ng of a man_, Nay, St. Paul himself, that great doctor of the
Gentiles, writing to his Corinthians, readily owns the name, saying, _If
any man speak as a fool, I am more_; as if to have been less so had
been a reproach and disgrace. But perhaps I may be censured for
misinterpreting this text by some modern annotators, who like crows
pecking at one another's eyes, find fault, and correct all that went
before them, pretend each their own glosses to contain the only true and
genuine explication; among whom my Erasmus (whom I cannot but mention
with respect) may challenge the second place, if not the precedency.
This citation (say they) is purely impertinent; the meaning of the
apostle is far different from what you dream of: he would not have these
words so understood, as if he desired to be thought a greater fool
than the rest, but only when he had before said, _Are they ministers of
Christ? so am I_: as if the equalling himself herein to others had been
too little, he adds, _I am more_, thinking a bare equality not enough,
unless he were even superior to those he compares himself with. This
he would have to be believed as true; yet lest it might be thought
offensive, as bordering too much on arrogance and conceit, he tempers
and alleviates it by the covert of Folly. _I speak_ (says he) _as a
fool_, knowing it to be the peculiar privilege of fools to speak the
truth, without giving offence. But what St. Paul's thoughts were when he
wrote this, I leave for them to determine. In my own judgment at least
I prefer the opinion of the good old tun-bellied divines, with whom
it's safer and more creditable to err, than to be in the right with
smattering, raw, novices.

[Illustration: 352]

[Illustration: 356]

Nor indeed should any one mind the late critics any more than the
senseless chattering of a daw: especially since one of the most eminent
of them (whose name I advisedly conceal, lest some of our wits should
be taunting him with the Greek proverb, magisterially and dogmatically
descanting upon his text [_are they the ministers of Christ?_ ]) I speak
as a fool. I am more makes a distinct chapter, and (which without good
store of logic he could never have done) adds a new section, and then
gives this paraphrase, which I shall verbatim recite, that you may have
his words materially, as well as formally his sense (for that's one
of their babbling distinctions). [_I speak as a fool_] that is, if the
equalling myself to those