Category: Erasmus

A fisherman, putting his hand hastily into his net, was wounded by the thorns on the backs of some of the fish; being thus caught, he said, I shall now become wiser : which is said to have given rise to the adage. “Bought wit,” we say, “is best;” it will certainly be more likely to be remembered, than that which is obtained without suffering some kind of loss or inconvenience.

Hence also we say, ” wit once bought, is worth twice taught.” “El hombre mancebo, perdiendo gana seso,” by losses and disappointment young men acquire knowledge.

Persons pretending to instruct those who are qualified to be their masters, or to inform others in matters of which they are themselves ignorant, fall under the censure of this adage; their conduct being as ridiculous as would be that of a sow who should presume to attempt to teach wisdom.

Our clowns, not very delicately, tell you, ” not to teach your grandames to suck eggs,” for, “a bove majori discit arare minor,” the young ox learns to plow from the elder, not the elder from the young, and “El Diablo saba mucho,” the Spaniards say, “porque es viejo,” the devil knows a great deal, for he is old.

Let not care corrode and gnaw your heart, lest you should fall into a state of despondency, and to avenge some disappointment or trouble, throw away all the blessings you enjoy, and with them your life.

To this purport the Psalmist, “Fret not thyself, lest thou be moved to do evil.”

“Por mucho madrugar, no amanece mas aina.” The Spaniards say, early rising makes it not day the sooner, or too much anxiety and care will not enable you the sooner to obtain your point; and the Italians, “cento carre di pensieri, non pagaranno un’ oncia di debito,” an hundred cartloads of care will not pay an ounce of debt.

“Cura facit canos,” care brings gray hairs, and “care,” we say, “killed the cat.” But who is without care, or can escape its fangs!

“Man that is born of a woman is of short continuance, and full of trouble; all his days are sorrow, and his travels grief, his heart also taketh not rest in the night.” And “you may as soon,” Burton says, ” separate weight from lead, heat from fire, moistness from water, and brightness from the sun, as misery, discontent, care, calamity, and danger from man.”

“Such being the state of man, and as we are assured, “that it is as natural for him to suffer, as for sparks to fly upwards,”we should bear our afflictions with patience, by which alone the heaviest of them will be in some degree softened, and appeased. “Si gravis brevis, si longus levis.” If the pain be very severe, it cannot last; if it be moderate and of longer duration, it may be borne. “Nullum est malum majus, quam non posse ferre malum,” no greater misfortune can happen to us, than not to be able to bear misfortune.”

AMONG friends all things should be in common. Erasmus thought he could not begin his Collection better than with this apothegm, which is of great antiquity, and much celebrated, and for the same reason it is here placed first.

Nothing is so frequent in our mouths, nor is any thing less common than such a conjunction of minds as deserves the name of Friendship.

“When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow,” for he is another self. “Ne ay major espejo, que el amigo viejo.” Like a glass he will discover to you your own defects ; and “mas vale buen amigo, que pariente primo,” a good friend is better than a near relation.

A man, the Italians say, without friends is like a body without a soul. “Chi si trova senz’ amici, e come un corpo senz’ anima.”

The French, by a very delicate phrase, denominate friendship love that is
without wings, ” L’amitie” est 1’amour sans ailes,” meaning that it should be a permanent affection, and not easily to be obliterated.

” Ova d’un ora, pane d’un di, vino d’un anno, amico di trenta,” that is, eggs of an
hour, bread of a day, wine of a year, but a friend of thirty years is best; and “Azeyte,
y vino, y amigo antiguo,” oil, wine, and friends improve by age.

Friendship, Montaigne says, ” unlike to love, which is weakened by fruition, grows up, thrives, and increases by enjoyment; and being of itself spiritual, the soul is reformed by the practice of it.”

And according to Sallust, “Idem velle et nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est,”
to have the same desires and dislikes, to love or hate the same persons, is the surest test of friendship. But instances of such exalted friendship, if they do exist, are very rare.

“Tantum ego fucorum, tantum perfidiae in hominum arnicitiis reperio, non in his modo vulgaribus, verurn his quoque quas Pyladeas vocant, ut mihi jam non libeat novarum periculum facere” — I find so much dissembling, says the good Erasmus, so much perfidy among friends, not only those between whom there subsists only a slight intimacy, but those connected, as it would seem, by the strongest ties of affection, that I have altogether given up the search after such a phenomenon.

The same writer, at a more advanced stage of his life, and as the result of long experience, says,
“Quin in totum, eo degenerarunt hominum, mores, ut hodie, cygnus niger, aut corvus albus, minus rarus sit avis, quam fidelisamicus.”
In short, men are become so degenerate, (a complaint that has been made in every age), that a black swan, or a white crow, are not so rarely to be met with as a faithful friend.

And another writer says, ” We talk of friendship as of a thing that is known, and as we talk of ghosts but who has seen either the one or the other !”

” Friendship,” Lord Verulam says, “easeth the heart and cleareth the understanding, making clear day in both; partly by giving the purest counsel, apart from our interest and prepossessions, and partly by allowing opportunity to discourse; and by that discourse to clear the mind, to recollect the thoughts, to see how they look in words; whereby men attain that highest wisdom, which Dionysius, the Areopagite, saith ‘ is the daughter of reflection.’”

Spenser gives a beautiful description of three kinds of affection, to women, to our offspring, and to our friend, and gives the preference to the latter.

“For natural affection soon doth cess.
And quenched is with Cupid’s greater flame ;
But faithful friendship doth them both suppress,
And them with mastering discipline doth tame,
Through thoughts aspiring to eternal fame.
For as the soul doth rule the earthly mass,
And all the service of the body frame,
So love of soul doth love of body pass,
No less than purest gold surmounts the meanest brass.”