Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/350

346 FAMILIAR COLLOQUIES, the mind. Ph. Be it so, if you will. Ne. Since, then, thou wouldst not have a belly-gut for thy servant, but rather one brisk and agile, why, then, dost thou provide for thy mind a minister fat and unwieldy ? Ph. I yield to truth.

Ne. Now, see another misfortune. As the mind far excels the body, so you will confess that the riches of the mind far exceed the goods of the body. Ph. What you say is very probable. Ne. But amongst all the goods of the mind wisdom holds the chief place. Ph. T confess it. Ne. For obtaining this no time is more n't than the morning, when the new -rising sun gives fresh vigour and life to all things, and dispels those fumes which are exhaled from the stomach, which are wont to cloud the mansion of the mind. Ph. I do not deny it. Ne. Now, do but consider what a share of learning you might obtain in those four hours which you consume in unseasonable sleep. Ph. Truly, a great share. Ne. I have experienced that more may be done at study in one hour in the morning than in three after noon, and that without any detriment to the body. Ph. I have heard as nruch. Ne. Consider this further : if you should bring into a gross sum the loss of each particular day, what a vast deal would it amount to ! Ph. A great deal, indeed. Ne. He who heedlessly confounds money and jewels is deemed a prodigal, and has a guardian appointed him. Now, he who destroys these so much more precious goods, is not he a prodi- gal of a far deeper dye 1 Ph. Certainly it is so, if we rightly weigh the matter.

Ne. Consider further what Plato writes, That there is nothing fairer, nothing more amiable than wisdom, which, if it could be seen by corporeal eyes, would raise to itself an incredible number of ad- mirers. Ph. But she is not capable of being seen. Ne. I own she is not with corporeal eyes ; but she is to be seen with the eyes of the mind, which is the better part of man. And where the love is in- credible, there must necessarily be the highest pleasure, as often as the mind enjoys so pleasing a mistress. Ph. What you say is very probable. Ne. Go now, if you think good, and barter this enjoyment for sleep, that image of death. Ph. But in the meantime I lose my dear nocturnal sports. Ne. Those things are well lost, which being worst are changed for the best, shameful for honourable, most vile for the most precious. He has happily lost his lead who has changed it into gold. Nature has appointed the night for sleep; the sun arising recals all the animal species, and especially men, to their several offices. They who sleep (saith St. Paul, 1 Thess. 5) sleep in the night, and they who are drunken are drunken in, the night. Therefore, what can be more unseemly than, when all animals rouse with the sun, nay, some even before his appearance, and as it were with a song salute his coming; when the elephant adores the rising sun, man only should lie snoring long after his rising. As often as his golden rays enlighten thy chamber, does he not seem thus to upbraid thee as thou liest sleeping : Fool ! why dost thou delight to destroy the best part of thy life ^ I shine not for this purpose, that you may hide yourselves and sleep, but that you may attend your honest employments. No man lights a lamp to sleep by, but that he may pursue some sort of labour ; and by this lamp, the fairest, the most refulgent of all lamps, wretched thou doat nothing but snore. Ph. You declaim smartly.