being remote from all
superstitious observance. He has set hours in which he offers to God not
the customary prayers but prayers from the heart. With his friends he
talks of the life of the world to come so that one sees that he speaks
sincerely and not without firm hope. Such is More even in the Court. And
then there are those who think that Christians are to be found only in
monasteries!... There you have a portrait not very well drawn by a very
bad artist from a most excellent model. You will like it less if you
happen to come to know More better. But for the time being I have
prevented your being able to cast in my teeth my failure to obey you,
and always accusing me of writing too short letters. Still, this did not
seem long to me as I was writing it, and I know that you will not find
it long drawn out as you read it: our friend More's charm will see to
that. Farewell.

XVI. TO WILLIBALD PIRCKHEIMER[89]

Basle, 14 March 1525

To the illustrious Willibald Pirckheimer, greetings:

... I received safely the very pretty ring which you desired me to have
as a memento of you. I know that gems are prized as bringing safety when
one has a fall. But they say too, that if the fall was likely to be
fatal, the evil is diverted on to the gem, so that it is seen to be
broken after the accident. Once in Britain I fell with my horse from a
fairly high bank: no damage was found to me or my horse, yet the gem I
was wearing was whole. It was a present from Alexander, Archbishop of
St. Andrews,[90] whom I think you know from my writings. When I left him
at Siena, he drew it off his finger and handing it to me said: 'Take
this as a pledge of our friendship that will never die.' And I kept my
pledged faith with him even after his death, celebrating my friend's
memory in my writings. There is no part of life into which magical
superstition has not insinuated itself: if gems have some great virtue,
I could have wished in these days for a ring with an efficacious remedy
against 'slander's tooth.' As to the belief about falls, I shall follow
your advice--I shall prefer to believe rather than risk myself.

Portraits are less precious than jewels--I have received from you a
medallic and a painted portrait--but at least they bring my Willibald
more vividly before me. Alexander the Great would only allow himself to
be painted by Apelles's hand. You have found your Apelles in Albrecht
Duerer,[91] an artist of the first rank and no less to