw down his hat, fall devoutly on his knees, and drawing out a slashing hanger knife

(for

common

not good enough), after several ceremo-

nies shall dissect

all

the parts as

the best skilled anatomist, while

round

shall look

artificially as all

that stand

very intently, and seem "

mightily surprised with the novelty, though they

have seen the same an hundred times before and he that can but dip his finger, and taste of the blood, shall think his

own

bettered by

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and though the constant feeding on such diet does but assimilate them to the nature of those beasts they eat

son

meat

of,

yet they will swear that veni-

for princes,

and

that their living

it makes them as great as emperors. Near a kin to these are such as take a great

upon

fancy for building

they raise up, pull down,

begin anew, alter the model, and never rest

till

they run themselves out of their whole estate, taking up such a compass for buildings,

till

they

leave themselves not one foot of land to live

upon, nor one poor cottage to shelter themselves

from cold and hunger

and yet

all

the while are

mighty proud of their contrivances, and sing a

own

sweet requiem to their

happiness.

these are to be added those plodding vir-

most inward recesses of

tuosos, that plunder the

nature for the pillage of a

new

invention,

and

rake over sea and land for the turning up some hitherto latent mystery tickled with

;

and are so continually

the hopes of success, that they

spare for no cost nor pains, but trudge on, and

upon a defeat

one attempt, courageously tack

about to another, and

never giving over

fall

till

upon new experiments,

they have calcined their

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Erasmus's praise of Folly.

whole estate to ashes, and have not money enough left unmelted to purchase one crucible

And

or limbeck.

yet after

all,

they are not so

much

discouraged, but that they dream

things

still,

and animate others what they can

the like undertakings

come

;

nay,

when

to the last gasp, after all their disappointcredit,

In great

And life,

their hopes

ments, they have yet one salvo for their that

fine

exploits

our hare attempts

suffice.

so inveigh against the shortness of their

which allows them not time enough to bring

their designs to maturity

Whether

dice-players

dealt with as to

and

perfection.

may be

so favourably

be admitted among the

scarce yet resolved

upon

vain and

when we

ridiculous,

but sure

it is

rest

hugely

see some persons

so devoutly addicted to this diversion, that at

the

first

rattle

of the box their heart shakes

within them, and keeps consort with the motion of the dice

they are egg'd on so long with the

hopes of always winning, sense, they

till

have thrown away

and made shipwreck of

all

escaping to shore with their

at last, in a literal their

whole

estate,

they have, scarce

own

clothes to their

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly. backs

;

thinking

the meanwhile a great

piece of religion to be just in the their stakes,

and

who

than him

will cheat

payment of

any creditor sooner

them

trusts

poring old men, that cannot

play

in tell

and that

their cast with-

out the help of spectacles, should be sweating at the same sport as

;

nay, that such decrepit blades,

by the gout have

lost the

use of their fingers,

should look over, and hire others to throw for

them.

This indeed

prodigiously extravagant

but the consequence of right madness, that

the furies than to

The

seems rather

oft in

down-

to belong to

folly.

next to be placed

such as

fools are

ends so

among

make a

the regiment of

trade of telling or

inquiring after incredible stories of miracles

prodigies

never doubting that a

lie will

and

choke

them, they will muster up a thousand several strange relations of

spirits,

raising of the devil,

and such

superstition,

ghosts, apparitions, like

bugbears of

which the farther they are from

more greedily they are swallowed, and the more devoutly believed. And these absurdities do not only bring an empty pleasure, and cheap divertisement, but

being probably

true, the

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

the^re a .good-trnde^-aad-prociiise, a^mfortable income

to such priests.and_fx:iars-as-hy_this craft

get their gain.

these again are nearly

related such others as attribute strange virtues to the shrines

and images of

and so would make believe, that

Christopher

and martyrs,

saints

their credulous proselytes

they pay their devotion to the morning, they

St.

shall

guarded and secured the day following from take arms, shall

first

soldiers,

such a set prayer before the picture of bara, they shall return safe from

any pray

holidays, with the

all

when they come and mumble over

dangers and misfortunes

all

St. Bar-

engagements

Erasmus on such ceremony of wax

particular

candles,

and

other fopperies, he shall in a short time be re-

warded with a riches. St.

The

plentiful increase of wealth

Christians

have now

and

their gigantic

George, as well as the pagans had their

Hercules

;

they paint the saint on horseback,

and drawing the horse

in splendid

trappings,

very gloriously accoutred, they scarce refrain a

literal

What

sense from worshipping the very beast. shall

say of such as cry up and main-

tain the cheat of

pardons and indulgences

that

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

by these compute the time of each soul's residence in purgatory, and assign them a longer or shorter continuance, according as they' purchase

more or fewer of these paltry pardons, and saleable exemptions ? Or what can be said bad enough of others, who pretend that by the force of such magical charms, or by the fumbling over their beads in the rehearsal of such and such petitions (which some religious impostors invented, either for diversion, or what is more likely they shall procure riches, honour,

for advantage),

pleasure, health, long after

life,

a lusty old age, nay,

death a sitting at the right hand of our

Saviour in His kingdom

;

though as to

part of their happiness, they care not it

this last

how

long

be deferred, having scarce any appetite toward

a tasting the joys of heaven, feited, glutted with,

their

till

they are sur-

and can no longer

enjoyments on earth.

this

easy

relish

way

purchasing pardons, any notorious highwayman,

any plundering

soldier, or

shall disburse

some

and so think

all

any bribe-taking judge,

part of their unjust gains,

their grossest impieties suffi-

cientl^gioned for

;

many

perjuries,

lusts,

drunkenness, quarrels, bloodsheds, cheats, trea-

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

sorts of debaucheries, shall

cheries,

and

be, as

were, struck a bargain

all

contract made, as

for,

all

and such

they had paid off

all arrears,

and might now begin upon a new score. And what can be more ridiculous, than for some others to be confident of going to heaven

by repeating

daily those seven verses out of the

Psalms, which

the

taught St. Bernard,

devil

thinking thereby to have put a trick upon him,

but that he was over-reached

in his cunning.

Several of these fooleries, which are so gross

and absurd, as

myself

even ashamed

own, are practised and admired, not only by the vulgar, but

by such

proficients in religion as one

might well expect should have more

From

the

same

wit.

principles of folly proceeds

the custom of each country's challenging their particular

guardian-saint

;

nay, each saint Jhag^

and is accordupon the respective occasions:

his distinct office allotted to him,

ingly addressed to

as one for the tooth-ache, a second to grant an

easy delivery in child-birth, a third to help persons to lost goods, another to protect seamen in

a long voyage, a

fifth

guard the farmer's

cows and sheep, and so on for to rehearse instances would be extremely tedious. ;

all

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

There are some more tioned to

upon

all

catholic saints

occasions, as

peti-

especially

whose blind devotees think it manners now to place the mother before the Son. And of all the_prayers and intercessions that

the Virgin Mary,

are

made

them

Among

to these respective saints the substanc e

no niore than downright

all

titude are

Folly.

the trophies that for tokens of gra-

hung upon the

walls and ceilings of

churches, you shall find no relics presented as a

memorandum Folly, or

of any that were ever cured of

had been made one dram the

One perhaps

after

wiser.

shipwreck got safe to shore

;

when he had been run through by an enemy one, when all his fellowanother

recovered

;

soldiers

were

killed

upon the

perhaps as cowardly, field

;

made

another, while he

spot, as cunningly

his escape

from the

was a hanging, the rope renewed

broke, and so he saved his neck, and

his licence for practising his old trade of thieving;

another broke gaol, and got loose

;

a patient,

against his physician's will, recovered of a dan-

gerous fever

;

another drank poison, which put-

him into a violent looseness, did his body more good than hurt, to the great grief of his

ting

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

86 wife,

who hoped upon

become a

joyful

widow

;

occasion to have

this

another had his waggon

overturned, and yet none of his horses lamed

another had caught a grievous

recovered from the bruise

and yet

fall,

another had been

;

tampering with his neighbour's

wife,

and escaped

very narrowly from being caught by the enraged cuckold in the very

act.

After

these acknow-

all

ledgments of escapes from such singulardangers, there

none. (^^J^-i'^'^e before iatimated)-4hat

return thanks for being freed from Folly ;~Polly

being so sweet and luscious, that

rather

sued for as a happiness, than deprecated as a

But why should

punishment.

so wide a sea of superstitions

Had I as many

tongues as

launch out into

Argus

eyes,

Briareus hands, they all would not

suffice

Folly in all her shapes t epitomize.

Almost

all

Christians

being

wretchedly

enslaved to blindness and ignorance, which the priests are so far

from preventing or removing,

that they blacken the darkness,

delusion

;

and promote the

wisely foreseeing that the people

cows, which never give

down

(like

their milk so well

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly. as

are gently stroked), would _gart^

when they

with less

they loiew^ more, their bounty pro-

ceedmg_orjy^roni_a jnjs take of ch arity. Now if aiiy grave wise man should stand up, and unseasonably speak the truth, telling every one that a pio us

life

happy death; that the best our sins

way

the only

title

of securing a

a 2ardon_of

purchased by a hearty_aMorrence of

o uFg^U tjIjand sincere resolutions of that the best devotion^ which can saints is to imitate them.in their

iThe should proceed thus their several

amendment

be paid

exemplary

to inform

masses, fastings,

before were so

put upon

and

much

tears,

them of

mistakes, there would be

another estimate

any life

quite

watchings,

which

other severities,

prized, as persons will

now

be vexed to lose that satisfaction they formerly found in them. In the same predicament of fools are to be

ranked such, as while they are yet

good

health, take so great

living,

and

care how^ they shall

when they diej-'that they solemnly aphow many torches, how many escutcheons, how many gloves to be given, and how many

be^buried point

mourners they

will

have

at their funeral

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

they thought they themselves in their

coffins

could be sensible of what respect was paid to their corpse rest

or as

they doubted they should

a whit the less -xjuist in the grave

were with

Now

less state

though

would not I

;

and pomp

they

interred.

so great haste, as

be stopped or detained, yet

willingly

cannot pass by without bestowing some

re-

marks upon another sort of fools who, though their first descent was perhaps no better than ;

from a tapster or selves

upon

tinker, yet highly vcJue

them-

their birth and~~parehtage.

One

fetches his pedigree from -^neas, another from

Brute, a third from king Arthur their ancestors'

titles,

they hang up

worm-eaten pictures as records

of antiquity, and keep a long cessors, with

an account of

list

of their prede-

all their

offices

and

while they themselves are but transcripts

of their forefathers'

dumb

statues,

and degenerate

even into those very beasts which they carry their coat of

arms as ensigns of

in.

their nobility

and yet by a strong presumption of their birth and quality, they live not only the most pleasant and unconcerned themselyes, but there are not wanting others too

who

cry up these brutes

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

But why should

alm ost equal to the go ds.

and

many

self-love

F o llj; when

dwell upon one or two instances of there are so

Conceitedn ess

of like nature.

making many by strength of Fancy

when otherwise they wretched and despi cable. Thus the

believe themselves happy, are really

most ape-faced,

shall think himself

a mirror of beauty

be so proud of his

shall

mark out a

whole town,

ugliest fellow in the

parts, that

another

he can but

triangle with a pair of compasses,

thinks he has

mastered

all

the difficulties of

geometry, and could outdo Euclid himself. third shall

admire himself for a ravishing musi-

though he have no more

cian,

skill in

the hand-

ling of

any instrument than a pig playing on the

organs

and another

that rattles in the throat

as hoarse as a cock crows, sheJl voice,

and think he sings

There ness,

be proud of

another very pleasant sort of mad-

whereby persons assume

themselves

whatever of accomplishment they discern others.

who had tell

his

like a nightingale.

Thus

the happy rich churl in Seneca,

so short a memory, as he could not

the least story without a servant standing to

prompt him, and was

at the

same time so

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

weak

that

he could scarce go upright, yet he

thought he might adventure to accept a challenge to a duel, because he kept at lusty,

home some

sturdy fellows, whose strength he relied

upon instead of It is

his

own.

almost needless to

professors of arts

and

upon the

insist

sciences,

who

several

are

all

egregiously conceited, that they would sooner

give up their

title

an estate

in lands,

with the reversion of their wits

more and

than part

among

these,

especially stage-players, musicians, orators,

poets, each of which, the

more of duncery

they have, and the more of pride, the greater

and how notoriously soever dull they meet with their admirers nay, the

their ambition

they be,

;

silly

Folly (as

they are the higher they are extolled

we have

qf^ respect

the

before intimated) never failing

and esteem.

more ignorant he

If therefore is,

every on e,

the, greater satisfactio n

and the more commended by what purpose is it to sweat and toil in the pursuit of true learning, which shall cost so many gripes and pangs of the brain to acquire, and when obtained, shall only make the laborious student more uneasy to himself, and less

to himself,

others, to

acceptable to others

.''

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

nature in her dispensation of concelted-

ness has dealt with private j)ersons, so has she

given a particular smatch of self-love to each

and natio n.. Upon thisaccount

c ountry

that the

having the most handsome

most accomplished inThe keeping the best tables their

Eng| ish,^hallenge the prerogative of

wom en,

of the being

ski ll of music,

and of

the Scotch brag of

g entilit^and pretend the genius of their them to be good disputants

native soil inclines

the French think themselves remarkable for

complaisance and good breeding

the Sorbonists

made

of Paris pretend before any others to have

the greatest proficiency in polemic divinity Italians value themselves for learning

quence all

;

the

and

elo-

and, like the Grecians of old, account

the world barbarians in respect of themselves

which piece of vanity the inhabitants of

are

selves to

especially addicted, pretending

be owners of

all

;

Rome them-

those heroic virtues,

many ages since was deservedly famous for. The Venetians stand upon their birth and pedigree. The Grecians pride

which their

city so

themselves in having been the

most

arts,

and

in their

first

inventors of

country being famed for

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

many eminent

the product of so

The

Turks, and

all

philosophers.

Maho-

the other refuse of

metism, pretend they profess the only true gion,

and laugh

narrow-souled

reli-

at all Christians for superstitious,

The Jews

fools.

to this

day ex-

pect their Messias as devoutly as they believe in their first

The

prophet Moses.

Spaniards

challenge the repute of being accounted good

And

soldiers. tall,

the

Germans

are noted for their

proper stature, and for their

But not

mention any more,

already convinced

and addition

how

;

suppose you are

great an improvement

to the happiness of

occasioned by self-love flattery

for as self-love

magick.

skill in

humanjife

next step to which

is is

nothing but the coax-

ing up of ourselves, so the same currying and ,r

humouring of others Flattery,

scandalous ^ijiame, but

words more than against

pose

upon

termed

now

it is

things.

out its

all

flatjery.^^

lo oked

upon

by such only

They

this account,

justles

whereas indeed

true, is

mind

are prejudiced

because they sup-

truth

property

as a

and

sincerity

quite contrary, as

appears from the examples of several brute creatures.

What

more fawning than a

spaniel

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

And yet what is more faithful to his master ? What is more fond and loving than a tame And yet what is more sporting and squirrel ? .

inoffensive

kept up

This

creature

frisking

little

in a cage to play withal, while lions,

tigers, leopards,

and such other savage emblems

shewn only for state and otherwise yield no pleasure to

of rapine and cruelty are

and

rarity,

their respective keepers. ^

There

of flattery

indeed a pernicious destructive sort

wherewith rookers and sharks work

their several

a prey

of,

ends upon such as they can make

by decoying them

beyond recovery folly is of

into traps

but that which

a much different nature

from a softness of

spirit,

good humour, and comes

and a

;

and snares

the effect of it.

proceeds

flexibleness of

far nearer to virtue

than that other extreme of friendship, namely, a

dogged moroseness it refreshes our tired, enlivens them when melancholy, reinforces them when languishing, invigorates them when heavy, recovers them when sick, and pacifies them when rebellious it puts us in a method how to grocure friends, and how to keep them it entices children to swallow the

stiff,

sour,

minds when

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

94 bitter

rudiments of learning

;

gives a

new fermen

ment to the almost stagnated souls of old it

;

both reproves and instructs principles without

offence under the short,

mask

of commendation

makes every man fond and indulgent

of himself, which

indeed no small part of each

man's happiness, and at the same time renders

him obliging and complaisant in all company, where it is pleasant to see how the asses rub and scratch one another. This again

a great accomplishment to an

orator, a greater to

one to a poet

a physician, and the only

in fine,

to all afflictions,

the best sweetener

it is

and gives a true

relish to the

otherwise insipid enjoyments of our whole

life.

