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The Praise of Folly 15
I, like that limping Black-smith, begot in the
sad and irksome bonds of Matrimony. Yet, mis¬
take me not, ’twas not that blind and decrepit
Plutus in Aristophanes that got me, but such
as he was in his full strength and pride of youth;
and not that onely, but at such a time when
he had been well heated with Nectar, of which
he had, at one of the Banquets of the Gods,
taken a dose extraordinary.
And as to the place of my birth, forasmuch as
nowadays that is look’d upon as a main point
of Nobility, it was neither, like Apollo’s, in the
floating Delos, nor Venus-like on the rolling Sea,
nor in any of blind Homer’s as blind Caves:
but in the fortunate Islands, where ‘all things
grew without plowing or sowing ; where neither
Labour, nor Old-age, nor Disease, was ever
heard of ; and in whose fields neither Daffadil,
Mallows, Onyons, Beans, and such contemptible
things would ever grow ; but, on the contrary,
Rue, Angelica, Buglosse, Marjoram, Trefoiles,
Roses, Violets, Lillies, and all the Gardens of
Adonis, invite both your sight and your smelling.
And being thus born, I did not begin the world,
+ —sponte sua per se dabat omnia tellus.