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[from http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/speude/, along with the Latin and notes; please cite that URL and not this one]

Desiderius Erasmus : Adagia II, 1, 1: Festina Lente

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Speude bradeos, i.e. festina lente, "Make haste slowly." This charming proverb appears at
first glance a riddle, because it is made up of words which contradict each other. It is
therefore to be classed with those which express their meaning through enantiosin, that is,
contrariety, as we explained in the beginning of the Adages. Of this genus is the saying
dusdaimon eudaimonia, unfortunate good fortune. Nor does it seem a groundless conjecture
that our present proverb was created from a phrase which appears in Aristophanes' Knights:
speude tacheos, hasten hastily, so that the person who made the allusion, whoever he was,
converted the anadiaplosin, or doubling, into contrariety, enantiosin. The apt and absolute
brevity of the phrase gives a superlative grace to the rhetorical figuration and to the humor
of the allusion, a gem-like grace that seems to me to be especially beautiful in proverbs, and
to make them gem-like marvels of price.
2. If you weigh carefully the force and the sentiment of our proverb, its succinct brevity,
how fertile it is, how serious, how beneficial, how applicable to every activity of life, you
will easily come to the opinion that among the huge number of sayings you will find none
of greater dignity. Speude bradeos ought to be carved on columns. It ought to be written on
the archways of churches, and indeed in letters of gold. It ought to be painted on the gates
of great men's palaces, engraved on the rings of cardinals and primates, and chased on the
scepters of kings. To go further, it ought to be seen on all monuments everywhere,
published abroad and multiplied so that everyone will know it and it will be before every
mortal eye, and there will be no one who doesn't hold it of greatest use especially
princes, and to those to whom, to quote Homer
Laoi t' epitetraphatai kai tossa memele
["The people are entrusted, and the care of much."]
3. People of private station, if they have omitted something by laziness, or committed
something through rashness, face lighter consequences, for the damage that is done can be
remedied by smaller means. But princes... A single instance of neglect, or one counsel too
hastily put into effect, dear God! what hurricanes have they not often excited, what huge
disasters have they not let loose upon humanity? But, if our speudein bradeos were there to
help that is, a certain ripening of action and moderation blended together from both
wakefulness and gentleness so that kings would commit nothing through rashness they
would regret, nor pass over through laziness anything that would tend to the well-being of
the state, I ask you, what could be more prosperous, better grounded, and more stable than
this kind of rule? The happiness of such a government would hardly be contained by the
boundaries of a country, but would extent far and wide to neighboring peoples, nor could
the line of Hesiod be better applied than here:
Pema kakos geiton, hosson t' eus meg' oneiar.
["An evil neighbor is a curse, as much as a good one is a benefit."]
4. I consider this proverb has better right to be called basilikon, i.e. royal, than any
other, not so much because royalty could best use it, but because the minds of princes seem
to be peculiarly prone to the two vices of sloth and hotheadedness. Fortune's favor, the
abundance of wealth, the ready allurements to amusements, the ability to do whatever one
pleases, and finally that most pestilent euge!, "bravo!", of yes-men, and the everlastingly
ready smiles, applause, and congratulations for a king, whatever he does or says in any way
it's no wonder if all these things, and others of the same nature, persuade many princes to
laziness, especially if the person exposed to these temptations is young and inexperienced.
Yet on the contrary, it often happens that the natural and "lion-like" I might call it
vigor of some princes' minds, when inflated by limitless wealth, whipped up by the
prospects of great things, inflammed with anger, ambition or other desires of that type, and

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egged on by flattering counsels, first charges out in one wrong direction, then in another,
and then carries the whole state with it into the abyss.
5. Although it is possible to sin in both directions, a king had much better pay attention
to being slow than unseasonably rapid. Homer seems to have given his character
Agamemnon a certain vicious softness of soul, that is, the bradeos, so that the poet
attributes no outstanding actions to him, except when he got mad because Chryeis had been
taken away and he robbed Briseis from Achilles. To Achilles Homer attributes the opposite
quality of to speudein, immoderate impulse. It is possible that Homer meant our speudein
bradeos to apply to him on the occasion when he was about to draw his sword and go after
Agamemnon but was restrained by Athena and told to vent his indignation in insults only.