Ay, but (say you)

and

to deceive

to flatter

to deceive

very harsh and hurtful

just contrary;

nothing

head, that to

be blamed for

They

are

an undistinguishing

make a judgment

what they are

no, rather

more welcome and

bewitching than the being deceived.

much

;

of things according

in themselves,

when

their

whole

nature consists barely in the opinions that are

had of them. enveloped

For

all

sublunary matters are

such a cloud of obscurity, that the

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

human

short-sightedness of

understanding, can-

not pry through and arrive to any comprehensive

knowledge of them

hence the sect of academic

philosophers have modestly resolved, that

more than probable, nothing

things being no

can be

would

known it

all

as certain

;

there could, yet

but interrupt and abate from the plea-

more happy ignorance. Finally, our and moulded, that they are sooner captivated by appearances^ than by real truths of which, if any one would demand

sure of a

souls are so fashione d

;

an example, he

may

ch urchgs, where, pul pit

bfi_

a grave,

till

their patience

delivered from the

solid, rational

discourse,

grow weary, and

the congregation

one

find a very familiar

what

be released

;

all

asleep,

fall

whereas

the

preacher (pardon the impropriety of the word, tKe prater

would have

thumps of the cushion,

said)

be zealous,

antic gestures,

in his

and spend

his glass in the tellin g of pleasant stor ies, his

beloved shall then stand up, tuck their hair

behind their

ears,

So among the

who

and be very^evoutly

saints,

attentive.

those are most resorteTto

are most romantic and fabulous

instance, a poetic St.

George, a

as for

St. Christopher,^

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

or a St. Barbara, shall be oftener prayed to than Peter,

St.

Paul, nay, perhaps than

St.

may more

this, it is possible,

himself; but

Christ pro-

referred to another place.

perly be

mean while observe what a che ap pur.-_ chase of hapj)iness is made by the strength of fancy. For whereas many things even of inconIn the

siderable value,

and perhaps

would cost a great deal of pains

pelf,

to procure

charges, and yet gives us

opinion spares

;

them

in as

ample a

manner by conceit, as if we possessed them in reality. Thus he who feeds on such a stinking dish of

fish,

as another must hold his nose at a

yard's distance from, yet

he feed

heartily,

and

them palateably, they are to him as good as they were fresh caught whereas on the other

relish if

hand,

any one be invited

a joul of sturgeon, to eat any, nails

if it

may

sit

never so dainty

go against

his

with greater appetite than his

woman be

stomach

a hungry, and bite his victuals.

her husband can but think her handsome,

it is all

never so ugly and nauseous, yet

one to him as

she really were so

any man have never so ordinary and smutty a draught, yet if he admires the excellency of it,

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and can suppose

have been drawn by

some old Apelles, or modern Vandyke, he is as proud of it as if it had really been done by one of I knew a friend of mine that pretheir hands. sented his br ide with ^veral false and_coun.tâ&#x201A;Źrfei Fstones, makin g her believe that they were right jewels, and cost him so many hundred thousand crowns

woman was

;

under his mistake the poor

and painted

as choice of pebbles,

they had been so

many

natural

glass,

rubies

and diamonds, while the subtle husband

saved a great deal in his pocket, and yet made his wife as well ^[ggged as-if

ten hundred times the_cost.

there

betweenthem

heJaadâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;b@#n-at

What

difference

that in the darkest dungeon,

can with a platonic brain survey the whole world in idea,

and him that stands

in the

open

air,

and

takes a less deluding prospect of the universe If the

beggar in Lucian, that dreamt he was a

kingdom had been as great as a real one. Between him therefore that truly is happy, and him that thinks prince,

had never waked,

himself so, there or

his imaginary

no perceivable

distinction

any, the fool has the better of

because his happiness costs him

less,

first,

standing

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

him only

in the price of

then, secondly, because

a single thought

he has more fellow-com-

panions and partakers of his good fortune

no enjoyment is

and

;

for

comfortable where the benefit

not imparted to others

nor

;

any one

station

where we can have no converse with persons of the same condition with ourof

life

selves

who

desirable,

and yet

are

hard fate of wise men,

this is the

grown

so scarce, that like Phoenixes,

The

they appear but one in an age.

reckoned up seven within the narrow

true,

it is

own

precincts of their

were they

to cast

would not one

country

;

yet

believe,

their accounts anew, they

find a half, nay, not

a third

part, of

in far larger extent.

Farther,

chief,

when among Bacchus

perties of

the several good pro-

looked upon as the

this is

namely, that he drowns the cares and

anxieties of the mind, though for

Grecians,

a short while

our brains are a

;

be indeed but

for after a small nap,

little

settled,

their former corrodings

they

all

how much

the more durable advantage which

while by one uninterrupted conceit, revels,

fit

all

return to

greater I

bring

of being drunk in

perpetually cajole the

and

when

mind with

riots,

the excess and energy of joy.

â&#x20AC;¢^-~"--'

m^^

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

Add

to this, that

bountiful, as to let

so communicative and

no one particular person pass

without some token of my favour deities

soil

bestow their

;

whereas other

gifts sparingly to their elect

Bacchus has not thought

only.

fit

that every

should bear the same juice-yielding grape

Venus has not given to all a like portion of beauty Mercury endows but few with the knack :

of an accomplished eloquence

not to

all

Hercules gives

the same measure of wealth and riches

Jupiter has ordained but a few to be born to a

kingdom

tory but to

both losers tation of

thunders

Mars

one party :

;

complete vie"

nay, he often

makes them

Apollo does not answer the expecthat consult his oracles

all :

in battle gives a

Jove

oft

Phoebus sometimes shoots the plague,

some other infection, at the point of his darts and Neptune swallows down more than he bears up not to mention their Ve-Jupiters, their Plutos, their Ate goddess of loss, their evil geniuses, and such other monsters of divinity, as had more of the hangman than the god in them, and were worshipped only to deprecate that hurt which used to be inflicted by them I say, not to mention these, I am that high and or

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

loo

mighty goddess, whose

liberality is of as large

an extent as her omnipotence I give to all that ask I never appear sullen, nor out of humour, :

nor ever demand any atonement or

satisfaction

any ceremonious

punctilio in

for the omission of

worship

do not storm or

in their addresses to the other

unregarded, without

the

rage,

mortals,

me by

gods pass

acknowledgment

any respect or application

whereas

the

all

other gods are so scrupulous and exact, that

often proves less dangerous manfully to despise

them, than sneakingly to attempt the of pleasing them. captious, froward

Thus some men humour, that a

difficulty

are of that

man had

better

be wholly strangers to them, than never so

mate

inti-

friends.

Well, but there are none (say you) build any altars,

admire

or dedicate any temple (as

Folly.

have before intimated) that the

world should be so wretchedly ungrateful. I

this

so good natured as to pass

seeming

affi-ont,

by and pardon

though indeed the charge

thereof, as unnecessary,

But

what purpose should

may I

well be saved

demand

;

for

the sacrifice

of frankincense, cakes, goats, and swine, since

100

Erasmus's praise of Folly. all

pers ons every where gay

taETe service,

which

all

ioi

more accep-

that

divines agra&--to--b&-more

and meritorious, namely^jaO-Jmitation I do not of mj^3Â°IIUffi^Bipa^b-le --^tributes ? for having her therefore any way envy Diana effectual

I think bedewed with human blood myself then most religiously adored, when my

altars

respective devotees (as

their usual custom)

conform themselves to

practice, transcribe

my so

and so

pattern,

And

original.

much

be wished ries are

to the

live the

copy of

use aniong christians as it

were

there

for

that

how many

pay so profounA-Xespect

t^j^pers

And

yet

in the

and her jatkeL-Ci^in^m

imitation^ wiiereflf^^snsists the

esteem of divine worship

why

Farther,

should^ I desire a temple, since the is

of them copy after_her_ ug|ouched j:has-

her modesty^

virtues,

not

much

Virgin Mary, as to place lighted

how few

truest

their is

zealous vota-

everf at noon day upon her^tars

tity,

truly this pious devotion

whole world

but one ample continued choir, entirely dedi-

cated to

use and service

Nor do

want

worshippers at any place where the earth wants not inhabitants.

And

as to the

manner of

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

I02 worship,

not yet so irrecoverably foolish,

by proxy, and to have my honour intermediately bestowed upon senseless

as to be prayed to

images and pictures, which quite subvert the true

end of religion

while the unwary supplicants

;

seldom distinguish betwixt the things themselves

and the objects they represent. pect in the meanwhile is paid legitimate

manner

;

for to

statues erected as there are

The same to

a more

there are as

moving

res-

many

fabrics of

mortality; every person, even against his_ own will,

carrying the irnage^_oÂŁ_me,^^ÂŁ., the signal

of Folly instamped^on his countenance.

have

not therefore the least tempting inducement to

envy the more seeming the other gods,

and places

who

state

and splendour of

are worshipped at set times

as Phoebus at Rhodes,

;

her Cyprian

isle,

Juno

Neptune of

Lampsacum

far as altar,

hill

Tarentum, and Priapus ;

while

influence, the

Argos, Mi-

in the city

nerva at Athens, Jupiter on the

Venus

Olympus,

in the

town

worship extending as

whole world

one

whereon the most valuable incense and

sacrifice is perpetually offered up.

But

lest

should seem to speak this with

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

more of confidence than nearer view of the it

will

truth,

let

of men's

us take a

lives,

whereby

be rendered more apparently evident what

largesses

mode

103

everywhere bestow, and how much

respected and esteemed of persons, from the

highest to the basest quality. whereof,

being too tedious to

particular, I

shall only

For the proof upon each

insist

mention such

in general

most worthy the remark, from which by

as are

we may

analogy

easily

judge of the remainder.

And indeed to what purpose would it be singly to recount the commonalty and rabble of mankind, who beyond all question are entirely on

side

wear

and

for a token of their vassalage

many

livery in so

older shapes, and

more newly invented modes of

Folly, that the

lungs of a thousand Democrituses would never

hold out to such a laughter as this subject would excite

;

and

to these thousand

added one more,

must be super-

to laugh at them as

much

they do at the other. It is

mirth,

indeed almost incredible to relate what

whatsportjjvhat dLvfirsion,-, the.^K^^

inhabitants here on earth give to^ the above-

seated gods in heaven

for these exalted deities

;;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

104

their fasting sober hours in listening to

spend

those petitions that are offered up, and in suc-

couring such as they are appealed to by for redress

but

;

when they

are a

little

entered at a

glass of nectar, they then throw off

serious

all

concerns, and go and place themselves on the ascent of some promontory in heaven, and from

thence survey the trust

little

And

mole-hill of earth.

me, there cannot be a mor e delightsiapie

prospect, than to view such a theatre so stuffed

and crammed with swarms of fools. desperatefyTn love, 'emd'^e' more he

One is

falls

slighted

the more does his spaniel-like passion increase

another

wedded

to wealth rather than to

a third pimps for his to be a cuckold so he

fourth

a wife;

own spouse, and is content may wear his horns gilt a ;

haunted with a jealousy of his

visiting

neighbours; another sobs and roars, and plays the child, for the lest his

own

death of a friend or relation tears should not rise high

to express the torrent of his grief,

;

and

enough

hires other

mourners to accompany the corpse to the grave,

and sing

its

requiem in sighs and lamentations

another hypocritically weeps at the funeral of

one whose death at heart he

rejoices for

;

here

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

105

a gluttonous cormorant, whatever he can scrape up, thrusts all into his guts to pacify the cryings

of a

hungry stomach

yawning and

and

sleep

sits

and thinks nothing so

stretching,

desirable

there a lazy wretch

;

idleness

some are

;

extremely industrious in other men's business,

and

sottishly

neglectful

think themselves rich great,

because their credit

though they can never pay,

and compound

own; some

of their

for their debts

till

one

;

tous that he lives poor to die rich little

they break, is ;

so cove-

one

for a

uncertain gain will venture to cross the

roughest seas, and expose his chase of a livelihood

;

life

for the pur-

another will depend on the

plunders of war, rather than on the honest gains of peace

warm

;

some will

old blades as

children of their practice the

and humour such have a good estate, and no

close with

own

same

art of

bestow

upon

;

others

wheedling upon good

women, that have hoarded and coffered up more bags than they know how to dispose of old

both of these sly the gods, pons,

and

flatteries

when they (as oft

make

fine sport for

are beat at their

own wea-

happens) are gulled by those

very persons they intended to

make a prey

of.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

io6

There

another sort of base scoundrels in

gentility,

who

such scraping merchants,

commodities they

for the better vent of their

swear, cheat, and practice dishonesty, yet thitik

although,

all

lie,

the intrigues of

themselves no

way inferior

to persons of the highest quality, only because

they have raked together a plentiful estate;

and there are not wanting

such insinuating

hangers on, as shall caress and compliment them with the greatest respect, in

some

hopes to go snacks

of their dishonest gains

;

there are

others so infected with the philosophical paradox

of banishing property, and having

common,

make no

that they

all

things in

conscience of

fas-

tening on, and purloining whatever they can get,

and converting sion

;

there are

to their

some who

own

use and posses-

are rich only in wishes,

and yet while they barely dream of vast mountains of wealth, they are as happy as if their imaginary fancies commenced real truths; some put on the best side outermost, and starve themselves

abroad spends

home

at ;

one with all

he lays

appear gay and splendid

open-handed

his fingers

;

freedom'

another with

a logic-fisted gripingness- catches at and grasps

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly. all it

107

he can come within the reach of; one apes

about

the streets to court popularity

ther consults his ease,

and

;

ano-

sticks to the confine-

ment of a chimney-corner; many others are tugging hard at law for a trifle, and drive on an endless

only to enrich a deferring judge, or

suit,

a knavish advocate

;

one

for

new-modelling a

some notable heroical attempt and a third by all means must travel a pilgrim to Rome, Jerusalem, or some settled

government

;

another

for

;

shrine of a saint elsewhere,

than the paying of a formal

other business

impertinent

visit,

to fast, while

In short,

leaving his wife and children

he himself forsooth

(as

thick

gone

to pray.

Lucian fancies Menippus to have

done heretofore,) any

down from

though he have no

man

could

now

again look

the orb of the moon, he would see

swarms as

were of

flies

and gnats, that

were quarrelling with each other,

justling, fight-

ing, fluttering, skipping, playing, just

new

pro-

duced, soon after decaying, and then immediately

vanishing; and

many

can scarce be thought

how

tumults and tragedies so inconsiderate a

creature as in so short

man

does give occasion

to,

and that

a space as the small span of

life

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

io8

many

subject to so

casualties, that the sword,

and other epidemic accidents, many times sweep away whole thousands

pestilence,

shall

at a

brush.

But hold

;

should but expose myself too

far,

and incur the guilt of being roundly laughed if

at,

proceed to enumerate the several kinds of

the folly of the vulgar.

my following

shall confine therefore

discourse only to such as challenge

the repute of wisdom, and seemingly pass for

men of the soundest intellectuals. Among whom the Grammarians present themselves in the front,

a sort of

men who would be

the most miserable,

the most slavish, and the most hateful of persons,

did not in

some way

all

alleviate the

pressures and miseries of their profession by blessing

them with a bewitching sort of madness

for they are not only liable to those five curses,

which they so of

Homer, but

nature to be

;

to five

as always

from the

first five

verses

hundred more of a worse

damned

choked with dust

(schools, shall

to thirst

in their

and hunger,

unswept schools

term them, or rather elaborato-

nay, bridewells, and houses of correction ?), wear out themselves in fret and drudgery

ries,

oft recite

Erasmus's praise of Folly. to

109

be deafened with the noise of gaping boys

;

with heat and stench

;

and

in short, to

stifled

and yet they cheerfully dispense with

these

all

inconveniences, and, by the help of a fond con-

happy as any men living: taking a great pride and delight in frowning and looking big upon the trembling ceit,

think themselves as

urchins, in boxing, slashing,

and

ferula,

in the exercise of

methods of tyranny parcel of young,

Cuman

;

all

their other

while thus lording

weak

chits,

over a

they imitate the

and think themselves as stately

ass,

as a lion, that

domineers over

all

the inferior

Elevated with this conceit, they can

herd.

hold

striking with the

filth

reconcile

smells

;

and nastiness to be an ornament their

and

nose

"to

the most

finally, tliink their

;

can

intolerable

wretched slavery

the most arbitrary kingdom, which they

would

not exchange for the jurisdiction of the most sovereign potentate

and they are yet more

happy by a strong persuasion of their own parts and abilities for thus when their employment is ;

only to rehearse

silly stories,

and poetical

fictions,

they will yet think themselves wiser than the best experienced philosopher

;

nay, they

have

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

an art of making ordinary people, such as school boys' fond parents, to think

own

siderable as their

Add sure

them

as con-

made

pride has

their

them.

hereunto this other sort of ravishing plea-

when any

them has found out who was

the mother of Anchises, or has lighted upon

some old unusual word, such

as bubsequa, bovi-

nator, manticulator, or other like obsolete

terms

;

out the inscription of some battered

Lord

cramp

or can, after a great deal of poring, spell

what

monument

what triumph, what congratulating their success, as if they had conquered Africa, or taken Babylon the Great! When they recite some of their frothy, bombast verses, if any happen to admire them, they are presently !

joy,

flushed with the least hint of commendation, and

devoutly

thank

hypothesis,

Pythagoras

for

his

grateful

whereby they are now become

actu-

ated with a descent of Virgil's poetic soul.

