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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3593.txt b/3593.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65c8871 --- /dev/null +++ b/3593.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3117 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 13 +by Michel de Montaigne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 13 + +Author: Michel de Montaigne + +Release Date: September 17, 2006 [EBook #3593] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE, VOLUME 13 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 13. + +XXXII. Defence of Seneca and Plutarch. +XXXIII. The story of Spurina. +XXXIV. Means to carry on a war according to Julius Caesar. +XXXV. Of three good women. +XXXVI. Of the most excellent men. +XXXVII. Of the resemblance of children to their fathers. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +DEFENCE OF SENECA AND PLUTARCH + +The familiarity I have with these two authors, and the assistance they +have lent to my age and to my book, wholly compiled of what I have +borrowed from them, oblige me to stand up for their honour. + +As to Seneca, amongst a million of little pamphlets that those of the +so-called reformed religion disperse abroad for the defence of their cause +(and which sometimes proceed from so good a hand, that 'tis pity his pen +is not employed in a better subject), I have formerly seen one, that to +make up the parallel he would fain find out betwixt the government of our +late poor King Charles IX. and that of Nero, compares the late Cardinal +of Lorraine with Seneca; their fortunes, in having both of them been the +prime ministers in the government of their princes, and in their manners, +conditions, and deportments to have been very near alike. Wherein, in my +opinion, he does the said cardinal a very great honour; for though I am +one of those who have a very high esteem for his wit, eloquence, and zeal +to religion and the service of his king, and his good fortune to have +lived in an age wherein it was so novel, so rare, and also so necessary +for the public good to have an ecclesiastical person of such high birth +and dignity, and so sufficient and capable of his place; yet, to confess +the truth, I do not think his capacity by many degrees near to the other, +nor his virtue either so clean, entire, or steady as that of Seneca. + +Now the book whereof I speak, to bring about its design, gives a very +injurious description of Seneca, having borrowed its approaches from Dion +the historian, whose testimony I do not at all believe for besides that +he is inconsistent, that after having called Seneca one while very wise, +and again a mortal enemy to Nero's vices, makes him elsewhere avaricious, +an usurer, ambitious, effeminate, voluptuous, and a false pretender to +philosophy, his virtue appears so vivid and vigorous in his writings, and +his vindication is so clear from any of these imputations, as of his +riches and extraordinarily expensive way of living, that I cannot believe +any testimony to the contrary. And besides, it is much more reasonable +to believe the Roman historians in such things than Greeks and +foreigners. Now Tacitus and the rest speak very honourably both of his +life and death; and represent him to us a very excellent and virtuous +person in all things; and I will allege no other reproach against Dion's +report but this, which I cannot avoid, namely, that he has so weak a +judgment in the Roman affairs, that he dares to maintain Julius Caesar's +cause against Pompey [And so does this editor. D.W.], and that of Antony +against Cicero. + +Let us now come to Plutarch: Jean Bodin is a good author of our times, +and a writer of much greater judgment than the rout of scribblers of his +age, and who deserves to be read and considered. I find him, though, a +little bold in this passage of his Method of history, where he accuses +Plutarch not only of ignorance (wherein I would have let him alone: for +that is beyond my criticism), but that he "often writes things +incredible, and absolutely fabulous ": these are his own words. If he +had simply said, that he had delivered things otherwise than they really +are, it had been no great reproach; for what we have not seen, we are +forced to receive from other hands, and take upon trust, and I see that +he purposely sometimes variously relates the same story; as the judgment +of the three best captains that ever were, given by Hannibal; 'tis one +way in the Life of Flammius, and another in that of Pyrrhus. But to +charge him with having taken incredible and impossible things for current +pay, is to accuse the most judicious author in the world of want of +judgment. And this is his example; "as," says he, "when he relates that +a Lacedaemonian boy suffered his bowels to be torn out by a fox-cub he +had stolen, and kept it still concealed under his coat till he fell down +dead, rather than he would discover his theft." I find, in the first +place, this example ill chosen, forasmuch as it is very hard to limit the +power of the faculties of--the soul, whereas we have better authority to +limit and know the force of the bodily limbs; and therefore, if I had +been he, I should rather have chosen an example of this second sort; and +there are some of these less credible: and amongst others, that which he +refates of Pyrrhus, that "all wounded as he was, he struck one of his +enemies, who was armed from head to foot, so great a blow with his sword, +that he clave him down from his crown to his seat, so that the body was +divided into two parts." In this example I find no great miracle, nor do +I admit the excuse with which he defends Plutarch, in having added these +words, "as 'tis said," to suspend our belief; for unless it be in things +received by authority, and the reverence to antiquity or religion, he +would never have himself admitted, or enjoined us to believe things +incredible in themselves; and that these words, "as 'tis said," are not +put in this place to that effect, is easy to be seen, because he +elsewhere relates to us, upon this subject, of the patience of the +Lacedaemonian children, examples happening in his time, more unlikely to +prevail upon our faith; as what Cicero has also testified before him, as +having, as he says, been upon the spot: that even to their times there +were children found who, in the trial of patience they were put to before +the altar of Diana, suffered themselves to be there whipped till the +blood ran down all over their bodies, not only without crying out, but +without so much as a groan, and some till they there voluntarily lost +their lives: and that which Plutarch also, amongst a hundred other +witnesses, relates, that at a sacrifice, a burning coal having fallen +into the sleeve of a Lacedaemonian boy, as he was censing, he suffered +his whole arm to be burned, till the smell of the broiling flesh was +perceived by those present. There was nothing, according to their +custom, wherein their reputation was more concerned, nor for which they +were to undergo more blame and disgrace, than in being taken in theft. +I am so fully satisfied of the greatness of those people, that this story +does not only not appear to me, as to Bodin, incredible; but I do not +find it so much as rare and strange. The Spartan history is full of a +thousand more cruel and rare examples; and is; indeed, all miracle in +this respect. + +Marcellinus, concerning theft, reports that in his time there was no sort +of torments which could compel the Egyptians, when taken in this act, +though a people very much addicted to it, so much as to tell their name. + +A Spanish peasant, being put to the rack as to the accomplices of the +murder of the Praetor Lucius Piso, cried out in the height of the +torment, "that his friends should not leave him, but look on in all +assurance, and that no pain had the power to force from him one word of +confession," which was all they could get the first day. The next day, +as they were leading him a second time to another trial, strongly +disengaging himself from the hands of his guards, he furiously ran his +head against a wall, and beat out his brains. + +Epicharis, having tired and glutted the cruelty of Nero's satellites, and +undergone their fire, their beating, their racks, a whole day together, +without one syllable of confession of her conspiracy; being the next day +brought again to the rack, with her limbs almost torn to pieces, conveyed +the lace of her robe with a running noose over one of the arms of her +chair, and suddenly slipping her head into it, with the weight of her own +body hanged herself. Having the courage to die in that manner, is it not +to be presumed that she purposely lent her life to the trial of her +fortitude the day before, to mock the tyrant, and encourage others to the +like attempt? + +And whoever will inquire of our troopers the experiences they have had in +our civil wars, will find effects of patience and obstinate resolution in +this miserable age of ours, and amongst this rabble even more effeminate +than the Egyptians, worthy to be compared with those we have just related +of the Spartan virtue. + +I know there have been simple peasants amongst us who have endured the +soles of their feet to be broiled upon a gridiron, their finger-ends to +be crushed with the cock of a pistol, and their bloody eyes squeezed out +of their heads by force of a cord twisted about their brows, before they +would so much as consent to a ransom. I have seen one left stark naked +for dead in a ditch, his neck black and swollen, with a halter yet about +it with which they had dragged him all night at a horse's tail, his body +wounded in a hundred places, with stabs of daggers that had been given +him, not to kill him, but to put him to pain and to affright him, who had +endured all this, and even to being speechless and insensible, resolved, +as he himself told me, rather to die a thousand deaths (as indeed, as to +matter of suffering, he had borne one) before he would promise anything; +and yet he was one of the richest husbandmen of all the country. How +many have been seen patiently to suffer themselves to be burnt and +roasted for opinions taken upon trust from others, and by them not at all +understood? I have known a hundred and a hundred women (for Gascony has +a certain prerogative for obstinacy) whom you might sooner have made eat +fire than forsake an opinion they had conceived in anger. They are all +the more exasperated by blows and constraint. And he that made the story +of the woman who, in defiance of all correction, threats, and +bastinadoes, ceased not to call her husband lousy knave, and who being +plunged over head and ears in water, yet lifted her hands above her head +and made a sign of cracking lice, feigned a tale of which, in truth, we +every day see a manifest image in the obstinacy of women. And obstinacy +is the sister of constancy, at least in vigour and stability. + +We are not to judge what is possible and what is not, according to what +is credible and incredible to our apprehension, as I have said elsewhere +and it is a great fault, and yet one that most men are guilty of, which, +nevertheless, I do not mention with any reflection upon Bodin, to make a +difficulty of believing that in another which they could not or would not +do themselves. Every one thinks that the sovereign stamp of human nature +is imprinted in him, and that from it all others must take their rule; +and that all proceedings which are not like his are feigned and false. +Is anything of another's actions or faculties proposed to him? the first +thing he calls to the consultation of his judgment is his own example; +and as matters go with him, so they must of necessity do with all the +world besides dangerous and intolerable folly! For my part, I consider +some men as infinitely beyond me, especially amongst the ancients, and +yet, though I clearly discern my inability to come near them by a +thousand paces, I do not forbear to keep them in sight, and to judge of +what so elevates them, of which I perceive some seeds in myself, as I +also do of the extreme meanness of some other minds, which I neither am +astonished at nor yet misbelieve. I very well perceive the turns those +great souls take to raise themselves to such a pitch, and admire their +grandeur; and those flights that I think the bravest I could be glad to +imitate; where, though I want wing, yet my judgment readily goes along +with them. The other example he introduces of "things incredible and +wholly fabulous," delivered by Plutarch, is, that "Agesilaus was fined by +the Ephori for having wholly engrossed the hearts and affections of his +citizens to himself alone." And herein I do not see what sign of falsity +is to be found: clearly Plutarch speaks of things that must needs be +better known to him than to us; and it was no new thing in Greece to see +men punished and exiled for this very thing, for being too acceptable to +the people; witness the Ostracism and Petalism.--[Ostracism at Athens +was banishment for ten years; petalism at Syracuse was banishment for +five years.] + +There is yet in this place another accusation laid against Plutarch which +I cannot well digest, where Bodin says that he has sincerely paralleled +Romans with Romans, and Greeks amongst themselves, but not Romans with +Greeks; witness, says he, Demosthenes and Cicero, Cato and Aristides, +Sylla and Lysander, Marcellus and Pelopidas, Pompey and Agesilaus, +holding that he has favoured the Greeks in giving them so unequal +companions. This is really to attack what in Plutarch is most excellent +and most to be commended; for in his parallels (which is the most +admirable part of all his works, and with which, in my opinion, he is +himself the most pleased) the fidelity and sincerity of his judgments +equal their depth and weight; he is a philosopher who teaches us virtue. +Let us see whether we cannot defend him from this reproach of falsity and +prevarication. All that I can imagine could give occasion to this +censure is the great and shining lustre of the Roman names which we have +in our minds; it does not seem likely to us that Demosthenes could rival +the glory of a consul, proconsul, and proctor of that great Republic; but +if a man consider the truth of the thing, and the men in themselves, +which is Plutarch's chiefest aim, and will rather balance their manners, +their natures, and parts, than their fortunes, I think, contrary to +Bodin, that Cicero and the elder Cato come far short of the men with whom +they are compared. I should sooner, for his purpose, have chosen the +example of the younger Cato compared with Phocion, for in this couple +there would have been a more likely disparity, to the Roman's advantage. +As to Marcellus, Sylla, and Pompey, I very well discern that their +exploits of war are greater and more full of pomp and glory than those of +the Greeks, whom Plutarch compares with them; but the bravest and most +virtuous actions any more in war than elsewhere, are not always the most +renowned. I often see the names of captains obscured by the splendour of +other names of less desert; witness Labienus, Ventidius, Telesinus, and +several others. And to take it by that, were I to complain on the behalf +of the Greeks, could I not say, that Camillus was much less comparable to +Themistocles, the Gracchi to Agis and Cleomenes, and Numa to Lycurgus? +But 'tis folly to judge, at one view, of things that have so many +aspects. When Plutarch compares them, he does not, for all that, make +them equal; who could more learnedly and sincerely have marked their +distinctions? Does he parallel the victories, feats of arms, the force +of the armies conducted by Pompey, and his triumphs, with those of +Agesilaus? "I do not believe," says he, "that Xenophon himself, if he +were now living, though he were allowed to write whatever pleased him to +the advantage of Agesilaus, would dare to bring them into comparison." +Does he speak of paralleling Lysander to Sylla. "There is," says he, +"no comparison, either in the number of victories or in the hazard of +battles, for Lysander only gained two naval battles." This is not to +derogate from the Romans; for having only simply named them with the +Greeks, he can have done them no injury, what disparity soever there may +be betwixt them and Plutarch does not entirely oppose them to one +another; there is no preference in general; he only compares the pieces +and circumstances one after another, and gives of every one a particular +and separate judgment. Wherefore, if any one could convict him of +partiality, he ought to pick out some one of those particular judgments, +or say, in general, that he was mistaken in comparing such a Greek to +such a Roman, when there were others more fit and better resembling to +parallel him to. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE STORY OF SPURINA + +Philosophy thinks she has not ill employed her talent when she has given +the sovereignty of the soul and the authority of restraining our +appetites to reason. Amongst which, they who judge that there is none +more violent than those which spring from love, have this opinion also, +that they seize both body and soul, and possess the whole man, so that +even health itself depends upon them, and medicine is sometimes +constrained to pimp for them; but one might, on the contrary, also say, +that the mixture of the body brings an abatement and weakening; for such +desires are subject to satiety, and capable of material remedies. + +Many, being determined to rid their soul from the continual alarms of +this appetite, have made use of incision and amputation of the rebelling +members; others have subdued their force and ardour by the frequent +application of cold things, as snow and vinegar. The sackcloths of our +ancestors were for this purpose, which is cloth woven of horse hair, of +which some of them made shirts, and others girdles, to torture and +correct their reins. A prince, not long ago, told me that in his youth +upon a solemn festival in the court of King Francis I., where everybody +was finely dressed, he would needs put on his father's hair shirt, which +was still kept in the house; but how great soever his devotion was, he +had not patience to wear it till night, and was sick a long time after; +adding withal, that he did not think there could be any youthful heat so +fierce that the use of this recipe would not mortify, and yet perhaps he +never essayed the most violent; for experience shows us, that such +emotions are often seen under rude and slovenly clothes, and that a hair +shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it. + +Xenocrates proceeded with greater rigour in this affair; for his +disciples, to make trial of his continency, having slipt Lais, that +beautiful and famous courtesan, into his bed, quite naked, excepting the +arms of her beauty and her wanton allurements, her philters, finding +that, in despite of his reason and philosophical rules, his unruly flesh +began to mutiny, he caused those members of his to be burned that he +found consenting to this rebellion. Whereas the passions which wholly +reside in the soul, as ambition, avarice, and the rest, find the reason +much more to do, because it cannot there be helped but by its own means; +neither are those appetites capable of satiety, but grow sharper and +increase by fruition. + +The sole example of Julius Caesar may suffice to demonstrate to us the +disparity of these appetites; for never was man more addicted to amorous +delights than he: of which one testimony is the peculiar care he had of +his person, to such a degree, as to make use of the most lascivious means +to that end then in use, as to have all the hairs of his body twitched +off, and to wipe all over with perfumes with the extremest nicety. +And he was a beautiful person in himself, of a fair complexion, tall, +and sprightly, full faced, with quick hazel eyes, if we may believe +Suetonius; for the statues of him that we see at Rome do not in all +points answer this description. Besides his wives, whom he four times +changed, without reckoning the amours of his boyhood with Nicomedes, king +of Bithynia, he had the maidenhead of the renowned Cleopatra, queen of +Egypt; witness the little Caesario whom he had by her. He also made love +to. Eunoe, queen of Mauritania, and at Rome, to Posthumia, the wife of +Servius Sulpitius; to Lollia, the wife of Gabinius to Tertulla, the wife +of Crassus, and even to Mutia, wife to the great Pompey: which was the +reason, the Roman historians say, that she was repudiated by her husband, +which Plutarch confesses to be more than he knew; and the Curios, both +father and son, afterwards reproached Pompey, when he married Caesar's +daughter, that he had made himself son-in-law to a man who had made him +cuckold, and one whom he himself was wont to call AEgisthus. Besides all +these, he entertained Servilia, Cato's sister and mother to Marcus +Brutus, whence, every one believes, proceeded the great affection he had +to Brutus, by reason that he was born at a time when it was likely he +might be his son. So that I have reason, methinks, to take him for a man +extremely given to this debauch, and of very amorous constitution. But +the other passion of ambition, with which he was infinitely smitten, +arising in him to contend with the former, it was boon compelled to give +way. + +And here calling to mind Mohammed, who won Constantinople, and finally +exterminated the Grecian name, I do not know where these two were so +evenly balanced; equally an indefatigable lecher and soldier: but where +they both meet in his life and jostle one another, the quarrelling +passion always gets the better of the amorous one, and this though it was +out of its natural season never regained an absolute sovereignty over the +other till he had arrived at an extreme old age and unable to undergo the +fatigues of war. + +What is related for a contrary example of Ladislaus, king of Naples, is +very remarkable; that being a great captain, valiant and ambitious, he +proposed to himself for the principal end of his ambition, the execution +of his pleasure and the enjoyment of some rare and excellent beauty. His +death sealed up all the rest: for having by a close and tedious siege +reduced the city of Florence to so great distress that the inhabitants +were compelled to capitulate about surrender, he was content to let them +alone, provided they would deliver up to him a beautiful maid he had +heard of in their city; they were forced to yield to it, and by a private +injury to avert the public ruin. She was the daughter of a famous +physician of his time, who, finding himself involved in so foul a +necessity, resolved upon a high attempt. As every one was lending a hand +to trick up his daughter and to adorn her with ornaments and jewels to +render her more agreeable to this new lover, he also gave her a +handkerchief most richly wrought, and of an exquisite perfume, an +implement they never go without in those parts, which she was to make use +of at their first approaches. This handkerchief, poisoned with his +greatest art, coming to be rubbed between the chafed flesh and open +pores, both of the one and the other, so suddenly infused the poison, +that immediately converting their warm into a cold sweat they presently +died in one another's arms. + +But I return to Caesar. His pleasures never made him steal one minute of +an hour, nor go one step aside from occasions that might any way conduce +to his advancement. This passion was so sovereign in him over all the +rest, and with so absolute authority possessed his soul, that it guided +him at pleasure. In truth, this troubles me, when, as to everything +else, I consider the greatness of this man, and the wonderful parts +wherewith he was endued; learned to that degree in all sorts of knowledge +that there is hardly any one science of which he has not written; so +great an orator that many have preferred his eloquence to that of Cicero, +and he, I conceive, did not think himself inferior to him in that +particular, for his two anti-Catos were written to counterbalance the +elocution that Cicero had expended in his Cato. As to the rest, was ever +soul so vigilant, so active, and so patient of labour as his? and, +doubtless, it was embellished with many rare seeds of virtue, lively, +natural, and not put on; he was singularly sober; so far from being +delicate in his diet, that Oppius relates, how that having one day at +table set before him medicated instead of common oil in some sauce, he +ate heartily of it, that he might not put his entertainer out of +countenance. Another time he caused his baker to be whipped for serving +him with a finer than ordinary sort of bread. Cato himself was wont to +say of him, that he was the first sober man who ever made it his business +to ruin his country. And as to the same Cato's calling, him one day +drunkard, it fell out thus being both of them in the Senate, at a time +when Catiline's conspiracy was in question of which was Caesar was +suspected, one came and brought him a letter sealed up. Cato believing +that it was something the conspirators gave him notice of, required him +to deliver into his hand, which Caesar was constrained to do to avoid +further suspicion. It was by chance a love-letter that Servilia, Cato's +sister, had written to him, which Cato having read, he threw it back to +him saying, "There, drunkard." This, I say, was rather a word of disdain +and anger than an express reproach of this vice, as we often rate those +who anger us with the first injurious words that come into our mouths, +though nothing due to those we are offended at; to which may be added +that the vice with which Cato upbraided him is wonderfully near akin to +that wherein he had surprised Caesar; for Bacchus and Venus, according to +the proverb, very willingly agree; but to me Venus is much more sprightly +accompanied by sobriety. The examples of his sweetness and clemency to +those by whom he had been offended are infinite; I mean, besides those he +gave during the time of the civil wars, which, as plainly enough appears +by his writings, he practised to cajole his enemies, and to make them +less afraid of his future dominion and victory. But I must also say, +that if these examples are not sufficient proofs of his natural +sweetness, they, at least, manifest a marvellous confidence and grandeur +of courage in this person. He has often been known to dismiss whole +armies, after having overcome them, to his enemies, without ransom, or +deigning so much as to bind them by oath, if not to favour him, at least +no more to bear arms against him; he has three or four times taken some +of Pompey's captains prisoners, and as often set them at liberty. Pompey +declared all those to be enemies who did not follow him to the war; he +proclaimed all those to be his friends who sat still and did not actually +take arms against him. To such captains of his as ran away from him to +go over to the other side, he sent, moreover, their arms, horses, and +equipage: the cities he had taken by force he left at full liberty to +follow which side they pleased, imposing no other garrison upon them but +the memory of his gentleness and clemency. He gave strict and express +charge, the day of his great battle of Pharsalia, that, without the +utmost necessity, no one should lay a hand upon the citizens of Rome. +These, in my opinion, were very hazardous proceedings, and 'tis no wonder +if those in our civil war, who, like him, fight against the ancient +estate of their country, do not follow his example; they are +extraordinary means, and that only appertain to Caesar's fortune, and to +his admirable foresight in the conduct of affairs. When I consider the +incomparable grandeur of his soul, I excuse victory that it could not +disengage itself from him, even in so unjust and so wicked a cause. + +To return to his clemency: we have many striking examples in the time of +his government, when, all things being reduced to his power, he had no +more written against him which he had as sharply answered: yet he did not +soon after forbear to use his interest to make him consul. Caius Calvus, +who had composed several injurious epigrams against him, having employed +many of his friends to mediate a reconciliation with him, Caesar +voluntarily persuaded himself to write first to him. And our good +Catullus, who had so rudely ruffled him under the name of Mamurra, coming +to offer his excuses to him, he made the same day sit at his table. +Having intelligence of some who spoke ill of him, he did no more, but +only by a public oration declare that he had notice of it. He still less +feared his enemies than he hated them; some conspiracies and cabals that +were made against his life being discovered to him, he satisfied himself +in publishing by proclamation that they were known to him, without +further prosecuting the conspirators. + +As to the respect he had for his friends: Caius Oppius, being with him +upon a journey, and finding himself ill, he left him the only lodging he +had for himself, and lay all night upon a hard ground in the open air. +As to what concerns his justice, he put a beloved servant of his to death +for lying with a noble Roman's wife, though there was no complaint made. +Never had man more moderation in his victory, nor more resolution in his +adverse fortune. + +But all these good inclinations were stifled and spoiled by his furious +ambition, by which he suffered himself to be so transported and misled +that one may easily maintain that this passion was the rudder of all his +actions; of a liberal man, it made him a public thief to supply this +bounty and profusion, and made him utter this vile and unjust saying, +"That if the most wicked and profligate persons in the world had been +faithful in serving him towards his advancement, he would cherish and +prefer them to the utmost of his power, as much as the best of men." +It intoxicated him with so excessive a vanity, as to dare to boast in the +presence of his fellow-citizens, that he had made the great commonwealth +of Rome a name without form and without body; and to say that his answers +for the future should stand for laws; and also to receive the body of the +Senate coming to him, sitting; to suffer himself to be adored, and to +have divine honours paid to him in his own presence. To conclude, this +sole vice, in my opinion, spoiled in him the most rich and beautiful +nature that ever was, and has rendered his name abominable to all good +men, in that he would erect his glory upon the ruins of his country and +the subversion of the greatest and most flourishing republic the world +shall ever see. + +There might, on the contrary, many examples be produced of great men whom +pleasures have made to neglect the conduct of their affairs, as Mark +Antony and others; but where love and ambition should be in equal +balance, and come to jostle with equal forces, I make no doubt but the +last would win the prize. + +To return to my subject: 'tis much to bridle our appetites by the +argument of reason, or, by violence, to contain our members within their +duty; but to lash ourselves for our neighbour's interest, and not only to +divest ourselves of the charming passion that tickles us, of the pleasure +we feel in being agreeable to others, and courted and beloved of every +one, but also to conceive a hatred against the graces that produce that +effect, and to condemn our beauty because it inflames others; of this, I +confess, I have met with few examples. But this is one. Spurina, a +young man of Tuscany: + + "Qualis gemma micat, fulvum quae dividit aurum, + Aut collo decus, aut cupiti: vel quale per artem + Inclusum buxo aut Oricia terebintho + Lucet ebur," + + ["As a gem shines enchased in yellow gold, or an ornament on the + neck or head, or as ivory has lustre, set by art in boxwood or + Orician ebony."--AEneid, x. 134.] + +being endowed with a singular beauty, and so excessive, that the chastest +eyes could not chastely behold its rays; not contenting himself with +leaving so much flame and fever as he everywhere kindled without relief, +entered into a furious spite against himself and those great endowments +nature had so liberally conferred upon him, as if a man were responsible +to himself for the faults of others, and purposely slashed and +disfigured, with many wounds and scars, the perfect symmetry and +proportion that nature had so curiously imprinted in his face. To give +my free opinion, I more admire than honour such actions: such excesses +are enemies to my rules. The design was conscientious and good, but +certainly a little defective in prudence. What if his deformity served +afterwards to make others guilty of the sin of hatred or contempt; or of +envy at the glory of so rare a recommendation; or of calumny, +interpreting this humour a mad ambition! Is there any form from which +vice cannot, if it will, extract occasion to exercise itself, one way or +another? It had been more just, and also more noble, to have made of +these gifts of God a subject of exemplary regularity and virtue. + +They who retire themselves from the common offices, from that infinite +number of troublesome rules that fetter a man of exact honesty in civil +life, are in my opinion very discreet, what peculiar sharpness of +constraint soever they impose upon themselves in so doing. 'Tis in some +sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living well. They may have +another reward; but the reward of difficulty I fancy they can never have; +nor, in uneasiness, that there can be anything more or better done than +the keeping oneself upright amid the waves of the world, truly and +exactly performing all parts of our duty. 'Tis, peradventure, more easy +to keep clear of the sex than to maintain one's self aright in all points +in the society of a wife; and a man may with less trouble adapt himself +to entire abstinence than to the due dispensation of abundance. Use, +carried on according to reason, has in it more of difficulty than +abstinence; moderation is a virtue that gives more work than suffering; +the well living of Scipio has a thousand fashions, that of Diogenes but +one; this as much excels the ordinary lives in innocence as the most +accomplished excel them in utility and force. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +OBSERVATION ON THE MEANS TO CARRY ON A WAR ACCORDING TO JULIUS CAESAR + +'Tis related of many great leaders that they have had certain books in +particular esteem, as Alexander the Great, Homer; Scipio Africanus, +Xenophon; Marcus Brutus, Polybius; Charles V., Philip'de Comines; and +'tis said that, in our times, Machiavelli is elsewhere still in repute; +but the late Marshal Strozzi, who had taken Caesar for his man, doubtless +made the best choice, seeing that it indeed ought to be the breviary of +every soldier, as being the true and sovereign pattern of the military +art. And, moreover, God knows with that grace and beauty he has +embellished that rich matter, with so pure, delicate, and perfect +expression, that, in my opinion, there are no writings in the world +comparable to his, as to that business. + +I will set down some rare and particular passages of his wars that remain +in my memory. + +His army, being in some consternation upon the rumour that was spread of +the great forces that king Juba was leading against him, instead of +abating the apprehension which his soldiers had conceived at the news and +of lessening to them the forces of the enemy, having called them all +together to encourage and reassure them, he took a quite contrary way to +what we are used to do, for he told them that they need no more trouble +themselves with inquiring after the enemy's forces, for that he was +certainly informed thereof, and then told them of a number much +surpassing both the truth and the report that was current in his army; +following the advice of Cyrus in Xenophon, forasmuch as the deception is +not of so great importance to find an enemy weaker than we expected, than +to find him really very strong, after having been made to believe that he +was weak. + +It was always his use to accustom his soldiers simply to obey, without +taking upon them to control, or so much as to speak of their captain's +designs, which he never communicated to them but upon the point of +execution; and he took a delight, if they discovered anything of what he +intended, immediately to change his orders to deceive them; and to that +purpose, would often, when he had assigned his quarters in a place, pass +forward and lengthen his day's march, especially if it was foul and rainy +weather. + +The Swiss, in the beginning of his wars in Gaul, having sent to him to +demand a free passage over the Roman territories, though resolved to +hinder them by force, he nevertheless spoke kindly to the messengers, and +took some respite to return an answer, to make use of that time for the +calling his army together. These silly people did not know how good a +husband he was of his time: for he often repeats that it is the best part +of a captain to know how to make use of occasions, and his diligence in +his exploits is, in truth, unheard of and incredible. + +If he was not very conscientious in taking advantage of an enemy under +colour of a treaty of agreement, he was as little so in this, that he +required no other virtue in a soldier but valour only, and seldom +punished any other faults but mutiny and disobedience. He would often +after his victories turn them loose to all sorts of licence, dispensing +them for some time from the rules of military discipline, saying withal +that he had soldiers so well trained up that, powdered and perfumed, they +would run furiously to the fight. In truth, he loved to have them richly +armed, and made them wear engraved, gilded, and damasked armour, to the +end that the care of saving it might engage them to a more obstinate +defence. Speaking to them, he called them by the name of +fellow-soldiers, which we yet use; which his successor, Augustus, +reformed, supposing he had only done it upon necessity, and to cajole +those who merely followed him as volunteers: + + "Rheni mihi Caesar in undis + Dux erat; hic socius; facinus quos inquinat, aequat:" + + ["In the waters of the Rhine Caesar was my general; here at Rome he + is my fellow. Crime levels those whom it polluted." + --Lucan, v. 289.] + +but that this carriage was too mean and low for the dignity of an emperor +and general of an army, and therefore brought up the custom of calling +them soldiers only. + +With this courtesy Caesar mixed great severity to keep them in awe; the +ninth legion having mutinied near Placentia, he ignominiously cashiered +them, though Pompey was then yet on foot, and received them not again to +grace till after many supplications; he quieted them more by authority +and boldness than by gentle ways. + +In that place where he speaks of his, passage over the Rhine to Germany, +he says that, thinking it unworthy of the honour of the Roman people to +waft over his army in vessels, he built a bridge that they might pass +over dry-foot. There it was that he built that wonderful bridge of which +he gives so particular a description; for he nowhere so willingly dwells +upon his actions as in representing to us the subtlety of his inventions +in such kind of handiwork. + +I have also observed this, that he set a great value upon his +exhortations to the soldiers before the fight; for where he would show +that he was either surprised or reduced to a necessity of fighting, he +always brings in this, that he had not so much as leisure to harangue his +army. Before that great battle with those of Tournay, "Caesar," says he, +"having given order for everything else, presently ran where fortune +carried him to encourage his people, and meeting with the tenth legion, +had no more time to say anything to them but this, that they should +remember their wonted valour; not to be astonished, but bravely sustain +the enemy's encounter; and seeing the enemy had already approached within +a dart's cast, he gave the signal for battle; and going suddenly thence +elsewhere, to encourage others, he found that they were already engaged." +Here is what he tells us in that place. His tongue, indeed, did him +notable service upon several occasions, and his military eloquence was, +in his own time, so highly reputed, that many of his army wrote down his +harangues as he spoke them, by which means there were volumes of them +collected that existed a long time after him. He had so particular a +grace in speaking, that his intimates, and Augustus amongst others, +hearing those orations read, could distinguish even to the phrases and +words that were not his. + +The first time that he went out of Rome with any public command, he +arrived in eight days at the river Rhone, having with him in his coach a +secretary or two before him who were continually writing, and him who +carried his sword behind him. And certainly, though a man did nothing +but go on, he could hardly attain that promptitude with which, having +been everywhere victorious in Gaul, he left it, and, following Pompey to +Brundusium, in eighteen days' time he subdued all Italy; returned from +Brundusium to Rome; from Rome went into the very heart of Spain, where he +surmounted extreme difficulties in the war against Afranius and Petreius, +and in the long siege of Marseilles; thence he returned into Macedonia, +beat the Roman army at Pharsalia, passed thence in pursuit of Pompey into +Egypt, which he also subdued; from Egypt he went into Syria and the +territories of Pontus, where he fought Pharnaces; thence into Africa, +where he defeated Scipio and Juba; again returned through Italy, where he +defeated Pompey's sons: + + "Ocyor et coeli fiammis, et tigride foeta." + + ["Swifter than lightning, or the cub-bearing tigress." + --Lucan, v. 405] + + "Ac veluti montis saxum de, vertice praeceps + Cum ruit avulsum vento, seu turbidus imber + Proluit, aut annis solvit sublapsa vetustas, + Fertur in abruptum magno mons improbus actu, + Exultatque solo, silvas, armenta, virosque, + Involvens secum." + + ["And as a stone torn from the mountain's top by the wind or rain + torrents, or loosened by age, falls massive with mighty force, + bounds here and there, in its course sweeps from the earth with it + woods, herds, and men."--AEneid, xii. 684.] + +Speaking of the siege of Avaricum, he says, that it, was his custom to be +night and day with the pioneers.--[Engineers. D.W.]--In all enterprises +of consequence he always reconnoitred in person, and never brought his +army into quarters till he had first viewed the place, and, if we may +believe Suetonius, when he resolved to pass over into England, he was the +first man that sounded the passage. + +He was wont to say that he more valued a victory obtained by counsel than +by force, and in the war against Petreius and Afranius, fortune +presenting him with an occasion of manifest advantage, he declined it, +saying, that he hoped, with a little more time, but less hazard, to +overthrow his enemies. He there also played a notable part in commanding +his whole army to pass the river by swimming, without any manner of +necessity: + + "Rapuitque ruens in praelia miles, + Quod fugiens timuisset, iter; mox uda receptis + Membra fovent armis, gelidosque a gurgite, cursu + Restituunt artus." + + ["The soldier rushing through a way to fight which he would have + been afraid to have taken in flight: then with their armour they + cover wet limbs, and by running restore warmth to their numbed + joints."--Lucan, iv. 151.] + +I find him a little more temperate and considerate in his enterprises +than Alexander, for this man seems to seek and run headlong upon dangers +like an impetuous torrent which attacks and rushes against everything it +meets, without choice or discretion; + + "Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus; + Qui regna Dauni perfluit Appuli, + Dum saevit, horrendamque cultis + Diluviem meditatur agris;" + + ["So the biforked Aufidus, which flows through the realm of the + Apulian Daunus, when raging, threatens a fearful deluge to the + tilled ground."--Horat., Od., iv. 14, 25.] + +and, indeed, he was a general in the flower and first heat of his youth, +whereas Caesar took up the trade at a ripe and well advanced age; to +which may be added that Alexander was of a more sanguine, hot, and +choleric constitution, which he also inflamed with wine, from which +Caesar was very abstinent. + +But where necessary occasion required, never did any man venture his +person more than he: so much so, that for my part, methinks I read in +many of his exploits a determinate resolution to throw himself away to +avoid the shame of being overcome. In his great battle with those of +Tournay, he charged up to the head of the enemies without his shield, +just as he was seeing the van of his own army beginning to give ground'; +which also several other times befell him. Hearing that his people were +besieged, he passed through the enemy's army in disguise to go and +encourage them with his presence. Having crossed over to Dyrrachium with +very slender forces, and seeing the remainder of his army which he had +left to Antony's conduct slow in following him, he undertook alone to +repass the sea in a very great storms and privately stole away to fetch +the rest of his forces, the ports on the other side being seized by +Pompey, and the whole sea being in his possession. And as to what he +performed by force of hand, there are many exploits that in hazard exceed +all the rules of war; for with how small means did he undertake to subdue +the kingdom of Egypt, and afterwards to attack the forces of Scipio and +Juba, ten times greater than his own? These people had, I know not what, +more than human confidence in their fortune; and he was wont to say that +men must embark, and not deliberate, upon high enterprises. After the +battle of Pharsalia, when he had sent his army away before him into Asia, +and was passing in one single vessel the strait of the Hellespont, he met +Lucius Cassius at sea with ten tall men-of-war, when he had the courage +not only to stay his coming, but to sail up to him and summon him to +yield, which he did. + +Having undertaken that furious siege of Alexia, where there were +fourscore thousand men in garrison, all Gaul being in arms to raise the +siege and having set an army on foot of a hundred and nine thousand +horse, and of two hundred and forty thousand foot, what a boldness and +vehement confidence was it in him that he would not give over his +attempt, but resolved upon two so great difficulties--which nevertheless +he overcame; and, after having won that great battle against those +without, soon reduced those within to his mercy. The same happened to +Lucullus at the siege of Tigranocerta against King Tigranes, but the +condition of the enemy was not the same, considering the effeminacy of +those with whom Lucullus had to deal. I will here set down two rare and +extraordinary events concerning this siege of Alexia; one, that the Gauls +having drawn their powers together to encounter Caesar, after they had +made a general muster of all their forces, resolved in their council of +war to dismiss a good part of this great multitude, that they might not +fall into confusion. This example of fearing to be too many is new; but, +to take it right, it stands to reason that the body of an army should be +of a moderate greatness, and regulated to certain bounds, both out of +respect to the difficulty of providing for them, and the difficulty of +governing and keeping them in order. At least it is very easy to make it +appear by example that armies monstrous in number have seldom done +anything to purpose. According to the saying of Cyrus in Xenophon, +"'Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men, that gives the +advantage": the remainder serving rather to trouble than assist. And +Bajazet principally grounded his resolution of giving Tamerlane battle, +contrary to the opinion of all his captains, upon this, that his enemies +numberless number of men gave him assured hopes of confusion. +Scanderbeg, a very good and expert judge in such matters, was wont to say +that ten or twelve thousand reliable fighting men were sufficient to a +good leader to secure his regulation in all sorts of military occasions. +The other thing I will here record, which seems to be contrary both to +the custom and rules of war, is, that Vercingetorix, who was made general +of all the parts of the revolted Gaul, should go shut up himself in +Alexia: for he who has the command of a whole country ought never to shut +himself up but in case of such last extremity that the only place he has +left is in concern, and that the only hope he has left is in the defence +of that city; otherwise he ought to keep himself always at liberty, that +he may have the means to provide, in general, for all parts of his +government. + +To return to Caesar. He grew, in time, more slow and more considerate, +as his friend Oppius witnesses: conceiving that he ought not lightly to +hazard the glory of so many victories, which one blow of fortune might +deprive him of. 'Tis what the Italians say, when they would reproach the +rashness and foolhardiness of young people, calling them Bisognosi +d'onore, "necessitous of honour," and that being in so great a want and +dearth of reputation, they have reason to seek it at what price soever, +which they ought not to do who have acquired enough already. There may +reasonably be some moderation, some satiety, in this thirst and appetite +of glory, as well as in other things: and there are enough people who +practise it. + +He was far remote from the religious scruples of the ancient Romans, who +would never prevail in their wars but by dint of pure and simple valour; +and yet he was more conscientious than we should be in these days, and +did not approve all sorts of means to obtain a victory. In the war +against Ariovistus, whilst he was parleying with him, there happened some +commotion between the horsemen, which was occasioned by the fault of +Ariovistus' light horse, wherein, though Caesar saw he had a very great +advantage of the enemy, he would make no use on't, lest he should have +been reproached with a treacherous proceeding. + +He was always wont to wear rich garments, and of a shining colour in +battle, that he might be the more remarkable and better observed. + +He always carried a stricter and tighter hand over his soldiers when near +an enemy. When the ancient Greeks would accuse any one of extreme +insufficiency, they would say, in common proverb, that he could neither +read nor swim; he was of the same opinion, that swimming was of great use +in war, and himself found it so; for when he had to use diligence, he +commonly swam over the rivers in his way; for he loved to march on foot, +as also did Alexander the Great. Being in Egypt forced, to save himself, +to go into a little boat, and so many people leaping in with him that it +was in danger of sinking, he chose rather to commit himself to the sea, +and swam to his fleet, which lay two hundred paces off, holding in his +left hand his tablets, and drawing his coatarmour in his teeth, that it +might not fall into the enemy's hand, and at this time he was of a pretty +advanced age. + +Never had any general so much credit with his soldiers: in the beginning +of the civil wars, his centurions offered him to find every one a +man-at-arms at his own charge, and the foot soldiers to serve him at +their own expense; those who were most at their ease, moreover, +undertaking to defray the more necessitous. The late Admiral Chastillon + + [Gaspard de Coligny, assassinated in the St. Bartholomew + massacre, 24th August 1572.] + +showed us the like example in our civil wars; for the French of his army +provided money out of their own purses to pay the foreigners that were +with him. There are but rarely found examples of so ardent and so ready +an affection amongst the soldiers of elder times, who kept themselves +strictly to their rules of war: passion has a more absolute command over +us than reason; and yet it happened in the war against Hannibal, that by +the example of the people of Rome in the city, the soldiers and captains +refused their pay in the army, and in Marcellus' camp those were branded +with the name of Mercenaries who would receive any. Having got the worst +of it near Dyrrachium, his soldiers came and offered themselves to be +chastised and punished, so that there was more need to comfort than +reprove them. One single cohort of his withstood four of Pompey's +legions above four hours together, till they were almost all killed with +arrows, so that there were a hundred and thirty thousand shafts found in +the trenches. A soldier called Scaeva, who commanded at one of the +avenues, invincibly maintained his ground, having lost an eye, with one +shoulder and one thigh shot through, and his shield hit in two hundred +and thirty places. It happened that many of his soldiers being taken +prisoners, rather chose to die than promise to join the contrary side. +Granius Petronius was taken by Scipio in Africa: Scipio having put the +rest to death, sent him word that he gave him his life, for he was a man +of quality and quaestor, to whom Petronius sent answer back, that +Caesar's soldiers were wont to give others their life, and not to receive +it; and immediately with his own hand killed himself. + +Of their fidelity there are infinite examples amongst them, that which +was done by those who were besieged in Salona, a city that stood for +Caesar against Pompey, is not, for the rarity of an accident that there +happened, to be forgotten. Marcus Octavius kept them close besieged; +they within being reduced to the extremest necessity of all things, so +that to supply the want of men, most of them being either slain or +wounded, they had manumitted all their slaves, and had been constrained +to cut off all the women's hair to make ropes for their war engines, +besides a wonderful dearth of victuals, and yet continuing resolute never +to yield. After having drawn the siege to a great length, by which +Octavius was grown more negligent and less attentive to his enterprise, +they made choice of one day about noon, and having first placed the women +and children upon the walls to make a show, sallied upon the besiegers +with such fury, that having routed the first, second, and third body, and +afterwards the fourth, and the rest, and beaten them all out of their +trenches, they pursued them even to their ships, and Octavius himself was +fain to fly to Dyrrachium, where Pompey lay. I do not at present +remember that I have met with any other example where the besieged ever +gave the besieger a total defeat and won the field, nor that a sortie +ever achieved the result of a pure and entire victory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +OF THREE GOOD WOMEN + +They are not by the dozen, as every one knows, and especially in the +duties of marriage, for that is a bargain full of so many nice +circumstances that 'tis hard a woman's will should long endure such a +restraint; men, though their condition be something better under that +tie, have yet enough to do. The true touch and test of a happy marriage +have respect to the time of the companionship, if it has been constantly +gentle, loyal, and agreeable. In our age, women commonly reserve the +publication of their good offices, and their vehement affection towards +their husbands, until they have lost them, or at least, till then defer +the testimonies of their good will; a too slow testimony and +unseasonable. By it they rather manifest that they never loved them till +dead: their life is nothing but trouble; their death full of love and +courtesy. As fathers conceal their affection from their children, women, +likewise, conceal theirs from their husbands, to maintain a modest +respect. This mystery is not for my palate; 'tis to much purpose that +they scratch themselves and tear their hair. I whisper in a +waiting-woman's or secretary's ear: "How were they, how did they live +together?" I always have that good saying m my head: + + "Jactantius moerent, quae minus dolent." + + ["They make the most ado who are least concerned." (Or:) + "They mourn the more ostentatiously, the less they grieve." + --Tacitus, Annal., ii. 77, writing of Germanicus.] + +Their whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead. We +should willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead, provided +they will smile upon us whilst we are alive. Is it not enough to make a +man revive in pure spite, that she, who spat in my face whilst I was in +being, shall come to kiss my feet when I am no more? If there be any +honour in lamenting a husband, it only appertains to those who smiled +upon them whilst they had them; let those who wept during their lives +laugh at their deaths, as well outwardly as within. Therefore, never +regard those blubbered eyes and that pitiful voice; consider her +deportment, her complexion, the plumpness of her cheeks under all those +formal veils; 'tis there she talks plain French. There are few who do +not mend upon't, and health is a quality that cannot lie. That starched +and ceremonious countenance looks not so much back as forward, and is +rather intended to get a new husband than to lament the old. When I was +a boy, a very beautiful and virtuous lady, who is yet living, the widow +of a prince, wore somewhat more ornament in her dress than our laws of +widowhood allow, and being reproached with it, she made answer that it +was because she was resolved to have no more love affairs, and would +never marry again. + +I have here, not at all dissenting from our customs, made choice of three +women, who have also expressed the utmost of their goodness and affection +about their husbands' deaths; yet are they examples of another kind than +are now m use, and so austere that they will hardly be drawn into +imitation. + +The younger Pliny' had near a house of his in Italy a neighbour who was +exceedingly tormented with certain ulcers in his private parts. His wife +seeing him so long to languish, entreated that he would give her leave to +see and at leisure to consider of the condition of his disease, and that +she would freely tell him what she thought. This permission being +obtained, and she having curiously examined the business, found it +impossible he could ever be cured, and that all he had to hope for or +expect was a great while to linger out a painful and miserable life, and +therefore, as the most sure and sovereign remedy, resolutely advised him +to kill himself. But finding him a little tender and backward in so rude +an attempt: "Do not think, my friend," said she, "that the torments I see +thee endure are not as sensible to me as to thyself, and that to deliver +myself from them, I will not myself make use of the same remedy I have +prescribed to thee. I will accompany thee in the cure as I have done in +the disease; fear nothing, but believe that we shall have pleasure in +this passage that is to free us from so many miseries, and we will go +happily together." Which having said, and roused up her husband's +courage, she resolved that they should throw themselves headlong into the +sea out of a window that overlooked it, and that she might maintain to +the last the loyal and vehement affection wherewith she had embraced him +during his life, she would also have him die in her arms; but lest they +should fail, and should quit their hold in the fall through fear, she +tied herself fast to him by the waist, and so gave up her own life to +procure her husband's repose. This was a woman of mean condition; and, +amongst that class of people, 'tis no very new thing to see some examples +of rare virtue: + + "Extrema per illos + Justitia excedens terris vestigia fecit." + + ["Justice, when she left the earth, took her last + steps among them."--Virgil, Georg., ii. 473.] + +The other two were noble and rich, where examples of virtue are rarely +lodged. + +Arria, the wife of Caecina Paetus, a consular person, was the mother of +another Arria, the wife of Thrasea Paetus, he whose virtue was so +renowned in the time of Nero, and by this son-in-law, the grandmother of +Fannia: for the resemblance of the names of these men and women, and +their fortunes, have led to several mistakes. This first Arria, her +husband Caecina Paetus, having been taken prisoner by some of the Emperor +Claudius' people, after Scribonianus' defeat, whose party he had embraced +in the war, begged of those who were to carry him prisoner to Rome, that +they would take her into their ship, where she would be of much less +charge and trouble to them than a great many persons they must otherwise +have to attend her husband, and that she alone would undertake to serve +him in his chamber, his kitchen, and all other offices. They refused, +whereupon she put herself into a fisher-boat she hired on the spot, and +in that manner followed him from Sclavonia. When she had come to Rome, +Junia, the widow of Scribonianus, having one day, from the resemblance of +their fortune, accosted her in the Emperor's presence; she rudely +repulsed her with these words, "I," said she, "speak to thee, or give ear +to any thing thou sayest! to thee in whose lap Scribonianus was slain, +and thou art yet alive!" These words, with several other signs, gave her +friends to understand that she would undoubtedly despatch herself, +impatient of supporting her husband's misfortune. And Thrasea, her +son-in-law, beseeching her not to throw away herself, and saying to her, +"What! if I should run the same fortune that Caecina has done, would you +that your daughter, my wife, should do the same?"--"Would I?" replied +she, "yes, yes, I would: if she had lived as long, and in as good +understanding with thee as I have done, with my husband." These answers +made them more careful of her, and to have a more watchful eye to her +proceedings. One day, having said to those who looked to her: "Tis to +much purpose that you take all this pains to prevent me; you may indeed +make me die an ill death, but to keep me from dying is not in your +power"; she in a sudden phrenzy started from a chair whereon she sat, and +with all her force dashed her head against the wall, by which blow being +laid flat in a swoon, and very much wounded, after they had again with +great ado brought her to herself: "I told you," said she, "that if you +refused me some easy way of dying, I should find out another, how painful +soever." The conclusion of so admirable a virtue was this: her husband +Paetus, not having resolution enough of his own to despatch himself, as +he was by the emperor's cruelty enjoined, one day, amongst others, after +having first employed all the reasons and exhortations which she thought +most prevalent to persuade him to it, she snatched the poignard he wore +from his side, and holding it ready in her hand, for the conclusion of +her admonitions; "Do thus, Paetus," said she, and in the same instant +giving herself a mortal stab in the breast, and then drawing it out of +the wound, presented it to him, ending her life with this noble, +generous, and immortal saying, "Paete, non dolet"--having time to +pronounce no more but those three never-to-be-forgotten words: "Paetus, +it is not painful." + + "Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Paeto, + Quern de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis + Si qua fides, vulnus quod feci non dolet, inquit, + Sed quod to facies, id mihi, Paete, dolet." + + ["When the chaste Arria gave to Poetus the reeking sword she had + drawn from her breast, 'If you believe me,' she said, 'Paetus, the + wound I have made hurts not, but 'tis that which thou wilt make that + hurts me.'"