Page 102 [102]
The Praise of Folly 71
matters, and trusting to their own parts and
learning do not fear sometimes 1‘ to grate their
tender ears with smart truths’; but fools fit
’em with that they most delight in, as jeasts,
laughter, abuses of other men, wanton pastimes,
and the like.
Again, take notice of this no contemptible
blessing which Nature hath giv’n fools, that
they are the only plain, honest men and such as
speak truth. And what is more commendable
than truth? for though that Proverb of Alci¬
biades in Plato attributes Truth to Drunkards
and Children, yet the praise of it is particularly
mine, even from the testimony of Euripides ;
amongst whose other things there is extant
that his honourable saying concerning us, 2‘A
fool speaks foolish things’. For whatever a fool
has in his heart, he both shews it in his looks
and expresses it in his discourse; while the
wise men’s are those two Tongues which the
same Euripides mentions, whereof the one
speaks truth, the other what they judge most
seasonable for the occasion. These are they
1 Auriculas teneras mordaci radere vero.
2 pwpà yàp pwpòs Aéyer.