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74 Erasmus and an Old-age and Death contracted before their time (though yet, what matter is it, when he dye that never livd?); and such is the Picture of this great Wise Man. And here again ! do those Frogs of the Stoicks croak at me, and say that nothing is more miserable than Madness. But Folly is the next degree, if not the very thing. For what else is Madness than for a man to be out of his wits? But to let ’em see how they are clean out of the way, with the Muses’ good favour we'll take this Syllogism in pieces. Subtilly argu’d, I must confess, but as Socrates in Plato teaches us how by splitting one Venus and one Cupid to make two of either, in like manner should those Logicians have done, and distinguisht Madness from Madness, if at least they would be thought to be well in their wits themselves. For all Madness is not miserable, or Horace had never call’d his Poetical fury 2a beloved Madness; nor Plato plac’d the Raptures of Poets, Prophets and Lovers amongst the chiefest Blessings of this Life; nor that Sybil in Virgil call’d AEneas’s Travels Mad Labours. But there 1 oi è TÎjs oTOAs Barpayot. 2 amabilis insania.