---Martial, i. 14.] + +The action was much more noble in itself, and of a braver sense than the +poet expressed it: for she was so far from being deterred by the thought +of her husband's wound and death and her own, that she had been their +promotress and adviser: but having performed this high and courageous +enterprise for her husband's only convenience, she had even in the last +gasp of her life no other concern but for him, and of dispossessing him +of the fear of dying with her. Paetus presently struck himself to the +heart with the same weapon, ashamed, I suppose, to have stood in need of +so dear and precious an example. + +Pompeia Paulina, a young and very noble Roman lady, had married Seneca in +his extreme old age. Nero, his fine pupil, sent his guards to him to +denounce the sentence of death, which was performed after this manner: +When the Roman emperors of those times had condemned any man of quality, +they sent to him by their officers to choose what death he would, and to +execute it within such or such a time, which was limited, according to +the degree of their indignation, to a shorter or a longer respite, that +they might therein have better leisure to dispose their affairs, and +sometimes depriving them of the means of doing it by the shortness of the +time; and if the condemned seemed unwilling to submit to the order, they +had people ready at hand to execute it either by cutting the veins of the +arms and legs, or by compelling them by force to swallow a draught of +poison. But persons of honour would not abide this necessity, but made +use of their own physicians and surgeons for this purpose. Seneca, with +a calm and steady countenance, heard their charge, and presently called +for paper to write his will, which being by the captain refused, he +turned himself towards his friends, saying to them, "Since I cannot leave +you any other acknowledgment of the obligation I have to you, I leave you +at least the best thing I have, namely, the image of my life and manners, +which I entreat you to keep in memory of me, that by so doing you may +acquire the glory of sincere and real friends." And there withal, one +while appeasing the sorrow he saw in them with gentle words, and +presently raising his voice to reprove them: "What," said he, "are become +of all our brave philosophical precepts? What are become of all the +provisions we have so many years laid up against the accidents of +fortune? Is Nero's cruelty unknown to us? What could we expect from him +who had murdered his mother and his brother, but that he should put his +tutor to death who had brought him up?" After having spoken these words +in general, he turned himself towards his wife, and embracing her fast in +his arms, as, her heart and strength failing her, she was ready to sink +down with grief, he begged of her, for his sake, to bear this accident +with a little more patience, telling her, that now the hour was come +wherein he was to show, not by argument and discourse, but effect, the +fruit he had acquired by his studies, and that he really embraced his +death, not only without grief, but moreover with joy. "Wherefore, my +dearest," said he, "do not dishonour it with thy tears, that it may not +seem as if thou lovest thyself more than my reputation. Moderate thy +grief, and comfort thyself in the knowledge thou hast had of me and my +actions, leading the remainder of thy life in the same virtuous manner +thou hast hitherto done." To which Paulina, having a little recovered +her spirits, and warmed the magnanimity of her courage with a most +generous affection, replied,--"No, Seneca," said she, "I am not a woman +to suffer you to go alone in such a necessity: I will not have you think +that the virtuous examples of your life have not taught me how to die; +and when can I ever better or more fittingly do it, or more to my own +desire, than with you? and therefore assure yourself I will go along with +you." Then Seneca, taking this noble and generous resolution of his wife +m good part, and also willing to free himself from the fear of leaving +her exposed to the cruelty of his enemies after his death: "I have, +Paulina," said he, "instructed thee in what would serve thee happily to +live; but thou more covetest, I see, the honour of dying: in truth, +I will not grudge it thee; the constancy and resolution in our common end +are the same, but the beauty and glory of thy part are much greater." +Which being said, the surgeons, at the same time, opened the veins of +both their arms, but as those of Seneca were more shrunk up, as well with +age as abstinence, made his blood flow too slowly, he moreover commanded +them to open the veins of his thighs; and lest the torments he endured +might pierce his wife's heart, and also to free himself from the +affliction of seeing her in so sad a condition, after having taken a very +affectionate leave of her, he entreated she would suffer them to carry +her into her chamber, which they accordingly did. But all these +incisions being not yet enough to make him die, he commanded Statius +Anneus, his physician, to give him a draught of poison, which had not +much better effect; for by reason of the weakness and coldness of his +limbs, it could not arrive at his heart. Wherefore they were forced to +superadd a very hot bath, and then, feeling his end approach, whilst he +had breath he continued excellent discourses upon the subject of his +present condition, which the secretaries wrote down so long as they could +hear his voice, and his last words were long after in high honour and +esteem amongst men, and it is a great loss to us that they have not come +down to our times. Then, feeling the last pangs of death, with the +bloody water of the bath he bathed his head, saying: "This water I +dedicate to Jupiter the deliverer." Nero, being presently informed of +all this, fearing lest the death of Paulina, who was one of the best-born +ladies of Rome, and against whom he had no particular unkindness, should +turn to his reproach, sent orders in all haste to bind up her wounds, +which her attendants did without her knowledge, she being already half +dead, and without all manner of sense. Thus, though she lived contrary +to her own design, it was very honourably, and befitting her own virtue, +her pale complexion ever after manifesting how much life had run from her +veins. + +These are my three very true stories, which I find as entertaining and as +tragic as any of those we make out of our own heads wherewith to amuse +the common people; and I wonder that they who are addicted to such +relations, do not rather cull out ten thousand very fine stories, which +are to be found in books, that would save them the trouble of invention, +and be more useful and diverting; and he who would make a whole and +connected body of them would need to add nothing of his own, but the +connection only, as it were the solder of another metal; and might by +this means embody a great many true events of all sorts, disposing and +diversifying them according as the beauty of the work should require, +after the same manner, almost, as Ovid has made up his Metamorphoses of +the infinite number of various fables. + +In the last couple, this is, moreover, worthy of consideration, that +Paulina voluntarily offered to lose her life for the love of her husband, +and that her husband had formerly also forborne to die for the love of +her. We may think there is no just counterpoise in this exchange; but, +according to his stoical humour, I fancy he thought he had done as much +for her, in prolonging his life upon her account, as if he had died for +her. In one of his letters to Lucilius, after he has given him to +understand that, being seized with an ague in Rome, he presently took +coach to go to a house he had in the country, contrary to his wife's +opinion, who would have him stay, and that he had told her that the ague +he was seized with was not a fever of the body but of the place, it +follows thus: "She let me go," says he, "giving me a strict charge of my +health. Now I, who know that her life is involved in mine, begin to make +much of myself, that I may preserve her. And I lose the privilege my age +has given me, of being more constant and resolute in many things, when I +call to mind that in this old fellow there is a young girl who is +interested in his health. And since I cannot persuade her to love me +more courageously, she makes me more solicitously love myself: for we +must allow something to honest affections, and, sometimes, though +occasions importune us to the contrary, we must call back life, even +though it be with torment: we must hold the soul fast in our teeth, since +the rule of living, amongst good men, is not so long as they please, but +as long as they ought. He that loves not his wife nor his friend so well +as to prolong his life for them, but will obstinately die, is too +delicate and too effeminate: the soul must impose this upon itself, when +the utility of our friends so requires; we must sometimes lend ourselves +to our friends, and when we would die for ourselves must break that +resolution for them. 'Tis a testimony of grandeur of courage to return +to life for the consideration of another, as many excellent persons have +done: and 'tis a mark of singular good nature to preserve old age (of +which the greatest convenience is the indifference as to its duration, +and a more stout and disdainful use of life), when a man perceives that +this office is pleasing, agreeable, and useful to some person by whom he +is very much beloved. And a man reaps by it a very pleasing reward; for +what can be more delightful than to be so dear to his wife, as upon her +account he shall become dearer to himself? Thus has my Paulina loaded me +not only with her fears, but my own; it has not been sufficient to +consider how resolutely I could die, but I have also considered how +irresolutely she would bear my death. I am enforced to live, and +sometimes to live in magnanimity." These are his own words, as excellent +as they everywhere are. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +OF THE MOST EXCELLENT MEN + +If I should be asked my choice among all the men who have come to my +knowledge, I should make answer, that methinks I find three more +excellent than all the rest. + +One of them Homer: not that Aristotle and Varro, for example, were not, +peradventure, as learned as he; nor that possibly Virgil was not equal to +him in his own art, which I leave to be determined by such as know them +both. I who, for my part, understand but one of them, can only say this, +according to my poor talent, that I do not believe the Muses themselves +could ever go beyond the Roman: + + "Tale facit carmen docta testudine, quale + Cynthius impositis temperat articulis:" + + ["He plays on his learned lute a verse such as Cynthian Apollo + modulates with his imposed fingers."--Propertius, ii. 34, 79.] + +and yet in this judgment we are not to forget that it is chiefly from +Homer that Virgil derives his excellence, that he is guide and teacher; +and that one touch of the Iliad has supplied him with body and matter out +of which to compose his great and divine AEneid. I do not reckon upon +that, but mix several other circumstances that render to me this poet +admirable, even as it were above human condition. And, in truth, I often +wonder that he who has produced, and, by his authority, given reputation +in the world to so many deities, was not deified himself. Being blind +and poor, living before the sciences were reduced into rule and certain +observation, he was so well acquainted with them, that all those who have +since taken upon them to establish governments, to carry on wars, and to +write either of religion or philosophy, of what sect soever, or of the +arts, have made use of him as of a most perfect instructor in the +knowledge of all things, and of his books as of a treasury of all sorts +of learning: + + "Qui, quid sit pulcrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, + Planius ac melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicit:" + + ["Who tells us what is good, what evil, what useful, what not, more + clearly and better than Chrysippus and Crantor?" + --Horace, Ep., i. 2, 3.] + +and as this other says, + + "A quo, ceu fonte perenni, + Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis" + + ["From which, as from a perennial spring, the lips of the poets + are moistened by Pierian waters."--Ovid, Amoy., iii. 9, 25.] + +and the other, + + "Adde Heliconiadum comites, quorum unus Homerus + Sceptra potitus;" + + ["Add the companions of the Muses, whose sceptre Homer has solely + obtained."--Lucretius, iii. 1050.] + +and the other: + + "Cujusque ex ore profusos + Omnis posteritas latices in carmina duxit, + Amnemque in tenues ausa est deducere rivos. + Unius foecunda bonis." + + ["From whose mouth all posterity has drawn out copious streams of + verse, and has made bold to turn the mighty river into its little + rivulets, fertile in the property of one man." + --Manilius, Astyon., ii. 8.] + +'Tis contrary to the order of nature that he has made the most excellent +production that can possibly be; for the ordinary birth of things is +imperfect; they thrive and gather strength by growing, whereas he +rendered the infancy of poesy and several other sciences mature, perfect, +and accomplished at first. And for this reason he may be called the +first and the last of the poets, according to the fine testimony +antiquity has left us of him, "that as there was none before him whom he +could imitate, so there has been none since that could imitate him." +His words, according to Aristotle, are the only words that have motion +and action, the only substantial words. Alexander the Great, having +found a rich cabinet amongst Darius' spoils, gave order it should be +reserved for him to keep his Homer in, saying: that he was the best and +most faithful counsellor he had in his military affairs. For the same +reason it was that Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, said that he was +the poet of the Lacedaemonians, for that he was an excellent master for +the discipline of war. This singular and particular commendation is also +left of him in the judgment of Plutarch, that he is the only author in +the world that never glutted nor disgusted his readers, presenting +himself always another thing, and always flourishing in some new grace. +That wanton Alcibiades, having asked one, who pretended to learning, for +a book of Homer, gave him a box of the ear because he had none, which he +thought as scandalous as we should if we found one of our priests without +a Breviary. Xenophanes complained one day to Hiero, the tyrant of +Syracuse, that he was so poor he had not wherewithal to maintain two +servants. "What!" replied he, "Homer, who was much poorer than thou +art, keeps above ten thousand, though he is dead." What did Panaetius +leave unsaid when he called Plato the Homer of the philosophers? Besides +what glory can be compared to his? Nothing is so frequent in men's +mouths as his name and works, nothing so known and received as Troy, +Helen, and the war about her, when perhaps there was never any such +thing. Our children are still called by names that he invented above +three thousand years ago; who does not know Hector and Achilles? Not +only some particular families, but most nations also seek their origin in +his inventions. Mohammed, the second of that name, emperor of the Turks, +writing to our Pope Pius II., "I am astonished," says he, "that the +Italians should appear against me, considering that we have our common +descent from the Trojans, and that it concerns me as well as it does them +to revenge the blood of Hector upon the Greeks, whom they countenance +against me." Is it not a noble farce wherein kings, republics, and +emperors have so many ages played their parts, and to which the vast +universe serves for a theatre? Seven Grecian cities contended for his +birth, so much honour even his obscurity helped him to! + + "Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenm." + +The other is Alexander the Great. For whoever will consider the age at +which he began his enterprises, the small means by which he effected so +glorious a design, the authority he obtained in such mere youth with the +greatest and most experienced captains of the world, by whom he was +followed, the extraordinary favour wherewith fortune embraced and +favoured so many hazardous, not to say rash, exploits, + + "Impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti + Obstaret, gaudensque viam fecisse ruins;" + + ["Bearing down all who sought to withstand him, and pleased + to force his way by ruin."--Lucan, i. 149.] + +that greatness, to have at the age of three-and-thirty years, passed +victorious through the whole habitable earth, and in half a life to have +attained to the utmost of what human nature can do; so that you cannot +imagine its just duration and the continuation of his increase in valour +and fortune, up to a due maturity of age, but that you must withal +imagine something more than man: to have made so many royal branches to +spring from his soldiers, leaving the world, at his death, divided +amongst four successors, simple captains of his army, whose posterity so +long continued and maintained that vast possession; so many excellent +virtues as he was master of, justice, temperance, liberality, truth in +his word, love towards his own people, and humanity towards those he +overcame; for his manners, in general, seem in truth incapable of any +manner of reproach, although some particular and extraordinary actions of +his may fall under censure. But it is impossible to carry on such great +things as he did within the strict rules of justice; such as he are to be +judged in gross by the main end of their actions. The ruin of Thebes and +Persepolis, the murder of Menander and of Ephistion's physician, the +massacre of so many Persian prisoners at one time, of a troop of Indian +soldiers not without prejudice to his word, and of the Cossians, so much +as to the very children, are indeed sallies that are not well to be +excused. For, as to Clytus, the fault was more than redeemed; and that +very action, as much as any other whatever, manifests the goodness of his +nature, a nature most excellently formed to goodness; and it was +ingeniously said of him, that he had his virtues from Nature, his vices +from Fortune. As to his being a little given to bragging, a little too +impatient of hearing himself ill-spoken of, and as to those mangers, +arms, and bits he caused to be strewed in the Indies, all those little +vanities, methinks, may very well be allowed to his youth, and the +prodigious prosperity of his fortune. And who will consider withal his +so many military virtues, his diligence, foresight, patience, discipline, +subtlety, magnanimity, resolution, and good fortune, wherein (though we +had not had the authority of Hannibal to assure us) he was the first of +men, the admirable beauty and symmetry of his person, even to a miracle, +his majestic port and awful mien, in a face so young, ruddy, and radiant: + + "Qualis, ubi Oceani perfusus Lucifer unda, + Quem Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes, + Extulit os sacrum coelo, tenebrasque resolvit;" + + ["As when, bathed in the waves of Ocean, Lucifer, whom Venus loves + beyond the other stars, has displayed his sacred countenance to the + heaven, and disperses the darkness"--AEneid, iii. 589.] + +the excellence of his knowledge and capacity; the duration and grandeur +of his glory, pure, clean, without spot or envy, and that long after his +death it was a religious belief that his very medals brought good fortune +to all who carried them about them; and that more kings and princes have +written his actions than other historians have written the actions of any +other king or prince whatever; and that to this very day the Mohammedans, +who despise all other histories, admit of and honour his alone, by a +special privilege: whoever, I say, will seriously consider these +particulars, will confess that, all these things put together, I had +reason to prefer him before Caesar himself, who alone could make me +doubtful in my choice: and it cannot be denied that there was more of his +own in his exploits, and more of fortune in those of Alexander. They +were in many things equal, and peradventure Caesar had some greater +qualities they were two fires, or two torrents, overrunning the world by +several ways; + + "Ac velut immissi diversis partibus ignes + Arentem in silvam, et virgulta sonantia lauro + Aut ubi decursu rapido de montibus altis + Dant sonitum spumosi amnes, et in aequora currunt, + Quisque suum populatus iter:" + + ["And as fires applied in several parts to a dry wood and crackling + shrubs of laurel, or as with impetuous fall from the steep + mountains, foaming torrents pour down to the ocean, each clearing a + destructive course."--AEneid, xii. 521.] + +but though Caesar's ambition had been more moderate, it would still be so +unhappy, having the ruin of his country and universal mischief to the +world for its abominable object, that, all things raked together and put +into the balance, I must needs incline to Alexander's side. + +The third and in my opinion the most excellent, is Epaminondas. Of glory +he has not near so much as the other two (which, for that matter, is but +a part of the substance of the thing): of valour and resolution, not of +that sort which is pushed on by ambition, but of that which wisdom and +reason can plant in a regular soul, he had all that could be imagined. +Of this virtue of his, he has, in my idea, given as ample proof as +Alexander himself or Caesar: for although his warlike exploits were +neither so frequent nor so full, they were yet, if duly considered in all +their circumstances, as important, as bravely fought, and carried with +them as manifest testimony of valour and military conduct, as those of +any whatever. The Greeks have done him the honour, without +contradiction, to pronounce him the greatest man of their nation; and to +be the first of Greece, is easily to be the first of the world. As to +his knowledge, we have this ancient judgment of him, "That never any man +knew so much, and spake so little as he";--[Plutarch, On the Demon of +Socrates, c. 23.]--for he was of the Pythagorean sect; but when he did +speak, never any man spake better; an excellent orator, and of powerful +persuasion. But as to his manners and conscience, he infinitely +surpassed all men who ever undertook the management of affairs; for in +this one thing, which ought chiefly to be considered, which alone truly +denotes us for what we are, and which alone I make counterbalance all the +rest put together, he comes not short of any philosopher whatever, not +even of Socrates himself. Innocence, in this man, is a quality peculiar, +sovereign, constant, uniform, incorruptible, compared with which, it +appears in Alexander subject to something else subaltern, uncertain, +variable, effeminate, and fortuitous. + +Antiquity has judged that in thoroughly sifting all the other great +captains, there is found in every one some peculiar quality that +illustrates his name: in this man only there is a full and equal virtue +throughout, that leaves nothing to be wished for in him, whether in +private or public employment, whether in peace or war; whether to live +gloriously and grandly, and to die: I do not know any form or fortune of +man that I so much honour and love. + +'Tis true that I look upon his obstinate poverty, as it is set out by his +best friends, as a little too scrupulous and nice; and this is the only +feature, though high in itself and well worthy of admiration, that I find +so rugged as not to desire to imitate, to the degree it was in him. + +Scipio AEmilianus alone, could one attribute to him as brave and +magnificent an end, and as profound and universal a knowledge, might be +put into the other scale of the balance. Oh, what an injury has time +done me to deprive me of the sight of two of the most noble lives which, +by the common consent of all the world, one of the greatest of the +Greeks, and the other of the Romans, were in all Plutarch. What a +matter! what a workman! + +For a man that was no saint, but, as we say, a gentleman, of civilian and +ordinary manners, and of a moderate ambition, the richest life that I +know, and full of the richest and most to be desired parts, all things +considered, is, in my opinion, that of Alcibiades. + +But as to what concerns Epaminondas, I will here, for the example of an +excessive goodness, add some of his opinions: he declared, that the +greatest satisfaction he ever had in his whole life, was the contentment +he gave his father and mother by his victory at Leuctra; wherein his +deference is great, preferring their pleasure before his own, so dust and +so full of so glorious an action. He did not think it lawful, even to +restore the liberty of his country, to kill a man without knowing a +cause: which made him so cold in the enterprise of his companion +Pelopidas for the relief of Thebes. He was also of opinion that men in +battle ought to avoid the encounter of a friend who was on the contrary +side, and to spare him. And his humanity, even towards his enemies +themselves, having rendered him suspected to the Boeotians, for that, +after he had miraculously forced the Lacedaemonians to open to him the +pass which they had undertaken to defend at the entrance into the Morea, +near Corinth, he contented himself with having charged through them, +without pursuing them to the utmost, he had his commission of general +taken from him, very honourably upon such an account, and for the shame +it was to them upon necessity afterwards to restore him to his command, +and so to manifest how much upon him depended their safety and honour; +victory like a shadow attending him wherever he went; and indeed the +prosperity of his country, as being from him derived, died with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +OF THE RESEMBLANCE OF CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS + +This faggoting up of so many divers pieces is so done that I never set +pen to paper but when I have too much idle time, and never anywhere but +at home; so that it is compiled after divers interruptions and intervals, +occasions keeping me sometimes many months elsewhere. As to the rest, +I never correct my first by any second conceptions; I, peradventure, may +alter a word or so, but 'tis only to vary the phrase, and not to destroy +my former meaning. I have a mind to represent the progress of my +humours, and that every one may see each piece as it came from the forge. +I could wish I had begun sooner, and had taken more notice of the course +of my mutations. A servant of mine whom I employed to transcribe for me, +thought he had got a prize by stealing several pieces from me, wherewith +he was best pleased; but it is my comfort that he will be no greater a +gainer than I shall be a loser by the theft. I am grown older by seven +or eight years since I began; nor has it been without same new +acquisition: I have, in that time, by the liberality of years, been +acquainted with the stone: their commerce and long converse do not well +pass away without some such inconvenience. I could have been glad that +of other infirmities age has to present long-lived men withal, it had +chosen some one that would have been more welcome to me, for it could not +possibly have laid upon me a disease for which, even from my infancy, I +have had so great a horror; and it is, in truth, of all the accidents of +old age, that of which I have ever been most afraid. I have often +thought with myself that I went on too far, and that in so long a voyage +I should at last run myself into some disadvantage; I perceived, and have +often enough declared, that it was time to depart, and that life should +be cut off in the sound and living part, according to the surgeon's rule +in amputations; and that nature made him pay very strict usury who did +not in due time pay the principal. And yet I was so far from being +ready, that in the eighteen months' time or thereabout that I have been +in this uneasy condition, I have so inured myself to it as to be content +to live on in it; and have found wherein to comfort myself, and to hope: +so much are men enslaved to their miserable being, that there is no +condition so wretched they will not accept, provided they may live! Hear +Maecenas: + + "Debilem facito manu, + Debilem pede, coxa, + Lubricos quate dentes; + Vita dum superest, bene est." + + ["Cripple my hand, foot, hip; shake out my loose teeth: while + there's life, 'tis well."--Apud Seneca, Ep., 101.] + +And Tamerlane, with a foolish humanity, palliated the fantastic cruelty +he exercised upon lepers, when he put all he could hear of to death, to +deliver them, as he pretended, from the painful life they lived. For +there was not one of them who would not rather have been thrice a leper +than be not. And Antisthenes the Stoic, being very sick, and crying out, +"Who will deliver me from these evils?" Diogenes, who had come to visit +him, "This," said he, presenting him a knife, "soon enough, if thou +wilt."--"I do not mean from my life," he replied, "but from my +sufferings." The sufferings that only attack the mind, I am not so +sensible of as most other men; and this partly out of judgment, for the +world looks upon several things as dreadful or to be avoided at the +expense of life, that are almost indifferent to me: partly, through a +dull and insensible complexion I have in accidents which do not +point-blank hit me; and that insensibility I look upon as one of the best +parts of my natural condition; but essential and corporeal pains I am +very sensible of. And yet, having long since foreseen them, though with +a sight weak and delicate and softened with the long and happy health and +quiet that God has been pleased to give me the greatest part of my time, +I had in my imagination fancied them so insupportable, that, in truth, I +was more afraid than I have since found I had cause: by which I am still +more fortified in this belief, that most of the faculties of the soul, as +we employ them, more trouble the repose of life than they are any way +useful to it. + +I am in conflict with the worst, the most sudden, the most painful, the +most mortal, and the most irremediable of all diseases; I have already +had the trial of five or six very long and very painful fits; and yet I +either flatter myself, or there is even in this state what is very well +to be endured by a man who has his soul free from the fear of death, and +of the menaces, conclusions, and consequences which physic is ever +thundering in our ears; but the effect even of pain itself is not so +sharp and intolerable as to put a man of understanding into rage and +despair. I have at least this advantage by my stone, that what I could +not hitherto prevail upon myself to resolve upon, as to reconciling and +acquainting myself with death, it will perfect; for the more it presses +upon and importunes me, I shall be so much the less afraid to die. I had +already gone so far as only to love life for life's sake, but my pain +will dissolve this intelligence; and God grant that in the end, should +the sharpness of it be once greater than I shall be able to bear, it does +not throw me into the other no less vicious extreme to desire and wish to +die! + + "Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes:" + + ["Neither to wish, nor fear to die." (Or:) + "Thou shouldest neither fear nor desire the last day." + --Martial, x. 7.] + +they are two passions to be feared; but the one has its remedy much +nearer at hand than the other. + +As to the rest, I have always found the precept that so rigorously +enjoins a resolute countenance and disdainful and indifferent comportment +in the toleration of infirmities to be ceremonial. Why should +philosophy, which only has respect to life and effects, trouble itself +about these external appearances? Let us leave that care to actors and +masters of rhetoric, who set so great a value upon our gestures. Let her +allow this vocal frailty to disease, if it be neither cordial nor +stomachic, and permit the ordinary ways of expressing grief by sighs, +sobs, palpitations, and turning pale, that nature has put out of our +power; provided the courage be undaunted, and the tones not expressive +of despair, let her be satisfied. What matter the wringing of our hands, +if we do not wring our thoughts? She forms us for ourselves, not for +others; to be, not to seem; let her be satisfied with governing our +understanding, which she has taken upon her the care of instructing; +that, in the fury of the colic, she maintain the soul in a condition to +know itself, and to follow its accustomed way, contending with, and +enduring, not meanly truckling under pain; moved and heated, not subdued +and conquered, in the contention; capable of discourse and other things, +to a certain degree. In such extreme accidents, 'tis cruelty to require +so exact a composedness. 'Tis no great matter that we make a wry face, +if the mind plays its part well: if the body find itself relieved by +complaining let it complain: if agitation ease it, let it tumble and toss +at pleasure; if it seem to find the disease evaporate (as some physicians +hold that it helps women in delivery) in making loud outcries, or if this +do but divert its torments, let it roar as it will. Let us not command +this voice to sally, but stop it not. Epicurus, not only forgives his +sage for crying out in torments, but advises him to it: + + "Pugiles etiam, quum feriunt, in jactandis caestibus + ingemiscunt, quia profundenda voce omne corpus intenditur, + venitque plaga vehementior." + + ["Boxers also, when they strike, groan in the act, because with the + strength of voice the whole body is carried, and the blow comes with + the greater vehemence."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 23.] + +We have enough to do to deal with the disease, without troubling +ourselves with these superfluous rules. + +Which I say in excuse of those whom we ordinarily see impatient in the +assaults of this malady; for as to what concerns myself, I have passed it +over hitherto with a little better countenance, and contented myself with +groaning without roaring out; not, nevertheless, that I put any great +constraint upon myself to maintain this exterior decorum, for I make +little account of such an advantage: I allow herein as much as the pain +requires; but either my pains are not so excessive, or I have more than +ordinary patience. I complain, I confess, and am a little impatient in a +very sharp fit, but I do not arrive to such a degree of despair as he who +with: + + "Ejulatu, questu, gemitu, fremitibus + Resonando, multum flebiles voces refert:" + + ["Howling, roaring, groaning with a thousand noises, expressing his + torment in a dismal voice." (Or:) "Wailing, complaining, groaning, + murmuring much avail lugubrious sounds."--Verses of Attius, in his + Phaloctetes, quoted by Cicero, De Finib., ii. 29; Tusc. Quaes., + ii. 14.] + +I try myself in the depth of my suffering, and have always found that I +was in a capacity to speak, think, and give a rational answer as well as +at any other time, but not so firmly, being troubled and interrupted by +the pain. When I am looked upon by my visitors to be in the greatest +torment, and that they therefore forbear to trouble me, I often essay my +own strength, and myself set some discourse on foot, the most remote I +can contrive from my present condition. I can do anything upon a sudden +endeavour, but it must not continue long. Oh, what pity 'tis I have not +the faculty of that dreamer in Cicero, who dreaming he was lying with a +wench, found he had discharged his stone in the sheets. My pains +strangely deaden my appetite that way. In the intervals from this +excessive torment, when my ureters only languish without any great dolor, +I presently feel myself in my wonted state, forasmuch as my soul takes no +other alarm but what is sensible and corporal, which I certainly owe to +the care I have had of preparing myself by meditation against such +accidents: + + "Laborum, + Nulla mihi nova nunc facies inopinave surgit; + Omnia praecepi, atque animo mecum ante peregi." + + ["No new shape of suffering can arise new or unexpected; I have + anticipated all, and acted them over beforehand in my mind." + --AEneid, vi. 103.] + +I am, however, a little roughly handled for an apprentice, and with a +sudden and sharp alteration, being fallen in an instant from a very easy +and happy condition of life into the most uneasy and painful that can be +imagined. For besides that it is a disease very much to be feared in +itself, it begins with me after a more sharp and severe manner than it is +used to do with other men. My fits come so thick upon me that I am +scarcely ever at ease; yet I have hitherto kept my mind so upright that, +provided I can still continue it, I find myself in a much better +condition of life than a thousand others, who have no fewer nor other +disease but what they create to themselves for want of meditation. + +There is a certain sort of crafty humility that springs from presumption, +as this, for example, that we confess our ignorance in many things, and +are so courteous as to acknowledge that there are in the works of nature +some qualities and conditions that are imperceptible to us, and of which +our understanding cannot discover the means and causes; by this so honest +and conscientious declaration we hope to obtain that people shall also +believe us as to those that we say we do understand. We need not trouble +ourselves to seek out foreign miracles and difficulties; methinks, +amongst the things that we ordinarily see, there are such +incomprehensible wonders as surpass all difficulties of miracles. What a +wonderful thing it is that the drop of seed from which we are produced +should carry in itself the impression not only of the bodily form, but +even of the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers! Where can that +drop of fluid matter contain that infinite number of forms? and how can +they carry on these resemblances with so precarious and irregular a +process that the son shall be like his great-grandfather, the nephew like +his uncle? In the family of Lepidus at Rome there were three, not +successively but by intervals, who were born with the same eye covered +with a cartilage. At Thebes there was a race that carried from their +mother's womb the form of the head of a lance, and he who was not born so +was looked upon as illegitimate. And Aristotle says that in a certain +nation, where the women were in common, they assigned the children to +their fathers by their resemblance. + +'Tis to be believed that I derive this infirmity from my father, for he +died wonderfully tormented with a great stone in his bladder; he was +never sensible of his disease till the sixty-seventh year of his age; and +before that had never felt any menace or symptoms of it, either in his +reins, sides, or any other part, and had lived, till then, in a happy, +vigorous state of health, little subject to infirmities, and he continued +seven years after in this disease, dragging on a very painful end of +life. I was born about five-and-twenty years before his disease seized +him, and in the time of his most flourishing and healthful state of body, +his third child in order of birth: where could his propension to this +malady lie lurking all that while? And he being then so far from the +infirmity, how could that small part of his substance wherewith he made +me, carry away so great an impression for its share? and how so +concealed, that till five-and-forty years after, I did not begin to be +sensible of it? being the only one to this hour, amongst so many +brothers and sisters, and all by one mother, that was ever troubled with +it. He that can satisfy me in this point, I will believe him in as many +other miracles as he pleases; always provided that, as their manner is, +he do not give me a doctrine much more intricate and fantastic than the +thing itself for current pay. + +Let the physicians a little excuse the liberty I take, for by this same +infusion and fatal insinuation it is that I have received a hatred and +contempt of their doctrine; the antipathy I have against their art is +hereditary. My father lived three-score and fourteen years, my +grandfather sixty-nine, my great-grandfather almost fourscore years, +without ever tasting any sort of physic; and, with them, whatever was not +ordinary diet, was instead of a drug. Physic is grounded upon experience +and examples: so is my opinion. And is not this an express and very +advantageous experience. I do not know that they can find me in all +their records three that were born, bred, and died under the same roof, +who have lived so long by their conduct. They must here of necessity +confess, that if reason be not, fortune at least is on my side, and with +physicians fortune goes a great deal further than reason. Let them not +take me now at a disadvantage; let them not threaten me in the subdued +condition wherein I now am; that were treachery. In truth, I have enough +the better of them by these domestic examples, that they should rest +satisfied. Human things are not usually so constant; it has been two +hundred years, save eighteen, that this trial has lasted, for the first +of them was born in the year 1402: 'tis now, indeed, very good reason +that this experience should begin to fail us. Let them not, therefore, +reproach me with the infirmities under which I now suffer; is it not +enough that I for my part have lived seven-and-forty years in good +health? though it should be the end of my career; 'tis of the longer +sort. + +My ancestors had an aversion to physic by some occult and natural +instinct; for the very sight of drugs was loathsome to my father. The +Seigneur de Gaviac, my uncle by the father's side, a churchman, and a +valetudinary from his birth, and yet who made that crazy life hold out to +sixty-seven years, being once fallen into a furious fever, it was ordered +by the physicians he should be plainly told that if he would not make use +of help (for so they call that which is very often an obstacle), he would +infallibly be a dead man. That good man, though terrified with this +dreadful sentence, yet replied, "I am then a dead man." But God soon +after made the prognostic false. The last of the brothers--there were +four of them--and by many years the last, the Sieur de Bussaguet, was the +only one of the family who made use of medicine, by reason, I suppose, of +the concern he had with the other arts, for he was a councillor in the +court of Parliament, and it succeeded so ill with him, that being in +outward appearance of the strongest constitution, he yet died long before +any of the rest, save the Sieur de Saint Michel. + +'Tis possible I may have derived this natural antipathy to physic from +them; but had there been no other consideration in the case, I would have +endeavoured to have overcome it; for all these conditions that spring in +us without reason, are vicious; 'tis a kind of disease that we should +wrestle with. It may be I had naturally this propension; but I have +supported and fortified it by arguments and reasons which have +established in me the opinion I am of. For I also hate the consideration +of refusing physic for the nauseous taste. + +I should hardly be of that humour who hold health to be worth purchasing +by all the most painful cauteries and incisions that can be applied. +And, with Epicurus, I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided, if +greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted, that will +terminate in greater pleasures. Health is a precious thing, and the only +one, in truth, meriting that a man should lay out, not only his time, +sweat, labour, and goods, but also his life itself to obtain it; +forasmuch as, without it, life is wearisome and injurious to us: +pleasure, wisdom, learning, and virtue, without it, wither away and +vanish; and to the most laboured and solid discourses that philosophy +would imprint in us to the contrary, we need no more but oppose the image +of Plato being struck with an epilepsy or apoplexy; and, in this +presupposition, to defy him to call the rich faculties of his soul to his +assistance. All means that conduce to health can neither be too painful +nor too dear to me. But I have some other appearances that make me +strangely suspect all this merchandise. I do not deny but that there may +be some art in it, that there are not amongst so many works of Nature, +things proper for the conservation of health: that is most certain: I +very well know there are some simples that moisten, and others that dry; +I experimentally know that radishes are windy, and senna-leaves purging; +and several other such experiences I have, as that mutton nourishes me, +and wine warms me: and Solon said "that eating was physic against the +malady hunger." I do not disapprove the use we make of things the earth +produces, nor doubt, in the least, of the power and fertility of Nature, +and of its application to our necessities: I very well see that pikes and +swallows live by her laws; but I mistrust the inventions of our mind, our +knowledge and art, to countenance which, we have abandoned Nature and her +rules, and wherein we keep no bounds nor moderation. As we call the +piling up of the first laws that fall into our hands justice, and their +practice and dispensation very often foolish and very unjust; and as +those who scoff at and accuse it, do not, nevertheless, blame that noble +virtue itself, but only condemn the abuse and profanation of that sacred +title; so in physic I very much honour that glorious name, its +propositions, its promises, so useful for the service of mankind; but the +ordinances it foists upon us, betwixt ourselves, I neither honour nor +esteem. + +In the first place, experience makes me dread it; for amongst all my +acquaintance, I see no people so soon sick, and so long before they are +well, as those who take much physic; their very health is altered and +corrupted by their frequent prescriptions. Physicians are not content to +deal only with the sick, but they will moreover corrupt health itself, +for fear men should at any time escape their authority. Do they not, +from a continual and perfect health, draw the argument of some great +sickness to ensue? I have been sick often enough, and have always found +my sicknesses easy enough to be supported (though I have made trial of +almost all sorts), and as short as those of any other, without their +help, or without swallowing their ill-tasting doses. The health I have +is full and free, without other rule or discipline than my own custom and +pleasure. Every place serves me well enough to stay in, for I need no +other conveniences, when I am sick, than what I must have when I am well. +I never disturb myself that I have no physician, no apothecary, nor any +other assistance, which I see most other sick men more afflicted at than +they are with their disease. What! Do the doctors themselves show us +more felicity and duration in their own lives, that may manifest to us +some apparent effect of their skill? + +There is not a nation in the world that has not been many ages without +physic; and these the first ages, that is to say, the best and most +happy; and the tenth part of the world knows nothing of it yet; many +nations are ignorant of it to this day, where men live more healthful and +longer than we do here, and even amongst us the common people live well +enough without it. The Romans were six hundred years before they +received it; and after having made trial of it, banished it from the city +at the instance of Cato the Censor, who made it appear how easy it was to +live without it, having himself lived fourscore and five years, and kept +his wife alive to an extreme old age, not without physic, but without a +physician: for everything that we find to be healthful to life may be +called physic. He kept his family in health, as Plutarch says if I +mistake not, with hare's milk; as Pliny reports, that the Arcadians +cured all manner of diseases with that of a cow; and Herodotus says, the +Lybians generally enjoy rare health, by a custom they have, after their +children are arrived to four years of age, to burn and cauterise the +veins of their head and temples, by which means they cut off all +defluxions of rheum for their whole lives. And the country people of our +province make use of nothing, in all sorts of distempers, but the +strongest wine they can get, mixed with a great deal of saffron and +spice, and always with the same success. + +And to say the truth, of all this diversity and confusion of +prescriptions, what other end and effect is there after all, but to purge +the belly? which a thousand ordinary simples will do as well; and I do +not know whether such evacuations be so much to our advantage as they +pretend, and whether nature does not require a residence of her +excrements to a certain proportion, as wine does of its lees to keep it +alive: you often see healthful men fall into vomitings and fluxes of the +belly by some extrinsic accident, and make a great evacuation of +excrements, without any preceding need, or any following benefit, but +rather with hurt to their constitution. 'Tis from the great Plato, that +I lately learned, that of three sorts of motions which are natural to us, +purging is the worst, and that no man, unless he be a fool, ought to take +anything to that purpose but in the extremest necessity. Men disturb and +irritate the disease by contrary oppositions; it must be the way of +living that must gently dissolve, and bring it to its end. The violent +gripings and contest betwixt the drug and the disease are ever to our +loss, since the combat is fought within ourselves, and that the drug is +an assistant not to be trusted, being in its own nature an enemy to our +health, and by trouble having only access into our condition. Let it +alone a little; the general order of things that takes care of fleas and +moles, also takes care of men, if they will have the same patience that +fleas and moles have, to leave it to itself. 'Tis to much purpose we cry +out "Bihore,"--[A term used by the Languedoc waggoners to hasten their +horses]--'tis a way to make us hoarse, but not to hasten the matter. +'Tis a proud and uncompassionate order: our fears, our despair displease +and stop it from, instead of inviting it to, our relief; it owes its +course to the disease, as well as to health; and will not suffer itself +to be corrupted in favour of the one to the prejudice of the other's +right, for it would then fall into disorder. Let us, in God's name, +follow it; it leads those that follow, and those who will not follow, it +drags along, both their fury and physic together. Order a purge for your +brain, it will there be much better employed than upon your stomach. + +One asking a Lacedaemonian what had made him live so long, he made +answer, "the ignorance of physic"; and the Emperor Adrian continually +exclaimed as he was dying, that the crowd of physicians had killed him. +A bad wrestler turned physician: "Courage," says Diogenes to him; "thou +hast done well, for now thou will throw those who have formerly thrown +thee." But they have this advantage, according to Nicocles, that the sun +gives light to their success and the earth covers their failures. And, +besides, they have a very advantageous way of making use of all sorts of +events: for what fortune, nature, or any other cause (of which the number +is infinite), products of good and healthful in us, it is the privilege +of physic to attribute to itself; all the happy successes that happen to +the patient, must be thence derived; the accidents that have cured me, +and a thousand others, who do not employ physicians, physicians usurp to +themselves: and as to ill accidents, they either absolutely disown them, +in laying the fault upon the patient, by such frivolous reasons as they +are never at a loss for; as "he lay with his arms out of bed," or "he was +disturbed with the rattling of a coach:" + + "Rhedarum transitus arcto + Vicorum inflexu:" + + ["The passage of the wheels in the narrow + turning of the street"--Juvenal, iii. 236.] + +or "somebody had set open the casement," or "he had lain upon his left +side," or "he had some disagreeable fancies in his head": in sum, a word, +a dream, or a look, seems to them excuse sufficient wherewith to palliate +their own errors: or, if they so please, they even make use of our +growing worse, and do their business in this way which can never fail +them: which is by buzzing us in the ear, when the disease is more +inflamed by their medicaments, that it had been much worse but for those +remedies; he, whom from an ordinary cold they have thrown into a double +tertian-ague, had but for them been in a continued fever. They do not +much care what mischief they do, since it turns to their own profit. +In earnest, they have reason to require a very favourable belief from +their patients; and, indeed, it ought to be a very easy one, to swallow +things so hard to be believed. Plato said very well, that physicians +were the only men who might lie at pleasure, since our health depends +upon the vanity and falsity of their promises. + +AEsop, a most excellent author, and of whom few men discover all the +graces, pleasantly represents to us the tyrannical authority physicians +usurp over poor creatures, weakened and subdued by sickness and fear, +when he tells us, that a sick person, being asked by his physician what +operation he found of the potion he had given him: "I have sweated very +much," says the sick man. "That's good," says the physician. Another +time, having asked how he felt himself after his physic: "I have been +very cold, and have had a great shivering upon me," said he. "That is +good," replied the physician. After the third potion, he asked him again +how he did: "Why, I find myself swollen and puffed up," said he, "as if +I had a dropsy."--"That is very well," said the physician. One of his +servants coming presently after to inquire how he felt himself, "Truly, +friend," said he, "with being too well I am about to die." + +There was a more just law in Egypt, by which the physician, for the three +first days, was to take charge of his patient at the patient's own risk +and cost; but, those three days being past, it was to be at his own. For +what reason is it that their patron, AEsculapius, should be struck with +thunder for restoring Hippolitus from death to life: + + "Nam Pater omnipotens, aliquem indignatus ab umbris + Mortalem infernis ad lumina surgere vitae, + Ipse repertorem medicinae talis, et artis + Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas;" + + ["Then the Almighty Father, offended that any mortal should rise to + the light of life from the infernal shades, struck the son of + Phoebus with his forked lightning to the Stygian lake." + --AEneid, vii. 770.] + +and his followers be pardoned, who send so many souls from life to death? +A physician, boasting to Nicocles that his art was of great authority: +"It is so, indeed," said Nicocles, "that can with impunity kill so many +people." + +As to what remains, had I been of their counsel, I would have rendered my +discipline more sacred and mysterious; they begun well, but they have not +ended so. It was a good beginning to make gods and demons the authors of +their science, and to have used a peculiar way of speaking and writing, +notwithstanding that philosophy concludes it folly to persuade a man to +his own good by an unintelligible way: "Ut si quis medicus imperet, ut +sumat:" + + + "Terrigenam, herbigradam, domiportam, sanguine cassam." + + ["Describing it by the epithets of an animal trailing with its slime + over the herbage, without blood or bones, and carrying its house + upon its back, meaning simply a snail."--Coste] + +It was a good rule in their art, and that accompanies all other vain, +fantastic, and supernatural arts, that the patient's belief should +prepossess them with good hope and assurance of their effects and +operation: a rule they hold to that degree, as to maintain that the most +inexpert and ignorant physician is more proper for a patient who has +confidence in him, than the most learned and experienced whom he is not +so acquainted with. Nay, even the very choice of most of their drugs is +in some sort mysterious and divine; the left foot of a tortoise, the +urine of a lizard, the dung of an elephant, the liver of a mole, blood +drawn from under the right wing of a white pigeon; and for us who have +the stone (so scornfully they use us in our miseries) the excrement of +rats beaten to powder, and such like trash and fooleries which rather +carry a face of magical enchantment than of any solid science. I omit +the odd number of their pills, the destination of certain days and feasts +of the year, the superstition of gathering their simples at certain +hours, and that so austere and very wise countenance and carriage which +Pliny himself so much derides. But they have, as I said, failed in that +they have not added to this fine beginning the making their meetings and +consultations more religious and secret, where no profane person should +have admission, no more than in the secret ceremonies of AEsculapius; for +by the reason of this it falls out that their irresolution, the weakness +of their arguments, divinations and foundations, the sharpness of their +disputes, full of hatred, jealousy, and self-consideration, coming to be +discovered by every one, a man must be marvellously blind not to see that +he runs a very great hazard in their hands. Who ever saw one physician +approve of another's prescription, without taking something away, or +adding something to it? by which they sufficiently betray their tricks, +and make it manifest to us that they therein more consider their own +reputation, and consequently their profit, than their patient's interest. +He was a much wiser man of their tribe, who of old gave it as a rule, +that only one physician should undertake a sick person; for if he do +nothing to purpose, one single man's default can bring no great scandal +upon the art of medicine; and, on the contrary, the glory will be great +if he happen to have success; whereas, when there are many, they at every +turn bring a disrepute upon their calling, forasmuch as they oftener do +hurt than good. They ought to be satisfied with the perpetual +disagreement which is found in the opinions of the principal masters and +ancient authors of this science, which is only known to men well read, +without discovering to the vulgar the controversies and various judgments +which they still nourish and continue amongst themselves. + +Will you have one example of the ancient controversy in physic? +Herophilus lodges the original cause of all diseases in the humours; +Erasistratus, in the blood of the arteries; Asclepiades, in the invisible +atoms of the pores; Alcmaeon, in the exuberance or defect of our bodily +strength; Diocles, in the inequality of the elements of which the body is +composed, and in the quality of the air we breathe; Strato, in the +abundance, crudity, and corruption of the nourishment we take; and +Hippocrates lodges it in the spirits. There is a certain friend of +theirs,--[Celsus, Preface to the First Book.]