Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/306

302 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES. THE ECHO. The Young Man and the Echo. To. I have a mind to ask your advice about a few things, if you are at leisure. EC. I am at leisure. Yo, And if I, a yoxing man, shall be welcome to you. EC. You shall be welcome. Yo. And can you tell me true concerning things to come ? EC. I can. Yo. And do you understand Greek too 1 What novelty is this ! EC. I do. Yo. What kind of studies do you think those of the muses to be ? EC. Divine ones. Yo. Do you think^ then, that those authors that conduce to learning ought to be studied 1 EC. Do thou study them. Yo. What is then in their minds that speak contemptibly of these studies ? EC. The thoughts of a swine. Yo. But I wish the lovers of these were as studious of piety. EC. I wish they were so. Yo. Now-a- days the wickedness of some makes all hated. EC. It does so. Yo. And many lay the sins of man on the back of learning. EC. Ay, asses. Yo. Why, but they commonly seem not to be of the meanest sort. EC. They are vile persons. Yo. What do you think they do who spend their time in a sophistical kind of learning 1 Perhaps they spin cobwebs ? EC. They do so. Yo. And they weave and unweave Penelope's web. EC. They do weave it. Yo. What course of life do you advise me to follow 1 EC. A safe one. Yo. Will it prove fortunate if I shall marry? EC. Do it late. Yo. But what if it shall happen to be iny lot to marry an unchaste or extravagant wife? EC. You must bear it? Yo. Why, but it is worse than death itself to live with such. EC. It is so. Yo. Does fortune so domineer in human affairs? EC. Yes, she only. Yo. Perhaps a person had better enter himself into the life of a monk than that of marriage. EC. That binds one. Yo. What remedy is there left when any one is bound by that knot that cannot be unloosed? EC. Melancholy. Yo. Well, but it is a miserable life for men to live alone. EC. It is entirely so. Yo. What sort of men do you account the monks of these times to be? EC. A trouble. Yo. What then makes some esteem them as half-gods? EC. Fear. Yo. What do most hunt after who sue for a benefice? EC. Idleness. Yo. Does a priest get nothing else? EC. Yes, gain. Yo. What good thing do they get that obtain bishoprics ? EC. Labours. Yo. But none live more in idleness. EC. I know it. Yo. What things will be able to make them think and xmderstand what a great burden they have upon them? EC. Understanding. Yo. Therefore the priesthood is an excellent thing, if a man behave himself as he ought to do in it. EC. It makes him happy. Yo. What advantage shall I have if I go into their court who excel in princely dignity ? EC. Misery. Yo. But I see a great many that are wont to promise themselves great happiness from thence. EC. They are blockheads. Yo. But in the meantime, while they go clothed in their silks, the common people look upon them as brave fellows? EC. They are not worth a fig. Yo. Why, then, you speak of men that are golden without and wooden within, if anybody were but to inspect them narrowly ? EC. Not so good. Yo. Why, then, those men have but little excellency in them, that being arrayed in