diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:21:53 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:21:53 -0700 |
| commit | cc02e892ada579a6769642385ce84b545b86969d (patch) | |
| tree | 30ec603eb516a817c4a3aea1ae1b6f34f5638a6d /old/mn20v11.txt | |
Diffstat (limited to 'old/mn20v11.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/mn20v11.txt | 45042 |
1 files changed, 45042 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/mn20v11.txt b/old/mn20v11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a785f89 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mn20v11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45042 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, Complete +#20 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. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: The Essays of Montaigne, Complete + +Author: Michel de Montaigne + +Official Release Date: October, 2002 [Etext #3600] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] +[The actual date this file first posted = 05/28/01] +[Last modified date = 11/10/01] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Essays of Michel de Montaigne, Complete +*********This file should be named mn20v11.txt or mn20v11.zip********* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, mn20v12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, mn20v11a.txt + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of 10/28/01 contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, +Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, +Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, +New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, +Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, +Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising +will begin in the additional states. Please feel +free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork +to legally request donations in all 50 states. If +your state is not listed and you would like to know +if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in +states where we are not yet registered, we know +of no prohibition against accepting donations +from donors in these states who approach us with +an offer to donate. + + +International donations are accepted, +but we don't know ANYTHING about how +to make them tax-deductible, or +even if they CAN be made deductible, +and don't have the staff to handle it +even if there are ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541, +and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum +extent permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +*** + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[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.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, at the end of each volume +for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making +an entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1. + Preface + The Life of Montaigne + The Letters of Montaigne + + + +PREFACE. + +The present publication is intended to supply a recognised deficiency in +our literature--a library edition of the Essays of Montaigne. This great +French writer deserves to be regarded as a classic, not only in the land +of his birth, but in all countries and in all literatures. His Essays, +which are at once the most celebrated and the most permanent of his +productions, form a magazine out of which such minds as those of Bacon +and Shakespeare did not disdain to help themselves; and, indeed, as +Hallam observes, the Frenchman's literary importance largely results from +the share which his mind had in influencing other minds, coeval and +subsequent. But, at the same time, estimating the value and rank of the +essayist, we are not to leave out of the account the drawbacks and the +circumstances of the period: the imperfect state of education, the +comparative scarcity of books, and the limited opportunities of +intellectual intercourse. Montaigne freely borrowed of others, and he +has found men willing to borrow of him as freely. We need not wonder at +the reputation which he with seeming facility achieved. He was, without +being aware of it, the leader of a new school in letters and morals. His +book was different from all others which were at that date in the world. +It diverted the ancient currents of thought into new channels. It told +its readers, with unexampled frankness, what its writer's opinion was +about men and things, and threw what must have been a strange kind of new +light on many matters but darkly understood. Above all, the essayist +uncased himself, and made his intellectual and physical organism public +property. He took the world into his confidence on all subjects. His +essays were a sort of literary anatomy, where we get a diagnosis of the +writer's mind, made by himself at different levels and under a large +variety of operating influences. + +Of all egotists, Montaigne, if not the greatest, was the most +fascinating, because, perhaps, he was the least affected and most +truthful. What he did, and what he had professed to do, was to dissect +his mind, and show us, as best he could, how it was made, and what +relation it bore to external objects. He investigated his mental +structure as a schoolboy pulls his watch to pieces, to examine the +mechanism of the works; and the result, accompanied by illustrations +abounding with originality and force, he delivered to his fellow-men in a +book. + +Eloquence, rhetorical effect, poetry, were alike remote from his design. +He did not write from necessity, scarcely perhaps for fame. But he +desired to leave France, nay, and the world, something to be remembered +by, something which should tell what kind of a man he was--what he felt, +thought, suffered--and he succeeded immeasurably, I apprehend, beyond his +expectations. + +It was reasonable enough that Montaigne should expect for his work a +certain share of celebrity in Gascony, and even, as time went on, +throughout France; but it is scarcely probable that he foresaw how his +renown was to become world-wide; how he was to occupy an almost unique +position as a man of letters and a moralist; how the Essays would be +read, in all the principal languages of Europe, by millions of +intelligent human beings, who never heard of Perigord or the League, and +who are in doubt, if they are questioned, whether the author lived in the +sixteenth or the eighteenth century. This is true fame. A man of genius +belongs to no period and no country. He speaks the language of nature, +which is always everywhere the same. + +The text of these volumes is taken from the first edition of Cotton's +version, printed in 3 vols. 8vo, 1685-6, and republished in 1693, 1700, +1711, 1738, and 1743, in the same number of volumes and the same size. +In the earliest impression the errors of the press are corrected merely +as far as page 240 of the first volume, and all the editions follow one +another. That of 1685-6 was the only one which the translator lived to +see. He died in 1687, leaving behind him an interesting and little-known +collection of poems, which appeared posthumously, 8vo, 1689. + +It was considered imperative to correct Cotton's translation by a careful +collation with the 'variorum' edition of the original, Paris, 1854, +4 vols. 8vo or 12mo, and parallel passages from Florin's earlier +undertaking have occasionally been inserted at the foot of the page. A +Life of the Author and all his recovered Letters, sixteen in number, have +also been given; but, as regards the correspondence, it can scarcely be +doubted that it is in a purely fragmentary state. To do more than +furnish a sketch of the leading incidents in Montaigne's life seemed, in +the presence of Bayle St. John's charming and able biography, an attempt +as difficult as it was useless. + +The besetting sin of both Montaigne's translators seems to have been a +propensity for reducing his language and phraseology to the language and +phraseology of the age and country to which they belonged, and, moreover, +inserting paragraphs and words, not here and there only, but constantly +and habitually, from an evident desire and view to elucidate or +strengthen their author's meaning. The result has generally been +unfortunate; and I have, in the case of all these interpolations on +Cotton's part, felt bound, where I did not cancel them, to throw them +down into the notes, not thinking it right that Montaigne should be +allowed any longer to stand sponsor for what he never wrote; and +reluctant, on the other hand, to suppress the intruding matter entirely, +where it appeared to possess a value of its own. + +Nor is redundancy or paraphrase the only form of transgression in Cotton, +for there are places in his author which he thought proper to omit, and +it is hardly necessary to say that the restoration of all such matter to +the text was considered essential to its integrity and completeness. + +My warmest thanks are due to my father, Mr Registrar Hazlitt, the author +of the well-known and excellent edition of Montaigne published in 1842, +for the important assistance which he has rendered to me in verifying and +retranslating the quotations, which were in a most corrupt state, and of +which Cotton's English versions were singularly loose and inexact, and +for the zeal with which he has co-operated with me in collating the +English text, line for line and word for word, with the best French +edition. + +By the favour of Mr F. W. Cosens, I have had by me, while at work on this +subject, the copy of Cotgrave's Dictionary, folio, 1650, which belonged +to Cotton. It has his autograph and copious MSS. notes, nor is it too +much to presume that it is the very book employed by him in his +translation. +W. C. H. +KENSINGTON, November 1877. + + + + + +BOOK THE FIRST. + +CHAP. + +I. That men by various ways arrive at the same end. + +II. Of Sorrow. + +III. That our affections carry themselves beyond us. + +IV. That the soul discharges her passions upon false objects, where + the true are wanting. + +V. Whether the governor of a place besieged ought himself to go out + to parley. + +VI. That the hour of parley is dangerous. + +VII. That the intention is judge of our actions + +VIII. Of idleness. + +IX. Of liars. + +X. Of quick or slow speech. + +XI. Of prognostications. + +XII. Of constancy. + +XIII. The ceremony of the interview of princes. + +XIV. That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence + of a fort that is not in reason to be defended. + +XV. Of the punishment of cowardice. + +XVI. A proceeding of some ambassadors. + +XVII. Of fear. + +XVIII. That men are not to judge of our happiness till after death. + +XIX. That to study philosophy is to learn to die. + +XX. Of the force of imagination. + +XXI. That the profit of one man is the damage of another. + +XXII. Of custom, and that we should not easily change a law received. + +XXIII. Various events from the same counsel. + +XXIV. Of pedantry. + +XXV. Of the education of children. + +XXVI. That it is folly to measure truth and error by our own capacity. + +XXVII. Of friendship. + +XXVIII. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie. + +XXIX. Of moderation. + +XXX. Of cannibals. + +XXXI. That a man is soberly to judge of the divine ordinances. + +XXXII. That we are to avoid pleasures, even at the expense of + life. + +XXXIII. That fortune is oftentimes observed to act by the rule of reason. + +XXXIV. Of one defect in our government. + +XXXV. Of the custom of wearing clothes. + +XXXVI. Of Cato the Younger. + +XXXVII. That we laugh and cry for the same thing. + +XXXVIII. Of solitude. + +XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero. + +XL. That the relish of good and evil depends in a great measure upon + the opinion we have of them. + +XLI. Not to communicate a man's honour. + +XLII. Of the inequality amongst us. + +XLIII. Of sumptuary laws. + +XLIV. Of sleep. + +XLV. Of the battle of Dreux. + +XLVI. Of names. + +XLVII. Of the uncertainty of our judgment. + +XLVIII. Of war-horses, or destriers. + +XLIX. Of ancient customs. + +L. Of Democritus and Heraclitus. + +LI. Of the vanity of words. + +LII. Of the parsimony of the Ancients. + +LIII. Of a saying of Caesar. + +LIV. Of vain subtleties. + +LV. Of smells. + +LVI. Of prayers. + +LVII. Of age. + + + + + + + THE LIFE OF MONTAIGNE + +[This is translated freely from that prefixed to the 'variorum' Paris +edition, 1854, 4 vols. 8vo. This biography is the more desirable that +it contains all really interesting and important matter in the journal of +the Tour in Germany and Italy, which, as it was merely written under +Montaigne's dictation, is in the third person, is scarcely worth +publication, as a whole, in an English dress.] + + +The author of the Essays was born, as he informs us himself, between +eleven and twelve o'clock in the day, the last of February 1533, at the +chateau of St. Michel de Montaigne. His father, Pierre Eyquem, esquire, +was successively first Jurat of the town of Bordeaux (1530), Under-Mayor +1536, Jurat for the second time in 1540, Procureur in 1546, and at +length Mayor from 1553 to 1556. He was a man of austere probity, who had +"a particular regard for honour and for propriety in his person and +attire . . . a mighty good faith in his speech, and a conscience and +a religious feeling inclining to superstition, rather than to the other +extreme."[Essays, ii. 2.] Pierre Eyquem bestowed great care on the +education of his children, especially on the practical side of it. To +associate closely his son Michel with the people, and attach him to those +who stand in need of assistance, he caused him to be held at the font by +persons of meanest position; subsequently he put him out to nurse with a +poor villager, and then, at a later period, made him accustom himself to +the most common sort of living, taking care, nevertheless, to cultivate +his mind, and superintend its development without the exercise of undue +rigour or constraint. Michel, who gives us the minutest account of his +earliest years, charmingly narrates how they used to awake him by the +sound of some agreeable music, and how he learned Latin, without +suffering the rod or shedding a tear, before beginning French, thanks to +the German teacher whom his father had placed near him, and who never +addressed him except in the language of Virgil and Cicero. The study of +Greek took precedence. At six years of age young Montaigne went to the +College of Guienne at Bordeaux, where he had as preceptors the most +eminent scholars of the sixteenth century, Nicolas Grouchy, Guerente, +Muret, and Buchanan. At thirteen he had passed through all the classes, +and as he was destined for the law he left school to study that science. +He was then about fourteen, but these early years of his life are +involved in obscurity. The next information that we have is that in 1554 +he received the appointment of councillor in the Parliament of Bordeaux; +in 1559 he was at Bar-le-Duc with the court of Francis II, and in the +year following he was present at Rouen to witness the declaration of the +majority of Charles IX. We do not know in what manner he was engaged on +these occasions. + +Between 1556 and 1563 an important incident occurred in the life of +Montaigne, in the commencement of his romantic friendship with Etienne de +la Boetie, whom he had met, as he tells us, by pure chance at some +festive celebration in the town. From their very first interview the two +found themselves drawn irresistibly close to one another, and during six +years this alliance was foremost in the heart of Montaigne, as it was +afterwards in his memory, when death had severed it. + +Although he blames severely in his own book [Essays, i. 27.] those who, +contrary to the opinion of Aristotle, marry before five-and-thirty, +Montaigne did not wait for the period fixed by the philosopher of +Stagyra, but in 1566, in his thirty-third year, he espoused Francoise de +Chassaigne, daughter of a councillor in the Parliament of Bordeaux. The +history of his early married life vies in obscurity with that of his +youth. His biographers are not agreed among themselves; and in the +same degree that he lays open to our view all that concerns his secret +thoughts, the innermost mechanism of his mind, he observes too much +reticence in respect to his public functions and conduct, and his social +relations. The title of Gentleman in Ordinary to the King, which he +assumes, in a preface, and which Henry II. gives him in a letter, which +we print a little farther on; what he says as to the commotions of +courts, where he passed a portion of his life; the Instructions which he +wrote under the dictation of Catherine de Medici for King Charles IX., +and his noble correspondence with Henry IV., leave no doubt, however, as +to the part which he played in the transactions of those times, and we +find an unanswerable proof of the esteem in which he was held by the most +exalted personages, in a letter which was addressed to him by Charles at +the time he was admitted to the Order of St. Michael, which was, as he +informs us himself, the highest honour of the French noblesse. + +According to Lacroix du Maine, Montaigne, upon the death of his eldest +brother, resigned his post of Councillor, in order to adopt the military +profession, while, if we might credit the President Bouhier, he never +discharged any functions connected with arms. However, several passages +in the Essays seem to indicate that he not only took service, but that he +was actually in numerous campaigns with the Catholic armies. Let us add, +that on his monument he is represented in a coat of mail, with his casque +and gauntlets on his right side, and a lion at his feet, all which +signifies, in the language of funeral emblems, that the departed has been +engaged in some important military transactions. + +However it may be as to these conjectures, our author, having arrived at +his thirty-eighth year, resolved to dedicate to study and contemplation +the remaining term of his life; and on his birthday, the last of February +1571, he caused a philosophical inscription, in Latin, to be placed upon +one of the walls of his chateau, where it is still to be seen, and of +which the translation is to this effect:--"In the year of Christ . . . +in his thirty-eighth year, on the eve of the Calends of March, his +birthday, Michel Montaigne, already weary of court employments and public +honours, withdrew himself entirely into the converse of the learned +virgins where he intends to spend the remaining moiety of the to allotted +to him in tranquil seclusion." + +At the time to which we have come, Montaigne was unknown to the world of +letters, except as a translator and editor. In 1569 he had published a +translation of the "Natural Theology" of Raymond de Sebonde, which he had +solely undertaken to please his father. In 1571 he had caused to be +printed at Paris certain 'opuscucla' of Etienne de la Boetie; and these +two efforts, inspired in one case by filial duty, and in the other by +friendship, prove that affectionate motives overruled with him mere +personal ambition as a literary man. We may suppose that he began to +compose the Essays at the very outset of his retirement from public +engagements; for as, according to his own account, observes the President +Bouhier, he cared neither for the chase, nor building, nor gardening, nor +agricultural pursuits, and was exclusively occupied with reading and +reflection, he devoted himself with satisfaction to the task of setting +down his thoughts just as they occurred to him. Those thoughts became a +book, and the first part of that book, which was to confer immortality on +the writer, appeared at Bordeaux in 1580. Montaigne was then fifty- +seven; he had suffered for some years past from renal colic and gravel; +and it was with the necessity of distraction from his pain, and the hope +of deriving relief from the waters, that he undertook at this time a +great journey. As the account which he has left of his travels in +Germany and Italy comprises some highly interesting particulars of his +life and personal history, it seems worth while to furnish a sketch or +analysis of it. + +"The Journey, of which we proceed to describe the course simply," says +the editor of the Itinerary, "had, from Beaumont-sur-Oise to Plombieres, +in Lorraine, nothing sufficiently interesting to detain us . . . we +must go as far, as Basle, of which we have a description, acquainting us +with its physical and political condition at that period, as well as with +the character of its baths. The passage of Montaigne through Switzerland +is not without interest, as we see there how our philosophical traveller +accommodated himself everywhere to the ways of the country. The hotels, +the provisions, the Swiss cookery, everything, was agreeable to him; it +appears, indeed, as if he preferred to the French manners and tastes +those of the places he was visiting, and of which the simplicity and +freedom (or frankness) accorded more with his own mode of life and +thinking. In the towns where he stayed, Montaigne took care to see the +Protestant divines, to make himself conversant with all their dogmas. He +even had disputations with them occasionally. + +"Having left Switzerland he went to Isne, an imperial then on to Augsburg +and Munich. He afterwards proceeded to the Tyrol, where he was agreeably +surprised, after the warnings which he had received, at the very slight +inconveniences which he suffered, which gave him occasion to remark that +he had all his life distrusted the statements of others respecting +foreign countries, each person's tastes being according to the notions of +his native place; and that he had consequently set very little on what he +was told beforehand. + +"Upon his arrival at Botzen, Montaigne wrote to Francois Hottmann, to say +that he had been so pleased with his visit to Germany that he quitted it +with great regret, although it was to go into Italy. He then passed +through Brunsol, Trent, where he put up at the Rose; thence going to +Rovera; and here he first lamented the scarcity of crawfish, but made up +for the loss by partaking of truffles cooked in oil and vinegar; oranges, +citrons, and olives, in all of which he delighted." + +After passing a restless night, when he bethought himself in the morning +that there was some new town or district to be seen, he rose, we are +told, with alacrity and pleasure. + +His secretary, to whom he dictated his Journal, assures us that he never +saw him take so much interest in surrounding scenes and persons, and +believes that the complete change helped to mitigate his sufferings in +concentrating his attention on other points. When there was a complaint +made that he had led his party out of the beaten route, and then returned +very near the spot from which they