Nor

any divertisement more pleasant, than when they meet to flatter and curry one another yet is

;

they are so

critical,

guilty of the least

any one hap to be or seeming blunder, ano-

that

slip,

ther shall presently correct to

him

for

it,

and then

they go in a tongue-combat, with

all

the

T'uiSbMK'' '^â&#x20AC;¢

Erasmus's praise of Folly. fervour, spleen,

i i i

and eagerness imaginable.

Priscian himself be

my enemy

going to say be not exactly

matician, a philosopher,

I am now knew an old

what

true.

Sophister that was a Grecian, a

May

a mathe-

latinist,

a musician, and

all

to the

utmost perfection, who, after threescore years' experience in the world, had spent the last

twenty of them only in drudging to conquer the criticisms of

grammar, and made

of his prayers, that his

spared

till

life

the chief part

might be so long

he had learned how

rightly to distin-

guish betwixt the eight parts of speech, which

no grammarian, whether Greek or Latin, had yet accurately done.

any chance

have

placed that as a conjunction which ought to

have been used as an adverb,

it is

sufficient

alarm to raise a war for doing justice to the injured word.

many

And

rians (nay, more, for tinct

since there

have been as

several grammars, as particular

grammars

gramma-

Aldus alone wrote

for his

own

five dis-

share), the school-

master must be obliged to consult them

all,

sparing for no time nor trouble, though never so great, lest he should be otherwise posed in

an unobserved

criticism,

and so by an

irrepar-

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

112

able disgrace lose the reward of is

indifferent to

all

me whether you

his

toil.

call this folly

madness, since you must needs confess that

it is

influence these school-tyrants, though in

never so despicable a condition, are so happy

would not change their own fortunes with the most illustrious Sophi of Persia, The Poets, however somewhat less beholden thoughts, that they

to me,

own a

professed dependence on me, being

a sort of lawless blades, that by prescription claim a license to a proverb, while the whole intent of their profession

and

only to smooth up

by mere

tickle the ears of fools, that

and fabulous shams, with which (however culous) they are so bolstered

toys ridi-

an airy ima-

gination, as to promise themselves an everlasting

name, and promise, by their balderdash, at the

same time of others.

and

to celebrate the never-dying

these

memory

rapturous wits self-love

flattery are never-failing attendants

;

nor do

any prove more zealous or constant devotees

folly.

The

Rhetoricians likewise, though they are

ambitious of being ranked phers,

among

yet are apparently of

the Philosofaction,

Erasmus's praise of Folly. appears

among

especially

other arguments, by this

in that

;

113

among

of completing the art of oratory, they cularly insist is

upon the knack of

one species of

folly

;

their several topics

all

jesting,

parti-

which

evident from the

books of oratory wrote to Herennius, put among Cicero's work, but

author

;

and

done by some other unknown

in Quintilian, that great

eloquence, there

one large chapter spent

methods of

prescribing the

may

master of

raising laughter

in in

short,

they

folly,

since

on any argument they can many

times

by a

slight laugh

well attribute a great efficacy to

over what they could

never seriously confute.

Of the same gang are those scribbling fops, who think to eternize their memory by setting up for authors among which, though they are all some way indebted to me, yet are those more especially so, who spoil paper in blotting it with :

mere

trifles

and impertinences.

For

as to those

graver drudgers to the press, that write learnedly,

beyond the reach of an ordinary reader, who durst submit their labours to the review of the

most severe

critic,

these are not so liable to be

envied for their honour, as to be pitied for their

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

114

They make

sweat and slavery.

anew, amend,

rations, blot out, write

turn

additions, alteinterline,

upside down, and yet can never please

judgment, but that they shall dislike

their fickle

the next hour what they penned the former

;

and

all this to purchase the airy commendations of a few understanding readers, which at most is but

a poor reward for

all their

confinements, and brain

Add

invention.

breaking tortures of

to this the impairing of their

weakening of

health, the

fastings, watchings,

their constitution, their

contracting sore eyes, or perhaps turning stark blind

from

;

their poverty, their envy, their

all

pleasures, their hastening

their untimely death,

debarment

on old

age,

and what other inconveni-

ences of a like or worse nature can be thought

upon

and yet the recompense for all this severe penance is at best no more than a mouthful or :

two of frothy laborious,

praise.

These, as they are more

so are they less

happy than those

other hackney scribblers which

who never

stand

much

I first

mentioned,

to consider, but write

what comes next at a venture, knowing that the more silly their composures are, the more they will

be bought up by the greater number of rea-

Erasmus's praise of Folly. ders,

who

are fools and blockheads

and

they

hap to be condemned by some few judicious persons,

drown

an easy matter by clamour to

and

their censure,

to silence

them by

urging the more numerous commendations of

They are

others.

yet the wisest

who

transcribe

whole discourses from others, and then reprint

them as

By doing

own.

their

so they

make

cheap and easy seizure to themselves of that reputation which cost the â&#x20AC;˘

first

time and trouble to procure. time pricked a

they be at

yet at least for

last

however with

some time they have the

how

all

this

found plagiaries,

of passing for the genuine authors. sant to see

much

they are at any

conscience for fear of dis-

little in

covery, they feed themselves

hope, that

author so

credit

It is plea-^

these several wjiters are

puffed"up with the least blast of applause, especially if

at as

they come to the honour of being pointed

they walk along the

several pieces are laid seller's stall,

when

their

streets,

when

their

open upon every booknames are embossed in

a different character upon the title-page, some-

time only with the two

first letters,

and some-

time with fictious cramp terms, which few shall

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

ii6

understand the meaning of do,

all

shall not

performance

;

and of those

that

agree in their verdict of the

some

censuring, others approving

men's judgments being as different as their palates, that being toothsome to one which is it,

unsavoury and nauseous to another is

though

a sneaking piece of cowardice for authors

put feigned names to their works, as tards of their brain, they

Thus one

were afraid

styles himself

if,

like bas-

own them.

Telemachus, another

Stelenus, a third Polycrates, another Thrasyma-

same liberty we may ransack the whole alphabet, and jumble together any letters that come next to hand. It is farther very pleasant when these coxcombs employ their chus,

and so

pens

in writing congratulatory epistles,

on.

the

and panegyricks, upon each shall

other,

be complimented with the

poems,

wherein one

title

of Alcseus,

another shall be charactered for the incomparable Callimachus; this shall be

commended

for

a com-

pleter orator than Tully himself; a fourth shall

be told by his fellow-fool that the divine Plato

comes short of him for a philosophic soul. Sometime again they take up the cudgels, and challenge out an antagonist, and so get a

name

//7

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

117

by a combat at dispute and controversy, while the unwary readers draw sides according to their different judgments

the

the longer the quarrel holds

irreconcilable

grows

;

and when both

parties are weary, they each pretend themselves

the conquerors, and both lay claim to the credit

coming

off

make sport

for

ridiculous

paper

These

with victory.

fooleries

wise men, as being highly absurd,

and extravagant.

combatants,

True, but yet these

are so

assistance,

flushed with a conceit of their

own

greatness,

that they prefer the solving of a syllogism before

the sacking of Carthage

;

and upon the defeat

of a poor objection carry themselves

umphant than the most

tri-

victorious Scipio.

Nay, even the learned and more judicious, that

have wit enough to laugh

folly,

are very

much beholden

at the other's

goodness

;

which (except ingratitude have drowned their ingenuity), they to confess.

must be ready upon

Among

will shuffle in for

these

all

occasions

suppose the lawyers

precedence, and they of

have the greatest conceit of their own

They

will

argue as confidently as

gospel instead of law

;

they

all

men

abilities.

they spoke

will cite

you

six

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

hundred several precedents, thoxigh not one of

them come near to the case in .hand they will muster up the authority of judgments, deeds, glosses, and reports, and tumble over so many musty records, that they make jtheir employ, ;

though

in itself easy,

the greatest slavery imagi-

always accounting that the best plea

nable;

which they have took most pains

To them,

these, as bearing great resemblance to

may be added

fellows that talk as

who

for.

shall

women,

logicians

much by

and

sophisters,

rote as a parrot

run down a whole gossiping of old

nay, silence the very noise of a belfry,

with louder clappers than those of the steeple

and

their unappeasable clamorousness were

their only fault

would admit of some excuse

but they are at the same time so

fierce

and

quarrelsome, that they will wrangle bloodily for

and

trifle,

that they

many times lose their game in the chase

and i^

and be so over

the least

Yet

fright

away

intent

eager,

that truth they are hunting

for.

makes these nimble disputants such doughty champions, that armed with three self-conceit

or four close-linked syllogisms' they shall enter the

lists

with the greatest masters of reason, and

J28

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

119

not question the foiling of them in an irresistible baffle

fident of their

being in the

arguments in the world

them

makes them so con-

nay, their obstinacy

right, that all

shall

the

never convince

to the contrary.

to these

come the

phil osophers

long beards and short cloaks, selves the only favourites

qÂŁ wisdom, and look dirt

They

will

and

give you

infinite

they build

;

worlds in a vacuum.

breadth the

hair's

dimensions of the sun, moon, and as they v/ould

and rubbish

yet these men's happiness

only a frantic craziness of brain castles in the air,

n their

who esteem them-

upon the rest of mankind as the of the creation

stars,

as easily

do that of a flaggon or pipkin

they will give a punctual account of the rise of thunder, of the origin of winds, of the nature of eclipses,

and of all the other abstrusest difficulties

in physics,

without the least demur or hesitation,

they had been admitted into the cabinet

council" of nature, or all

had been eye-witnesses

the accurate methods of creation

nature does but laugh at tures

;

for they never yet

all their

;

though alas

puny conjec-

made one considerable

discovery, as appears in that they are unanimously

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

I20 agreed

no one point of the smallest moment

nothing so plain or evident but what by some or other

But though

opposed and contradicted.

they are ignorant of the

artificial

contexture of

the least insect, they vaunt however, and brag that they

know

all

things,

when indeed they

are

unable to construe the mechanism of their own

body nay, when they are so purblind as not to be able to see a stone's cast before them, yet they shall be as sharp-sighted as possible in :

spying-out ideas, universals, separate forms, matters, quiddities, formalities,

such like

were not

and a hundred

diminutively small, that

niceties, so

their eyes extremely magnifying,

the art of optics could never nible.

first

make them

all

discer-

But they then most despise the low gro-

velling vulgar when they bring out their parallels, triangles, circles,

and other mathematical

drawn up in battalia, charms of conjuration

like so

many

in muster,

credit of laying them,

spells and'

with letters to

refer to the explication of the several

hereby raising devils as

figures,

problems

;

were, only to have the

and amusing the ordinary

spectators into wonder, because they have not

wit enough to understand the juggle.

Of these

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

some undertake

to profess themselves judicial

astrologers, pretending to

with the

stars,

121

and so from

resolve any query

;

keep correspondence their information can

and though

all

but a

presumptuous imposture, yet some to be sure will

fools as to believe them.

be so great

The d ivines present themselves next but it may perhaps be most safe to pass them by, and ;

not to touch upon so harsh a string as this subject

would

Beside, the undertaking

afford.

be very hazardous

;

for they are a sort of

generally very hot and passionate I

with a

and force

cant,

which

if I

with shame to re-

for a heretic,

out an excommunication, â&#x20AC;&#x17E;which

their spiritual

lift

on me, yet have they reason selves indebted for

by one of

and thunder

wound such as up a hand against is true, no men own a less dependence

them,_ It

stubbornly refuse to do, they will

presently brand

weapon

and should

doubt not would set upon

provoke them, full cry,

;

may men

to confess

them-

no small obligations. For

it is

my properties, self-love, that they fancy

themselves, with their elder brother Paul, caught

into the third heaven,

herds indeed, they look

from whence,

down upon

like shep-

their flock,

; ;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

122 the

laity,

grazing as

world below.

many

They

were, in the vales of the

fence themselves in with

surrounders of magisterial definitions,

conclusions, corollaries, propositions explicit

implicit, that there is

falling in with

and

them

they do chance to be urged to a seeming

many

non-plus, yet they find out so

the art of

man

evasions,

can never bind them so

that

all

fast,

but that an easy distinction shall give them

a starting-hole to escape the scandal of being baffled.

They

will

cut asunder the toughest

argument with as much ease as Alexander did the gordian knot rattling

;

terms as shall fright an adversary into

conviction.

They

are exquisitely dexterous in

unfolding the most intricate mysteries tell

you

many

they will thunder out so

;

they

will

to a tittle all the successive proceedings

of Omnipotence in the creation of the universe

they

will explain the precise

sin being derived

first

original

parents

;

they

what manner, by what degrees, how long a time, our Saviour was con-

will satisfy

and

from our

manner of

you

ceived in the Virgin's womb, and demonstrate in the

subsist

consecrated wafer

without a

how

subject.

accidents

Nay, these

may are

Erasmus's praise of Folly. accounted far

easy questions

trivial,

;

123

they have yet

greater difficulties behind, which notwith-

much

standing they solve with as

expedition as

as namely, whether supernatural

the former;

generation requires any instant of time for acting

whether Christ, as a son, bears a double

specifically distinct relation to

and is

its

his virgin

possible to

mother be

whether

true, the first

nity hated the second

God

the Father,

this proposition

person of the Tri-

whether God, who took

our nature upon him in the form of a man, could as well

have become a woman, a

a herb, or a stone the

and were

Godhead had appeared

inanimate substance,

preached his gospel to the cross

hanging on the

a beast,

so possible that

any shape of an

how he should then have ? or how have been nailed

whether

the eucharist at the

devil,

if St.

Peter had celebrated

same time our Saviour was

cross,

the consecrated bread

would have been transubstantiated into the same body that remained on the tree ? whether in Christ's corporal

humanity be not abstracted from his

wafer, his

Godhead

presence in the sacramental

whether

shall carnally eat

after

the resurrection

and drink as we do

in this life ?

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

i:;4

There are a tliousand other more sublimated and refined niceties of notions, relations, quantities,

and such like abstrusities, as one would think no one could pry into, except he had not only such cat's eyes as formalities, quiddities, haeccities,

to see best in the dark, but

even such a piercing

faculty as to see through an inch-board, and spy

out what really never had any being.

some of their tenets and are so absurd and extravagant, these

fancies of the Stoicks

Add

opinions, which

that the wildest

which they so much

dis-

dain and decry as paradoxes, seem in comparison just

and

rational

;

as their maintaining, that

a less aggravating fault to

kill

than for a poor cobbler to set a

sabbath-day

;

the greatest

injury^

or,

tell tlie least lie

that

it is

a hundred men,

on the

stitch

more justifiable

imaginable to others, than to

ourselves.

And these subtleties

are alchymized to a more refined sublimate by tlie

abstracting brains of their several schoolmen;

the Realists, the Nominalists, Albertists, the Occamists,

are not

all,

tlie

Thomists, the

the Scotists

;

these

but the rehearsal of a few onh", as

a specimen of whicli tliere

tlieir

divided sects

;

each of

so mucli of deep learning, so

;

Erasmus's praise of FoLi-v.

much

of unfathomable difficulty, that

would stand

the apostles themselves

new

illuminating

spirit, if

125 I

believe

need of

they were to engage

any controversy with these new divines. St. Paul, no question, had a full measure of faith

yet

when he

lays

down

faith to

of things not seen, these

men

be the substance carp at

for

imperfect definition, and would undertake to teach the apostles better logic.

Thus

same

the

holy author wanted for nothing of the grace of chainty, yet it

(say they)

he describes and defines

but very inaccurately,

when he

the thirteenth chapter of his

The

Corinthians.

first

ti-eats

epistle to the

primitive disciples were very

frequent in administerino- the holy sacrament,

breaking bread from house to house

;

yet should

they be asked of the Tcrniiiius a quo and the Tcniiiiuts tion ral

the

places

ad qiton, the nature of transubstantiamanner how one body can be in seveat the same time ? the difference be-

twixt the several attributes of Christ in heaven,

on the

cross,

what time

and

the

consecrated bread

required for the transubstantiating

the bread into llesh

how

short sentence pronounced

can be done by a

by the

priest,

which

126

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

sentence

a species of discreet quantity, that

has no permanent punctum ?

Were

they asked

and several other confused queries, do not believe they could answer so readily as

(I say) these, I

our mincing school-men now-a-days take a pride to do.

They were

well acquainted with the

Virgin Mary, yet none of them undertook to

prove that she was preserved immaculate from original sin, as

contend

some St.

for.

of our divines very hotly

Peter had the keys given to

by our Saviour himself, who had never entrusted him except he had known him capable of their manage and custody and yet it is much to be questioned whether Peter was sensible of that subtlety broached by Scotus, him, and that

;

that he

may have the key of knowledge effectwho has no knowledge actually

ually for others, in

himself.

Again, they baptized

all

nations,

and yet never taught what was the formal^material, efficient, and final cause of baptisrn, and certainly never dreamt of distinguishing between a delible and an indelible character in

this sacra-

They worshipped in the spirit, following their master's injunction, God is a spirit, and they ment.

which worship him, must worship him

in spirit,

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and

in truth

;

yet

does not appear that

ever revealed to them should be paid at the

how

Saviour in

on a

drawn with two

wall,

was

divine adoration

same time

heaven, and

127

to our blessed

to his picture here

below

fingers held out, a

bald crown, and a circle round his head.

reconcile these intricacies to an appearance of

reason requires three-score years' experience in metaphysics. Farther, the apostles often mention Grace, yet

never distinguish between gratia, gratis data,

They

and gratia gratificans.

earnestly exhort

good works, yet never explain the between Opus operans, and Opus ope-

us likewise to difference

ratum.

