, if only a kindly
disposition is not wanting.'

In all these ideas and convictions Erasmus really heralds a later age.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries those thoughts remained an
undercurrent: in the eighteenth Erasmus's message of deliverance bore
fruit. In this respect he has most certainly been a precursor and
preparer of the modern mind: of Rousseau, Herder, Pestalozzi and of the
English and American thinkers. It is only part of the modern mind which
is represented by all this. To a number of its developments Erasmus was
wholly a stranger, to the evolution of natural science, of the newer
philosophy, of political economy. But in so far as people still believe
in the ideal that moral education and general tolerance may make
humanity happier, humanity owes much to Erasmus.

* * * * *

This does not imply that Erasmus's mind did not directly and fruitfully
influence his own times. Although Catholics regarded him in the heat of
the struggle as the corrupter of the Church, and Protestants as the
betrayer of the Gospel, yet his word of moderation and kindliness did
not pass by unheard or unheeded on either side. Eventually neither camp
finally rejected Erasmus. Rome did not brand him as an arch-heretic, but
only warned the faithful to read him with caution. Protestant history
has been studious to reckon him as one of the Reformers. Both obeyed in
this the pronouncement of a public opinion which was above parties and
which continued to admire and revere Erasmus.

To the reconstruction of the Catholic Church and the erection of the
evangelical churches not only the names of Luther and Loyola are linked.
The moderate, the intellectual, the conciliating have also had their
share of the work; figures like Melanchthon here, Sadolet there, both
nearly allied to Erasmus and sympathetically disposed towards him. The
frequently repeated attempts to arrive at some compromise in the great
religious conflict, though they might be doomed to end in failure,
emanated from the Erasmian spirit.

Nowhere did that spirit take root so easily as in the country that gave
Erasmus birth. A curious detail shows us that it was not the exclusive
privilege of either great party. Of his two most favoured pupils of
later years, both Netherlanders, whom as the actors of the colloquy
_Astragalismus_ (_The Game of Knucklebones_), he has immortalized
together, the one, Quirin Talesius, died for his attachment