absurd and contradictory; the east and west may as soon shake hands as Folly and Wisdom be reconciled. Edition: current; Page: [none] Edition: current; Page: [23]
Oh! ERASMUS’s Praise of FOLLY. Nay, so far is he from the affectation of being accounted wise, that he is content, all the rights of devotion which are paid unto him should consist of apishness and drollery. For the proof whereof, it being too tedious to insist upon each particular, I shall only mention such in general as are most worthy the remark, from which by analogy we may easily judge of the remainder. As for those that think them herein so ridiculous, I would have them give an ingenuous answer to
Edition: current; Page: [134] Farther, the apostles often mention Grace, yet never distinguish between gratia, gratis data, and gratia gratificans. With these, and a thousand more such like toys, their heads are more stuffed and swelled than Jove, when he went big of Pallas in his brain, and was forced to use the midwifery of Vulcan’s axe to ease him of his teeming burden. The time, the place, and rapier’s length’s decreed. 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 life, or sense of the pangs of death. Levi (1993) The Praise of Folly has long been famous as the best-known work of the greatest of the Renaissance humanists, Erasmus of Rotterdam. Thus if we enquire into the state of all dumb creatures, we shall find those fare best that are left to nature’s conduct: as to instance in bees, what is more to be admired than the industry and contrivance of these little animals?
Andmuch good to them with this wise man of theirs; let them enjoy him tothemselves, love him without competitors, and live with him in Plato'scommonwealth, the country of ideas, or Tantalus' orchards.
Here he gained the friendship of all the considerable persons of the city, nor could have failed to have made his fortune, had he not been prevailed upon by the great promises of his friends in England to return thither on Henry VIIIth coming to the crown. If any chance to have placed that as a conjunction which ought to have been used as an adverb, it is a sufficient alarm to raise a war for doing justice to the injured word.
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Now what greater argument of candour or ingenuity can there be, than to demean himself equal with all others, and not think their deserts any way inferior to his own. And however some disliked that such violence should be done to so easy a text, our hair-splitting and irrefragable doctor went on in triumph. Let ordinaryfellows cut up an ox or a wether, 'twere a crime to have this done byanything less than a gentleman! Edition: current; Page: [80] The same which has been said of friendship is much more applicable to a state of marriage, Edition: current; Page: [111] It is needless to insist upon the miscarriages of others, when the lecherous intrigues of Jove himself are so notorious, and when the pretendedly chaste Diana so oft uncloaked her modesty to run a hunting after her beloved Endimion. what joy, what triumph, what congratulating their success, as if they had conquered Africa, or taken Babylon the Great! Is not war the very root and matter of all famed enterprises? Andtherefore, as long as the soul uses the organs of the body in that rightmanner it ought, so long it is said to be in good state and condition;but when, having broken its fetters, it endeavors to get loose andassays, as it were, a flight out of that prison that holds it in, theycall it madness; and if this happen through any distemper orindisposition of the organs, then, by the common consent of every man,'tis downright madness.
Con Amazon Prime disfruta de envíos GRATIS y rápidos, video, música y mucho más. I speak (says he) as a fool, knowing it to be the peculiar privilege of fools to speak the truth, without giving offence. ’Tis for the same reason that this sort of men are more fondly beloved by women, who like their tumbling them about, and playing with them, though never so boisterously; pretending to take that only in jest, which they would have to be meant in earnest, as that sex is very ingenious in palliating, and dissembling the bent of their wanton inclinations.
Whose glittering ears are prick’d as bolt-upright. And therefore they are sorry they are come to themselves again anddesire nothing more than this kind of madness, to be perpetually mad. I trow not, but it is that member of our whereas indeed its property is quite contrary, as appears from the examples of several brute creatures. But for all that he thinks nothing of his blindness, rathertaking the same for too cheap a price of such a glory as he won thereby. The apostle's meaning was wide enough from whatyou dream; for he spoke it not in this sense, that he would have thembelieve him a greater fool than the rest, but when he had said, "They areministers of Christ, the same am I," and by way of boasting herein hadequaled himself with to others, he added this by way of correction orchecking himself, "I am more," as meaning that he was not only equal tothe rest of the apostles in the work of the Gospel, but somewhatsuperior.