--whom they know better +than I, who declares upon this subject, "that the most important science +in practice amongst us, as that which is intrusted with our health and +conservation, is, by ill luck, the most uncertain, the most perplexed, +and agitated with the greatest mutations." There is no great danger in +our mistaking the height of the sun, or the fraction of some astronomical +supputation; but here, where our whole being is concerned, 'tis not +wisdom to abandon ourselves to the mercy of the agitation of so many +contrary winds. + +Before the Peloponnesian war there was no great talk of this science. +Hippocrates brought it into repute; whatever he established, Chrysippus +overthrew; after that, Erasistratus, Aristotle's grandson, overthrew what +Chrysippus had written; after these, the Empirics started up, who took a +quite contrary way to the ancients in the management of this art; when +the credit of these began a little to decay, Herophilus set another sort +of practice on foot, which Asclepiades in turn stood up against, and +overthrew; then, in their turn, the opinions first of Themiso, and then +of Musa, and after that those of Vectius Valens, a physician famous +through the intelligence he had with Messalina, came in vogue; the empire +of physic in Nero's time was established in Thessalus, who abolished and +condemned all that had been held till his time; this man's doctrine was +refuted by Crinas of Marseilles, who first brought all medicinal +operations under the Ephemerides and motions of the stars, and reduced +eating, sleeping, and drinking to hours that were most pleasing to +Mercury and the moon; his authority was soon after supplanted by +Charinus, a physician of the same city of Marseilles, a man who not only +controverted all the ancient methods of physic, but moreover the usage of +hot baths, that had been generally and for so many ages in common use; he +made men bathe in cold water, even in winter, and plunged his sick +patients in the natural waters of streams. No Roman till Pliny's time +had ever vouchsafed to practise physic; that office was only performed +by Greeks and foreigners, as 'tis now amongst us French, by those who +sputter Latin; for, as a very great physician says, we do not easily +accept the medicine we understand, no more than we do the drugs we +ourselves gather. If the nations whence we fetch our guaiacum, +sarsaparilla, and China wood, have physicians, how great a value must we +imagine, by the same recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear +purchase, do they set upon our cabbage and parsley? for who would dare +to contemn things so far fetched, and sought out at the hazard of so long +and dangerous a voyage? + +Since these ancient mutations in physic, there have been infinite others +down to our own times, and, for the most part, mutations entire and +universal, as those, for example, produced by Paracelsus, Fioravanti, and +Argentier; for they, as I am told, not only alter one recipe, but the +whole contexture and rules of the body of physic, accusing all others of +ignorance and imposition who have practised before them. At this rate, +in what a condition the poor patient must be, I leave you to judge. + +If we were even assured that, when they make a mistake, that mistake of +theirs would do us no harm, though it did us no good, it were a +reasonable bargain to venture the making ourselves better without any +danger of being made worse. AEsop tells a story, that one who had bought +a Morisco slave, believing that his black complexion had arrived by +accident and the ill usage of his former master, caused him to enter with +great care into a course of baths and potions: it happened that the Moor +was nothing amended in his tawny complexion, but he wholly lost his +former health. How often do we see physicians impute the death of their +patients to one another? I remember that some years ago there was an +epidemical disease, very dangerous and for the most part mortal, that +raged in the towns about us: the storm being over which had swept away an +infinite number of men, one of the most famous physicians of all the +country, presently after published a book upon that subject, wherein, +upon better thoughts, he confesses that the letting blood in that disease +was the principal cause of so many mishaps. Moreover, their authors hold +that there is no physic that has not something hurtful in it. And if +even those of the best operation in some measure offend us, what must +those do that are totally misapplied? For my own part, though there were +nothing else in the case, I am of opinion, that to those who loathe the +taste of physic, it must needs be a dangerous and prejudicial endeavour +to force it down at so incommodious a time, and with so much aversion, +and believe that it marvellously distempers a sick person at a time when +he has so much need of repose. And more over, if we but consider the +occasions upon which they usually ground the cause of our diseases, they +are so light and nice, that I thence conclude a very little error in the +dispensation of their drugs may do a great deal of mischief. Now, if the +mistake of a physician be so dangerous, we are in but a scurvy condition; +for it is almost impossible but he must often fall into those mistakes: +he had need of too many parts, considerations, and circumstances, rightly +to level his design: he must know the sick person's complexion, his +temperament, his humours, inclinations, actions, nay, his very thoughts +and imaginations; he must be assured of the external circumstances, of +the nature of the place, the quality of the air and season, the situation +of the planets, and their influences: he must know in the disease, the +causes, prognostics, affections, and critical days; in the drugs, the +weight, the power of working, the country, figure, age, and dispensation, +and he must know how rightly to proportion and mix them together, to +beget a just and perfect symmetry; wherein if there be the least error, +if amongst so many springs there be but any one out of order, 'tis enough +to destroy us. God knows with how great difficulty most of these things +are to be understood: for (for example) how shall the physician find out +the true sign of the disease, every disease being capable of an infinite +number of indications? How many doubts and controversies have they +amongst themselves upon the interpretation of urines? otherwise, whence +should the continual debates we see amongst them about the knowledge of +the disease proceed? how could we excuse the error they so oft fall into, +of taking fox for marten? In the diseases I have had, though there were +ever so little difficulty in the case, I never found three of one +opinion: which I instance, because I love to introduce examples wherein I +am myself concerned. + +A gentleman at Paris was lately cut for the stone by order of the +physicians, in whose bladder, being accordingly so cut, there was found +no more stone than in the palm of his hand; and in the same place a +bishop, who was my particular friend, having been earnestly pressed by +the majority of the physicians whom he consulted, to suffer himself to be +cut, to which also, upon their word, I used my interest to persuade him, +when he was dead and opened, it appeared that he had no malady but in the +kidneys. They are least excusable for any error in this disease, by +reason that it is in some sort palpable; and 'tis thence that I conclude +surgery to be much more certain, by reason that it sees and feels what it +does, and so goes less upon conjecture; whereas the physicians have no +'speculum matricis', by which to examine our brains, lungs, and liver. + +Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves; for, +having to provide against divers and contrary accidents that often +afflict us at one and the same time, and that have almost a necessary +relation, as the heat of the liver and the coldness of the stomach, they +will needs persuade us, that of their ingredients one will heat the +stomach and the other will cool the liver: one has its commission to go +directly to the kidneys, nay, even to the bladder, without scattering its +operations by the way, and is to retain its power and virtue through all +those turns and meanders, even to the place to the service of which it is +designed, by its own occult property this will dry-the brain; that will +moisten the lungs. Of all this bundle of things having mixed up a +potion, is it not a kind of madness to imagine or to hope that these +differing virtues should separate themselves from one another in this +mixture and confusion, to perform so many various errands? I should very +much fear that they would either lose or change their tickets, and +disturb one another's quarters. And who can imagine but that, in this +liquid confusion, these faculties must corrupt, confound, and spoil one +another? And is not the danger still more when the making up of this +medicine is entrusted to the skill and fidelity of still another, to +whose mercy we again abandon our lives? + +As we have doublet and breeches-makers, distinct trades, to clothe us, +and are so much the better fitted, seeing that each of them meddles only +with his own business, and has less to trouble his head with than the +tailor who undertakes all; and as in matter of diet, great persons, for +their better convenience, and to the end they may be better served, have +cooks for the different offices, this for soups and potages, that for +roasting, instead of which if one cook should undertake the whole +service, he could not so well perform it; so also as to the cure of our +maladies. The Egyptians had reason to reject this general trade of +physician, and to divide the profession: to each disease, to each part of +the body, its particular workman; for that part was more properly and +with less confusion cared for, seeing the person looked to nothing else. +Ours are not aware that he who provides for all, provides for nothing; +and that the entire government of this microcosm is more than they are +able to undertake. Whilst they were afraid of stopping a dysentery, lest +they should put the patient into a fever, they killed me a friend, +--[Estienne de la Boetie.]--who was worth more than the whole of them. +They counterpoise their own divinations with the present evils; and +because they will not cure the brain to the prejudice of the stomach, +they injure both with their dissentient and tumultuary drugs. + +As to the variety and weakness of the rationale of this art, they are +more manifest in it than in any other art; aperitive medicines are proper +for a man subject to the stone, by reason that opening and dilating the +passages they help forward the slimy matter whereof gravel and stone are +engendered, and convey that downward which begins to harden and gather in +the reins; aperitive things are dangerous for a man subject to the stone, +by reason that, opening and dilating the passages, they help forward the +matter proper to create the gravel toward the reins, which by their own +propension being apt to seize it, 'tis not to be imagined but that a +great deal of what has been conveyed thither must remain behind; +moreover, if the medicine happen to meet with anything too large to be +carried through all the narrow passages it must pass to be expelled, that +obstruction, whatever it is, being stirred by these aperitive things and +thrown into those narrow passages, coming to stop them, will occasion a +certain and most painful death. They have the like uniformity in the +counsels they give us for the regimen of life: it is good to make water +often; for we experimentally see that, in letting it lie long in the +bladder, we give it time to settle the sediment, which will concrete into +a stone; it is good not to make water often, for the heavy excrements it +carries along with it will not be voided without violence, as we see by +experience that a torrent that runs with force washes the ground it rolls +over much cleaner than the course of a slow and tardy stream; so, it is +good to have often to do with women, for that opens the passages and +helps to evacuate gravel; it is also very ill to have often to do with +women, because it heats, tires, and weakens the reins. It is good to +bathe frequently in hot water, forasmuch as that relaxes and mollifies +the places where the gravel and stone lie; it is also ill by reason that +this application of external heat helps the reins to bake, harden, and +petrify the matter so disposed. For those who are taking baths it is +most healthful. To eat little at night, to the end that the waters they +are to drink the next morning may have a better operation upon an empty +stomach; on the other hand, it is better to eat little at dinner, that it +hinder not the operation of the waters, while it is not yet perfect, and +not to oppress the stomach so soon after the other labour, but leave the +office of digestion to the night, which will much better perform it than +the day, when the body and soul are in perpetual moving and action. Thus +do they juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense; and +they could not give me one proposition against which I should not know +how to raise a contrary of equal force. Let them, then, no longer +exclaim against those who in this trouble of sickness suffer themselves +to be gently guided by their own appetite and the advice of nature, and +commit themselves to the common fortune. + +I have seen in my travels almost all the famous baths of Christendom, and +for some years past have begun to make use of them myself: for I look +upon bathing as generally wholesome, and believe that we suffer no little +inconveniences in our health by having left off the custom that was +generally observed, in former times, almost by all nations, and is yet in +many, of bathing every day; and I cannot imagine but that we are much the +worse by, having our limbs crusted and our pores stopped with dirt. And +as to the drinking of them, fortune has in the first place rendered them +not at all unacceptable to my taste; and secondly, they are natural and +simple, which at least carry no danger with them, though they may do us +no good, of which the infinite crowd of people of all sorts and +complexions who repair thither I take to be a sufficient warranty; and +although I have not there observed any extraordinary and miraculous +effects, but that on the contrary, having more narrowly than ordinary +inquired into it, I have found all the reports of such operations that +have been spread abroad in those places ill-grounded and false, and those +that believe them (as people are willing to be gulled in what they +desire) deceived in them, yet I have seldom known any who have been made +worse by those waters, and a man cannot honestly deny but that they beget +a better appetite, help digestion, and do in some sort revive us, if we +do not go too late and in too weak a condition, which I would dissuade +every one from doing. They have not the virtue to raise men from +desperate and inveterate diseases, but they may help some light +indisposition, or prevent some threatening alteration. He who does not +bring along with him so much cheerfulness as to enjoy the pleasure of the +company he will there meet, and of the walks and exercises to which the +amenity of those places invite us, will doubtless lose the best and +surest part of their effect. For this reason I have hitherto chosen to +go to those of the most pleasant situation, where there was the best +conveniency of lodging, provision, and company, as the baths of Bagneres +in France, those of Plombieres on the frontiers of Germany and Lorraine, +those of Baden in Switzerland, those of Lucca in Tuscany, and especially +those of Della Villa, which I have the most and at various seasons +frequented. + +Every nation has particular opinions touching their use, and particular +rules and methods in using them; and all of them, according to what I +have seen, almost with like effect. Drinking them is not at all received +in Germany; the Germans bathe for all diseases, and will lie dabbling in +the water almost from sun to sun; in Italy, where they drink nine days, +they bathe at least thirty, and commonly drink the water mixed with some +other drugs to make it work the better. Here we are ordered to walk to +digest it; there we are kept in bed after taking it till it be wrought +off, our stomachs and feet having continually hot cloths applied to them +all the while; and as the Germans have a particular practice generally to +use cupping and scarification in the bath, so the Italians have their +'doccie', which are certain little streams of this hot water brought +through pipes, and with these bathe an hour in the morning, and as much +in the afternoon, for a month together, either the head, stomach, or any +other part where the evil lies. There are infinite other varieties of +customs in every country, or rather there is no manner of resemblance to +one another. By this you may see that this little part of physic to +which I have only submitted, though the least depending upon art of all +others, has yet a great share of the confusion and uncertainty everywhere +else manifest in the profession. + +The poets put what they would say with greater emphasis and grace; +witness these two epigrams: + + "Alcon hesterno signum Jovis attigit: ille, + Quamvis marmoreus, vim patitur medici. + Ecce hodie, jussus transferri ex aeede vetusta, + Effertur, quamvis sit Deus atque lapis." + + ["Alcon yesterday touched Jove's statue; he, although marble, + suffers the force of the physician: to-day ordered to be transferred + from the old temple, where it stood, it is carried out, although it + be a god and a stone."--Ausonius, Ep., 74.] + + +and the other: + + "Lotus nobiscum est, hilaris coenavit; et idem + Inventus mane est mortuus Andragoras. + Tam subitae mortis causam, Faustine, requiris? + In somnis medicum viderat Hermocratem:" + + ["Andragoras bathed with us, supped gaily, and in the morning the + same was found dead. Dost thou ask, Faustinus, the cause of this so + sudden death? In his dreams he had seen the physician Hermocrates." + --Martial, vi. 53.] + +upon which I will relate two stories. + +The Baron de Caupene in Chalosse and I have betwixt us the advowson of a +benefice of great extent, at the foot of our mountains, called Lahontan. +It is with the inhabitants of this angle, as 'tis said of those of the +Val d'Angrougne; they lived a peculiar sort of life, their fashions, +clothes, and manners distinct from other people; ruled and governed by +certain particular laws and usages, received from father to son, to which +they submitted, without other constraint than the reverence to custom. +This little state had continued from all antiquity in so happy a +condition, that no neighbouring judge was ever put to the trouble of +inquiring into their doings; no advocate was ever retained to give them +counsel, no stranger ever called in to compose their differences; nor was +ever any of them seen to go a-begging. They avoided all alliances and +traffic with the outer world, that they might not corrupt the purity of +their own government; till, as they say, one of them, in the memory of +man, having a mind spurred on with a noble ambition, took it into his +head, to bring his name into credit and reputation, to make one of his +sons something more than ordinary, and having put him to learn to write +in a neighbouring town, made him at last a brave village notary. This +fellow, having acquired such dignity, began to disdain their ancient +customs, and to buzz into the people's ears the pomp of the other parts +of the nation; the first prank he played was to advise a friend of his, +whom somebody had offended by sawing off the horns of one of his goats, +to make his complaint to the royal judges thereabout, and so he went on +from one to another, till he had spoiled and confounded all. In the tail +of this corruption, they say, there happened another, and of worse +consequence, by means of a physician, who, falling in love with one of +their daughters, had a mind to marry her and to live amongst them. This +man first of all began to teach them the names of fevers, colds, and +imposthumes; the seat of the heart, liver, and intestines, a science till +then utterly unknown to them; and instead of garlic, with which they were +wont to cure all manner of diseases, how painful or extreme soever, he +taught them, though it were but for a cough or any little cold, to take +strange mixtures, and began to make a trade not only of their health, but +of their lives. They swear till then they never perceived the evening +air to be offensive to the head; that to drink when they were hot was +hurtful, and that the winds of autumn were more unwholesome than those of +spring; that, since this use of physic, they find themselves oppressed +with a legion of unaccustomed diseases, and that they perceive a general +decay in their ancient vigour, and their lives are cut shorter by the +half. This is the first of my stories. + +The other is, that before I was afflicted with the stone, hearing that +the blood of a he-goat was with many in very great esteem, and looked +upon as a celestial manna rained down upon these latter ages for the good +and preservation of the lives of men, and having heard it spoken of by +men of understanding for an admirable drug, and of infallible operation; +I, who have ever thought myself subject to all the accidents that can +befall other men, had a mind, in my perfect health, to furnish myself +with this miracle, and therefore gave order to have a goat fed at home +according to the recipe: for he must be taken in the hottest month of all +summer, and must only have aperitive herbs given him to eat, and white +wine to drink. I came home by chance the very day he was to be killed; +and some one came and told me that the cook had found two or three great +balls in his paunch, that rattled against one another amongst what he had +eaten. I was curious to have all his entrails brought before me, where, +having caused the skin that enclosed them to be cut, there tumbled out +three great lumps, as light as sponges, so that they appeared to be +hollow, but as to the rest, hard and firm without, and spotted and mixed +all over with various dead colours; one was perfectly round, and of the +bigness of an ordinary ball; the other two something less, of an +imperfect roundness, as seeming not to be arrived at their, full growth. +I find, by inquiry of people accustomed to open these animals, that it is +a rare and unusual accident. 'Tis likely these are stones of the same +nature with ours and if so, it must needs be a very vain hope in +those who have the stone, to extract their cure from the blood of a beast +that was himself about to die of the same disease. For to say that the +blood does not participate of this contagion, and does not thence alter +its wonted virtue, it is rather to be believed that nothing is engendered +in a body but by the conspiracy and communication of all the parts: the +whole mass works together, though one part contributes more to the work +than another, according to the diversity of operations; wherefore it is +very likely that there was some petrifying quality in all the parts of +this goat. It was not so much for fear of the future, and for myself, +that I was curious in this experiment, but because it falls out in mine, +as it does in many other families, that the women store up such little +trumperies for the service of the people, using the same recipe in fifty +several diseases, and such a recipe as they will not take themselves, and +yet triumph when they happen to be successful. + +As to what remains, I honour physicians, not according to the precept +for their necessity (for to this passage may be opposed another of the +prophet reproving King Asa for having recourse to a physician), but for +themselves, having known many very good men of that profession, and most +worthy to be beloved. I do not attack them; 'tis their art I inveigh +against, and do not much blame them for making their advantage of our +folly, for most men do the same. Many callings, both of greater and of +less dignity than theirs, have no other foundation or support than public +abuse. When I am sick I send for them if they be near, only to have +their company, and pay them as others do. I give them leave to command +me to keep myself warm, because I naturally love to do it, and to appoint +leeks or lettuce for my broth; to order me white wine or claret; and so +as to all other things, which are indifferent to my palate and custom. +I know very well that I do nothing for them in so doing, because +sharpness and strangeness are incidents of the very essence of physic. +Lycurgus ordered wine for the sick Spartans. Why? because they +abominated the drinking it when they were well; as a gentleman, a +neighbour of mine, takes it as an excellent medicine in his fever, +because naturally he mortally hates the taste of it. How many do we see +amongst them of my humour, who despise taking physic themselves, are men +of a liberal diet, and live a quite contrary sort of life to what they +prescribe others? What is this but flatly to abuse our simplicity? for +their own lives and health are no less dear to them than ours are to us, +and consequently they would accommodate their practice to their rules, if +they did not themselves know how false these are. + +'Tis the fear of death and of pain, impatience of disease, and a violent +and indiscreet desire of a present cure, that so blind us: 'tis pure +cowardice that makes our belief so pliable and easy to be imposed upon: +and yet most men do not so much believe as they acquiesce and permit; for +I hear them find fault and complain as well as we; but they resolve at +last, "What should I do then?" As if impatience were of itself a better +remedy than patience. Is there any one of those who have suffered +themselves to be persuaded into this miserable subjection, who does not +equally surrender himself to all sorts of impostures? who does not give +up himself to the mercy of whoever has the impudence to promise him a +cure? The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square; the +physician was the people: every one who passed by being in humanity and +civility obliged to inquire of their condition, gave some advice +according to his own experience. We do little better; there is not so +simple a woman, whose gossips and drenches we do not make use of: and +according to my humour, if I were to take physic, I would sooner choose +to take theirs than any other, because at least, if they do no good, they +will do no harm. What Homer and Plato said of the Egyptians, that they +were all physicians, may be said of all nations; there is not a man +amongst any of them who does not boast of some rare recipe, and who will +not venture it upon his neighbour, if he will let him. I was the other +day in a company where one, I know not who, of my fraternity brought us +intelligence of a new sort of pills made up of a hundred and odd +ingredients: it made us very merry, and was a singular consolation, for +what rock could withstand so great a battery? And yet I hear from those +who have made trial of it, that the least atom of gravel deigned not to +stir fort. + +I cannot take my hand from the paper before I have added a word +concerning the assurance they give us of the certainty of their drugs, +from the experiments they have made. + +The greatest part, I should say above two-thirds of the medicinal +virtues, consist in the quintessence or occult property of simples, +of which we can have no other instruction than use and custom; for +quintessence is no other than a quality of which we cannot by our reason +find out the cause. In such proofs, those they pretend to have acquired +by the inspiration of some daemon, I am content to receive (for I meddle +not with miracles); and also the proofs which are drawn from things that, +upon some other account, often fall into use amongst us; as if in the +wool, wherewith we are wont to clothe ourselves, there has accidentally +some occult desiccative property been found out of curing kibed heels, or +as if in the radish we eat for food there has been found out some +aperitive operation. Galen reports, that a man happened to be cured of a +leprosy by drinking wine out of a vessel into which a viper had crept by +chance. In this example we find the means and a very likely guide and +conduct to this experience, as we also do in those that physicians +pretend to have been directed to by the example of some beasts. But in +most of their other experiments wherein they affirm they have been +conducted by fortune, and to have had no other guide than chance, I find +the progress of this information incredible. Suppose man looking round +about him upon the infinite number of things, plants, animals, metals; +I do not know where he would begin his trial; and though his first fancy +should fix him upon an elk's horn, wherein there must be a very pliant +and easy belief, he will yet find himself as perplexed in his second +operation. There are so many maladies and so many circumstances +presented to him, that before he can attain the certainty of the point to +which the perfection of his experience should arrive, human sense will be +at the end of its lesson: and before he can, amongst this infinity of +things, find out what this horn is; amongst so many diseases, what is +epilepsy; the many complexions in a melancholy person; the many seasons +in winter; the many nations in the French; the many ages in age; the many +celestial mutations in the conjunction of Venus and Saturn; the many +parts in man's body, nay, in a finger; and being, in all this, directed +neither by argument, conjecture, example, nor divine inspirations, but +merely by the sole motion of fortune, it must be by a perfectly +artificial, regular and methodical fortune. And after the cure is +performed, how can he assure himself that it was not because the disease +had arrived at its period or an effect of chance? or the operation of +something else that he had eaten, drunk, or touched that day? or by +virtue of his grandmother's prayers? And, moreover, had this experiment +been perfect, how many times was it repeated, and this long bead-roll of +haps, and concurrences strung anew by chance to conclude a certain rule? +And when the rule is concluded, by whom, I pray you? Of so many +millions, there are but three men who take upon them to record their +experiments: must fortune needs just hit one of these? What if another, +and a hundred others, have made contrary experiments? We might, +peradventure, have some light in this, were all the judgments and +arguments of men known to us; but that three witnesses, three doctors, +should lord it over all mankind, is against reason: it were necessary +that human nature should have deputed and chosen them out, and that they +were declared our comptrollers by express procuration: + + +"TO MADAME DE DURAS. + + --[Marguerite de Grammont, widow of Jean de Durfort, Seigneur de + Duras, who was killed near Leghorn, leaving no posterity. Montaigne + seems to have been on terms of considerable intimacy with her, and + to have tendered her some very wholesome and frank advice in regard + to her relations with Henry IV.]-- + +"MADAME,--The last time you honoured me with a visit, you found me at work +upon this chapter, and as these trifles may one day fall into your hands, +I would also that they testify in how great honour the author will take +any favour you shall please to show them. You will there find the same +air and mien you have observed in his conversation; and though I could +have borrowed some better or more favourable garb than my own, I would +not have done it: for I require nothing more of these writings, but to +present me to your memory such as I naturally am. The same conditions +and faculties you have been pleased to frequent and receive with much +more honour and courtesy than they deserve, I would put together (but +without alteration or change) in one solid body, that may peradventure +continue some years, or some days, after I am gone; where you may find +them again when you shall please to refresh your memory, without putting +you to any greater trouble; neither are they worth it. I desire you +should continue the favour of your friendship to me, by the same +qualities by which it was acquired. + +"I am not at all ambitious that any one should love and esteem me more +dead than living. The humour of Tiberius is ridiculous, but yet common, +who was more solicitous to extend his renown to posterity than to render +himself acceptable to men of his own time. If I were one of those to +whom the world could owe commendation, I would give out of it one-half to +have the other in hand; let their praises come quick and crowding about +me, more thick than long, more full than durable; and let them cease, in +God's name, with my own knowledge of them, and when the sweet sound can +no longer pierce my ears. It were an idle humour to essay, now that I am +about to forsake the commerce of men, to offer myself to them by a new +recommendation. I make no account of the goods I could not employ in the +service of my life. Such as I am, I will be elsewhere than in paper: my +art and industry have been ever directed to render myself good for +something; my studies, to teach me to do, and not to write. I have made +it my whole business to frame my life: this has been my trade and my +work; I am less a writer of books than anything else. I have coveted +understanding for the service of my present and real conveniences, and +not to lay up a stock for my posterity. He who has anything of value in +him, let him make it appear in his conduct, in his ordinary discourses, +in his courtships, and his quarrels: in play, in bed, at table, in the +management of his affairs, in his economics. Those whom I see make good +books in ill breeches, should first have mended their breeches, if they +would have been ruled by me. Ask a Spartan whether he had rather be a +good orator or a good soldier: and if I was asked the same question, I +would rather choose to be a good cook, had I not one already to serve me. +My God! Madame, how should I hate such a recommendation of being a +clever fellow at writing, and an ass and an inanity in everything else! +Yet I had rather be a fool both here and there than to have made so ill a +choice wherein to employ my talent. And I am so far from expecting to +gain any new reputation by these follies, that I shall think I come off +pretty well if I lose nothing by them of that little I had before. For +besides that this dead and mute painting will take from my natural being, +it has no resemblance to my better condition, but is much lapsed from my +former vigour and cheerfulness, growing faded and withered: I am towards +the bottom of the barrel, which begins to taste of the lees. + +"As to the rest, Madame, I should not have dared to make so bold with the +mysteries of physic, considering the esteem that you and so many others +have of it, had I not had encouragement from their own authors. I think +there are of these among the old Latin writers but two, Pliny and Celsus +if these ever fall into your hands, you will find that they speak much +more rudely of their art than I do; I but pinch it, they cut its throat. +Pliny, amongst other things, twits them with this, that when they are at +the end of their rope, they have a pretty device to save themselves, by +recommending their patients, whom they have teased and tormented with +their drugs and diets to no purpose, some to vows and miracles, others to +the hot baths. (Be not angry, Madame; he speaks not of those in our +parts, which are under the protection of your house, and all Gramontins.) +They have a third way of saving their own credit, of ridding their hands +of us and securing themselves from the reproaches we might cast in their +teeth of our little amendment, when they have had us so long in their +hands that they have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us, +which is to send us to the better air of some other country. This, +Madame, is enough; I hope you will give me leave to return to my +discourse, from which I have so far digressed, the better to divert you." + +It was, I think, Pericles, who being asked how he did: "You may judge," +says he, "by these," showing some little scrolls of parchment he had tied +about his neck and arms. By which he would infer that he must needs be +very sick when he was reduced to a necessity of having recourse to such +idle and vain fopperies, and of suffering himself to be so equipped. +I dare not promise but that I may one day be so much a fool as to commit +my life and death to the mercy and government of physicians; I may fall +into such a frenzy; I dare not be responsible for my future constancy: +but then, if any one ask me how I do, I may also answer, as Pericles did, +"You may judge by this," shewing my hand clutching six drachms of opium. +It will be a very evident sign of a violent sickness: my judgment will be +very much out of order; if once fear and impatience get such an advantage +over me, it may very well be concluded that there is a dreadful fever in +my mind. + +I have taken the pains to plead this cause, which I understand +indifferently, a little to back and support the natural aversion to drugs +and the practice of physic I have derived from my ancestors, to the end +it may not be a mere stupid and inconsiderate aversion, but have a little +more form; and also, that they who shall see me so obstinate in my +resolution against all exhortations and menaces that shall be given me, +when my infirmity shall press hardest upon me, may not think 'tis mere +obstinacy in me; or any one so ill-natured as to judge it to be any +motive of glory: for it would be a strange ambition to seek to gain +honour by an action my gardener or my groom can perform as well as I. +Certainly, I have not a heart so tumorous and windy, that I should +exchange so solid a pleasure as health for an airy and imaginary +pleasure: glory, even that of the Four Sons of Aymon, is too dear bought +by a man of my humour, if it cost him three swinging fits of the stone. +Give me health, in God's name! Such as love physic, may also have good, +great, and convincing considerations; I do not hate opinions contrary to +my own: I am so, far from being angry to see a discrepancy betwixt mine +and other men's judgments, and from rendering myself unfit for the +society of men, from being of another sense and party than mine, that on +the contrary (the most general way that nature has followed being +variety, and more in souls than bodies, forasmuch as they are of a more +supple substance, and more susceptible of forms) I find it much more rare +to see our humours and designs jump and agree. And there never were, in +the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains: +their most universal quality is diversity. + + + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + I am towards the bottom of the barrel + Accusing all others of ignorance and imposition + Affection towards their husbands, (not) until they have lost them + Anything of value in him, let him make it appear in his conduct + As if impatience were of itself a better remedy than patience + Assurance they give us of the certainty of their drugs + At least, if they do no good, they will do no harm + Attribute to itself; all the happy successes that happen + Best part of a captain to know how to make use of occasions + Burnt and roasted for opinions taken upon trust from others + Commit themselves to the common fortune + Crafty humility that springs from presumption + Did not approve all sorts of means to obtain a victory + Disease had arrived at its period or an effect of chance? + Dissentient and tumultuary drugs + Do not much blame them for making their advantage of our folly + Doctors: more felicity and duration in their own lives? + Doctrine much more intricate and fantastic than the thing itself + Drugs being in its own nature an enemy to our health + Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves + Fathers conceal their affection from their children + He who provides for all, provides for nothing + Health depends upon the vanity and falsity of their promises + Health is altered and corrupted by their frequent prescriptions + Health to be worth purchasing by all the most painful cauteries + Homer: The only words that have motion and action + I dare not promise but that I may one day be so much a fool + I see no people so soon sick as those who take physic + Indiscreet desire of a present cure, that so blind us + Intended to get a new husband than to lament the old + Let it alone a little + Life should be cut off in the sound and living part + Live a quite contrary sort of life to what they prescribe others + Live, not so long as they please, but as long as they ought + Llaying the fault upon the patient, by such frivolous reasons + Long a voyage I should at last run myself into some disadvantage + Making their advantage of our folly, for most men do the same + Man may with less trouble adapt himself to entire abstinence + Man runs a very great hazard in their hands (of physicians) + Mark of singular good nature to preserve old age + Men must embark, and not deliberate, upon high enterprises + Mercenaries who would receive any (pay) + Moderation is a virtue that gives more work than suffering + More valued a victory obtained by counsel than by force + Most men do not so much believe as they acquiesce and permit + Never any man knew so much, and spake so little + No danger with them, though they may do us no good + No other foundation or support than public abuse + No physic that has not something hurtful in it + Noble and rich, where examples of virtue are rarely lodged + Obstinacy is the sister of constancy + Order a purge for your brain, it will there be much better + Ordinances it (Medicine) foists upon us + Passion has a more absolute command over us than reason + Pay very strict usury who did not in due time pay the principal + People are willing to be gulled in what they desire + Physician's "help", which is very often an obstacle + Physicians are not content to deal only with the sick + Physicians fear men should at any time escape their authority + Physicians were the only men who might lie at pleasure + Physicians: earth covers their failures + Plato said of the Egyptians, that they were all physicians + Pure cowardice that makes our belief so pliable + Recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear purchase + Send us to the better air of some other country + Should first have mended their breeches + Smile upon us whilst we are alive + So austere and very wise countenance and carriage (of physicians) + So much are men enslaved to their miserable being + Solon said that eating was physic against the malady hunger + Strangely suspect all this merchandise: medical care + Studies, to teach me to do, and not to write + Such a recipe as they will not take themselves + That he could neither read nor swim + The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square + They (good women) are not by the dozen, as every one knows + They have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us + They juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense + They never loved them till dead + Tis in some sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living wel + Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men + Tis there she talks plain French + To be, not to seem + To keep me from dying is not in your power + Two opinions alike, no more than two hairs + Tyrannical authority physicians usurp over poor creatures + Venture it upon his neighbour, if he will let him + Venture the making ourselves better without any danger + We confess our ignorance in many things + We do not easily accept the medicine we understand + What are become of all our brave philosophical precepts? + What we have not seen, we are forced to receive from other hands + Whatever was not ordinary diet, was instead of a drug + Whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead + Who does not boast of some rare recipe + Who ever saw one physician approve of another's prescription + Willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead + With being too well I am about to die + Wont to give others their life, and not to receive it + You may indeed make me die an ill death + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 13 +by Michel de Montaigne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE, VOLUME 13 *** + +***** This file should be named 3593.txt or 3593.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/3593/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.08.01*END** +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 13. + +XXXII. Defence of Seneca and Plutarch. +XXXIII. The story of Spurina. +XXXIV. Means to carry on a war according to Julius Caesar. +XXXV. Of three good women. +XXXVI. Of the most excellent men. +XXXVII. Of the resemblance of children to their fathers. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +DEFENCE OF SENECA AND PLUTARCH + +The familiarity I have with these two authors, and the assistance they +have lent to my age and to my book, wholly compiled of what I have +borrowed from them, oblige me to stand up for their honour. + +As to Seneca, amongst a million of little pamphlets that those of the so- +called reformed religion disperse abroad for the defence of their cause +(and which sometimes proceed from so good a hand, that 'tis pity his pen +is not employed in a better subject), I have formerly seen one, that to +make up the parallel he would fain find out betwixt the government of our +late poor King Charles IX. and that of Nero, compares the late Cardinal +of Lorraine with Seneca; their fortunes, in having both of them been the +prime ministers in the government of their princes, and in their manners, +conditions, and deportments to have been very near alike. Wherein, in my +opinion, he does the said cardinal a very great honour; for though I am +one of those who have a very high esteem for his wit, eloquence, and zeal +to religion and the service of his king, and his good fortune to have +lived in an age wherein it was so novel, so rare, and also so necessary +for the public good to have an ecclesiastical person of such high birth +and dignity, and so sufficient and capable of his place; yet, to confess +the truth, I do not think his capacity by many degrees near to the other, +nor his virtue either so clean, entire, or steady as that of Seneca. + +Now the book whereof I speak, to bring about its design, gives a very +injurious description of Seneca, having borrowed its approaches from Dion +the historian, whose testimony I do not at all believe for besides that +he is inconsistent, that after having called Seneca one while very wise, +and again a mortal enemy to Nero's vices, makes him elsewhere avaricious, +an usurer, ambitious, effeminate, voluptuous, and a false pretender to +philosophy, his virtue appears so vivid and vigorous in his writings, and +his vindication is so clear from any of these imputations, as of his +riches and extraordinarily expensive way of living, that I cannot believe +any testimony to the contrary. And besides, it is much more reasonable +to believe the Roman historians in such things than Greeks and +foreigners. Now Tacitus and the rest speak very honourably both of his +life and death; and represent him to us a very excellent and virtuous +person in all things; and I will allege no other reproach against Dion's +report but this, which I cannot avoid, namely, that he has so weak a +judgment in the Roman affairs, that he dares to maintain Julius Caesar's +cause against Pompey [And so does this editor. D.W.], and that of Antony +against Cicero. + +Let us now come to Plutarch: Jean Bodin is a good author of our times, +and a writer of much greater judgment than the rout of scribblers of his +age, and who deserves to be read and considered. I find him, though, a +little bold in this passage of his Method of history, where he accuses +Plutarch not only of ignorance (wherein I would have let him alone: for +that is beyond my criticism), but that he "often writes things +incredible, and absolutely fabulous ": these are his own words. If he +had simply said, that he had delivered things otherwise than they really +are, it had been no great reproach; for what we have not seen, we are +forced to receive from other hands, and take upon trust, and I see that +he purposely sometimes variously relates the same story; as the judgment +of the three best captains that ever were, given by Hannibal; 'tis one +way in the Life of Flammius, and another in that of Pyrrhus. But to +charge him with having taken incredible and impossible things for current +pay, is to accuse the most judicious author in the world of want of +judgment. And this is his example; "as," says he, "when he relates that +a Lacedaemonian boy suffered his bowels to be torn out by a fox-cub he +had stolen, and kept it still concealed under his coat till he fell down +dead, rather than he would discover his theft." I find, in the first +place, this example ill chosen, forasmuch as it is very hard to limit the +power of the faculties of--the soul, whereas we have better authority to +limit and know the force of the bodily limbs; and therefore, if I had +been he, I should rather have chosen an example of this second sort; and +there are some of these less credible: and amongst others, that which he +refates of Pyrrhus, that "all wounded as he was, he struck one of his +enemies, who was armed from head to foot, so great a blow with his sword, +that he clave him down from his crown to his seat, so that the body was +divided into two parts." In this example I find no great miracle, nor do +I admit the excuse with which he defends Plutarch, in having added these +words, "as 'tis said," to suspend our belief; for unless it be in things +received by authority, and the reverence to antiquity or religion, he +would never have himself admitted, or enjoined us to believe things +incredible in themselves; and that these words, "as 'tis said," are not +put in this place to that effect, is easy to be seen, because he +elsewhere relates to us, upon this subject, of the patience of the +Lacedaemonian children, examples happening in his time, more unlikely to +prevail upon our faith; as what Cicero has also testified before him, as +having, as he says, been upon the spot: that even to their times there +were children found who, in the trial of patience they were put to before +the altar of Diana, suffered themselves to be there whipped till the +blood ran down all over their bodies, not only without crying out, but +without so much as a groan, and some till they there voluntarily lost +their lives: and that which Plutarch also, amongst a hundred other +witnesses, relates, that at a sacrifice, a burning coal having fallen +into the sleeve of a Lacedaemonian boy, as he was censing, he suffered +his whole arm to be burned, till the smell of the broiling flesh was +perceived by those present. There was nothing, according to their +custom, wherein their reputation was more concerned, nor for which they +were to undergo more blame and disgrace, than in being taken in theft. +I am so fully satisfied of the greatness of those people, that this story +does not only not appear to me, as to Bodin, incredible; but I do not +find it so much as rare and strange. The Spartan history is full of a +thousand more cruel and rare examples; and is; indeed, all miracle in +this respect. + +Marcellinus, concerning theft, reports that in his time there was no sort +of torments which could compel the Egyptians, when taken in this act, +though a people very much addicted to it, so much as to tell their name. + +A Spanish peasant, being put to the rack as to the accomplices of the +murder of the Praetor Lucius Piso, cried out in the height of the +torment, "that his friends should not leave him, but look on in all +assurance, and that no pain had the power to force from him one word of +confession," which was all they could get the first day. The next day, +as they were leading him a second time to another trial, strongly +disengaging himself from the hands of his guards, he furiously ran his +head against a wall, and beat out his brains. + +Epicharis, having tired and glutted the cruelty of Nero's satellites, and +undergone their fire, their beating, their racks, a whole day together, +without one syllable of confession of her conspiracy; being the next day +brought again to the rack, with her limbs almost torn to pieces, conveyed +the lace of her robe with a running noose over one of the arms of her +chair, and suddenly slipping her head into it, with the weight of her own +body hanged herself. Having the courage to die in that manner, is it not +to be presumed that she purposely lent her life to the trial of her +fortitude the day before, to mock the tyrant, and encourage others to the +like attempt? + +And whoever will inquire of our troopers the experiences they have had in +our civil wars, will find effects of patience and obstinate resolution in +this miserable age of ours, and amongst this rabble even more effeminate +than the Egyptians, worthy to be compared with those we have just related +of the Spartan virtue. + +I know there have been simple peasants amongst us who have endured the +soles of their feet to be broiled upon a gridiron, their finger-ends to +be crushed with the cock of a pistol, and their bloody eyes squeezed out +of their heads by force of a cord twisted about their brows, before they +would so much as consent to a ransom. I have seen one left stark naked +for dead in a ditch, his neck black and swollen, with a halter yet about +it with which they had dragged him all night at a horse's tail, his body +wounded in a hundred places, with stabs of daggers that had been given +him, not to kill him, but to put him to pain and to affright him, who had +endured all this, and even to being speechless and insensible, resolved, +as he himself told me, rather to die a thousand deaths (as indeed, as to +matter of suffering, he had borne one) before he would promise anything; +and yet he was one of the richest husbandmen of all the country. How +many have been seen patiently to suffer themselves to be burnt and +roasted for opinions taken upon trust from others, and by them not at all +understood? I have known a hundred and a hundred women (for Gascony has +a certain prerogative for obstinacy) whom you might sooner have made eat +fire than forsake an opinion they had conceived in anger. They are all +the more exasperated by blows and constraint. And he that made the story +of the woman who, in defiance of all correction, threats, and +bastinadoes, ceased not to call her husband lousy knave, and who being +plunged over head and ears in water, yet lifted her hands above her head +and made a sign of cracking lice, feigned a tale of which, in truth, we +every day see a manifest image in the obstinacy of women. And obstinacy +is the sister of constancy, at least in vigour and stability. + +We are not to judge what is possible and what is not, according to what +is credible and incredible to our apprehension, as I have said elsewhere +and it is a great fault, and yet one that most men are guilty of, which, +nevertheless, I do not mention with any reflection upon Bodin, to make a +difficulty of believing that in another which they could not or would not +do themselves. Every one thinks that the sovereign stamp of human nature +is imprinted in him, and that from it all others must take their rule; +and that all proceedings which are not like his are feigned and false. +Is anything of another's actions or faculties proposed to him? the first +thing he calls to the consultation of his judgment is his own example; +and as matters go with him, so they must of necessity do with all the +world besides dangerous and intolerable folly! For my part, I consider +some men as infinitely beyond me, especially amongst the ancients, and +yet, though I clearly discern my inability to come near them by a +thousand paces, I do not forbear to keep them in sight, and to judge of +what so elevates them, of which I perceive some seeds in myself, as I +also do of the extreme meanness of some other minds, which I neither am +astonished at nor yet misbelieve. I very well perceive the turns those +great souls take to raise themselves to such a pitch, and admire their +grandeur; and those flights that I think the bravest I could be glad to +imitate; where, though I want wing, yet my judgment readily goes along +with them. The other example he introduces of "things incredible and +wholly fabulous," delivered by Plutarch, is, that "Agesilaus was fined by +the Ephori for having wholly engrossed the hearts and affections of his +citizens to himself alone." And herein I do not see what sign of falsity +is to be found: clearly Plutarch speaks of things that must needs be +better known to him than to us; and it was no new thing in Greece to see +men punished and exiled for this very thing, for being too acceptable to +the people; witness the Ostracism and Petalism. --[Ostracism at Athens +was banishment for ten years; petalism at Syracuse was banishment for +five years.] + +There is yet in this place another accusation laid against Plutarch which +I cannot well digest, where Bodin says that he has sincerely paralleled +Romans with Romans, and Greeks amongst themselves, but not Romans with +Greeks; witness, says he, Demosthenes and Cicero, Cato and Aristides, +Sylla and Lysander, Marcellus and Pelopidas, Pompey and Agesilaus, +holding that he has favoured the Greeks in giving them so unequal +companions. This is really to attack what in Plutarch is most excellent +and most to be commended; for in his parallels (which is the most +admirable part of all his works, and with which, in my opinion, he is +himself the most pleased) the fidelity and sincerity of his judgments +equal their depth and weight; he is a philosopher who teaches us virtue. +Let us see whether we cannot defend him from this reproach of falsity and +prevarication. All that I can imagine could give occasion to this +censure is the great and shining lustre of the Roman names which we have +in our minds; it does not seem likely to us that Demosthenes could rival +the glory of a consul, proconsul, and proctor of that great Republic; but +if a man consider the truth of the thing, and the men in themselves, +which is Plutarch's chiefest aim, and will rather balance their manners, +their natures, and parts, than their fortunes, I think, contrary to +Bodin, that Cicero and the elder Cato come far short of the men with whom +they are compared. I should sooner, for his purpose, have chosen the +example of the younger Cato compared with Phocion, for in this couple +there would have been a more likely disparity, to the Roman's advantage. +As to Marcellus, Sylla, and Pompey, I very well discern that their +exploits of war are greater and more full of pomp and glory than those of +the Greeks, whom Plutarch compares with them; but the bravest and most +virtuous actions any more in war than elsewhere, are not always the most +renowned. I often see the names of captains obscured by the splendour of +other names of less desert; witness Labienus, Ventidius, Telesinus, and +several others. And to take it by that, were I to complain on the behalf +of the Greeks, could I not say, that Camillus was much less comparable to +Themistocles, the Gracchi to Agis and Cleomenes, and Numa to Lycurgus? +But 'tis folly to judge, at one view, of things that have so many +aspects. When Plutarch compares them, he does not, for all that, make +them equal; who could more learnedly and sincerely have marked their +distinctions? Does he parallel the victories, feats of arms, the force +of the armies conducted by Pompey, and his triumphs, with those of +Agesilaus? "I do not believe," says he, "that Xenophon himself, if he +were now living, though he were allowed to write whatever pleased him to +the advantage of Agesilaus, would dare to bring them into comparison." +Does he speak of paralleling Lysander to Sylla. "There is," says he, +"no comparison, either in the number of victories or in the hazard of +battles, for Lysander only gained two naval battles." This is not to +derogate from the Romans; for having only simply named them with the +Greeks, he can have done them no injury, what disparity soever there may +be betwixt them and Plutarch does not entirely oppose them to one +another; there is no preference in general; he only compares the pieces +and circumstances one after another, and gives of every one a particular +and separate judgment. Wherefore, if any one could convict him of +partiality, he ought to pick out some one of those particular judgments, +or say, in general, that he was mistaken in comparing such a Greek to +such a Roman, when there were others more fit and better resembling to +parallel him to. