to the cloister, but without effect. Persuasions, promises, and threats, were alike unavailing; and at last, his guardians, weary of the contest, sent him to Bois-le-duc, in Brabant, where a society of ecclesiastics educated children, with a special view to create, in them, a taste for the monastic life. Their assiduities, however, were wasted on Erasmus. The instinctive antipathy which, as our author expresses it, he had imbibed with his mother's milk, could not be overcome by the cajoleries of these good fathers. They could neither seduce him by their flatteries and promises, nor frighten him with tales of ghosts and apparitions, and of men, who, attempting to escape from convents, had been carried off by dragons and devoured by lions. He lived, or to use his own expression, lost four years at Bois-le-duc, without, in the least, relaxing his stubborn opposition to his guardians wishes, at the end of that period, he fell sick, and was brought back to Gouda, where he remained three years in open war with his ungenerous and selfish guardians. At the end of that period, he fell in company with one Verdenus, who had been his school-fellow at Deventer, and who, at this time, was a monk in the religious house at Stein, near Gouda. This young man gave Erasmus such a flattering description of the comfort and liberty which he enjoyed, the advantages for study which the cloister offered, and the literary riches of the convent-library, that his repugnance seems to have been vanquished, and his scruples to have disappeared at once. An end was now put to the contest which he had maintained for six years, with his guardians, by his final compliance with their wishes, in 1486, the nineteenth year of his age.

From this event, our author draws an unfavourable inference, with respect to the character of Erasmus; on the ground, that nothing but an utter want of stability and moral firmness could have overcome, so suddenly, and on such a slight occasion, the resolution, which for six years, he had stubbornly adhered to. At the same time, he seems dis

posed to censure the tenacity with which he first refused to give into the scheme, ascribing his aversion to monastic life, to mere restlessness of disposition, and impatience of controul. From these conclusions we dissent. That there may have been some admixture of this spirit in the motives which led him to refuse at first, and that there was something wild in the abruptness with which he afterwards consented, we admit. But we do not believe, that this mutation of his views was the mere result of caprice and fickleness. The whole tenor of his history evinces, that from the time when his mind was first developed, he was literally an enthusiast for learning. It was his distinguishing characteristic throughout life, and runs through all his acts and writings. While we agree, therefore, with our author, that his prejudice against monastic institutions may have been derived, in some degree, from the instructions and misfortunes of his parents, we believe that it is chiefly attributable to his love of letters. In his conflicts with his guardians, he expressed but one desire, which was, to be sent to the University. By degrees, he became accustomed to cor.trast as opposites, the college and the convent, a religious life, and the pursuit of learning. Of course, as his thirst of knowledge became more intense, his aversion to the cloister grew proportionally, so that his literary ardour, which is allowed on all hands, to have been extraordinary, is alone sufficient to account for his obstinate resistance to his guardians wishes, even apart from other causes which did really exist. Such being the motives of his conduct in the first instance, it is easy to explain the alteration which took place without impeaching his consistency or courage. By the statements of Verdenus, the monastic life was presented to him in a novel point of view, and one which produced a revolution in his sentiments. He was brought to regard the convent, as an agreeable retreat, where his studies, instead of being thwarted, and discouraged, would enjoy facilities

that could not be had elsewhere, and be aided by a ready access to learned society and well stocked libraries. That he gave ear to this flattering description somewhat rashly, may be true; but if he did give car to it, and suffer it to influence his movements, it follows, that the self-same. motives which impelled him to hold out against his guardians for six years, induced him finally to acquiesce in their interested scheme. At the same time it must be remembered that Erasmus was an orphan at thirteen; that his frame was weak, his temper pacific, and his feelings sensitive; all which may have co-operated, and we doubt not, did, with the cause assigned above, to overcome his obstinate resistance to his guardians.

