who
by now can scarce endure anything but solemn appellations. Further, we
see some men so perversely religious that they will suffer the most
hideous revilings against Christ sooner than let prince or pope be
sullied by the lightest jest, particularly if this concerns monetary
gain. But if a man censures men's lives without reproving anyone at all
by name, pray do you think this man a satirist, and not rather a teacher
and admonisher? Else on how many counts do I censure myself? Moreover he
who leaves no class of men unmentioned is clearly foe to no man but to
all vices. Therefore anyone who rises up and cries out that he is
insulted will be revealing a bad conscience, or at all events fear. St.
Jerome wrote satire in this kind far more free and biting, not always
abstaining from the mention of names, whereas I myself, apart from not
mentioning anyone by name, have moreover so tempered my pen that the
sagacious reader will easily understand that my aim has been to give
pleasure, not pain; for I have at no point followed Juvenal's example in
'stirring up the murky bilge of crime', and I have sought to survey the
laughable, not the disgusting. If there is anyone whom even this cannot
appease, at least let him remember that it is a fine thing to be reviled
by Folly; in bringing her upon the stage I had to suit the words to the
character. But why need I say all this to you, an advocate so remarkable
that you can defend excellently even causes far from excellent?
Farewell, most eloquent More, and be diligent in defending your _moria_.

IX. TO JOHN COLET[49]

Cambridge, 29 October [1511]

To his friend Colet, greetings:

... Something came into my mind which I know will make you laugh. In the
presence of several Masters [of Arts] I was putting forward a view on
the Assistant Teacher, when one of them, a man of some repute, smiled
and said: 'Who could bear to spend his life in that school among boys,
when he could live anywhere in any way he liked?' I answered mildly that
it seemed to me a very honourable task to train young people in manners
and literature, that Christ himself did not despise the young, that no
age had a better right to help, and that from no quarter was a richer
return to be expected, seeing that young people were the harvest-field
and raw material of the nation. I added that all truly religious people
felt that they could not better serve God in any other duty than the
bringing of children to Christ