Even this was the action of a mind out of control, and Achilles, in the midst of crowded
assembly of leaders, rants and raves with shabby and shameful abuse against the man who
holds the supreme authority. Alexander the Great imitated Achilles, and, to be sure,
surpassed him, since his soul's uncontrolled violence would drive him to the point where he
drew his sword against his dearest friends. Sardanapalus emulated Agamemnon, and outdid
him in torpidity. One could find numberless examples of both types, those who exhibited
the sloth of the latter, or the ferocity of the former. You will find very few great men who
followed our proverb and mingled a timely speediness with a thoughtful slowness. Of
course one man may suffice to represent those who succeeded, Fabius Maximus, whom
they called Cunctator, "the Delayer." Fabius gained himself undying praise when cunctando
restituit rem, "he restored safety by delay," to the Roman state which had been brought to
desperate circumstances by the ill-advised rashness of lesser leaders.
6. With good cause, therefore, our proverb Speude bradeos benefitted the two most
praised Roman emperors, Augustus and Titus Vespasian. Both of these men possessed a
unique greatness of soul, and with an incredible gentleness joined with courtesy and the
amiable popularity of their manners, they bound the hearts of all to them. But, nonetheless,
when affairs demanded force, they accomplished the greatest actions with diligence equal to
their gentleness. Augustus was so greatly delighted with this saying as Aulus Gellius
relates in the eleventh chapter of the tenth book of his Attic Nights (whom Macrobius
follows in the sixth book of his Saturnalia) that he not only used it very often in his
daily conversation, but also frequently inserted it into the language of his official letters,
advising by these two words that his ministers in carrying out their duties should employ
both the despatch of efficient business, and the slowness of careful reflection. Gellius
thought that this concept could be expressed in a single Latin word, matura; for maturari
means that something should happen neither too soon, nor later than it ought, but at the
exact right moment. Gellius says that Vergil uses the verb in this sense when he writes in
the first book of the Aeneid
Maturate fugam.
["Now is the time for escape."]
Although maturari signifies in Latin authors the same thing as festinare, it means to hasten
so as not to anticipate the proper time. You may use festinata correctly as a synonym for
praeproperata, but not for maturata. None of this conflicts with what Suetonius says in his
life of Augustus: "Augustus thought nothing less appropriate," he says, "for a perfect leader
than a combination of hastiness and rashness. He often quoted these words:
Speude bradeos, asphales gar est' ameinon e thrasus
strategos.
["Make haste slowly, for a general who makes no mistakes is better than a
brave one."]
7. Thus Suetonius [2.25.4]. These words, up to thrasus, are a verse, a catalectic trochaic
tetrameter, excerpted, as I conjecture, from some poet, to which Augustus himself added
strategos, "general." This is the meaning: "Make haste slowly. For the leader who carries

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things safely out of reach of disaster, is better than one who is blustering and
overconfident." Things that are foreseen and provided for by slow and gentle forethought
are safer than what is hurried into action by hot and hasty heads.
8. From the ancient coins minted by Titus Vespasian we can easily gather that this same
proverb pleased him, too. Aldus Manutius showed me a specimen, a silver piece of old and
clearly Roman workmanship, which he said was sent to him as a gift by the Venetian
nobleman Pietro Bembo, who honored the youthful Aldus as an example of the foremost
students and diligent investigators of literary antiquities in his time. The impression
stamped on the coin was like this. On the obverse was the portrait of Titus Vespasian with
his titles; on the reverse was a dolphin curving around and embracing the shank of an
anchor. This device means exactly the same thing as the saying of Augustus Csar, Speude
bradeos, and the evidence is in the monuments written in hieroglyphic letters.
9. "Hieroglyphic" is the name given to the enigmatic characters which the earliest ages
used in writing, especially the Egyptian priests and theologians, who considered it
forbidden to divulge the mysteries of wisdom to the profane crowd as we do in
ordinary letters. If they judged something worthy of the name of wisdom, the Egyptians
wrote it down in pictures of various animals, so that not everyone could guess the
significance. However, if you knew and understood the properties of all things, and the
strengths and natures of animals, you could then put together the hints given by the symbols
and grasp the meaning of the riddle. In this way, when the Egyptians wished to signify
Osiris, whom they believed to be the same as the sun, they carved a scepter with an eye on
top of it, hinting that this is the god, sublime in royal power, who looks down on everything
because antiquity called the sun the "eye of Jove." Thus Macrobius relates in the first
book of his Saturnalia.
10. Likewise they wrote "year" in this fashion: they painted a serpent, rolled in a hoop,
holding its tail in its mouth, hinting that the year always returned to the same points
revisiting the same recurrences of seasons. Hence Servius asserts that in Greek eniautos is a
word applied to the year, and that Vergil is looking to this when he says:
Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.
["And the year too rolls in upon itself through its own way-marks."]
