e never hid his weaknesses.

He was too much concerned about what people thought, and he could not
hold his tongue. His mind was _too_ rich and facile, always suggesting a
superfluity of arguments, cases, examples, quotations. He could never
let things slide. All his life he grudged himself leisure to rest and
collect himself, to see how unimportant after all was the commotion
round about him, if only he went his own way courageously. Rest and
independence he desired most ardently of all things; there was no more
restless and dependent creature. Judge him as one of a too delicate
constitution who ventures out in a storm. His will-power was great
enough. He worked night and day, amidst the most violent bodily
suffering, with a great ideal steadfastly before him, never satisfied
with his own achievements. He was not self-sufficient.

* * * * *

As an intellectual type Erasmus was one of a rather small group: the
absolute idealists who, at the same time, are thoroughly moderate. They
can not bear the world's imperfections; they feel constrained to oppose.
But extremes are uncongenial to them; they shrink back from action,
because they know it pulls down as much as it erects, and so they
withdraw themselves, and keep calling that everything should be
different; but when the crisis comes, they reluctantly side with
tradition and conservatism. Here too is a fragment of Erasmus's
life-tragedy: he was the man who saw the new and coming things more
clearly than anyone else--who must needs quarrel with the old and yet
could not accept the new. He tried to remain in the fold of the old
Church, after having damaged it seriously, and renounced the
Reformation, and to a certain extent even Humanism, after having
furthered both with all his strength.

[Illustration: XXV. ERASMUS AT THE AGE OF 65]

* * * * *

Our final opinion about Erasmus has been concerned with negative
qualities, so far. What was his positive importance?

Two facts make it difficult for the modern mind to understand Erasmus's
positive importance: first that his influence was extensive rather than
intensive, and therefore less historically discernible at definite
points, and second, that his influence has ceased. He has done his work
and will speak to the world no more. Like Saint Jerome, his revered
model, and Voltaire, with whom he has been occasionally compared, 'he
has his reward'. But like th