and efficacious proofs and not make positive assertions. The poisonous
contentions of certain persons are better ignored than refuted. We must
everywhere take care never to speak or act arrogantly or in a party
spirit: this I believe is pleasing to the spirit of Christ. Meanwhile we
must preserve our minds from being seduced by anger, hatred or ambition;
these feelings are apt to lie in wait for us in the midst of our
strivings after piety.

I am not advising you to do this, but only to continue doing what you
are doing. I have looked into your Commentaries on the Psalms;[78] I am
delighted with them, and hope that they will do much good. At Antwerp we
have the Prior of the Monastery,[79] a Christian without spot, who loves
you exceedingly, an old pupil of yours as he says. He is almost alone of
them all in preaching Christ: the others preach human trivialities or
their own gain.

I have written to Melanchthon. The Lord Jesus impart you His spirit each
day more bountifully, to His own glory and the good of all. I had not
your letter at hand when writing this.

XV. TO ULRICH HUTTEN[80]

Antwerp, 23 July 1519

To the illustrious knight Ulrich Hutten, greetings:

... As to your demand for a complete portrait, as it were, of More,
would that I could execute it with a perfection to match the intensity
of your desire! It will be a pleasure, for me as well, to dwell for a
space on the contemplation of by far the sweetest friend of all. But in
the first place, it is not given to every man to explore all More's
gifts. And then I wonder whether he will tolerate being depicted by an
indifferent artist; for I think it no less a task to portray More than
it would be to portray Alexander the Great or Achilles, and they were no
more deserving of immortality than he is. Such a subject requires in
short the pencil of an Apelles; but I fear that I am more like Horace's
gladiators[81] than Apelles. Nevertheless, I shall try to sketch you an
image rather than a full portrait of the whole man, so far as my
observation or recollection from long association with him in his home
has made this possible. If ever you meet him on some embassy you will
then for the first time understand how unskilled an artist you have
chosen for this commission; and I am downright afraid of your accusing
me of jealousy or blindness, that out of so many excellences so few have
been perceived by my poor sight or recorded by my jealousy.

But to begin with