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE STORY OF SPURINA + +Philosophy thinks she has not ill employed her talent when she has given +the sovereignty of the soul and the authority of restraining our +appetites to reason. Amongst which, they who judge that there is none +more violent than those which spring from love, have this opinion also, +that they seize both body and soul, and possess the whole man, so that +even health itself depends upon them, and medicine is sometimes +constrained to pimp for them; but one might, on the contrary, also say, +that the mixture of the body brings an abatement and weakening; for such +desires are subject to satiety, and capable of material remedies. + +Many, being determined to rid their soul from the continual alarms of +this appetite, have made use of incision and amputation of the rebelling +members; others have subdued their force and ardour by the frequent +application of cold things, as snow and vinegar. The sackcloths of our +ancestors were for this purpose, which is cloth woven of horse hair, of +which some of them made shirts, and others girdles, to torture and +correct their reins. A prince, not long ago, told me that in his youth +upon a solemn festival in the court of King Francis I., where everybody +was finely dressed, he would needs put on his father's hair shirt, which +was still kept in the house; but how great soever his devotion was, he +had not patience to wear it till night, and was sick a long time after; +adding withal, that he did not think there could be any youthful heat so +fierce that the use of this recipe would not mortify, and yet perhaps he +never essayed the most violent; for experience shows us, that such +emotions are often seen under rude and slovenly clothes, and that a hair +shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it. + +Xenocrates proceeded with greater rigour in this affair; for his +disciples, to make trial of his continency, having slipt Lais, that +beautiful and famous courtesan, into his bed, quite naked, excepting the +arms of her beauty and her wanton allurements, her philters, finding +that, in despite of his reason and philosophical rules, his unruly flesh +began to mutiny, he caused those members of his to be burned that he +found consenting to this rebellion. Whereas the passions which wholly +reside in the soul, as ambition, avarice, and the rest, find the reason +much more to do, because it cannot there be helped but by its own means; +neither are those appetites capable of satiety, but grow sharper and +increase by fruition. + +The sole example of Julius Caesar may suffice to demonstrate to us the +disparity of these appetites; for never was man more addicted to amorous +delights than he: of which one testimony is the peculiar care he had of +his person, to such a degree, as to make use of the most lascivious means +to that end then in use, as to have all the hairs of his body twitched +off, and to wipe all over with perfumes with the extremest nicety. +And he was a beautiful person in himself, of a fair complexion, tall, +and sprightly, full faced, with quick hazel eyes, if we may believe +Suetonius; for the statues of him that we see at Rome do not in all +points answer this description. Besides his wives, whom he four times +changed, without reckoning the amours of his boyhood with Nicomedes, king +of Bithynia, he had the maidenhead of the renowned Cleopatra, queen of +Egypt; witness the little Caesario whom he had by her. He also made love +to. Eunoe, queen of Mauritania, and at Rome, to Posthumia, the wife of +Servius Sulpitius; to Lollia, the wife of Gabinius to Tertulla, the wife +of Crassus, and even to Mutia, wife to the great Pompey: which was the +reason, the Roman historians say, that she was repudiated by her husband, +which Plutarch confesses to be more than he knew; and the Curios, both +father and son, afterwards reproached Pompey, when he married Caesar's +daughter, that he had made himself son-in-law to a man who had made him +cuckold, and one whom he himself was wont to call AEgisthus. Besides all +these, he entertained Servilia, Cato's sister and mother to Marcus +Brutus, whence, every one believes, proceeded the great affection he had +to Brutus, by reason that he was born at a time when it was likely he +might be his son. So that I have reason, methinks, to take him for a man +extremely given to this debauch, and of very amorous constitution. But +the other passion of ambition, with which he was infinitely smitten, +arising in him to contend with the former, it was boon compelled to give +way. + +And here calling to mind Mohammed, who won Constantinople, and finally +exterminated the Grecian name, I do not know where these two were so +evenly balanced; equally an indefatigable lecher and soldier: but where +they both meet in his life and jostle one another, the quarrelling +passion always gets the better of the amorous one, and this though it was +out of its natural season never regained an absolute sovereignty over the +other till he had arrived at an extreme old age and unable to undergo the +fatigues of war. + +What is related for a contrary example of Ladislaus, king of Naples, is +very remarkable; that being a great captain, valiant and ambitious, he +proposed to himself for the principal end of his ambition, the execution +of his pleasure and the enjoyment of some rare and excellent beauty. His +death sealed up all the rest: for having by a close and tedious siege +reduced the city of Florence to so great distress that the inhabitants +were compelled to capitulate about surrender, he was content to let them +alone, provided they would deliver up to him a beautiful maid he had +heard of in their city; they were forced to yield to it, and by a private +injury to avert the public ruin. She was the daughter of a famous +physician of his time, who, finding himself involved in so foul a +necessity, resolved upon a high attempt. As every one was lending a hand +to trick up his daughter and to adorn her with ornaments and jewels to +render her more agreeable to this new lover, he also gave her a +handkerchief most richly wrought, and of an exquisite perfume, an +implement they never go without in those parts, which she was to make use +of at their first approaches. This handkerchief, poisoned with his +greatest art, coming to be rubbed between the chafed flesh and open +pores, both of the one and the other, so suddenly infused the poison, +that immediately converting their warm into a cold sweat they presently +died in one another's arms. + +But I return to Caesar. His pleasures never made him steal one minute of +an hour, nor go one step aside from occasions that might any way conduce +to his advancement. This passion was so sovereign in him over all the +rest, and with so absolute authority possessed his soul, that it guided +him at pleasure. In truth, this troubles me, when, as to everything +else, I consider the greatness of this man, and the wonderful parts +wherewith he was endued; learned to that degree in all sorts of knowledge +that there is hardly any one science of which he has not written; so +great an orator that many have preferred his eloquence to that of Cicero, +and he, I conceive, did not think himself inferior to him in that +particular, for his two anti-Catos were written to counterbalance the +elocution that Cicero had expended in his Cato. As to the rest, was ever +soul so vigilant, so active, and so patient of labour as his? and, +doubtless, it was embellished with many rare seeds of virtue, lively, +natural, and not put on; he was singularly sober; so far from being +delicate in his diet, that Oppius relates, how that having one day at +table set before him medicated instead of common oil in some sauce, he +ate heartily of it, that he might not put his entertainer out of +countenance. Another time he caused his baker to be whipped for serving +him with a finer than ordinary sort of bread. Cato himself was wont to +say of him, that he was the first sober man who ever made it his business +to ruin his country. And as to the same Cato's calling, him one day +drunkard, it fell out thus being both of them in the Senate, at a time +when Catiline's conspiracy was in question of which was Caesar was +suspected, one came and brought him a letter sealed up. Cato believing +that it was something the conspirators gave him notice of, required him +to deliver into his hand, which Caesar was constrained to do to avoid +further suspicion. It was by chance a love-letter that Servilia, Cato's +sister, had written to him, which Cato having read, he threw it back to +him saying, "There, drunkard." This, I say, was rather a word of disdain +and anger than an express reproach of this vice, as we often rate those +who anger us with the first injurious words that come into our mouths, +though nothing due to those we are offended at; to which may be added +that the vice with which Cato upbraided him is wonderfully near akin to +that wherein he had surprised Caesar; for Bacchus and Venus, according to +the proverb, very willingly agree; but to me Venus is much more sprightly +accompanied by sobriety. The examples of his sweetness and clemency to +those by whom he had been offended are infinite; I mean, besides those he +gave during the time of the civil wars, which, as plainly enough appears +by his writings, he practised to cajole his enemies, and to make them +less afraid of his future dominion and victory. But I must also say, +that if these examples are not sufficient proofs of his natural +sweetness, they, at least, manifest a marvellous confidence and grandeur +of courage in this person. He has often been known to dismiss whole +armies, after having overcome them, to his enemies, without ransom, or +deigning so much as to bind them by oath, if not to favour him, at least +no more to bear arms against him; he has three or four times taken some +of Pompey's captains prisoners, and as often set them at liberty. Pompey +declared all those to be enemies who did not follow him to the war; he +proclaimed all those to be his friends who sat still and did not actually +take arms against him. To such captains of his as ran away from him to +go over to the other side, he sent, moreover, their arms, horses, and +equipage: the cities he had taken by force he left at full liberty to +follow which side they pleased, imposing no other garrison upon them but +the memory of his gentleness and clemency. He gave strict and express +charge, the day of his great battle of Pharsalia, that, without the +utmost necessity, no one should lay a hand upon the citizens of Rome. +These, in my opinion, were very hazardous proceedings, and 'tis no wonder +if those in our civil war, who, like him, fight against the ancient +estate of their country, do not follow his example; they are +extraordinary means, and that only appertain to Caesar's fortune, and to +his admirable foresight in the conduct of affairs. When I consider the +incomparable grandeur of his soul, I excuse victory that it could not +disengage itself from him, even in so unjust and so wicked a cause. + +To return to his clemency: we have many striking examples in the time of +his government, when, all things being reduced to his power, he had no +more written against him which he had as sharply answered: yet he did not +soon after forbear to use his interest to make him consul. Caius Calvus, +who had composed several injurious epigrams against him, having employed +many of his friends to mediate a reconciliation with him, Caesar +voluntarily persuaded himself to write first to him. And our good +Catullus, who had so rudely ruffled him under the name of Mamurra, coming +to offer his excuses to him, he made the same day sit at his table. +Having intelligence of some who spoke ill of him, he did no more, but +only by a public oration declare that he had notice of it. He still less +feared his enemies than he hated them; some conspiracies and cabals that +were made against his life being discovered to him, he satisfied himself +in publishing by proclamation that they were known to him, without +further prosecuting the conspirators. + +As to the respect he had for his friends: Caius Oppius, being with him +upon a journey, and finding himself ill, he left him the only lodging he +had for himself, and lay all night upon a hard ground in the open air. +As to what concerns his justice, he put a beloved servant of his to death +for lying with a noble Roman's wife, though there was no complaint made." +Never had man more moderation in his victory, nor more resolution in his +adverse fortune. + +But all these good inclinations were stifled and spoiled by his furious +ambition, by which he suffered himself to be so transported and misled +that one may easily maintain that this passion was the rudder of all his +actions; of a liberal man, it made him a public thief to supply this +bounty and profusion, and made him utter this vile and unjust saying, +"That if the most wicked and profligate persons in the world had been +faithful in serving him towards his advancement, he would cherish and +prefer them to the utmost of his power, as much as the best of men." +It intoxicated him with so excessive a vanity, as to dare to boast in the +presence of his fellow-citizens, that he had made the great commonwealth +of Rome a name without form and without body; and to say that his answers +for the future should stand for laws; and also to receive the body of the +Senate coming to him, sitting; to suffer himself to be adored, and to +have divine honours paid to him in his own presence. To conclude, this +sole vice, in my opinion, spoiled in him the most rich and beautiful +nature that ever was, and has rendered his name abominable to all good +men, in that he would erect his glory upon the ruins of his country and +the subversion of the greatest and most flourishing republic the world +shall ever see. + +There might, on the contrary, many examples be produced of great men whom +pleasures have made to neglect the conduct of their affairs, as Mark +Antony and others; but where love and ambition should be in equal +balance, and come to jostle with equal forces, I make no doubt but the +last would win the prize. + +To return to my subject: 'tis much to bridle our appetites by the +argument of reason, or, by violence, to contain our members within their +duty; but to lash ourselves for our neighbour's interest, and not only to +divest ourselves of the charming passion that tickles us, of the pleasure +we feel in being agreeable to others, and courted and beloved of every +one, but also to conceive a hatred against the graces that produce that +effect, and to condemn our beauty because it inflames others; of this, I +confess, I have met with few examples. But this is one. Spurina, a +young man of Tuscany: + + "Qualis gemma micat, fulvum quae dividit aurum, + Aut collo decus, aut cupiti: vel quale per artem + Inclusum buxo aut Oricia terebintho + Lucet ebur," + + ["As a gem shines enchased in yellow gold, or an ornament on the + neck or head, or as ivory has lustre, set by art in boxwood or + Orician ebony."--AEneid, x. 134.] + +being endowed with a singular beauty, and so excessive, that the chastest +eyes could not chastely behold its rays; not contenting himself with +leaving so much flame and fever as he everywhere kindled without relief, +entered into a furious spite against himself and those great endowments +nature had so liberally conferred upon him, as if a man were responsible +to himself for the faults of others, and purposely slashed and +disfigured, with many wounds and scars, the perfect symmetry and +proportion that nature had so curiously imprinted in his face. To give +my free opinion, I more admire than honour such actions: such excesses +are enemies to my rules. The design was conscientious and good, but +certainly a little defective in prudence. What if his deformity served +afterwards to make others guilty of the sin of hatred or contempt; or of +envy at the glory of so rare a recommendation; or of calumny, +interpreting this humour a mad ambition! Is there any form from which +vice cannot, if it will, extract occasion to exercise itself, one way or +another? It had been more just, and also more noble, to have made of +these gifts of God a subject of exemplary regularity and virtue. + +They who retire themselves from the common offices, from that infinite +number of troublesome rules that fetter a man of exact honesty in civil +life, are in my opinion very discreet, what peculiar sharpness of +constraint soever they impose upon themselves in so doing. 'Tis in some +sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living well. They may have +another reward; but the reward of difficulty I fancy they can never have; +nor, in uneasiness, that there can be anything more or better done than +the keeping oneself upright amid the waves of the world, truly and +exactly performing all parts of our duty. 'Tis, peradventure, more easy +to keep clear of the sex than to maintain one's self aright in all points +in the society of a wife; and a man may with less trouble adapt himself +to entire abstinence than to the due dispensation of abundance. Use, +carried on according to reason, has in it more of difficulty than +abstinence; moderation is a virtue that gives more work than suffering; +the well living of Scipio has a thousand fashions, that of Diogenes but +one; this as much excels the ordinary lives in innocence as the most +accomplished excel them in utility and force. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +OBSERVATION ON THE MEANS TO CARRY ON A WAR ACCORDING TO JULIUS CAESAR + +'Tis related of many great leaders that they have had certain books in +particular esteem, as Alexander the Great, Homer; Scipio Africanus, +Xenophon; Marcus Brutus, Polybius; Charles V., Philip'de Comines; and +'tis said that, in our times, Machiavelli is elsewhere still in repute; +but the late Marshal Strozzi, who had taken Caesar for his man, doubtless +made the best choice, seeing that it indeed ought to be the breviary of +every soldier, as being the true and sovereign pattern of the military +art. And, moreover, God knows with that grace and beauty he has +embellished that rich matter, with so pure, delicate, and perfect +expression, that, in my opinion, there are no writings in the world +comparable to his, as to that business. + +I will set down some rare and particular passages of his wars that remain +in my memory. + +His army, being in some consternation upon the rumour that was spread of +the great forces that king Juba was leading against him, instead of +abating the apprehension which his soldiers had conceived at the news and +of lessening to them the forces of the enemy, having called them all +together to encourage and reassure them, he took a quite contrary way to +what we are used to do, for he told them that they need no more trouble +themselves with inquiring after the enemy's forces, for that he was +certainly informed thereof, and then told them of a number much +surpassing both the truth and the report that was current in his army; +following the advice of Cyrus in Xenophon, forasmuch as the deception is +not of so great importance to find an enemy weaker than we expected, than +to find him really very strong, after having been made to believe that he +was weak. + +It was always his use to accustom his soldiers simply to obey, without +taking upon them to control, or so much as to speak of their captain's +designs, which he never communicated to them but upon the point of +execution; and he took a delight, if they discovered anything of what he +intended, immediately to change his orders to deceive them; and to that +purpose, would often, when he had assigned his quarters in a place, pass +forward and lengthen his day's march, especially if it was foul and rainy +weather. + +The Swiss, in the beginning of his wars in Gaul, having sent to him to +demand a free passage over the Roman territories, though resolved to +hinder them by force, he nevertheless spoke kindly to the messengers, and +took some respite to return an answer, to make use of that time for the +calling his army together. These silly people did not know how good a +husband he was of his time: for he often repeats that it is the best part +of a captain to know how to make use of occasions, and his diligence in +his exploits is, in truth, unheard of and incredible. + +If he was not very conscientious in taking advantage of an enemy under +colour of a treaty of agreement, he was as little so in this, that he +required no other virtue in a soldier but valour only, and seldom +punished any other faults but mutiny and disobedience. He would often +after his victories turn them loose to all sorts of licence, dispensing +them for some time from the rules of military discipline, saying withal +that he had soldiers so well trained up that, powdered and perfumed, they +would run furiously to the fight. In truth, he loved to have them richly +armed, and made them wear engraved, gilded, and damasked armour, to the +end that the care of saving it might engage them to a more obstinate +defence. Speaking to them, he called them by the name of fellow- +soldiers, which we yet use; which his successor, Augustus, reformed, +supposing he had only done it upon necessity, and to cajole those who +merely followed him as volunteers: + + "Rheni mihi Caesar in undis + Dux erat; hic socius; facinus quos inquinat, aequat:" + + ["In the waters of the Rhine Caesar was my general; here at Rome he + is my fellow. Crime levels those whom it polluted." + --Lucan, v. 289.] + +but that this carriage was too mean and low for the dignity of an emperor +and general of an army, and therefore brought up the custom of calling +them soldiers only. + +With this courtesy Caesar mixed great severity to keep them in awe; the +ninth legion having mutinied near Placentia, he ignominiously cashiered +them, though Pompey was then yet on foot, and received them not again to +grace till after many supplications; he quieted them more by authority +and boldness than by gentle ways. + +In that place where he speaks of his, passage over the Rhine to Germany, +he says that, thinking it unworthy of the honour of the Roman people to +waft over his army in vessels, he built a bridge that they might pass +over dry-foot. There it was that he built that wonderful bridge of which +he gives so particular a description; for he nowhere so willingly dwells +upon his actions as in representing to us the subtlety of his inventions +in such kind of handiwork. + +I have also observed this, that he set a great value upon his +exhortations to the soldiers before the fight; for where he would show +that he was either surprised or reduced to a necessity of fighting, he +always brings in this, that he had not so much as leisure to harangue his +army. Before that great battle with those of Tournay, "Caesar," says he, +"having given order for everything else, presently ran where fortune +carried him to encourage his people, and meeting with the tenth legion, +had no more time to say anything to them but this, that they should +remember their wonted valour; not to be astonished, but bravely sustain +the enemy's encounter; and seeing the enemy had already approached within +a dart's cast, he gave the signal for battle; and going suddenly thence +elsewhere, to encourage others, he found that they were already engaged." +Here is what he tells us in that place. His tongue, indeed, did him +notable service upon several occasions, and his military eloquence was, +in his own time, so highly reputed, that many of his army wrote down his +harangues as he spoke them, by which means there were volumes of them +collected that existed a long time after him. He had so particular a +grace in speaking, that his intimates, and Augustus amongst others, +hearing those orations read, could distinguish even to the phrases and +words that were not his. + +The first time that he went out of Rome with any public command, he +arrived in eight days at the river Rhone, having with him in his coach a +secretary or two before him who were continually writing, and him who +carried his sword behind him. And certainly, though a man did nothing +but go on, he could hardly attain that promptitude with which, having +been everywhere victorious in Gaul, he left it, and, following Pompey to +Brundusium, in eighteen days' time he subdued all Italy; returned from +Brundusium to Rome; from Rome went into the very heart of Spain, where he +surmounted extreme difficulties in the war against Afranius and Petreius, +and in the long siege of Marseilles; thence he returned into Macedonia, +beat the Roman army at Pharsalia, passed thence in pursuit of Pompey into +Egypt, which he also subdued; from Egypt he went into Syria and the +territories of Pontus, where he fought Pharnaces; thence into Africa, +where he defeated Scipio and Juba; again returned through Italy, where he +defeated Pompey's sons: + + "Ocyor et coeli fiammis, et tigride foeta." + + ["Swifter than lightning, or the cub-bearing tigress." + --Lucan, v. 405] + + "Ac veluti montis saxum de, vertice praeceps + Cum ruit avulsum vento, seu turbidus imber + Proluit, aut annis solvit sublapsa vetustas, + Fertur in abruptum magno mons improbus actu, + Exultatque solo, silvas, armenta, virosque, + Involvens secum." + + ["And as a stone torn from the mountain's top by the wind or rain + torrents, or loosened by age, falls massive with mighty force, + bounds here and there, in its course sweeps from the earth with it + woods, herds, and men."--AEneid, xii. 684.] + +Speaking of the siege of Avaricum, he says, that it, was his custom to be +night and day with the pioneers.--[Engineers. D.W.]-- In all enterprises +of consequence he always reconnoitred in person, and never brought his +army into quarters till he had first viewed the place, and, if we may +believe Suetonius, when he resolved to pass over into England, he was the +first man that sounded the passage. + +He was wont to say that he more valued a victory obtained by counsel than +by force, and in the war against Petreius and Afranius, fortune +presenting him with an occasion of manifest advantage, he declined it, +saying, that he hoped, with a little more time, but less hazard, to +overthrow his enemies. He there also played a notable part in commanding +his whole army to pass the river by swimming, without any manner of +necessity: + + "Rapuitque ruens in praelia miles, + Quod fugiens timuisset, iter; mox uda receptis + Membra fovent armis, gelidosque a gurgite, cursu + Restituunt artus." + + ["The soldier rushing through a way to fight which he would have + been afraid to have taken in flight: then with their armour they + cover wet limbs, and by running restore warmth to their numbed + joints."--Lucan, iv. 151.] + +I find him a little more temperate and considerate in his enterprises +than Alexander, for this man seems to seek and run headlong upon dangers +like an impetuous torrent which attacks and rushes against everything it +meets, without choice or discretion; + + "Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus; + Qui regna Dauni perfluit Appuli, + Dum saevit, horrendamque cultis + Diluviem meditatur agris;" + + ["So the biforked Aufidus, which flows through the realm of the + Apulian Daunus, when raging, threatens a fearful deluge to the + tilled ground."--Horat., Od., iv. 14, 25.] + +and, indeed, he was a general in the flower and first heat of his youth, +whereas Caesar took up the trade at a ripe and well advanced age; to +which may be added that Alexander was of a more sanguine, hot, and +choleric constitution, which he also inflamed with wine, from which +Caesar was very abstinent. + +But where necessary occasion required, never did any man venture his +person more than he: so much so, that for my part, methinks I read in +many of his exploits a determinate resolution to throw himself away to +avoid the shame of being overcome. In his great battle with those of +Tournay, he charged up to the head of the enemies without his shield, +just as he was seeing the van of his own army beginning to give ground'; +which also several other times befell him. Hearing that his people were +besieged, he passed through the enemy's army in disguise to go and +encourage them with his presence. Having crossed over to Dyrrachium with +very slender forces, and seeing the remainder of his army which he had +left to Antony's conduct slow in following him, he undertook alone to +repass the sea in a very great storms and privately stole away to fetch +the rest of his forces, the ports on the other side being seized by +Pompey, and the whole sea being in his possession. And as to what he +performed by force of hand, there are many exploits that in hazard exceed +all the rules of war; for with how small means did he undertake to subdue +the kingdom of Egypt, and afterwards to attack the forces of Scipio and +Juba, ten times greater than his own? These people had, I know not what, +more than human confidence in their fortune; and he was wont to say that +men must embark, and not deliberate, upon high enterprises. After the +battle of Pharsalia, when he had sent his army away before him into Asia, +and was passing in one single vessel the strait of the Hellespont, he met +Lucius Cassius at sea with ten tall men-of-war, when he had the courage +not only to stay his coming, but to sail up to him and summon him to +yield, which he did. + +Having undertaken that furious siege of Alexia, where there were +fourscore thousand men in garrison, all Gaul being in arms to raise the +siege and having set an army on foot of a hundred and nine thousand +horse, and of two hundred and forty thousand foot, what a boldness and +vehement confidence was it in him that he would not give over his +attempt, but resolved upon two so great difficulties--which nevertheless +he overcame; and, after having won that great battle against those +without, soon reduced those within to his mercy. The same happened to +Lucullus at the siege of Tigranocerta against King Tigranes, but the +condition of the enemy was not the same, considering the effeminacy of +those with whom Lucullus had to deal. I will here set down two rare and +extraordinary events concerning this siege of Alexia; one, that the Gauls +having drawn their powers together to encounter Caesar, after they had +made a general muster of all their forces, resolved in their council of +war to dismiss a good part of this great multitude, that they might not +fall into confusion. This example of fearing to be too many is new; but, +to take it right, it stands to reason that the body of an army should be +of a moderate greatness, and regulated to certain bounds, both out of +respect to the difficulty of providing for them, and the difficulty of +governing and keeping them in order. At least it is very easy to make it +appear by example that armies monstrous in number have seldom done +anything to purpose. According to the saying of Cyrus in Xenophon, +"'Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men, that gives the +advantage": the remainder serving rather to trouble than assist. And +Bajazet principally grounded his resolution of giving Tamerlane battle, +contrary to the opinion of all his captains, upon this, that his enemies +numberless number of men gave him assured hopes of confusion. +Scanderbeg, a very good and expert judge in such matters, was wont to say +that ten or twelve thousand reliable fighting men were sufficient to a +good leader to secure his regulation in all sorts of military occasions. +The other thing I will here record, which seems to be contrary both to +the custom and rules of war, is, that Vercingetorix, who was made general +of all the parts of the revolted Gaul, should go shut up himself in +Alexia: for he who has the command of a whole country ought never to shut +himself up but in case of such last extremity that the only place he has +left is in concern, and that the only hope he has left is in the defence +of that city; otherwise he ought to keep himself always at liberty, that +he may have the means to provide, in general, for all parts of his +government. + +To return to Caesar. He grew, in time, more slow and more considerate, +as his friend Oppius witnesses: conceiving that he ought not lightly to +hazard the glory of so many victories, which one blow of fortune might +deprive him of. 'Tis what the Italians say, when they would reproach the +rashness and foolhardiness of young people, calling them Bisognosi +d'onore, "necessitous of honour," and that being in so great a want and +dearth of reputation, they have reason to seek it at what price soever, +which they ought not to do who have acquired enough already. There may +reasonably be some moderation, some satiety, in this thirst and appetite +of glory, as well as in other things: and there are enough people who +practise it. + +He was far remote from the religious scruples of the ancient Romans, who +would never prevail in their wars but by dint of pure and simple valour; +and yet he was more conscientious than we should be in these days, and +did not approve all sorts of means to obtain a victory. In the war +against Ariovistus, whilst he was parleying with him, there happened some +commotion between the horsemen, which was occasioned by the fault of +Ariovistus' light horse, wherein, though Caesar saw he had a very great +advantage of the enemy, he would make no use on't, lest he should have +been reproached with a treacherous proceeding. + +He was always wont to wear rich garments, and of a shining colour in +battle, that he might be the more remarkable and better observed. + +He always carried a stricter and tighter hand over his soldiers when near +an enemy. When the ancient Greeks would accuse any one of extreme +insufficiency, they would say, in common proverb, that he could neither +read nor swim; he was of the same opinion, that swimming was of great use +in war, and himself found it so; for when he had to use diligence, he +commonly swam over the rivers in his way; for he loved to march on foot, +as also did Alexander the Great. Being in Egypt forced, to save himself, +to go into a little boat, and so many people leaping in with him that it +was in danger of sinking, he chose rather to commit himself to the sea, +and swam to his fleet, which lay two hundred paces off, holding in his +left hand his tablets, and drawing his coatarmour in his teeth, that it +might not fall into the enemy's hand, and at this time he was of a pretty +advanced age. + +Never had any general so much credit with his soldiers: in the beginning +of the civil wars, his centurions offered him to find every one a man-at- +arms at his own charge, and the foot soldiers to serve him at their own +expense; those who were most at their ease, moreover, undertaking to +defray the more necessitous. The late Admiral Chastillon + + [Gaspard de Coligny, assassinated in the St. Bartholomew + massacre, 24th August 1572.] + +showed us the like example in our civil wars; for the French of his army +provided money out of their own purses to pay the foreigners that were +with him. There are but rarely found examples of so ardent and so ready +an affection amongst the soldiers of elder times, who kept themselves +strictly to their rules of war: passion has a more absolute command over +us than reason; and yet it happened in the war against Hannibal, that by +the example of the people of Rome in the city, the soldiers and captains +refused their pay in the army, and in Marcellus' camp those were branded +with the name of Mercenaries who would receive any. Having got the worst +of it near Dyrrachium, his soldiers came and offered themselves to be +chastised and punished, so that there was more need to comfort than +reprove them. One single cohort of his withstood four of Pompey's +legions above four hours together, till they were almost all killed with +arrows, so that there were a hundred and thirty thousand shafts found in +the trenches. A soldier called Scaeva, who commanded at one of the +avenues, invincibly maintained his ground, having lost an eye, with one +shoulder and one thigh shot through, and his shield hit in two hundred +and thirty places. It happened that many of his soldiers being taken +prisoners, rather chose to die than promise to join the contrary side. +Granius Petronius was taken by Scipio in Africa: Scipio having put the +rest to death, sent him word that he gave him his life, for he was a man +of quality and quaestor, to whom Petronius sent answer back, that +Caesar's soldiers were wont to give others their life, and not to receive +it; and immediately with his own hand killed himself. + +Of their fidelity there are infinite examples amongst them, that which +was done by those who were besieged in Salona, a city that stood for +Caesar against Pompey, is not, for the rarity of an accident that there +happened, to be forgotten. Marcus Octavius kept them close besieged; +they within being reduced to the extremest necessity of all things, so +that to supply the want of men, most of them being either slain or +wounded, they had manumitted all their slaves, and had been constrained +to cut off all the women's hair to make ropes for their war engines, +besides a wonderful dearth of victuals, and yet continuing resolute never +to yield. After having drawn the siege to a great length, by which +Octavius was grown more negligent and less attentive to his enterprise, +they made choice of one day about noon, and having first placed the women +and children upon the walls to make a show, sallied upon the besiegers +with such fury, that having routed the first, second, and third body, and +afterwards the fourth, and the rest, and beaten them all out of their +trenches, they pursued them even to their ships, and Octavius himself was +fain to fly to Dyrrachium, where Pompey lay. I do not at present +remember that I have met with any other example where the besieged ever +gave the besieger a total defeat and won the field, nor that a sortie +ever achieved the result of a pure and entire victory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +OF THREE GOOD WOMEN + +They are not by the dozen, as every one knows, and especially in the +duties of marriage, for that is a bargain full of so many nice +circumstances that 'tis hard a woman's will should long endure such a +restraint; men, though their condition be something better under that +tie, have yet enough to do. The true touch and test of a happy marriage +have respect to the time of the companionship, if it has been constantly +gentle, loyal, and agreeable. In our age, women commonly reserve the +publication of their good offices, and their vehement affection towards +their husbands, until they have lost them, or at least, till then defer +the testimonies of their good will; a too slow testimony and +unseasonable. By it they rather manifest that they never loved them till +dead: their life is nothing but trouble; their death full of love and +courtesy. As fathers conceal their affection from their children, women, +likewise, conceal theirs from their husbands, to maintain a modest +respect. This mystery is not for my palate; 'tis to much purpose that +they scratch themselves and tear their hair. I whisper in a waiting- +woman's or secretary's ear: " How were they, how did they live together?" +I always have that good saying m my head: + + "Jactantius moerent, quae minus dolent." + + ["They make the most ado who are least concerned." (Or:) + "They mourn the more ostentatiously, the less they grieve." + --Tacitus, Annal., ii. 77, writing of Germanicus.] + +Their whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead. We +should willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead, provided +they will smile upon us whilst we are alive. Is it not enough to make a +man revive in pure spite, that she, who spat in my face whilst I was in +being, shall come to kiss my feet when I am no more? If there be any +honour in lamenting a husband, it only appertains to those who smiled +upon them whilst they had them; let those who wept during their lives +laugh at their deaths, as well outwardly as within. Therefore, never +regard those blubbered eyes and that pitiful voice; consider her +deportment, her complexion, the plumpness of her cheeks under all those +formal veils; 'tis there she talks plain French. There are few who do +not mend upon't, and health is a quality that cannot lie. That starched +and ceremonious countenance looks not so much back as forward, and is +rather intended to get a new husband than to lament the old. When I was +a boy, a very beautiful and virtuous lady, who is yet living, the widow +of a prince, wore somewhat more ornament in her dress than our laws of +widowhood allow, and being reproached with it, she made answer that it +was because she was resolved to have no more love affairs, and would +never marry again. + +I have here, not at all dissenting from our customs, made choice of three +women, who have also expressed the utmost of their goodness and affection +about their husbands' deaths; yet are they examples of another kind than +are now m use, and so austere that they will hardly be drawn into +imitation. + +The younger Pliny' had near a house of his in Italy a neighbour who was +exceedingly tormented with certain ulcers in his private parts. His wife +seeing him so long to languish, entreated that he would give her leave to +see and at leisure to consider of the condition of his disease, and that +she would freely tell him what she thought. This permission being +obtained, and she having curiously examined the business, found it +impossible he could ever be cured, and that all he had to hope for or +expect was a great while to linger out a painful and miserable life, and +therefore, as the most sure and sovereign remedy, resolutely advised him +to kill himself. But finding him a little tender and backward in so rude +an attempt: "Do not think, my friend," said she, "that the torments I see +thee endure are not as sensible to me as to thyself, and that to deliver +myself from them, I will not myself make use of the same remedy I have +prescribed to thee. I will accompany thee in the cure as I have done in +the disease; fear nothing, but believe that we shall have pleasure in +this passage that is to free us from so many miseries, and we will go +happily together." Which having said, and roused up her husband's +courage, she resolved that they should throw themselves headlong into the +sea out of a window that overlooked it, and that she might maintain to +the last the loyal and vehement affection wherewith she had embraced him +during his life, she would also have him die in her arms; but lest they +should fail, and should quit their hold in the fall through fear, she +tied herself fast to him by the waist, and so gave up her own life to +procure her husband's repose. This was a woman of mean condition; and, +amongst that class of people, 'tis no very new thing to see some examples +of rare virtue: + + "Extrema per illos + Justitia excedens terris vestigia fecit." + + ["Justice, when she left the earth, took her last + steps among them." --Virgil, Georg., ii. 473.] + +The other two were noble and rich, where examples of virtue are rarely +lodged. + +Arria, the wife of Caecina Paetus, a consular person, was the mother of +another Arria, the wife of Thrasea Paetus, he whose virtue was so +renowned in the time of Nero, and by this son-in-law, the grandmother of +Fannia: for the resemblance of the names of these men and women, and +their fortunes, have led to several mistakes. This first Arria, her +husband Caecina Paetus, having been taken prisoner by some of the Emperor +Claudius' people, after Scribonianus' defeat, whose party he had embraced +in the war, begged of those who were to carry him prisoner to Rome, that +they would take her into their ship, where she would be of much less +charge and trouble to them than a great many persons they must otherwise +have to attend her husband, and that she alone would undertake to serve +him in his chamber, his kitchen, and all other offices. They refused, +whereupon she put herself into a fisher-boat she hired on the spot, and +in that manner followed him from Sclavonia. When she had come to Rome, +Junia, the widow of Scribonianus, having one day, from the resemblance of +their fortune, accosted her in the Emperor's presence; she rudely +repulsed her with these words, "I," said she, "speak to thee, or give ear +to any thing thou sayest! to thee in whose lap Scribonianus was slain, +and thou art yet alive!" These words, with several other signs, gave her +friends to understand that she would undoubtedly despatch herself, +impatient of supporting her husband's misfortune. And Thrasea, her son- +in-law, beseeching her not to throw away herself, and saying to her, +"What! if I should run the same fortune that Caecina has done, would you +that your daughter, my wife, should do the same?"--" Would I?" replied +she, "yes, yes, I would: if she had lived as long, and in as good +understanding with thee as I have done, with my husband." These answers +made them more careful of her, and to have a more watchful eye to her +proceedings. One day, having said to those who looked to her: "Tis to +much purpose that you take all this pains to prevent me; you may indeed +make me die an ill death, but to keep me from dying is not in your +power"; she in a sudden phrenzy started from a chair whereon she sat, and +with all her force dashed her head against the wall, by which blow being +laid flat in a swoon, and very much wounded, after they had again with +great ado brought her to herself: "I told you," said she, "that if you +refused me some easy way of dying, I should find out another, how painful +soever." The conclusion of so admirable a virtue was this: her husband +Paetus, not having resolution enough of his own to despatch himself, as +he was by the emperor's cruelty enjoined, one day, amongst others, after +having first employed all the reasons and exhortations which she thought +most prevalent to persuade him to it, she snatched the poignard he wore +from his side, and holding it ready in her hand, for the conclusion of +her admonitions; "Do thus, Paetus," said she, and in the same instant +giving herself a mortal stab in the breast, and then drawing it out of +the wound, presented it to him, ending her life with this noble, +generous, and immortal saying, "Paete, non dolet"--having time to +pronounce no more but those three never-to-be-forgotten words: "Paetus, +it is not painful." + + "Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Paeto, + Quern de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis + Si qua fides, vulnus quod feci non dolet, inquit, + Sed quod to facies, id mihi, Paete, dolet." + + ["When the chaste Arria gave to Poetus the reeking sword she had + drawn from her breast, 'If you believe me,' she said, 'Paetus, the + wound I have made hurts not, but 'tis that which thou wilt make that + hurts me.'"---Martial, i. 14.] + +The action was much more noble in itself, and of a braver sense than the +poet expressed it: for she was so far from being deterred by the thought +of her husband's wound and death and her own, that she had been their +promotress and adviser: but having performed this high and courageous +enterprise for her husband's only convenience, she had even in the last +gasp of her life no other concern but for him, and of dispossessing him +of the fear of dying with her. Paetus presently struck himself to the +heart with the same weapon, ashamed, I suppose, to have stood in need of +so dear and precious an example. + +Pompeia Paulina, a young and very noble Roman lady, had married Seneca in +his extreme old age. Nero, his fine pupil, sent his guards to him to +denounce the sentence of death, which was performed after this manner: +When the Roman emperors of those times had condemned any man of quality, +they sent to him by their officers to choose what death he would, and to +execute it within such or such a time, which was limited, according to +the degree of their indignation, to a shorter or a longer respite, that +they might therein have better leisure to dispose their affairs, and +sometimes depriving them of the means of doing it by the shortness of the +time; and if the condemned seemed unwilling to submit to the order, they +had people ready at hand to execute it either by cutting the veins of the +arms and legs, or by compelling them by force to swallow a draught of +poison. But persons of honour would not abide this necessity, but made +use of their own physicians and surgeons for this purpose. Seneca, with +a calm and steady countenance, heard their charge, and presently called +for paper to write his will, which being by the captain refused, he +turned himself towards his friends, saying to them, "Since I cannot leave +you any other acknowledgment of the obligation I have to you, I leave you +at least the best thing I have, namely, the image of my life and manners, +which I entreat you to keep in memory of me, that by so doing you may +acquire the glory of sincere and real friends." And there withal, one +while appeasing the sorrow he saw in them with gentle words, and +presently raising his voice to reprove them: "What," said he, "are become +of all our brave philosophical precepts? What are become of all the +provisions we have so many years laid up against the accidents of +fortune? Is Nero's cruelty unknown to us? What could we expect from him +who had murdered his mother and his brother, but that he should put his +tutor to death who had brought him up?" After having spoken these words +in general, he turned himself towards his wife, and embracing her fast in +his arms, as, her heart and strength failing her, she was ready to sink +down with grief, he begged of her, for his sake, to bear this accident +with a little more patience, telling her, that now the hour was come +wherein he was to show, not by argument and discourse, but effect, the +fruit he had acquired by his studies, and that he really embraced his +death, not only without grief, but moreover with joy. "Wherefore, my +dearest," said he, "do not dishonour it with thy tears, that it may not +seem as if thou lovest thyself more than my reputation. Moderate thy +grief, and comfort thyself in the knowledge thou hast had of me and my +actions, leading the remainder of thy life in the same virtuous manner +thou hast hitherto done." To which Paulina, having a little recovered +her spirits, and warmed the magnanimity of her courage with a most +generous affection, replied, --"No, Seneca," said she, "I am not a woman +to suffer you to go alone in such a necessity: I will not have you think +that the virtuous examples of your life have not taught me how to die; +and when can I ever better or more fittingly do it, or more to my own +desire, than with you? and therefore assure yourself I will go along with +you." Then Seneca, taking this noble and generous resolution of his wife +m good part, and also willing to free himself from the fear of leaving +her exposed to the cruelty of his enemies after his death: "I have, +Paulina," said he, "instructed thee in what would serve thee happily to +live; but thou more covetest, I see, the honour of dying: in truth, +I will not grudge it thee; the constancy and resolution in our common end +are the same, but the beauty and glory of thy part are much greater." +Which being said, the surgeons, at the same time, opened the veins of +both their arms, but as those of Seneca were more shrunk up, as well with +age as abstinence, made his blood flow too slowly, he moreover commanded +them to open the veins of his thighs; and lest the torments he endured +might pierce his wife's heart, and also to free himself from the +affliction of seeing her in so sad a condition, after having taken a very +affectionate leave of her, he entreated she would suffer them to carry +her into her chamber, which they accordingly did. But all these +incisions being not yet enough to make him die, he commanded Statius +Anneus, his physician, to give him a draught of poison, which had not +much better effect; for by reason of the weakness and coldness of his +limbs, it could not arrive at his heart. Wherefore they were forced to +superadd a very hot bath, and then, feeling his end approach, whilst he +had breath he continued excellent discourses upon the subject of his +present condition, which the secretaries wrote down so long as they could +hear his voice, and his last words were long after in high honour and +esteem amongst men, and it is a great loss to us that they have not come +down to our times. Then, feeling the last pangs of death, with the +bloody water of the bath he bathed his head, saying: "This water I +dedicate to Jupiter the deliverer." Nero, being presently informed of +all this, fearing lest the death of Paulina, who was one of the best-born +ladies of Rome, and against whom he had no particular unkindness, should +turn to his reproach, sent orders in all haste to bind up her wounds, +which her attendants did without her knowledge, she being already half +dead, and without all manner of sense. Thus, though she lived contrary +to her own design, it was very honourably, and befitting her own virtue, +her pale complexion ever after manifesting how much life had run from her +veins. + +These are my three very true stories, which I find as entertaining and as +tragic as any of those we make out of our own heads wherewith to amuse +the common people; and I wonder that they who are addicted to such +relations, do not rather cull out ten thousand very fine stories, which +are to be found in books, that would save them the trouble of invention, +and be more useful and diverting; and he who would make a whole and +connected body of them would need to add nothing of his own, but the +connection only, as it were the solder of another metal; and might by +this means embody a great many true events of all sorts, disposing and +diversifying them according as the beauty of the work should require, +after the same manner, almost, as Ovid has made up his Metamorphoses of +the infinite number of various fables. + +In the last couple, this is, moreover, worthy of consideration, that +Paulina voluntarily offered to lose her life for the love of her husband, +and that her husband had formerly also forborne to die for the love of +her. We may think there is no just counterpoise in this exchange; but, +according to his stoical humour, I fancy he thought he had done as much +for her, in prolonging his life upon her account, as if he had died for +her. In one of his letters to Lucilius, after he has given him to +understand that, being seized with an ague in Rome, he presently took +coach to go to a house he had in the country, contrary to his wife's +opinion, who would have him stay, and that he had told her that the ague +he was seized with was not a fever of the body but of the place, it +follows thus: "She let me go," says he, "giving me a strict charge of my +health. Now I, who know that her life is involved in mine, begin to make +much of myself, that I may preserve her. And I lose the privilege my age +has given me, of being more constant and resolute in many things, when I +call to mind that in this old fellow there is a young girl who is +interested in his health. And since I cannot persuade her to love me +more courageously, she makes me more solicitously love myself: for we +must allow something to honest affections, and, sometimes, though +occasions importune us to the contrary, we must call back life, even +though it be with torment: we must hold the soul fast in our teeth, since +the rule of living, amongst good men, is not so long as they please, but +as long as they ought. He that loves not his wife nor his friend so well +as to prolong his life for them, but will obstinately die, is too +delicate and too effeminate: the soul must impose this upon itself, when +the utility of our friends so requires; we must sometimes lend ourselves +to our friends, and when we would die for ourselves must break that +resolution for them. 'Tis a testimony of grandeur of courage to return +to life for the consideration of another, as many excellent persons have +done: and 'tis a mark of singular good nature to preserve old age (of +which the greatest convenience is the indifference as to its duration, +and a more stout and disdainful use of life), when a man perceives that +this office is pleasing, agreeable, and useful to some person by whom he +is very much beloved. And a man reaps by it a very pleasing reward; for +what can be more delightful than to be so dear to his wife, as upon her +account he shall become dearer to himself? Thus has my Paulina loaded me +not only with her fears, but my own; it has not been sufficient to +consider how resolutely I could die, but I have also considered how +irresolutely she would bear my death. I am enforced to live, and +sometimes to live in magnanimity." These are his own words, as excellent +as they everywhere are. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +OF THE MOST EXCELLENT MEN + +If I should be asked my choice among all the men who have come to my +knowledge, I should make answer, that methinks I find three more +excellent than all the rest. + +One of them Homer: not that Aristotle and Varro, for example, were not, +peradventure, as learned as he; nor that possibly Virgil was not equal to +him in his own art, which I leave to be determined by such as know them +both. I who, for my part, understand but one of them, can only say this, +according to my poor talent, that I do not believe the Muses themselves +could ever go beyond the Roman: + + "Tale facit carmen docta testudine, quale + Cynthius impositis temperat articulis:" + + [He plays on his learned lute a verse such as Cynthian Apollo + modulates with his imposed fingers."--Propertius, ii. 34, 79.] + +and yet in this judgment we are not to forget that it is chiefly from +Homer that Virgil derives his excellence, that he is guide and teacher; +and that one touch of the Iliad has supplied him with body and matter out +of which to compose his great and divine AEneid. I do not reckon upon +that, but mix several other circumstances that render to me this poet +admirable, even as it were above human condition. And, in truth, I often +wonder that he who has produced, and, by his authority, given reputation +in the world to so many deities, was not deified himself. Being blind +and poor, living before the sciences were reduced into rule and certain +observation, he was so well acquainted with them, that all those who have +since taken upon them to establish governments, to carry on wars, and to +write either of religion or philosophy, of what sect soever, or of the +arts, have made use of him as of a most perfect instructor in the +knowledge of all things, and of his books as of a treasury of all sorts +of learning: + + "Qui, quid sit pulcrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, + Planius ac melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicit:" + + [Who tells us what is good, what evil, what useful, what not, more + clearly and better than Chrysippus and Crantor?" + --Horace, Ep., i. 2, 3.] + +and as this other says, + + "A quo, ceu fonte perenni, + Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis" + + ["From which, as from a perennial spring, the lips of the poets + are moistened by Pierian waters."--Ovid, Amoy., iii. 9, 25.] + +and the other, + + "Adde Heliconiadum comites, quorum unus Homerus + Sceptra potitus;" + + ["Add the companions of the Muses, whose sceptre Homer has solely + obtained."--Lucretius, iii. 1050.] + +and the other: + + "Cujusque ex ore profusos + Omnis posteritas latices in carmina duxit, + Amnemque in tenues ausa est deducere rivos. + Unius foecunda bonis." + + ["From whose mouth all posterity has drawn out copious streams of + verse, and has made bold to turn the mighty river into its little + rivulets, fertile in the property of one man." + --Manilius, Astyon., ii. 8.] + +'Tis contrary to the order of nature that he has made the most excellent +production that can possibly be; for the ordinary birth of things is +imperfect; they thrive and gather strength by growing, whereas he +rendered the infancy of poesy and several other sciences mature, perfect, +and accomplished at first. And for this reason he may be called the +first and the last of the poets, according to the fine testimony +antiquity has left us of him, "that as there was none before him whom he +could imitate, so there has been none since that could imitate him." +His words, according to Aristotle, are the only words that have motion +and action, the only substantial words. Alexander the Great, having +found a rich cabinet amongst Darius' spoils, gave order it should be +reserved for him to keep his Homer in, saying: that he was the best and +most faithful counsellor he had in his military affairs. For the same +reason it was that Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, said that he was +the poet of the Lacedaemonians, for that he was an excellent master for +the discipline of war. This singular and particular commendation is also +left of him in the judgment of Plutarch, that he is the only author in +the world that never glutted nor disgusted his readers, presenting +himself always another thing, and always flourishing in some new grace. +That wanton Alcibiades, having asked one, who pretended to learning, for +a book of Homer, gave him a box of the ear because he had none, which he +thought as scandalous as we should if we found one of our priests without +a Breviary. Xenophanes complained one day to Hiero, the tyrant of +Syracuse, that he was so poor he had not wherewithal to maintain two +servants. " What!" replied he, "Homer, who was much poorer than thou +art, keeps above ten thousand, though he is dead. What did Panaetius +leave unsaid when he called Plato the Homer of the philosophers? Besides +what glory can be compared to his? Nothing is so frequent in men's +mouths as his name and works, nothing so known and received as Troy, +Helen, and the war about her, when perhaps there was never any such +thing. Our children are still called by names that he invented above +three thousand years ago; who does not know Hector and Achilles? Not +only some particular families, but most nations also seek their origin in +his inventions. Mohammed, the second of that name, emperor of the Turks, +writing to our Pope Pius II., "I am astonished," says he, "that the +Italians should appear against me, considering that we have our common +descent from the Trojans, and that it concerns me as well as it does them +to revenge the blood of Hector upon the Greeks, whom they countenance +against me." Is it not a noble farce wherein kings, republics, and +emperors have so many ages played their parts, and to which the vast +universe serves for a theatre? Seven Grecian cities contended for his +birth, so much honour even his obscurity helped him to! + + "Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenm." + +The other is Alexander the Great. For whoever will consider the age at +which he began his enterprises, the small means by which he effected so +glorious a design, the authority he obtained in such mere youth with the +greatest and most experienced captains of the world, by whom he was +followed, the extraordinary favour wherewith fortune embraced and +favoured so many hazardous, not to say rash, exploits, + + "Impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti + Obstaret, gaudensque viam fecisse ruins;" + + ["Bearing down all who sought to withstand him, and pleased + to force his way by ruin."--Lucan, i. 149.] + +that greatness, to have at the age of three-and-thirty years, passed +victorious through the whole habitable earth, and in half a life to have +attained to the utmost of what human nature can do; so that you cannot +imagine its just duration and the continuation of his increase in valour +and fortune, up to a due maturity of age, but that you must withal +imagine something more than man: to have made so many royal branches to +spring from his soldiers, leaving the world, at his death, divided +amongst four successors, simple captains of his army, whose posterity so +long continued and maintained that vast possession; so many excellent +virtues as he was master of, justice, temperance, liberality, truth in +his word, love towards his own people, and humanity towards those he +overcame; for his manners, in general, seem in truth incapable of any +manner of reproach, although some particular and extraordinary actions of +his may fall under censure. But it is impossible to carry on such great +things as he did within the strict rules of justice; such as he are to be +judged in gross by the main end of their actions. The ruin of Thebes and +Persepolis, the murder of Menander and of Ephistion's physician, the +massacre of so many Persian prisoners at one time, of a troop of Indian +soldiers not without prejudice to his word, and of the Cossians, so much +as to the very children, are indeed sallies that are not well to be +excused. For, as to Clytus, the fault was more than redeemed; and that +very action, as much as any other whatever, manifests the goodness of his +nature, a nature most excellently formed to goodness; and it was +ingeniously said of him, that he had his virtues from Nature, his vices +from Fortune. As to his being a little given to bragging, a little too +impatient of hearing himself ill-spoken of, and as to those mangers, +arms, and bits he caused to be strewed in the Indies, all those little +vanities, methinks, may very well be allowed to his youth, and the +prodigious prosperity of his fortune. And who will consider withal his +so many military virtues, his diligence, foresight, patience, discipline, +subtlety, magnanimity, resolution, and good fortune, wherein (though we +had not had the authority of Hannibal to assure us) he was the first of +men, the admirable beauty and symmetry of his person, even to a miracle, +his majestic port and awful mien, in a face so young, ruddy, and radiant: + + "Qualis, ubi Oceani perfusus Lucifer unda, + Quem Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes, + Extulit os sacrum coelo, tenebrasque resolvit;" + + ["As when, bathed in the waves of Ocean, Lucifer, whom Venus loves + beyond the other stars, has displayed his sacred countenance to the + heaven, and disperses the darkness"--AEneid, iii. 589.] + +the excellence of his knowledge and capacity; the duration and grandeur +of his glory, pure, clean, without spot or envy, and that long after his +death it was a religious belief that his very medals brought good fortune +to all who carried them about them; and that more kings and princes have +written his actions than other historians have written the actions of any +other king or prince whatever; and that to this very day the Mohammedans, +who despise all other histories, admit of and honour his alone, by a +special privilege: whoever, I say, will seriously consider these +particulars, will confess that, all these things put together, I had +reason to prefer him before Caesar himself, who alone could make me +doubtful in my choice: and it cannot be denied that there was more of his +own in his exploits, and more of fortune in those of Alexander. They +were in many things equal, and peradventure Caesar had some greater +qualities they were two fires, or two torrents, overrunning the world by +several ways; + + "Ac velut immissi diversis partibus ignes + Arentem in silvam, et virgulta sonantia lauro + Aut ubi decursu rapido de montibus altis + Dant sonitum spumosi amnes, et in aequora currunt, + Quisque suum populatus iter:" + + ["And as fires applied in several parts to a dry wood and crackling + shrubs of laurel, or as with impetuous fall from the steep + mountains, foaming torrents pour down to the ocean, each clearing a + destructive course."