Desiderius Erasmus: Paper Read Before the Berkeley Club, March 18, 1920, the Quotation From the Writings of Erasmus Are Translations by Hallam, ... Emerton, Hazlitt and Others (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

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Excerpt from Desiderius Erasmus: Paper Read Before the Berkeley Club, March 18, 1920, the Quotation From the Writings of Erasmus Are Translations by Hallam, Froude, Allen, Emerton, Hazlitt and Others

After about two years spent in England, he returned to France and published his first book, Adagia. This book is a collection of sayings or adages of great men, proverbs, epigrams, anecdotes, with his remarks or notes upon them. It was these notes that gave life and interest to the col lection. Here he first plies the whip on the backs of the clergy of his time. Here, too, he first assails the political evils of his time and upbraids kings for their follies and crimes. Here is a sentence: Let any one turn over the pages of ancient or modern history - scarcely in several generations will you find one or two princes whose folly has not inflicted the greatest misery on mankind. Again he says, Do we not see that noble cities are erected by the people: that they are destroyed by princes? That the com munity grows rich by the industry of its citizens - is plun dered by the rapacity of its princes? That good laws are enacted by popular magistrates - are violated by these princes? That the people love peace: that princes excite war? Here is one more quotation: Towns are burned, lands are wasted, temples are plundered, innocent citizens are slaughtered, while the prince is playing at dice or danc ing, or amusing himself with puppets, or hunting or drinking.

The author's reputation throughout all Europe was made at once. The book had a prodigious sale. No less than sixty-two editions were issued in the author's lifetime.

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