started, his answer was that he had no +settled course, and that he merely proposed to himself to pay visits to +places which he had not seen, and so long as they could not convict him +of traversing the same path twice, or revisiting a point already seen, he +could perceive no harm in his plan. As to Rome, he cared less to go +there, inasmuch as everybody went there; and he said that he never had a +lacquey who could not tell him all about Florence or Ferrara. He also +would say that he seemed to himself like those who are reading some +pleasant story or some fine book, of which they fear to come to the end: +he felt so much pleasure in travelling that he dreaded the moment of +arrival at the place where they were to stop for the night. + +We see that Montaigne travelled, just as he wrote, completely at his +ease, and without the least constraint, turning, just as he fancied, from +the common or ordinary roads taken by tourists. The good inns, the soft +beds, the fine views, attracted his notice at every point, and in his +observations on men and things he confines himself chiefly to the +practical side. The consideration of his health was constantly before +him, and it was in consequence of this that, while at Venice, which +disappointed him, he took occasion to note, for the benefit of readers, +that he had an attack of colic, and that he evacuated two large stones +after supper. On quitting Venice, he went in succession to Ferrara, +Rovigo, Padua, Bologna (where he had a stomach-ache), Florence, &c.; and +everywhere, before alighting, he made it a rule to send some of his +servants to ascertain where the best accommodation was to be had. He +pronounced the Florentine women the finest in the world, but had not an +equally good opinion of the food, which was less plentiful than in +Germany, and not so well served. He lets us understand that in Italy +they send up dishes without dressing, but in Germany they were much +better seasoned, and served with a variety of sauces and gravies. He +remarked further, that the glasses were singularly small and the wines +insipid. + +After dining with the Grand-Duke of Florence, Montaigne passed rapidly +over the intermediate country, which had no fascination for him, and +arrived at Rome on the last day of November, entering by the Porta del +Popolo, and putting up at Bear. But he afterwards hired, at twenty +crowns a month, fine furnished rooms in the house of a Spaniard, who +included in these terms the use of the kitchen fire. What most annoyed +him in the Eternal City was the number of Frenchmen he met, who all +saluted him in his native tongue; but otherwise he was very comfortable, +and his stay extended to five months. A mind like his, full of grand +classical reflections, could not fail to be profoundly impressed in the +presence of the ruins at Rome, and he has enshrined in a magnificent +passage of the Journal the feelings of the moment: "He said," writes his +secretary, "that at Rome one saw nothing but the sky under which she had +been built, and the outline of her site: that the knowledge we had of her +was abstract, contemplative, not palpable to the actual senses: that +those who said they beheld at least the ruins of Rome, went too far, for +the ruins of so gigantic a structure must have commanded greater +reverence-it was nothing but her sepulchre. The world, jealous of her, +prolonged empire, had in the first place broken to pieces that admirable +body, and then, when they perceived that the remains attracted worship +and awe, had buried the very wreck itself.--[Compare a passage in one +of Horace Walpole's letters to Richard West, 22 March 1740 (Cunningham's +edit. i. 41), where Walpole, speaking of Rome, describes her very ruins +as ruined.]--As to those small fragments which were still to be seen on +the surface, notwithstanding the assaults of time and all other attacks, +again and again repeated, they had been favoured by fortune to be some +slight evidence of that infinite grandeur which nothing could entirely +extingish. But it was likely that these disfigured remains were the +least entitled to attention, and that the enemies of that immortal +renown, in their fury, had addressed themselves in the first instance to +the destruction of what was most beautiful and worthiest of preservation; +and that the buildings of this bastard Rome, raised upon the ancient +productions, although they might excite the admiration of the present +age, reminded him of the crows' and sparrows' nests built in the walls +and arches of the old churches, destroyed by the Huguenots. Again, he +was apprehensive, seeing the space which this grave occupied, that the +whole might not have been recovered, and that the burial itself had been +buried. And, moreover, to see a wretched heap of rubbish, as pieces of +tile and pottery, grow (as it had ages since) to a height equal to that +of Mount Gurson,--[In Perigord.]--and thrice the width of it, appeared to +show a conspiracy of destiny against the glory and pre-eminence of that +city, affording at the same time a novel and extraordinary proof of its +departed greatness. He (Montaigne) observed that it was difficult to +believe considering the limited area taken up by any of her seven hills +and particularly the two most favoured ones, the Capitoline and the +Palatine, that so many buildings stood on the site. Judging only from +what is left of the Temple of Concord, along the 'Forum Romanum', of +which the fall seems quite recent, like that of some huge mountain split +into horrible crags, it does not look as if more than two such edifices +could have found room on the Capitoline, on which there were at one +period from five-and-twenty to thirty temples, besides private dwellings. +But, in point of fact, there is scarcely any probability of the views +which we take of the city being correct, its plan and form having changed +infinitely; for instance, the 'Velabrum', which on account of its +depressed level, received the sewage of the city, and had a lake, has +been raised by artificial accumulation to a height with the other hills, +and Mount Savello has, in truth, grown simply out of the ruins of the +theatre of Marcellus. He believed that an ancient Roman would not +recognise the place again. It often happened that in digging down into +earth the workmen came upon the crown of some lofty column, which, though +thus buried, was still standing upright. The people there have no +recourse to other foundations than the vaults and arches of the old +houses, upon which, as on slabs of rock, they raise their modern palaces. +It is easy to see that several of the ancient streets are thirty feet +below those at present in use." + +Sceptical as Montaigne shows himself in his books, yet during his sojourn +at Rome he manifested a great regard for religion. He solicited the +honour of being admitted to kiss the feet of the Holy Father, Gregory +XIII.; and the Pontiff exhorted him always to continue in the devotion +which he had hitherto exhibited to the Church and the service of the Most +Christian King. + +"After this, one sees," says the editor of the Journal, "Montaigne +employing all his time in making excursions bout the neighbourhood on +horseback or on foot, in visits, in observations of every kind. The +churches, the stations, the processions even, the sermons; then the +palaces, the vineyards, the gardens, the public amusements, as the +Carnival, &c.--nothing was overlooked. He saw a Jewish child +circumcised, and wrote down a most minute account of the operation. He +met at San Sisto a Muscovite ambassador, the second who had come to Rome +since the pontificate of Paul III. This minister had despatches from his +court for Venice, addressed to the 'Grand Governor of the Signory'. The +court of Muscovy had at that time such limited relations with the other +powers of Europe, and it was so imperfect in its information, that it +thought Venice to be a dependency of the Holy See." + +Of all the particulars with which he has furnished us during his stay at +Rome, the following passage in reference to the Essays is not the least +singular: "The Master of the Sacred Palace returned him his Essays, +castigated in accordance with the views of the learned monks. 'He had +only been able to form a judgment of them,' said he, 'through a certain +French monk, not understanding French himself'"--we leave Montaigne +himself to tell the story--"and he received so complacently my excuses +and explanations on each of the passages which had been animadverted upon +by the French monk, that he concluded by leaving me at liberty to revise +the text agreeably to the dictates of my own conscience. I begged him, +on the contrary, to abide by the opinion of the person who had criticised +me, confessing, among other matters, as, for example, in my use of the +word fortune, in quoting historical poets, in my apology for Julian, in +my animadversion on the theory that he who prayed ought to be exempt from +vicious inclinations for the time being; item, in my estimate of cruelty, +as something beyond simple death; item, in my view that a child ought to +be brought up to do everything, and so on; that these were my opinions, +which I did not think wrong; as to other things, I said that the +corrector understood not my meaning. The Master, who is a clever man, +made many excuses for me, and gave me to suppose that he did not concur +in the suggested improvements; and pleaded very ingeniously for me in my +presence against another (also an Italian) who opposed my sentiments." + +Such is what passed between Montaigne and these two personages at that +time; but when the Essayist was leaving, and went to bid them farewell, +they used very different language to him. "They prayed me," says he, +"to pay no attention to the censure passed on my book, in which other +French persons had apprised them that there were many foolish things; +adding, that they honoured my affectionate intention towards the Church, +and my capacity; and had so high an opinion of my candour and +conscientiousness that they should leave it to me to make such +alterations as were proper in the book, when I reprinted it; among other +things, the word fortune. To excuse themselves for what they had said +against my book, they instanced works of our time by cardinals and other +divines of excellent repute which had been blamed for similar faults, +which in no way affected reputation of the author, or of the publication +as a whole; they requested me to lend the Church the support of my +eloquence (this was their fair speech), and to make longer stay in the +place, where I should be free from all further intrusion on their part. +It seemed to me that we parted very good friends." + +Before quitting Rome, Montaigne received his diploma of citizenship, by +which he was greatly flattered; and after a visit to Tivoli he set out +for Loretto, stopping at Ancona, Fano, and Urbino. He arrived at the +beginning of May 1581, at Bagno della Villa, where he established +himself, order to try the waters. There, we find in the Journal, of his +own accord the Essayist lived in the strictest conformity with the +regime, and henceforth we only hear of diet, the effect which the waters +had by degrees upon system, of the manner in which he took them; in a +word, he does not omit an item of the circumstances connected with his +daily routine, his habit of body, his baths, and the rest. It was no +longer the journal of a traveller which he kept, but the diary of an +invalid,--["I am reading Montaigne's Travels, which have lately been +found; there is little in them but the baths and medicines he took, and +what he had everywhere for dinner."