--AEneid, xii. 521.] + +but though Caesar's ambition had been more moderate, it would still be so +unhappy, having the ruin of his country and universal mischief to the +world for its abominable object, that, all things raked together and put +into the balance, I must needs incline to Alexander's side. + +The third and in my opinion the most excellent, is Epaminondas. Of glory +he has not near so much as the other two (which, for that matter, is but +a part of the substance of the thing): of valour and resolution, not of +that sort which is pushed on by ambition, but of that which wisdom and +reason can plant in a regular soul, he had all that could be imagined. +Of this virtue of his, he has, in my idea, given as ample proof as +Alexander himself or Caesar: for although his warlike exploits were +neither so frequent nor so full, they were yet, if duly considered in all +their circumstances, as important, as bravely fought, and carried with +them as manifest testimony of valour and military conduct, as those of +any whatever. The Greeks have done him the honour, without +contradiction, to pronounce him the greatest man of their nation; and to +be the first of Greece, is easily to be the first of the world. As to +his knowledge, we have this ancient judgment of him, "That never any man +knew so much, and spake so little as he";--[Plutarch, On the Demon of +Socrates, c. 23.]-- for he was of the Pythagorean sect; but when he did +speak, never any man spake better; an excellent orator, and of powerful +persuasion. But as to his manners and conscience, he infinitely +surpassed all men who ever undertook the management of affairs; for in +this one thing, which ought chiefly to be considered, which alone truly +denotes us for what we are, and which alone I make counterbalance all the +rest put together, he comes not short of any philosopher whatever, not +even of Socrates himself. Innocence, in this man, is a quality peculiar, +sovereign, constant, uniform, incorruptible, compared with which, it +appears in Alexander subject to something else subaltern, uncertain, +variable, effeminate, and fortuitous. + +Antiquity has judged that in thoroughly sifting all the other great +captains, there is found in every one some peculiar quality that +illustrates his name: in this man only there is a full and equal virtue +throughout, that leaves nothing to be wished for in him, whether in +private or public employment, whether in peace or war; whether to live +gloriously and grandly, and to die: I do not know any form or fortune of +man that I so much honour and love. + +'Tis true that I look upon his obstinate poverty, as it is set out by his +best friends, as a little too scrupulous and nice; and this is the only +feature, though high in itself and well worthy of admiration, that I find +so rugged as not to desire to imitate, to the degree it was in him. + +Scipio AEmilianus alone, could one attribute to him as brave and +magnificent an end, and as profound and universal a knowledge, might be +put into the other scale of the balance. Oh, what an injury has time +done me to deprive me of the sight of two of the most noble lives which, +by the common consent of all the world, one of the greatest of the +Greeks, and the other of the Romans, were in all Plutarch. What a +matter! what a workman! + +For a man that was no saint, but, as we say, a gentleman, of civilian and +ordinary manners, and of a moderate ambition, the richest life that I +know, and full of the richest and most to be desired parts, all things +considered, is, in my opinion, that of Alcibiades. + +But as to what concerns Epaminondas, I will here, for the example of an +excessive goodness, add some of his opinions: he declared, that the +greatest satisfaction he ever had in his whole life, was the contentment +he gave his father and mother by his victory at Leuctra; wherein his +deference is great, preferring their pleasure before his own, so dust and +so full of so glorious an action. He did not think it lawful, even to +restore the liberty of his country, to kill a man without knowing a +cause: which made him so cold in the enterprise of his companion +Pelopidas for the relief of Thebes. He was also of opinion that men in +battle ought to avoid the encounter of a friend who was on the contrary +side, and to spare him. And his humanity, even towards his enemies +themselves, having rendered him suspected to the Boeotians, for that, +after he had miraculously forced the Lacedaemonians to open to him the +pass which they had undertaken to defend at the entrance into the Morea, +near Corinth, he contented himself with having charged through them, +without pursuing them to the utmost, he had his commission of general +taken from him, very honourably upon such an account, and for the shame +it was to them upon necessity afterwards to restore him to his command, +and so to manifest how much upon him depended their safety and honour; +victory like a shadow attending him wherever he went; and indeed the +prosperity of his country, as being from him derived, died with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +OF THE RESEMBLANCE OF CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS + +This faggoting up of so many divers pieces is so done that I never set +pen to paper but when I have too much idle time, and never anywhere but +at home; so that it is compiled after divers interruptions and intervals, +occasions keeping me sometimes many months elsewhere. As to the rest, +I never correct my first by any second conceptions; I, peradventure, may +alter a word or so, but 'tis only to vary the phrase, and not to destroy +my former meaning. I have a mind to represent the progress of my +humours, and that every one may see each piece as it came from the forge. +I could wish I had begun sooner, and had taken more notice of the course +of my mutations. A servant of mine whom I employed to transcribe for me, +thought he had got a prize by stealing several pieces from me, wherewith +he was best pleased; but it is my comfort that he will be no greater a +gainer than I shall be a loser by the theft. I am grown older by seven +or eight years since I began; nor has it been without same new +acquisition: I have, in that time, by the liberality of years, been +acquainted with the stone: their commerce and long converse do not well +pass away without some such inconvenience. I could have been glad that +of other infirmities age has to present long-lived men withal, it had +chosen some one that would have been more welcome to me, for it could not +possibly have laid upon me a disease for which, even from my infancy, I +have had so great a horror; and it is, in truth, of all the accidents of +old age, that of which I have ever been most afraid. I have often +thought with myself that I went on too far, and that in so long a voyage +I should at last run myself into some disadvantage; I perceived, and have +often enough declared, that it was time to depart, and that life should +be cut off in the sound and living part, according to the surgeon's rule +in amputations; and that nature made him pay very strict usury who did +not in due time pay the principal. And yet I was so far from being +ready, that in the eighteen months' time or thereabout that I have been +in this uneasy condition, I have so inured myself to it as to be content +to live on in it; and have found wherein to comfort myself, and to hope: +so much are men enslaved to their miserable being, that there is no +condition so wretched they will not accept, provided they may live! Hear +Maecenas: + + "Debilem facito manu, + Debilem pede, coxa, + Lubricos quate dentes; + Vita dum superest, bene est." + + ["Cripple my hand, foot, hip; shake out my loose teeth: while + there's life, 'tis well."--Apud Seneca, Ep., 101.] + +And Tamerlane, with a foolish humanity, palliated the fantastic cruelty +he exercised upon lepers, when he put all he could hear of to death, to +deliver them, as he pretended, from the painful life they lived. For +there was not one of them who would not rather have been thrice a leper +than be not. And Antisthenes the Stoic, being very sick, and crying out, +"Who will deliver me from these evils?" Diogenes, who had come to visit +him, "This," said he, presenting him a knife, "soon enough, if thou +wilt."--"I do not mean from my life," he replied, "but from my +sufferings." The sufferings that only attack the mind, I am not so +sensible of as most other men; and this partly out of judgment, for the +world looks upon several things as dreadful or to be avoided at the +expense of life, that are almost indifferent to me: partly, through a +dull and insensible complexion I have in accidents which do not point- +blank hit me; and that insensibility I look upon as one of the best parts +of my natural condition; but essential and corporeal pains I am very +sensible of. And yet, having long since foreseen them, though with a +sight weak and delicate and softened with the long and happy health and +quiet that God has been pleased to give me the greatest part of my time, +I had in my imagination fancied them so insupportable, that, in truth, I +was more afraid than I have since found I had cause: by which I am still +more fortified in this belief, that most of the faculties of the soul, as +we employ them, more trouble the repose of life than they are any way +useful to it. + +I am in conflict with the worst, the most sudden, the most painful, the +most mortal, and the most irremediable of all diseases; I have already +had the trial of five or six very long and very painful fits; and yet I +either flatter myself, or there is even in this state what is very well +to be endured by a man who has his soul free from the fear of death, and +of the menaces, conclusions, and consequences which physic is ever +thundering in our ears; but the effect even of pain itself is not so +sharp and intolerable as to put a man of understanding into rage and +despair. I have at least this advantage by my stone, that what I could +not hitherto prevail upon myself to resolve upon, as to reconciling and +acquainting myself with death, it will perfect; for the more it presses +upon and importunes me, I shall be so much the less afraid to die. I had +already gone so far as only to love life for life's sake, but my pain +will dissolve this intelligence; and God grant that in the end, should +the sharpness of it be once greater than I shall be able to bear, it does +not throw me into the other no less vicious extreme to desire and wish to +die! + + "Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes:" + + ["Neither to wish, nor fear to die." (Or:) + "Thou shouldest neither fear nor desire the last day." + --Martial, x. 7.] + +they are two passions to be feared; but the one has its remedy much +nearer at hand than the other. + +As to the rest, I have always found the precept that so rigorously +enjoins a resolute countenance and disdainful and indifferent comportment +in the toleration of infirmities to be ceremonial. Why should +philosophy, which only has respect to life and effects, trouble itself +about these external appearances? Let us leave that care to actors and +masters of rhetoric, who set so great a value upon our gestures. Let her +allow this vocal frailty to disease, if it be neither cordial nor +stomachic, and permit the ordinary ways of expressing grief by sighs, +sobs, palpitations, and turning pale, that nature has put out of our +power; provided the courage be undaunted, and the tones not expressive +of despair, let her be satisfied. What matter the wringing of our hands, +if we do not wring our thoughts? She forms us for ourselves, not for +others; to be, not to seem; let her be satisfied with governing our +understanding, which she has taken upon her the care of instructing; +that, in the fury of the colic, she maintain the soul in a condition to +know itself, and to follow its accustomed way, contending with, and +enduring, not meanly truckling under pain; moved and heated, not subdued +and conquered, in the contention; capable of discourse and other things, +to a certain degree. In such extreme accidents, 'tis cruelty to require +so exact a composedness. 'Tis no great matter that we make a wry face, +if the mind plays its part well: if the body find itself relieved by +complaining let it complain: if agitation ease it, let it tumble and toss +at pleasure; if it seem to find the disease evaporate (as some physicians +hold that it helps women in delivery) in making loud outcries, or if this +do but divert its torments, let it roar as it will. Let us not command +this voice to sally, but stop it not. Epicurus, not only forgives his +sage for crying out in torments, but advises him to it: + + "Pugiles etiam, quum feriunt, in jactandis caestibus + ingemiscunt, quia profundenda voce omne corpus intenditur, + venitque plaga vehementior." + + ["Boxers also, when they strike, groan in the act, because with the + strength of voice the whole body is carried, and the blow comes with + the greater vehemence."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 23.] + +We have enough to do to deal with the disease, without troubling +ourselves with these superfluous rules. + +Which I say in excuse of those whom we ordinarily see impatient in the +assaults of this malady; for as to what concerns myself, I have passed it +over hitherto with a little better countenance, and contented myself with +groaning without roaring out; not, nevertheless, that I put any great +constraint upon myself to maintain this exterior decorum, for I make +little account of such an advantage: I allow herein as much as the pain +requires; but either my pains are not so excessive, or I have more than +ordinary patience. I complain, I confess, and am a little impatient in a +very sharp fit, but I do not arrive to such a degree of despair as he who +with: + + "Ejulatu, questu, gemitu, fremitibus + Resonando, multum flebiles voces refert:" + + ["Howling, roaring, groaning with a thousand noises, expressing his + torment in a dismal voice." (Or:) "Wailing, complaining, groaning, + murmuring much avail lugubrious sounds."--Verses of Attius, in his + Phaloctetes, quoted by Cicero, De Finib., ii. 29; Tusc. Quaes., + ii. 14.] + +I try myself in the depth of my suffering, and have always found that I +was in a capacity to speak, think, and give a rational answer as well as +at any other time, but not so firmly, being troubled and interrupted by +the pain. When I am looked upon by my visitors to be in the greatest +torment, and that they therefore forbear to trouble me, I often essay my +own strength, and myself set some discourse on foot, the most remote I +can contrive from my present condition. I can do anything upon a sudden +endeavour, but it must not continue long. Oh, what pity 'tis I have not +the faculty of that dreamer in Cicero, who dreaming he was lying with a +wench, found he had discharged his stone in the sheets. My pains +strangely deaden my appetite that way. In the intervals from this +excessive torment, when my ureters only languish without any great dolor, +I presently feel myself in my wonted state, forasmuch as my soul takes no +other alarm but what is sensible and corporal, which I certainly owe to +the care I have had of preparing myself by meditation against such +accidents: + + "Laborum, + Nulla mihi nova nunc facies inopinave surgit; + Omnia praecepi, atque animo mecum ante peregi." + + ["No new shape of suffering can arise new or unexpected; I have + anticipated all, and acted them over beforehand in my mind." + --AEneid, vi. 103.] + +I am, however, a little roughly handled for an apprentice, and with a +sudden and sharp alteration, being fallen in an instant from a very easy +and happy condition of life into the most uneasy and painful that can be +imagined. For besides that it is a disease very much to be feared in +itself, it begins with me after a more sharp and severe manner than it is +used to do with other men. My fits come so thick upon me that I am +scarcely ever at ease; yet I have hitherto kept my mind so upright that, +provided I can still continue it, I find myself in a much better +condition of life than a thousand others, who have no fewer nor other +disease but what they create to themselves for want of meditation. + +There is a certain sort of crafty humility that springs from presumption, +as this, for example, that we confess our ignorance in many things, and +are so courteous as to acknowledge that there are in the works of nature +some qualities and conditions that are imperceptible to us, and of which +our understanding cannot discover the means and causes; by this so honest +and conscientious declaration we hope to obtain that people shall also +believe us as to those that we say we do understand. We need not trouble +ourselves to seek out foreign miracles and difficulties; methinks, +amongst the things that we ordinarily see, there are such +incomprehensible wonders as surpass all difficulties of miracles. What a +wonderful thing it is that the drop of seed from which we are produced +should carry in itself the impression not only of the bodily form, but +even of the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers! Where can that +drop of fluid matter contain that infinite number of forms? and how can +they carry on these resemblances with so precarious and irregular a +process that the son shall be like his great-grandfather, the nephew like +his uncle? In the family of Lepidus at Rome there were three, not +successively but by intervals, who were born with the same eye covered +with a cartilage. At Thebes there was a race that carried from their +mother's womb the form of the head of a lance, and he who was not born so +was looked upon as illegitimate. And Aristotle says that in a certain +nation, where the women were in common, they assigned the children to +their fathers by their resemblance. + +'Tis to be believed that I derive this infirmity from my father, for he +died wonderfully tormented with a great stone in his bladder; he was +never sensible of his disease till the sixty-seventh year of his age; and +before that had never felt any menace or symptoms of it, either in his +reins, sides, or any other part, and had lived, till then, in a happy, +vigorous state of health, little subject to infirmities, and he continued +seven years after in this disease, dragging on a very painful end of +life. I was born about five-and-twenty years before his disease seized +him, and in the time of his most flourishing and healthful state of body, +his third child in order of birth: where could his propension to this +malady lie lurking all that while? And he being then so far from the +infirmity, how could that small part of his substance wherewith he made +me, carry away so great an impression for its share? and how so +concealed, that till five-and-forty years after, I did not begin to be +sensible of it? being the only one to this hour, amongst so many +brothers and sisters, and all by one mother, that was ever troubled with +it. He that can satisfy me in this point, I will believe him in as many +other miracles as he pleases; always provided that, as their manner is, +he do not give me a doctrine much more intricate and fantastic than the +thing itself for current pay. + +Let the physicians a little excuse the liberty I take, for by this same +infusion and fatal insinuation it is that I have received a hatred and +contempt of their doctrine; the antipathy I have against their art is +hereditary. My father lived three-score and fourteen years, my +grandfather sixty-nine, my great-grandfather almost fourscore years, +without ever tasting any sort of physic; and, with them, whatever was not +ordinary diet, was instead of a drug. Physic is grounded upon experience +and examples: so is my opinion. And is not this an express and very +advantageous experience. I do not know that they can find me in all +their records three that were born, bred, and died under the same roof, +who have lived so long by their conduct. They must here of necessity +confess, that if reason be not, fortune at least is on my side, and with +physicians fortune goes a great deal further than reason. Let them not +take me now at a disadvantage; let them not threaten me in the subdued +condition wherein I now am; that were treachery. In truth, I have enough +the better of them by these domestic examples, that they should rest +satisfied. Human things are not usually so constant; it has been two +hundred years, save eighteen, that this trial has lasted, for the first +of them was born in the year 1402: 'tis now, indeed, very good reason +that this experience should begin to fail us. Let them not, therefore, +reproach me with the infirmities under which I now suffer; is it not +enough that I for my part have lived seven-and-forty years in good +health? though it should be the end of my career; 'tis of the longer +sort. + +My ancestors had an aversion to physic by some occult and natural +instinct; for the very sight of drugs was loathsome to my father. The +Seigneur de Gaviac, my uncle by the father's side, a churchman, and a +valetudinary from his birth, and yet who made that crazy life hold out to +sixty-seven years, being once fallen into a furious fever, it was ordered +by the physicians he should be plainly told that if he would not make use +of help (for so they call that which is very often an obstacle), he would +infallibly be a dead man. That good man, though terrified with this +dreadful sentence, yet replied, "I am then a dead man." But God soon +after made the prognostic false. The last of the brothers--there were +four of them--and by many years the last, the Sieur de Bussaguet, was the +only one of the family who made use of medicine, by reason, I suppose, of +the concern he had with the other arts, for he was a councillor in the +court of Parliament, and it succeeded so ill with him, that being in +outward appearance of the strongest constitution, he yet died long before +any of the rest, save the Sieur de Saint Michel. + +'Tis possible I may have derived this natural antipathy to physic from +them; but had there been no other consideration in the case, I would have +endeavoured to have overcome it; for all these conditions that spring in +us without reason, are vicious; 'tis a kind of disease that we should +wrestle with. It may be I had naturally this propension; but I have +supported and fortified it by arguments and reasons which have +established in me the opinion I am of. For I also hate the consideration +of refusing physic for the nauseous taste. + +I should hardly be of that humour who hold health to be worth purchasing +by all the most painful cauteries and incisions that can be applied. +And, with Epicurus, I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided, if +greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted, that will +terminate in greater pleasures. Health is a precious thing, and the only +one, in truth, meriting that a man should lay out, not only his time, +sweat, labour, and goods, but also his life itself to obtain it; +forasmuch as, without it, life is wearisome and injurious to us: +pleasure, wisdom, learning, and virtue, without it, wither away and +vanish; and to the most laboured and solid discourses that philosophy +would imprint in us to the contrary, we need no more but oppose the image +of Plato being struck with an epilepsy or apoplexy; and, in this +presupposition, to defy him to call the rich faculties of his soul to his +assistance. All means that conduce to health can neither be too painful +nor too dear to me. But I have some other appearances that make me +strangely suspect all this merchandise. I do not deny but that there may +be some art in it, that there are not amongst so many works of Nature, +things proper for the conservation of health: that is most certain: I +very well know there are some simples that moisten, and others that dry; +I experimentally know that radishes are windy, and senna-leaves purging; +and several other such experiences I have, as that mutton nourishes me, +and wine warms me: and Solon said "that eating was physic against the +malady hunger." I do not disapprove the use we make of things the earth +produces, nor doubt, in the least, of the power and fertility of Nature, +and of its application to our necessities: I very well see that pikes and +swallows live by her laws; but I mistrust the inventions of our mind, our +knowledge and art, to countenance which, we have abandoned Nature and her +rules, and wherein we keep no bounds nor moderation. As we call the +piling up of the first laws that fall into our hands justice, and their +practice and dispensation very often foolish and very unjust; and as +those who scoff at and accuse it, do not, nevertheless, blame that noble +virtue itself, but only condemn the abuse and profanation of that sacred +title; so in physic I very much honour that glorious name, its +propositions, its promises, so useful for the service of mankind; but the +ordinances it foists upon us, betwixt ourselves, I neither honour nor +esteem. + +In the first place, experience makes me dread it; for amongst all my +acquaintance, I see no people so soon sick, and so long before they are +well, as those who take much physic; their very health is altered and +corrupted by their frequent prescriptions. Physicians are not content to +deal only with the sick, but they will moreover corrupt health itself, +for fear men should at any time escape their authority. Do they not, +from a continual and perfect health, draw the argument of some great +sickness to ensue? I have been sick often enough, and have always found +my sicknesses easy enough to be supported (though I have made trial of +almost all sorts), and as short as those of any other, without their +help, or without swallowing their ill-tasting doses. The health I have +is full and free, without other rule or discipline than my own custom and +pleasure. Every place serves me well enough to stay in, for I need no +other conveniences, when I am sick, than what I must have when I am well. +I never disturb myself that I have no physician, no apothecary, nor any +other assistance, which I see most other sick men more afflicted at than +they are with their disease. What! Do the doctors themselves show us +more felicity and duration in their own lives, that may manifest to us +some apparent effect of their skill? + +There is not a nation in the world that has not been many ages without +physic; and these the first ages, that is to say, the best and most +happy; and the tenth part of the world knows nothing of it yet; many +nations are ignorant of it to this day, where men live more healthful and +longer than we do here, and even amongst us the common people live well +enough without it. The Romans were six hundred years before they +received it; and after having made trial of it, banished it from the city +at the instance of Cato the Censor, who made it appear how easy it was to +live without it, having himself lived fourscore and five years, and kept +his wife alive to an extreme old age, not without physic, but without a +physician: for everything that we find to be healthful to life may be +called physic. He kept his family in health, as Plutarch says if I +mistake not, with hare's milk; as Pliny reports, that the Arcadians +cured all manner of diseases with that of a cow; and Herodotus says, the +Lybians generally enjoy rare health, by a custom they have, after their +children are arrived to four years of age, to burn and cauterise the +veins of their head and temples, by which means they cut off all +defluxions of rheum for their whole lives. And the country people of our +province make use of nothing, in all sorts of distempers, but the +strongest wine they can get, mixed with a great deal of saffron and +spice, and always with the same success. + +And to say the truth, of all this diversity and confusion of +prescriptions, what other end and effect is there after all, but to purge +the belly? which a thousand ordinary simples will do as well; and I do +not know whether such evacuations be so much to our advantage as they +pretend, and whether nature does not require a residence of her +excrements to a certain proportion, as wine does of its lees to keep it +alive: you often see healthful men fall into vomitings and fluxes of the +belly by some extrinsic accident, and make a great evacuation of +excrements, without any preceding need, or any following benefit, but +rather with hurt to their constitution. 'Tis from the great Plato, that +I lately learned, that of three sorts of motions which are natural to us, +purging is the worst, and that no man, unless he be a fool, ought to take +anything to that purpose but in the extremest necessity. Men disturb and +irritate the disease by contrary oppositions; it must be the way of +living that must gently dissolve, and bring it to its end. The violent +gripings and contest betwixt the drug and the disease are ever to our +loss, since the combat is fought within ourselves, and that the drug is +an assistant not to be trusted, being in its own nature an enemy to our +health, and by trouble having only access into our condition. Let it +alone a little; the general order of things that takes care of fleas and +moles, also takes care of men, if they will have the same patience that +fleas and moles have, to leave it to itself. 'Tis to much purpose we cry +out "Bihore," --[A term used by the Languedoc waggoners to hasten their +horses]-- 'tis a way to make us hoarse, but not to hasten the matter. +'Tis a proud and uncompassionate order: our fears, our despair displease +and stop it from, instead of inviting it to, our relief; it owes its +course to the disease, as well as to health; and will not suffer itself +to be corrupted in favour of the one to the prejudice of the other's +right, for it would then fall into disorder. Let us, in God's name, +follow it; it leads those that follow, and those who will not follow, it +drags along, both their fury and physic together. Order a purge for your +brain, it will there be much better employed than upon your stomach. + +One asking a Lacedaemonian what had made him live so long, he made +answer, "the ignorance of physic"; and the Emperor Adrian continually +exclaimed as he was dying, that the crowd of physicians had killed him. +A bad wrestler turned physician: "Courage," says Diogenes to him; "thou +hast done well, for now thou will throw those who have formerly thrown +thee." But they have this advantage, according to Nicocles, that the sun +gives light to their success and the earth covers their failures. And, +besides, they have a very advantageous way of making use of all sorts of +events: for what fortune, nature, or any other cause (of which the number +is infinite), products of good and healthful in us, it is the privilege +of physic to attribute to itself; all the happy successes that happen to +the patient, must be thence derived; the accidents that have cured me, +and a thousand others, who do not employ physicians, physicians usurp to +themselves: and as to ill accidents, they either absolutely disown them, +in laying the fault upon the patient, by such frivolous reasons as they +are never at a loss for; as "he lay with his arms out of bed," or "he was +disturbed with the rattling of a coach:" + + "Rhedarum transitus arcto + Vicorum inflexu:" + + ["The passage of the wheels in the narrow + turning of the street"--Juvenal, iii. 236.] + +or "somebody had set open the casement," or "he had lain upon his left +side," or "he had some disagreeable fancies in his head": in sum, a word, +a dream, or a look, seems to them excuse sufficient wherewith to palliate +their own errors: or, if they so please, they even make use of our +growing worse, and do their business in this way which can never fail +them: which is by buzzing us in the ear, when the disease is more +inflamed by their medicaments, that it had been much worse but for those +remedies; he, whom from an ordinary cold they have thrown into a double +tertian-ague, had but for them been in a continued fever. They do not +much care what mischief they do, since it turns to their own profit. +In earnest, they have reason to require a very favourable belief from +their patients; and, indeed, it ought to be a very easy one, to swallow +things so hard to be believed. Plato said very well, that physicians +were the only men who might lie at pleasure, since our health depends +upon the vanity and falsity of their promises. + +AEsop, a most excellent author, and of whom few men discover all the +graces, pleasantly represents to us the tyrannical authority physicians +usurp over poor creatures, weakened and subdued by sickness and fear, +when he tells us, that a sick person, being asked by his physician what +operation he found of the potion he had given him: "I have sweated very +much," says the sick man. "That's good," says the physician. Another +time, having asked how he felt himself after his physic: "I have been +very cold, and have had a great shivering upon me," said he. "That is +good," replied the physician. After the third potion, he asked him again +how he did: "Why, I find myself swollen and puffed up," said he, "as if +I had a dropsy." That is very well," said the physician. One of his +servants coming presently after to inquire how he felt himself, "Truly, +friend," said he, "with being too well I am about to die." + +There was a more just law in Egypt, by which the physician, for the three +first days, was to take charge of his patient at the patient's own risk +and cost; but, those three days being past, it was to be at his own. For +what reason is it that their patron, AEsculapius, should be struck with +thunder for restoring Hippolitus from death to life: + + "Nam Pater omnipotens, aliquem indignatus ab umbris + Mortalem infernis ad lumina surgere vitae, + Ipse repertorem medicinae talis, et artis + Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas;" + + ["Then the Almighty Father, offended that any mortal should rise to + the light of life from the infernal shades, struck the son of + Phoebus with his forked lightning to the Stygian lake." + --AEneid, vii. 770.] + +and his followers be pardoned, who send so many souls from life to death? +A physician, boasting to Nicocles that his art was of great authority: +"It is so, indeed," said Nicocles, "that can with impunity kill so many +people." + +As to what remains, had I been of their counsel, I would have rendered my +discipline more sacred and mysterious; they begun well, but they have not +ended so. It was a good beginning to make gods and demons the authors of +their science, and to have used a peculiar way of speaking and writing, +notwithstanding that philosophy concludes it folly to persuade a man to +his own good by an unintelligible way: "Ut si quis medicus imperet, ut +sumat:" + + + "Terrigenam, herbigradam, domiportam, sanguine cassam." + + ["Describing it by the epithets of an animal trailing with its slime + over the herbage, without blood or bones, and carrying its house + upon its back, meaning simply a snail."--Coste] + +It was a good rule in their art, and that accompanies all other vain, +fantastic, and supernatural arts, that the patient's belief should +prepossess them with good hope and assurance of their effects and +operation: a rule they hold to that degree, as to maintain that the most +inexpert and ignorant physician is more proper for a patient who has +confidence in him, than the most learned and experienced whom he is not +so acquainted with. Nay, even the very choice of most of their drugs is +in some sort mysterious and divine; the left foot of a tortoise, the +urine of a lizard, the dung of an elephant, the liver of a mole, blood +drawn from under the right wing of a white pigeon; and for us who have +the stone (so scornfully they use us in our miseries) the excrement of +rats beaten to powder, and such like trash and fooleries which rather +carry a face of magical enchantment than of any solid science. I omit +the odd number of their pills, the destination of certain days and feasts +of the year, the superstition of gathering their simples at certain +hours, and that so austere and very wise countenance and carriage which +Pliny himself so much derides. But they have, as I said, failed in that +they have not added to this fine beginning the making their meetings and +consultations more religious and secret, where no profane person should +have admission, no more than in the secret ceremonies of AEsculapius; for +by the reason of this it falls out that their irresolution, the weakness +of their arguments, divinations and foundations, the sharpness of their +disputes, full of hatred, jealousy, and self-consideration, coming to be +discovered by every one, a man must be marvellously blind not to see that +he runs a very great hazard in their hands. Who ever saw one physician +approve of another's prescription, without taking something away, or +adding something to it? by which they sufficiently betray their tricks, +and make it manifest to us that they therein more consider their own +reputation, and consequently their profit, than their patient's interest. +He was a much wiser man of their tribe, who of old gave it as a rule, +that only one physician should undertake a sick person; for if he do +nothing to purpose, one single man's default can bring no great scandal +upon the art of medicine; and, on the contrary, the glory will be great +if he happen to have success; whereas, when there are many, they at every +turn bring a disrepute upon their calling, forasmuch as they oftener do +hurt than good. They ought to be satisfied with the perpetual +disagreement which is found in the opinions of the principal masters and +ancient authors of this science, which is only known to men well read, +without discovering to the vulgar the controversies and various judgments +which they still nourish and continue amongst themselves. + +Will you have one example of the ancient controversy in physic? +Herophilus lodges the original cause of all diseases in the humours; +Erasistratus, in the blood of the arteries; Asclepiades, in the invisible +atoms of the pores; Alcmaeon, in the exuberance or defect of our bodily +strength; Diocles, in the inequality of the elements of which the body is +composed, and in the quality of the air we breathe; Strato, in the +abundance, crudity, and corruption of the nourishment we take; and +Hippocrates lodges it in the spirits. There is a certain friend of +theirs,--[Celsus, Preface to the First Book.]-- whom they know better +than I, who declares upon this subject, "that the most important science +in practice amongst us, as that which is intrusted with our health and +conservation, is, by ill luck, the most uncertain, the most perplexed, +and agitated with the greatest mutations." There is no great danger in +our mistaking the height of the sun, or the fraction of some astronomical +supputation; but here, where our whole being is concerned, 'tis not +wisdom to abandon ourselves to the mercy of the agitation of so many +contrary winds. + +Before the Peloponnesian war there was no great talk of this science. +Hippocrates brought it into repute; whatever he established, Chrysippus +overthrew; after that, Erasistratus, Aristotle's grandson, overthrew what +Chrysippus had written; after these, the Empirics started up, who took a +quite contrary way to the ancients in the management of this art; when +the credit of these began a little to decay, Herophilus set another sort +of practice on foot, which Asclepiades in turn stood up against, and +overthrew; then, in their turn, the opinions first of Themiso, and then +of Musa, and after that those of Vectius Valens, a physician famous +through the intelligence he had with Messalina, came in vogue; the empire +of physic in Nero's time was established in Thessalus, who abolished and +condemned all that had been held till his time; this man's doctrine was +refuted by Crinas of Marseilles, who first brought all medicinal +operations under the Ephemerides and motions of the stars, and reduced +eating, sleeping, and drinking to hours that were most pleasing to +Mercury and the moon; his authority was soon after supplanted by +Charinus, a physician of the same city of Marseilles, a man who not only +controverted all the ancient methods of physic, but moreover the usage of +hot baths, that had been generally and for so many ages in common use; he +made men bathe in cold water, even in winter, and plunged his sick +patients in the natural waters of streams. No Roman till Pliny's time +had ever vouchsafed to practise physic; that office was only performed +by Greeks and foreigners, as 'tis now amongst us French, by those who +sputter Latin; for, as a very great physician says, we do not easily +accept the medicine we understand, no more than we do the drugs we +ourselves gather. If the nations whence we fetch our guaiacum, +sarsaparilla, and China wood, have physicians, how great a value must we +imagine, by the same recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear +purchase, do they set upon our cabbage and parsley? for who would dare +to contemn things so far fetched, and sought out at the hazard of so long +and dangerous a voyage? + +Since these ancient mutations in physic, there have been infinite others +down to our own times, and, for the most part, mutations entire and +universal, as those, for example, produced by Paracelsus, Fioravanti, and +Argentier; for they, as I am told, not only alter one recipe, but the +whole contexture and rules of the body of physic, accusing all others of +ignorance and imposition who have practised before them. At this rate, +in what a condition the poor patient must be, I leave you to judge. + +If we were even assured that, when they make a mistake, that mistake of +theirs would do us no harm, though it did us no good, it were a +reasonable bargain to venture the making ourselves better without any +danger of being made worse. AEsop tells a story, that one who had bought +a Morisco slave, believing that his black complexion had arrived by +accident and the ill usage of his former master, caused him to enter with +great care into a course of baths and potions: it happened that the Moor +was nothing amended in his tawny complexion, but he wholly lost his +former health. How often do we see physicians impute the death of their +patients to one another? I remember that some years ago there was an +epidemical disease, very dangerous and for the most part mortal, that +raged in the towns about us: the storm being over which had swept away an +infinite number of men, one of the most famous physicians of all the +country, presently after published a book upon that subject, wherein, +upon better thoughts, he confesses that the letting blood in that disease +was the principal cause of so many mishaps. Moreover, their authors hold +that there is no physic that has not something hurtful in it. And if +even those of the best operation in some measure offend us, what must +those do that are totally misapplied? For my own part, though there were +nothing else in the case, I am of opinion, that to those who loathe the +taste of physic, it must needs be a dangerous and prejudicial endeavour +to force it down at so incommodious a time, and with so much aversion, +and believe that it marvellously distempers a sick person at a time when +he has so much need of repose. And more over, if we but consider the +occasions upon which they usually ground the cause of our diseases, they +are so light and nice, that I thence conclude a very little error in the +dispensation of their drugs may do a great deal of mischief. Now, if the +mistake of a physician be so dangerous, we are in but a scurvy condition; +for it is almost impossible but he must often fall into those mistakes: +he had need of too many parts, considerations, and circumstances, rightly +to level his design: he must know the sick person's complexion, his +temperament, his humours, inclinations, actions, nay, his very thoughts +and imaginations; he must be assured of the external circumstances, of +the nature of the place, the quality of the air and season, the situation +of the planets, and their influences: he must know in the disease, the +causes, prognostics, affections, and critical days; in the drugs, the +weight, the power of working, the country, figure, age, and dispensation, +and he must know how rightly to proportion and mix them together, to +beget a just and perfect symmetry; wherein if there be the least error, +if amongst so many springs there be but any one out of order, 'tis enough +to destroy us. God knows with how great difficulty most of these things +are to be understood: for (for example) how shall the physician find out +the true sign of the disease, every disease being capable of an infinite +number of indications? How many doubts and controversies have they +amongst themselves upon the interpretation of urines? otherwise, whence +should the continual debates we see amongst them about the knowledge of +the disease proceed? how could we excuse the error they so oft fall into, +of taking fox for marten? In the diseases I have had, though there were +ever so little difficulty in the case, I never found three of one +opinion: which I instance, because I love to introduce examples wherein I +am myself concerned. + +A gentleman at Paris was lately cut for the stone by order of the +physicians, in whose bladder, being accordingly so cut, there was found +no more stone than in the palm of his hand; and in the same place a +bishop, who was my particular friend, having been earnestly pressed by +the majority of the physicians whom he consulted, to suffer himself to be +cut, to which also, upon their word, I used my interest to persuade him, +when he was dead and opened, it appeared that he had no malady but in the +kidneys. They are least excusable for any error in this disease, by +reason that it is in some sort palpable; and 'tis thence that I conclude +surgery to be much more certain, by reason that it sees and feels what it +does, and so goes less upon conjecture; whereas the physicians have no +'speculum matricis', by which to examine our brains, lungs, and liver. + +Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves; for, +having to provide against divers and contrary accidents that often +afflict us at one and the same time, and that have almost a necessary +relation, as the heat of the liver and the coldness of the stomach, they +will needs persuade us, that of their ingredients one will heat the +stomach and the other will cool the liver: one has its commission to go +directly to the kidneys, nay, even to the bladder, without scattering its +operations by the way, and is to retain its power and virtue through all +those turns and meanders, even to the place to the service of which it is +designed, by its own occult property this will dry-the brain; that will +moisten the lungs. Of all this bundle of things having mixed up a +potion, is it not a kind of madness to imagine or to hope that these +differing virtues should separate themselves from one another in this +mixture and confusion, to perform so many various errands? I should very +much fear that they would either lose or change their tickets, and +disturb one another's quarters. And who can imagine but that, in this +liquid confusion, these faculties must corrupt, confound, and spoil one +another? And is not the danger still more when the making up of this +medicine is entrusted to the skill and fidelity of still another, to +whose mercy we again abandon our lives? + +As we have doublet and breeches-makers, distinct trades, to clothe us, +and are so much the better fitted, seeing that each of them meddles only +with his own business, and has less to trouble his head with than the +tailor who undertakes all; and as in matter of diet, great persons, for +their better convenience, and to the end they may be better served, have +cooks for the different offices, this for soups and potages, that for +roasting, instead of which if one cook should undertake the whole +service, he could not so well perform it; so also as to the cure of our +maladies. The Egyptians had reason to reject this general trade of +physician, and to divide the profession: to each disease, to each part of +the body, its particular workman; for that part was more properly and +with less confusion cared for, seeing the person looked to nothing else. +Ours are not aware that he who provides for all, provides for nothing; +and that the entire government of this microcosm is more than they are +able to undertake. Whilst they were afraid of stopping a dysentery, lest +they should put the patient into a fever, they killed me a friend, +--[Estienne de la Boetie.]-- who was worth more than the whole of them. +They counterpoise their own divinations with the present evils; and +because they will not cure the brain to the prejudice of the stomach, +they injure both with their dissentient and tumultuary drugs. + +As to the variety and weakness of the rationale of this art, they are +more manifest in it than in any other art; aperitive medicines are proper +for a man subject to the stone, by reason that opening and dilating the +passages they help forward the slimy matter whereof gravel and stone are +engendered, and convey that downward which begins to harden and gather in +the reins; aperitive things are dangerous for a man subject to the stone, +by reason that, opening and dilating the passages, they help forward the +matter proper to create the gravel toward the reins, which by their own +propension being apt to seize it, 'tis not to be imagined but that a +great deal of what has been conveyed thither must remain behind; +moreover, if the medicine happen to meet with anything too large to be +carried through all the narrow passages it must pass to be expelled, that +obstruction, whatever it is, being stirred by these aperitive things and +thrown into those narrow passages, coming to stop them, will occasion a +certain and most painful death. They have the like uniformity in the +counsels they give us for the regimen of life: it is good to make water +often; for we experimentally see that, in letting it lie long in the +bladder, we give it time to settle the sediment, which will concrete into +a stone; it is good not to make water often, for the heavy excrements it +carries along with it will not be voided without violence, as we see by +experience that a torrent that runs with force washes the ground it rolls +over much cleaner than the course of a slow and tardy stream; so, it is +good to have often to do with women, for that opens the passages and +helps to evacuate gravel; it is also very ill to have often to do with +women, because it heats, tires, and weakens the reins. It is good to +bathe frequently in hot water, forasmuch as that relaxes and mollifies +the places where the gravel and stone lie; it is also ill by reason that +this application of external heat helps the reins to bake, harden, and +petrify the matter so disposed. For those who are taking baths it is +most healthful. To eat little at night, to the end that the waters they +are to drink the next morning may have a better operation upon an empty +stomach; on the other hand, it is better to eat little at dinner, that it +hinder not the operation of the waters, while it is not yet perfect, and +not to oppress the stomach so soon after the other labour, but leave the +office of digestion to the night, which will much better perform it than +the day, when the body and soul are in perpetual moving and action. Thus +do they juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense; and +they could not give me one proposition against which I should not know +how to raise a contrary of equal force. Let them, then, no longer +exclaim against those who in this trouble of sickness suffer themselves +to be gently guided by their own appetite and the advice of nature, and +commit themselves to the common fortune. + +I have seen in my travels almost all the famous baths of Christendom, and +for some years past have begun to make use of them myself: for I look +upon bathing as generally wholesome, and believe that we suffer no little +inconveniences in our health by having left off the custom that was +generally observed, in former times, almost by all nations, and is yet in +many, of bathing every day; and I cannot imagine but that we are much the +worse by, having our limbs crusted and our pores stopped with dirt. And +as to the drinking of them, fortune has in the first place rendered them +not at all unacceptable to my taste; and secondly, they are natural and +simple, which at least carry no danger with them, though they may do us +no good, of which the infinite crowd of people of all sorts and +complexions who repair thither I take to be a sufficient warranty; and +although I have not there observed any extraordinary and miraculous +effects, but that on the contrary, having more narrowly than ordinary +inquired into it, I have found all the reports of such operations that +have been spread abroad in those places ill-grounded and false, and those +that believe them (as people are willing to be gulled in what they +desire) deceived in them, yet I have seldom known any who have been made +worse by those waters, and a man cannot honestly deny but that they beget +a better appetite, help digestion, and do in some sort revive us, if we +do not go too late and in too weak a condition, which I would dissuade +every one from doing. They have not the virtue to raise men from +desperate and inveterate diseases, but they may help some light +indisposition, or prevent some threatening alteration. He who does not +bring along with him so much cheerfulness as to enjoy the pleasure of the +company he will there meet, and of the walks and exercises to which the +amenity of those places invite us, will doubtless lose the best and +surest part of their effect. For this reason I have hitherto chosen to +go to those of the most pleasant situation, where there was the best +conveniency of lodging, provision, and company, as the baths of Bagneres +in France, those of Plombieres on the frontiers of Germany and Lorraine, +those of Baden in Switzerland, those of Lucca in Tuscany, and especially +those of Della Villa, which I have the most and at various seasons +frequented. + +Every nation has particular opinions touching their use, and particular +rules and methods in using them; and all of them, according to what I +have seen, almost with like effect. Drinking them is not at all received +in Germany; the Germans bathe for all diseases, and will lie dabbling in +the water almost from sun to sun; in Italy, where they drink nine days, +they bathe at least thirty, and commonly drink the water mixed with some +other drugs to make it work the better. Here we are ordered to walk to +digest it; there we are kept in bed after taking it till it be wrought +off, our stomachs and feet having continually hot cloths applied to them +all the while; and as the Germans have a particular practice generally to +use cupping and scarification in the bath, so the Italians have their +'doccie', which are certain little streams of this hot water brought +through pipes, and with these bathe an hour in the morning, and as much +in the afternoon, for a month together, either the head, stomach, or any +other part where the evil lies. There are infinite other varieties of +customs in every country, or rather there is no manner of resemblance to +one another. By this you may see that this little part of physic to +which I have only submitted, though the least depending upon art of all +others, has yet a great share of the confusion and uncertainty everywhere +else manifest in the profession. + +The poets put what they would say with greater emphasis and grace; +witness these two epigrams: + + "Alcon hesterno signum Jovis attigit: ille, + Quamvis marmoreus, vim patitur medici. + Ecce hodie, jussus transferri ex aeede vetusta, + Effertur, quamvis sit Deus atque lapis." + + ["Alcon yesterday touched Jove's statue; he, although marble, + suffers the force of the physician: to-day ordered to be transferred + from the old temple, where it stood, it is carried out, although it + be a god and a stone."--Ausonius, Ep., 74. + + +and the other: + + "Lotus nobiscum est, hilaris coenavit; et idem + Inventus mane est mortuus Andragoras. + Tam subitae mortis causam, Faustine, requiris? + In somnis medicum viderat Hermocratem:" + + ["Andragoras bathed with us, supped gaily, and in the morning the + same was found dead. Dost thou ask, Faustinus, the cause of this so + sudden death? In his dreams he had seen the physician Hermocrates." + --Martial, vi. 53.] + +upon which I will relate two stories. + +The Baron de Caupene in Chalosse and I have betwixt us the advowson of a +benefice of great extent, at the foot of our mountains, called Lahontan. +It is with the inhabitants of this angle, as 'tis said of those of the +Val d'Angrougne; they lived a peculiar sort of life, their fashions, +clothes, and manners distinct from other people; ruled and governed by +certain particular laws and usages, received from father to son, to which +they submitted, without other constraint than the reverence to custom. +This little state had continued from all antiquity in so happy a +condition, that no neighbouring judge was ever put to the trouble of +inquiring into their doings; no advocate was ever retained to give them +counsel, no stranger ever called in to compose their differences; nor was +ever any of them seen to go a-begging. They avoided all alliances and +traffic with the outer world, that they might not corrupt the purity of +their own government; till, as they say, one of them, in the memory of +man, having a mind spurred on with a noble ambition, took it into his +head, to bring his name into credit and reputation, to make one of his +sons something more than ordinary, and having put him to learn to write +in a neighbouring town, made him at last a brave village notary. This +fellow, having acquired such dignity, began to disdain their ancient +customs, and to buzz into the people's ears the pomp of the other parts +of the nation; the first prank he played was to advise a friend of his, +whom somebody had offended by sawing off the horns of one of his goats, +to make his complaint to the royal judges thereabout, and so he went on +from one to another, till he had spoiled and confounded all. In the tail +of this corruption, they say, there happened another, and of worse +consequence, by means of a physician, who, falling in love with one of +their daughters, had a mind to marry her and to live amongst them. This +man first of all began to teach them the names of fevers, colds, and +imposthumes; the seat of the heart, liver, and intestines, a science till +then utterly unknown to them; and instead of garlic, with which they were +wont to cure all manner of diseases, how painful or extreme soever, he +taught them, though it were but for a cough or any little cold, to take +strange mixtures, and began to make a trade not only of their health, but +of their lives. They swear till then they never perceived the evening +air to be offensive to the head; that to drink when they were hot was +hurtful, and that the winds of autumn were more unwholesome than those of +spring; that, since this use of physic, they find themselves oppressed +with a legion of unaccustomed diseases, and that they perceive a general +decay in their ancient vigour, and their lives are cut shorter by the +half. This is the first of my stories. + +The other is, that before I was afflicted with the stone, hearing that +the blood of a he-goat was with many in very great esteem, and looked +upon as a celestial manna rained down upon these latter ages for the good +and preservation of the lives of men, and having heard it spoken of by +men of understanding for an admirable drug, and of infallible operation; +I, who have ever thought myself subject to all the accidents that can +befall other men, had a mind, in my perfect health, to furnish myself +with this miracle, and therefore gave order to have a goat fed at home +according to the recipe: for he must be taken in the hottest month of all +summer, and must only have aperitive herbs given him to eat, and white +wine to drink. I came home by chance the very day he was to be killed; +and some one came and told me that the cook had found two or three great +balls in his paunch, that rattled against one another amongst what he had +eaten. I was curious to have all his entrails brought before me, where, +having caused the skin that enclosed them to be cut, there tumbled out +three great lumps, as light as sponges, so that they appeared to be +hollow, but as to the rest, hard and firm without, and spotted and mixed +all over with various dead colours; one was perfectly round, and of the +bigness of an ordinary ball; the other two something less, of an +imperfect roundness, as seeming not to be arrived at their, full growth. +I find, by inquiry of people accustomed to open these animals, that it is +a rare and unusual accident. 