"But let each beware, lest through affectation he be carried over into the fault which lies nearest him. Let the lover of brevity see to it that he does not merely use few words, but that he says in the fewest words the very best thing he can.... For nothing is so conducive to brevity of style as aptness and elegance of words, and if we add simplicity, it will be easy to avoid obscurity, a vice which is very apt to follow a striving after brevity. But here again we must look out that our speech does not grow cold through lack of all warmth of feeling. Therefore let the matter be so put before the eye that, of itself, it may silently take a certain hold upon the mind. Let all be sweetened with the Attic charm." The _Copia_ proved its value by a great and rapid sale. It was first printed in 1511, and went through nearly sixty editions in the author's lifetime. Since then it has been repeatedly reprinted and epitomised. Coming as it did so soon after the Praise of Folly, and written as it was in the intervals of very serious occupation with the New Testament and Jerome, it gave to the world a very striking proof of Erasmus' immense versatility of talent and wide-reaching intellectual interests. Taken together these works make it quite clear that when Erasmus left England in 1514 he had commended himself to every class of thinking men by some direct appeal to what specially concerned it. In all the biographies of Erasmus it seems to be tacitly assumed that he was on intimate terms with Thomas More during this long residence in England. In fact, however, contemporary evidence on this point is almost entirely wanting. There is but one letter from Erasmus to More in this period, and none whatever from More to him. If it be said that there was no need of correspondence, since the friends could meet at any time in London, the same is true of Colet and Ammonius, from and to whom we have so many letters. When Erasmus goes to London it is Ammonius who finds him a lodging; he it is who sends him his wine and helps him to a horse. More was certainly greatly occupied with public affairs at this time, but he found leisure to write his Utopia, which was published in 1515, very soon after Erasmus' departure from England. The real relations between these men, who, in spite of similar tastes, were of quite different character, seem to have been expressed rather in their later correspondence than in any close intimacy at this time.