--H. Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, June +8, 1774.]--attentive to the minutest details of the cure which he was +endeavouring to accomplish: a sort of memorandum book, in which he was +noting down everything that he felt and did, for the benefit of his +medical man at home, who would have the care of his health on his return, +and the attendance on his subsequent infirmities. Montaigne gives it as +his reason and justification for enlarging to this extent here, that he +had omitted, to his regret, to do so in his visits to other baths, which +might have saved him the trouble of writing at such great length now; but +it is perhaps a better reason in our eyes, that what he wrote he wrote +for his own use. + +We find in these accounts, however, many touches which are valuable as +illustrating the manners of the place. The greater part of the entries +in the Journal, giving the account of these waters, and of the travels, +down to Montaigne's arrival at the first French town on his homeward +route, are in Italian, because he wished to exercise himself in that +language. + +The minute and constant watchfulness of Montaigne over his health and +over himself might lead one to suspect that excessive fear of death which +degenerates into cowardice. But was it not rather the fear of the +operation for the stone, at that time really formidable? Or perhaps he +was of the same way of thinking with the Greek poet, of whom Cicero +reports this saying: "I do not desire to die; but the thought of being +dead is indifferent to me." Let us hear, however, what he says himself +on this point very frankly: "It would be too weak and unmanly on my part +if, certain as I am of always finding myself in the position of having to +succumb in that way,--[To the stone or gravel.]--and death coming nearer +and nearer to me, I did not make some effort, before the time came, to +bear the trial with fortitude. For reason prescribes that we should +joyfully accept what it may please God to send us. Therefore the only +remedy, the only rule, and the sole doctrine for avoiding the evils by +which mankind is surrounded, whatever they are, is to resolve to bear +them so far as our nature permits, or to put an end to them courageously +and promptly." + +He was still at the waters of La Villa, when, on the 7th September 1581, +he learned by letter that he had been elected Mayor of Bordeaux on the +1st August preceding. This intelligence made him hasten his departure; +and from Lucca he proceeded to Rome. He again made some stay in that +city, and he there received the letter of the jurats of Bordeaux, +notifying to him officially his election to the Mayoralty, and inviting +him to return as speedily as possible. He left for France, accompanied +by young D'Estissac and several other gentlemen, who escorted him a +considerable distance; but none went back to France with him, not even +his travelling companion. He passed by Padua, Milan, Mont Cenis, and +Chambery; thence he went on to Lyons, and lost no time in repairing to +his chateau, after an absence of seventeen months and eight days. + +We have just seen that, during his absence in Italy, the author of the +Essays was elected mayor of Bordeaux. "The gentlemen of Bordeaux," says +he, "elected me Mayor of their town while I was at a distance from +France, and far from the thought of such a thing. I excused myself; but +they gave to understand that I was wrong in so doing, it being also the +command of the king that I should stand." This the letter which Henry +III. wrote to him on the occasion: + +MONSIEUR, DE MONTAIGNE,--Inasmuch as I hold in great esteem your fidelity +and zealous devotion to my service, it has been a pleasure to me to learn +that you have been chosen mayor of my town of Bordeaux. I have had the +agreeable duty of confirming the selection, and I did so the more +willingly, seeing that it was made during your distant absence; wherefore +it is my desire, and I require and command you expressly that you proceed +without delay to enter on the duties to which you have received so +legitimate a call. And so you will act in a manner very agreeable to me, +while the contrary will displease me greatly. Praying God, M. de +Montaigne, to have you in his holy keeping. + +"Written at Paris, the 25th day of November 1581. + +"HENRI. + +"A Monsieur de MONTAIGNE, +Knight of my Order, Gentleman in Ordinary of my +Chamber, being at present in Rome." + +Montaigne, in his new employment, the most important in the province, +obeyed the axiom, that a man may not refuse a duty, though it absorb his +time and attention, and even involve the sacrifice of his blood. Placed +between two extreme parties, ever on the point of getting to blows, he +showed himself in practice what he is in his book, the friend of a middle +and temperate policy. Tolerant by character and on principle, he +belonged, like all the great minds of the sixteenth century, to that +political sect which sought to improve, without destroying, institutions; +and we may say of him, what he himself said of La Boetie, "that he had +that maxim indelibly impressed on his mind, to obey and submit himself +religiously to the laws under which he was born. Affectionately attached +to the repose of his country, an enemy to changes and innovations, he +would have preferred to employ what means he had towards their +discouragement and suppression, than in promoting their success." Such +was the platform of his administration. + +He applied himself, in an especial manner, to the maintenance of peace +between the two religious factions which at that time divided the town of +Bordeaux; and at the end of his two first years of office, his grateful +fellow-citizens conferred on him (in 1583) the mayoralty for two years +more, a distinction which had been enjoyed, as he tells us, only twice +before. On the expiration of his official career, after four years' +duration, he could say fairly enough of himself that he left behind him +neither hatred nor cause of offence. + +In the midst of the cares of government, Montaigne found time to revise +and enlarge his Essays, which, since their appearance in 1580, were +continually receiving augmentation in the form of additional chapters or +papers. Two more editions were printed in 1582 and 1587; and during this +time the author, while making alterations in the original text, had +composed part of the Third Book. He went to Paris to make arrangements +for the publication of his enlarged labours, and a fourth impression in +1588 was the result. He remained in the capital some time on this +occasion, and it was now that he met for the first time Mademoiselle de +Gournay. Gifted with an active and inquiring spirit, and, above all, +possessing a sound and healthy tone of mind, Mademoiselle de Gournay had +been carried from her childhood with that tide which set in with +sixteenth century towards controversy, learning, and knowledge. She +learnt Latin without a master; and when, the age of eighteen, she +accidentally became possessor of a copy of the Essays, she was +transported with delight and admiration. + +She quitted the chateau of Gournay, to come and see him. We cannot do +better, in connection with this journey of sympathy, than to repeat the +words of Pasquier: "That young lady, allied to several great and noble +families of Paris, proposed to herself no other marriage than with her +honour, enriched with the knowledge gained from good books, and, beyond +all others, from the essays of M. de Montaigne, who making in the year +1588 a lengthened stay in the town of Paris, she went there for the +purpose of forming his personal acquaintance; and her mother, Madame de +Gournay, and herself took him back with them to their chateau, where, at +two or three different times, he spent three months altogether, most +welcome of visitors." It was from this moment that Mademoiselle de +Gournay dated her adoption as Montaigne's daughter, a circumstance which +has tended to confer immortality upon her in a far greater measure than +her own literary productions. + +Montaigne, on leaving Paris, stayed a short time at Blois, to attend the +meeting of the States-General. We do not know what part he took in that +assembly: but it is known that he was commissioned, about this period, to +negotiate between Henry of Navarre (afterwards Henry IV.) and the Duke of +Guise. His political life is almost a blank; but De Thou assures us that +Montaigne enjoyed the confidence of the principal persons of his time. +De Thou, who calls him a frank man without constraint, tells us that, +walking with him and Pasquier in the court at the Castle of Blois, he +heard him pronounce some very remarkable opinions on contemporary events, +and he adds that Montaigne had foreseen that the troubles in France could +not end without witnessing the death of either the King of Navarre or of +the Duke of Guise. He had made himself so completely master of the views +of these two princes, that he told De Thou that the King of Navarre would +have been prepared to embrace Catholicism, if he had not been afraid of +being abandoned by his party, and that the Duke of Guise, on his part, +had no particular repugnance to the Confession of Augsburg, for which the +Cardinal of Lorraine, his uncle, had inspired him with a liking, if it +had not been for the peril involved in quitting the Romish communion. It +would have been easy for Montaigne to play, as we call it, a great part +in politics, and create for himself a lofty position but his motto was, +'Otio et Libertati'; and he returned quietly home to compose a chapter +for his next edition on inconveniences of Greatness. + +The author of the Essays was now fifty-five. The malady which tormented +him grew only worse and worse with years; and yet he occupied himself +continually with reading, meditating, and composition. He employed the +years 1589, 1590, and 1591 in making fresh additions to his book; and +even in the approaches of old age he might fairly anticipate many happy +hours, when he was attacked by quinsy, depriving him of the power +utterance. Pasquier, who has left us some details his last hours, +narrates that he remained three days in full possession of his faculties, +but unable to speak, so that, in order to make known his desires, he was +obliged to resort to writing; and as he felt his end drawing near, he +begged his wife to summon certain of the gentlemen who lived in the +neighbourhood to bid them a last farewell. When they had arrived, he +caused mass to be celebrated in apartment; and just as the priest was +elevating the host, Montaigne fell forward with his arms extended in +front of him, on the bed, and so expired. He was in his sixtieth year. +It was the 13th September 1592. + +Montaigne was buried near his own house; but a few years after his +decease, his remains were removed to the church of a Commandery of St. +Antoine at Bordeaux, where they still continue. His monument was +restored in 1803 by a descendant. It was seen about 1858 by an English +traveller (Mr. St. John).'--["Montaigne the Essayist," by Bayle St. +John, 1858, 2 vols. 8vo, is one of most delightful books of the kind.]