Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/479

 ACCOUNT OF BOOKS.

461

trary, the politenefs of an ill na- tured man is fhocking, for it is hy- pocrify fuperadded to malignity.

As, by being converfant with an- ttquity, he knew many things, which others knew not, and was difpofed to jefting, he could hard- ly refrain from ridiculing, at one time or other, the follies of the age, and of a certain fet of people. It is well known, that this tem- per fails not to give offence, ef- pecially to thofe who expeft that their weaknefTes or vices fhould be fpared on account of their ftation and charafter; elfe the king, the courtiers, and the bifhops, who often bellowed preferments upon drones void of ail capacity and merit, and fometimes loaded them with pluralities, might eafily have given him fomething in the church, without cure of fouls, which would have afforded him leifure to fludy, and means to live. But perhaps he, who hated confinement on any account, did not care to be con- neded with monks and chapters of canons. As thefe people were exceffively envious, they would have teazed him with their chica- neries upon every occafion. He had long perceived, and declared to the world, that the religion of thefe eccleiiaftics confifted entirely in minute cbfervances and formal grimaces, with which the wicked can comply, as well as the good. He, on the contrary, made reli- gion lo confift in fuch things, as none, except worthy perfons, ever obferve ; in the exercife of thofe chriftian virtues, which are formed in the mind, from a knowledge of our duty, and a perfuafion of its importance. A man fixed in thefe fentiments, and continually occu- pied in learned iludics, would have Vol. I.

found it very difHcuIt topraflife the rites and ceremonies with which, religion was over-run and choaked up in thofe days. This negleft ia England, as in all other places, was accounted a far more heinous crime than the vileft immorality and debauchery. The monks, above all others, were inexorable upon this article, and doubtlefs oppofed and haraffed openly and fecretly all who were not in their way of thinking and adling. So that to fet Erafmus thoroughly at eafe, Henry VIII. ought to have be- flowed a handfome penfion upon him, which would have exempted him from worldly cares and avo- cations, and furnifhed him with books, and leifure, and the con- veniencies of life. But this the king would not do ; and if he af- terwards invited Erafmus again to his dominions, it was at a time when that learned man was not able to undertake the journey."

Towards the end of the work are fome curious particulars con- cerning the charafter of Erafmus, and a very good defence of fome parts of learning which he parti- cularly cultivated.

" Bayle hath obferved of Eraf- mus, that he had rather too much fenfibility when he was attacked by malicious and inconfiderable adverfaries, made too many com- plaints of them, and was too rea- dy to anfwer them. It is true. He wanted fome friend to over-rule him, and to fay to him. Let Thofe men alone: they cannot li've in their cwn i>jritings ; and ivhy Jhould they li've in yours? Yet thus much may be ooferved, by way of excufe, that he was fighting for his honour, and for his life, being often accufed of nothing lef? :han H h heterodoxy.