Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 548 pages of information about Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I..

Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 548 pages of information about Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I..
he was much about the same Stature with the Parson of his Parish.  This being but a small Kindness, the old Priest promises to do it very readily.  They go to a certain Shop, a Surplice is shew’d ’em, the old Priest puts it on, the Seller says, it fits him as exactly as if made for him; the Sharper viewing the old Priest before and behind, likes the Surplice very well, but only found Fault that it was too short before.  The Seller, lest he should lose his Customer, says, that was not the Fault of the Surplice, but that the Bag of Money that stuck out, made it look shorter there.  To be short, the old Priest lays his Bag down; then they view it over again, and while the old Priest stands with his Back towards it, the Sharper catches it up, and runs away as fast as he could:  The Priest runs after him in the Surplice as he was, and the Shop-Keeper after the Priest; the old Priest cries out, Stop Thief; the Salesman cries out, Stop the Priest; the Sharper cries out, Stop the mad Priest; and they took him to be mad, when they saw him run in the open Street in such a Dress:  so one hindring the other, the Sharper gets clear off.

Eut. Hanging is too good for such a Rogue.

Ge. It is so, if he be not hang’d already.

Eut. I would not have him hang’d only, but all those that encourage such monstrous Rogues to the Damage of the State.

Ge. They don’t encourage ’em for nothing; there’s a fellow Feeling between ’em from the lowest to the highest.

Eut. Well, but let us return to our Stories again.

Ast. It comes to your Turn now, if it be meet to oblige a King to keep his Turn.

Eut. I won’t need to be forc’d to keep my Turn, I’ll keep it voluntarily; I should be a Tyrant and not a King, if I refus’d to comply with those Laws I prescribe to others.

Ast. But some Folks say, that a Prince is above the Law.

Eut. That saying is not altogether false, if by Prince you mean that great Prince who was call’d Caesar; and then, if by being above the Law, you mean, that whereas others do in some Measure keep the Laws by Constraint, he of his own Inclination more exactly observes them.  For a good Prince is that to the Body Politick, which the Mind is to the Body Natural.  What Need was there to have said a good Prince, when a bad Prince is no Prince?  As an unclean Spirit that possesses the human Body, is not the Soul of that Body.  But to return to my Story; and I think that as I am King, it becomes me to tell a kingly Story. Lewis King of France the Eleventh of that Name, when his Affairs were disturb’d at Home, took a Journey to Burgundy; and there upon the Occasion of a Hunting, contracted a Familiarity with one Conon, a Country Farmer, but a plain downright honest Man; and Kings delight in the Conversation of such Men.  The King, when he went a hunting, us’d often to go to his House; and as great

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Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.