'Tis likely these are stones of the same +nature with ours and if so, it must needs be a very vain hope in +those who have the stone, to extract their cure from the blood of a beast +that was himself about to die of the same disease. For to say that the +blood does not participate of this contagion, and does not thence alter +its wonted virtue, it is rather to be believed that nothing is engendered +in a body but by the conspiracy and communication of all the parts: the +whole mass works together, though one part contributes more to the work +than another, according to the diversity of operations; wherefore it is +very likely that there was some petrifying quality in all the parts of +this goat. It was not so much for fear of the future, and for myself, +that I was curious in this experiment, but because it falls out in mine, +as it does in many other families, that the women store up such little +trumperies for the service of the people, using the same recipe in fifty +several diseases, and such a recipe as they will not take themselves, and +yet triumph when they happen to be successful. + +As to what remains, I honour physicians, not according to the precept +for their necessity (for to this passage may be opposed another of the +prophet reproving King Asa for having recourse to a physician), but for +themselves, having known many very good men of that profession, and most +worthy to be beloved. I do not attack them; 'tis their art I inveigh +against, and do not much blame them for making their advantage of our +folly, for most men do the same. Many callings, both of greater and of +less dignity than theirs, have no other foundation or support than public +abuse. When I am sick I send for them if they be near, only to have +their company, and pay them as others do. I give them leave to command +me to keep myself warm, because I naturally love to do it, and to appoint +leeks or lettuce for my broth; to order me white wine or claret; and so +as to all other things, which are indifferent to my palate and custom. +I know very well that I do nothing for them in so doing, because +sharpness and strangeness are incidents of the very essence of physic. +Lycurgus ordered wine for the sick Spartans. Why? because they +abominated the drinking it when they were well; as a gentleman, a +neighbour of mine, takes it as an excellent medicine in his fever, +because naturally he mortally hates the taste of it. How many do we see +amongst them of my humour, who despise taking physic themselves, are men +of a liberal diet, and live a quite contrary sort of life to what they +prescribe others? What is this but flatly to abuse our simplicity? for +their own lives and health are no less dear to them than ours are to us, +and consequently they would accommodate their practice to their rules, if +they did not themselves know how false these are. + +'Tis the fear of death and of pain, impatience of disease, and a violent +and indiscreet desire of a present cure, that so blind us: 'tis pure +cowardice that makes our belief so pliable and easy to be imposed upon: +and yet most men do not so much believe as they acquiesce and permit; for +I hear them find fault and complain as well as we; but they resolve at +last, "What should I do then?" As if impatience were of itself a better +remedy than patience. Is there any one of those who have suffered +themselves to be persuaded into this miserable subjection, who does not +equally surrender himself to all sorts of impostures? who does not give +up himself to the mercy of whoever has the impudence to promise him a +cure? The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square; the +physician was the people: every one who passed by being in humanity and +civility obliged to inquire of their condition, gave some advice +according to his own experience." We do little better; there is not so +simple a woman, whose gossips and drenches we do not make use of: and +according to my humour, if I were to take physic, I would sooner choose +to take theirs than any other, because at least, if they do no good, they +will do no harm. What Homer and Plato said of the Egyptians, that they +were all physicians, may be said of all nations; there is not a man +amongst any of them who does not boast of some rare recipe, and who will +not venture it upon his neighbour, if he will let him. I was the other +day in a company where one, I know not who, of my fraternity brought us +intelligence of a new sort of pills made up of a hundred and odd +ingredients: it made us very merry, and was a singular consolation, for +what rock could withstand so great a battery? And yet I hear from those +who have made trial of it, that the least atom of gravel deigned not to +stir fort. + +I cannot take my hand from the paper before I have added a word +concerning the assurance they give us of the certainty of their drugs, +from the experiments they have made. + +The greatest part, I should say above two-thirds of the medicinal +virtues, consist in the quintessence or occult property of simples, +of which we can have no other instruction than use and custom; for +quintessence is no other than a quality of which we cannot by our reason +find out the cause. In such proofs, those they pretend to have acquired +by the inspiration of some daemon, I am content to receive (for I meddle +not with miracles); and also the proofs which are drawn from things that, +upon some other account, often fall into use amongst us; as if in the +wool, wherewith we are wont to clothe ourselves, there has accidentally +some occult desiccative property been found out of curing kibed heels, or +as if in the radish we eat for food there has been found out some +aperitive operation. Galen reports, that a man happened to be cured of a +leprosy by drinking wine out of a vessel into which a viper had crept by +chance. In this example we find the means and a very likely guide and +conduct to this experience, as we also do in those that physicians +pretend to have been directed to by the example of some beasts. But in +most of their other experiments wherein they affirm they have been +conducted by fortune, and to have had no other guide than chance, I find +the progress of this information incredible. Suppose man looking round +about him upon the infinite number of things, plants, animals, metals; +I do not know where he would begin his trial; and though his first fancy +should fix him upon an elk's horn, wherein there must be a very pliant +and easy belief, he will yet find himself as perplexed in his second +operation. There are so many maladies and so many circumstances +presented to him, that before he can attain the certainty of the point to +which the perfection of his experience should arrive, human sense will be +at the end of its lesson: and before he can, amongst this infinity of +things, find out what this horn is; amongst so many diseases, what is +epilepsy; the many complexions in a melancholy person; the many seasons +in winter; the many nations in the French; the many ages in age; the many +celestial mutations in the conjunction of Venus and Saturn; the many +parts in man's body, nay, in a finger; and being, in all this, directed +neither by argument, conjecture, example, nor divine inspirations, but +merely by the sole motion of fortune, it must be by a perfectly +artificial, regular and methodical fortune. And after the cure is +performed, how can he assure himself that it was not because the disease +had arrived at its period or an effect of chance? or the operation of +something else that he had eaten, drunk, or touched that day? or by +virtue of his grandmother's prayers? And, moreover, had this experiment +been perfect, how many times was it repeated, and this long bead-roll of +haps, and concurrences strung anew by chance to conclude a certain rule? +And when the rule is concluded, by whom, I pray you? Of so many +millions, there are but three men who take upon them to record their +experiments: must fortune needs just hit one of these? What if another, +and a hundred others, have made contrary experiments? We might, +peradventure, have some light in this, were all the judgments and +arguments of men known to us; but that three witnesses, three doctors, +should lord it over all mankind, is against reason: it were necessary +that human nature should have deputed and chosen them out, and that they +were declared our comptrollers by express procuration: + + +"TO MADAME DE DURAS. + + --[Marguerite de Grammont, widow of Jean de Durfort, Seigneur de + Duras, who was killed near Leghorn, leaving no posterity. Montaigne + seems to have been on terms of considerable intimacy with her, and + to have tendered her some very wholesome and frank advice in regard + to her relations with Henry IV.]-- + +MADAME,--The last time you honoured me with a visit, you found me at work +upon this chapter, and as these trifles may one day fall into your hands, +I would also that they testify in how great honour the author will take +any favour you shall please to show them. You will there find the same +air and mien you have observed in his conversation; and though I could +have borrowed some better or more favourable garb than my own, I would +not have done it: for I require nothing more of these writings, but to +present me to your memory such as I naturally am. The same conditions +and faculties you have been pleased to frequent and receive with much +more honour and courtesy than they deserve, I would put together (but +without alteration or change) in one solid body, that may peradventure +continue some years, or some days, after I am gone; where you may find +them again when you shall please to refresh your memory, without putting +you to any greater trouble; neither are they worth it. I desire you +should continue the favour of your friendship to me, by the same +qualities by which it was acquired. + +"I am not at all ambitious that any one should love and esteem me more +dead than living. The humour of Tiberius is ridiculous, but yet common, +who was more solicitous to extend his renown to posterity than to render +himself acceptable to men of his own time. If I were one of those to +whom the world could owe commendation, I would give out of it one-half to +have the other in hand; let their praises come quick and crowding about +me, more thick than long, more full than durable; and let them cease, in +God's name, with my own knowledge of them, and when the sweet sound can +no longer pierce my ears. It were an idle humour to essay, now that I am +about to forsake the commerce of men, to offer myself to them by a new +recommendation. I make no account of the goods I could not employ in the +service of my life. Such as I am, I will be elsewhere than in paper: my +art and industry have been ever directed to render myself good for +something; my studies, to teach me to do, and not to write. I have made +it my whole business to frame my life: this has been my trade and my +work; I am less a writer of books than anything else. I have coveted +understanding for the service of my present and real conveniences, and +not to lay up a stock for my posterity. He who has anything of value in +him, let him make it appear in his conduct, in his ordinary discourses, +in his courtships, and his quarrels: in play, in bed, at table, in the +management of his affairs, in his economics. Those whom I see make good +books in ill breeches, should first have mended their breeches, if they +would have been ruled by me. Ask a Spartan whether he had rather be a +good orator or a good soldier: and if I was asked the same question, I +would rather choose to be a good cook, had I not one already to serve me. +My God! Madame, how should I hate such a recommendation of being a +clever fellow at writing, and an ass and an inanity in everything else! +Yet I had rather be a fool both here and there than to have made so ill a +choice wherein to employ my talent. And I am so far from expecting to +gain any new reputation by these follies, that I shall think I come off +pretty well if I lose nothing by them of that little I had before. For +besides that this dead and mute painting will take from my natural being, +it has no resemblance to my better condition, but is much lapsed from my +former vigour and cheerfulness, growing faded and withered: I am towards +the bottom of the barrel, which begins to taste of the lees. + +"As to the rest, Madame, I should not have dared to make so bold with the +mysteries of physic, considering the esteem that you and so many others +have of it, had I not had encouragement from their own authors. I think +there are of these among the old Latin writers but two, Pliny and Celsus +if these ever fall into your hands, you will find that they speak much +more rudely of their art than I do; I but pinch it, they cut its throat. +Pliny, amongst other things, twits them with this, that when they are at +the end of their rope, they have a pretty device to save themselves, by +recommending their patients, whom they have teased and tormented with +their drugs and diets to no purpose, some to vows and miracles, others to +the hot baths. (Be not angry, Madame; he speaks not of those in our +parts, which are under the protection of your house, and all Gramontins.) +They have a third way of saving their own credit, of ridding their hands +of us and securing themselves from the reproaches we might cast in their +teeth of our little amendment, when they have had us so long in their +hands that they have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us, +which is to send us to the better air of some other country. This, +Madame, is enough; I hope you will give me leave to return to my +discourse, from which I have so far digressed, the better to divert you." + +It was, I think, Pericles, who being asked how he did: "You may judge," +says he, "by these," showing some little scrolls of parchment he had tied +about his neck and arms. By which he would infer that he must needs be +very sick when he was reduced to a necessity of having recourse to such +idle and vain fopperies, and of suffering himself to be so equipped. +I dare not promise but that I may one day be so much a fool as to commit +my life and death to the mercy and government of physicians; I may fall +into such a frenzy; I dare not be responsible for my future constancy: +but then, if any one ask me how I do, I may also answer, as Pericles did, +"You may judge by this," shewing my hand clutching six drachms of opium. +It will be a very evident sign of a violent sickness: my judgment will be +very much out of order; if once fear and impatience get such an advantage +over me, it may very well be concluded that there is a dreadful fever in +my mind. + +I have taken the pains to plead this cause, which I understand +indifferently, a little to back and support the natural aversion to drugs +and the practice of physic I have derived from my ancestors, to the end +it may not be a mere stupid and inconsiderate aversion, but have a little +more form; and also, that they who shall see me so obstinate in my +resolution against all exhortations and menaces that shall be given me, +when my infirmity shall press hardest upon me, may not think 'tis mere +obstinacy in me; or any one so ill-natured as to judge it to be any +motive of glory: for it would be a strange ambition to seek to gain +honour by an action my gardener or my groom can perform as well as I. +Certainly, I have not a heart so tumorous and windy, that I should +exchange so solid a pleasure as health for an airy and imaginary +pleasure: glory, even that of the Four Sons of Aymon, is too dear bought +by a man of my humour, if it cost him three swinging fits of the stone. +Give me health, in God's name! Such as love physic, may also have good, +great, and convincing considerations; I do not hate opinions contrary to +my own: I am so, far from being angry to see a discrepancy betwixt mine +and other men's judgments, and from rendering myself unfit for the +society of men, from being of another sense and party than mine, that on +the contrary (the most general way that nature has followed being +variety, and more in souls than bodies, forasmuch as they are of a more +supple substance, and more susceptible of forms) I find it much more rare +to see our humours and designs jump and agree. And there never were, in +the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains: +their most universal quality is diversity. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +I am towards the bottom of the barrel +Accusing all others of ignorance and imposition +Affection towards their husbands, (not)until they have lost them +Anything of value in him, let him make it appear in his conduct +As if impatience were of itself a better remedy than patience +Assurance they give us of the certainty of their drugs +At least, if they do no good, they will do no harm +Attribute to itself; all the happy successes that happen +Best part of a captain to know how to make use of occasions +Burnt and roasted for opinions taken upon trust from others +Commit themselves to the common fortune +Crafty humility that springs from presumption +Did not approve all sorts of means to obtain a victory +Disease had arrived at its period or an effect of chance? +Dissentient and tumultuary drugs +Do not much blame them for making their advantage of our folly +Doctors: more felicity and duration in their own lives? +Doctrine much more intricate and fantastic than the thing itself +Drugs being in its own nature an enemy to our health +Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves +Fathers conceal their affection from their children +He who provides for all, provides for nothing +Health depends upon the vanity and falsity of their promises +Health is altered and corrupted by their frequent prescriptions +Health to be worth purchasing by all the most painful cauteries +Homer: The only words that have motion and action +I dare not promise but that I may one day be so much a fool +I see no people so soon sick as those who take physic +Indiscreet desire of a present cure, that so blind us +Intended to get a new husband than to lament the old +Let it alone a little +Life should be cut off in the sound and living part +Live a quite contrary sort of life to what they prescribe others +Live, not so long as they please, but as long as they ought +Llaying the fault upon the patient, by such frivolous reasons +Long a voyage I should at last run myself into some disadvantage +Making their advantage of our folly, for most men do the same +Man may with less trouble adapt himself to entire abstinence +Man runs a very great hazard in their hands (of physicians) +Mark of singular good nature to preserve old age +Men must embark, and not deliberate, upon high enterprises +Mercenaries who would receive any (pay) +Moderation is a virtue that gives more work than suffering +More valued a victory obtained by counsel than by force +Most men do not so much believe as they acquiesce and permit +Never any man knew so much, and spake so little +No danger with them, though they may do us no good +No other foundation or support than public abuse +No physic that has not something hurtful in it +Noble and rich, where examples of virtue are rarely lodged +Obstinacy is the sister of constancy +Order a purge for your brain, it will there be much better +Ordinances it (Medicine)foists upon us +Passion has a more absolute command over us than reason +Pay very strict usury who did not in due time pay the principal +People are willing to be gulled in what they desire +Physician's "help", which is very often an obstacle +Physicians are not content to deal only with the sick +Physicians fear men should at any time escape their authority +Physicians were the only men who might lie at pleasure +Physicians: earth covers their failures +Plato said of the Egyptians, that they were all physicians +Pure cowardice that makes our belief so pliable +Recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear purchase +Send us to the better air of some other country +Should first have mended their breeches +Smile upon us whilst we are alive +So austere and very wise countenance and carriage :of physicians +So much are men enslaved to their miserable being +Solon said "that eating was physic against the malady hunger +Strangely suspect all this merchandise: medical care +Studies, to teach me to do, and not to write +Such a recipe as they will not take themselves +That he could neither read nor swim +The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square +They (good women) are not by the dozen, as every one knows +They have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us +They juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense +They never loved them till dead +Tis in some sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living wel +Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men +Tis there she talks plain French +To be, not to seem +To keep me from dying is not in your power +Two opinions alike, no more than two hairs +Tyrannical authority physicians usurp over poor creatures +Venture it upon his neighbour, if he will let him +Venture the making ourselves better without any danger +We confess our ignorance in many things +We do not easily accept the medicine we understand +What are become of all our brave philosophical precepts? +What we have not seen, we are forced to receive from other hands +Whatever was not ordinary diet, was instead of a drug +Whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead +Who does not boast of some rare recipe +Who ever saw one physician approve of another's prescription +Willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead +With being too well I am about to die +Wont to give others their life, and not to receive it +You may indeed make me die an ill death + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V13 +By Michel de Montaigne + diff --git a/old/mn13v10.zip b/old/mn13v10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f27aa3f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mn13v10.zip diff --git a/old/mn13v11.txt b/old/mn13v11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0066d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mn13v11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3114 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V13 +#13 in our series by Michel de Montaigne, Translator: Cotton +Edited by William Carew Hazlitt, 1877 + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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Of the resemblance of children to their fathers. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + +DEFENCE OF SENECA AND PLUTARCH + +The familiarity I have with these two authors, and the assistance they +have lent to my age and to my book, wholly compiled of what I have +borrowed from them, oblige me to stand up for their honour. + +As to Seneca, amongst a million of little pamphlets that those of the so- +called reformed religion disperse abroad for the defence of their cause +(and which sometimes proceed from so good a hand, that 'tis pity his pen +is not employed in a better subject), I have formerly seen one, that to +make up the parallel he would fain find out betwixt the government of our +late poor King Charles IX. and that of Nero, compares the late Cardinal +of Lorraine with Seneca; their fortunes, in having both of them been the +prime ministers in the government of their princes, and in their manners, +conditions, and deportments to have been very near alike. Wherein, in my +opinion, he does the said cardinal a very great honour; for though I am +one of those who have a very high esteem for his wit, eloquence, and zeal +to religion and the service of his king, and his good fortune to have +lived in an age wherein it was so novel, so rare, and also so necessary +for the public good to have an ecclesiastical person of such high birth +and dignity, and so sufficient and capable of his place; yet, to confess +the truth, I do not think his capacity by many degrees near to the other, +nor his virtue either so clean, entire, or steady as that of Seneca. + +Now the book whereof I speak, to bring about its design, gives a very +injurious description of Seneca, having borrowed its approaches from Dion +the historian, whose testimony I do not at all believe for besides that +he is inconsistent, that after having called Seneca one while very wise, +and again a mortal enemy to Nero's vices, makes him elsewhere avaricious, +an usurer, ambitious, effeminate, voluptuous, and a false pretender to +philosophy, his virtue appears so vivid and vigorous in his writings, and +his vindication is so clear from any of these imputations, as of his +riches and extraordinarily expensive way of living, that I cannot believe +any testimony to the contrary. And besides, it is much more reasonable +to believe the Roman historians in such things than Greeks and +foreigners. Now Tacitus and the rest speak very honourably both of his +life and death; and represent him to us a very excellent and virtuous +person in all things; and I will allege no other reproach against Dion's +report but this, which I cannot avoid, namely, that he has so weak a +judgment in the Roman affairs, that he dares to maintain Julius Caesar's +cause against Pompey [And so does this editor. D.W.], and that of Antony +against Cicero. + +Let us now come to Plutarch: Jean Bodin is a good author of our times, +and a writer of much greater judgment than the rout of scribblers of his +age, and who deserves to be read and considered. I find him, though, a +little bold in this passage of his Method of history, where he accuses +Plutarch not only of ignorance (wherein I would have let him alone: for +that is beyond my criticism), but that he "often writes things +incredible, and absolutely fabulous ": these are his own words. If he +had simply said, that he had delivered things otherwise than they really +are, it had been no great reproach; for what we have not seen, we are +forced to receive from other hands, and take upon trust, and I see that +he purposely sometimes variously relates the same story; as the judgment +of the three best captains that ever were, given by Hannibal; 'tis one +way in the Life of Flammius, and another in that of Pyrrhus. But to +charge him with having taken incredible and impossible things for current +pay, is to accuse the most judicious author in the world of want of +judgment. And this is his example; "as," says he, "when he relates that +a Lacedaemonian boy suffered his bowels to be torn out by a fox-cub he +had stolen, and kept it still concealed under his coat till he fell down +dead, rather than he would discover his theft." I find, in the first +place, this example ill chosen, forasmuch as it is very hard to limit the +power of the faculties of--the soul, whereas we have better authority to +limit and know the force of the bodily limbs; and therefore, if I had +been he, I should rather have chosen an example of this second sort; and +there are some of these less credible: and amongst others, that which he +refates of Pyrrhus, that "all wounded as he was, he struck one of his +enemies, who was armed from head to foot, so great a blow with his sword, +that he clave him down from his crown to his seat, so that the body was +divided into two parts." In this example I find no great miracle, nor do +I admit the excuse with which he defends Plutarch, in having added these +words, "as 'tis said," to suspend our belief; for unless it be in things +received by authority, and the reverence to antiquity or religion, he +would never have himself admitted, or enjoined us to believe things +incredible in themselves; and that these words, "as 'tis said," are not +put in this place to that effect, is easy to be seen, because he +elsewhere relates to us, upon this subject, of the patience of the +Lacedaemonian children, examples happening in his time, more unlikely to +prevail upon our faith; as what Cicero has also testified before him, as +having, as he says, been upon the spot: that even to their times there +were children found who, in the trial of patience they were put to before +the altar of Diana, suffered themselves to be there whipped till the +blood ran down all over their bodies, not only without crying out, but +without so much as a groan, and some till they there voluntarily lost +their lives: and that which Plutarch also, amongst a hundred other +witnesses, relates, that at a sacrifice, a burning coal having fallen +into the sleeve of a Lacedaemonian boy, as he was censing, he suffered +his whole arm to be burned, till the smell of the broiling flesh was +perceived by those present. There was nothing, according to their +custom, wherein their reputation was more concerned, nor for which they +were to undergo more blame and disgrace, than in being taken in theft. +I am so fully satisfied of the greatness of those people, that this story +does not only not appear to me, as to Bodin, incredible; but I do not +find it so much as rare and strange. The Spartan history is full of a +thousand more cruel and rare examples; and is; indeed, all miracle in +this respect. + +Marcellinus, concerning theft, reports that in his time there was no sort +of torments which could compel the Egyptians, when taken in this act, +though a people very much addicted to it, so much as to tell their name. + +A Spanish peasant, being put to the rack as to the accomplices of the +murder of the Praetor Lucius Piso, cried out in the height of the +torment, "that his friends should not leave him, but look on in all +assurance, and that no pain had the power to force from him one word of +confession," which was all they could get the first day. The next day, +as they were leading him a second time to another trial, strongly +disengaging himself from the hands of his guards, he furiously ran his +head against a wall, and beat out his brains. + +Epicharis, having tired and glutted the cruelty of Nero's satellites, and +undergone their fire, their beating, their racks, a whole day together, +without one syllable of confession of her conspiracy; being the next day +brought again to the rack, with her limbs almost torn to pieces, conveyed +the lace of her robe with a running noose over one of the arms of her +chair, and suddenly slipping her head into it, with the weight of her own +body hanged herself. Having the courage to die in that manner, is it not +to be presumed that she purposely lent her life to the trial of her +fortitude the day before, to mock the tyrant, and encourage others to the +like attempt? + +And whoever will inquire of our troopers the experiences they have had in +our civil wars, will find effects of patience and obstinate resolution in +this miserable age of ours, and amongst this rabble even more effeminate +than the Egyptians, worthy to be compared with those we have just related +of the Spartan virtue. + +I know there have been simple peasants amongst us who have endured the +soles of their feet to be broiled upon a gridiron, their finger-ends to +be crushed with the cock of a pistol, and their bloody eyes squeezed out +of their heads by force of a cord twisted about their brows, before they +would so much as consent to a ransom. I have seen one left stark naked +for dead in a ditch, his neck black and swollen, with a halter yet about +it with which they had dragged him all night at a horse's tail, his body +wounded in a hundred places, with stabs of daggers that had been given +him, not to kill him, but to put him to pain and to affright him, who had +endured all this, and even to being speechless and insensible, resolved, +as he himself told me, rather to die a thousand deaths (as indeed, as to +matter of suffering, he had borne one) before he would promise anything; +and yet he was one of the richest husbandmen of all the country. How +many have been seen patiently to suffer themselves to be burnt and +roasted for opinions taken upon trust from others, and by them not at all +understood? I have known a hundred and a hundred women (for Gascony has +a certain prerogative for obstinacy) whom you might sooner have made eat +fire than forsake an opinion they had conceived in anger. They are all +the more exasperated by blows and constraint. And he that made the story +of the woman who, in defiance of all correction, threats, and +bastinadoes, ceased not to call her husband lousy knave, and who being +plunged over head and ears in water, yet lifted her hands above her head +and made a sign of cracking lice, feigned a tale of which, in truth, we +every day see a manifest image in the obstinacy of women. And obstinacy +is the sister of constancy, at least in vigour and stability. + +We are not to judge what is possible and what is not, according to what +is credible and incredible to our apprehension, as I have said elsewhere +and it is a great fault, and yet one that most men are guilty of, which, +nevertheless, I do not mention with any reflection upon Bodin, to make a +difficulty of believing that in another which they could not or would not +do themselves. Every one thinks that the sovereign stamp of human nature +is imprinted in him, and that from it all others must take their rule; +and that all proceedings which are not like his are feigned and false. +Is anything of another's actions or faculties proposed to him? the first +thing he calls to the consultation of his judgment is his own example; +and as matters go with him, so they must of necessity do with all the +world besides dangerous and intolerable folly! For my part, I consider +some men as infinitely beyond me, especially amongst the ancients, and +yet, though I clearly discern my inability to come near them by a +thousand paces, I do not forbear to keep them in sight, and to judge of +what so elevates them, of which I perceive some seeds in myself, as I +also do of the extreme meanness of some other minds, which I neither am +astonished at nor yet misbelieve. I very well perceive the turns those +great souls take to raise themselves to such a pitch, and admire their +grandeur; and those flights that I think the bravest I could be glad to +imitate; where, though I want wing, yet my judgment readily goes along +with them. The other example he introduces of "things incredible and +wholly fabulous," delivered by Plutarch, is, that "Agesilaus was fined by +the Ephori for having wholly engrossed the hearts and affections of his +citizens to himself alone." And herein I do not see what sign of falsity +is to be found: clearly Plutarch speaks of things that must needs be +better known to him than to us; and it was no new thing in Greece to see +men punished and exiled for this very thing, for being too acceptable to +the people; witness the Ostracism and Petalism.--[Ostracism at Athens +was banishment for ten years; petalism at Syracuse was banishment for +five years.] + +There is yet in this place another accusation laid against Plutarch which +I cannot well digest, where Bodin says that he has sincerely paralleled +Romans with Romans, and Greeks amongst themselves, but not Romans with +Greeks; witness, says he, Demosthenes and Cicero, Cato and Aristides, +Sylla and Lysander, Marcellus and Pelopidas, Pompey and Agesilaus, +holding that he has favoured the Greeks in giving them so unequal +companions. This is really to attack what in Plutarch is most excellent +and most to be commended; for in his parallels (which is the most +admirable part of all his works, and with which, in my opinion, he is +himself the most pleased) the fidelity and sincerity of his judgments +equal their depth and weight; he is a philosopher who teaches us virtue. +Let us see whether we cannot defend him from this reproach of falsity and +prevarication. All that I can imagine could give occasion to this +censure is the great and shining lustre of the Roman names which we have +in our minds; it does not seem likely to us that Demosthenes could rival +the glory of a consul, proconsul, and proctor of that great Republic; but +if a man consider the truth of the thing, and the men in themselves, +which is Plutarch's chiefest aim, and will rather balance their manners, +their natures, and parts, than their fortunes, I think, contrary to +Bodin, that Cicero and the elder Cato come far short of the men with whom +they are compared. I should sooner, for his purpose, have chosen the +example of the younger Cato compared with Phocion, for in this couple +there would have been a more likely disparity, to the Roman's advantage. +As to Marcellus, Sylla, and Pompey, I very well discern that their +exploits of war are greater and more full of pomp and glory than those of +the Greeks, whom Plutarch compares with them; but the bravest and most +virtuous actions any more in war than elsewhere, are not always the most +renowned. I often see the names of captains obscured by the splendour of +other names of less desert; witness Labienus, Ventidius, Telesinus, and +several others. And to take it by that, were I to complain on the behalf +of the Greeks, could I not say, that Camillus was much less comparable to +Themistocles, the Gracchi to Agis and Cleomenes, and Numa to Lycurgus? +But 'tis folly to judge, at one view, of things that have so many +aspects. When Plutarch compares them, he does not, for all that, make +them equal; who could more learnedly and sincerely have marked their +distinctions? Does he parallel the victories, feats of arms, the force +of the armies conducted by Pompey, and his triumphs, with those of +Agesilaus? "I do not believe," says he, "that Xenophon himself, if he +were now living, though he were allowed to write whatever pleased him to +the advantage of Agesilaus, would dare to bring them into comparison." +Does he speak of paralleling Lysander to Sylla. "There is," says he, +"no comparison, either in the number of victories or in the hazard of +battles, for Lysander only gained two naval battles." This is not to +derogate from the Romans; for having only simply named them with the +Greeks, he can have done them no injury, what disparity soever there may +be betwixt them and Plutarch does not entirely oppose them to one +another; there is no preference in general; he only compares the pieces +and circumstances one after another, and gives of every one a particular +and separate judgment. Wherefore, if any one could convict him of +partiality, he ought to pick out some one of those particular judgments, +or say, in general, that he was mistaken in comparing such a Greek to +such a Roman, when there were others more fit and better resembling to +parallel him to. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE STORY OF SPURINA + +Philosophy thinks she has not ill employed her talent when she has given +the sovereignty of the soul and the authority of restraining our +appetites to reason. Amongst which, they who judge that there is none +more violent than those which spring from love, have this opinion also, +that they seize both body and soul, and possess the whole man, so that +even health itself depends upon them, and medicine is sometimes +constrained to pimp for them; but one might, on the contrary, also say, +that the mixture of the body brings an abatement and weakening; for such +desires are subject to satiety, and capable of material remedies. + +Many, being determined to rid their soul from the continual alarms of +this appetite, have made use of incision and amputation of the rebelling +members; others have subdued their force and ardour by the frequent +application of cold things, as snow and vinegar. The sackcloths of our +ancestors were for this purpose, which is cloth woven of horse hair, of +which some of them made shirts, and others girdles, to torture and +correct their reins. A prince, not long ago, told me that in his youth +upon a solemn festival in the court of King Francis I., where everybody +was finely dressed, he would needs put on his father's hair shirt, which +was still kept in the house; but how great soever his devotion was, he +had not patience to wear it till night, and was sick a long time after; +adding withal, that he did not think there could be any youthful heat so +fierce that the use of this recipe would not mortify, and yet perhaps he +never essayed the most violent; for experience shows us, that such +emotions are often seen under rude and slovenly clothes, and that a hair +shirt does not always render those chaste who wear it. + +Xenocrates proceeded with greater rigour in this affair; for his +disciples, to make trial of his continency, having slipt Lais, that +beautiful and famous courtesan, into his bed, quite naked, excepting the +arms of her beauty and her wanton allurements, her philters, finding +that, in despite of his reason and philosophical rules, his unruly flesh +began to mutiny, he caused those members of his to be burned that he +found consenting to this rebellion. Whereas the passions which wholly +reside in the soul, as ambition, avarice, and the rest, find the reason +much more to do, because it cannot there be helped but by its own means; +neither are those appetites capable of satiety, but grow sharper and +increase by fruition. + +The sole example of Julius Caesar may suffice to demonstrate to us the +disparity of these appetites; for never was man more addicted to amorous +delights than he: of which one testimony is the peculiar care he had of +his person, to such a degree, as to make use of the most lascivious means +to that end then in use, as to have all the hairs of his body twitched +off, and to wipe all over with perfumes with the extremest nicety. +And he was a beautiful person in himself, of a fair complexion, tall, +and sprightly, full faced, with quick hazel eyes, if we may believe +Suetonius; for the statues of him that we see at Rome do not in all +points answer this description. Besides his wives, whom he four times +changed, without reckoning the amours of his boyhood with Nicomedes, king +of Bithynia, he had the maidenhead of the renowned Cleopatra, queen of +Egypt; witness the little Caesario whom he had by her. He also made love +to. Eunoe, queen of Mauritania, and at Rome, to Posthumia, the wife of +Servius Sulpitius; to Lollia, the wife of Gabinius to Tertulla, the wife +of Crassus, and even to Mutia, wife to the great Pompey: which was the +reason, the Roman historians say, that she was repudiated by her husband, +which Plutarch confesses to be more than he knew; and the Curios, both +father and son, afterwards reproached Pompey, when he married Caesar's +daughter, that he had made himself son-in-law to a man who had made him +cuckold, and one whom he himself was wont to call AEgisthus. Besides all +these, he entertained Servilia, Cato's sister and mother to Marcus +Brutus, whence, every one believes, proceeded the great affection he had +to Brutus, by reason that he was born at a time when it was likely he +might be his son. So that I have reason, methinks, to take him for a man +extremely given to this debauch, and of very amorous constitution. But +the other passion of ambition, with which he was infinitely smitten, +arising in him to contend with the former, it was boon compelled to give +way. + +And here calling to mind Mohammed, who won Constantinople, and finally +exterminated the Grecian name, I do not know where these two were so +evenly balanced; equally an indefatigable lecher and soldier: but where +they both meet in his life and jostle one another, the quarrelling +passion always gets the better of the amorous one, and this though it was +out of its natural season never regained an absolute sovereignty over the +other till he had arrived at an extreme old age and unable to undergo the +fatigues of war. + +What is related for a contrary example of Ladislaus, king of Naples, is +very remarkable; that being a great captain, valiant and ambitious, he +proposed to himself for the principal end of his ambition, the execution +of his pleasure and the enjoyment of some rare and excellent beauty. His +death sealed up all the rest: for having by a close and tedious siege +reduced the city of Florence to so great distress that the inhabitants +were compelled to capitulate about surrender, he was content to let them +alone, provided they would deliver up to him a beautiful maid he had +heard of in their city; they were forced to yield to it, and by a private +injury to avert the public ruin. She was the daughter of a famous +physician of his time, who, finding himself involved in so foul a +necessity, resolved upon a high attempt. As every one was lending a hand +to trick up his daughter and to adorn her with ornaments and jewels to +render her more agreeable to this new lover, he also gave her a +handkerchief most richly wrought, and of an exquisite perfume, an +implement they never go without in those parts, which she was to make use +of at their first approaches. This handkerchief, poisoned with his +greatest art, coming to be rubbed between the chafed flesh and open +pores, both of the one and the other, so suddenly infused the poison, +that immediately converting their warm into a cold sweat they presently +died in one another's arms. + +But I return to Caesar. His pleasures never made him steal one minute of +an hour, nor go one step aside from occasions that might any way conduce +to his advancement. This passion was so sovereign in him over all the +rest, and with so absolute authority possessed his soul, that it guided +him at pleasure. In truth, this troubles me, when, as to everything +else, I consider the greatness of this man, and the wonderful parts +wherewith he was endued; learned to that degree in all sorts of knowledge +that there is hardly any one science of which he has not written; so +great an orator that many have preferred his eloquence to that of Cicero, +and he, I conceive, did not think himself inferior to him in that +particular, for his two anti-Catos were written to counterbalance the +elocution that Cicero had expended in his Cato. As to the rest, was ever +soul so vigilant, so active, and so patient of labour as his? and, +doubtless, it was embellished with many rare seeds of virtue, lively, +natural, and not put on; he was singularly sober; so far from being +delicate in his diet, that Oppius relates, how that having one day at +table set before him medicated instead of common oil in some sauce, he +ate heartily of it, that he might not put his entertainer out of +countenance. Another time he caused his baker to be whipped for serving +him with a finer than ordinary sort of bread. Cato himself was wont to +say of him, that he was the first sober man who ever made it his business +to ruin his country. And as to the same Cato's calling, him one day +drunkard, it fell out thus being both of them in the Senate, at a time +when Catiline's conspiracy was in question of which was Caesar was +suspected, one came and brought him a letter sealed up. Cato believing +that it was something the conspirators gave him notice of, required him +to deliver into his hand, which Caesar was constrained to do to avoid +further suspicion. It was by chance a love-letter that Servilia, Cato's +sister, had written to him, which Cato having read, he threw it back to +him saying, "There, drunkard." This, I say, was rather a word of disdain +and anger than an express reproach of this vice, as we often rate those +who anger us with the first injurious words that come into our mouths, +though nothing due to those we are offended at; to which may be added +that the vice with which Cato upbraided him is wonderfully near akin to +that wherein he had surprised Caesar; for Bacchus and Venus, according to +the proverb, very willingly agree; but to me Venus is much more sprightly +accompanied by sobriety. The examples of his sweetness and clemency to +those by whom he had been offended are infinite; I mean, besides those he +gave during the time of the civil wars, which, as plainly enough appears +by his writings, he practised to cajole his enemies, and to make them +less afraid of his future dominion and victory. But I must also say, +that if these examples are not sufficient proofs of his natural +sweetness, they, at least, manifest a marvellous confidence and grandeur +of courage in this person. He has often been known to dismiss whole +armies, after having overcome them, to his enemies, without ransom, or +deigning so much as to bind them by oath, if not to favour him, at least +no more to bear arms against him; he has three or four times taken some +of Pompey's captains prisoners, and as often set them at liberty. Pompey +declared all those to be enemies who did not follow him to the war; he +proclaimed all those to be his friends who sat still and did not actually +take arms against him. To such captains of his as ran away from him to +go over to the other side, he sent, moreover, their arms, horses, and +equipage: the cities he had taken by force he left at full liberty to +follow which side they pleased, imposing no other garrison upon them but +the memory of his gentleness and clemency. He gave strict and express +charge, the day of his great battle of Pharsalia, that, without the +utmost necessity, no one should lay a hand upon the citizens of Rome. +These, in my opinion, were very hazardous proceedings, and 'tis no wonder +if those in our civil war, who, like him, fight against the ancient +estate of their country, do not follow his example; they are +extraordinary means, and that only appertain to Caesar's fortune, and to +his admirable foresight in the conduct of affairs. When I consider the +incomparable grandeur of his soul, I excuse victory that it could not +disengage itself from him, even in so unjust and so wicked a cause. + +To return to his clemency: we have many striking examples in the time of +his government, when, all things being reduced to his power, he had no +more written against him which he had as sharply answered: yet he did not +soon after forbear to use his interest to make him consul. Caius Calvus, +who had composed several injurious epigrams against him, having employed +many of his friends to mediate a reconciliation with him, Caesar +voluntarily persuaded himself to write first to him. And our good +Catullus, who had so rudely ruffled him under the name of Mamurra, coming +to offer his excuses to him, he made the same day sit at his table. +Having intelligence of some who spoke ill of him, he did no more, but +only by a public oration declare that he had notice of it. He still less +feared his enemies than he hated them; some conspiracies and cabals that +were made against his life being discovered to him, he satisfied himself +in publishing by proclamation that they were known to him, without +further prosecuting the conspirators. + +As to the respect he had for his friends: Caius Oppius, being with him +upon a journey, and finding himself ill, he left him the only lodging he +had for himself, and lay all night upon a hard ground in the open air. +As to what concerns his justice, he put a beloved servant of his to death +for lying with a noble Roman's wife, though there was no complaint made. +Never had man more moderation in his victory, nor more resolution in his +adverse fortune. + +But all these good inclinations were stifled and spoiled by his furious +ambition, by which he suffered himself to be so transported and misled +that one may easily maintain that this passion was the rudder of all his +actions; of a liberal man, it made him a public thief to supply this +bounty and profusion, and made him utter this vile and unjust saying, +"That if the most wicked and profligate persons in the world had been +faithful in serving him towards his advancement, he would cherish and +prefer them to the utmost of his power, as much as the best of men." +It intoxicated him with so excessive a vanity, as to dare to boast in the +presence of his fellow-citizens, that he had made the great commonwealth +of Rome a name without form and without body; and to say that his answers +for the future should stand for laws; and also to receive the body of the +Senate coming to him, sitting; to suffer himself to be adored, and to +have divine honours paid to him in his own presence. To conclude, this +sole vice, in my opinion, spoiled in him the most rich and beautiful +nature that ever was, and has rendered his name abominable to all good +men, in that he would erect his glory upon the ruins of his country and +the subversion of the greatest and most flourishing republic the world +shall ever see. + +There might, on the contrary, many examples be produced of great men whom +pleasures have made to neglect the conduct of their affairs, as Mark +Antony and others; but where love and ambition should be in equal +balance, and come to jostle with equal forces, I make no doubt but the +last would win the prize. + +To return to my subject: 'tis much to bridle our appetites by the +argument of reason, or, by violence, to contain our members within their +duty; but to lash ourselves for our neighbour's interest, and not only to +divest ourselves of the charming passion that tickles us, of the pleasure +we feel in being agreeable to others, and courted and beloved of every +one, but also to conceive a hatred against the graces that produce that +effect, and to condemn our beauty because it inflames others; of this, I +confess, I have met with few examples. But this is one. Spurina, a +young man of Tuscany: + + "Qualis gemma micat, fulvum quae dividit aurum, + Aut collo decus, aut cupiti: vel quale per artem + Inclusum buxo aut Oricia terebintho + Lucet ebur," + + ["As a gem shines enchased in yellow gold, or an ornament on the + neck or head, or as ivory has lustre, set by art in boxwood or + Orician ebony."--AEneid, x. 134.] + +being endowed with a singular beauty, and so excessive, that the chastest +eyes could not chastely behold its rays; not contenting himself with +leaving so much flame and fever as he everywhere kindled without relief, +entered into a furious spite against himself and those great endowments +nature had so liberally conferred upon him, as if a man were responsible +to himself for the faults of others, and purposely slashed and +disfigured, with many wounds and scars, the perfect symmetry and +proportion that nature had so curiously imprinted in his face. To give +my free opinion, I more admire than honour such actions: such excesses +are enemies to my rules. The design was conscientious and good, but +certainly a little defective in prudence. What if his deformity served +afterwards to make others guilty of the sin of hatred or contempt; or of +envy at the glory of so rare a recommendation; or of calumny, +interpreting this humour a mad ambition! Is there any form from which +vice cannot, if it will, extract occasion to exercise itself, one way or +another? It had been more just, and also more noble, to have made of +these gifts of God a subject of exemplary regularity and virtue. + +They who retire themselves from the common offices, from that infinite +number of troublesome rules that fetter a man of exact honesty in civil +life, are in my opinion very discreet, what peculiar sharpness of +constraint soever they impose upon themselves in so doing. 'Tis in some +sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living well. They may have +another reward; but the reward of difficulty I fancy they can never have; +nor, in uneasiness, that there can be anything more or better done than +the keeping oneself upright amid the waves of the world, truly and +exactly performing all parts of our duty. 'Tis, peradventure, more easy +to keep clear of the sex than to maintain one's self aright in all points +in the society of a wife; and a man may with less trouble adapt himself +to entire abstinence than to the due dispensation of abundance. Use, +carried on according to reason, has in it more of difficulty than +abstinence; moderation is a virtue that gives more work than suffering; +the well living of Scipio has a thousand fashions, that of Diogenes but +one; this as much excels the ordinary lives in innocence as the most +accomplished excel them in utility and force. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +OBSERVATION ON THE MEANS TO CARRY ON A WAR ACCORDING TO JULIUS CAESAR + +'Tis related of many great leaders that they have had certain books in +particular esteem, as Alexander the Great, Homer; Scipio Africanus, +Xenophon; Marcus Brutus, Polybius; Charles V., Philip'de Comines; and +'tis said that, in our times, Machiavelli is elsewhere still in repute; +but the late Marshal Strozzi, who had taken Caesar for his man, doubtless +made the best choice, seeing that it indeed ought to be the breviary of +every soldier, as being the true and sovereign pattern of the military +art. And, moreover, God knows with that grace and beauty he has +embellished that rich matter, with so pure, delicate, and perfect +expression, that, in my opinion, there are no writings in the world +comparable to his, as to that business. + +I will set down some rare and particular passages of his wars that remain +in my memory. + +His army, being in some consternation upon the rumour that was spread of +the great forces that king Juba was leading against him, instead of +abating the apprehension which his soldiers had conceived at the news and +of lessening to them the forces of the enemy, having called them all +together to encourage and reassure them, he took a quite contrary way to +what we are used to do, for he told them that they need no more trouble +themselves with inquiring after the enemy's forces, for that he was +certainly informed thereof, and then told them of a number much +surpassing both the truth and the report that was current in his army; +following the advice of Cyrus in Xenophon, forasmuch as the deception is +not of so great importance to find an enemy weaker than we expected, than +to find him really very strong, after having been made to believe that he +was weak. + +It was always his use to accustom his soldiers simply to obey, without +taking upon them to control, or so much as to speak of their captain's +designs, which he never communicated to them but upon the point of +execution; and he took a delight, if they discovered anything of what he +intended, immediately to change his orders to deceive them; and to that +purpose, would often, when he had assigned his quarters in a place, pass +forward and lengthen his day's march, especially if it was foul and rainy +weather. + +The Swiss, in the beginning of his wars in Gaul, having sent to him to +demand a free passage over the Roman territories, though resolved to +hinder them by force, he nevertheless spoke kindly to the messengers, and +took some respite to return an answer, to make use of that time for the +calling his army together. These silly people did not know how good a +husband he was of his time: for he often repeats that it is the best part +of a captain to know how to make use of occasions, and his diligence in +his exploits is, in truth, unheard of and incredible. + +If he was not very conscientious in taking advantage of an enemy under +colour of a treaty of agreement, he was as little so in this, that he +required no other virtue in a soldier but valour only, and seldom +punished any other faults but mutiny and disobedience. He would often +after his victories turn them loose to all sorts of licence, dispensing +them for some time from the rules of military discipline, saying withal +that he had soldiers so well trained up that, powdered and perfumed, they +would run furiously to the fight. In truth, he loved to have them richly +armed, and made them wear engraved, gilded, and damasked armour, to the +end that the care of saving it might engage them to a more obstinate +defence. Speaking to them, he called them by the name of fellow- +soldiers, which we yet use; which his successor, Augustus, reformed, +supposing he had only done it upon necessity, and to cajole those who +merely followed him as volunteers: + + "Rheni mihi Caesar in undis + Dux erat; hic socius; facinus quos inquinat, aequat:" + + ["In the waters of the Rhine Caesar was my general; here at Rome he + is my fellow. Crime levels those whom it polluted." + --Lucan, v. 289.] + +but that this carriage was too mean and low for the dignity of an emperor +and general of an army, and therefore brought up the custom of calling +them soldiers only. + +With this courtesy Caesar mixed great severity to keep them in awe; the +ninth legion having mutinied near Placentia, he ignominiously cashiered +them, though Pompey was then yet on foot, and received them not again to +grace till after many supplications; he quieted them more by authority +and boldness than by gentle ways. + +In that place where he speaks of his, passage over the Rhine to Germany, +he says that, thinking it unworthy of the honour of the Roman people to +waft over his army in vessels, he built a bridge that they might pass +over dry-foot. There it was that he built that wonderful bridge of which +he gives so particular a description; for he nowhere so willingly dwells +upon his actions as in representing to us the subtlety of his inventions +in such kind of handiwork. + +I have also observed this, that he set a great value upon his +exhortations to the soldiers before the fight; for where he would show +that he was either surprised or reduced to a necessity of fighting, he +always brings in this, that he had not so much as leisure to harangue his +army. Before that great battle with those of Tournay, "Caesar," says he, +"having given order for everything else, presently ran where fortune +carried him to encourage his people, and meeting with the tenth legion, +had no more time to say anything to them but this, that they should +remember their wonted valour; not to be astonished, but bravely sustain +the enemy's encounter; and seeing the enemy had already approached within +a dart's cast, he gave the signal for battle; and going suddenly thence +elsewhere, to encourage others, he found that they were already engaged." +Here is what he tells us in that place. His tongue, indeed, did him +notable service upon several occasions, and his military eloquence was, +in his own time, so highly reputed, that many of his army wrote down his +harangues as he spoke them, by which means there were volumes of them +collected that existed a long time after him. He had so particular a +grace in speaking, that his intimates, and Augustus amongst others, +hearing those orations read, could distinguish even to the phrases and +words that were not his. + +The first time that he went out of Rome with any public command, he +arrived in eight days at the river Rhone, having with him in his coach a +secretary or two before him who were continually writing, and him who +carried his sword behind him. And certainly, though a man did nothing +but go on, he could hardly attain that promptitude with which, having +been everywhere victorious in Gaul, he left it, and, following Pompey to +Brundusium, in eighteen days' time he subdued all Italy; returned from +Brundusium to Rome; from Rome went into the very heart of Spain, where he +surmounted extreme difficulties in the war against Afranius and Petreius, +and in the long siege of Marseilles; thence he returned into Macedonia, +beat the Roman army at Pharsalia, passed thence in pursuit of Pompey into +Egypt, which he also subdued; from Egypt he went into Syria and the +territories of Pontus, where he fought Pharnaces; thence into Africa, +where he defeated Scipio and Juba; again returned through Italy, where he +defeated Pompey's sons: + + "Ocyor et coeli fiammis, et tigride foeta." + + ["Swifter than lightning, or the cub-bearing tigress." + --Lucan, v. 405] + + "Ac veluti montis saxum de, vertice praeceps + Cum ruit avulsum vento, seu turbidus imber + Proluit, aut annis solvit sublapsa vetustas, + Fertur in abruptum magno mons improbus actu, + Exultatque solo, silvas, armenta, virosque, + Involvens secum." + + ["And as a stone torn from the mountain's top by the wind or rain + torrents, or loosened by age, falls massive with mighty force, + bounds here and there, in its course sweeps from the earth with it + woods, herds, and men."