They very

frequently press and invite

us to seek after charity, without dividing

into

infused and acquired, or determining whether

be a substance or an accident, a created or an uncreated being.

They detested sin themselves,

and warned others from the commission of it and yet I am sure they could never have defined so dogmatically, as the Scotists have since done. St. Paul,

who

in other's

judgment is no less the he was in his own the

chief of the apostles, than chief of sinners,

who being bred

at the feet of

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

128

Gamaliel, was certainly more eminently a scholar

than any of the

rest,

yet he often exclaims

against vain philosophy, warns us from doting

about questions and

strifes of

words, and charges

us to avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called; which

he would not have done, worth

his while to

he had thought

have become acquainted with

them, which he might soon have been, the

dis-

putes of that age being but small, and more intelligible sophisms, in reference to the vastly

greater intricacies they are !

But

yet,

they meet with any passage

any other penman of holy

not so well modelled, or

they could wish, they it,

to.

however, our scholastic divines are so

modest, that Paul, or

now improved

but bend

critically

will not

writ,

in St.

which

disposed

of,

roughly condemn

rather to a favorable interpretation,

out of reverence to antiquity, and respect to the

holy scriptures

;

though indeed

were unreason-

able to expect anything of this nature from the

whose

and master had given unto them to know the mysteries of God, but not those of philosophy. If the same divines meet apostles,

lord

with anything of like nature unpalatable in

St.

Erasmus's Chrysostom,

/ria;w^

St. Basil, St.

^ Folly.

129

Hierom, or others of

the fathers, they will not stick to appeal from their authority,

and very

Yet these ancient

lay under a mistake.

were they

who

fairly resolve that

confuted

they

fathers

both the Jews and

Heathens, though they both obstinately adhered to their

respective

them

say), yet

rather than

prejudices

they confuted

;

and

their lives

by words and syllogisms

miracles, ;

and the

persons they thus proselyted were downright honest, well

meaning people, such

as understood

pomp of should now

pl3in^ÂŁnjÂŁ.JafiQÂŁX-JJ3aiL.JJiy. artificial

reasoning: whereas

our divines

set about the gaining converts from paganism

their metaphysical subtleties, they

would

find that

most of the persons they applied themselves to were either so ignorant as not at

all

apprehend

them, or so impudent as to scoff and deride them;

same weapons, that they would be able to keep their pass, and fence off all assaults of conviction and this last way the victory would be altogether as hopeless, as if two persons were engaged of so equal strength, that it were impossible any one should

or finally, so well skilled at the

overpower the other.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

30 If

judgment might be taken,

would

ad-

vise Christians, in their next expedition to a holy

war, instead of those

many

unsuccessful legions,

which they have hitherto sent to encounter Turks and Saracens, that they would furnish

the out

their clamorous Scotists, their obstinate Occa-

and

mists, their invincible Albertists,

forces of tough, crabbed

the engagement, sant,

fancy,

would be mighty

plea-

and the victory we may imagine on our

enemies would not

For which

Janizaries all

of the

turbants at so

their

veil

solemn an appearance

Which

of the

would not throw away

fiercest

his scimitar,

the half-moons be eclipsed by the

position of so glorious an I

their

and profound disputants

side not to be questioned.

and

all

suppose you mistrust

army I

of jeer and iron}^; and well

speak I

divines themselves there are

inter-

all this

by way

may, since among

some so

ingenious

as to despise these captious and frivolous impertinences

sacrilege,

piety, to

they look upon

and a

little

less

as a kind of profane

than blasphemous im-

determine of such niceties

in religion,

as ought rather to be the subject of an humble and uncontradicting faith,, than of a" scrupulous

J3I

/yr^-

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and

inquisitive reason

131

they abhor a defiling the

Inj^eries of Christianity with an intermixture of hearfienish philosophy,

and judge

proper to reduce divinity to

very im-

an obscure specula-

whose end is such a happiness as can be gained only by the means of practice. But alas, those notio nal divines, however condemned by the soberer judgment of others, are yet mightily pleased with themselves, and are so laboriously intent upon prosecuting their tive science,

crabbed studies, that they cannot afford so

much

time as to read a single chapter in any one book

And

of the whole bible.

while they thus

trifle

away their mis-spent hours in trash and babble, they think that they support the Catholic Church with the props and pillars of propositions and syllogisms,

less

effectually

than Atlas

feigned by the poets to sustain on his shoulders the burden of a tottering world. leges, too,

and authority are very

Their

privi-

considerable^:

they can deal with any text of scripture as with a nose of wax, knead suits' their

they have

interest

;

into

what shape best

and whatever conclusions

dogmatically resolved upon,

would have them as irrepealably

they

ratified

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

132

Solon's laws, and in as great force as the very

decrees of the papal chair.

any be so bold

to remonstrate to their decisions, they will bring

him on

his

knees to a recantation of his impu-

They

dence.

shall

pronounce as irrevocably as

an oracle, this proposition irreverent is

;

scandalous, that

has a smack of heresy, and that

this

bald and improper

;

so that

it is

not the being

baptised into the church, the believing of the scriptures, the giving credit to St. Peter, St. Paul, St.

Hierom,

Aquinas tian,

Augustin, nay, or St.

St.

himself, that shall

make a man

Thomas a Chris-

except he have the joint suffrage of these

who have blessed the world a great many discoveries, which

novices in learning,

no doubt with

had never come the

they had not struck

of subtlety out of the

fire

These

to light,

fooleries sure

Farther, they

flint

of obscurity.

must be a happy employ.

make

many

partitions

and

and~^rgatoryj and describe as

divisions in hell

many

different sorts

they were very-well- acquainted withr the

soil

and

situation of those infernal regions.

to prepare

vent

and degrees of punishment

new

And

a seat for the blessed! above, they

orbs,

in-

and a stately empyrean heaven.

Erasmus's praise of Folly. so wide and spacious as

contrived

it,

133

they had purposely

that the glorified saints might

room enough

have

to walk, to feast, or to take

any

and a thousand more such

recreation.

With

these,

toys, their

heads are more _stuffed_and^^welled

when he went

than Jove,

big of Pallas in his

brim, and was forced to use the midwifery of Vulcan's axe to ease

him of

his

teeming burden.

not wonder, therefore, that at public dispu-

tations they

bind their heads with so

one over another

;

many

caps

for this is to prevent the loss

of their brains, which would otherwise break out

from their uneasy confinement.

It affords like-

wise a pleasant scene of laughter, to listen to these divines in their hotly to see

how proud

managed disputations

;

they are of talking such hard

and stammering out such blundering distinctions, as the auditors perhaps may somegibberish,

times gape

at,

but seldom apprehend

and they

take such a liberty in their speaking of Latin, that they scorn to stick at the exactness of syntax

or concord

;

pretending

below the majesty

of a divine to talk like a pedagogue, and be tied to the slavish observance of the rules of grammar.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

134

a vast

Finally, they take citations, to allege

tive master,

among

pride,

other

the authority of their respec-

which word they bear as profound

a respect to as the Jews did to their ineffable tetragrammaton, and therefore they will be sure

never to write letters,

any otherwise than

M AGISTER NOSTER;

in great

and

any

happen to invert the order of the words, and say, noster magister, instead of magister noster,

they will presently exclaim against him as a pestilent heretic

The

and underminer of the

next to these are another sort of brain-

sick fools,

who

style themselves

religious orders,

very unjustly

monks and

though they assume toth

for as to the last,

them and as etymology of the word monk

little

catholic faith.

religion in

;

ness, or being alone

;

titles

they have very

to the former, the

implies a solitari-

whereas they are so thick

abroad thatwe cannot pass any street or alley without meeting them.

Now

cannot imagine

what one degree of men would be more hopedid not stand their friend,

lessly wretched, if

and buoy them up

in that lake

of misery, which

by the engagements of a holy vow they have voluntarily immerged themselves in. But when

'E'RASM.vs's

men

these sort of

make them

unwelcome to others, as of them is thought ominous, I

highly in love with themselves,

and fond admirers of first

135

are so

that the very sight

yet

praise o/ FoLtY.

their

own

The

happiness.

step whereunto they esteem a profound

ignorance, thinking carnal knowledge a great

enemy

to their spiritual welfare,

fident of

becoming greater

and seem con-

proficients in divine

mysteries the less they are poisoned with any

They imagine that

human learning.

sweet consort with the heavenly choir,

they bear a

when they

tone out their daily tally of psalms, which they rehearse only

rote,

without permitting their

understanding or affectignsjto go along with their voice.

Among

these

some make a good

profit-

able trade of beggary, going about from house to house, not like the apostles, to break, but to beg, their

bread

;

nay, thrust into

all

public-houses,

come aboard the

passage-boats, get into the tra-

velling waggons,

and omit no opportunity of time

or place for the craving people's charity

a great deal of injury to gars

by interloping

when they

;

doing

common highway

in their traffic of alms.

beg-

And

are thus voluntarily poor, destitute,

not provided with two coats, nor with any

money

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

136

in their purse,

they have the impudence to pre-

tend that they imitate the

first disciples,

their master expressly sent out in such

page.

It is pretty to

observe

whom

an equi-

how they regulate

it were by weight and measure to so exact a proportion, as if the whole loss of their religion depended upon the omission of the

all

their actions as

Jeast punctilio. in the precise

their sandals^;

tive habits,

and long

what

distinct colours their respec-

and what hoods

;

made of how broad how big, and in what

stuff

their girdles

fashion, their

Thus they must be very critical number of knots to the tying on of

;

whether their bald crowns

to a hair's-breadth of the right cut

;

how many

hours they must sleep, at what minute__ prayers, &c.

And

rise- to

these several customs are

humours of different While they are sworn to

altered according to the

persons and places.

the superstitious observance of these

do not only despise clinable to

fall

all

trifles,

others, but are

out among

they

very

in-

themselves; for though

they make profession of an apostolic charity, yet they

will pick

a quarrel, and be implacably pas-

sionate for such poor provocations, as the girting

on a coat the wrong way,

for the

wearing of

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly. clothes a

little

137

too darkish coloured, or any such

nicety not worth the speaking

of.

Some

are so

wear

their

upper garment of some coarse dog's hair

stuff,

obstinately superstitious that they will

and that next their skin as others

on the contrary

will

soft as silk

but

have linen frocks

outermost, and their shirts of wool, or hair.

S om e again

will

not toucJiâ&#x20AC;&#x17E;a^^eee -of^money,

though they make no scruple of the sin of drunkenness, and the lust of the flesh.

All their

several orders arelnindfuloTnothing

more than

of their being distinguished from each other their different

customs and habits.

They seem-

indeed not so careful of becoming like Christ,

and of being known to be his

disciples, as the

being unlike to one another, and distinguishable for followers of their several founders.

part of thejr religion consists, in their will

be called

cordeliers,

title

great

some

and these subdivided

into capuchines, minors, minims,

some again are

and mendicants

styled Benedictines, others of the

order of St. Bernard, others of that of St. Bridget;

some are Augustin monks, some Willielmites, and others Jacobists, as if the commoti name ot Christian were too

mean and

vulgar.

Most

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

138

their greatest stress for salvation

them place

conformity to their foppish ceremonies, and a belief of their legendary traditions where-

strict

;

in they fancy to have acquitted themselves with

much

of supererogation, that one heaven can

never be a condign reward for their meritorious life

little

;

thinking that the Judge of all the earth

day

at the last

shall

put them

off,

call

them

and

which was the precept of love and

^at will be pretty to hear their pleas

before the great tribunal

one

mortified his carnal appetite

upon

;

to account only for the stewardship of

his legacy, charity,

who

with a

hath required these things at your hands

fish

will

brag how he

by feeding only

another will urge that he spent most

of his time on earth in the divine exercise of singing psalms

a third will

tell

how many

days

and what severe penance he imposed on himself for the bringing his body into subjeche

fasted,

tion

many

another shall produce in his

ceremonies as would load a

chant-men

fifth shall

years he never so

behalf as

fleet of

mer-

plead that in threescore

much

as touched a piece of

money, except he fingered pair of gloves

own

sixth,

through a thick

to testify his former

Io3

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

him

humility, shall bring along with

139

his sacred

hood, so old and nasty, that any seaman had rather stand bare headed on the deck, than put it

to defend his ears in the sharpest storms

the next that comes to answer for himself shall plead, that for fifty years together, like

a sponge upon the same

he had lived

place,

and was

content never to change his homely habitation

another shall whisper

softly,

he has

by a

holy

lost his voice

hymns and antliems

how he

fell

that

life

the judge

continual singing of

by a

and the

tell

the next shall confess

into a lethargy

and sedentary

and

strict,

reserved,

last shall intimate

he has forgot to speak, by having always

kept silence,

obedience to the injunction of

taking heed lest he should have offended with his tongue.

But amidst

all

their fine excuses

our Saviour shall interrupt them with

Woe unto verily

know you

not

you plainly

;

I left

you but one pre-

one another, which

any one plead he has ble, that

answer.

you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites,

cept, of loving

told

this

father's

do not hear

faithfully discharged

gospel, without

any para-

kingdom was prepared_not

for^such as. should lay claim, toJt^ by austerities.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

140

who

prayers, or fastings, but for those

render themselves worthy of

should

by the exercise

of faith, and the offices of charity

cannot

own

own merits without a reliance on my mercy as many of you therefore as trust to the broken reeds of your own deserts may even go search out a new heaven, for you such as depend on their :

shall

never enter into

that,

which from the foun-

dations of the world was prepared only for such as are true of heart.

When

monks and

these

meet with such a shameful repulse, and see that ploughmen and mechanics are adfriars shall

mitted into

kingdom, from which they

that

themselves are shut out,

they look, and this last trial

sneakingly will

how pitifully slink away

Yet

till

they had more comfort of a future

more hopes of

happiness, because

other men.

how

And

great in their

than any

these persons are not only

own

and respected by

eyes, but highly

esteemed

others, especially those of the

order of mendicants,

whom none dare to offer any

affront to, because as confessors they are intrusted

with

all

the secrets of particular intrigues, which

they are bound by oath not to discover times,

when they

;

yet

many

are almost drunk, they cannot

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

keep to

their

tongue so

141

far within their head, as not

be babbling out some

hints,

and shewing them-

full,

that they are in pain to be delivered.

If any person

give them the least provocation they

selves so

will sure to

be revenged of him, and

in their

public harangue give him such shrewd wipes and reflections, that the whole congregation must

needs take notice at

whom

they are levelled

;

nor will they ever desist from this way of declaim-

mouth be stopped with a bribe to All their preachi ng is mere stage-playing, and their d elivery the very transports' ofriSiculeand drollery. Good Lord how mimical are their gestures ? What heights and falls in their voice ? What toning, what bawling, what singing, what squeaking, what grimaces, making of mouths, apes' faces, and distorting ing,

till

their

hold their tongue.

of their countenance

;

and

this art of oratory as

down by tradition The manner of it I may adven-

a choice mystery, they convey to

one another.

ture thus farther to enlarge upon. First, in a kind

of mockery they implore the divine assistance,

which they borrowed from the solemn custom of the poets charity,

then

their text

suppose be of

they shall take their exordium as far off

;;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

142

Egypt

as from a description of the river Nile in

they are to discourse of the mystery of the

Cross, they shall begin with a story of Bell

the

Dragon

fasting, for

shall pass

;

or perchance

their subject

and

be of

an entrance to their sermon they

through the twelve signs of the zodiac

lastly, if

they are to preach of

faith,

they shall

address themselves in a long mathematical ac-

count of the quadrature of the

once heard a great

have

circle.

fool (a great scholar

myself

would

said) undertaking in a laborious discourse

to explain the

mystery of the Holy Trinity

;

the unfolding whereof, that he might shew his

wit and reading, and together satisfy itching

he proceeded

ears,

new method,

and proposition, on the concord of noun and verb, and that of noun substantive, and noun adjective the audiinsisting

on the

letters, syllables,

;

tors

all

wondered, and some mumbled to them-

selves that hemistitch of Horace,

Why But

at last

all this needless trash ?

he brought

thus

far,

that

he could

demonstrate the whole Trinity to be represented

by these first rudiments of grammar, as clearly and plainly as it was possible for a mathemati-

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly. cian to

draw a

triangle in the sand

143

and

for the

making of this grand discovery,

this subtle divine

had plodded so hard

months

for eight

together,

he studied himself as blind as a beetle, the intenseness of the eye of his understanding overthat

shadowing and extinguishing that of

and yet he did not ness,

at all repent

his

him of

body

his blind-

but thinks the loss of his sight an easy pur-

chase for the gain of glory and credit. I

heard at another time a grave divine, of

fourscore years of age at least, so sour and hard-

favoured, that one would be apt to mistrust that it

was Scotus Redivivus

treat of the mysterious

;

he taking upon him to

name,

JESUS, did very was con-

subtly pretend that in the very letters tained, its

whatever could be said of

for

first,

being declined only with three cases, did ex-

pressly point out the trinity of persons, then that

the nominative ended in S, the accusative in

and the ablative in U, did imply some unspeakable mystery,

viz.,

that in

words of those

initial

was the summtis, or beginning, the medius, or middle, and the tdtirmis, or end of all things. There was yet a more abstruse riddle to be explained, which was by dividing the word letters Christ

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

144

JESUS

into

two

parts,

the middle from

the

and separating the S two extreme

syllables,

making a kind of pentameter, the word consisting of five letters and this intermedial S being :

in the

Hebrew alphabet

called sin,

which

in the

English language signifies what the Latins term peccattim,

was urged

to imply that the holy Jesus

should purify us from

Thus did

sin

all

and wickedness.

the pulpiteer cant, while

all

the con-

gregation, especially the brotherhood of divines, at his odd way of preaching, wonder served them, as grief did Niobe, almost turned them into stones. I among the rest (as Horace describes Priapus viewing the enchantments of the two sorceresses, Canidia and Sagane) could no longer contain, but let fly a cracking report of the operation it had upon

were so surprised that

These impertinent introductions are not without reason condemned for of old, whenever Demosthenes among the Greeks, or Tully among the Latins, began their orations with so great a digression from the matter in hand, it was always looked upon as improper and unelegant, and me.