However, Horus the Egyptian, of whom there survive two symbolic books of this type, says
that the hieroglyph of the serpent does not represent the year, but rather eternity, and that
"year" is written by an image of Isis, or of a phnix. Among the Greeks, Plutarch
commented on these things in his book De Osiride, and Chaeremon wrote also on the
testimony of the Suda lexicon. It is from Chaeremon's books, I suspect, that the examples of
this kind of hieroglyphic writing which we have just seen were excerpted, and along with
these there was also this picture.
11. First, a circle, then an anchor, whose shank, as I have said, is entwined by a dolphin.
The adjoined written interpretation explains that the circle stands for eternal time, as a circle
has no beginning or end. The anchor, which stays and moors a ship and keeps it in place,
indicates slowness. The dolphin, the fastest of all animals, and the animal of keenest
reflexes, expresses speed. If you connect all of this symbolism intelligently, it forms the
following sentence: aei speude bradeos, "Always make haste slowly." Furthermore, this
symbolic method of writing possesses not only the greatest dignity, but also provides a great
deal of pleasure to a person who can look deeply into the qualities of things; because this
symbolic representation mingles the scientific contemplation of things and natural causes
with the study of literature.
12. If you have the books which Aristotle entitled his Physics, you will see clearly that
there is a certain analogy or likeness between space, motion, and time. For all of these three
exist together in the same relation. As time inheres in motion, so motion inheres in space.
What is a point in space, is an instant in time, and an impulse in motion that which in
motion is its least and indivisible part (let us term it that for now). We do not have to
elaborate words, if it fits in actuality. If you consider the extension of a straight line, you

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will find two points, of which one is simply the beginning, and the other the end. This is
whence the length arises, and how the length is defined. If you analyze motion in the same
way, you will find two impulses, one from which the motion arises, and the other in which
it subsides. There is the same reasoning behind both of these. What is the beginning of the
line is simply the beginning of the motion, and what is the end of the line is the end of the
motion. Time necessarily accompanies motion. If you contemplate time separately from
extension and motion, the same principle applies to it also, and you will see two instants
(thus we shall call them), one of which is the beginning of the time, and the other the end.
Again, if you were to consider the points of space, the impulses of motion, and the instants
of time which fill the middle between the beginning and the end in the same line, you will
see that the nature of each one of these is double. In relation to the beginning, the middle
elements are ends; in relation to the end, beginnings. So, where the space is finite, there too
the motion is finite, and it follows that the time is finite. That space, then, is finite which
possesses a beginning such that it could not also be an ending, and also an ending which
could not be by the same reasoning a beginning. This happens in all plane and solid figures
except the circle and the sphere. For in these there is no fixed point which can properly be
called a beginning, and no point which an ending occurs, and can therefore be called the
end. Likewise, then, there is no instant or impulse that can be called a beginning or an end.
Hence it follows that here neither the space, nor the motion, nor the time is finite. Again,
wherever there is a point of space on the circle or sphere, it is capable of being both a
beginning and an end. Therefore it is necessary that the space of the circle or sphere is
infinite. By the same rule, since whatever impulse on the circle can be a source of motion or
an end of motion, here the motion is infinite. Finally, since each instant can be a beginning
of time or an end, then the time ought to be infinite. But we call infinite time "eternity," and
eternity corresponds to eternal motion. Eternal motion likewise requires eternal space. All
these elements are not able to coexist except in a spherical or circular form. From this the
philosophers have deduced the eternity of the world, because they saw the shape of the
whole sky and of the stars to be spherical, and also its motion to be spherical. Furthermore,
the idea of a circle squares not only with a space of this type, but the motion that inheres in
this figure is in fact a circle also. By the same token the time that measures this motion does
not reject the name of circle, as Aristotle testifies in the fourth book of his Physics.
Whoever perceives these things and others of the same kind from the doctrines of the
philosophers will easily figure out why the Egyptians decided to express everlasting time by
a circle.
13. Now let us look a little at the faculties and nature of the dolphin. Our authors say
that this animal leaves the whole race of animals far behind it in its unbelievable speed and
wonderful force. Oppian, in his second book On the Nature of Fishes, does not compare
dolphins with any old bird, but with eagles:
Hosson gar kouphoisi met oionoisin anaktes
aietoi e theressi met omesteisi leontes,
hosson aristeuousin en herpustersi drakontes,
tosson kai delphines en ichthusin hegemones.
["As much as eagles are the kings of aery birds,or lions those over flesh-eating
beasts, as much as dragons excel among serpents, by so much are the dolphins
leaders among fishes."]
He [535-36] also compares them to a dart:
dia gar belos hoste thalassan / hiptantai.
["For they fly through the sea like an arrow."]
