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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.
