we do not judge him
by later standards. We only object to the extravagance of Protestant
laudation.

THE PRAISE OF FOLLY.

What is the greatest novel in the English language? This is a hard
question, which we shall not attempt to answer. We leave every one
of our readers to enjoy his own selection. But the question has been
answered, in his own way, by a living novelist. Mr. Walter Besant
declares that the greatest novel in the English language is Charles
Reade's _The Cloister and the Hearth_. That it is a _great_ book no one
fit to judge will deny, or hesitate to affirm. It is full of adventure
and hairbreadth escapes; it exhibits a large variety of life and
character; its wit, insight, and pathos show the mind and hand of a
master; and a certain vivid actuality is derived from the fact that
its pictures and portraits are to a large extent historical. Gerard and
Margaret, the hero and heroine of the story, are the father and mother
of the great Erasmus; respecting whom Charles Reade closes his book with
a noble and pregnant piece of writing.

"First scholar and divine of his epoch, he was also the heaven-born
dramatist of his century. Some of the best scenes in this new book are
from his mediaeval pen, and illumine the pages whence they come; for the
words of a genius, so high as his, are not born to die; their immediate
work upon mankind fulfilled, they may seem to lie torpid; but, at each
fresh shower of intelligence Time pours upon their students, they prove
their immortal race; they revive, they spring from the dust of great
libraries; they bud, they flower, they fruit, they seed, from generation
to generation, and from age to age."

Erasmus was born at Rotterdam, probably on October 28, 1467. He was a
"love child." His father, Gerard of Tergou, being engaged to Margaret,
daughter of a physician of Sevenbergen, anticipated the nuptial rites.
Gerard's relations drove him from his country by ill usage; when he went
to Rome, to earn a living by copying ancient authors, they falsely sent
him word that his Margaret had died; upon which he took holy orders,
and became a sworn son of the Church. Finding his Margaret alive on
his return, he of course lived apart from her, and she did not marry
another. They had a common interest in their boy, whose education they
superintended. Margaret died of the plague, when Erasmus was thirteen;
and Gerard, inconsolable for her loss, soon followed her to the grave.
Their boy