-- +and was then in good preservation. + +In 1595 Mademoiselle de Gournay published a new edition of Montaigne's +Essays, and the first with the latest emendations of the author, from a +copy presented to her by his widow, and which has not been recovered, +although it is known to have been in existence some years after the date +of the impression, made on its authority. + +Coldly as Montaigne's literary productions appear to have been received +by the generation immediately succeeding his own age, his genius grew +into just appreciation in the seventeenth century, when such great +spirits arose as La Bruyere, Moliere, La Fontaine, Madame de Sevigne. +"O," exclaimed the Chatelaine des Rochers, "what capital company he is, +the dear man! he is my old friend; and just for the reason that he is +so, he always seems new. My God! how full is that book of sense!" +Balzac said that he had carried human reason as far and as high as it +could go, both in politics and in morals. On the other hand, Malebranche +and the writers of Port Royal were against him; some reprehended the +licentiousness of his writings; others their impiety, materialism, +epicureanism. Even Pascal, who had carefully read the Essays, and gained +no small profit by them, did not spare his reproaches. But Montaigne has +outlived detraction. As time has gone on, his admirers and borrowers +have increased in number, and his Jansenism, which recommended him to the +eighteenth century, may not be his least recommendation in the +nineteenth. Here we have certainly, on the whole, a first-class man, and +one proof of his masterly genius seems to be, that his merits and his +beauties are sufficient to induce us to leave out of consideration +blemishes and faults which would have been fatal to an inferior writer. + + + + + + THE LETTERS OF MONTAIGNE. + + +I. + +To Monsieur de MONTAIGNE + +[This account of the death of La Boetie begins imperfectly. It first +appeared in a little volume of Miscellanies in 1571. See Hazlitt, ubi +sup. p. 630.]--....As to his last words, doubtless, if any man can +give good account of them, it is I, both because, during the whole of his +sickness he conversed as fully with me as with any one, and also because, +in consequence of the singular and brotherly friendship which we had +entertained for each other, I was perfectly acquainted with the +intentions, opinions, and wishes which he had formed in the course of his +life, as much so, certainly, as one man can possibly be with those of +another man; and because I knew them to be elevated, virtuous, full of +steady resolution, and (after all said) admirable. I well foresaw that, +if his illness permitted him to express himself, he would allow nothing +to fall from him, in such an extremity, that was not replete with good +example. I consequently took every care in my power to treasure what was +said. True it is, Monseigneur, as my memory is not only in itself very +short, but in this case affected by the trouble which I have undergone, +through so heavy and important a loss, that I have forgotten a number of +things which I should wish to have had known; but those which I recollect +shall be related to you as exactly as lies in my power. For to represent +in full measure his noble career suddenly arrested, to paint to you his +indomitable courage, in a body worn out and prostrated by pain and the +assaults of death, I confess, would demand a far better ability than +mine: because, although, when in former years he discoursed on serious +and important matters, he handled them in such a manner that it was +difficult to reproduce exactly what he said, yet his ideas and his words +at the last seemed to rival each other in serving him. For I am sure +that I never knew him give birth to such fine conceptions, or display so +much eloquence, as in the time of his sickness. If, Monseigneur, you +blame me for introducing his more ordinary observations, please to know +that I do so advisedly; for since they proceeded from him at a season of +such great trouble, they indicate the perfect tranquillity of his mind +and thoughts to the last. + +On Monday, the 9th day of August 1563, on my return from the Court, I +sent an invitation to him to come and dine with me. He returned word +that he was obliged, but, being indisposed, he would thank me to do him +the pleasure of spending an hour with him before he started for Medoc. +Shortly after my dinner I went to him. He had laid himself down on the +bed with his clothes on, and he was already, I perceived, much changed. +He complained of diarrhoea, accompanied by the gripes, and said that he +had it about him ever since he played with M. d'Escars with nothing but +his doublet on, and that with him a cold often brought on such attacks. +I advised him to go as he had proposed, but to stay for the night at +Germignac, which is only about two leagues from the town. I gave him +this advice, because some houses, near to that where he was ping, were +visited by the plague, about which he was nervous since his return from +Perigord and the Agenois, here it had been raging; and, besides, horse +exercise was, from my own experience, beneficial under similar +circumstances. He set out, accordingly, with his wife and M. +Bouillhonnas, his uncle. + +Early on the following morning, however, I had intelligence from Madame +de la Boetie, that in the night he had fresh and violent attack of +dysentery. She had called in physician and apothecary, and prayed me to +lose no time coming, which (after dinner) I did. He was delighted to see +me; and when I was going away, under promise to turn the following day, +he begged me more importunately and affectionately than he was wont to +do, to give him as such of my company as possible. I was a little +affected; yet was about to leave, when Madame de la Boetie, as if she +foresaw something about to happen, implored me with tears to stay the +night. When I consented, he seemed to grow more cheerful. I returned +home the next day, and on the Thursday I paid him another visit. He had +become worse; and his loss of blood from the dysentery, which reduced his +strength very much, was largely on the increase. I quitted his side on +Friday, but on Saturday I went to him, and found him very weak. He then +gave me to understand that his complaint was infectious, and, moreover, +disagreeable and depressing; and that he, knowing thoroughly my +constitution, desired that I should content myself with coming to see him +now and then. On the contrary, after that I never left his side. + +It was only on the Sunday that he began to converse with me on any +subject beyond the immediate one of his illness, and what the ancient +doctors thought of it: we had not touched on public affairs, for I found +at the very outset that he had a dislike to them. + +But, on the Sunday, he had a fainting fit; and when he came to himself, +he told me that everything seemed to him confused, as if in a mist and in +disorder, and that, nevertheless, this visitation was not unpleasing to +him. "Death," I replied, "has no worse sensation, my brother." "None so +bad," was his answer. He had had no regular sleep since the beginning of +his illness; and as he became worse and worse, he began to turn his +attention to questions which men commonly occupy themselves with in the +last extremity, despairing now of getting better, and intimating as much +to me. On that day, as he appeared in tolerably good spirits, I took +occasion to say to him that, in consideration of the singular love I bore +him, it would become me to take care that his affairs, which he had +conducted with such rare prudence in his life, should not be neglected at +present; and that I should regret it if, from want of proper counsel, he +should leave anything unsettled, not only on account of the loss to his +family, but also to his good name. + +He thanked me for my kindness; and after a little reflection, as if he +was resolving certain doubts in his own mind, he desired me to summon his +uncle and his wife by themselves, in order that he might acquaint them +with his testamentary dispositions. I told him that this would shock +them. "No, no," he answered, "I will cheer them by making out my case to +be better than it is." And then he inquired, whether we were not all +much taken by surprise at his having fainted? I replied, that it was of +no importance, being incidental to the complaint from which he suffered. +"True, my brother," said he; "it would be unimportant, even though it +should lead to what you most dread." "For you," I rejoined, "it might be +a happy thing; but I should be the loser, who would thereby be deprived +of so great, so wise, and so steadfast a friend, a friend whose place I +should never see supplied." "It is very likely you may not," was his +answer; "and be sure that one thing which makes me somewhat anxious to +recover, and to delay my journey to that place, whither I am already +half-way gone, is the thought of the loss both you and that poor man and +woman there (referring to his uncle and wife) must sustain; for I love +them with my whole heart, and I feel certain that they will find it very +hard to lose me. I should also regret it on account of such as have, in +my lifetime, valued me, and whose conversation I should like to have +enjoyed a little longer; and I beseech you, my brother, if I leave the +world, to carry to them for me an assurance of the esteem I entertained +for them to the last moment of my existence. My birth was, moreover, +scarcely to so little purpose but that, had I lived, I might have done +some service to the public; but, however this may be, I am prepared to +submit to the will of God, when it shall please Him to call me, being +confident of enjoying the tranquillity which you have foretold for me. +As for you, my friend, I feel sure that you are so wise, that you will +control your emotions, and submit to His divine ordinance regarding me; +and I beg of you to see that that good man and woman do not mourn for my +departure unnecessarily." + +He proceeded to inquire how they behaved at present. "Very well," said +I, "considering the circumstances." "Ah!" he replied, "that is, so long +as they do not abandon all hope of me; but when that shall be the case, +you will have a hard task to support them." It was owing to his strong +regard for his wife and uncle that he studiously disguised from them his +own conviction as to the certainty of his end, and he prayed me to do the +same. When they were near him he assumed an appearance of gaiety, and +flattered them with hopes. I then went to call them. They came, wearing +as composed an air as possible; and when we four were together, he +addressed us, with an untroubled countenance, as follows: "Uncle and +wife, rest assured that no new attack of my disease, or fresh doubt that +I have as to my recovery, has led me to take this step of communicating +to you my intentions, for, thank God, I feel very well and hopeful; but +taught by observation and experience the instability of all human things, +and even of the life to which we are so much attached, and which is, +nevertheless, a mere bubble; and knowing, moreover, that my state of +health brings me more within the danger of death, I have thought proper +to settle my worldly affairs, having the benefit of your advice." Then +addressing himself more particularly to his uncle, "Good uncle," said he, +"if I were to rehearse all the obligations under which I lie to you, I