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The Praise of Folly 11
at last perhaps produce somewhat that was
never their own, shall yet swear they compos’d
it in three dayes, and that too for diversion :
whereas I ever lik’t it best to speak 1 whatever
came first out.
But let none of ye expect from me, that after
the manner of Rhetoricians I should go about to
Define what I am, much less use any Division ;
for I hold it equally unlucky to circumscribe
her whose Deity is universal, or make the least
Division in that Worship about which every
thing is so generally agree’d. Ortowhat purpose,
think ye, should I describe my self, when I am
here present before ye, and ye behold me
speaking? For I am, as ye see, that true and
onely giver of wealth, whom the Greeks call
Mopta, the Latines Stultitia, and our plain
English Folly. Or what need was there to have
said so much, as if my very looks were not
sufficient to inform ye who I am? Or as if any
man, mistaking me for Wisedome, could not at
first sight convince himself by my face, the true
index of my mind? I am no Counterfeit, nor
do I carry one thing in my looks and another in
1 quicquid in buccam venerit.