And he finally compares them to the wind, or rather to a whirlwind or hurricane:

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allote men bathu kuma diatreche eute lailaps
["Sometimes he rushes through the deep waves like a storm."]
14. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, book nine, chapter eight, follows the opinion
of Aristotle and conforms closely to his relation. Pliny says that the dolphin is the swiftest
of all animals, not only of sea-creatures, but also faster than any bird and speedier than any
arrow. Pliny confirms the dolphin's remarkable speed particularly by this proof. The
dolphin has its mouth, which it uses in hunting fishes, sited a long way behind its beak,
almost in the middle of its belly. This must strongly hinder its swimming. Nor does the
dolphin snatch fishes except turned over lying on its back. However, there is no prey at all
that can escape the dolphin's speed. The dolphin itself is quite aware of this natural gift, and
either for the sake of praise or because of high spirits, it often races ships that scud under
full sail. The dolphin is especially fond of human beings [philanthropos]. Some even say it
loves boys [paiderasten], and for this reason it is a deadly enemy to the crocodile, which
hates human beings more than any other animal. Thus, the dolphin is not afraid of man, but
comes right up to ships. It jumps up and plays, it will race any vessel and outstrip even
those moving under full sail. In the catching of mullets in the Laternan Bay the dolphin
makes it magnificently clear how he excels in speed, the power of his intellect, and finally
how great a well-wisher he is to human beings. What, indeed, can I say about his
unbelievable power? If he is driven by hunger, he will pursue a fish to the deepest depths,
and hold in his breath a very long time. When he darts out of the water to breathe, like an
arrow from a bow, he jumps up with such force that his leap has capsized many a ship of
billowing sail. Therefore, what symbol could be more perfectly suited to expressing the
sharp and indefatigable impulse of the mind, than the dolphin? On the contrary, for the
signifying of slowness and delay, the echeneis fish, which the Romans call a remora, is not
inappropriate. However, since its appearance is unfamiliar and hard to recognize (besides
that it is quite small and is not marked by any striking features), the symbol of the anchor
lends itself much more pleasing for this purpose, because if a ship is sailing dangerously
fast because of strong winds astern "favoring" winds the anchor will save the ship and
restrain its immoderate course. So, this saying, speude bradeos, appears to have derived
from the genuine mysteries of primitive philosophy, whence it was taken up by the two
most praised emperors, so that it holds a place both in the rank of proverbs and of imperial
devices, since it conforms so well with the character and genius of both.
15. Now it descends to Aldus Manutius, Roman citizen, who is its third inheritor.
Haud equidem sine mente reor, sine numine divum.
"[Surely, I believe, by the will and grace of the gods."]
Aldus has taken as his own this same device which once so pleased Titus Vespasian. He has
multiplied it and made it not only famous, but also most beloved by everyone everywhere in
the world who understands and loves literature. I do not believe that this symbol was so
illustrious when it was stamped on the imperial money and carried around to be rubbed by
the fingers of merchants, than now when it has been printed on the title-pages of books of
all sorts, in both languages, among all nations, even those beyond the borders of
Christendom. It is known, loved, and praised by all who cultivate the sacred studies of the
liberal arts, and especially by those who despise turgid and barbaric dogma and as-pire to
the true ancient learning. Aldus was as it were born on purpose and, I might say, formed
and fashioned by the Fates themselves for learning's benefit, so ardently he desires this one
thing only, with such tireless zeal he toils and shirks no labor or hardship so that he might
restore the whole of literature entire, unblemished, and pure back to the possession and the
hearts of good people. How important a task this is (even though the fates are against it, I
almost said), the facts themselves declare. If some god, a friend to literature, were to look
kindly on these beautiful and kingly wishes of our Aldus and if malevolent spirits let him
be within a few years I could promise there would be available to scholars in all fields of
study whatever good authors are extant in four languages, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and

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Chaldean, and that students would have each one of these works in full and correct text, and
no one would lack for the least crumb of the feast of literature. At the same time the true
number of good manuscripts still hidden would come to light, codices so far either
oppressed by the neglect or suppressed by the ambition of certain people, whose only desire
is that they alone may seem to know anything. Then at last it will be known just how many
horrendous mistakes pullulate in the texts of the classics, even those which we now think
sufficiently emended. If anyone would like to make an experiment to gauge the enormity of
the labor involved, the letters of the Younger Pliny are soon to see the light from the Aldine
Press, and when our experimenter compares Aldus's text with the vulgate editions, whatever
he finds in them to deplore, he should expect in other authors also.
