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62 Erasmus the people hisse at thee, so thou applaud thy self? And that a man be able to do so, he must ow it only to Folly. But methinks I hear the Philosophers opposing it, and saying ’tis a miserable thing for a man to be foolish, to erre, mistake, and know nothing truly. Nay rather, this is to be a man. And why they should call it miserable, I see no reason ; forasmuch as we are so born, so bred, so instructed, nay, such is the common condition of us all. And nothing can be call’d miserable that suits with its kind, unless perhaps you’l think a man such because he can neither flie with Birds, nor walk on all four with Beasts, and is not arm’d with Horns as a Bull. For by the same reason he would call the Warlike Horse unfortunate, because he understood not Grammar, nor eat Chees-cakes; and the Bull miserable, because he’d make so ill a Wrestler. And therefore, as a Horse that has no skill in Grammar is not miserable, no more is man in this respect, for that they agree with his Nature. But again, the 1 Virtuosi may say that there was particularly added to Man the knowledge 1 Logodaedali.