;

indeed, were such a long-fetched exordium any

token of a good invention, shepherds and plough-

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Erasmus's praise of Folly.

men might

lay claim to the

title

145

men

of great-

upon any argument it is easiest talk what is least to the purpose.

est parts, since

them to These preachers think

for

may

well term

when

it is

it),

farthest

their

preamble

be the most fashionable,

from the subject they propose

to treat of, while each auditor sits

what they drive

(as

at,

and many times mutters out

the complaint of Virgil

Whither does all In the third place,

and wonders

this jargon

tend?

when they come

to the divi-

sion of their text, they shall give only a very

short touch at the interpretation of the words,

when to

the fuller explication of their sense ought

have been

after they are

some

their only

little

theological queries, far

till

they lose

Fourthly,

entered, they shall start

the matter in hand, and

con

province.

bandy

enough it

off

from

about pro and

in the heat of scuffle.

And

here they shall cite their doctors invincible, subtle, seraphic, cherubic, holy, irrefragable,

and

such like great names to confirm their several assertions.

Then out they bring

their syllogisms,

their majors, their minors, conclusions, corollaries,

suppositions,

and

distinctions, that will sooner

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Erasmus's praise of Folly.

146

the congregation

terrify

into

an amazement,

Now

than persuade them into a conviction.

comes the

fifth

utmost

their

Here

act,

skill

therefore they

which they must exert

come

with applause.

off

a telling some sad

fall

lamentable story out of their legend, or some other fabulous history, and this they descant

upon cally

allegorically, tropologically,

and so they draw

;

discourse,

which

to a conclusion of their

a more brain-sick chimera

than ever Horace could describe Poetica,

when he began Humano

Their praying their

preaching;

and analogi-

in his

De Arte

Capiti, &c.

altogether as ridiculous as

for imagining

that

their

addresses to heaven they should set out in a low

and tremulous

voice, as

a token of dread and

reverence, they begin therefore with such a soft

whispering as

they were afraid any one should

overhear what they said

gone a

little

;

but

when they

degrees, and at last bawl out so loud as Baal's priests, they

sleeping god

are

way, they clear up their pipes by

;

if,

with

were resolved to awake a

and then again, being told by and falls, and a dififerent

rhetoricians that heights

Erasmus's praise of Folly. cadency

in pronunciation, is

will

a great advantage

any thing that

to the setting off

sometimes as

spoken, they

were mutter

such a

at last, in

words

their

them

wardly, and then of a sudden hollo

and be sure

147

in-

out,

faltering tone

flat,

were spent, and they had run

their spirits

themselves out of breath.

have

Lastly, they

read that most systems of rhetoric treat of the art of exciting laughter

therefore for the effect-

;

ing of this they will sprinkle

some

jests

and

puns that must pass for ingenuity, though they are only the

froth

Sometimes they satyrical, less,

and

folly

of affectedness.

will nibble at the wit of being''

though their utmost spleen

so tooth-

that they suck rather than bite, tickle rather

wound

nor do they ever

flatter

at such times as they pretend to

speak

than scratch or

more than

with greatest freedom.

,^.

Finally, all their actions are so buffoonish

mimical, that any would judge they all

their tricks of

who

in action

mountebanks and

it is

true

but in oratory there both, that

it is

may

and

had learned

stage-players,

perhaps outdo them, little

odds between

hard to determine which seems of

longest standing in the schools of eloquence.

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

148

Yet these

however

preachers,

with such hearers,

ridiculous,

who admire them

meet

much

the people of Athens did Demosthenes, or the citizens of

Rome

could do Cicero

among which

admirers are chiefly shopkeepers, and women, whose approbation and good opinion they only court

;

because the

first, if

they are humgjared,

some snacks out of unjust gain and the last come and ease their grief to them upon all pinching occasions, especially when their husbands are any ways cross or unkind. Thus much I suppose may suffice to make you sensible how much these cell-hermits and recluses are indebted to my bounty who when

give them

;

they tyrannize over the consciences of the de-

luded

laity

with fopperies, juggles, and impos-

tures, yet thijik St. Paul, St.

theroadves ,as_eminentl^jii^us as

Anthony, or any other ofjhe

saints

but these stage-divines, not less ungrateful

dis-

ownerÂĽ of their obligations to folly, than they are impudent pretenders to the profession of piety, I willingly take my leave of, and pass now to kings, princes,

and

courtiers,

who paying me

a devout acknowledgment, may justly challenge back the respect of being mentioned and taken

n 'U ^'- :^^y^^m^-:'''--^rm

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

enough would

And

by me.

notice of to

mak e

find their

149

had they wisdom

first,

a true judgment of things, they

own

condition to be

des-

picable and^ia\HsElKannffiaf'ofthS'TEHnsriffein subjects.'^^^

For"'certainly

none cair~esteem per-

jury or parricide a cheap purchase for a crown, if

he does but seriously

cares a pri ncely dia dem

reflect is

on that weight_of

the helm of government

sits at

capacity,

and so

He that

loaded with.

acts in a public

mu st_sacrificÂŁ.alLprIvate interest

to the atta inment of the

common good

;

he must

lilmseirbe conformable, to thosejaws his prerogative exacts, or else he can expect no obedi-

ence paid them from others

eye over

strict

officers,

will

he must have a

his inferior magistrates

or otherwise

and

be doubted they

but carelessly .discharge their sespective

duties. is

all

;

Every

king, within his

own

placed for a shining example as

territories,

were

in the

firmament of his wide-spread dominions, to prove either a glorious star of benign influence,

his

behaviour be remarkably just and innocent, or else to

impend as a threatening comet,

blazing

power be

move

pestilent

and

hurtful.

his

Subjects

a darker sphere, and so their wanderings

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

and

failings are less discernible

being fixed

a more^ exalted, orb, and encom-

passed with a brighter dazzling are

whereas princes,

;

more apparently

lustre, their spots

and their eclipses, on all that is inferior

visible,

or other defects, influential

Kings are baited with so many tempand opportunities to vice and immorality,

to them.

tations

such as are high feeding,

and the

like,

that they

liberty, flattery, luxury,

must stand perpetually on

their guard, to fence off those assaults that are

always ready to be

made upon them.

abating from treachery, hatred, dangers,

fine,

fear,

and

a thousand other mischiefs impending on crowned heads, however uncontrollable they are this side

heaven, yet after their reign here they must

appear before a supremer judge, and there be called to

an exact account

for the discharge of

that great stewardship which their trust.

If princes did

(and consider they would these

many

was committed

but seriously consider if

they were but wise)

hardships of a royal

be so perplexed

life,

they would

in the result of their thoughts

thereupon, as scarce to eat or sleep in quiet.

But now by

assistance they leave

cares to the gods,

and mind only

their

all

own

these

ease

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and pleasure, and therefore but

their attendance

sport

and mirth,

who

will

thoughts.

admit none to

them with they should otherwise be

lest

will divert

and damped with the

seized

surprisal of sober

They^think they have

sufiicie ntly

acquitted themselves in the duty of govern ing,

they do but ride constantly a hunting, breed up

good TaceTiorses,

sell

places

and

offices to

those

of the courtiers that will give most for them, and find out

new ways

property,

for invading of their people's

and hooking

in a larger

own exchequer;

their

whereof they

will

claim and title; extortion, yet justice

for

the

revenue to

procurement

always have some pretended that though

may

be manifest

bear the show of law and

and then they daub over their oppression

with a submissive, flattering carriage, that they

may

so far insinuate into the affections of the

vulgar, as they

may

not tumult nor rebel, but

patiently "crouch to burdens 'and^exactions.

us feign

now a person

ignorant of the laws and

constitutions of that realm

lives

in^^

an enemy

to the public good, studious only for his

private

interest,

Let

own

addicted wholly to pleasures

and' delights, a hater of ieafning7 a professed

;;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

152

and unmindful" of Tiie^ornrnon concerns, taking all the mea-

enemy

and

to liberty

truth, careless

sures of justice and honesty from the false

beam

of self-interest and advantage, after this hang

about his neck a gold chain, for an intimation that

he ought

have

all

virtues linked together

then set a crown of gold and jewels on his head, for a token that

he ought to overtop and out-

commendable qualifications next, put into his hand a royal sceptre for a symbol of justice and integrity lastly, clothe him with purple, for an hieroglyphic of a tender love and affection to the commonwealth. If a prince should look upon this portraiture, and draw a comparison between that and himself, certainly he would be ashamed of his ensigns of majesty, and be afraid of being laughed out

shine others in

all

;

of them.

Next courtiers,

to kings themselves

may come

their

who, though they are for the most part

a base, servile, cringing, low-spirited sort of terers,

flat-

yet they look big, swell great, and have

high thoughts of their honour and grandeur.

Their confidence appears upon

all

occasions

yet in this one thing they are very modest, in

Erasmus's praise of Folly. that they are content to gold, jewels, purple,

153

adorn their bodies

and

other glorious ensigns

of virtue and wisdom, but leave their minds

and unfraught

;

with-:

empty

andri:akmg the resemBIaiTce of

goodness to themselves, turn over the truth and They think themselves reality of it to others.

mighty, happy

kmg

that they can call the

master, and be allowed the familiarity of talking

with him; that they can volubly rehearse his several

titles

of august highness, supereminent

and most serene majesty, that they can boldly usher in any discourse, and that they have the complete knack of insinuation and flatexcellence,

tery

;

for these are the arts that

genteel and noble. If you after their other

mere till

and

sots

make them

make a stricter enquiry

endowments, you

dolts.

truly

They

shall find

them

will sleep generally

noon, and then their mercenary chaplains

shall

come

to their bed-side,

and entertain them

perhaps with a short morning prayer. as they are drest they

when

that

the cloth

must go

to breakfast,

done, immediately to dinner.

soon

and

When

taken away, then to cards, dice, tables,

or some such like diversion.

After this they must

have one or two afternoon banquets, and so

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

the evening to supper.

then begins the

game

When they have supped of drinking

the bottles

;

are marshalled, the glasses ranked, and round

go the healths and bumpers

And

to bed.

passing

away

and ages. faction

this

till

they are carried

the constant method of

their hours, days, months, years,

have many times took great

by standing

in the court,

satis-

and seeing how

the tawdry butterflies vie upon one another the ladies

shall

measure the height of

their

humours by the length of their trails, which must be borne up by a page behind. The nobles justle one another to get nearest to the king's

and wear gold <^-ins of that

elbow,

weight and bigness as require no to carry than they

And now cardinals,

for

do wealth

some

and bishops, who

Now

upon popes, pomp and splen-

reflections

dour have almost equalled princes.

less strength

to purchase.

not outgone secular

any one consider

upper crotchet of white linen

that their

to signify their

unspotted purity and innocence; that their forked

by the knowledge of

mitres, with both divisions tied together

same knot, are to denote the joint the Old and New Testament that ;

their

always

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

155

wearing gloves, represents their keeping their

hands clean and undefiled from lucre and covetousness

;

that the pastoral staff implies the care

of a flock committed to their charge; that^Ke cross carried before

over

all

ders

this,

them expresses

carnal affections

;

their victory-

say) that consi-

and much more of the

like nature,

must needs conclude they are ent rusted with a very weighty and difficult o ffice. But alas, they think it sufficient if they can but feed themselv es and as 'to their flock, either commend them to the care of Christ himself, or commit them to the guidance of

not so

much

some

infeflof vtcars artdrm^tes

as remembering what their

of bishop imports, to wit, labour, pains, and gence, but in

by base simoniacal

own

dili-

contracts, they are

a prnfanf^ sepse Ephr.npj

their

;

name

jp.,^

,,pyerseers of

gain and income.

cardinals, in like

manner,

they did but

consider that the church supposes them to suc-

ceed

in the

room

of the apostles

;

that therefore

they must behave themselves as their predecessors,

and so not be

ritual gifts,

lords, but dispensers of spi-

of the disposal whereof they must

one day render a

strict

account

they would

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

156 but

reflect

little

their habit,

with themselves, what means

What

signifies

outermost

pall,

God ?

What

imports

so wide and long that

covers the whole mule

be big enough

inner purple, but only an

ardent love and zeal to

white upper

unspotted innocence

only an

garment, but

and thus reason

this

when

to cover

I ride,

nay, should

a camel, but only a

dif-

fusive charity, that should spread itself for a suc-

cour and protection to

all,

teaching, exhorting,

comforting, reproving, admonishing, composing of differences, courageously withstanding wicked princes,

and

our

and blood, as well as our wealth and

life

riches

;

sacrificing for the safety of

our flock

though indeed riches ought not

possessed by such as boast themselves suc-

all

cessors to the apostles,

who were

and

they did but lay these

destitute

say, if

poor, needy,

considerations to heart they would never be so

ambitious of being created_to_this honour, they

would wiTImgiy resign

when

conferred upon

them, or at least would be as industrious, watchful

and

Now

laborious, as the primitive apostles were.

as to the popes of

themselves Christ's vicars,

Rome, who pretend

they would but imi-

J54

Erasmus's praise of Folly. tate his

exemplary

in the

life,

157

being employed in

an unintermitted course of preaching

;

in the

being attended with poverty, nakedness, hunger,

and a contempt of

this

world

;

they did but

consider the import of the word pope, which signifies a father;

they did but practice

what order or degrees There of men would be in a worse condition ? would be then no such vigorous making of par-

their

surname of most

ties,

and buying of

holy,

votes, in the conclave

a vacancy of that see

and those who by

upon

bribery,

or other indirect courses, should get themselves elected,

would never secure

their sitting firm in

the chair by pistol, poison, force, and violence.

How much

of their pleasure would be abated

they were but endowed with one dram of wis-

dom

Wisdom, did

say

Nay, with one

grain of that salt which our Saviour bid them

not lose the savour

of,^

All their riches,

all their

honour, their jurisdictions, their Peter's patri-

mony,

their

offices,

their

dispensations,

licences, theirÂť indulgences, their

attendants (see in

abbreviated

word,

all

how

all their

long train and

short a compass

would be

have

marketing of religion)

their perquisites

their

;

forfeited

and

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

158 lost

;

and

in their

room would succeed watchings, hard studies,

fastings, tears, prayers, sermons,

repenting sighs, and a thousand such like severe penalties

nay, what's yet

would then

deplorable,

follow, that all their clerks,

amanu-

enses, notaries, advocates, proctors, secretaries,

the offices of grooms, ostlers, serving-men, pimps

(and somewhat

else,

shall not mention)

for modesty's sake I

in short, all these troops of

depend on

attendants, which all

;

which

his holiness,

lose their several employments.

would

This indeed

would be hard, but what yet remains would be

more dreadful

the very

Head

of the Church,

the spiritual prince, would then be brought from all

his splendour to the

poor equipage of a scrip

upon the supposition only that they understood what circumstances they are placed in whereas now, by a wholesome and

But

staff.

all this is

;

neglect of thinking, they live as well as heart

can wish

whatever of

toil

and drudgery belongs

to their office that they assign over to St. Peter,

or St. Paul,

but

who have

time enough to mind

there be any thing of pleasure and gran-

deur, that they

hereunto called

assume :

to themselves, as being

so that

influence

;

Erasuvs's praise of Folly.

