The Latin of Erasmus is not always easy.

He wrote it beautifully, but not naturally, as an exercise in imitation of Cicero.

Without a thorough knowledge of Cicero and of Terence he is sometimes unintelligible, in a few cases the text of his letters is corrupt, and in others his real meaning is doubtful.

One of the most glaring blunders, "idol" for "old," is obviously due to the printer, and a more careful comparison with the Latin would have easily removed them all.

But at seventy-six a little laxity may be pardoned, and these were the only Oxford lectures which Froude himself prepared for the press.