e_.--If ever there come a time, Montesinos, when
beneficence shall be as intelligent, and wisdom as active, as the spirit
of trade, you will then draw from foreign countries other things beside
those which now pay duties at the custom-house, or are cultivated in
nurseries for the conservatories of the wealthy. Not that I regard with
dissatisfaction these latter importations of luxury, however far they may
be brought, or at whatever cost; for of all mere pleasures those of a
garden are the most salutary, and approach nearest to a moral enjoyment.
But you will then (should that time come) seek and find in the laws,
usages and experience of other nations palliatives for some of those
evils and diseases which have hitherto been inseparable from society and
human nature, and remedies, perhaps, for others.

_Montesinos_.--Happy the travellers who shall be found instrumental to
such good! One advantage belongs to authors of this description; because
they contribute to the instruction of the learned, their reputation
suffers no diminution by the course of time: age rather enhances their
value. In this respect they resemble historians, to whom, indeed, their
labours are in a great degree subsidiary.

_Sir Thomas More_.--They have an advantage over them, my friend, in this,
that rarely can they leave evil works behind them, which either from a
mischievous persuasion, or a malignant purpose, may heap condemnation
upon their own souls as long as such works survive them. Even if they
should manifest pernicious opinions and a wicked will, the venom is in a
great degree sheathed by the vehicle in which it is administered. And
this is something; for let me tell thee, thou consumer of goose quills,
that of all the Devil's laboratories there is none in which more poison
is concocted for mankind than in the inkstand!

_Montesinos_.--"My withers are unwrung!"

_Sir Thomas More_.--Be thankful, therefore, in life, as thou wilt in
death.

A principle of compensation may be observed in literary pursuits as in
other things. Reputations that never flame continue to glimmer for
centuries after those which blaze highest have gone out. And what is of
more moment, the humblest occupations are morally the safest.
Rhadamanthus never puts on his black cap to pronounce sentence upon a
dictionary-maker or the compiler of a county history.

_Montesinos_. I am to understand, then, that in the archangel's balance
a little book may sink the sca