am +sure that I never should make an end. Let me only say that, wherever I +have been, and with whomsoever I have conversed, I have represented you +as doing for me all that a father could do for a son; both in the care +with which you tended my education, and in the zeal with which you pushed +me forward into public life, so that my whole existence is a testimony of +your good offices towards me. In short, I am indebted for all that I +have to you, who have been to me as a parent; and therefore I have no +right to part with anything, unless it be with your approval." + +There was a general silence hereupon, and his uncle was prevented from +replying by tears and sobs. At last he said that whatever he thought for +the best would be agreeable to him; and as he intended to make him his +heir, he was at liberty to dispose of what would be his. + +Then he turned to his wife. "My image," said he (for so he often called +her, there being some sort of relationship between them), "since I have +been united to you by marriage, which is one of the most weighty and +sacred ties imposed on us by God, for the purpose of maintaining human +society, I have continued to love, cherish, and value you; and I know +that you have returned my affection, for which I have no sufficient +acknowledgment. I beg you to accept such portion of my estate as I +bequeath to you, and be satisfied with it, though it is very inadequate +to your desert." + +Afterwards he turned to me. "My brother," he began, "for whom I have so +entire a love, and whom I selected out of so large a number, thinking to +revive with you that virtuous and sincere friendship which, owing to the +degeneracy of the age, has grown to be almost unknown to us, and now +exists only in certain vestiges of antiquity, I beg of you, as a mark of +my affection to you, to accept my library: a slender offering, but given +with a cordial will, and suitable to you, seeing that you are fond of +learning. It will be a memorial of your old companion." + +Then he addressed all three of us. He blessed God that in his extremity +he had the happiness to be surrounded by those whom he held dearest in +the world, and he looked upon it as a fine spectacle, where four persons +were together, so unanimous in their feelings, and loving each other for +each other's sake. He commended us one to the other; and proceeded thus: +"My worldly matters being arranged, I must now think of the welfare of my +soul. I am a Christian; I am a Catholic. I have lived one, and I shall +die one. Send for a priest; for I wish to conform to this last Christian +obligation." He now concluded his discourse, which he had conducted with +such a firm face and with so distinct an utterance, that whereas, when I +first entered his room, he was feeble, inarticulate in his speech, his +pulse low and feverish, and his features pallid, now, by a sort of +miracle, he appeared to have rallied, and his pulse was so strong that +for the sake of comparison, I asked him to feel mine. + +I felt my heart so oppressed at this moment, that I had not the power to +make him any answer; but in the course of two or three hours, solicitous +to keep up his courage, and, likewise, out of the tenderness which I had +had all my life for his honour and fame, wishing a larger number of +witnesses to his admirable fortitude, I said to him, how much I was +ashamed to think that I lacked courage to listen to what he, so great a +sufferer, had the courage to deliver; that down to the present time I had +scarcely conceived that God granted us such command over human +infirmities, and had found a difficulty in crediting the examples I had +read in histories; but that with such evidence of the thing before my +eyes, I gave praise to God that it had shown itself in one so excessively +dear to me, and who loved me so entirely, and that his example would help +me to act in a similar manner when my turn came. Interrupting me, he +begged that it might happen so, and that the conversation which had +passed between us might not be mere words, but might be impressed deeply +on our minds, to be put in exercise at the first occasion; and that this +was the real object and aim of all philosophy. + +He then took my hand, and continued: "Brother, friend, there are many +acts of my life, I think, which have cost me as much difficulty as this +one is likely to do; and, after all, I have been long prepared for it, +and have my lesson by heart. Have I not lived long enough? I am just +upon thirty-three. By the grace of God, my days so far have known +nothing but health and happiness; but in the ordinary course of our +unstable human affairs, this could not have lasted much longer; it would +have become time for me to enter on graver avocations, and I should thus +have involved myself in numberless vexations, and, among them, the +troubles of old age, from which I shall now be exempt. Moreover, it is +probable that hitherto my life has been spent more simply, and with less +of evil, than +if God had spared me, and I had survived to feel the thirst for riches +and worldly prosperity. I am sure, for my part, that I now go to God and +the place of the blessed." He seemed to detect in my expression some +inquietude at his words; and he exclaimed, "What, my brother, would you +make me entertain apprehensions? Had I any, whom would it become so much +as yourself to remove them?" + +The notary, who had been summoned to draw up his will, came in the +evening, and when he had the documents prepared, I inquired of La Boetie +if he would sign them. "Sign them," cried he; "I will do so with my own +hand; but I could desire more time, for I feel exceedingly timid and +weak, and in a manner exhausted." But when I was going to change the +conversation, he suddenly rallied, said he had but a short time to live, +and asked if the notary wrote rapidly, for he should dictate without +making any pause. The notary was called, and he dictated his will there +and then with such speed that the man could scarcely keep up with him; +and when he had done, he asked me to read it out, saying to me, "What a +good thing it is to look after what are called our riches." 'Sunt haec, +quoe hominibus vocantur bona'. As soon as the will was signed, the +chamber being full, he asked me if it would hurt him to talk. I +answered, that it would not, if he did not speak too loud. He then +summoned Mademoiselle de Saint Quentin, his niece, to him, and addressed +her thus: "Dear niece, since my earliest acquaintance with thee, I have +observed the marks of, great natural goodness in thee; but the services +which thou rendered to me, with so much affectionate diligence, in my +present and last necessity, inspire me with high hopes of thee; and I am +under great obligations to thee, and give thee most affectionate thanks. +Let me relieve my conscience by counselling thee to be, in the first +place, devout, to God: for this doubtless is our first duty, failing +which all others can be of little advantage or grace, but which, duly +observed, carries with it necessarily all other virtues. After God, thou +shouldest love thy father and mother--thy mother, my sister, whom I +regard as one of the best and most intelligent of women, and by whom I +beg of thee to let thy own life be regulated. Allow not thyself to be +led away by pleasures; shun, like the plague, the foolish familiarities +thou seest between some men and women; harmless enough at first, but +which by insidious degrees corrupt the heart, and thence lead it to +negligence, and then into the vile slough of vice. Credit me, the +greatest safeguard to female chastity is sobriety of demeanour. I +beseech and direct that thou often call to mind the friendship which was +betwixt us; but I do not wish thee to mourn for me too much--an +injunction which, so far as it is in my power, I lay on all my friends, +since it might seem that by doing so they felt a jealousy of that blessed +condition in which I am about to be placed by death. I assure thee, my +dear, that if I had the option now of continuing in life or of completing +the voyage on which I have set out, I should find it very hard to choose. +Adieu, dear niece." + +Mademoiselle d'Arsat, his stepdaughter, was next called. He said to her: +"Daughter, you stand in no great need of advice from me, insomuch as you +have a mother, whom I have ever found most sagacious, and entirely in +conformity with my own opinions and wishes, and whom I have never found +faulty; with such a preceptress, you cannot fail to be properly +instructed. Do not account it singular that I, with no tie of blood to +you, am interested in you; for, being the child of one who is so closely +allied to me, I am necessarily concerned in what concerns you; and +consequently the affairs of your brother, M. d'Arsat, have ever been +watched by me with as much care as my own; nor perhaps will it be to your +disadvantage that you were my step-daughter. You enjoy sufficient store +of wealth and beauty; you are a lady of good family; it only remains for +you to add to these possessions the cultivation of your mind, in which I +exhort you not to fail. I do not think necessary to warn you against +vice, a thing so odious in women, for I would not even suppose that you +could harbour any inclination for it--nay, I believe that you hold the +very name in abhorrence. Dear daughter, farewell." + +All in the room were weeping and lamenting; but he held without +interruption the thread of his discourse, which was pretty long. But +when he had done, he directed us all to leave the room, except the women +attendants, whom he styled his garrison. But first, calling to him my +brother, M. de Beauregard, he said to him: "M. de Beauregard, you have +my best thanks for all the care you have taken of me. I have now a thing +which I am very anxious indeed to mention to you, and with your +permission I will do so." As my brother gave him encouragement to +proceed, he added: "I assure you that I never knew any man who engaged in +the reformation of our Church with greater sincerity, earnestness, and +single-heartedness than yourself. I consider that you were led to it by +observing the vicious character of our prelates, which no doubt much +requires setting in order, and by imperfections which time has brought +into our Church. It is not my desire at present discourage you from +this course, for I would have no one act in opposition to his conscience; +but I wish, having regard to the good repute acquired by your family from +its enduring concord--a family than which none can be dearer to me; a +family, thank God! no member of which has ever been guilty of dishonour- +-in regard, further, to the will of your good father to whom you owe so +much, and of your, uncle, I wish you to avoid extreme means; avoid +harshness and violence: be reconciled with your relatives; do not act +apart, but unite. You perceive what disasters our quarrels have brought +upon this kingdom, and I anticipate still worse mischiefs; and in your +goodness and wisdom, beware of involving your family in such broils; let +it continue to enjoy its former reputation and happiness. M. de +Beauregard, take what I say in good part, and as a proof of the +friendship I feel for you. I postponed till now any communication with +you on the subject, and perhaps the condition in which you see me address +you, may cause my advice and opinion to carry greater authority." My +brother expressed his