life of john picus earl of mirandola - The Center for Thomas More ...

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Picus’ Letter to Corneus
minded that I could find in my heart in this matter to assent unto you
and follow your counsel. This is a very deadly and monstrous persuasion°
which hath entered the minds of men, believing that the studies of
philosophy are of estates° and princes either utterly not to be touched,
or at leastwise with extreme lips° to be sipped, and rather to the pomp
and ostentation of their wit than to the culture° ⌐ and profit ¬ of their
minds to be little and easily tasted. The words of Neoptolemus 1 they
hold utterly for a sure decree, that philosophy is to be studied either
never or not long; but the sayings of wise men they repute for japes°
and very fables, that sure and steadfast felicity standeth only in the
goodness of the mind and that these outward things of the body or
of fortune little or naught pertain unto us. But here ye will say to me
thus: “ ⌐ I am content ye study, but I would have you outwardly occupied
also. ¬ And I desire you not so to embrace Martha that ye should
utterly forsake Mary. 2 ⌐ Love them and use them both, as well study as
worldly occupation ¬ .” ⌐ Truly, my well beloved friend, ¬ in this point I
gainsay° you not; they that so do I find no fault in nor I blame them
not, but certainly it is not all one to say we do well if we do so, and
to say we do evil but if we do so. This is far out of the way, to think
that from contemplation to the active 3 living– ⌐ that is to say, from the
better to the worse ¬ –is none error to decline, and to think that it were
shame to abide still in the better and not decline. Shall a man then be
rebuked because that° he desireth and ensueth° virtue only for itself,
because he studieth the mysteries of God, because he ensearcheth the
counsel of nature, because he useth continually this pleasant ease and
rest, seeking none outward thing, despising¦ all other thing, since those
things are able sufficiently to satisfy the desire of their followers? By this
reckoning it is a thing either servile, or at the leastwise not princely, to
make the study of wisdom other than mercenary. Who may well hear
this, who may suffer it? Certainly he never studied for wisdom which
so studied therefor that in time to come either he might not 4 or would
3 persuasion belief / 4 estates lords / 5 extreme lips in small doses, a little at a time / 6 culture
development (OED cites this as the first usage in the sense of “cultivation or development [of
the mind…]” [s.v. culture sb. 4]) / 10 japes jokes / 17 gainsay contradict, deny / 23 because
that if / ensueth follows
¦ 26 More omits & negligens, “and neglecting” (CW 1:350, 351).
1. The story of this character of Ennius is quoted in Cicero’s Tusculanae Disputationes 2.1, De
Oratore 2.156, and De Re Publica 1.30.
2. Martha…Mary: An allusion to Luke 10:38–42.
3. active: The Latin has civilem, “political, public” (CW 1:350).
4. he might not: As Edwards points out, “The Latin has merely ‘possit’…, without ‘non,’ but the
sense seems to require ‘non’ here, and More may simply have supplied it. On the other hand,
‘possit’ alone might mean ‘merely be able to philosophize—without actually doing it’” (CW 1:234).
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A monsterous
persuasion touching the
philosophy
[86]
Felicity
Contemplation
The study of wisdom
never to be omitted