Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/413

TUB EPICUREAN. 409 as the good state of the health of the body and the goodness of tho appetite. Therefore, do not think that any Lucullus sups more pleasantly upon his partridges, pheasants, turtledoves, hares, gilt- heads, sturgeons, or lampreys, than a godly man does upon brown bread, a salad, or pulse and water, or small-beer, or a little wine mixed with a great deal of water, because he receives them as sent from a kind Father. Prayer seasons them all, and the preceding thanksgiving sanctifies, and being accompanied with the reading of the Word of God, refreshes the mind more than meat does the body. And having returned thanks, at last he rises from the table, not stuffed, but recreated ; not loaded, but refreshed in mind as well as body. Do you think the contriver of any of those vulgar delicacies can fare more deliciously 1

Sp. But the highest pleasure is in venery, if we give credit to Aristotle. lie. Well, in this particular too, the advantage is on the pious man's side, as well as in feasting ; consider it thus : by how much the more ardent his love is toward his wife, by so much the more pleasurable are his conjugal embraces. And none love their wives better than those that love them as Christ loved His church; for they that love them for the sake of concupiscence do not love them in reality. But, besides, the seldomer is the enjoyment the pleasanter it is. The profane poet was not ignorant of this who said, Voluptatem commendat rarior usus. Although, indeed, that is the least part of the pleasure that consists in coition ; the far greater part of the pleasure is in their cohabiting and dieting together, which cannot be more pleasant be- tween any persons than between those who sincerely love one another with a Christian love. In other persons commonly pleasure growing old, so does love too ; but Christian Jove grows the more flourishing by how much carnal love decreases.

Well, have I not convinced you yet, that nobody lives more pleasantly than those that live piously ? Sp. I wish yon had so much convinced all persons as you have me. He. Well, then, if they are Epicureans that live pleasantly, none are more truly Epicureans than those that live holily and religiously. And if we are taken with names, nobody more deserves the name of an Epicurean than that adorable Prince of Christian philosophers, fpr tiriKOvpog in Greek signifies as much as an helper. Therefore, when the law of nature was almost erased by vice, and the law of Moses rather incited than cured lusts, when the tyrant Satan ruled without control in the world, He alone afforded present help to perishing mankind. So that they are mightily mistaken that foolishly represent Christ, as by nature, to be a rigid melancholic person, and that He invited us to an unpleasant life, when He alone shewed the way to the most comfortable life in the world, and fullest of pleasure, and so vastly distant from that Tantalean pleasure.

Sp. What is the meaning of that riddle ? lie. You will laugh at the romance ; but this jest will lead us on to something serious. Sp. Well, then, I expect to hear a serious jest. lie. Those who formerly made it their business to wrap up precepts of philosophy in the folds of fables tell us that one Tantalus was once admitted to the table of tin- deities, which, they tell you, is wonderfully stored with delicacies. When Jupiter was about to dismiss his guests, he thought it agreeable