16. By Hercules, it is a herculean task and worthy of some royal spirit, to restore to the
world a thing so divine collapsed in ruin down to its foundations, to track down the hidden,
to dig up what is buried, to call things extinct back to life, to make the mutilated whole, and
to emend texts depraved in so many ways and especially by the viciousness of those
apologists for common slovenliness who find more antiquity in the glint of a little gold
piece in than the entire body of literature.
17. Furthermore, people pile heap on heap of praise upon those who by their prowess
defended their countries or merely extended their boundaries, even though these heroes
were engaged in a merely secular affair and in a narrowly limited field. But whoso from
near extinction rescues the Republic of Letters a task almost more difficult than
establishing it in the first place he labors on something holy and immortal, and he
sustains the hopes not of just one province or another, but of all humanity and all ages. This
duty was once the special gift of princes, among whom the glory of Ptolemy shines
brightest. And although Ptolemy's library was confined within the narrow walls of his
dynastic palace, Aldus toils so that his library shall be contained by no limits other than
those of the world.
18. I do not feel that I have wandered impertinently into this little digression, since
scholars will greater value, reverence, and delight in the dolphin and anchor device when
they know what famous men authored it and understand its significance, and last, when they
remember the great good the Dolphin promises them, if only God will assist and favor these
beautiful attempts.
19. Later, after this detour, I will pick up our story again, as soon as I shall have laid out
my complaint against certain printers who have merited extremely ill of literature. This is
not a new complaint, but it has never been more justified than now, when I am now
preparing the fourth (if I'm not mistaken) edition of these Adages, that is, in 1525.
20. The city of Venice is very famous because of many of her citizens, and she is
become even more famous through the Aldine Press, to the point that whatever book issues
thence abroad, the mere mention of the city of printing on the title page is enough to make it
more sellable. Yet certain booksellers of mean station have so abused the glamour of
Venice's name that from no other city come texts more disgracefully corrupted, and not just
ordinary authors, but those of the first rank, as Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian not to
complain about what they do to Holy Scripture. The laws provide that no one shall cobble a
shoe or make a bookcase unless they have been approved by their trade's guild. And yet
great authors, to whose works even religion owes a debt, are sent into the public by men so
ignorant of letters that they can scarcely read what they print, so lazy that they refuse to
proofread their copy, and so grasping and mercenary that they would sooner suffer a good
book to be filled with six thousand mistakes than for a few crowns to hire someone who
could make corrections.
21. The ones who make the most magnificent promises on their title-pages are those
who most shamelessly peddle corrupt editions. The majesty of the law orders that if
someone sells cloth as dyed with genuine scarlet and is detected to have used no scarlet at
all in the dyeing, he shall pay restitution. Indeed he is fined if he run a business under such
false colors. And shall that person enjoy his filthy lucre or theft rather who foists the
same trick on thousands of people? Once upon a time as many scruples accompanied the

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mere copying of books as now employed by sworn public notaries. Certainly more scruples
were needed, for the contamination of books has reach its present astonishing level for no
other reason than because the transmission of these holy texts was entrusted to any old
obscure and uneducated monks, and even to little nuns, without any attempt at choosing
those suited for the work. Yet how small is the damage which the negligent or unlearned
scribe commits, when you compare the printer? And on this point the laws lie asleep.
Whoever sells cloth dyed in Britain as cloth dyed in Venice is punished; but the printer who
sells unmixed textual cruces, and other engines of torture for the wit, as "good authors,"
enjoys the fruits of his shamelessness. You may say that it is not much of a fault in a seller
to try to get something out of the buyer. But it certainly ought to be a fault, if the title-page
promises "exacting diligence" and the book is riddled with mistakes. There are, indeed,
errors which are not readily caught by even the expert. Now the numberless crowd of
printers has thrown everything into confusion, especially in Germany. Not everyone is
allowed to be a baker; making money by printing is forbidden to nobody. It's not safe to
paint or even to say many things; but any kind of matter is allowed to be printed. To what
part of the world have new books not flown in swarms? If one or another of these books
offers something worth knowing, nonetheless their very multitude violently hinders liberal
studies by the surfeit it induces and surfeit in good things is extremely harmful or by
the very fact that the human mind is by nature greedy of newness and prone to be waylaid
by these temptations and to be distracted from the reading of ancient authors, who are the
best that can be recommended, though I do not intimate that there may be something found
in the moderns which escaped them. It is possible there exists someone who can teach what
Aristotle didn't know. However, I do not believe that there will ever arise anyone who will
define the body of philosophy more absolutely than he did. Then perhaps there will be
someone who sees things in Holy Scripture which eluded Chrysostom or Jerome; but I do
not think there will ever arise anyone who will provide, all in all, what they did.
