Page 89 [89]
58 Erasmus
the better know how to command or obey
Fools; and who though he please his like, ’tis
yet the greater number; one that is kind to
his Wife, merry among his Friends, a Boon
Companion, and easie to be livd with; and
lastly one that thinks nothing of Humanity
should be a stranger to him? But I am weary
of this Wise Man, and therefore Pll proceed to
some other advantages.
Go to then. Suppose a man in some lofty
high Tower, and that he could look round him,
as the Poets say Jupiter was now and then wont.
To how many misfortunes would he find the
life of man subject? How miserable, to say no
worse, our Birth, how difficult our Education ;
to how many wrongs our Childhood expos’d,
to what pains our Youth; how unsupportable
our Old-age, and grievous our unavoidable
Death? as also what Troups of Diseases beset
us, how many Casualties hang over our Heads,
how many Troubles invade us, and how little
there is that is not steept in Gall ? to say nothing
of those evils one man brings upon another, as
Poverty, Imprisonment, Infamy, Dishonesty,
Racks, Snares, Treachery, Reproaches, Actions,