Page 66 [66]
OCR
The Praise of Folly $5 whose ridiculous discourse may put by the Gravity of the company. For to what purpose were it to clogg our Stomacks with Dainties, Junkets and the like Stuff, unless our Eyes and Ears, nay whole Mind, were likewise entertain’d with Jests, Merriments and Laughter? But of these kind of second Courses I am the onely Cook; though yet those ordinary practises of our Feasts, as choosing a King, throwing Dice, drinking Healths, trouling it Round, dancing the Cushion and the like, were not invented by the seven Wise Men but my Self, and that too for the common pleasure of Mankind. The nature of all which things is such, that the more of Folly they have, the more they conduce to Humane Life, which, if it were unpleasant, did not deserve the name of Life ; and other than such it could not well be, did not these kind of Diversions Wype away tediousnesse, nexte cosyn to the other, But perhaps there are some that neglect this way of pleasure, and rest satisfi’d in the enjoyment of their Friends, calling friendship the most desirable of all things; more necessary than either air, fire, or water; so delectable, D 2