22. Now as for these Famous Contemporaries, these Almost Classics, we waste our
hours with their mindless tunes; we neglect the genuine study of literature and its authors,
and the authority of senates, councils, schools, lawyers and theologians lies in ruin. If this
situation continues as it has begun, and the Sum of Things is brought under the control of a
few, we will wind up burdened with a barbarous tyranny like the Turks. The world will
obey the whims of one man, or of a few, all traces of civil polity will vanish, and the world
will be ruled by military violence. All decent studies will cease, and one law only will
survive. Such is the wish of whoever would be z kosmokrator, the Universal Dictator. The
proponents of religion will be held in contempt, or, if they retain any power or dignity, that
will be totally at the service of those who rule all things, not by their judgment, but by their
frowns and nods.
23. In the four elements that make up the universe, each one is mixed in with the others
and tempered by them so that they exist in an everlasting alliance. How much better would
humankind be provided for, if in the same way everyone retained the powers legitimately
assigned to them! The people would receive their just portion. Law, equity, and their own
capacities would determine what powers are to be designated to the senate and magistrates.
Bishops and priests would keep their honor. Not even monks would be denied what is owed
them. The concors discordia, the harmonious dissonance, of all these estates and their many
colors of opinion would more faithfully preserve the state than what prevails now, when
everyone tries to snatch everything for himself. Not even a family can survive unless the
husband delegate part of his authority to his wife, unless there be a distinction between free
persons and slaves, and unless the slaves themselves are not treated as beasts but as human
beings. Finally, there must be a distinction between one slave and another, so that those
who serve more willingly may be treated more indulgently and expect freedom as the
reward of their work.
24. But here someone might say: "Hey there, you blithering prophet, what's this got to
do with printers?" It's got to do with that a lot of our present evils is caused by them and
their rampant licentiousness. They fill the world with books and pamphlets. These are I

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don't call them trifling things, such as I perhaps write, but rather stupid, unfactual,
slanderous, scandalous, obscene, pestilent, blasphemous, and seditious, and they come forth
in such a crowd that the good fruit of wholesome books perishes. Some of these indecent
writings fly out under no title, or, what is more criminal, under false title-pages. When
caught in the act these prostitute publishers say, "Give me the means to support my family,
and I'll cease to print such books". A thief, con-man, or pimp when arraigned could with
much better face reply, "Give me the means to live, and I'll leave off this trade" if it is a
lesser crime secretly to make off with someone else's goods than publicly to usurp someone
else's good name, or if it is a smaller sin to make bad use of yourself and wrong someone
else for gain, than to destroy another's livelihood and reputation, things that are dearer than
life.
25. But enough already of complaints. We must show the remedy. This evil will be
eradicated if princes and magistrates take care that good-for-nothing people, who are the
ones who stir up these mercenary print-wars, should be checked as far as possible. And if
there are abandoned types whom neither reason nor shame can move, the Law should show
them a hand ready with the whip unless they turn to better ways. And then, if there are
people who are attempting works useful to the public and lack resources, rewards should be
instituted to help and succor them, either by princes or by bishops and abbots, or from the
public treasury. For from merchants, most of whom have devoted themselves entirely to
Mammon, it would perhaps be perverse to demand such a service. Someone who has built a
church or a tomb, who has dedicated a painting or set up a statue promises himself a name
that will survive to posterity. How much greater a posthumous reputation would he achieve
by the way we have described? From many examples I shall select one. There was no one
more versed in the explication of scripture than the divine John Chrysostom, nor any writer
more helpful to those who prepare themselves for the privilege of preaching. He wrote very
much, of which we have a large part in indifferent translation. Most of his text is corrupt
and mixed with much that owes nothing to Chrysostom. How bright a light would shine in
sacred studies, if we had such a teacher as Chrysostom complete, in Greek, and emended?
Or at least we ought to have him speaking Latin as he spoke in Greek.
