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72 Erasmus 1‘that turn black into white’, blow hot and cold with the same breath, and carry a far different meaning in their Breast from what they feign with their Tongue. Yet in the midst of all their prosperity, Princes in this respect seem to me most unfortunate, because, having no one to tell them truth, they are forc’t to receive flatterers for friends. But; some one may say, the ears of Princes are strangers to truth, and for this reason they avoid those Wise men, because they fear lest some one more frank than the rest should dare to speak to them things rather true than pleasant; for so the matter is, that they don’t much care for truth. And yet this is found by experience among my Fools, that not onely Truths but even open reproaches are heard with pleasure ; so that: the same thing which, if it came from a wise man’s mouth might prove a Capital Crime, spoken by a Fool is receiv’d with delight. For Truth carries with it a certain peculiar Power of pleasing, if no Accident fall in to give occasion of offence; which faculty the Gods have given onely to Fools. And for the same reasons is it 1 qui nigrum in candida vertunt.
