WHETHER it was because of its greater or because of its lesser rarity, the subject of folly commanded more attention in earlier ages than it does among ourselves. Alike by the poet, the moralist, and the philosopher, the theme was felt to be as important as it was attractive. Some set themselves to describe its chief manifestations in manas in Brandt's Ship of Fools, which pithily describes many varieties, and points out the special humiliation or punishment appropriate to each kind. Others speculated as to the purpose which it serves in the world-for instance, Erasmus, who in his Praise of Folly ascribed to it many beneficent uses, and undertook to show that in many positions a man may find it to his advantage, and at all events may be the happier, for not being over-wise. And to the Literature of Folly the Bible had already made its large, while more' profound and solemn, contributions. For the Bible has to some extent the character of a 'ship of fools'--having on board, and carrying to judgment, human and Divine, the most representative and striking of the members of the family. And certainly if we except the sinner, the saint, and the sufferer, there is no human type which it so closely scrutinizes as the fool, or in which it is so keenly interested. In the idea of the fool, as it is met with in Scripture, the fundamental element seems to be that he is unable to look after his own intereststhat if not his own enemy he is at least his own very inefficient servant and guardian. And when this, the practical outcome of his conduct, is