Lastly, to say nothing of treasons, ill will,and such other mischiefs he's in jeopardy of, that that True King is overhis head, who in a short time will call him to account for every theleast trespass, and that so much the more severely by how much moremighty was the empire committed to his charge. Whereupon they that otherwise would speak like a mouse in acheese start out of a sudden into a downright fury, even there too, wherethere's the least need of it.
In the next place, I supposed that this kind of sporting wit would be by you more especially accepted of, by you, Sir, that are wont with this sort of jocose raillery (such as, if I mistake not, is neither dull nor impertinent) to be mightily pleased, and in your ordinary converse to approve yourself a Democritus junior: for truly, as you do from a singular vein In the next place, I conceived this exercise of wit would not beleast approved by you; inasmuch as you are wont to be delighted with suchkind of mirth, that is to say, neither unlearned, if I am not mistaken,nor altogether insipid, and in the whole course of your life have playedthe part of a Democritus. And to this purpose is that verse which we teachchildren, "'Tis the greatest wisdom to know when and where to counterfeitthe fool."
Moriae Encomium was hugely popular, to Erasmus' astonishment and sometimes his dismay. Whereas, on the contrary, my fat foolsare as plump and round as a Westphalian hog, and never sensible of oldage, unless perhaps, as sometimes it rarely happens, they come to beinfected with wisdom, so hard a thing it is for a man to be happy in allthings. Butnow, where is that heathen or heretic that must not presently stoop tosuch wire-drawn subtleties, unless he be so thick-skulled that he can'tapprehend them, or so impudent as to hiss them down, or, being furnishedwith the same tricks, be able to make his party good with them?
This a holy man does,and in this is his only meditation.
Their ill word is no injury to fools, who are either altogether insensible of any affront, or at least lay it not much to heart. How mankind became environed with such hard circumstances, or what deity imposed these plagues, as a penance on rebellious mortals, I am not now at leisure to enquire: but whoever seriously takes them into consideration must needs commend the valour of the Milesian virgins, who voluntarily killed themselves to get rid of a troublesome world: and how many wise men have taken the same course of becoming their own executioners; among whom, not to mention Diogenes, Xenocrates, Cato, Cassius, Brutus, and other heroes, the self-denying Chiron is never enough to be commended; who, when he was offered by Apollo the privilege of being exempted from death, and living on to the world’s end, he refused the enticing proposal, as deservedly thinking it a punishment rather than a reward.
weakness of the gods, a weakness so childish and absurd, that no man can at the same time keep his countenance, and make a relation of it? Asif it were not the common privilege of divines to stretch heaven, that isHoly Writ, like a cheverel; and when there are many things in St. Paulthat thwart themselves, which yet in their proper place do well enough ifthere be any credit to be given to St. Jerome that was master of fivetongues. Edition: current; Page: [15] Edition: current; Page: [157] And thisis that Mary's better part which is not taken away by change of life,but perfected.
Again, take notice of this no contemptible blessing which Nature hasgiven fools, that they are the only plain, honest men and such as speaktruth. And indeed the whole proceedings of the world are nothing but one continued scene of Folly, all the actors being equally fools and 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 into some unfrequented desert, become a recluse from all mankind. Why, observe the application. Nor are they without theirflattering friars that admire them and give them openly the title ofhonorable, in hopes, no doubt, to get some small snip of it themselves. Another, as soon ashe can draw two or three lines with a compass, presently thinks himself aEuclid. And though I am in haste, yet I cannot yet pass by them who, though theydiffer nothing from the meanest cobbler, yet 'tis scarcely credible howthey flatter themselves with the empty title of nobility. Observe, the two things he alleges in his excuse are, first, his rawness of age, to which Folly and want of experience are constant attendants: and secondly, his ignorances, expressed in the plural number for an enhancement and aggravation of his foolishness. But why do I altogether spend my breath in speaking of mortals? For as this wise man pitied and bewailed their palpablemadness that were possessed with so gross an error, so they in returnlaughed at him as a doting fool and cast him out of their company. Yet till this last trial they had more comfort of a future happiness, because more hopes of it than any other men.