--AEneid, xii. 684.] + +Speaking of the siege of Avaricum, he says, that it, was his custom to be +night and day with the pioneers.--[Engineers. D.W.]--In all enterprises +of consequence he always reconnoitred in person, and never brought his +army into quarters till he had first viewed the place, and, if we may +believe Suetonius, when he resolved to pass over into England, he was the +first man that sounded the passage. + +He was wont to say that he more valued a victory obtained by counsel than +by force, and in the war against Petreius and Afranius, fortune +presenting him with an occasion of manifest advantage, he declined it, +saying, that he hoped, with a little more time, but less hazard, to +overthrow his enemies. He there also played a notable part in commanding +his whole army to pass the river by swimming, without any manner of +necessity: + + "Rapuitque ruens in praelia miles, + Quod fugiens timuisset, iter; mox uda receptis + Membra fovent armis, gelidosque a gurgite, cursu + Restituunt artus." + + ["The soldier rushing through a way to fight which he would have + been afraid to have taken in flight: then with their armour they + cover wet limbs, and by running restore warmth to their numbed + joints."--Lucan, iv. 151.] + +I find him a little more temperate and considerate in his enterprises +than Alexander, for this man seems to seek and run headlong upon dangers +like an impetuous torrent which attacks and rushes against everything it +meets, without choice or discretion; + + "Sic tauriformis volvitur Aufidus; + Qui regna Dauni perfluit Appuli, + Dum saevit, horrendamque cultis + Diluviem meditatur agris;" + + ["So the biforked Aufidus, which flows through the realm of the + Apulian Daunus, when raging, threatens a fearful deluge to the + tilled ground."--Horat., Od., iv. 14, 25.] + +and, indeed, he was a general in the flower and first heat of his youth, +whereas Caesar took up the trade at a ripe and well advanced age; to +which may be added that Alexander was of a more sanguine, hot, and +choleric constitution, which he also inflamed with wine, from which +Caesar was very abstinent. + +But where necessary occasion required, never did any man venture his +person more than he: so much so, that for my part, methinks I read in +many of his exploits a determinate resolution to throw himself away to +avoid the shame of being overcome. In his great battle with those of +Tournay, he charged up to the head of the enemies without his shield, +just as he was seeing the van of his own army beginning to give ground'; +which also several other times befell him. Hearing that his people were +besieged, he passed through the enemy's army in disguise to go and +encourage them with his presence. Having crossed over to Dyrrachium with +very slender forces, and seeing the remainder of his army which he had +left to Antony's conduct slow in following him, he undertook alone to +repass the sea in a very great storms and privately stole away to fetch +the rest of his forces, the ports on the other side being seized by +Pompey, and the whole sea being in his possession. And as to what he +performed by force of hand, there are many exploits that in hazard exceed +all the rules of war; for with how small means did he undertake to subdue +the kingdom of Egypt, and afterwards to attack the forces of Scipio and +Juba, ten times greater than his own? These people had, I know not what, +more than human confidence in their fortune; and he was wont to say that +men must embark, and not deliberate, upon high enterprises. After the +battle of Pharsalia, when he had sent his army away before him into Asia, +and was passing in one single vessel the strait of the Hellespont, he met +Lucius Cassius at sea with ten tall men-of-war, when he had the courage +not only to stay his coming, but to sail up to him and summon him to +yield, which he did. + +Having undertaken that furious siege of Alexia, where there were +fourscore thousand men in garrison, all Gaul being in arms to raise the +siege and having set an army on foot of a hundred and nine thousand +horse, and of two hundred and forty thousand foot, what a boldness and +vehement confidence was it in him that he would not give over his +attempt, but resolved upon two so great difficulties--which nevertheless +he overcame; and, after having won that great battle against those +without, soon reduced those within to his mercy. The same happened to +Lucullus at the siege of Tigranocerta against King Tigranes, but the +condition of the enemy was not the same, considering the effeminacy of +those with whom Lucullus had to deal. I will here set down two rare and +extraordinary events concerning this siege of Alexia; one, that the Gauls +having drawn their powers together to encounter Caesar, after they had +made a general muster of all their forces, resolved in their council of +war to dismiss a good part of this great multitude, that they might not +fall into confusion. This example of fearing to be too many is new; but, +to take it right, it stands to reason that the body of an army should be +of a moderate greatness, and regulated to certain bounds, both out of +respect to the difficulty of providing for them, and the difficulty of +governing and keeping them in order. At least it is very easy to make it +appear by example that armies monstrous in number have seldom done +anything to purpose. According to the saying of Cyrus in Xenophon, +"'Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men, that gives the +advantage": the remainder serving rather to trouble than assist. And +Bajazet principally grounded his resolution of giving Tamerlane battle, +contrary to the opinion of all his captains, upon this, that his enemies +numberless number of men gave him assured hopes of confusion. +Scanderbeg, a very good and expert judge in such matters, was wont to say +that ten or twelve thousand reliable fighting men were sufficient to a +good leader to secure his regulation in all sorts of military occasions. +The other thing I will here record, which seems to be contrary both to +the custom and rules of war, is, that Vercingetorix, who was made general +of all the parts of the revolted Gaul, should go shut up himself in +Alexia: for he who has the command of a whole country ought never to shut +himself up but in case of such last extremity that the only place he has +left is in concern, and that the only hope he has left is in the defence +of that city; otherwise he ought to keep himself always at liberty, that +he may have the means to provide, in general, for all parts of his +government. + +To return to Caesar. He grew, in time, more slow and more considerate, +as his friend Oppius witnesses: conceiving that he ought not lightly to +hazard the glory of so many victories, which one blow of fortune might +deprive him of. 'Tis what the Italians say, when they would reproach the +rashness and foolhardiness of young people, calling them Bisognosi +d'onore, "necessitous of honour," and that being in so great a want and +dearth of reputation, they have reason to seek it at what price soever, +which they ought not to do who have acquired enough already. There may +reasonably be some moderation, some satiety, in this thirst and appetite +of glory, as well as in other things: and there are enough people who +practise it. + +He was far remote from the religious scruples of the ancient Romans, who +would never prevail in their wars but by dint of pure and simple valour; +and yet he was more conscientious than we should be in these days, and +did not approve all sorts of means to obtain a victory. In the war +against Ariovistus, whilst he was parleying with him, there happened some +commotion between the horsemen, which was occasioned by the fault of +Ariovistus' light horse, wherein, though Caesar saw he had a very great +advantage of the enemy, he would make no use on't, lest he should have +been reproached with a treacherous proceeding. + +He was always wont to wear rich garments, and of a shining colour in +battle, that he might be the more remarkable and better observed. + +He always carried a stricter and tighter hand over his soldiers when near +an enemy. When the ancient Greeks would accuse any one of extreme +insufficiency, they would say, in common proverb, that he could neither +read nor swim; he was of the same opinion, that swimming was of great use +in war, and himself found it so; for when he had to use diligence, he +commonly swam over the rivers in his way; for he loved to march on foot, +as also did Alexander the Great. Being in Egypt forced, to save himself, +to go into a little boat, and so many people leaping in with him that it +was in danger of sinking, he chose rather to commit himself to the sea, +and swam to his fleet, which lay two hundred paces off, holding in his +left hand his tablets, and drawing his coatarmour in his teeth, that it +might not fall into the enemy's hand, and at this time he was of a pretty +advanced age. + +Never had any general so much credit with his soldiers: in the beginning +of the civil wars, his centurions offered him to find every one a man-at- +arms at his own charge, and the foot soldiers to serve him at their own +expense; those who were most at their ease, moreover, undertaking to +defray the more necessitous. The late Admiral Chastillon + + [Gaspard de Coligny, assassinated in the St. Bartholomew + massacre, 24th August 1572.] + +showed us the like example in our civil wars; for the French of his army +provided money out of their own purses to pay the foreigners that were +with him. There are but rarely found examples of so ardent and so ready +an affection amongst the soldiers of elder times, who kept themselves +strictly to their rules of war: passion has a more absolute command over +us than reason; and yet it happened in the war against Hannibal, that by +the example of the people of Rome in the city, the soldiers and captains +refused their pay in the army, and in Marcellus' camp those were branded +with the name of Mercenaries who would receive any. Having got the worst +of it near Dyrrachium, his soldiers came and offered themselves to be +chastised and punished, so that there was more need to comfort than +reprove them. One single cohort of his withstood four of Pompey's +legions above four hours together, till they were almost all killed with +arrows, so that there were a hundred and thirty thousand shafts found in +the trenches. A soldier called Scaeva, who commanded at one of the +avenues, invincibly maintained his ground, having lost an eye, with one +shoulder and one thigh shot through, and his shield hit in two hundred +and thirty places. It happened that many of his soldiers being taken +prisoners, rather chose to die than promise to join the contrary side. +Granius Petronius was taken by Scipio in Africa: Scipio having put the +rest to death, sent him word that he gave him his life, for he was a man +of quality and quaestor, to whom Petronius sent answer back, that +Caesar's soldiers were wont to give others their life, and not to receive +it; and immediately with his own hand killed himself. + +Of their fidelity there are infinite examples amongst them, that which +was done by those who were besieged in Salona, a city that stood for +Caesar against Pompey, is not, for the rarity of an accident that there +happened, to be forgotten. Marcus Octavius kept them close besieged; +they within being reduced to the extremest necessity of all things, so +that to supply the want of men, most of them being either slain or +wounded, they had manumitted all their slaves, and had been constrained +to cut off all the women's hair to make ropes for their war engines, +besides a wonderful dearth of victuals, and yet continuing resolute never +to yield. After having drawn the siege to a great length, by which +Octavius was grown more negligent and less attentive to his enterprise, +they made choice of one day about noon, and having first placed the women +and children upon the walls to make a show, sallied upon the besiegers +with such fury, that having routed the first, second, and third body, and +afterwards the fourth, and the rest, and beaten them all out of their +trenches, they pursued them even to their ships, and Octavius himself was +fain to fly to Dyrrachium, where Pompey lay. I do not at present +remember that I have met with any other example where the besieged ever +gave the besieger a total defeat and won the field, nor that a sortie +ever achieved the result of a pure and entire victory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +OF THREE GOOD WOMEN + +They are not by the dozen, as every one knows, and especially in the +duties of marriage, for that is a bargain full of so many nice +circumstances that 'tis hard a woman's will should long endure such a +restraint; men, though their condition be something better under that +tie, have yet enough to do. The true touch and test of a happy marriage +have respect to the time of the companionship, if it has been constantly +gentle, loyal, and agreeable. In our age, women commonly reserve the +publication of their good offices, and their vehement affection towards +their husbands, until they have lost them, or at least, till then defer +the testimonies of their good will; a too slow testimony and +unseasonable. By it they rather manifest that they never loved them till +dead: their life is nothing but trouble; their death full of love and +courtesy. As fathers conceal their affection from their children, women, +likewise, conceal theirs from their husbands, to maintain a modest +respect. This mystery is not for my palate; 'tis to much purpose that +they scratch themselves and tear their hair. I whisper in a waiting- +woman's or secretary's ear: "How were they, how did they live together?" +I always have that good saying m my head: + + "Jactantius moerent, quae minus dolent." + + ["They make the most ado who are least concerned." (Or:) + "They mourn the more ostentatiously, the less they grieve." + --Tacitus, Annal., ii. 77, writing of Germanicus.] + +Their whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead. We +should willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead, provided +they will smile upon us whilst we are alive. Is it not enough to make a +man revive in pure spite, that she, who spat in my face whilst I was in +being, shall come to kiss my feet when I am no more? If there be any +honour in lamenting a husband, it only appertains to those who smiled +upon them whilst they had them; let those who wept during their lives +laugh at their deaths, as well outwardly as within. Therefore, never +regard those blubbered eyes and that pitiful voice; consider her +deportment, her complexion, the plumpness of her cheeks under all those +formal veils; 'tis there she talks plain French. There are few who do +not mend upon't, and health is a quality that cannot lie. That starched +and ceremonious countenance looks not so much back as forward, and is +rather intended to get a new husband than to lament the old. When I was +a boy, a very beautiful and virtuous lady, who is yet living, the widow +of a prince, wore somewhat more ornament in her dress than our laws of +widowhood allow, and being reproached with it, she made answer that it +was because she was resolved to have no more love affairs, and would +never marry again. + +I have here, not at all dissenting from our customs, made choice of three +women, who have also expressed the utmost of their goodness and affection +about their husbands' deaths; yet are they examples of another kind than +are now m use, and so austere that they will hardly be drawn into +imitation. + +The younger Pliny' had near a house of his in Italy a neighbour who was +exceedingly tormented with certain ulcers in his private parts. His wife +seeing him so long to languish, entreated that he would give her leave to +see and at leisure to consider of the condition of his disease, and that +she would freely tell him what she thought. This permission being +obtained, and she having curiously examined the business, found it +impossible he could ever be cured, and that all he had to hope for or +expect was a great while to linger out a painful and miserable life, and +therefore, as the most sure and sovereign remedy, resolutely advised him +to kill himself. But finding him a little tender and backward in so rude +an attempt: "Do not think, my friend," said she, "that the torments I see +thee endure are not as sensible to me as to thyself, and that to deliver +myself from them, I will not myself make use of the same remedy I have +prescribed to thee. I will accompany thee in the cure as I have done in +the disease; fear nothing, but believe that we shall have pleasure in +this passage that is to free us from so many miseries, and we will go +happily together." Which having said, and roused up her husband's +courage, she resolved that they should throw themselves headlong into the +sea out of a window that overlooked it, and that she might maintain to +the last the loyal and vehement affection wherewith she had embraced him +during his life, she would also have him die in her arms; but lest they +should fail, and should quit their hold in the fall through fear, she +tied herself fast to him by the waist, and so gave up her own life to +procure her husband's repose. This was a woman of mean condition; and, +amongst that class of people, 'tis no very new thing to see some examples +of rare virtue: + + "Extrema per illos + Justitia excedens terris vestigia fecit." + + ["Justice, when she left the earth, took her last + steps among them."--Virgil, Georg., ii. 473.] + +The other two were noble and rich, where examples of virtue are rarely +lodged. + +Arria, the wife of Caecina Paetus, a consular person, was the mother of +another Arria, the wife of Thrasea Paetus, he whose virtue was so +renowned in the time of Nero, and by this son-in-law, the grandmother of +Fannia: for the resemblance of the names of these men and women, and +their fortunes, have led to several mistakes. This first Arria, her +husband Caecina Paetus, having been taken prisoner by some of the Emperor +Claudius' people, after Scribonianus' defeat, whose party he had embraced +in the war, begged of those who were to carry him prisoner to Rome, that +they would take her into their ship, where she would be of much less +charge and trouble to them than a great many persons they must otherwise +have to attend her husband, and that she alone would undertake to serve +him in his chamber, his kitchen, and all other offices. They refused, +whereupon she put herself into a fisher-boat she hired on the spot, and +in that manner followed him from Sclavonia. When she had come to Rome, +Junia, the widow of Scribonianus, having one day, from the resemblance of +their fortune, accosted her in the Emperor's presence; she rudely +repulsed her with these words, "I," said she, "speak to thee, or give ear +to any thing thou sayest! to thee in whose lap Scribonianus was slain, +and thou art yet alive!" These words, with several other signs, gave her +friends to understand that she would undoubtedly despatch herself, +impatient of supporting her husband's misfortune. And Thrasea, her son- +in-law, beseeching her not to throw away herself, and saying to her, +"What! if I should run the same fortune that Caecina has done, would you +that your daughter, my wife, should do the same?"--" Would I?" replied +she, "yes, yes, I would: if she had lived as long, and in as good +understanding with thee as I have done, with my husband." These answers +made them more careful of her, and to have a more watchful eye to her +proceedings. One day, having said to those who looked to her: "Tis to +much purpose that you take all this pains to prevent me; you may indeed +make me die an ill death, but to keep me from dying is not in your +power"; she in a sudden phrenzy started from a chair whereon she sat, and +with all her force dashed her head against the wall, by which blow being +laid flat in a swoon, and very much wounded, after they had again with +great ado brought her to herself: "I told you," said she, "that if you +refused me some easy way of dying, I should find out another, how painful +soever." The conclusion of so admirable a virtue was this: her husband +Paetus, not having resolution enough of his own to despatch himself, as +he was by the emperor's cruelty enjoined, one day, amongst others, after +having first employed all the reasons and exhortations which she thought +most prevalent to persuade him to it, she snatched the poignard he wore +from his side, and holding it ready in her hand, for the conclusion of +her admonitions; "Do thus, Paetus," said she, and in the same instant +giving herself a mortal stab in the breast, and then drawing it out of +the wound, presented it to him, ending her life with this noble, +generous, and immortal saying, "Paete, non dolet"--having time to +pronounce no more but those three never-to-be-forgotten words: "Paetus, +it is not painful." + + "Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Paeto, + Quern de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis + Si qua fides, vulnus quod feci non dolet, inquit, + Sed quod to facies, id mihi, Paete, dolet." + + ["When the chaste Arria gave to Poetus the reeking sword she had + drawn from her breast, 'If you believe me,' she said, 'Paetus, the + wound I have made hurts not, but 'tis that which thou wilt make that + hurts me.'"---Martial, i. 14.] + +The action was much more noble in itself, and of a braver sense than the +poet expressed it: for she was so far from being deterred by the thought +of her husband's wound and death and her own, that she had been their +promotress and adviser: but having performed this high and courageous +enterprise for her husband's only convenience, she had even in the last +gasp of her life no other concern but for him, and of dispossessing him +of the fear of dying with her. Paetus presently struck himself to the +heart with the same weapon, ashamed, I suppose, to have stood in need of +so dear and precious an example. + +Pompeia Paulina, a young and very noble Roman lady, had married Seneca in +his extreme old age. Nero, his fine pupil, sent his guards to him to +denounce the sentence of death, which was performed after this manner: +When the Roman emperors of those times had condemned any man of quality, +they sent to him by their officers to choose what death he would, and to +execute it within such or such a time, which was limited, according to +the degree of their indignation, to a shorter or a longer respite, that +they might therein have better leisure to dispose their affairs, and +sometimes depriving them of the means of doing it by the shortness of the +time; and if the condemned seemed unwilling to submit to the order, they +had people ready at hand to execute it either by cutting the veins of the +arms and legs, or by compelling them by force to swallow a draught of +poison. But persons of honour would not abide this necessity, but made +use of their own physicians and surgeons for this purpose. Seneca, with +a calm and steady countenance, heard their charge, and presently called +for paper to write his will, which being by the captain refused, he +turned himself towards his friends, saying to them, "Since I cannot leave +you any other acknowledgment of the obligation I have to you, I leave you +at least the best thing I have, namely, the image of my life and manners, +which I entreat you to keep in memory of me, that by so doing you may +acquire the glory of sincere and real friends." And there withal, one +while appeasing the sorrow he saw in them with gentle words, and +presently raising his voice to reprove them: "What," said he, "are become +of all our brave philosophical precepts? What are become of all the +provisions we have so many years laid up against the accidents of +fortune? Is Nero's cruelty unknown to us? What could we expect from him +who had murdered his mother and his brother, but that he should put his +tutor to death who had brought him up?" After having spoken these words +in general, he turned himself towards his wife, and embracing her fast in +his arms, as, her heart and strength failing her, she was ready to sink +down with grief, he begged of her, for his sake, to bear this accident +with a little more patience, telling her, that now the hour was come +wherein he was to show, not by argument and discourse, but effect, the +fruit he had acquired by his studies, and that he really embraced his +death, not only without grief, but moreover with joy. "Wherefore, my +dearest," said he, "do not dishonour it with thy tears, that it may not +seem as if thou lovest thyself more than my reputation. Moderate thy +grief, and comfort thyself in the knowledge thou hast had of me and my +actions, leading the remainder of thy life in the same virtuous manner +thou hast hitherto done." To which Paulina, having a little recovered +her spirits, and warmed the magnanimity of her courage with a most +generous affection, replied,--"No, Seneca," said she, "I am not a woman +to suffer you to go alone in such a necessity: I will not have you think +that the virtuous examples of your life have not taught me how to die; +and when can I ever better or more fittingly do it, or more to my own +desire, than with you? and therefore assure yourself I will go along with +you." Then Seneca, taking this noble and generous resolution of his wife +m good part, and also willing to free himself from the fear of leaving +her exposed to the cruelty of his enemies after his death: "I have, +Paulina," said he, "instructed thee in what would serve thee happily to +live; but thou more covetest, I see, the honour of dying: in truth, +I will not grudge it thee; the constancy and resolution in our common end +are the same, but the beauty and glory of thy part are much greater." +Which being said, the surgeons, at the same time, opened the veins of +both their arms, but as those of Seneca were more shrunk up, as well with +age as abstinence, made his blood flow too slowly, he moreover commanded +them to open the veins of his thighs; and lest the torments he endured +might pierce his wife's heart, and also to free himself from the +affliction of seeing her in so sad a condition, after having taken a very +affectionate leave of her, he entreated she would suffer them to carry +her into her chamber, which they accordingly did. But all these +incisions being not yet enough to make him die, he commanded Statius +Anneus, his physician, to give him a draught of poison, which had not +much better effect; for by reason of the weakness and coldness of his +limbs, it could not arrive at his heart. Wherefore they were forced to +superadd a very hot bath, and then, feeling his end approach, whilst he +had breath he continued excellent discourses upon the subject of his +present condition, which the secretaries wrote down so long as they could +hear his voice, and his last words were long after in high honour and +esteem amongst men, and it is a great loss to us that they have not come +down to our times. Then, feeling the last pangs of death, with the +bloody water of the bath he bathed his head, saying: "This water I +dedicate to Jupiter the deliverer." Nero, being presently informed of +all this, fearing lest the death of Paulina, who was one of the best-born +ladies of Rome, and against whom he had no particular unkindness, should +turn to his reproach, sent orders in all haste to bind up her wounds, +which her attendants did without her knowledge, she being already half +dead, and without all manner of sense. Thus, though she lived contrary +to her own design, it was very honourably, and befitting her own virtue, +her pale complexion ever after manifesting how much life had run from her +veins. + +These are my three very true stories, which I find as entertaining and as +tragic as any of those we make out of our own heads wherewith to amuse +the common people; and I wonder that they who are addicted to such +relations, do not rather cull out ten thousand very fine stories, which +are to be found in books, that would save them the trouble of invention, +and be more useful and diverting; and he who would make a whole and +connected body of them would need to add nothing of his own, but the +connection only, as it were the solder of another metal; and might by +this means embody a great many true events of all sorts, disposing and +diversifying them according as the beauty of the work should require, +after the same manner, almost, as Ovid has made up his Metamorphoses of +the infinite number of various fables. + +In the last couple, this is, moreover, worthy of consideration, that +Paulina voluntarily offered to lose her life for the love of her husband, +and that her husband had formerly also forborne to die for the love of +her. We may think there is no just counterpoise in this exchange; but, +according to his stoical humour, I fancy he thought he had done as much +for her, in prolonging his life upon her account, as if he had died for +her. In one of his letters to Lucilius, after he has given him to +understand that, being seized with an ague in Rome, he presently took +coach to go to a house he had in the country, contrary to his wife's +opinion, who would have him stay, and that he had told her that the ague +he was seized with was not a fever of the body but of the place, it +follows thus: "She let me go," says he, "giving me a strict charge of my +health. Now I, who know that her life is involved in mine, begin to make +much of myself, that I may preserve her. And I lose the privilege my age +has given me, of being more constant and resolute in many things, when I +call to mind that in this old fellow there is a young girl who is +interested in his health. And since I cannot persuade her to love me +more courageously, she makes me more solicitously love myself: for we +must allow something to honest affections, and, sometimes, though +occasions importune us to the contrary, we must call back life, even +though it be with torment: we must hold the soul fast in our teeth, since +the rule of living, amongst good men, is not so long as they please, but +as long as they ought. He that loves not his wife nor his friend so well +as to prolong his life for them, but will obstinately die, is too +delicate and too effeminate: the soul must impose this upon itself, when +the utility of our friends so requires; we must sometimes lend ourselves +to our friends, and when we would die for ourselves must break that +resolution for them. 'Tis a testimony of grandeur of courage to return +to life for the consideration of another, as many excellent persons have +done: and 'tis a mark of singular good nature to preserve old age (of +which the greatest convenience is the indifference as to its duration, +and a more stout and disdainful use of life), when a man perceives that +this office is pleasing, agreeable, and useful to some person by whom he +is very much beloved. And a man reaps by it a very pleasing reward; for +what can be more delightful than to be so dear to his wife, as upon her +account he shall become dearer to himself? Thus has my Paulina loaded me +not only with her fears, but my own; it has not been sufficient to +consider how resolutely I could die, but I have also considered how +irresolutely she would bear my death. I am enforced to live, and +sometimes to live in magnanimity." These are his own words, as excellent +as they everywhere are. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +OF THE MOST EXCELLENT MEN + +If I should be asked my choice among all the men who have come to my +knowledge, I should make answer, that methinks I find three more +excellent than all the rest. + +One of them Homer: not that Aristotle and Varro, for example, were not, +peradventure, as learned as he; nor that possibly Virgil was not equal to +him in his own art, which I leave to be determined by such as know them +both. I who, for my part, understand but one of them, can only say this, +according to my poor talent, that I do not believe the Muses themselves +could ever go beyond the Roman: + + "Tale facit carmen docta testudine, quale + Cynthius impositis temperat articulis:" + + ["He plays on his learned lute a verse such as Cynthian Apollo + modulates with his imposed fingers."--Propertius, ii. 34, 79.] + +and yet in this judgment we are not to forget that it is chiefly from +Homer that Virgil derives his excellence, that he is guide and teacher; +and that one touch of the Iliad has supplied him with body and matter out +of which to compose his great and divine AEneid. I do not reckon upon +that, but mix several other circumstances that render to me this poet +admirable, even as it were above human condition. And, in truth, I often +wonder that he who has produced, and, by his authority, given reputation +in the world to so many deities, was not deified himself. Being blind +and poor, living before the sciences were reduced into rule and certain +observation, he was so well acquainted with them, that all those who have +since taken upon them to establish governments, to carry on wars, and to +write either of religion or philosophy, of what sect soever, or of the +arts, have made use of him as of a most perfect instructor in the +knowledge of all things, and of his books as of a treasury of all sorts +of learning: + + "Qui, quid sit pulcrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, + Planius ac melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicit:" + + [Who tells us what is good, what evil, what useful, what not, more + clearly and better than Chrysippus and Crantor?" + --Horace, Ep., i. 2, 3.] + +and as this other says, + + "A quo, ceu fonte perenni, + Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis" + + ["From which, as from a perennial spring, the lips of the poets + are moistened by Pierian waters."--Ovid, Amoy., iii. 9, 25.] + +and the other, + + "Adde Heliconiadum comites, quorum unus Homerus + Sceptra potitus;" + + ["Add the companions of the Muses, whose sceptre Homer has solely + obtained."--Lucretius, iii. 1050.] + +and the other: + + "Cujusque ex ore profusos + Omnis posteritas latices in carmina duxit, + Amnemque in tenues ausa est deducere rivos. + Unius foecunda bonis." + + ["From whose mouth all posterity has drawn out copious streams of + verse, and has made bold to turn the mighty river into its little + rivulets, fertile in the property of one man." + --Manilius, Astyon., ii. 8.] + +'Tis contrary to the order of nature that he has made the most excellent +production that can possibly be; for the ordinary birth of things is +imperfect; they thrive and gather strength by growing, whereas he +rendered the infancy of poesy and several other sciences mature, perfect, +and accomplished at first. And for this reason he may be called the +first and the last of the poets, according to the fine testimony +antiquity has left us of him, "that as there was none before him whom he +could imitate, so there has been none since that could imitate him." +His words, according to Aristotle, are the only words that have motion +and action, the only substantial words. Alexander the Great, having +found a rich cabinet amongst Darius' spoils, gave order it should be +reserved for him to keep his Homer in, saying: that he was the best and +most faithful counsellor he had in his military affairs. For the same +reason it was that Cleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, said that he was +the poet of the Lacedaemonians, for that he was an excellent master for +the discipline of war. This singular and particular commendation is also +left of him in the judgment of Plutarch, that he is the only author in +the world that never glutted nor disgusted his readers, presenting +himself always another thing, and always flourishing in some new grace. +That wanton Alcibiades, having asked one, who pretended to learning, for +a book of Homer, gave him a box of the ear because he had none, which he +thought as scandalous as we should if we found one of our priests without +a Breviary. Xenophanes complained one day to Hiero, the tyrant of +Syracuse, that he was so poor he had not wherewithal to maintain two +servants. "What!" replied he, "Homer, who was much poorer than thou +art, keeps above ten thousand, though he is dead. What did Panaetius +leave unsaid when he called Plato the Homer of the philosophers? Besides +what glory can be compared to his? Nothing is so frequent in men's +mouths as his name and works, nothing so known and received as Troy, +Helen, and the war about her, when perhaps there was never any such +thing. Our children are still called by names that he invented above +three thousand years ago; who does not know Hector and Achilles? Not +only some particular families, but most nations also seek their origin in +his inventions. Mohammed, the second of that name, emperor of the Turks, +writing to our Pope Pius II., "I am astonished," says he, "that the +Italians should appear against me, considering that we have our common +descent from the Trojans, and that it concerns me as well as it does them +to revenge the blood of Hector upon the Greeks, whom they countenance +against me." Is it not a noble farce wherein kings, republics, and +emperors have so many ages played their parts, and to which the vast +universe serves for a theatre? Seven Grecian cities contended for his +birth, so much honour even his obscurity helped him to! + + "Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenm." + +The other is Alexander the Great. For whoever will consider the age at +which he began his enterprises, the small means by which he effected so +glorious a design, the authority he obtained in such mere youth with the +greatest and most experienced captains of the world, by whom he was +followed, the extraordinary favour wherewith fortune embraced and +favoured so many hazardous, not to say rash, exploits, + + "Impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti + Obstaret, gaudensque viam fecisse ruins;" + + ["Bearing down all who sought to withstand him, and pleased + to force his way by ruin."--Lucan, i. 149.] + +that greatness, to have at the age of three-and-thirty years, passed +victorious through the whole habitable earth, and in half a life to have +attained to the utmost of what human nature can do; so that you cannot +imagine its just duration and the continuation of his increase in valour +and fortune, up to a due maturity of age, but that you must withal +imagine something more than man: to have made so many royal branches to +spring from his soldiers, leaving the world, at his death, divided +amongst four successors, simple captains of his army, whose posterity so +long continued and maintained that vast possession; so many excellent +virtues as he was master of, justice, temperance, liberality, truth in +his word, love towards his own people, and humanity towards those he +overcame; for his manners, in general, seem in truth incapable of any +manner of reproach, although some particular and extraordinary actions of +his may fall under censure. But it is impossible to carry on such great +things as he did within the strict rules of justice; such as he are to be +judged in gross by the main end of their actions. The ruin of Thebes and +Persepolis, the murder of Menander and of Ephistion's physician, the +massacre of so many Persian prisoners at one time, of a troop of Indian +soldiers not without prejudice to his word, and of the Cossians, so much +as to the very children, are indeed sallies that are not well to be +excused. For, as to Clytus, the fault was more than redeemed; and that +very action, as much as any other whatever, manifests the goodness of his +nature, a nature most excellently formed to goodness; and it was +ingeniously said of him, that he had his virtues from Nature, his vices +from Fortune. As to his being a little given to bragging, a little too +impatient of hearing himself ill-spoken of, and as to those mangers, +arms, and bits he caused to be strewed in the Indies, all those little +vanities, methinks, may very well be allowed to his youth, and the +prodigious prosperity of his fortune. And who will consider withal his +so many military virtues, his diligence, foresight, patience, discipline, +subtlety, magnanimity, resolution, and good fortune, wherein (though we +had not had the authority of Hannibal to assure us) he was the first of +men, the admirable beauty and symmetry of his person, even to a miracle, +his majestic port and awful mien, in a face so young, ruddy, and radiant: + + "Qualis, ubi Oceani perfusus Lucifer unda, + Quem Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes, + Extulit os sacrum coelo, tenebrasque resolvit;" + + ["As when, bathed in the waves of Ocean, Lucifer, whom Venus loves + beyond the other stars, has displayed his sacred countenance to the + heaven, and disperses the darkness"--AEneid, iii. 589.] + +the excellence of his knowledge and capacity; the duration and grandeur +of his glory, pure, clean, without spot or envy, and that long after his +death it was a religious belief that his very medals brought good fortune +to all who carried them about them; and that more kings and princes have +written his actions than other historians have written the actions of any +other king or prince whatever; and that to this very day the Mohammedans, +who despise all other histories, admit of and honour his alone, by a +special privilege: whoever, I say, will seriously consider these +particulars, will confess that, all these things put together, I had +reason to prefer him before Caesar himself, who alone could make me +doubtful in my choice: and it cannot be denied that there was more of his +own in his exploits, and more of fortune in those of Alexander. They +were in many things equal, and peradventure Caesar had some greater +qualities they were two fires, or two torrents, overrunning the world by +several ways; + + "Ac velut immissi diversis partibus ignes + Arentem in silvam, et virgulta sonantia lauro + Aut ubi decursu rapido de montibus altis + Dant sonitum spumosi amnes, et in aequora currunt, + Quisque suum populatus iter:" + + ["And as fires applied in several parts to a dry wood and crackling + shrubs of laurel, or as with impetuous fall from the steep + mountains, foaming torrents pour down to the ocean, each clearing a + destructive course."--AEneid, xii. 521.] + +but though Caesar's ambition had been more moderate, it would still be so +unhappy, having the ruin of his country and universal mischief to the +world for its abominable object, that, all things raked together and put +into the balance, I must needs incline to Alexander's side. + +The third and in my opinion the most excellent, is Epaminondas. Of glory +he has not near so much as the other two (which, for that matter, is but +a part of the substance of the thing): of valour and resolution, not of +that sort which is pushed on by ambition, but of that which wisdom and +reason can plant in a regular soul, he had all that could be imagined. +Of this virtue of his, he has, in my idea, given as ample proof as +Alexander himself or Caesar: for although his warlike exploits were +neither so frequent nor so full, they were yet, if duly considered in all +their circumstances, as important, as bravely fought, and carried with +them as manifest testimony of valour and military conduct, as those of +any whatever. The Greeks have done him the honour, without +contradiction, to pronounce him the greatest man of their nation; and to +be the first of Greece, is easily to be the first of the world. As to +his knowledge, we have this ancient judgment of him, "That never any man +knew so much, and spake so little as he";--[Plutarch, On the Demon of +Socrates, c. 23.]--for he was of the Pythagorean sect; but when he did +speak, never any man spake better; an excellent orator, and of powerful +persuasion. But as to his manners and conscience, he infinitely +surpassed all men who ever undertook the management of affairs; for in +this one thing, which ought chiefly to be considered, which alone truly +denotes us for what we are, and which alone I make counterbalance all the +rest put together, he comes not short of any philosopher whatever, not +even of Socrates himself. Innocence, in this man, is a quality peculiar, +sovereign, constant, uniform, incorruptible, compared with which, it +appears in Alexander subject to something else subaltern, uncertain, +variable, effeminate, and fortuitous. + +Antiquity has judged that in thoroughly sifting all the other great +captains, there is found in every one some peculiar quality that +illustrates his name: in this man only there is a full and equal virtue +throughout, that leaves nothing to be wished for in him, whether in +private or public employment, whether in peace or war; whether to live +gloriously and grandly, and to die: I do not know any form or fortune of +man that I so much honour and love. + +'Tis true that I look upon his obstinate poverty, as it is set out by his +best friends, as a little too scrupulous and nice; and this is the only +feature, though high in itself and well worthy of admiration, that I find +so rugged as not to desire to imitate, to the degree it was in him. + +Scipio AEmilianus alone, could one attribute to him as brave and +magnificent an end, and as profound and universal a knowledge, might be +put into the other scale of the balance. Oh, what an injury has time +done me to deprive me of the sight of two of the most noble lives which, +by the common consent of all the world, one of the greatest of the +Greeks, and the other of the Romans, were in all Plutarch. What a +matter! what a workman! + +For a man that was no saint, but, as we say, a gentleman, of civilian and +ordinary manners, and of a moderate ambition, the richest life that I +know, and full of the richest and most to be desired parts, all things +considered, is, in my opinion, that of Alcibiades. + +But as to what concerns Epaminondas, I will here, for the example of an +excessive goodness, add some of his opinions: he declared, that the +greatest satisfaction he ever had in his whole life, was the contentment +he gave his father and mother by his victory at Leuctra; wherein his +deference is great, preferring their pleasure before his own, so dust and +so full of so glorious an action. He did not think it lawful, even to +restore the liberty of his country, to kill a man without knowing a +cause: which made him so cold in the enterprise of his companion +Pelopidas for the relief of Thebes. He was also of opinion that men in +battle ought to avoid the encounter of a friend who was on the contrary +side, and to spare him. And his humanity, even towards his enemies +themselves, having rendered him suspected to the Boeotians, for that, +after he had miraculously forced the Lacedaemonians to open to him the +pass which they had undertaken to defend at the entrance into the Morea, +near Corinth, he contented himself with having charged through them, +without pursuing them to the utmost, he had his commission of general +taken from him, very honourably upon such an account, and for the shame +it was to them upon necessity afterwards to restore him to his command, +and so to manifest how much upon him depended their safety and honour; +victory like a shadow attending him wherever he went; and indeed the +prosperity of his country, as being from him derived, died with him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +OF THE RESEMBLANCE OF CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS + +This faggoting up of so many divers pieces is so done that I never set +pen to paper but when I have too much idle time, and never anywhere but +at home; so that it is compiled after divers interruptions and intervals, +occasions keeping me sometimes many months elsewhere. As to the rest, +I never correct my first by any second conceptions; I, peradventure, may +alter a word or so, but 'tis only to vary the phrase, and not to destroy +my former meaning. I have a mind to represent the progress of my +humours, and that every one may see each piece as it came from the forge. +I could wish I had begun sooner, and had taken more notice of the course +of my mutations. A servant of mine whom I employed to transcribe for me, +thought he had got a prize by stealing several pieces from me, wherewith +he was best pleased; but it is my comfort that he will be no greater a +gainer than I shall be a loser by the theft. I am grown older by seven +or eight years since I began; nor has it been without same new +acquisition: I have, in that time, by the liberality of years, been +acquainted with the stone: their commerce and long converse do not well +pass away without some such inconvenience. I could have been glad that +of other infirmities age has to present long-lived men withal, it had +chosen some one that would have been more welcome to me, for it could not +possibly have laid upon me a disease for which, even from my infancy, I +have had so great a horror; and it is, in truth, of all the accidents of +old age, that of which I have ever been most afraid. I have often +thought with myself that I went on too far, and that in so long a voyage +I should at last run myself into some disadvantage; I perceived, and have +often enough declared, that it was time to depart, and that life should +be cut off in the sound and living part, according to the surgeon's rule +in amputations; and that nature made him pay very strict usury who did +not in due time pay the principal. And yet I was so far from being +ready, that in the eighteen months' time or thereabout that I have been +in this uneasy condition, I have so inured myself to it as to be content +to live on in it; and have found wherein to comfort myself, and to hope: +so much are men enslaved to their miserable being, that there is no +condition so wretched they will not accept, provided they may live! Hear +Maecenas: + + "Debilem facito manu, + Debilem pede, coxa, + Lubricos quate dentes; + Vita dum superest, bene est." + + ["Cripple my hand, foot, hip; shake out my loose teeth: while + there's life, 'tis well."--Apud Seneca, Ep., 101.] + +And Tamerlane, with a foolish humanity, palliated the fantastic cruelty +he exercised upon lepers, when he put all he could hear of to death, to +deliver them, as he pretended, from the painful life they lived. For +there was not one of them who would not rather have been thrice a leper +than be not. And Antisthenes the Stoic, being very sick, and crying out, +"Who will deliver me from these evils?" Diogenes, who had come to visit +him, "This," said he, presenting him a knife, "soon enough, if thou +wilt."--"I do not mean from my life," he replied, "but from my +sufferings." The sufferings that only attack the mind, I am not so +sensible of as most other men; and this partly out of judgment, for the +world looks upon several things as dreadful or to be avoided at the +expense of life, that are almost indifferent to me: partly, through a +dull and insensible complexion I have in accidents which do not point- +blank hit me; and that insensibility I look upon as one of the best parts +of my natural condition; but essential and corporeal pains I am very +sensible of. And yet, having long since foreseen them, though with a +sight weak and delicate and softened with the long and happy health and +quiet that God has been pleased to give me the greatest part of my time, +I had in my imagination fancied them so insupportable, that, in truth, I +was more afraid than I have since found I had cause: by which I am still +more fortified in this belief, that most of the faculties of the soul, as +we employ them, more trouble the repose of life than they are any way +useful to it. + +I am in conflict with the worst, the most sudden, the most painful, the +most mortal, and the most irremediable of all diseases; I have already +had the trial of five or six very long and very painful fits; and yet I +either flatter myself, or there is even in this state what is very well +to be endured by a man who has his soul free from the fear of death, and +of the menaces, conclusions, and consequences which physic is ever +thundering in our ears; but the effect even of pain itself is not so +sharp and intolerable as to put a man of understanding into rage and +despair. I have at least this advantage by my stone, that what I could +not hitherto prevail upon myself to resolve upon, as to reconciling and +acquainting myself with death, it will perfect; for the more it presses +upon and importunes me, I shall be so much the less afraid to die. I had +already gone so far as only to love life for life's sake, but my pain +will dissolve this intelligence; and God grant that in the end, should +the sharpness of it be once greater than I shall be able to bear, it does +not throw me into the other no less vicious extreme to desire and wish to +die! + + "Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes:" + + ["Neither to wish, nor fear to die." (Or:) + "Thou shouldest neither fear nor desire the last day." + --Martial, x. 7.] + +they are two passions to be feared; but the one has its remedy much +nearer at hand than the other. + +As to the rest, I have always found the precept that so rigorously +enjoins a resolute countenance and disdainful and indifferent comportment +in the toleration of infirmities to be ceremonial. Why should +philosophy, which only has respect to life and effects, trouble itself +about these external appearances? Let us leave that care to actors and +masters of rhetoric, who set so great a value upon our gestures. Let her +allow this vocal frailty to disease, if it be neither cordial nor +stomachic, and permit the ordinary ways of expressing grief by sighs, +sobs, palpitations, and turning pale, that nature has put out of our +power; provided the courage be undaunted, and the tones not expressive +of despair, let her be satisfied. What matter the wringing of our hands, +if we do not wring our thoughts? She forms us for ourselves, not for +others; to be, not to seem; let her be satisfied with governing our +understanding, which she has taken upon her the care of instructing; +that, in the fury of the colic, she maintain the soul in a condition to +know itself, and to follow its accustomed way, contending with, and +enduring, not meanly truckling under pain; moved and heated, not subdued +and conquered, in the contention; capable of discourse and other things, +to a certain degree. In such extreme accidents, 'tis cruelty to require +so exact a composedness. 'Tis no great matter that we make a wry face, +if the mind plays its part well: if the body find itself relieved by +complaining let it complain: if agitation ease it, let it tumble and toss +at pleasure; if it seem to find the disease evaporate (as some physicians +hold that it helps women in delivery) in making loud outcries, or if this +do but divert its torments, let it roar as it will. Let us not command +this voice to sally, but stop it not. Epicurus, not only forgives his +sage for crying out in torments, but advises him to it: + + "Pugiles etiam, quum feriunt, in jactandis caestibus + ingemiscunt, quia profundenda voce omne corpus intenditur, + venitque plaga vehementior." + + ["Boxers also, when they strike, groan in the act, because with the + strength of voice the whole body is carried, and the blow comes with + the greater vehemence."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 23.] + +We have enough to do to deal with the disease, without troubling +ourselves with these superfluous rules. + +Which I say in excuse of those whom we ordinarily see impatient in the +assaults of this malady; for as to what concerns myself, I have passed it +over hitherto with a little better countenance, and contented myself with +groaning without roaring out; not, nevertheless, that I put any great +constraint upon myself to maintain this exterior decorum, for I make +little account of such an advantage: I allow herein as much as the pain +requires; but either my pains are not so excessive, or I have more than +ordinary patience. I complain, I confess, and am a little impatient in a +very sharp fit, but I do not arrive to such a degree of despair as he who +with: + + "Ejulatu, questu, gemitu, fremitibus + Resonando, multum flebiles voces refert:" + + ["Howling, roaring, groaning with a thousand noises, expressing his + torment in a dismal voice." (Or:) "Wailing, complaining, groaning, + murmuring much avail lugubrious sounds."