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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 com¬
mendable, 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 im¬
1 prora et puppis.
2 pingui, quod aiunt, Minerva.