[Footnote 298: A bibliomanical anecdote here deserves to be recorded; as it shews how More's love of books had infected even those who came to seize upon him to carry him to the Tower, and to endeavour to inveigle him into treasonable expressions:--"While Sir Richard Southwell and Mr. Palmer were bussie in _trussinge upp his bookes_, Mr. Riche, pretending," &c.--"Whereupon Mr. Palmer, on his desposition, said, that he was soe bussie about the _trussinge upp Sir Tho. Moore's bookes_ in a sacke, that he tooke no heed to there talke. Sir Richard Southwell likewise upon his disposition said, that because he was appoynted only to looke to the conveyance _of his bookes_, he gave noe ear unto them."--_Gulielmi Roperi Vita D.T. Mori_; edit Herne, p. 47, 51.] [Footnote 299: Epistle Dedicatory to Ecclesiastes: quoted in that elegant and interesting quarto volume of the "_Lives of British Statesmen_," by the late Mr. Macdiarmid; p. 117.] How can I speak, with adequate justice, of the author of these words!--Yes, ERASMUS!--in spite of thy timidity, and sometimes, almost servile compliances with the capricious whims of the great; in spite of thy delicate foibles, thou shalt always live in my memory; and dear to me shall be the possession of thy intellectual labours! No pen has yet done justice to thy life.[300] How I love to trace thee, in all thy bookish pursuits, from correcting the press of thy beloved Froben, to thy social meetings with Colet and More! You remember well, Lisardo,--we saw, in yonder room, a _large paper_ copy of the fine Leyden edition of this great man's works! You opened it; and were struck with the variety--the solidity, as well as gaiety, of his productions.