--Verses of Attius, in his + Phaloctetes, quoted by Cicero, De Finib., ii. 29; Tusc. Quaes., + ii. 14.] + +I try myself in the depth of my suffering, and have always found that I +was in a capacity to speak, think, and give a rational answer as well as +at any other time, but not so firmly, being troubled and interrupted by +the pain. When I am looked upon by my visitors to be in the greatest +torment, and that they therefore forbear to trouble me, I often essay my +own strength, and myself set some discourse on foot, the most remote I +can contrive from my present condition. I can do anything upon a sudden +endeavour, but it must not continue long. Oh, what pity 'tis I have not +the faculty of that dreamer in Cicero, who dreaming he was lying with a +wench, found he had discharged his stone in the sheets. My pains +strangely deaden my appetite that way. In the intervals from this +excessive torment, when my ureters only languish without any great dolor, +I presently feel myself in my wonted state, forasmuch as my soul takes no +other alarm but what is sensible and corporal, which I certainly owe to +the care I have had of preparing myself by meditation against such +accidents: + + "Laborum, + Nulla mihi nova nunc facies inopinave surgit; + Omnia praecepi, atque animo mecum ante peregi." + + ["No new shape of suffering can arise new or unexpected; I have + anticipated all, and acted them over beforehand in my mind." + --AEneid, vi. 103.] + +I am, however, a little roughly handled for an apprentice, and with a +sudden and sharp alteration, being fallen in an instant from a very easy +and happy condition of life into the most uneasy and painful that can be +imagined. For besides that it is a disease very much to be feared in +itself, it begins with me after a more sharp and severe manner than it is +used to do with other men. My fits come so thick upon me that I am +scarcely ever at ease; yet I have hitherto kept my mind so upright that, +provided I can still continue it, I find myself in a much better +condition of life than a thousand others, who have no fewer nor other +disease but what they create to themselves for want of meditation. + +There is a certain sort of crafty humility that springs from presumption, +as this, for example, that we confess our ignorance in many things, and +are so courteous as to acknowledge that there are in the works of nature +some qualities and conditions that are imperceptible to us, and of which +our understanding cannot discover the means and causes; by this so honest +and conscientious declaration we hope to obtain that people shall also +believe us as to those that we say we do understand. We need not trouble +ourselves to seek out foreign miracles and difficulties; methinks, +amongst the things that we ordinarily see, there are such +incomprehensible wonders as surpass all difficulties of miracles. What a +wonderful thing it is that the drop of seed from which we are produced +should carry in itself the impression not only of the bodily form, but +even of the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers! Where can that +drop of fluid matter contain that infinite number of forms? and how can +they carry on these resemblances with so precarious and irregular a +process that the son shall be like his great-grandfather, the nephew like +his uncle? In the family of Lepidus at Rome there were three, not +successively but by intervals, who were born with the same eye covered +with a cartilage. At Thebes there was a race that carried from their +mother's womb the form of the head of a lance, and he who was not born so +was looked upon as illegitimate. And Aristotle says that in a certain +nation, where the women were in common, they assigned the children to +their fathers by their resemblance. + +'Tis to be believed that I derive this infirmity from my father, for he +died wonderfully tormented with a great stone in his bladder; he was +never sensible of his disease till the sixty-seventh year of his age; and +before that had never felt any menace or symptoms of it, either in his +reins, sides, or any other part, and had lived, till then, in a happy, +vigorous state of health, little subject to infirmities, and he continued +seven years after in this disease, dragging on a very painful end of +life. I was born about five-and-twenty years before his disease seized +him, and in the time of his most flourishing and healthful state of body, +his third child in order of birth: where could his propension to this +malady lie lurking all that while? And he being then so far from the +infirmity, how could that small part of his substance wherewith he made +me, carry away so great an impression for its share? and how so +concealed, that till five-and-forty years after, I did not begin to be +sensible of it? being the only one to this hour, amongst so many +brothers and sisters, and all by one mother, that was ever troubled with +it. He that can satisfy me in this point, I will believe him in as many +other miracles as he pleases; always provided that, as their manner is, +he do not give me a doctrine much more intricate and fantastic than the +thing itself for current pay. + +Let the physicians a little excuse the liberty I take, for by this same +infusion and fatal insinuation it is that I have received a hatred and +contempt of their doctrine; the antipathy I have against their art is +hereditary. My father lived three-score and fourteen years, my +grandfather sixty-nine, my great-grandfather almost fourscore years, +without ever tasting any sort of physic; and, with them, whatever was not +ordinary diet, was instead of a drug. Physic is grounded upon experience +and examples: so is my opinion. And is not this an express and very +advantageous experience. I do not know that they can find me in all +their records three that were born, bred, and died under the same roof, +who have lived so long by their conduct. They must here of necessity +confess, that if reason be not, fortune at least is on my side, and with +physicians fortune goes a great deal further than reason. Let them not +take me now at a disadvantage; let them not threaten me in the subdued +condition wherein I now am; that were treachery. In truth, I have enough +the better of them by these domestic examples, that they should rest +satisfied. Human things are not usually so constant; it has been two +hundred years, save eighteen, that this trial has lasted, for the first +of them was born in the year 1402: 'tis now, indeed, very good reason +that this experience should begin to fail us. Let them not, therefore, +reproach me with the infirmities under which I now suffer; is it not +enough that I for my part have lived seven-and-forty years in good +health? though it should be the end of my career; 'tis of the longer +sort. + +My ancestors had an aversion to physic by some occult and natural +instinct; for the very sight of drugs was loathsome to my father. The +Seigneur de Gaviac, my uncle by the father's side, a churchman, and a +valetudinary from his birth, and yet who made that crazy life hold out to +sixty-seven years, being once fallen into a furious fever, it was ordered +by the physicians he should be plainly told that if he would not make use +of help (for so they call that which is very often an obstacle), he would +infallibly be a dead man. That good man, though terrified with this +dreadful sentence, yet replied, "I am then a dead man." But God soon +after made the prognostic false. The last of the brothers--there were +four of them--and by many years the last, the Sieur de Bussaguet, was the +only one of the family who made use of medicine, by reason, I suppose, of +the concern he had with the other arts, for he was a councillor in the +court of Parliament, and it succeeded so ill with him, that being in +outward appearance of the strongest constitution, he yet died long before +any of the rest, save the Sieur de Saint Michel. + +'Tis possible I may have derived this natural antipathy to physic from +them; but had there been no other consideration in the case, I would have +endeavoured to have overcome it; for all these conditions that spring in +us without reason, are vicious; 'tis a kind of disease that we should +wrestle with. It may be I had naturally this propension; but I have +supported and fortified it by arguments and reasons which have +established in me the opinion I am of. For I also hate the consideration +of refusing physic for the nauseous taste. + +I should hardly be of that humour who hold health to be worth purchasing +by all the most painful cauteries and incisions that can be applied. +And, with Epicurus, I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided, if +greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted, that will +terminate in greater pleasures. Health is a precious thing, and the only +one, in truth, meriting that a man should lay out, not only his time, +sweat, labour, and goods, but also his life itself to obtain it; +forasmuch as, without it, life is wearisome and injurious to us: +pleasure, wisdom, learning, and virtue, without it, wither away and +vanish; and to the most laboured and solid discourses that philosophy +would imprint in us to the contrary, we need no more but oppose the image +of Plato being struck with an epilepsy or apoplexy; and, in this +presupposition, to defy him to call the rich faculties of his soul to his +assistance. All means that conduce to health can neither be too painful +nor too dear to me. But I have some other appearances that make me +strangely suspect all this merchandise. I do not deny but that there may +be some art in it, that there are not amongst so many works of Nature, +things proper for the conservation of health: that is most certain: I +very well know there are some simples that moisten, and others that dry; +I experimentally know that radishes are windy, and senna-leaves purging; +and several other such experiences I have, as that mutton nourishes me, +and wine warms me: and Solon said "that eating was physic against the +malady hunger." I do not disapprove the use we make of things the earth +produces, nor doubt, in the least, of the power and fertility of Nature, +and of its application to our necessities: I very well see that pikes and +swallows live by her laws; but I mistrust the inventions of our mind, our +knowledge and art, to countenance which, we have abandoned Nature and her +rules, and wherein we keep no bounds nor moderation. As we call the +piling up of the first laws that fall into our hands justice, and their +practice and dispensation very often foolish and very unjust; and as +those who scoff at and accuse it, do not, nevertheless, blame that noble +virtue itself, but only condemn the abuse and profanation of that sacred +title; so in physic I very much honour that glorious name, its +propositions, its promises, so useful for the service of mankind; but the +ordinances it foists upon us, betwixt ourselves, I neither honour nor +esteem. + +In the first place, experience makes me dread it; for amongst all my +acquaintance, I see no people so soon sick, and so long before they are +well, as those who take much physic; their very health is altered and +corrupted by their frequent prescriptions. Physicians are not content to +deal only with the sick, but they will moreover corrupt health itself, +for fear men should at any time escape their authority. Do they not, +from a continual and perfect health, draw the argument of some great +sickness to ensue? I have been sick often enough, and have always found +my sicknesses easy enough to be supported (though I have made trial of +almost all sorts), and as short as those of any other, without their +help, or without swallowing their ill-tasting doses. The health I have +is full and free, without other rule or discipline than my own custom and +pleasure. Every place serves me well enough to stay in, for I need no +other conveniences, when I am sick, than what I must have when I am well. +I never disturb myself that I have no physician, no apothecary, nor any +other assistance, which I see most other sick men more afflicted at than +they are with their disease. What! Do the doctors themselves show us +more felicity and duration in their own lives, that may manifest to us +some apparent effect of their skill? + +There is not a nation in the world that has not been many ages without +physic; and these the first ages, that is to say, the best and most +happy; and the tenth part of the world knows nothing of it yet; many +nations are ignorant of it to this day, where men live more healthful and +longer than we do here, and even amongst us the common people live well +enough without it. The Romans were six hundred years before they +received it; and after having made trial of it, banished it from the city +at the instance of Cato the Censor, who made it appear how easy it was to +live without it, having himself lived fourscore and five years, and kept +his wife alive to an extreme old age, not without physic, but without a +physician: for everything that we find to be healthful to life may be +called physic. He kept his family in health, as Plutarch says if I +mistake not, with hare's milk; as Pliny reports, that the Arcadians +cured all manner of diseases with that of a cow; and Herodotus says, the +Lybians generally enjoy rare health, by a custom they have, after their +children are arrived to four years of age, to burn and cauterise the +veins of their head and temples, by which means they cut off all +defluxions of rheum for their whole lives. And the country people of our +province make use of nothing, in all sorts of distempers, but the +strongest wine they can get, mixed with a great deal of saffron and +spice, and always with the same success. + +And to say the truth, of all this diversity and confusion of +prescriptions, what other end and effect is there after all, but to purge +the belly? which a thousand ordinary simples will do as well; and I do +not know whether such evacuations be so much to our advantage as they +pretend, and whether nature does not require a residence of her +excrements to a certain proportion, as wine does of its lees to keep it +alive: you often see healthful men fall into vomitings and fluxes of the +belly by some extrinsic accident, and make a great evacuation of +excrements, without any preceding need, or any following benefit, but +rather with hurt to their constitution. 'Tis from the great Plato, that +I lately learned, that of three sorts of motions which are natural to us, +purging is the worst, and that no man, unless he be a fool, ought to take +anything to that purpose but in the extremest necessity. Men disturb and +irritate the disease by contrary oppositions; it must be the way of +living that must gently dissolve, and bring it to its end. The violent +gripings and contest betwixt the drug and the disease are ever to our +loss, since the combat is fought within ourselves, and that the drug is +an assistant not to be trusted, being in its own nature an enemy to our +health, and by trouble having only access into our condition. Let it +alone a little; the general order of things that takes care of fleas and +moles, also takes care of men, if they will have the same patience that +fleas and moles have, to leave it to itself. 'Tis to much purpose we cry +out "Bihore,"--[A term used by the Languedoc waggoners to hasten their +horses]--'tis a way to make us hoarse, but not to hasten the matter. +'Tis a proud and uncompassionate order: our fears, our despair displease +and stop it from, instead of inviting it to, our relief; it owes its +course to the disease, as well as to health; and will not suffer itself +to be corrupted in favour of the one to the prejudice of the other's +right, for it would then fall into disorder. Let us, in God's name, +follow it; it leads those that follow, and those who will not follow, it +drags along, both their fury and physic together. Order a purge for your +brain, it will there be much better employed than upon your stomach. + +One asking a Lacedaemonian what had made him live so long, he made +answer, "the ignorance of physic"; and the Emperor Adrian continually +exclaimed as he was dying, that the crowd of physicians had killed him. +A bad wrestler turned physician: "Courage," says Diogenes to him; "thou +hast done well, for now thou will throw those who have formerly thrown +thee." But they have this advantage, according to Nicocles, that the sun +gives light to their success and the earth covers their failures. And, +besides, they have a very advantageous way of making use of all sorts of +events: for what fortune, nature, or any other cause (of which the number +is infinite), products of good and healthful in us, it is the privilege +of physic to attribute to itself; all the happy successes that happen to +the patient, must be thence derived; the accidents that have cured me, +and a thousand others, who do not employ physicians, physicians usurp to +themselves: and as to ill accidents, they either absolutely disown them, +in laying the fault upon the patient, by such frivolous reasons as they +are never at a loss for; as "he lay with his arms out of bed," or "he was +disturbed with the rattling of a coach:" + + "Rhedarum transitus arcto + Vicorum inflexu:" + + ["The passage of the wheels in the narrow + turning of the street"--Juvenal, iii. 236.] + +or "somebody had set open the casement," or "he had lain upon his left +side," or "he had some disagreeable fancies in his head": in sum, a word, +a dream, or a look, seems to them excuse sufficient wherewith to palliate +their own errors: or, if they so please, they even make use of our +growing worse, and do their business in this way which can never fail +them: which is by buzzing us in the ear, when the disease is more +inflamed by their medicaments, that it had been much worse but for those +remedies; he, whom from an ordinary cold they have thrown into a double +tertian-ague, had but for them been in a continued fever. They do not +much care what mischief they do, since it turns to their own profit. +In earnest, they have reason to require a very favourable belief from +their patients; and, indeed, it ought to be a very easy one, to swallow +things so hard to be believed. Plato said very well, that physicians +were the only men who might lie at pleasure, since our health depends +upon the vanity and falsity of their promises. + +AEsop, a most excellent author, and of whom few men discover all the +graces, pleasantly represents to us the tyrannical authority physicians +usurp over poor creatures, weakened and subdued by sickness and fear, +when he tells us, that a sick person, being asked by his physician what +operation he found of the potion he had given him: "I have sweated very +much," says the sick man. "That's good," says the physician. Another +time, having asked how he felt himself after his physic: "I have been +very cold, and have had a great shivering upon me," said he. "That is +good," replied the physician. After the third potion, he asked him again +how he did: "Why, I find myself swollen and puffed up," said he, "as if +I had a dropsy."--"That is very well," said the physician. One of his +servants coming presently after to inquire how he felt himself, "Truly, +friend," said he, "with being too well I am about to die." + +There was a more just law in Egypt, by which the physician, for the three +first days, was to take charge of his patient at the patient's own risk +and cost; but, those three days being past, it was to be at his own. For +what reason is it that their patron, AEsculapius, should be struck with +thunder for restoring Hippolitus from death to life: + + "Nam Pater omnipotens, aliquem indignatus ab umbris + Mortalem infernis ad lumina surgere vitae, + Ipse repertorem medicinae talis, et artis + Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas;" + + ["Then the Almighty Father, offended that any mortal should rise to + the light of life from the infernal shades, struck the son of + Phoebus with his forked lightning to the Stygian lake." + --AEneid, vii. 770.] + +and his followers be pardoned, who send so many souls from life to death? +A physician, boasting to Nicocles that his art was of great authority: +"It is so, indeed," said Nicocles, "that can with impunity kill so many +people." + +As to what remains, had I been of their counsel, I would have rendered my +discipline more sacred and mysterious; they begun well, but they have not +ended so. It was a good beginning to make gods and demons the authors of +their science, and to have used a peculiar way of speaking and writing, +notwithstanding that philosophy concludes it folly to persuade a man to +his own good by an unintelligible way: "Ut si quis medicus imperet, ut +sumat:" + + + "Terrigenam, herbigradam, domiportam, sanguine cassam." + + ["Describing it by the epithets of an animal trailing with its slime + over the herbage, without blood or bones, and carrying its house + upon its back, meaning simply a snail."--Coste] + +It was a good rule in their art, and that accompanies all other vain, +fantastic, and supernatural arts, that the patient's belief should +prepossess them with good hope and assurance of their effects and +operation: a rule they hold to that degree, as to maintain that the most +inexpert and ignorant physician is more proper for a patient who has +confidence in him, than the most learned and experienced whom he is not +so acquainted with. Nay, even the very choice of most of their drugs is +in some sort mysterious and divine; the left foot of a tortoise, the +urine of a lizard, the dung of an elephant, the liver of a mole, blood +drawn from under the right wing of a white pigeon; and for us who have +the stone (so scornfully they use us in our miseries) the excrement of +rats beaten to powder, and such like trash and fooleries which rather +carry a face of magical enchantment than of any solid science. I omit +the odd number of their pills, the destination of certain days and feasts +of the year, the superstition of gathering their simples at certain +hours, and that so austere and very wise countenance and carriage which +Pliny himself so much derides. But they have, as I said, failed in that +they have not added to this fine beginning the making their meetings and +consultations more religious and secret, where no profane person should +have admission, no more than in the secret ceremonies of AEsculapius; for +by the reason of this it falls out that their irresolution, the weakness +of their arguments, divinations and foundations, the sharpness of their +disputes, full of hatred, jealousy, and self-consideration, coming to be +discovered by every one, a man must be marvellously blind not to see that +he runs a very great hazard in their hands. Who ever saw one physician +approve of another's prescription, without taking something away, or +adding something to it? by which they sufficiently betray their tricks, +and make it manifest to us that they therein more consider their own +reputation, and consequently their profit, than their patient's interest. +He was a much wiser man of their tribe, who of old gave it as a rule, +that only one physician should undertake a sick person; for if he do +nothing to purpose, one single man's default can bring no great scandal +upon the art of medicine; and, on the contrary, the glory will be great +if he happen to have success; whereas, when there are many, they at every +turn bring a disrepute upon their calling, forasmuch as they oftener do +hurt than good. They ought to be satisfied with the perpetual +disagreement which is found in the opinions of the principal masters and +ancient authors of this science, which is only known to men well read, +without discovering to the vulgar the controversies and various judgments +which they still nourish and continue amongst themselves. + +Will you have one example of the ancient controversy in physic? +Herophilus lodges the original cause of all diseases in the humours; +Erasistratus, in the blood of the arteries; Asclepiades, in the invisible +atoms of the pores; Alcmaeon, in the exuberance or defect of our bodily +strength; Diocles, in the inequality of the elements of which the body is +composed, and in the quality of the air we breathe; Strato, in the +abundance, crudity, and corruption of the nourishment we take; and +Hippocrates lodges it in the spirits. There is a certain friend of +theirs,--[Celsus, Preface to the First Book.]--whom they know better +than I, who declares upon this subject, "that the most important science +in practice amongst us, as that which is intrusted with our health and +conservation, is, by ill luck, the most uncertain, the most perplexed, +and agitated with the greatest mutations." There is no great danger in +our mistaking the height of the sun, or the fraction of some astronomical +supputation; but here, where our whole being is concerned, 'tis not +wisdom to abandon ourselves to the mercy of the agitation of so many +contrary winds. + +Before the Peloponnesian war there was no great talk of this science. +Hippocrates brought it into repute; whatever he established, Chrysippus +overthrew; after that, Erasistratus, Aristotle's grandson, overthrew what +Chrysippus had written; after these, the Empirics started up, who took a +quite contrary way to the ancients in the management of this art; when +the credit of these began a little to decay, Herophilus set another sort +of practice on foot, which Asclepiades in turn stood up against, and +overthrew; then, in their turn, the opinions first of Themiso, and then +of Musa, and after that those of Vectius Valens, a physician famous +through the intelligence he had with Messalina, came in vogue; the empire +of physic in Nero's time was established in Thessalus, who abolished and +condemned all that had been held till his time; this man's doctrine was +refuted by Crinas of Marseilles, who first brought all medicinal +operations under the Ephemerides and motions of the stars, and reduced +eating, sleeping, and drinking to hours that were most pleasing to +Mercury and the moon; his authority was soon after supplanted by +Charinus, a physician of the same city of Marseilles, a man who not only +controverted all the ancient methods of physic, but moreover the usage of +hot baths, that had been generally and for so many ages in common use; he +made men bathe in cold water, even in winter, and plunged his sick +patients in the natural waters of streams. No Roman till Pliny's time +had ever vouchsafed to practise physic; that office was only performed +by Greeks and foreigners, as 'tis now amongst us French, by those who +sputter Latin; for, as a very great physician says, we do not easily +accept the medicine we understand, no more than we do the drugs we +ourselves gather. If the nations whence we fetch our guaiacum, +sarsaparilla, and China wood, have physicians, how great a value must we +imagine, by the same recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear +purchase, do they set upon our cabbage and parsley? for who would dare +to contemn things so far fetched, and sought out at the hazard of so long +and dangerous a voyage? + +Since these ancient mutations in physic, there have been infinite others +down to our own times, and, for the most part, mutations entire and +universal, as those, for example, produced by Paracelsus, Fioravanti, and +Argentier; for they, as I am told, not only alter one recipe, but the +whole contexture and rules of the body of physic, accusing all others of +ignorance and imposition who have practised before them. At this rate, +in what a condition the poor patient must be, I leave you to judge. + +If we were even assured that, when they make a mistake, that mistake of +theirs would do us no harm, though it did us no good, it were a +reasonable bargain to venture the making ourselves better without any +danger of being made worse. AEsop tells a story, that one who had bought +a Morisco slave, believing that his black complexion had arrived by +accident and the ill usage of his former master, caused him to enter with +great care into a course of baths and potions: it happened that the Moor +was nothing amended in his tawny complexion, but he wholly lost his +former health. How often do we see physicians impute the death of their +patients to one another? I remember that some years ago there was an +epidemical disease, very dangerous and for the most part mortal, that +raged in the towns about us: the storm being over which had swept away an +infinite number of men, one of the most famous physicians of all the +country, presently after published a book upon that subject, wherein, +upon better thoughts, he confesses that the letting blood in that disease +was the principal cause of so many mishaps. Moreover, their authors hold +that there is no physic that has not something hurtful in it. And if +even those of the best operation in some measure offend us, what must +those do that are totally misapplied? For my own part, though there were +nothing else in the case, I am of opinion, that to those who loathe the +taste of physic, it must needs be a dangerous and prejudicial endeavour +to force it down at so incommodious a time, and with so much aversion, +and believe that it marvellously distempers a sick person at a time when +he has so much need of repose. And more over, if we but consider the +occasions upon which they usually ground the cause of our diseases, they +are so light and nice, that I thence conclude a very little error in the +dispensation of their drugs may do a great deal of mischief. Now, if the +mistake of a physician be so dangerous, we are in but a scurvy condition; +for it is almost impossible but he must often fall into those mistakes: +he had need of too many parts, considerations, and circumstances, rightly +to level his design: he must know the sick person's complexion, his +temperament, his humours, inclinations, actions, nay, his very thoughts +and imaginations; he must be assured of the external circumstances, of +the nature of the place, the quality of the air and season, the situation +of the planets, and their influences: he must know in the disease, the +causes, prognostics, affections, and critical days; in the drugs, the +weight, the power of working, the country, figure, age, and dispensation, +and he must know how rightly to proportion and mix them together, to +beget a just and perfect symmetry; wherein if there be the least error, +if amongst so many springs there be but any one out of order, 'tis enough +to destroy us. God knows with how great difficulty most of these things +are to be understood: for (for example) how shall the physician find out +the true sign of the disease, every disease being capable of an infinite +number of indications? How many doubts and controversies have they +amongst themselves upon the interpretation of urines? otherwise, whence +should the continual debates we see amongst them about the knowledge of +the disease proceed? how could we excuse the error they so oft fall into, +of taking fox for marten? In the diseases I have had, though there were +ever so little difficulty in the case, I never found three of one +opinion: which I instance, because I love to introduce examples wherein I +am myself concerned. + +A gentleman at Paris was lately cut for the stone by order of the +physicians, in whose bladder, being accordingly so cut, there was found +no more stone than in the palm of his hand; and in the same place a +bishop, who was my particular friend, having been earnestly pressed by +the majority of the physicians whom he consulted, to suffer himself to be +cut, to which also, upon their word, I used my interest to persuade him, +when he was dead and opened, it appeared that he had no malady but in the +kidneys. They are least excusable for any error in this disease, by +reason that it is in some sort palpable; and 'tis thence that I conclude +surgery to be much more certain, by reason that it sees and feels what it +does, and so goes less upon conjecture; whereas the physicians have no +'speculum matricis', by which to examine our brains, lungs, and liver. + +Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves; for, +having to provide against divers and contrary accidents that often +afflict us at one and the same time, and that have almost a necessary +relation, as the heat of the liver and the coldness of the stomach, they +will needs persuade us, that of their ingredients one will heat the +stomach and the other will cool the liver: one has its commission to go +directly to the kidneys, nay, even to the bladder, without scattering its +operations by the way, and is to retain its power and virtue through all +those turns and meanders, even to the place to the service of which it is +designed, by its own occult property this will dry-the brain; that will +moisten the lungs. Of all this bundle of things having mixed up a +potion, is it not a kind of madness to imagine or to hope that these +differing virtues should separate themselves from one another in this +mixture and confusion, to perform so many various errands? I should very +much fear that they would either lose or change their tickets, and +disturb one another's quarters. And who can imagine but that, in this +liquid confusion, these faculties must corrupt, confound, and spoil one +another? And is not the danger still more when the making up of this +medicine is entrusted to the skill and fidelity of still another, to +whose mercy we again abandon our lives? + +As we have doublet and breeches-makers, distinct trades, to clothe us, +and are so much the better fitted, seeing that each of them meddles only +with his own business, and has less to trouble his head with than the +tailor who undertakes all; and as in matter of diet, great persons, for +their better convenience, and to the end they may be better served, have +cooks for the different offices, this for soups and potages, that for +roasting, instead of which if one cook should undertake the whole +service, he could not so well perform it; so also as to the cure of our +maladies. The Egyptians had reason to reject this general trade of +physician, and to divide the profession: to each disease, to each part of +the body, its particular workman; for that part was more properly and +with less confusion cared for, seeing the person looked to nothing else. +Ours are not aware that he who provides for all, provides for nothing; +and that the entire government of this microcosm is more than they are +able to undertake. Whilst they were afraid of stopping a dysentery, lest +they should put the patient into a fever, they killed me a friend, +--[Estienne de la Boetie.]--who was worth more than the whole of them. +They counterpoise their own divinations with the present evils; and +because they will not cure the brain to the prejudice of the stomach, +they injure both with their dissentient and tumultuary drugs. + +As to the variety and weakness of the rationale of this art, they are +more manifest in it than in any other art; aperitive medicines are proper +for a man subject to the stone, by reason that opening and dilating the +passages they help forward the slimy matter whereof gravel and stone are +engendered, and convey that downward which begins to harden and gather in +the reins; aperitive things are dangerous for a man subject to the stone, +by reason that, opening and dilating the passages, they help forward the +matter proper to create the gravel toward the reins, which by their own +propension being apt to seize it, 'tis not to be imagined but that a +great deal of what has been conveyed thither must remain behind; +moreover, if the medicine happen to meet with anything too large to be +carried through all the narrow passages it must pass to be expelled, that +obstruction, whatever it is, being stirred by these aperitive things and +thrown into those narrow passages, coming to stop them, will occasion a +certain and most painful death. They have the like uniformity in the +counsels they give us for the regimen of life: it is good to make water +often; for we experimentally see that, in letting it lie long in the +bladder, we give it time to settle the sediment, which will concrete into +a stone; it is good not to make water often, for the heavy excrements it +carries along with it will not be voided without violence, as we see by +experience that a torrent that runs with force washes the ground it rolls +over much cleaner than the course of a slow and tardy stream; so, it is +good to have often to do with women, for that opens the passages and +helps to evacuate gravel; it is also very ill to have often to do with +women, because it heats, tires, and weakens the reins. It is good to +bathe frequently in hot water, forasmuch as that relaxes and mollifies +the places where the gravel and stone lie; it is also ill by reason that +this application of external heat helps the reins to bake, harden, and +petrify the matter so disposed. For those who are taking baths it is +most healthful. To eat little at night, to the end that the waters they +are to drink the next morning may have a better operation upon an empty +stomach; on the other hand, it is better to eat little at dinner, that it +hinder not the operation of the waters, while it is not yet perfect, and +not to oppress the stomach so soon after the other labour, but leave the +office of digestion to the night, which will much better perform it than +the day, when the body and soul are in perpetual moving and action. Thus +do they juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense; and +they could not give me one proposition against which I should not know +how to raise a contrary of equal force. Let them, then, no longer +exclaim against those who in this trouble of sickness suffer themselves +to be gently guided by their own appetite and the advice of nature, and +commit themselves to the common fortune. + +I have seen in my travels almost all the famous baths of Christendom, and +for some years past have begun to make use of them myself: for I look +upon bathing as generally wholesome, and believe that we suffer no little +inconveniences in our health by having left off the custom that was +generally observed, in former times, almost by all nations, and is yet in +many, of bathing every day; and I cannot imagine but that we are much the +worse by, having our limbs crusted and our pores stopped with dirt. And +as to the drinking of them, fortune has in the first place rendered them +not at all unacceptable to my taste; and secondly, they are natural and +simple, which at least carry no danger with them, though they may do us +no good, of which the infinite crowd of people of all sorts and +complexions who repair thither I take to be a sufficient warranty; and +although I have not there observed any extraordinary and miraculous +effects, but that on the contrary, having more narrowly than ordinary +inquired into it, I have found all the reports of such operations that +have been spread abroad in those places ill-grounded and false, and those +that believe them (as people are willing to be gulled in what they +desire) deceived in them, yet I have seldom known any who have been made +worse by those waters, and a man cannot honestly deny but that they beget +a better appetite, help digestion, and do in some sort revive us, if we +do not go too late and in too weak a condition, which I would dissuade +every one from doing. They have not the virtue to raise men from +desperate and inveterate diseases, but they may help some light +indisposition, or prevent some threatening alteration. He who does not +bring along with him so much cheerfulness as to enjoy the pleasure of the +company he will there meet, and of the walks and exercises to which the +amenity of those places invite us, will doubtless lose the best and +surest part of their effect. For this reason I have hitherto chosen to +go to those of the most pleasant situation, where there was the best +conveniency of lodging, provision, and company, as the baths of Bagneres +in France, those of Plombieres on the frontiers of Germany and Lorraine, +those of Baden in Switzerland, those of Lucca in Tuscany, and especially +those of Della Villa, which I have the most and at various seasons +frequented. + +Every nation has particular opinions touching their use, and particular +rules and methods in using them; and all of them, according to what I +have seen, almost with like effect. Drinking them is not at all received +in Germany; the Germans bathe for all diseases, and will lie dabbling in +the water almost from sun to sun; in Italy, where they drink nine days, +they bathe at least thirty, and commonly drink the water mixed with some +other drugs to make it work the better. Here we are ordered to walk to +digest it; there we are kept in bed after taking it till it be wrought +off, our stomachs and feet having continually hot cloths applied to them +all the while; and as the Germans have a particular practice generally to +use cupping and scarification in the bath, so the Italians have their +'doccie', which are certain little streams of this hot water brought +through pipes, and with these bathe an hour in the morning, and as much +in the afternoon, for a month together, either the head, stomach, or any +other part where the evil lies. There are infinite other varieties of +customs in every country, or rather there is no manner of resemblance to +one another. By this you may see that this little part of physic to +which I have only submitted, though the least depending upon art of all +others, has yet a great share of the confusion and uncertainty everywhere +else manifest in the profession. + +The poets put what they would say with greater emphasis and grace; +witness these two epigrams: + + "Alcon hesterno signum Jovis attigit: ille, + Quamvis marmoreus, vim patitur medici. + Ecce hodie, jussus transferri ex aeede vetusta, + Effertur, quamvis sit Deus atque lapis." + + ["Alcon yesterday touched Jove's statue; he, although marble, + suffers the force of the physician: to-day ordered to be transferred + from the old temple, where it stood, it is carried out, although it + be a god and a stone."--Ausonius, Ep., 74.] + + +and the other: + + "Lotus nobiscum est, hilaris coenavit; et idem + Inventus mane est mortuus Andragoras. + Tam subitae mortis causam, Faustine, requiris? + In somnis medicum viderat Hermocratem:" + + ["Andragoras bathed with us, supped gaily, and in the morning the + same was found dead. Dost thou ask, Faustinus, the cause of this so + sudden death? In his dreams he had seen the physician Hermocrates." + --Martial, vi. 53.] + +upon which I will relate two stories. + +The Baron de Caupene in Chalosse and I have betwixt us the advowson of a +benefice of great extent, at the foot of our mountains, called Lahontan. +It is with the inhabitants of this angle, as 'tis said of those of the +Val d'Angrougne; they lived a peculiar sort of life, their fashions, +clothes, and manners distinct from other people; ruled and governed by +certain particular laws and usages, received from father to son, to which +they submitted, without other constraint than the reverence to custom. +This little state had continued from all antiquity in so happy a +condition, that no neighbouring judge was ever put to the trouble of +inquiring into their doings; no advocate was ever retained to give them +counsel, no stranger ever called in to compose their differences; nor was +ever any of them seen to go a-begging. They avoided all alliances and +traffic with the outer world, that they might not corrupt the purity of +their own government; till, as they say, one of them, in the memory of +man, having a mind spurred on with a noble ambition, took it into his +head, to bring his name into credit and reputation, to make one of his +sons something more than ordinary, and having put him to learn to write +in a neighbouring town, made him at last a brave village notary. This +fellow, having acquired such dignity, began to disdain their ancient +customs, and to buzz into the people's ears the pomp of the other parts +of the nation; the first prank he played was to advise a friend of his, +whom somebody had offended by sawing off the horns of one of his goats, +to make his complaint to the royal judges thereabout, and so he went on +from one to another, till he had spoiled and confounded all. In the tail +of this corruption, they say, there happened another, and of worse +consequence, by means of a physician, who, falling in love with one of +their daughters, had a mind to marry her and to live amongst them. This +man first of all began to teach them the names of fevers, colds, and +imposthumes; the seat of the heart, liver, and intestines, a science till +then utterly unknown to them; and instead of garlic, with which they were +wont to cure all manner of diseases, how painful or extreme soever, he +taught them, though it were but for a cough or any little cold, to take +strange mixtures, and began to make a trade not only of their health, but +of their lives. They swear till then they never perceived the evening +air to be offensive to the head; that to drink when they were hot was +hurtful, and that the winds of autumn were more unwholesome than those of +spring; that, since this use of physic, they find themselves oppressed +with a legion of unaccustomed diseases, and that they perceive a general +decay in their ancient vigour, and their lives are cut shorter by the +half. This is the first of my stories. + +The other is, that before I was afflicted with the stone, hearing that +the blood of a he-goat was with many in very great esteem, and looked +upon as a celestial manna rained down upon these latter ages for the good +and preservation of the lives of men, and having heard it spoken of by +men of understanding for an admirable drug, and of infallible operation; +I, who have ever thought myself subject to all the accidents that can +befall other men, had a mind, in my perfect health, to furnish myself +with this miracle, and therefore gave order to have a goat fed at home +according to the recipe: for he must be taken in the hottest month of all +summer, and must only have aperitive herbs given him to eat, and white +wine to drink. I came home by chance the very day he was to be killed; +and some one came and told me that the cook had found two or three great +balls in his paunch, that rattled against one another amongst what he had +eaten. I was curious to have all his entrails brought before me, where, +having caused the skin that enclosed them to be cut, there tumbled out +three great lumps, as light as sponges, so that they appeared to be +hollow, but as to the rest, hard and firm without, and spotted and mixed +all over with various dead colours; one was perfectly round, and of the +bigness of an ordinary ball; the other two something less, of an +imperfect roundness, as seeming not to be arrived at their, full growth. +I find, by inquiry of people accustomed to open these animals, that it is +a rare and unusual accident. 'Tis likely these are stones of the same +nature with ours and if so, it must needs be a very vain hope in +those who have the stone, to extract their cure from the blood of a beast +that was himself about to die of the same disease. For to say that the +blood does not participate of this contagion, and does not thence alter +its wonted virtue, it is rather to be believed that nothing is engendered +in a body but by the conspiracy and communication of all the parts: the +whole mass works together, though one part contributes more to the work +than another, according to the diversity of operations; wherefore it is +very likely that there was some petrifying quality in all the parts of +this goat. It was not so much for fear of the future, and for myself, +that I was curious in this experiment, but because it falls out in mine, +as it does in many other families, that the women store up such little +trumperies for the service of the people, using the same recipe in fifty +several diseases, and such a recipe as they will not take themselves, and +yet triumph when they happen to be successful. + +As to what remains, I honour physicians, not according to the precept +for their necessity (for to this passage may be opposed another of the +prophet reproving King Asa for having recourse to a physician), but for +themselves, having known many very good men of that profession, and most +worthy to be beloved. I do not attack them; 'tis their art I inveigh +against, and do not much blame them for making their advantage of our +folly, for most men do the same. Many callings, both of greater and of +less dignity than theirs, have no other foundation or support than public +abuse. When I am sick I send for them if they be near, only to have +their company, and pay them as others do. I give them leave to command +me to keep myself warm, because I naturally love to do it, and to appoint +leeks or lettuce for my broth; to order me white wine or claret; and so +as to all other things, which are indifferent to my palate and custom. +I know very well that I do nothing for them in so doing, because +sharpness and strangeness are incidents of the very essence of physic. +Lycurgus ordered wine for the sick Spartans. Why? because they +abominated the drinking it when they were well; as a gentleman, a +neighbour of mine, takes it as an excellent medicine in his fever, +because naturally he mortally hates the taste of it. How many do we see +amongst them of my humour, who despise taking physic themselves, are men +of a liberal diet, and live a quite contrary sort of life to what they +prescribe others? What is this but flatly to abuse our simplicity? for +their own lives and health are no less dear to them than ours are to us, +and consequently they would accommodate their practice to their rules, if +they did not themselves know how false these are. + +'Tis the fear of death and of pain, impatience of disease, and a violent +and indiscreet desire of a present cure, that so blind us: 'tis pure +cowardice that makes our belief so pliable and easy to be imposed upon: +and yet most men do not so much believe as they acquiesce and permit; for +I hear them find fault and complain as well as we; but they resolve at +last, "What should I do then?" As if impatience were of itself a better +remedy than patience. Is there any one of those who have suffered +themselves to be persuaded into this miserable subjection, who does not +equally surrender himself to all sorts of impostures? who does not give +up himself to the mercy of whoever has the impudence to promise him a +cure? The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square; the +physician was the people: every one who passed by being in humanity and +civility obliged to inquire of their condition, gave some advice +according to his own experience. We do little better; there is not so +simple a woman, whose gossips and drenches we do not make use of: and +according to my humour, if I were to take physic, I would sooner choose +to take theirs than any other, because at least, if they do no good, they +will do no harm. What Homer and Plato said of the Egyptians, that they +were all physicians, may be said of all nations; there is not a man +amongst any of them who does not boast of some rare recipe, and who will +not venture it upon his neighbour, if he will let him. I was the other +day in a company where one, I know not who, of my fraternity brought us +intelligence of a new sort of pills made up of a hundred and odd +ingredients: it made us very merry, and was a singular consolation, for +what rock could withstand so great a battery? And yet I hear from those +who have made trial of it, that the least atom of gravel deigned not to +stir fort. + +I cannot take my hand from the paper before I have added a word +concerning the assurance they give us of the certainty of their drugs, +from the experiments they have made. + +The greatest part, I should say above two-thirds of the medicinal +virtues, consist in the quintessence or occult property of simples, +of which we can have no other instruction than use and custom; for +quintessence is no other than a quality of which we cannot by our reason +find out the cause. In such proofs, those they pretend to have acquired +by the inspiration of some daemon, I am content to receive (for I meddle +not with miracles); and also the proofs which are drawn from things that, +upon some other account, often fall into use amongst us; as if in the +wool, wherewith we are wont to clothe ourselves, there has accidentally +some occult desiccative property been found out of curing kibed heels, or +as if in the radish we eat for food there has been found out some +aperitive operation. Galen reports, that a man happened to be cured of a +leprosy by drinking wine out of a vessel into which a viper had crept by +chance. In this example we find the means and a very likely guide and +conduct to this experience, as we also do in those that physicians +pretend to have been directed to by the example of some beasts. But in +most of their other experiments wherein they affirm they have been +conducted by fortune, and to have had no other guide than chance, I find +the progress of this information incredible. Suppose man looking round +about him upon the infinite number of things, plants, animals, metals; +I do not know where he would begin his trial; and though his first fancy +should fix him upon an elk's horn, wherein there must be a very pliant +and easy belief, he will yet find himself as perplexed in his second +operation. There are so many maladies and so many circumstances +presented to him, that before he can attain the certainty of the point to +which the perfection of his experience should arrive, human sense will be +at the end of its lesson: and before he can, amongst this infinity of +things, find out what this horn is; amongst so many diseases, what is +epilepsy; the many complexions in a melancholy person; the many seasons +in winter; the many nations in the French; the many ages in age; the many +celestial mutations in the conjunction of Venus and Saturn; the many +parts in man's body, nay, in a finger; and being, in all this, directed +neither by argument, conjecture, example, nor divine inspirations, but +merely by the sole motion of fortune, it must be by a perfectly +artificial, regular and methodical fortune. And after the cure is +performed, how can he assure himself that it was not because the disease +had arrived at its period or an effect of chance? or the operation of +something else that he had eaten, drunk, or touched that day? or by +virtue of his grandmother's prayers? And, moreover, had this experiment +been perfect, how many times was it repeated, and this long bead-roll of +haps, and concurrences strung anew by chance to conclude a certain rule? +And when the rule is concluded, by whom, I pray you? Of so many +millions, there are but three men who take upon them to record their +experiments: must fortune needs just hit one of these? What if another, +and a hundred others, have made contrary experiments? We might, +peradventure, have some light in this, were all the judgments and +arguments of men known to us; but that three witnesses, three doctors, +should lord it over all mankind, is against reason: it were necessary +that human nature should have deputed and chosen them out, and that they +were declared our comptrollers by express procuration: + + +"TO MADAME DE DURAS. + + --[Marguerite de Grammont, widow of Jean de Durfort, Seigneur de + Duras, who was killed near Leghorn, leaving no posterity. Montaigne + seems to have been on terms of considerable intimacy with her, and + to have tendered her some very wholesome and frank advice in regard + to her relations with Henry IV.]-- + +"MADAME,--The last time you honoured me with a visit, you found me at work +upon this chapter, and as these trifles may one day fall into your hands, +I would also that they testify in how great honour the author will take +any favour you shall please to show them. You will there find the same +air and mien you have observed in his conversation; and though I could +have borrowed some better or more favourable garb than my own, I would +not have done it: for I require nothing more of these writings, but to +present me to your memory such as I naturally am. The same conditions +and faculties you have been pleased to frequent and receive with much +more honour and courtesy than they deserve, I would put together (but +without alteration or change) in one solid body, that may peradventure +continue some years, or some days, after I am gone; where you may find +them again when you shall please to refresh your memory, without putting +you to any greater trouble; neither are they worth it. I desire you +should continue the favour of your friendship to me, by the same +qualities by which it was acquired. + +"I am not at all ambitious that any one should love and esteem me more +dead than living. The humour of Tiberius is ridiculous, but yet common, +who was more solicitous to extend his renown to posterity than to render +himself acceptable to men of his own time. If I were one of those to +whom the world could owe commendation, I would give out of it one-half to +have the other in hand; let their praises come quick and crowding about +me, more thick than long, more full than durable; and let them cease, in +God's name, with my own knowledge of them, and when the sweet sound can +no longer pierce my ears. It were an idle humour to essay, now that I am +about to forsake the commerce of men, to offer myself to them by a new +recommendation. I make no account of the goods I could not employ in the +service of my life. Such as I am, I will be elsewhere than in paper: my +art and industry have been ever directed to render myself good for +something; my studies, to teach me to do, and not to write. I have made +it my whole business to frame my life: this has been my trade and my +work; I am less a writer of books than anything else. I have coveted +understanding for the service of my present and real conveniences, and +not to lay up a stock for my posterity. He who has anything of value in +him, let him make it appear in his conduct, in his ordinary discourses, +in his courtships, and his quarrels: in play, in bed, at table, in the +management of his affairs, in his economics. Those whom I see make good +books in ill breeches, should first have mended their breeches, if they +would have been ruled by me. Ask a Spartan whether he had rather be a +good orator or a good soldier: and if I was asked the same question, I +would rather choose to be a good cook, had I not one already to serve me. +My God! Madame, how should I hate such a recommendation of being a +clever fellow at writing, and an ass and an inanity in everything else! +Yet I had rather be a fool both here and there than to have made so ill a +choice wherein to employ my talent. And I am so far from expecting to +gain any new reputation by these follies, that I shall think I come off +pretty well if I lose nothing by them of that little I had before. For +besides that this dead and mute painting will take from my natural being, +it has no resemblance to my better condition, but is much lapsed from my +former vigour and cheerfulness, growing faded and withered: I am towards +the bottom of the barrel, which begins to taste of the lees. + +"As to the rest, Madame, I should not have dared to make so bold with the +mysteries of physic, considering the esteem that you and so many others +have of it, had I not had encouragement from their own authors. I think +there are of these among the old Latin writers but two, Pliny and Celsus +if these ever fall into your hands, you will find that they speak much +more rudely of their art than I do; I but pinch it, they cut its throat. +Pliny, amongst other things, twits them with this, that when they are at +the end of their rope, they have a pretty device to save themselves, by +recommending their patients, whom they have teased and tormented with +their drugs and diets to no purpose, some to vows and miracles, others to +the hot baths. (Be not angry, Madame; he speaks not of those in our +parts, which are under the protection of your house, and all Gramontins.) +They have a third way of saving their own credit, of ridding their hands +of us and securing themselves from the reproaches we might cast in their +teeth of our little amendment, when they have had us so long in their +hands that they have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us, +which is to send us to the better air of some other country. This, +Madame, is enough; I hope you will give me leave to return to my +discourse, from which I have so far digressed, the better to divert you." + +It was, I think, Pericles, who being asked how he did: "You may judge," +says he, "by these," showing some little scrolls of parchment he had tied +about his neck and arms. By which he would infer that he must needs be +very sick when he was reduced to a necessity of having recourse to such +idle and vain fopperies, and of suffering himself to be so equipped. +I dare not promise but that I may one day be so much a fool as to commit +my life and death to the mercy and government of physicians; I may fall +into such a frenzy; I dare not be responsible for my future constancy: +but then, if any one ask me how I do, I may also answer, as Pericles did, +"You may judge by this," shewing my hand clutching six drachms of opium. +It will be a very evident sign of a violent sickness: my judgment will be +very much out of order; if once fear and impatience get such an advantage +over me, it may very well be concluded that there is a dreadful fever in +my mind. + +I have taken the pains to plead this cause, which I understand +indifferently, a little to back and support the natural aversion to drugs +and the practice of physic I have derived from my ancestors, to the end +it may not be a mere stupid and inconsiderate aversion, but have a little +more form; and also, that they who shall see me so obstinate in my +resolution against all exhortations and menaces that shall be given me, +when my infirmity shall press hardest upon me, may not think 'tis mere +obstinacy in me; or any one so ill-natured as to judge it to be any +motive of glory: for it would be a strange ambition to seek to gain +honour by an action my gardener or my groom can perform as well as I. +Certainly, I have not a heart so tumorous and windy, that I should +exchange so solid a pleasure as health for an airy and imaginary +pleasure: glory, even that of the Four Sons of Aymon, is too dear bought +by a man of my humour, if it cost him three swinging fits of the stone. +Give me health, in God's name! Such as love physic, may also have good, +great, and convincing considerations; I do not hate opinions contrary to +my own: I am so, far from being angry to see a discrepancy betwixt mine +and other men's judgments, and from rendering myself unfit for the +society of men, from being of another sense and party than mine, that on +the contrary (the most general way that nature has followed being +variety, and more in souls than bodies, forasmuch as they are of a more +supple substance, and more susceptible of forms) I find it much more rare +to see our humours and designs jump and agree. And there never were, in +the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains: +their most universal quality is diversity. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +I am towards the bottom of the barrel +Accusing all others of ignorance and imposition +Affection towards their husbands, (not)until they have lost them +Anything of value in him, let him make it appear in his conduct +As if impatience were of itself a better remedy than patience +Assurance they give us of the certainty of their drugs +At least, if they do no good, they will do no harm +Attribute to itself; all the happy successes that happen +Best part of a captain to know how to make use of occasions +Burnt and roasted for opinions taken upon trust from others +Commit themselves to the common fortune +Crafty humility that springs from presumption +Did not approve all sorts of means to obtain a victory +Disease had arrived at its period or an effect of chance? +Dissentient and tumultuary drugs +Do not much blame them for making their advantage of our folly +Doctors: more felicity and duration in their own lives? +Doctrine much more intricate and fantastic than the thing itself +Drugs being in its own nature an enemy to our health +Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves +Fathers conceal their affection from their children +He who provides for all, provides for nothing +Health depends upon the vanity and falsity of their promises +Health is altered and corrupted by their frequent prescriptions +Health to be worth purchasing by all the most painful cauteries +Homer: The only words that have motion and action +I dare not promise but that I may one day be so much a fool +I see no people so soon sick as those who take physic +Indiscreet desire of a present cure, that so blind us +Intended to get a new husband than to lament the old +Let it alone a little +Life should be cut off in the sound and living part +Live a quite contrary sort of life to what they prescribe others +Live, not so long as they please, but as long as they ought +Llaying the fault upon the patient, by such frivolous reasons +Long a voyage I should at last run myself into some disadvantage +Making their advantage of our folly, for most men do the same +Man may with less trouble adapt himself to entire abstinence +Man runs a very great hazard in their hands (of physicians) +Mark of singular good nature to preserve old age +Men must embark, and not deliberate, upon high enterprises +Mercenaries who would receive any (pay) +Moderation is a virtue that gives more work than suffering +More valued a victory obtained by counsel than by force +Most men do not so much believe as they acquiesce and permit +Never any man knew so much, and spake so little +No danger with them, though they may do us no good +No other foundation or support than public abuse +No physic that has not something hurtful in it +Noble and rich, where examples of virtue are rarely lodged +Obstinacy is the sister of constancy +Order a purge for your brain, it will there be much better +Ordinances it (Medicine)foists upon us +Passion has a more absolute command over us than reason +Pay very strict usury who did not in due time pay the principal +People are willing to be gulled in what they desire +Physician's "help", which is very often an obstacle +Physicians are not content to deal only with the sick +Physicians fear men should at any time escape their authority +Physicians were the only men who might lie at pleasure +Physicians: earth covers their failures +Plato said of the Egyptians, that they were all physicians +Pure cowardice that makes our belief so pliable +Recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear purchase +Send us to the better air of some other country +Should first have mended their breeches +Smile upon us whilst we are alive +So austere and very wise countenance and carriage (of physicians) +So much are men enslaved to their miserable being +Solon said that eating was physic against the malady hunger +Strangely suspect all this merchandise: medical care +Studies, to teach me to do, and not to write +Such a recipe as they will not take themselves +That he could neither read nor swim +The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square +They (good women) are not by the dozen, as every one knows +They have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us +They juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense +They never loved them till dead +Tis in some sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living wel +Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men +Tis there she talks plain French +To be, not to seem +To keep me from dying is not in your power +Two opinions alike, no more than two hairs +Tyrannical authority physicians usurp over poor creatures +Venture it upon his neighbour, if he will let him +Venture the making ourselves better without any danger +We confess our ignorance in many things +We do not easily accept the medicine we understand +What are become of all our brave philosophical precepts? +What we have not seen, we are forced to receive from other hands +Whatever was not ordinary diet, was instead of a drug +Whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead +Who does not boast of some rare recipe +Who ever saw one physician approve of another's prescription +Willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead +With being too well I am about to die +Wont to give others their life, and not to receive it +You may indeed make me die an ill death + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V13 +By Michel de Montaigne + diff --git a/old/mn13v11.zip b/old/mn13v11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4704f6d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mn13v11.zip |