Whether Erasmus was already so well known, that the monks of Stein were anxious to secure him as a brother, or whether they were governed by the influence of his guardians, we know not. Certain it is, however, that during his noviciate, he was treated with singular indulgence, conventual rules being relaxed or dispensed with, to suit his convenience, and gratify his whims. But notwithstanding this strange policy, he could not reconcile himself to such a life, and it required all the art and authority of his guardians and the monks combined, to prevent his abandoning the monastery at the close of his noviciate. After all, they appear to have succeeded, only by working on his sense of shame, and by representing his continuance as a matter of necessity. Overcome at last by importunity, and weary of contention, he made his profession, in a fit of desperation, took the vows, and became a canon regular.

Every day, however, he grew more disgusted with his situation, and impatient to escape from it. Verdenus, to whom he was indebted for his cowl, appears to have been a very selfish friend, whose only object was to profit by the instructions of so ripe a scholar, in supplying or covering his own deficiencies. A more congenial spirit, was a young ecclesi

astic from his own town, Gouda, by the name of William Hermann, a scholar and a poet, known subsequently as the author of Dearum Silva. With him he lived in habits of strict intimacy, and appears to have derived from his society, the only satisfaction which his residence afforded him.

Five years had now been spent in this disagreeable abode, when an unexpected incident gave him an opportunity of bettering his condition, and it need scarcely be said, that he embraced it joyfully. Henry à Bergis, Bishop of Cambray, who, at that time, was intriguing for a red hat, found it necessary to proceed to Rome in person; and was anxious to procure a secretary who could speak and write pure Latin. This post he offered to Erasmus, whom he knew by reputation, and obtained permission for him from the Bishop of Utrecht, and the Friar of the convent, to accept the offer, which he did, A. D. 1491, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. During his residence at Stein, Erasmus did not, as he has himself confessed, escape the contagion of corrupt example. But although the licentious lives of the recluses led him into some immoralities, we believe his own assertion, that he went not far astray, and so far from going to the same excesses with his older brethren, detested and despised them from his soul. He wrote while in the convent, many pieces, both in prose and verse. Among the rest were. Hymns to Christ and the Virgin Mary, elegies, odes, satires; a funeral panegyric on a pious widow; a discourse on peace and discord, and a treatise de contemptu mundi, in which he describes freely, the coruption of the world, and, still more freely, the corruptions of the cloister. Of this date also are the earliest of his epistles extant. They are addressed to Cornelius Aurotinus, a priest of Gouda, in defence of Laurentius Valla, of whom Erasmus was a zealous and enthusiastic advocate. Our author, indeed, thinks, that the character and conduct of this illustrious Italian, were the models upon which Erasmus formed his own.

Erasmus, though in orders at the time when he left Stein, was not ordained priest till the following year, on which occasion, he became acquainted with the Abbot of St. Bertin, and the learned Jacob Battus, with the latter of whom he afterwards maintained a correspondence. In his hopes, however, of visiting Italy, he was wholly disappointed, the Bishop being forced to relinquish his designs by the want of pecuniary resources. He retained Erasmus, notwithstanding, in his house, and treated him for five years with respect and kindness. This period, however, seems not to have been a productive season as to literary matters, from the fact, that there are extant no productions of his pen, not even letters, of the date in question. At length, in 1496, he obtained permission of the Bishop to repair to Paris, at that time the most celebrated school of scholastic theology in Europe. A place had been procured for him in one of the colleges, where he could reside without expense, and the Bishop promised him a pension; a pledge which he was unable, or neglected to redeem. In consequence of this disappointment, Erasmus was reduced to utter want. He was not only unable to provide himself with books, but was driven by his poverty into a situation, the miseries of which he has described in the most revolting terms. He was now compelled to seek the means of subsistence by instructing private pupils, though it was an occupation which he seems to have disliked, probably because it consumed the time which he wished to devote to his own improvement. Among his pupils, at this time, was a young English nobleman, Lord Montjoy, who gave him an annuity of a hundred dollars, and continued his friend and patron throughout life. At his request, Erasmus wrote his treatise on Epistolary composition, which drew upon him afterwards the censure of the monks, because he expressed in it a preference of matrimony to celibacy. About this time he refused an invitation to become the private tutor of a rich young Englishman,