thanks to him cordially. + +On the Monday morning he had become so ill that he quite despaired of +himself; and he said to me very pitifully: "Brother, do not you feel pain +for all the pain I am suffering? Do you not perceive now that the help +you give me has no other effect than that of lengthening my suffering?" + +Shortly afterwards he fainted, and we all thought him gone; but by the +application of vinegar and wine he rallied. But he soon sank, and when +he heard us in lamentation, he murmured, "O God! who is it that teases +me so? Why did you break the agreeable repose I was enjoying? I beg of +you to leave me." And then, when he caught the sound of my voice, he +continued: "And art thou, my brother, likewise unwilling to see me at +peace? O, how thou robbest me of my repose!" After a while, he seemed +to gain more strength, and called for wine, which he relished, and +declared it to be the finest drink possible. I, in order to change the +current of his thoughts, put in, "Surely not; water is the best." "Ah, +yes," he returned, "doubtless so;--(Greek phrase)--." He had now become, +icy-cold at his extremities, even to his face; a deathly perspiration was +upon him, and his pulse was scarcely perceptible. + +This morning he confessed, but the priest had omitted to bring with him +the necessary apparatus for celebrating Mass. On the Tuesday, however, +M. de la Boetie summoned him to aid him, as he said, in discharging the +last office of a Christian. After the conclusion of Mass, he took the +sacrament; when the priest was about to depart, he said to him: +"Spiritual father, I implore you humbly, as well as those over whom you +are set, to pray to the Almighty on my behalf; that, if it be decreed in +heaven that I am now to end my life, He will take compassion on my soul, +and pardon me my sins, which are manifold, it not being possible for so +weak and poor a creature as I to obey completely the will of such a +Master; or, if He think fit to keep me longer here, that it may please +Him to release my present extreme anguish, and to direct my footsteps in +the right path, that I may become a better man than I have been." He +paused to recover breath a little; priest was about to go away, he called +him back and proceeded: "I desire to say, besides, in your hearing this: +I declare that I was christened and I have lived, and that so I wish to +die, in the faith which Moses preached in Egypt; which afterwards the +Patriarchs accepted and professed in Judaea; and which, in the course of +time, has been transmitted to France and to us." He seemed desirous of +adding something more, but he ended with a request to his uncle and me to +send up prayers for him; "for those are," he said, "the best duties that +Christians can fulfil one for another." In the course of talking, his +shoulder was uncovered, and although a man-servant stood near him, he +asked his uncle to re-adjust the clothes. Then, turning his eyes towards +me, he said, "Ingenui est, cui multum debeas, ei plurimum velle debere." + +M. de Belot called in the afternoon to see him, and M. de la Boetie, +taking his hand, said to him: "I was on the point of discharging my debt, +but my kind creditor has given me a little further time." A little while +after, appearing to wake out of a sort of reverie, he uttered words which +he had employed once or twice before in the course of his sickness: +"Ah well, ah well, whenever the hour comes, I await it with pleasure and +fortitude." And then, as they were holding his mouth open by force to +give him a draught, he observed to M. de Belot: "An vivere tanti est?" + +As the evening approached, he began perceptibly to sink; and while I +supped, he sent for me to come, being no more than the shadow of a man, +or, as he put it himself, 'non homo, sed species hominis'; and he said to +me with the utmost difficulty: "My brother, my friend, please God I may +realise the imaginations I have just enjoyed." Afterwards, having waited +for some time while he remained silent, and by painful efforts was +drawing long sighs (for his tongue at this point began to refuse its +functions), I said, "What are they?" "Grand, grand!" he replied. "I +have never yet failed," returned I, "to have the honour of hearing your +conceptions and imaginations communicated to me; will you not now still +let me enjoy them?" "I would indeed," he answered; "but, my brother, +I am not able to do so; they are admirable, infinite, and unspeakable." +We stopped short there, for he could not go on. A little before, indeed, +he had shown a desire to speak to his wife, and had told her, with as gay +a countenance as he could contrive to assume, that he had a story to tell +her. And it seemed as if he was making an attempt to gain utterance; +but, his strength failing him, he begged a little wine to resuscitate it. +It was of no avail, for he fainted away suddenly, and was for some time +insensible. Having become so near a neighbour to death, and hearing the +sobs of Mademoiselle de la Boetie, he called her, and said to her thus: +"My own likeness, you grieve yourself beforehand; will you not have pity +on me? take courage. Assuredly, it costs me more than half the pain I +endure, to see you suffer; and reasonably so, because the evils which we +ourselves feel we do not actually ourselves suffer, but it certain +sentient faculties which God plants in us, that feel them: whereas what +we feel on account of others, we feel by consequence of a certain +reasoning process which goes on within our minds. But I am going away"-- +That he said because his strength was failing him; and fearing that he +had frightened his wife, he resumed, observing: "I am going to sleep. +Good night, my wife; go thy way." This was the last farewell he took of +her. + +After she had left, "My brother," said he to me, "keep near me, if you +please;" and then feeling the advance of death more pressing and more +acute, or else the effect of some warm draught which they had made him +swallow, his voice grew stronger and clearer, and he turned quite with +violence in his bed, so that all began again to entertain the hope which +we had lost only upon witnessing his extreme prostration. + +At this stage he proceeded, among other things, to pray me again and +again, in a most affectionate manner, to give him a place; so that I was +apprehensive that his reason might be impaired, particularly when, on my +pointing out to him that he was doing himself harm, and that these were +not of the words of a rational man, he did not yield at first, but +redoubled his outcry, saying, "My brother, my brother! dost thou then +refuse me a place?" insomuch that he constrained me to demonstrate to +him that, as he breathed and spoke, and had his physical being, therefore +he had his place. "Yes, yes," he responded, "I have; but it is not that +which I need; and, besides, when all is said, I have no longer any +existence." "God," I replied, "will grant you a better one soon." +"Would it were now, my brother," was his answer. "It is now three days +since I have been eager to take my departure." + +Being in this extremity, he frequently called me, merely to satisfy him +that I was at his side. At length, he composed himself a little to rest, +which strengthened our hopes; so much so, indeed, that I left the room, +and went to rejoice thereupon with Mademoiselle de la Boetie. But, an +hour or so afterwards, he called me by name once or twice, and then with +a long sigh expired at three o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 18th +August 1563, having lived thirty-two years, nine months, and seventeen +days. + + + + +II. + +To Monseigneur, Monseigneur de MONTAIGNE. + +[This letter is prefixed to Montaigne's translation of the "Natural +Theology" of Raymond de Sebonde, printed at Paris in 1569.] + +In pursuance of the instructions which you gave me last year in your +house at Montaigne, Monseigneur, I have put into a French dress, with my +own hand, Raymond de Sebonde, that great Spanish theologian and +philosopher; and I have divested him, so far as I could, of that rough +bearing and barbaric appearance which you saw him wear at first; that, in +my opinion, he is now qualified to present himself in the best company. +It is perfectly possible that some fastidious persons will detect in the +book some trace of Gascon parentage; but it will be so much the more to +their discredit, that they allowed the task to devolve on one who is +quite a novice in these things. It is only right, Monseigneur, that the +work should come before the world under your auspices, since whatever +emendations and polish it may have received, are owing to you. Still I +see well that, if you think proper to balance accounts with the author, +you will find yourself much his debtor; for against his excellent and +religious discourses, his lofty and, so to speak, divine conceptions, you +will find that you will have to set nothing but words and phraseology; a +sort of merchandise so ordinary and commonplace, that whoever has the +most of it, peradventure is the worst off. + +Monseigneur, I pray God to grant you a very long and happy life. From +Paris, this 18th of June 1568. Your most humble and most obedient son, + +MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + + + + +III. + +To Monsieur, Monsieur de LANSAC,--[This letter appears to belong to +1570.]--Knight of the King's Order, Privy Councillor, Sub-controller of +his Finance, and Captain of the Cent Gardes of his Household. + +MONSIEUR,--I send you the OEconomics of Xenophon, put into French by the +late M. de la Boetie,--[Printed at Paris, 8vo, 1571, and reissued, with +the addition of some notes, in 1572, with a fresh title-page.]--a present +which appears to me to be appropriate, as well because it is the work of +a gentleman of mark,--[Meaning Xenophon.]