Part 17 (2/2)

I have often wished, ht you have cast on Greek and Latin literature, not by your printing alone and your splendid types, but by your brilliance and your unco, could have been matched by the profit you in your turn drew from them So far as _fame_ is concerned, the name of Aldus Manutius ithout doubt be on the lips of all devotees of sacred literature unto all posterity; and your memory will be--as your fame now is--not merely illustrious but loved and cherished as well, because you are engaged, as I hear, in reviving and disseence but not at a co truly Herculean labours, labours splendid indeed and destined to bring you ilory, but meanwhile more profitable to others than to yourself I hear that you are printing Plato[43] in Greek types; very erly await the book I should like to knohat ive us Paul of Aegina[44] I wonder what has prevented you fro since--a hich would delight even the coht) but particularly edies[46] which I have been bold enough to translate, whether with success you yourself shall judge Thomas Linacre, William Grocyn, William Latimer, Cuthbert Tunstall, friends of yours as well as of hly of them; you know yourself that they are too learned to be deceived in their judgement, and too sincere to want to flatter a friend--unless their affection for me has somewhat blinded them; the Italians to whom I have so far shown my attempt do not condemn it It has been printed by Badius, successfully as far as he is concerned, so he writes, for he has now sold all the copies to his satisfaction But my reputation has not been enhanced thereby, so full is it all of mistakes, and in fact he offers his services to repair the first edition by printing a second But I a goes I should consider my labours to have been immortalized if they could come out printed in your types, particularly the smaller types, thevery s concluded at little expense If you think it convenient to undertake the affair, I will supply you with a corrected copy, which I send by the bearer, _gratis_, except that you ifts for my friends

I should not have hesitated to attempt the publication at my own risk and expense, were it not that I have to leave Italy within a few months: so I should much like to have the business concluded as soon as possible; in fact it is hardly ten days' work If you insist on h the God of gain does not usually favour e, I shall not refuse, if only you fix a horse as the price

Farewell, most learned Aldus, and reckon Erasmus as one of your ishers

If you have any rare authors in your press, I shall be obliged if you will indicate this--my learned British friends have asked edies_, will you return the copy to the bearer to bring back to me?

VIII TO THOMAS MORE[47]

[Paris?] 9 June [1511]

To his friend Thoone by, on land, in order not to waste all the time that ossiping, I preferred at times either to turn over in iverecollection of the friends, as learned as they are beloved, who the very first of these to spring to mind, my dear More; indeed I used to enjoy the ht in your present co sweeter Therefore, since I thought that I _, and that time seemed ill suited to serious meditation, I determined to amuse myself with the _Praise of Folly_ You will ask what Goddess put this into my mind In the first place it was your family name of More, which comes as near to the word _moria_ [folly] as you yourself are far frorees that you are far removed from it Next I suspected that you above all would approve this _jeu d'esprit_ of ht in jests of this kind, that is, jests learned (if I ether like to play in soh you indeed, owing to your incredibly sweet and easy-going character, are both able and glad to be all things to allintellect causes you to dissent widely froladly accept this little declamation as a memento of your comrade, but will also take it under your protection, inaser mine but yours

And indeed there will perhaps be no lack of brawlers to represent that trifles are ian, or more mordant than suits with Christianthe Old Co satire But I would have those who are offended by the levity and sportiveness of an this, but that the sa that so s and Mice_, Virgil his _Gnat_ and _Dish of Herbs_ and Ovid his _Nut_; seeing that Busiris was praised by Polycrates and his critic Isocrates, Injustice by Glaucon, Thersites and the Quartan Fever by Favorinus, Baldness by Synesius, the Fly and the Art of Being a Parasite by Lucian; and that Seneca devised the Apotheosis of the Eue of Gryllus and Ulysses, Lucian and Apuleius the ass, and solet, mentioned even by St Jeroine that I have played an occasional gahts for a pastime or, if they prefer, taken a ride on a hobby-horse How unfair it is truly, e grant every calling in life its a any a serious thoughts in their train and frivolous ether devoid of perception winsand portentous arguizes rhetoric or philosophy in a painfully stitched-together oration, another rehearses the praises of soin a ith the Turks, another foretells the future, and another proposes a newso trifling as to treat serious htful as to treat trifling matters in such fashi+on that it appears that you have been doing anything but trifle As to eetherthe praise of Folly and that not altogether foolishly

