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36 Erasmus that he that shall take it out of the World had as good put out the Sun; and lastly so commendable, if yet that make any thing to the matter, that neither the Philosophers themselves doubted to reckon it among their chiefest good. But what if I shew you that I am both ! the beginning and end of this so great good also ? Nor shall I go about to prove it by Fallacies, Sorites, Dilemmas, or other the like subtilties of Logicians, 2 but after my blunt way, point out the thing as clearly as ’twere with my finger. And now tell me, if to wink, slip over, be blind at, or deceiv’d in, the vices of our friends, nay, to admire and esteem them for Virtues, be not at least the next degree to folly? What is it when one kisses his Mistresses freckle Neck, another the Wart on her Nose? When a Father shall swear his squint-ey’d Child is more lovely than Venus? What is this, I say, but meer folly ? And so, perhaps you’l cry, it is; and yet tis this onely that joyns friends together, and continues them so joyn’d. I speak of ordinary men, of whom none are born without their im1 prora et puppis. 2 pingui, quod aiunt, Minerva.
