mutually attached friends. That, however, would have extended this article to an inordinate length; and here I shall leave "Blessed Thomas More" with only one (but that a charming one) reference to that illustrious martyr as a genuine lover of a great variety of God's dumb creatures. It is from the pen of Erasmus himself, and forms part of a long letter (written in Latin, of course) to Ulrich von Hutten, a German noble, who had formed a very high opinion of More's genius from reading his 'Epigrams' and 'Utopia,' and was anxious to learn something about the personality of the author. The following is the passage pertinent to our subject (literal translation):—
"One of his great delights is to consider the forms, the habits, and the instincts of different kinds of animals. There is hardly a species of bird that he does not keep in his house, and rare animals, such as monkeys, foxes, ferrets, weasels, and the like. If he meets with anything foreign, or in any way remarkable, he eagerly buys it; so that his house is full of such things, and at every turn they attract the eye of visitors, and his own pleasure is renewed whenever he sees others pleased."
We have here a charming idea of More, and his writings bear ample testimony to the fidelity of the picture.
"Natural History" in the Age of Erasmus.
The literature of this subject is ample enough, but it is more entertaining than instructive, and I only make passing reference to it for the purpose of illustrating, by way of contrast, the scientific standpoint of Erasmus as a field-naturalist, and a really great observer, investigator, and theoriser on the every-day aspects and phenomena of animal and plant life. Erasmus was, of course, thoroughly familiar with the 'De Anima' of Aristotle, the 'Historia Naturalis' of Pliny, and, indeed, with probably all extant writings of the ancients that dealt directly with natural history, or indirectly with it in works of travel and geography. He probably also knew Bartholomew's 'Liber de Proprietatibus,' &c. (1479), 'Hortus Sanitatis' (1490), and a few other contemporary works, mainly borrowed from Pliny ("As Pliny saith"), with a vast amount of mediæval myth, descriptions of rare monsters, &c., added in all simple earnestness and unbounded credulity. It was not in a Gallio spirit that "he cared for none of these
