.
That worthy wordissimus at Frankfort who called Erasmus names gave up
business and then the ghost, and Erasmus wrote his epitaph, and thus
supplied Benjamin Franklin an idea--"Here lies an old book, its cover
gone, its leaves torn, the worms at work on its vitals."

The wisdom of doing good work still applies, just as it did in the days
of Erasmus.

Erasmus proved a very valuable acquisition to Froben. He became general
editor and literary adviser of this great publishing-house, which was
then the most important in the world.

Besides his work as editor, Erasmus also stood sponsor for numerous
volumes which we now know were written by literary nobodies, his name
being placed on the title-page for commercial reasons.

At that time and for two hundred years later, the matter of attributing
a book to this man or that was considered a trivial affair. Piracies
were prevalent. All printers revised the work of classic authors if they
saw fit, and often they were specially rewarded for it by the Church. It
was about this time that some one slipped that paragraph into the works
of Josephus about Jesus. The "Annals" of Tacitus were similarly
doctored, if in fact they were not written entire, during the Sixteenth
Century. It will be remembered that the only two references in
contemporary literature to Jesus are those in Josephus and Tacitus, and
these the Church proudly points to yet.

During the last few years of his life Erasmus accumulated considerable
property. By his will he devised that this money should go to educate
certain young men and women, grandchildren and nephews and nieces of his
old friend, Johann Froben. He left no money for masses, after the usual
custom of Churchmen, and during his last illness was not attended by a
priest. For several years before his death he made no confessions and
very seldom attended church service. He said, "I am much more proud of
being a printer than a priest."

A statue of Erasmus in bronze adorns one of the public squares in
Rotterdam, and Basel and Freiburg have honored themselves, and him also,
in like manner.

As a sample of the subtle and keen literary style of Erasmus, I append
the following from "In Praise of Folly:"

The happiest times of life are youth and old age, and this for no
reason but that they are the times most completely under the rule
of folly, and least controlled by wisdom. It is the child's freedom
from wisdom that makes it so char