26. I shall not here count up how many ways important people waste their money, how
much they throw away on their dice, whores, drinking bouts, junkets, pomps, wars got up
on purpose, ambition, flatterers, jesters, actors. If only they contributed some little portion
of this money, so shamefully wasted, to the public good, or to their own glory, or both
together! What scholar does not support Aldus in his efforts toward noble ends? Who does
not contribute something to make his work lighter? How many times have not people in
Hungary or Poland sent him ancient manuscripts along with a gift of money, so that he
might accurately publish them? What Aldus has been working hard at in Italy he himself
has blessed the fates that have allowed his enterprise to thrive under the reputation of his
name Johannes Froben toils at among the nations beyond the Alps, with no less zeal than
does Aldus, and with success, but, it cannot be denied, with less material profit. If you want
the reason, I believe there is one in particular among many: that when it comes to literary
matters we are touched with less brilliance and enthusiasm than the Italians are favored
with. I do not fear to assert this because I have had direct experience of it. When I, a
Dutchman in Italy, was getting ready to publish my collection of proverbs, how many
learned men came to me to supply me with authors that had not yet been printed, and whom
they thought I could use! Aldus had nothing in his treasure of books which he did not share
with me. John Lascaris, Baptista Egnatius, Marcus Musurus, and Brother Urbanus did the
same. I felt the kind help of certain people who were unknown to me either by face or
name. To Venice I had brought nothing but a confused and unarranged mass of materials
for a work-to-be, and all of that had been collected solely from printed sources. Rushed
along by my reckless boldness, we went far beyond this: myself in writing, Aldus in
printing. The whole of the work was completed in nine months more or less, and that period
was never marred by a single bad day. Here I realized how greatly lacking in usefulness my
efforts would have been if my learned friends had not helped me to manuscripts. Among the

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books they brought me were Plato's works in Greek, Plutarch's Lives and his Moralia,
which began to be printed as my work drew to a close. There was Athenaeus'
Deipnosophistae, Aphthonius, Hermogenes with his commentators, Aristotle's Rhetorica
with the scholia of Gregory Naziazenus, Aristides complete with the scholia, the short
commentaries on Hesiod and Theocritus, Eustathius on the whole of Homer, Pausanias, and
Pindar with accurate commentary. There was the collection of proverbs attributed to
Plutarch, and another attributed to Apostolius, which Hieronymus Aleander loaned to us.
There were other smaller items, too, which either offered no materials, or did not pertain to
the work. None of these, however, had ever yet been published in printed form.
27. Now in its turn examine the "singular humanity" of a certain North European
friend of mine, whom I have counted among my principal friends, nor have I discarded,
since "We ought to know the characters of our friends, not hate them." When I was
enlarging the Venetian edition, I happen to see at his house a copy of the Suda lexicon
whose margins were filled with annotated proverbs. It was a huge work, and one most
important to be studied. Desirous therefore of enriching my labor with this volume, I asked
him to let me have the use of it, even for just a few hours, so my secretary could copy out
the marginalia for me. Again and again I begged him, and he refused me. When I tried
every possible approach with him, and could not get him to grant my prayer, I asked him
whether he himself intended to publish a collection of proverbs, and I said I would happily
yield to him so he could work on it more succesfully. He swore there was nothing such.
"What then," I said, "motivates you?" Finally he confessed, as if it had been dragged out of
him by torture, that he feared the open popularizing of things which until now had made
learned men seem prodigies to ordinary people. Hinc illae lacrimae! "Hence those tears."
In the colleges and monasteries of Germany, France, and England lie hidden manuscripts of
the greatest antiquity. Their keepers allow no one with extremely few exceptions
access to them, or even if someone asks about them, they hide then, or deny their existence,
or sell the use of them at an unfairly high price, double that of professional bookdealers. At
length these carefully preserved manuscripts are destroyed by mildew and silverfish, or
thieves make off with them. Rich people not only do not help literary affairs with their
generosity, they believe that no money is worse wasted than what is spent on such things,
nor do they care in the least about things from which they can make no profit. But if the
princes of North Europe would pursue liberal studies with the same enthusiasm as the
Italians, the Serpents of Froben's device would not lag far behind Aldus' Dolphin in wealth.
Aldus, hastening slowly, has gained no less money than glory, and he has deserved both.
Froben carries his staff upright, seeking no end but the public good, while he cleaves to
dovelike mildness and expresses the wisdom of serpents better in his printer's device than in
his deeds. But Froben is richer in fame than in money.
28. But let us limit our digressions, and turn our essay back to the elucidation of our
proverb. Speude bradeos may be used in three ways. First, whenever we admonish someone
to think carefully a little longer before rushing into action but then after he has decided what
to do, to perform it quickly. In this way the Anchor refers to the slowness of deliberation,
and the Dolphin to the speed of performance. Sallust's phrase is pertinent: Before you begin,
think; when you have thought, you need to act quickly. Aristotle reviews this sentiment in
the sixth book of his Ethics, though he calls it "commonly" quoted: They say, he says, that
once you have decided on something, you should do it quickly, but that you should make
decisions hesitantly. Laertius witnesses that the author of this idea was Bias, who was
accustomed to advise people bradeos encheirein tois prattomenois, hot' an ele bebaios
teronte diamenein: to be slow to put your hand to affairs, but once you have started to see
them through vigorously. The writer of mimes, Publianus, I believe, plays with this idea
similarly: You should make long preparations for a war, so you can win it more quickly.
