Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/224

 220 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. priest, "who had put his money in a large bag in his cassock, where it bouged out; he salutes him very civilly, and tells him that he had orders to buy a surplice, which is the chief vestment used in perform- ing divine service, for the priest of his parish; he entreats him to lend him a little assistance in this matter, and to go with him to those that sell such attire, that he might fit one according to his size, because he was much about the same stature with the parson of his parish. This being but a small kindness, the old priest promises to do it very readily. They go to a certain shop, a surplice is shewn them, the old priest puts it on, the seller says, It fits him as exactly as if made for him ; the sharper viewing the old priest before and behind, likes the surplice very well, but only found fault that it was too short before. The seller, lest he should lose his customer, says, That was not the fault of the surplice, but that the bag of money that stuck out made it look shorter there. To be short, the old priest lays his bag down ; then they view it over again, and while the old priest stands with his back towards it, the sharper catches it up and runs away as fast as he could. The priest runs after him in the surplice as he was, and the shopkeeper after the priest; the old priest cries out, Stop thief; the salesman cries out, Stop the priest ; the sharper cries out, Stop the mad priest; and they took him to be mad, when they saw him run in the open street in such a dress : so one hindering the other, the sharper gets clear off. Eut. Hanging is too good for such a rogue. Ge. It is so, if he be not hanged already. Eut. I would not have him hanged only, but all those that encourage such monstrous rogues to the damage of the state. Ge. They do not encourage them for nothing; there is a fellow feeling between them from the lowest to the highest. Eut. Well, but let us return to our stories again. As. It comes to your turn now, if it be meet to oblige a king to keep his turn. Eut. I will not need to be forced to keep my turn, I will keep it voluntarily; I should be a tyrant, and not a king, if 1 refused to comply with those laws I prescribe to others. As. But some folks say that a prince is above the law. Eut. That saying is not altogether false, if by prince you mean that great prince who was called Csesar; and then, if by being above the law, you mean that whereas others do in some measure keep the laws by constraint, he of his own inclination more exactly observes them. For a good prince is that to the body politic which the mind is to the body natural. What need was there to have said a good prince, when a bad prince is no prince? as an unclean spirit that possesses the human body, is not the soul of that body. But to return to my story; and I think that as I am king, it becomes me to tell a kingly story. Louis, king of France, the eleventh of that name, when his affairs were disturbed at home, took a journey to Burgundy; and there upon the occasion of a hunting contracted a familiarity with one Conon, a country farmer, but a plain, downright honest man; and kings delight in the conversation of such men. The king, when he went a hunting, used often to go to his house ; and as great princes do sometimes delight themselves with mean matters, he used to be mightily pleased in eating of his turnips. Not long after Louis having settled his affairs, obtained the government of the French nation; Conon's wife puts him upon remembering the king of his old entertainment at their house, bids him