And now to reply to the charge of e of wits to satirize the life of society with ienerate into frenzy Wherefore the more do I marvel at the fastidiousness of men's ears in these ti but soleious that they will suffer the ainst Christ sooner than let prince or pope be sullied by the lightest jest, particularly if this concerns ain But if aanyone at all by name, pray do you think this man a satirist, and not rather a teacher and admonisher? Else on how many counts do I censure myself? Moreover he who leaves no class of men unmentioned is clearly foe to no man but to all vices Therefore anyone who rises up and cries out that he is insulted will be revealing a bad conscience, or at all events fear St

Jero, not always abstaining from theanyone by naacious reader will easily understand that ive pleasure, not pain; for I have at no point followed Juvenal's exae of criusting If there is anyone whom even this cannot appease, at least let hi to be reviled by Folly; in bringing her upon the stage I had to suit the words to the character But why need I say all this to you, an advocate so remarkable that you can defend excellently even causes far froent in defending your _e, 29 October [1511]

To his friend Colet, greetings:

Soh In the presence of several Masters [of Arts] I was putting forward a view on the assistant Teacher, when one of them, a man of some repute, smiled and said: 'Who could bear to spend his life in that school a boys, when he could live anywhere in any way he liked?' I answered mildly that it see people in manners and literature, that Christ hiht to help, and that fro that young people were the harvest-field and raw ious people felt that they could not better serve God in any other duty than the bringing of children to Christ He wrinkled his nose and said with a scornful gesture: 'If any o into a ious order' I answered that St

Paul said that true religion consisted in the offices of charity--charity consisting in doing our best to help our neighbours

This he rejected as an ignorant re: in this is perfection' 'That ,' said I, 'hen he could help very many by his labours, refuses to undertake a duty because it is regarded as hu, I let the ue You see the Scotist philosophy! Once again, farewell

X TO SERVATIUS ROGER

Hammes Castle [near Calais],

8 July 1514

To the Reverend Father Servatius, s:

Most humane father, your letter has at last reached h land, and it has afforded ht, as it still breathes your old affection forjust after the journey, and shall reply in particular on those matters which are, as you write, strictly to the point Men's thoughts are so varied, 'to each his own bird-song', that it is is are that I want to follohat is best to do, God is s which I had in e, partly by experience of the world I have never intended to change my mode of life or my habit--not that I liked them, but to avoid scandal You are aware that I was not so much led as driven to this uardians and the wrongful urgings of others, and that afterwards, when I realized that this kind of life was quite unsuited to s suit all men), I was held back by Cornelius of Woerden's reproaches and by a certain boyish sense of shah some peculiarity of my constitution Once roused froain for several hours I was so draards literature, which is not practised in the monastery, that I do not doubt that if I had chanced on some freethe happy but even aood

So, when I realized that I was by no means fit for this mode of life, that I had taken it up under compulsion and not of my own free will, nevertheless, as public opinion in these days regards it as a crime to break away from a mode of life once taken up, I had resolved to endure with fortitude this part of s unfortunate But I have always regarded this one thing as harder than all the rest, that I had been forced into a mode of life for which I was totally unfit both in body and in mind: in mind, because I abhorred ritual and loved liberty; in body, because even had I been perfectly satisfied with the life, my constitution could not endure such labours One may object that I had a year of probation, as it is called, and that I was of ripe age Ridiculous! As if anyone could expect a boy of sixteen, particularly one with a literary training, to know himself (an achieve in a single year what h I myself never liked the life, still less after I had tried it, but was trapped in the way I have oodAnd I do not deny that I was prone to grievous vices, but not of so utterly corrupt a nature that I could not have couide, a true Christian, not one given to Jewish scruples

Meanwhile I looked about to find in what kind of life I could be least bad, and I believe indeed that I have attained this I have spentsober men, in literary studies, which have kept me off many vices I have been able to associate with true followers of Christ, whose conversation has made me a better man I do not now boast of my books, which you at Steyn perhaps despise