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The Praise of Folly 43
those that are slain, !not a word of them; and
for the rest, when both sides are close engag’d
2 € and the Trumpets make an ugly noise ’, what
use of those Wise men, I pray, that are so exhaust
with study that their thin cold Blood has scarce
any spirits left? No, it must be those blunt
fat fellows, that by how much the more they
exceed in Courage, fall short in Understanding.
Unless perhaps one had rather chuse Demosthenes
for a Souldier, who, following the example of
Archilochius, threw away his Arms and betook
him to his Heels e’re he had scarce seen his
Enemy ; as ill a Souldier, as happy an Orator.
But Counsel, you’ll say, is not of least con¬
cern in matters of War. In a General I grant
it; but this thing of Warring is no part of
Philosophy, but manag’d by Parasites, Pandars,
Thieves, Cut-throats, Plow-men, Sots, Spend¬
thrifts and such other Dregs of Mankind, not
Philosophers; who how unapt they are even
for common converse, let Socrates, whom the
Oracle of Apollo, though not so wisely, judg’d
‘the wisest of all men living’, be witness ;
1 oddels Adyos. * et rauco crepuerunt cornua cantu.