159

own

ease and

sort of people live

They

content.

to their

think to satisfy that Master

they pretend to serve, our Lord and Saviour, with their great state and magnificence, with the ceremonies of instalments, with the

reverence and holiness, and

of miracles

to teach the people

scripture

schoolmen

;

and

cursing.

old and out-dated

too laborious

;

to interpret

;

to invade the prerogative of the

to pray

cowardly and unmanly sordid

with exercising their

episcopal function only in blessing

The working

titles

too idle ;

to fast

;

be easy and familiar

shed tears

too is

mean and

beneath the

grandeur of him, who, without being sued to and intreated, will scarce give princes the

kissing his toe

;

finally, to

honour of

die for religion

too

self-denying; and to be crucified as their Lord^

of Life,

base and ignominious.

Their only

be those of the Spirit and of these indeed they are mighty liberal, as of their

weapons ought

;

interdicts, their suspensions, their denunciations,

their aggravations, their greater

and

communications, and their roaring fright

whomever they

and these most holy

lesser exbulls,

that

are thundered against

fathers never issue

them

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly,

i6o

out more frequently than against those, who, at the instigation of the devil, and not having the

God

fear of

before their eyes, do feloniously

and maliciously attempt St. Peter's

and impair

and though that apostle

our Saviour in the gospel, in the

tells all

patrimony

to lessen

we have

the other disciples,

left all,

lowed you, yet they challenge as

name and

fol-

his inheritance,

towns, treasures, and large dominions

fields,

for the defending whereof, inflamed with

they fight with

zeal,

fire

a holy

and sword, to the great

and effusion of Christian blood, thinking they

loss

are apostolical maintainers of Christ's spouse, the church,

they

when they have murdered

call

her enemies

all

such as

though indeed the church

;

has no enemies more bloody and tyrannical than

such impious popes,

who

give dispensations for

the not preaching of Christ

and design of our redemption by

effect

pecuniary bribes and sales pel

evacuate the main

;

adulterate the gos-

their forced interpretations,

mining traditions

;

and

lastly,

wickedness grieve the Holy their Saviour's

wounds

their

and under-

their lusts

Spirit,

to bleed

anew.

when the Christian church has been

and

and make Farther, all

along

Erasmus's praise of Folly. first

i6i

and since estab-

planted, then confirmed,

by L.-^ lood of her martyrs, as if Christ her head would be wanting in the same methods lished

still

of protecting her, they invert the order,

and propagate

their religion

now by .arms and

was wont formerly to be done only with patience and sufferings. And though war be so brutish, as that it becomes beasts

violen ce, which

rather than

feigned it

men

;

so extravagant, that the poets

effect of the furies; so licentious, that

and honesty, so best waged by ruffians and

stops the course of

desperate, that banditti,

it is

all

justice

and so unchristian^ that

to the express

commands

maugre

peace

all this,

shall

creep,

Among

contrary

of the gospel

;

yet

too quiet, too inactive,

and they must be engaged of war.

in the boisterousness

which undertaking popes, you

have some so old that they can scarce

and yet they

will

put on a young, brisk

resolution, will resolve to stick at

pains, to

spare no cost, nor to waive any inconvenience,

so they all

may

involve laws, religion, peace, and

other concerns, whether sacred or

appeasable tumults and distractions.

some of

their

civil,

in un-

And

yet

learned fawning courtiers will

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

interpret this notorious

and

piety,

how

madness^for

and

.zeal,

having found out the way draw his sword, and sheathe it

foxtitude,

man may

in his brother's bowels, _and yet not offend against

are

obliged to love our neighbours as ourselves.

the duty of the second table, whereby

yet uncertain whether these

Romish

fathers

have taken example from, or given precedent

German

such other

ecclesiastical habit,

bishops,

who

omitting their

and other ceremonies, appear

openly armed cap-a-pie, like so

and

warriors, thinking

many champions

no doubt that they come

short of the duty of their function, in

to,

any other place than the open

they die

field,

fighting

'the battles of the Lord. ÂŤ^ The inferior clergy,

deeming

unmannerly not

conform to

their

patrons and diocesans, devoutly tug and fight for their tithes with syllogisms

and arguments,

as fiercely as with swords, sticks, stones, or anyu

thing that

came next

to hand.

When

they read

the rabbies, fathers, or other ancient writings,

how

quick-sighted are they in spying out any

may frighten the -people and make them believe that more than the tenth is due, passing by whatever they meet with

sentences, that they with,

Erasmus's praise of Folly. in the

and

same authors

minds them of the duty

that

difficulty of tlieir

own

They never

office.

consider that their shaven crown they^ should pare off

i6 o

and cut away

a token that

all

the super-

and j;ive themselves

fluous lusts of this world,

wholty^to divine meditation

but instead of

;

this,

our bald-pated priests think they have done

enough,

they do but

fardel of prayers

;

which

mumble

a wonder

over_ such a if

God

when they whisper

should' hear or understand,

them so sofdy, and in so unknown a language, which they can sceirce hear or understand themThis they have

selves.

common

with other

mechanics, that they are most subtle in the craft

of getting money, and wonderfully skilled

in their respective quisites,

the

Thus they

&c.

profit,

dues of

tithes, offerings, per-

are

all

content to reap

but as to the burden, that they toss

as a ball from

one hand

to another,

over to any they can get or hire

and assign

for as secular

princes have their judges and subordinate ministers to act in their

name, and supply their stead

so ecclesiastical governors have vicars,

and

curates, nay,

many

the whole care of religion to the

;

their deputies,

times turn over laity.

The

laity,

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

164

supposing they have nothing to do with the church (as if their baptismal vow did not initiate

them members of

it),

make

over to the priests

;

of the priests again, those, that are secular, think,

ing their

title

implies

fane, assign this task

them

dicants

;

they lay

be a

little

too pro-

over to the regulars, the

regulars to the monks, the

one order to another,

till

monks bandy light

upon the

from

upon the menwhich

Carthusians,

order alone keeps honesty and piety

among

them, but really keep them so close that no

Thus

body ever yet could see them.

the Popes ^

---

f-~

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

thrusting only their sickle into the harvest of profit,

leave

all

the other

toil

of spiritual hus-

bandry

to the bishops, the bishops bestow it upon the pastors, the pastorsontheifcurates, and the curates commit it to the mendicants,

who return it again to such as welPknowTiow to make good advantage of the flock, by the benefit of their fleece.

But

would not be thought purposely

expose the weaknesses of popes and I

should seem" to recede from

reflect

priests, lest

my title,~and make

a satire instead of a panegyric

imagine that

nor let anyone on good princes, by com:

J62

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

mending of bad ones I did to shew that there is no one :

can lead a comfortable

society,

and

Nor indeed can

this only in brief,

particular person

except he be entered

life,

retain

for his

be otherwise, since

much

that empress of the world,

and amity with me, that

to wise

always stingy, and sparing of her fusely liberal theus, the

and lavish

underwitted

little

;

luck,

friend.

fortune,

league

men

gifts,

she

but

because he was

from him was occasioned

tkotigh the fisherman sleeps

also another favourable proverb,

The owlflies, an omen of wise

men

pro-

in all his expedi-

the Grecian proverb, 'H evSoi'Tos Kvpro?

TAe netfills,

Thus Timo-

to fools.

Athenian commander,

was a mirror of good

tions,

165

;

yXav^

success.

ctipet,

there

iTrrarat,

But against

are pointed these ill-aboding proverbs,

Born tender a bad planet equum habet seianum. He cannot ride the fore-

'Ez' TCT/oaSt yâ&#x201A;Źvvri6ivTa<i,

aurum tholosanum. Ill-gotten goods will never prosper ; and more to the same purpose.

horse;

But

lest

forbear from any farther proverbializing,

should be thought to have

Erasmus's adages. tune

find

still

return,

rifled

therefore,

my for-

favouring the blunt, and flush-

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

ing the forward

crowning

all

strokes and smoothes

;

fools,

their undertakings with success;

but wisdom makes her followers bashful, sneak-

and timorous, and therefore you see that they are commonly reduced, to hard shifts, must grapple with poverty, cold and hunger, must lie ing,

recluse, despised, roll

and unregarded, while

money, are advanced to

and

offices,

command.

fools

and

dignities

a word, have the whole world at it happy to be a manage the disposal

any one think

favourite at court,

and

of places and preferments, alas, this happiness is

so far from being attainable

the very suspicion of

advancement.

would put a stop

Has any man

himself a good estate

by wisdom,

all

a mind to raise

Alas what dealer

the world would ever get a farthing,

he be so

wise as to scruple at perjury, blush at a stick at

that

lie,

any fraud and over-reaching.

Farther, does any one appear a candidate for

any

ecclesiastical dignity ?

Why, an

plough-jobber, shall sooner gain

man. lady folly,

ass, or

than a wise

Again, are you in love with any handsome ?

Alas,

women-kind are so addicted

that they will not at

all listen

to the court-

Erasmus's praise of Folly. ship of a wise suitor. is

Finally,

any preparation made wise

all

men

167

wherever there

for mirth

and

jollity,

are sure to be excluded the com-

damp soever we

pany, lest they should stint the joy, and the

frolic.

In a word, to what side

turn ourselves, to popes, princes, judges, magistrates, friends,

enemies, rich or poor,

all

their

concerns are managed by money, which because it

undervalued by wise men, therefore,

revenge to be sure,

But now, though

never comes at them.

my praise and commendation

might well be endless, yet put some period to

it is

requisite

speech.

I'll

should

therefore

draw toward an end, when I have first confirmed what I have said by the authority of several authors. Which by way of farther proof I shall insist upon, partly, that I may not be thought to have said more in my own behalf than what will

lawyers

justified

may

by others

not check

cedents nor allegations. fore

will

;

and

partly, that the

me for citing no preTo imitate them there-

produce some reports and authorities,

though perhaps

like theirs too, they are nothing

to the purpose.

First then,

it is

confessed almost to a proverb,

— —— 1

—

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

that the art of dissembling

accomplishment

among

verse

;

a very necessary

and therefore

school-boys

common

it is

To feign the fool when fit occasions rise, Argues the being more completely wise.

how great a value ought to be put upon real folly, when the very shadow, and bare imitation of it, is so much esteemed. Horace, who in his epistles thus It is

easy therefore to collect

styles himself:

My sleek-skinri d corpse as smooth as

if I

'Mong

sty.

This poet odes

th' fatted

swine of Epicurus's

say) gives this advice in

epithet of short,

The same

proper.

elsewhere

true,

Than feel the

Homer

praises

little

this

im-

passage

Silly

relish.

—

be censured for a fool,

lash

and smart of wisdom's

school.

Telemachus as much as any one him the epithet and the Grecians generally use :

of his heroes, and yet he gives Nt^itios,

fnix.

poet again has

another place

Fd rather much

his

Well-timed Folly has a sweet

And

one of

Short Folly with your counsels

The

lie

yeff

^-^>>L^^

^^mNW

^ _^;^-Sv _\

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Erasmus's praise of Folly. the

same word

to express children, as a token

And what

of their innocence.

Homer's

all

observes

169

Iliads,

but

the argument

Horace

only,

They kings and subjects dotages contain

How

positive also

Tully's

commendation that

places are filled with fools

all

Now

excellence being to be measured

its

every extent,

the goodness of folly must be of as large com-

pass as those universal places she reaches

But perhaps

christians

of a heathen.

may

slight the authority

could therefore,

pleased,

back and confirm the truth hereof by the tions of several texts of scripture It

were perhaps

divines, that

cita-

though herein

;

duty to beg leave of the

might so

far intrench

upon

their

Supposing a grant, the task seems

prerogative.

so difficult as to require the invocation of aid

to.

and assistance

;

yet because

it is

some

unreason-

able to put the muses to the trouble and expense

of so tedious a journey, especially since the busi-

ness

(while their

out of their sphere, I

shall

choose rather

acting the divine, and venturing in

polemic

difficulties),

to wish

myself for

such time animated with Scotus, his bristling

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

lyo

and prickly

soul,

afterwards

refinement

the way.

change divine,

which

returned to

were stopped

my in my

might wholly

character, or at least that

some grave

might rehearse

this part of

stead,

me;

somebody

accuse

will

for

divinity, as

truly

closets of those reverend

much

at a purgatory

cannot but wish that

the subject for

to so

would not care how his body, though for

suspect that

of plundering the

men, while

must appear

lowing discourse. Yet however,

pretend

fol-

may not seem

and frequent a conhave gleaned some scraps from the

strange, that after so long verse,

wooden god by hearing Homer, learned some words of Greek and Lucian's cock, by long attention, could readily understand what any man spoke. divines

;

since Horace's

his master read ;

But now

to the purpose,

Ecclesiastes

doth

there are an infinite

when he speaks

wishing myself success.

somewhere confess number of fools.

of an infinite number, what

does he else but imply, that herein the whole race of mankind, except few,

which

that

Now

know

included

some very not whether ever any one

had yet the happiness

to see

J6S

^^'yytn."

^/>n~.'^-

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

lyi

The prophet Jeremiah speaks yet more plainly tenth chapter, where he saith, that Every

in his

man

brutish in his knowledge.

attributes

wisdom

God

He just before

alone, saying, that the

Wise men of

the nations are altogether brzitish

and foolish.

And

in the

preceding chapter he

gives this seasonable caution, Let not the wise

man glory

in his

wisdom

because no man hath

truly

the reason

obvious,

any whereof to glory.

But to return to Ecclesiastes, when he

saith,

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, what else can we imagine his meaning to be, than that our

whole

life is

nothing but one continued interlude

This confirms that assertion of Tully,

of Folly

which

delivered in that noted passage

we but

now mentioned, namely, that All places swarm with fools. Farther, what does the son of Sirach mean when he saith in Ecclesiasticus,

just

that the

Fool

Wise mun

fixed as the sun, than only to hint

out the folly of of wise

changed as the moon, while the

due

all

;

and that the name

no other but the all-wise

for all interpreters

kind,

mankind

and by Sun that fountain of

Almighty.

God

by Moon understand man-

The same

sense

all light,

the

implied in that

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

172

saying of our Saviour in the gospel, There

none

good but one, that is God: for if whoever is not wise must be consequently a fool, and if, according to the Stoics, every man be wise so far only as he is good, the meaning of the text must and there be, all mortals are unavoidably fools ;

none wise but one, that

God.

Solomon

also in the fifteenth chapter of his proverbs hath this expression, Folly is

of wisdom ;

tute

man

him that

is desti-

attended with grief and vexation, while roll

the same purpose

in is

delight

increaseth sorrow. sariie

preacher

same book. That

pleasure.

much wisdom

that increaseth knowledge

Again, in

and

that saying of his in the

chapter of Ecclesiastes, In

much grief ; and he the

plainly intimating, that the wise

the foolish only

first

joy

confessed by

the seventh chapter of the

the heart

of the wise

in the

house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. This author himself had

never attained to such a portion of wisdom, if he had not applied himself to a searching out the

frailties

and

infirmities of

human

nature

;

as,

you believe not me, may appear from his own words in his first chapter, / gave my heart to if

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

know wisdom, and where

worthy

it is

be observed that as to the

order of words, Folly for

Thus

the last place.

know madness and folly

advantage

its

put in

Ecclesiastes wrote,

and

thus indeed did an ecclesiastical method require

;

namely, that what has the precedence in dignity should

come hindmost

rank and order, accor-

ding to the tenor of that evangelical precept.

The

And

last shall be first, in

and

the first shall be last.

Ecclesiasticus likewise (whoever

was

author of the holy book which bears that name) in

the forty-fourth chapter, the

folly

above wisdom

the very words

excellency of

acknowledged

positively

shall not cite,

advantage of an answer to a question posing, this

made use is it

pro-

way of interrogating being frequently

by Plato

in his

dialogues between

Socrates, and other disputants

what

;

have the

till I

usually hoard

ask you then,

and lock

up, things of

greater esteem and value, or those which are

and despicable ? Why are you so backward in making ah answer ? Since you are so shy and reserved, I'll take the Greek pro-

common,

trite,

verb for a satisfactory reply paL<5 vBpCav,

Foul water

;

namely,

ttjv hrX 6v-

thrown down

the sink;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

which saying, that no person may be convenient to advertise that no meaner

slight

it,

may

comes from

an author than that oracle of truth,

And

Aristotle himself.

indeed there

no one

on this side Bedlam so mad as to throw out upon the dunghill his gold and jewels, but rather all

persons have a close repository to preserve

them

in,

bolts,

and

fears

suggest

and secure them under bars, that either art

oyster-shells,

whereas the

that

lie

all

the locks,

can contrive, or

dirt,

pebbles, and

scattered in the streets,

ye trample upon, pass by, and take no notice

of.

what is more valuable be coffered up, and what less so lies unregarded, it follows, that accordingly Folly should meet with a greater If then

esteem than wisdom, because that wise author advises us to the keeping close and concealing the

first,

and exposing or laying open the other:

him now

as take

in his

own

that hideth his folly than

wisdom.

him

that hideth his

Beside, the sacred text does oft ascribe

innocence and sincerity to

man

words, Better

fools,

while the wise

apt to be a haughty scorner of

all

such

as he thinks or censures to have less wit than

himself

for so

understand that passage

in the

,llllllllllllllUllllllllMlllllllllllllll|lll||IIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIillfllllllllllllMIIIII

Erasmus's praise of Folly. tenth chapter of Ecclesiastes,

When

he that

fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him,

and he

Now

saith to every one that he is a fool.

what greater argument of candour or ingenuity can there be, than to all

demean himself equal with

and not think

others,

inferior to his

own.

no such scanda-

lous attribute, but that the wise

ashamed

to confess

Proverbs

Surely

it,

any way

their deserts

Folly

Agur was not

in the thirtieth chapter of

am. more brutish than

any

man, and have not the tinderstanding of a man. Nay, St. Paul himself, that great doctor of the

owns the name, saying. If any man speak as a fool, I am more ; as if to have been less so had been a Gentiles, writing to his Corinthians, readily

reproach and disgrace.