Again, he says: In deciding what's useful, delay is safest. Add to these this proverb: en nukti
boule, a council in the night. And then this line of Sophocles from his Oedipus the King:

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phronein gar hoi tacheis ouk asphaleis
["Too-hasty decisions are dangerous."]
To be added to these is Plato's dictum, which we have cited elsewhere: Who hastens too
much at the beginning, comes to the end too late. Tending in a slightly other direction, but
nonetheless propos, is what Quintilian says: That type of mind which develops too early
hardly ever comes to bear fruit. Also what people commonly say, that boys who are wise
before their time turn into stupid old men. Actius seems to agree with this when he says, as
he is quoted by Gellius, that in young minds as in early apples it was the sourness that
pleased him, for it showed they were on the way to ripening. Indeed, timely maturity brings
sweetness; the others rot on the tree.
29. We use our proverb in a second way when we advise that the passions of the mind
should be restrained by the reason as by reins. Plato divides the mind into three parts
reason, capacity for anger, and desires, and he believes philosophy reaches its highest level
when the passions obey reason as subjects obey a king. Because of this he locates reason in
the brain, as a palace assigned to it. The Peripatetics, whose standard-bearer is Aristotle,
consider the passions to be certain impulses or stimuli of the soul placed there by nature, by
which we are incited to the practice of virtue. However, the Stoics deny this, and
particularly Seneca in his books On Anger which he wrote to Nero. The Stoics believe that
the passions not only do not conduce to virtue but in fact are obstacles, though they do not
deny that the primitive impulses remain in the mind of their hypothetical wise man who has
trained them to take orders from reason because he cannot get rid of passion root and
branch. Rather, reason, when it does not give its assent, rejects these impulses. Homer hints
at this in the first book of the Iliad. Athena stands behind Achilles, and holds him back as
he moves his hand toward his swordhilt. Thus, you could correctly call the violent motions
of the mind the Dolphin, and the Anchor the moderating influence of wisdom. Seneca
writes that hesitancy is a benefit in nothing except in anger. Further, whenever we
immoderately desire or hate something, delay brings us to safety. Plutarch in his Sayings of
the Romans tells the story of the philosopher Athenodorus. On the occasion when he sought
to obtain leave of Augustus to return home on account of old age, he advised him that when
angered he should say and do nothing until he had recited the twenty-four letters of the
Greek alphabet. When Augustus heard this he replied that Athenodorus himself ought to
have used that method and learned the art of keeping quiet, and on that pretext he detained
Athenodorus a whole other year with him. The verse of Terence looks to the same thing:
See that this is not just too clever. There are minds which need spurs and those which need
bridles. Thus the ancients correctly intended the anchor entwined by the dolphin to mean
that the one quality must be tempered by the other in the same way Plato believes the soul
may be trained by mixture of music and athletics, if they are practiced together.
30. The third way of using our proverb is when we warn that headlong speed must be
avoided in every kind of business, because it is the peculiar vice of certain minds that in
everything they do any delay, no matter how small, seems long. Mistakes and regret are
prone to be the companions of this sort of haste, according to the famous verse in Greek:
propeteia pollois estin aitia kakon
["For many people haste is the source of troubles."]
31. The noble saying of Cato concords with this: Fast enough, if done well enough,
which the divine Jerome mentions in a letter written to Pammachius: Very wise also is that
bit of Cato, Fast enough, if done well enough. Once as teenagers we used to laugh at it
when it was repeated by an accomplished orator in his introduction to classes. I think you
recall our mutual blunder here, when around us the entire Atheneum resounded with
students' voices chanting 'Fast enough, if done well enough.'
32. Thus far Jerome. His words fit those who too hastily grasp at fame and prefer an
instant off-the-shelf reputation, if big, to a fame that is solid and lasting. Things that ripen
prematurely are wont suddenly to go limp. What grows slowly and steadily can endure.

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Horace: The fame of Marcellus grows like a tree as time passes unobserved. And Pindar in
Nemean VIII:
auxetai d' areta,
chlorais eersais hos ote dendron aissei
sophois andron aertheisa en dikaiois te pros hygron aethera
["Virtue increases, as a tree surges up with the refreshing dew, and rises up
among wise and just men towards the liquid heaven."]
In sum, whosoever errs by laziness or by impulsiveness should keep this saying, first of
Augustus Caesar, then the symbol of Titus Vespasian, and now of Aldus, SPEUDE
BRADEOS, forever before their mind's eye, and remember the significance of the Dolphin
and the Anchor.
THE END