In contrast with the fully-developed Cogitativeness of the Noses of Luther, Wickliff, Cranmer, and other leaders in the Reformation, may be placed the Nose of a man who was called to take a prominent part in the same movement, but whose deficiency in thoughtfulness and serious determination paralyzed his usefulness, and flung him back into the abyss of Romanism, from which his soul naturally revolted. We allude to Erasmus. His nose was a sharp Greek nose, indicative of the refinement and delicacy of mind which made him a Reformer in heart, and of the want of cogitative power which disabled him from joining the good cause when adherence to it called for serious enterprise and thoughtful energy. He was content to be a Reformer in heart only, and thus became the lukewarm enemy of both Romanists and Protestants. He lashed the vices and follies of the monks in sharp satires; but he shrunk from interference when the intensely energetic and Roman-Nosed Luther would have annihilated them. The historian of the Reformation thus describes him.[22] “In the result Erasmus knew not on which side to range himself. None pleased him, and he dreaded all. ‘It is dangerous to speak,’ said he, ‘and dangerous to be silent.’ In all great religious movements there are such undecided characters—respectable in some things, but hindering the truth, and who, from a desire to displease no one, displease all.” Erasmus, though a clever and learned man, lacked the wisdom and sagacity necessary to penetrate the future. He could criticize a Greek historian, and correct the Greek Testament, but he could not discern the signs of the times. Timid and retiring by nature, he feared to fail in the contest with the spirits of darkness; he had no confidence in the righteousness of the cause of the Reformation, and, knowing his constitutional weakness, shrunk from the penalties of failure. A sagacity and power of penetration equal to that of his more cogitative brother-Reformers would have cured his cowardice by shewing him its causelessness. Luther, on the other hand, feared nothing; he knew that the truth, if energetically urged, must prevail,—though it would be crushed, if permitted to lie quietly dormant. Truth will not conquer of its own force; it must be promulgated, insisted on, and brought home to men’s minds. They will not seek it, preferring rather to enjoy the peaceable stagnation of error. While Luther was respected and admired even by his bitterest enemies, Erasmus was despised by all parties. His vacillation was aptly hit off by a cotemporary, who, in one of his works depicting two heavens, the Papal and the Christian, says, “I find Erasmus in neither; but perceive him incessantly wheeling, in never-ending eddies between both.” Certainly a fitting destination for the man who advises his friend to dissemble his opinions, as a certain dying man eluded the devil. The devil asked him what he believed? The dying man, fearing to be surprised