But perhaps

may be

censured for mis-interpreting this text by some

modern

annotators,

who

one another's eyes, find that

crows pecking at

fault,

and correct

went before them, pretend each

all

own

their

glosses to contain the only true and genuine explication I

;

among whom my Erasmus (whom

cannot but mention with respect)

the second place, citation

(say they)

may challenge This

not the precedency. is

purely impertinent

;

the

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

176

meaning of the apostle is far different from what you dream of: he would not have these words so understood, as if he desired to be thought a greater fool than the rest, but only when he had before said,

Are

of Christ ?

they ministers

the equalling himself herein to others

had been too

little,

he adds, /

more, thinking

a bare equality not enough, unless he were even superior to

those he compares himself with.

This he would have to be believed as true lest

too

might be thought

offensive,

much on arrogance and

and

conceit,

he tempers

privilege of fools to

giving^ offence.

speak the

But what

were when he wrote termine.

yet

by the covert of Folly. / speak as a fool, knowing it to be the peculiar_

alleviates

(says he)

;

as bordering

this, I

St.

truth, without

Paul's thoughts

leave for them to de-

my own judgment

at least

prefer

the opinion of the good old tun-bellied divines,

with err,

whom

it's

safer

and more

creditable to

than to be in the right with smattering, raw,

novices.

Nor indeed should any one mind

the late

any more than the senseless chattering of a daw especially since one of the most eminent critics

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

them (whose name

177

advisedly conceal, lest

some of our wits should be taunting him with the Greek proverb, *Oi/o5 tt^os \vpa.v, ad lyram asimis) magisterially and dogmatically descantupon

ing

\are they the ministers

his text

of makes a and (which without good store

Christ ? (I speak as a fool) distinct chapter,

of logic he could never section,

and then gives

verbatim

shall

recite,

I am

more']

have done) adds a new this paraphrase,

that

you may have

words materially, as well as formally (for

that's

one of their babbling

[I speak as afoof] that to those false

is, if

accounted a greater

his sense

distinctions),

the equalling myself

fool,

not only

will willingly

by taking place of

them, and openly pleading, I

his

apostles would have been con-

strued as the vaunt of a fool,

ministry,

which

that

their

come up even with them,

but outstrip and go beyond them

though

this

same commentator a little after, as it were forgetting what he had just before delivered, tacks about and

shifts to

But why do example, of

all

when

another interpretation.

insist

upon any one

particular

in general it.iaihfi. public charter

divines, to

mould and bend the sacred N

Erasmus's praise of Foily.

lyS oracles

till

own

they comply jsdth their

spreading them (as

Heaven by

its

fancy,

Creator) like

a curtain, closing together, or drawing them

Thus indeed St Paul minces and mangles some citations he

back, as they please

himself

makes use

of,

and seems

them

to wrest

to a dif-

what they were first intended, confessed by the great linguist, St. Thus when that apostle saw at Athens

ferent sense from for,

Hierom.

the inscription of an

argument

altar,

he draws from

for the proof of the christian religion

;

but leaving out great part of the sentence, which perhaps

if fully

his cause,

recited

might have prejudiced

he mentions only the two

To the unknown God ; and

viz.,

last

words

this too not

without alteration, for the whole inscription runs thus

To the Gods of Asia, Europe, and

io all foreign

'Tis

and tmknown

Africa,

Gods.

an imitation of the same

pattern,

will.

warrant you, that our young divines, by leaving out four or five words in a place, and putting a false

construction on the

rest,

can_make_any

passage serviceable to their own purpose; though

from the coherence of what went before, or follows after, the genuine meaning appears to be^

Erasmus's praise of Folly. either

wide enough, or perhaps quite contradic-

tory to it.

179

what they would thrust and impose upon

In which knack the divines are grown

now

so expert, that the lawyers themselves begin to

be jealous of an encroachment upon what was formerly their sole privilege and practice.

And

indeed what can they despair of proving, since

had almost

the fore-mentioned commentator

blundered out his name), but that

restrained

same Greek proverbial sarcasm) did upon a text of St. Luke put an interpretation, no more agreeable to the meaning of the place,

fear of the

than one contrary quality

passage

another

The

Judas's treachery

requisite that all the disciples should to

was prebe executed, and accordingly it seemed

is this,

paring to

when

is to

be provided

guard and secure their assaulted master, our

Saviour, that he might

piously

caution

against reliance for his delivery on strength, asks them,

whether

they lacked anything,

them

any worldly

in all their

when he had

embassy

sent

them

out so unfurnished for the performance of a long journey, that they to

had not so much as shoes

defend their feet from the injuries of

flints

and thorns, or a scrip to carry a meal's meat

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

i8o

and when they had answered that they lacked nothing, he adds, But new he that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise a scrip ; and he that, hath no sword

him

let

Now when

one.

sell his

garment, and buy

the whole doctrine of our

Saviour inculcates nothing more frequently than meekness, patience, and a contempt of this world, is it

not plain what the meaning of the place

Namely, that he might now dismiss

his

is ?

ambas-

more naked, defenceless condition, he does not only advise them to take no thought for shoes or scrip, but even commands them to

sadors in a

part with the very clothes from their back, that so they might have the less incumbrance and

entanglement

and

function.

in the

going through their cautions them,

it is

office

true, to

be furnished with a sword, yet not such a carnal one as rogues and highwaymen make use of

for

murder and bloodshed, but with the sword

the Spirit, which pierces through the heart, and

searches out the innermost retirements of the soul,

lopping off

tions,

all

our

lust,

and leaving nothing

and corrupt

in possession of our

breast but piety, zeal, and devotion in

opinion

affec-

this (I say)

the most natural interpretation.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

i8i

But see how that divine misunderstands the place;

by sword

(says he)

against persecution

;

meant, defence

scrip, or purse,

cient quantity of provision

;

suffi-

Christ had,

mind in reference to that mean equipage, which he had before sent his disciples in, and therefore came now to a recantation of what he had formerly instituted or as if he had forgot what in time considering better of

changed

it,

his

past

he had told them, Blessed are you when men

shall revile you,

and persecute

manner of evil against you for not evil for cruel

evil,

you,

and say

my sake.

all

Render

for blessed are the meek, not the

he had forgot that he encouraged

them by the examples of sparrows and lilies to take no thought for the morrow he gives them ;

now another

lesson,

and charges them, rather

than go without a sword,

to sell their

garment,

and buy one ; as if the going cold and naked were more excusable than the marching unarmed. And as this author thinks all means which are requisite injuries to

for

the prevention or retaliation of

be implied under the name of sword,

so under that of scrip, he to

would have everything

be comprehended, which either the necessity

or conveniency of

life

requires.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

Thus does

this

provident commentator

fur-

nish out the disciples with halberts, spears, and

guns, for the enterprise of preaching Christ cru-

he suppHes them at the same time with pockets, bags, and portmanteaus, that they cified

;

might carry their cupboards as well as their he takes no notice bellies always about them :

how

our Saviour afterwards rebukes Peter

for

drawing that sword which he had just before so strictly

charged him to buy

;

nor that

it is

ever

recorded that the primitive Christians did by no

ways withstand

their

heathen persecutors other-

wise than with tears and prayers, which they

more effectually for swords and bucklers, if they had thought this text would have borne them out. There is another, and he of no mean credit,

would have

whom to

exchanged

for respect to his person

shall forbear

name, who commenting upon that verse

Habakkuk (/ saw the tents of affliction, and the curtains of the land

the prophet

Cushan in

of Midian did tremble), because tents were sometimes made of skins, he pretended that the word tents did here signify the skin of St. Bartholomew,

who was

flayed for a martyr.

Erasmus's praise of Folly. I

183

myself was lately at a divinity disputation

(where

very often pay

attendance),

one of the opponents demanded a reason

where

why

should be thought more proper to silence

all

by sword and faggot, rather than conthem by moderate and sober arguments ?

heretics

vert

certain cynical old blade,

racter of

who bore

the cha-

a divine, legible in the frowns and

wrinkles of his face, not without a great deal of disdain answered, that

was the express

injunc-

Paul himself, in those directions to

tion of St.

Titus

{A man

that

heretic, after the first

and second admonition, reject), quoting it in Latin, where the word reject is devita, while all the auditory wondered at this citation, and deemed it no way applicable to his purpose he ;

at last explained himself, saying, that devita signified

de vita tollendum heretictim,

must be

slain.

Some

smiled at his ignorance,

but others approved of ment.

a heretic

as an orthodox com-

And however some

disliked that such

violence should be done to so easy a text, our

and

hair-splitting

triumph. niably,

To is

irrefragable doctor

prove

yet (says he)

commanded

in the old

went on

more undelaw

[

Thott

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

184

shalt not suffer a witch to live] Maleficus, or witch,

now

then every

but an here-

killed,

Maleficus, which in the Latin translation

tic is

put for a witch, ergo, &c.

wondered

All that were^present

at the ingenuity of the person, and

embraced

very devoutly

never

opinion,

his

dreaming that the law was restrained only magicians, sorcerers, and enchanters wise,

the

naturally

word Maleficus

signified

for other-

what

most

every evil-doer, then drun-

implies,

kenness and whoredom were to meet with the

same

why

punishment as witchcraft.

capital

should

squander away

tedious prosecution of this topic,

But

time in a too

which

drove

on to the utmost would afford talk to eternity ? I aim herein at no more than this, namely, that since those grave doctors take such a swinging

range and

latitude,

novice in divinity,

ance for any

Now

I, who am but a smattering may have the larger allow-

slips or mistakes.

therefore

return to St. Paul,

who

uses

these expressions \Ye suffer fools gladly\ apply-

ing

7ne\,

and

to himself ;

and again

[ That which

\_As

speak,

a fool

receive

I speak not

the Lord, but as it were foolishly]

;

and

after

in ano-

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

\We are fools for Christ's sake\.

ther place

how

185

See

these commendations of Folly are equal to

The and command

the author of them, both great and sacred.

same holy person does yet enjoin the being a fool, as a virtue of requisite

and necessary

man

to be

seem

how

may

others most

says he \If any

for,

him become Thus St. Luke

wise in this world,

a fool, that he records,

all

be wise\.

let

our Saviour, after his resurrection,

joining himself with two of his disciples travel-

Emmaus,

ling to

at his first salutation

calls

\0 fools, and slow of heart to believe\. Nor may this seem strange in comparison to what is yet farther delivered by St. Paul, who adventures to attribute something of them

fools,

saying

Folly even to the all-wise foolishness in

of God

which text

St.

God

himself \The

(says he) is wiser than

same

But why do

ble of citing so suffice

for

all,

many

sense, wherein

understood that other passage of

preaching of the cross ishness\.

;

Origen would not have the

word foolishness any way referred applicable to the

men\

St.

men, or is

Paul [ The

them that perish, fool-

put myself to the trou-

proofs, since this

namely, that

one may

those mystical

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

psalms wherein David represents the type of Christ, it is there acknowledged by our Saviour, in

way

of confession, that even he himself was

guilty of Folly

Thou

;

Nor

foolishness ?

that

(says he) is it

O God knowest

without some reason

fools for their plainness

and

sincerity of

heart have always been most acceptable to

Almighty.

For

God

as the princes of this world

have shrewdly suspected, and carried a jealous eye over such of their subjects as were the

most observant, and deepest Caesar was

politicians (for thus

afraid of the plodding Cassius,

Brutus, thinking himself secure

enough from the

Nero likewise misSeneca, and Dionysius would have been

careless drinking

trusted

Anthony

and

;

willingly rid of Plato), whereas they can

all

put

greater confidence in such as are of less subtlety

So our

and contrivance.

Saviour- in like man-

ner dislikes and condemns the wise and as

St.

words,

crafty,

Paul does expressly declare in these

God hath

chosen the foolish things of the

world ; and again, to save the

pleased

God by

foolishness

world ; implying that by wisdom

could never have been saved. self testifies as

Nay,

God

much when he speaks by

himthe

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

mouth of of the

his prophet,

and bring

wise,

ing of the learned.

187

I will destroy the wisdom to

nought the understand-

Again, our Saviour does

solemnly return his Father thanks for that he

had hidden the mysteries of salvation from the

and

wise,

revealed them, to babes,

for the original <To<f)ols, if

word

vTjmou's,

i.e.,

to fools

being opposed to

one signify wise, the other must

fool-

same purpose did our blessed Lord frequently condemn and upbraid the

ish.

the

scribes, pharisees,

and lawyers, while he

carries

himself kind and obliging to the unlearned multitude

for

what otherwise can be the meaning

of that tart denunciation.

and

Pharisees, than

Woe unto you

scribes

woe unto you wise men,

whereas he seems chiefly delighted with dren,

women, and

illiterate

We may farther

chil-

fishermen.

take notice, that

among

all

the several kinds of brute creatures he shews greatest liking to such as are farthest distant

from the subtlety of the

fox.

Thus

in his pro-

gress to Jerusalem he chose to ride sitting

ass,

though,

upon

he pleased, he might have

mounted the back of a lion with more of state, and as little of danger. The Holy Spirit chose

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

rather likewise to descend from heaven in the

shape of a simple

eagle, kite, or other

Thus

all

than that of an

gall-less dove,

lofty fowl.

along in the holy scriptures there

are frequent metaphors and similitudes of the

most inoffensive creatures, such as stags, hinds, Nay, those blessed souls lambs, and the like. that in the day of judgment are to be placed at our Saviour's right hand are called sheep, which are the most senseless and stupid of as

all

cattle,

evidenced by Aristotle's Greek proverb,

irpo^aTcov rfOo^, a

sheepishness of temper,

i.e.,

unmanly humour. Yet of such a flock Christ is not ashamed to profess himself the shepherd. Nay, he would not only a

dull, blockish, sleepy,

have

all

his proselytes

termed sheep, but even

he himself would be called a lamb

;

when

John the Baptist seeth Jesus coming unto him, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God ; which same title

very often given to our Saviour

in the

apocalypse.

All

mortal

this

men

amounts are

fpp.ls,

godly as well as sinners

less

than that

all

even the righteous and ;

nay, in

some sense our

blessed Lord himself, who, although he was the

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

189

wisdom of the Father, yet to repair the infirmities of fallen man, he became in some measure

human Folly, when he took our nature upon him, and was fotmd in fashion as a man ; or when God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we m,ight be made the Nor would he righteousness of God in him. heal those breaches our sins had made by any a partaker of

method than by \!a.& foolishness of the cross, published by the ignorant and unlearned apostles, to whom he frequently recommends the excellence of Folly, cautioning them against the infectiousness of wisdom, by the several exam-

other

he proposes them to

ples

dren,

lilies,

beings, least

imitate,

chil-

sparrows, mustard, and such like

which are either wholly inanimate, or at

devoid of reason and ingenuity, guided by

no other conduct than that of care,

such as

trouble, or

contrivance.

intent the disciples

instinct,

without

the

were warned by

same

their lord

and master, that when they should be brought unto the synagogues,

and unto

magistrates

powers, they shall take no thought how, or thing they should answer, nor

say

they were again

what

and what

they shoiild

strictly forbid to

enquire

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

igo

into the times

dence

and

own

their

seasons, or to place

any

confi-

but to depend

abilities,

wholly upon divine assistance.

the

first

had never

Adam

peopling of paradise the Almighty

laid

so strict a charge on our father

from eating of the tree of knowledge except he had thereby forewarned that the to refrain

taste of

knowledge would be the bane of

all

St. Paul says expressly, that know-

happiness.

ledge puffeth up,

i.e., it is

pursuance whereunto

fatal

St.

exceeding high mountain

and poisonous.

Bernard interprets that

whereon the

devil

had

erected his seat to have been the mountain of

And

knowledge.

perhaps

argument which ought not that Folly

this

may be

another

be omitted, namely,

acceptable, at least excusable, with

the gods, inasmuch, as they easily pass by the

heedless failures of fools, while the miscarriages of such as are

known

have more wit

very hardly obtain a pardon

man comes

to sue for

;

nay,

when a

shall

wise

an acquitment from any

he must shroud himself under the patronage and pretext of Folly. For thus in the twelfth of guilt,

Numbers Aaron

entreats

prosy of his

Miriam, saying,

sister

Moses

to stay the lealas,

my Lord,

733

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

beseech tJicc lay not the sin

h"fe,

us,

wherein we

Thus, when David spared

have done foolishly. Saul's

upon

191

when he found him

sleeping in a

tent of Hachilah, not willing to stretch forth his

hand against his

the Lord's anointed, Saul excuses

former severity by confessing, Behold,

and have erred exceedingly. David himself in much the same form begs the re-

played the also

I have

fool,

God Almighty

mission of his sin from prayer, Lord,

I pray

thee take

away

with this

the iniquity

of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly ; as if he could not have hoped otherwise to have his

pardon granted except he petitioned for

The

under the covert and mitigation of Folly. yet

when he hung upon the

cross,

agreeable practice of our Saviour convincing, who,

prayed for his enemies, saying, Father, forgive them, urging

no other plea

that of their ignorance,

for

in their behalf

they

know

than

not wJtat

they do.

episde to

Timothy acknowledges he had been a

the

same

effect St.

