Note 17 — INTRODUCTION
John Clarke translation
The method was not obsolete for many centuries, even if it is yet wholly dead. On more than one occasion the study of Natural History has been advocated on account of the abundance of figures of speech that may be drawn from it! Erasmus esteemed it because of the light it threw on the classics; his insensibility to the wonders of natural forces and processes provoked Luther’s remark that “Erasmus looks upon external objects as cows look upon a new gate.”