as much as their friends, banish pleasure and court
sorrow, and wish themselves out of this world altogether. Nay, the very
happiness they look forward to hereafter is "no better than a sort of
madness or folly." For those who macerate the body, and long to put on
immortality, are only in a kind of dream.

"They speak many things at an abrupt and incoherent rate, as if they
were actuated by some possessing demon; they make an inarticulate noise,
without any distinguishable sense or meaning. They sometimes screw
and distort their faces to uncouth and antic looks; at one time beyond
measure cheerful, then as immoderately sullen; now sobbing, then
laughing, and soon after sighing, as if they were perfectly distracted,
and out of their senses."

But perhaps the worst stroke of all against Christianity is the
following sly one. Folly is said to be acceptable, or at least
excusable, to the gods, who "easily pass by the heedless failures of
fools, while the miscarriages of such as are known to have more wit
shall very hardly obtain a pardon."

Did space permit we might give several extracts from the _Praise of
Folly_, showing that Erasmus could speed the shafts of his satire at
the very essentials of religion, such as prayer and providence. Were he
living now, we may be sure that he would be in the van of the Army of
Liberation. Living when he did, he performed a high and useful task. His
keen, bright sword played havoc with much superstition and imposture. He
made it more difficult for the pious wranglers over what Carlyle would
call "inconceivable incredibilities" to practise their holy profession.
Certainly he earned, and more than earned, the praise of Pope.

At length Erasmus, that great injur'd name
(The glory of the priesthood and the shame!)
Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barbarous age,
And drove those holy Vandals off the stage.

Erasmus was, in fact, the precursor of Voltaire. Physically, as well as
intellectually, these two great men bore a certain resemblance. A glance
at the strong, shrewd face of Erasmus is enough to show that he was not
a man to be easily imposed upon; and the square chin, and firm mouth,
bespeak a determination, which, if it did not run to martyrdom, was
sufficient to carry its possessor through hardship and difficulty in the
advocacy of his ideals.

Rome, says, the proverb, was not built in a day; and Christianity was
not built in a century. It took hundreds of years