Paul

blasphemer and a persecutor. But obtained mercy, because T did belief.

[/ did

Now it

what

in his first

(saith he)

igiiorautly in un-

the meaning of the phrase

igtwrantly'] but only this

fault

Erasmus's /;'ÂŤW5

192

^ Folly, Folly, not

was occasioned from a misinformed from a deliberate malice.

What

obtained mercy] but only that

wise have obtained

been

vindication

had not ?

signifies

should not other-

and ignorance

folly

the

same purpose

that other passage in the mysterious Psalmist,

which

namely,

forgot to mention in

Oh remember

youth

! the

proper place,

its

and offences of

not the sins

word which we render

offences,

Observe,

in Latin ignorantias, ignorances.

the two things he alleges in his excuse are, his

first,

rawness of age, to which Folly and want of

experience are constant attendants and secondly, :

his ignorances, expressed in the plural for

number

an enhancement and aggravation of his

fool-

ishness. \)

may draw now

But that

far,

not wear out this subject too

towards a conclusion,

observable that the christian

have some all

relation to Folly,

with wisdom.

first,

seems

alliance at

the truth Avhereof,

desire farther proof than please,

religfion

and no

my bare word it

you

you may

to consider, that children,

old men, and fools, led as

women,

were by a secret

impulse of nature, are ^Iways most constant in

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and most

repairing to church,

and attent ive

;

nay, the first~promul-

gators of the gospel, and the Christianity,

^^,

zealous,

devout performance of the several

in the

of divine serv ice

parts

193

converts to

first

were men of plainness and simpli-

wholly unacquainted with secular policy or

learning. ^.^

Farther, there are nong_jiiQ]:e,siILy, or nearer

than

their wits' end,

tiously religious their charity

;

tfiose

who^e Joosupersti-

they are profusely lavish

they invite fresh affronts by an

easy forgiveness of past injuries

they suffer

;

themselves to be cheated and imposed upon by laying claim to the innocence of the

make

dove

;

they

the interest of no person to oblige

them, because they will love, and do good to their

much

enemies,

friends

they banish

;

to the all

most endearing

pleasure, feeding

upon

the penance of watching, weeping, fasting, sor-

row and reproach

;

they value not their

lives,

but with St. Paul, wish to be dissolved, and covet the fiery trial of

seem

martyrdom

altogether so destitute of

a word, they

common

sense,

seems already separated from the dead and inactive body.^ And what else

that their soul

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

194 can

we imagine

madness

at the feast of

be than downright

the less strange therefore that

It is

this to

all

Pentecost the apostles should

drunk with new

be thought

wine

;

or that

Paul was censured by Festus to have been

St.

beside himself.

And thus

since

far, I

have had the confidence to go

shall venture yet

and be so bold as

to say thus

little

forwarder,

much more

all

that final happiness, which christians, through

many

for, is

rubs'~andn)riars of difficul ties, contend

at last

madness.

no better than a sort of

folly

and

This, no question, will be thought

extravagantly spoke

;

but consider awhile, and

deliberately state the case. First, then, the christians so far

agree with

body is no dungeon for the conThat therefore, while the

the Platonists as to believe that the better than a prison or

finement of the soul. soul

shackled to the walls of

wings are impeded, and ties

all

flesh,

her soaring

her enlivening facul-

clogged and fettered by the gross particles

of matter, so that she can neither freely range after, nor,

when happily

overtook, can quietly

contemplate her proper object of truth.

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

195

Farther, Plato defines philosophy to be the meditation of death, because the one performs the

same

office

with the other

draws the mind from objects

;

namely, with-

all visible

and corporeal

therefore while the soul does patiently

and members of the body, so long is a man accounted of a good and sound disposition but when the soul, weary of her confinement, struggles to break jail, and fly actuate the several organs

;

beyond her cage of is

flesh

and blood, then

man

censured at least for being magotty atid crack-

brainedj. nay,

yet

there be any defect in the exter-

it is

then termed downright madness.

many

times persons thus affected shall

nal organs

And

have prophetic ecstacies of foretelling things to come, shall in a rapture talk languages they never before learned,

and seem

in all things actuated

somewhat divine and extraordinary no doubt,

;

and

all this,

only the effect of the soul's being

engagement to the body, whereby it can with less impediment exert the From hence, no energy of life and motion. question, has sprung an observation of like more released from

nature,

that

confirmed

its

now

into a settled opinion,

some long experienced souls in the world,

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

196

before their dislodging, arrive to the height of

prophetic spirits. If this disorder arise

from an intemperance

religion, and too high a strain of devotion, though it

be of a somewhat

differing sort, yet

it is

so near

akin to the former, that a great part of mankind

apprehend

as a

mere madness

;

especially

when

persons of that superstitious humour are so pragmatical and singular as to separate and live apart as

seem

were from

all

the world beside

so as they

have experienced what Plato dreams

have happened between some, who, enclosed

a dark cave, did only ruminate on the ideas and abstracted speculations of entities

of their company,

open

light,

and

who had

;

and one

other

got abroad into the

at his return tells

them what

had lain under that he had seen the substance of what their dotage of imablind mistake they

gination reached only in

;

shadow

;

that therefore

he could not but pity and condole

their deluding

dreams, while they on the other side no less bewail his frenzy, and turn him out of their society for. a lunatic and madman. ^

Thus

those

the vulgar are wholly taken up with objects that are most familiar to their

Erasmus's praise of Folly. senses,

beyond which they are apt

but fairy-land

;

197

to think all

while those that are devoutly re-

ligious scorn to set their

thoughts or affections on

mount their soul to the purand invisible beings. The for-

any things below, but suit

of incorporeal

mer, in their marshalling the requisites of happiness, place riches in

the

body

in the

the front, the endowments of

next rank, and leave the accom-

plishments of the soul to bring up the rear

some

will

scarce believe there

at all as the soul,

because they cannot

see a reason of their faith

;

nay,

any such thing literally

while the other pay

;

their first fruits of service to that

most simple

and incomprehensible Being, God, employ themselves next in providing for the happiness of that

which comes nearest to their immortal being not at carcases,

all

mindful of their corrupt bodily

and slighting money as the

rubbish of the world; or

though they as though

and

become entan-

with regret, and

what

St. Paul advises

gled in secular affairs, they do

a kind of ill-will, observing

dirt

any time some

urging occasions require them to

his Corinthians,

soul,

having wives, and yet being as

had none ;

buying,

they possessed not.

and yet remainhig

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

rgS

There are between these two

many first,

sorts of persons

though

relation to

than others

same mutual the body, yet some are more gross all

;

the senses have the

as those five corporeal ones, of smelling,

seeing,

whereas some again are more

refined,

touching,

hearing,

adulterated with matter

;

to it

tasting,

and

Now the

will.

be always most ready and expedite

which

it is

naturally

most

inclined.

that a pious soul, emjpjoying^all

abilities in

less

such are the memory,

the understanding, and the will

differences in several other respects.

its

mind

at that

Hence

power and

the pressing after such things as are

farthest removed from sense, is perfectly stupid and brutish in the management of any worldly affairs

;

while on the other side, the vulgar are

upon

so intent that they

their business

have not time

and employment, bestow one poor

From

thought upon a future eternity. ardour of divine meditation was

Bernard

and yet

in his

study drank

his thoughts

oil

such

that Saint

instead of wine,

were so taken up that he

never observed the mistake. Farther,

among

the passions of the soul,

some

have a greater communication with the body

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

199

than others; as lust^ the desiVe of mpafsleep, anger, pride,

man

pious

and envy;

in continual war,

-with,

and

anri

these the

irreconcile-

able enrhityTwhile the vulgar cherish

and foment them as the best comforts of life. There are other affections of a middle nature, common and innate to every man such are love ;

to one's country,

duty to parents, love to children,

kindness to friends, and such like

;

to these the

vulgar pay some respect, but the religious endea"

vour to supplant-ani eradicate -from their soul, except they can raise and sublimate them to the

most refined pitch of virtue

;

so as to love or

honour their parents, not barely under that character (for

body

what did they do more than generate

nay, even for that

holden to God, the but as good

men

first

only,

are primarily be-

parent of

upon

whom

all

mankind),

imprinted

the lively image of that divine nature, which they

esteem as the chief and only good, beyond

whom

nothing deserves to be beloved, nothing desired.

the

same

rule they

offices or duties of life

ever

earthly

;

measure

the other

in each of which, what-

and corporeal,

rejected, yet at least

all

shall, if

not wholly

be put behind what

faith

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

200

makes the substance of things not

seen.

Thus

the sacraments, an^._3JL other acte of religion,

they

make a

difference

between the outward ap-

pearance or body of them, and the more inward

soul or spirit.

think

to instance, in fasting, they

very ineffectual to abstain from

flesh,

oir

debar themselves of a meal's meat (which yet all

the vulgar understand,

his duty), unless

they likewise restrain their passions, subdue their

and mortify

anger,

their pride

;

that the soul

being thus disengaged from the entanglement of the body, objects,

may have

a better relish to

spiritual

Thus

and take an antepast of heaven.

(say they) in the holy Eucharist, though the out-

ward form and ceremonies are not wholly

despised, yet are these prejudicial, at least unprofitable, if as

bare signs only they are not ac-

companied with the thing

signified,

which

body and blood of Christ, whose death,

second coming,

till

the his

are hereby to represent by

the vanquishing and burying our vile affections that they

united

may

first

arise to

a newness of

life,

and be

to each other, then all to Christ.

These are the

actions

truly pious person

and meditations of the

while, the vulgar place

all

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

201

religionjn^rowding up close to the altar, words of the priest, and in being very circumspect at the observance of each their

in listening to the

Nor

ceremony.

trifling

we have here given

his

whole course of

is it in

such cases only

for instances, but

life,

through

that the pious man, with-

out any regard-to the. baser materials of the body,

spends himself wholly spiritual, invisible,

Now

a fixed intentness upon

and^ eternal objects.

since these persons stand

off,

and keep

wide a distance between themselves,

at so

it is

customary for them both to think each other

mad

and were

to give

opinion to which

two the name does most properly belong, should, I confess, adjudge it^tojthe religious;

of the I

of the reasonableness

convinced

whereof you

may be farther

proceed to demonstrate what

formerly hinted

at,

namely, that that ultimate

happiness which religion proposes is"no~o^ther than somelort of madness."

dreamed somewhat of this nature when he tells us that the madness of lovers was of all other dispositions of the body First, therefore, Plato

most desirable

;

for

he who

once thoroughly

smitten with this passion, lives no longer within

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

202

himself, but has

removed

where he has

place

same

his soul to the

settled his affections,

loses himself to find the object he so

much

and

dotes

and wandering of a soul from its own mansion, what is it better than a plain transport of madness ? What else can

upon

straying now,

this

be the meaning of those proverbial phrases, non est

aptid

yourself

se,

and

;

to himself

sibi reddihis

And

ad te

not himself;

hot and eager, so

est,

redi,

recover

come again is more

accordingly as love

the madness thence ensuing

incurable,

shall

be that future happiness of

and yet more happy.

Now what

glorified saints,

which pious souls here on earth so earnestly groan

for,

but only that the

spirit,

as the

potent and prevalent victor, shall over-master

and swallow up the body; and that the more because while here below, the several

easily,

members, by being jection,

ting change

lost,

;

and kept

and afterward the

and drowned

vision, so as the

fectly

mortified,

were the better prepared

beyond

all

in the

whole man its

in sub-

for this separa-

spirit itself shall

abyss of beatific will

be then per-

own bounds, and be no

otherwise happy than as transported into ecstasy

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

and wonder,

203

some unspeakable Influence from that omnipotent Being, which makes all things completely blessed, by assimilating them to his

own

feels

Now

likeness.

although this happi-

when

ness be then only consummated,

souls at

the general resurrection shall be re-united to their bodies, lity

;

and both be clothed with immorta-

yet because a religious

life

tinued meditation upon, and as cript of the joys of

persons there

but a con-

were a

trans-

heaven, therefore to such

allowed some relish and fore-

taste of that pleasure here,

which

And although

reward hereafter.

this

be their

indeed be

but a small pittance of satisfaction compared with that future inexhaustible fountain of blessedness,

abundantly over-balance

yet does

delights,

were they

their best

advantage

all ;

all

worldly

in conjunction set off to

so great

the precedency

of spiritual things before corporeal, of invisible before material and visible.

what the apostle gives an eloquent description of, where he says by way of encouragement, that eye hath This

not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath the heart

of inan

entered into

to conceive those things

God hath prepared for them

which

that love him.

;

Erasmus's praise of Folly.

204

This likewise

that better part

chose, which shall not

which Mary-

be taken from

perfected and completed

her, but

by her mortal putting

on immortality.

Now

those

who

are thus devoutly affected

undergo somewhat of which very nearly approaches

(though few there are strange alteration,

madness

;

so),

they speak~many' things" at an

abrupt aÂťd incoherent tuated by

an inarticulate

noise, ;

and soon

uncouth and antic looks

;

now

cheerful, then as

sobbing, then laugh-

after sighing, as if they

fectly distracted,

make

without any distinguishable

one time beyond measure

immoderately sullen

they

;

ac-

they sometimes screw and

distort their faces to

ing,

they were

some possessing demon

sense or meaning

rate, as if

and out of

were per-

their senses.

they have any sober intervals of coming to

themselves again, like fess,

St.

Paul they then con-

that they were caught

they

know

not

where, whether in the body, or out of the body, they cannot tell ; as

sleep or trance, they

they had been in a dead

remember nothing of what

they have heard, seen, said, or done

this they

only know, that their past delusion was a most

-/^<r.

:ijf e.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Erasmus's praise of Folly. ^^^^i'^^^A^,

happiness

205

that therefore they bewail

;

nothing more than the loss of

it,

nor wish for

any greater joy than the quick return of it, and more durable abode for ever. And this (as I have

the foretaste or anticipation of

said) is

future blessedness.

But

doubt

have forgot myself, and have already transgressed the bounds of modesty. However, if I have said anything too confidently I

or impertinently, be pleased to consider that

was spoke by of a

woman

;

and

Folly,

that under the person

yet at the same time

applicableness of that

remembec the Greek proverb :

A fool oft speaks a seasonable truth

Unless you will be so witty as to object that this makes no apology for me, because the word av^p signifies a man, not a woman, and consequently

sex debars

from the benefit of

that observation. I

perceive now, that, for a concluding treat,

you expect a formal epilogue, and the summing

up of you,

all in

a brief recitation

;

but

you are grossly mistaken

that after such a

will assure

you suppose

hodge-podge medley of speech

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Erasmus's praise of Folly.

2o6 I

should be able to recollect anything

delivered. jjivajjiovav

Beside, as tru/ATTorav

it is

say, /Aicrw ^.vayiovav aKpoaTtjv

will carry

Ye most

may

as truly

hate a hearer

any thing away with him.

Wherefore, in short Farewell!

have

^aie a pot-companion

with a good memory ; so indeed

that

an old proverb, /iiaw

live long,

drink

illustrious votaries

deep, be jolly,

of folly

A POEM 'pHERE'S But

on the foregoing

WORK.

ne'er a blade of

you chance

honour in the town, term him fool and clown. and then with speed

Straight satisfaction

cries,

The

and rapier's length's decreed. swear, which can't agree

time, the place,

Prodigious fops,

call'd

what's their happiness to be

Blest Idiots

That

I'll

an humble sphere securely move,

And

there the sweets of a safe dulness prove. heights of those who range above. Folly, sure friend of a misguided will.

Nor envy the proud

Affords a kind excuse for doing ill ; Socrates, that prudent, thinking tool,

And Had

the gods lik'd him would have prov'd 2. fool. Methinks our author, when without a flaw, The graces of his mistress he does draw. Wishes (if Metempsychosis be true, And souls do change their case, and act anew). In his next life he only might aspire To the few brains of some soft country squire, Whose head with such like rudiments is fraught. As in his youth his careful grannum taught.

And now (dear friend) how shall we to thy brow Pay all those laurels which we justly owe For thou fresh honours to the work dost bring. And to the theme nor seems that pleasing thing, .'

Which he

so well in Latin has express'd.

Less comical in English garments dress'd sentences are all so clearly wrought. And so exactly plac'd in every thought. That, which is more oblig'd we scarce can see ;

Thy

The

subject

by thine

author, or himself

FINIS.

thee.