"If one will just consider, he will see that I am entering upon no unworthy or unfruitful field. Will not Italian critics give the same indulgence to barbarians which they have been compelled, willing or unwilling, to give to their own scholars, to Filelfo, to Hermolaus, or to Valla, whenever during the past sixty years they have aided the learning of the community by their zeal in translating Greek authors or emending Latin ones? Those who publish nothing avoid all blame, but earn no praise;--nay, while they are barely avoiding the blame of men, they fall into the worst kind of blame;--unless, indeed, he is less blameworthy who gives to his famished friends nothing from his splendid table, than he who freely and gladly gives what he has and would be glad to give more sumptuous things if he had them.... I confess myself greatly indebted to Beatus Rhenanus, who has given us Tertullian emended at many points, though it is incomplete and beside that is thick-sown with blunders. He does no injury to his reputation who gives a service proportioned to his day and opens the way to others to do more finished work. Nor have I suffered from any more unjust critics than those who publish nothing and do not even teach, as if they begrudged any usefulness to the world, or as if whatever they gave to the community were a loss to themselves. And if ever they detect a human error, what snickerings, what abuse, what a rumpus!" [Illustration: DEVICE OF FROBEN.] These are really admirable sentiments, worthy of a man of literary courage and generosity. On the whole Erasmus lived up to them. He was impatient of criticism and inclined to believe his critics actuated by motives of personal dislike; but where he felt the friendly note in criticism he was ready to accept it and to discuss the point in the spirit of worthy rivalry. Much that he wrote was hasty and incomplete, but _he wrote_, and he did indeed open the way for others of less individual quality to follow his leading.