--a man illustrious in war and +peace, as because it has taken its second shape from a personage whom I +know to have been held by you in affectionate regard during his life. +This will be an inducement to you to continue to cherish towards his +memory, your good opinion and goodwill. And to be bold with you, +Monsieur, do not fear to increase these sentiments somewhat; for, as you +had knowledge of his high qualities only in his public capacity, it rests +with me to assure you how many endowments he possessed beyond your +personal experience of him. He did me the honour, while he lived, and I +count it amongst the most fortunate circumstances in my own career, to +have with me a friendship so close and so intricately knit, that no +movement, impulse, thought, of his mind was kept from me, and if I have +not formed a right judgment of him, I must suppose it to be from my own +want of scope. Indeed, without exaggeration, he was so nearly a prodigy, +that I am afraid of not being credited when I speak of him, even though I +should keep much within the mark of my own actual knowledge. And for +this time, Monsieur, I shall content myself with praying you, for the +honour and respect we owe to truth, to testify and believe that our +Guienne never beheld his peer among the men of his vocation. Under the +hope, therefore, that you will pay him his just due, and in order to +refresh him in your memory, I present you this book, which will answer +for me that, were it not for the insufficiency of my power, I would offer +you as willingly something of my own, as an acknowledgment of the +obligations I owe to you, and of the ancient favour and friendship which +you have borne towards the members of our house. But, Monsieur, in +default of better coin, I offer you in payment the assurance of my desire +to do you humble service. + +Monsieur, I pray God to have you in His keeping. Your obedient servant, +MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE. + + + + +IV. + +To Monsieur, Monsieur de MESMES, Lord of Roissy and Malassize, Privy +Councillor to the King. + +MONSIEUR,--It is one of the most conspicuous follies committed by men, +to employ the strength of their understanding in overturning and +destroying those opinions which are commonly received among us, and which +afford us satisfaction and content; for while everything beneath heaven +employs the ways and means placed at its disposal by nature for the +advancement and commodity of its being, these, in order to appear of a +more sprightly and enlightened wit, not accepting anything which has not +been tried and balanced a thousand times with the most subtle reasoning, +sacrifice their peace of mind to doubt, uneasiness, and feverish +excitement. It is not without reason that childhood and simplicity have +been recommended by holy writ itself. For my part, I prefer to be quiet +rather than clever: give me content, even if I am not to be so wide in my +range. This is the reason, Monsieur, why, although persons of an +ingenious turn laugh at our care as to what will happen after our own +time, for instance, to our souls, which, lodged elsewhere, will lose all +consciousness of what goes on here below, yet I consider it to be a great +consolation for the frailty and brevity of life, to reflect that we have +the power of prolonging it by reputation and fame; and I embrace very +readily this pleasant and favourable notion original with our being, +without inquiring too critically how or why it is. Insomuch that having +loved, beyond everything, the late M. de la Boetie, the greatest man, in +my judgment, of our age, I should think myself very negligent of my duty +if I failed, to the utmost of my power, to prevent such a name as his, +and a memory so richly meriting remembrance, from falling into oblivion; +and if I did not use my best endeavour to keep them fresh. I believe +that he feels something of what I do on his behalf, and that my services +touch and rejoice him. In fact, he lives in my heart so vividly and so +wholly, that I am loath to believe him committed to the dull ground, or +altogether cast off from communication with us. Therefore, Monsieur, +since every new light I can shed on him and his name, is so much added to +his second period of existence, and, moreover, since his name is ennobled +and honoured by the place which receives it, it falls to me not only to +extend it as widely as I can, but to confide it to the keeping of persons +of honour and virtue; among whom you hold such a rank, that, to afford +you the opportunity of receiving this new guest, and giving him good +entertainment, I decided on presenting to you this little work, not for +any profit you are likely to derive from it, being well aware that you do +not need to have Plutarch and his companions interpreted to you--but it +is possible that Madame de Roissy, reading in it the order of her +household management and of your happy accord painted to the life, will +be pleased to see how her own natural inclination has not only reached +but surpassed the theories of the wisest philosophers, regarding the +duties and laws of the wedded state. And, at all events, it will be +always an honour to me, to be able to do anything which shall be for the +pleasure of you and yours, on account of the obligation under which I lie +to serve you. + +Monsieur, I pray God to grant you a long and happy life. From Montaigne, +this 30th April 1570. Your humble servant, +MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE. + + + + +V. + +To Monsieur, Monsieur de L'HOSPITAL, Chancellor of France + +MONSEIGNEUR,--I am of the opinion that persons such as you, to whom +fortune and reason have committed the charge of public affairs, are not +more inquisitive in any point than in ascertaining the character of those +in office under you; for no society is so poorly furnished, but that, if +a proper distribution of authority be used, it has persons sufficient for +the discharge of all official duties; and when this is the case, nothing +is wanting to make a State perfect in its constitution. Now, in +proportion as this is so much to be desired, so it is the more difficult +of accomplishment, since you cannot have eyes to embrace a multitude so +large and so widely extended, nor to see to the bottom of hearts, in +order that you may discover intentions and consciences, matters +principally to be considered; so that there has never been any +commonwealth so well organised, in which we might not detect often enough +defect in such a department or such a choice; and in those systems, where +ignorance and malice, favouritism, intrigue, and violence govern, if any +selection happens to be made on the ground of merit and regularity, we +may doubtless thank Fortune, which, in its capricious movements, has for +once taken the path of reason. + +This consideration, Monseigneur, often consoled me, when I beheld M. +Etienne de la Boetie, one of the fittest men for high office in France, +pass his whole life without employment and notice, by his domestic +hearth, to the singular detriment of the public; for, so far as he was +concerned, I may assure you, Monseigneur, that he was so rich in those +treasures which defy fortune, that never was man more satisfied or +content. I know, indeed, that he was raised to the dignities connected +with his neighbourhood--dignities accounted considerable; and I know +also, that no one ever acquitted himself better of them; and when he died +at the age of thirty-two, he enjoyed a reputation in that way beyond all +who had preceded him. + +But for all that, it is no reason that a man should be left a common +soldier, who deserves to become a captain; nor to assign mean functions +to those who are perfectly equal to the highest. In truth, his powers +were badly economised and too sparingly employed; insomuch that, over and +above his actual work, there was abundant capacity lying idle which might +have been called into service, both to the public advantage and his own +private glory. + +Therefore, Monseigneur, since he was so indifferent to his own fame (for +virtue and ambition, unfortunately, seldom lodge together), and since he +lived in an age when others were too dull or too jealous to witness to +his character, I have it marvellously at heart that his memory, at all +events, to which I owe the good offices of a friend, should enjoy the +recompense of his brave life; and that it should survive in the good +report of men of honour and virtue. On this account, sir, I have been +desirous to bring to light, and present to you, such few Latin verses as +he left behind. Different from the builder, who places the most +attractive, portion of his house towards the street, and to the draper, +who displays in his window his best goods, that which was most precious +in my friend, the juice and marrow of his genius, departed with him, and +there have remained to us but the bark and the leaves. + +The exactly regulated movements of his mind, his piety, his virtue, his +justice, his vivacity, the solidity and soundness of his judgment, the +loftiness of his ideas, raised so far above the common level, his +learning, the grace which accompanied his most ordinary actions, the +tender affection he had for his miserable country, and his supreme and +sworn detestation of all vice, but principally of that villainous traffic +which disguises itself under the honourable name of justice, should +certainly impress all well-disposed persons with a singular love towards +him, and an extraordinary regret for his loss. But, sir, I am unable to +do justice to all these qualities; and of the fruit of his own studies it +had not entered into his mind to leave any proof to posterity; all that +remains, is the little which, as a pastime, he did at intervals. + +However this may be, I beg you, sir, to receive it kindly; and as our +judgment of great things is many times formed from lesser things, and as +even the recreations of illustrious men carry with them, to intelligent +observers, some honourable traits of their origin, I would have you form +from this, some knowledge of him, and hence lovingly cherish his name and +his memory. In this, sir, you will only reciprocate the high opinion +which he had of your virtue, and realise what he infinitely desired in +his lifetime; for there was no one in the world in whose acquaintance and +friendship he would have been so happy to see himself established, as in +your own. But if any man is offended by the freedom which I use with the +belongings of another, I can tell him that nothing which has been written +or been laid down, even in the schools of philosophy, respecting the +sacred duties and rights of friendship, could give an adequate idea of +the relations which subsisted between this personage and myself. + +Moreover, sir, this slender gift, to make two throws of one stone at the +same time, may likewise serve, if you please, to testify the honour and +respect which I entertain for your ability and high qualities; for as to +those gifts which are adventitious and accidental, it is not to my taste +to take them into account. + +Sir, I pray God to grant you a very happy and a very long life. From +Montaigne, this 30th of April 1570.--Your humble and obedient servant, + +MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE. + + + + +To Monsieur, Monsieur de Folx, Privy Councillor, and Ambassador of His +Majesty to the Signory of Venice.--[ Printed before the 'Vers Francois' +of Etienne de la Boetie, 8vo, Paris, 1572.] + +SIR,--Being on the point of commending to you and to posterity the memory +of the late Etienne de la Boetie, as well for his extreme virtue as for +the singular affection which he bore to me, it struck me as an +indiscretion very serious in its results, and meriting some coercion from +our laws, the practice which often prevails of robbing virtue of glory, +its faithful associate, in order to confer it, in accordance with our +private interests and without discrimination, on the first comer; seeing +that our two principal guiding reins are reward and punishment, which +only touch us properly, and as men, through the medium of honour and +dishonour, forasmuch as these penetrate the mind, and come home to our +most intimate feelings: just where animals themselves are susceptible, +more or less, to all other kinds of recompense and corporal chastisement. +Moreover, it is well to notice that the custom of praising virtue, even +in those who are no longer with us, impalpable as it is to them, serves +as a stimulant to the living to imitate their example; just as capital +sentences are carried out by the law, more for the sake of warning to +others, than in relation to those who suffer. Now, commendation and its +opposite being analogous as regards effects, we cannot easily deny +the fact, that although the law prohibits one man from slandering the +reputation of another, it does not prevent us from bestowing reputation +without cause. This pernicious licence in respect to the distribution of +praise, has formerly been confined in its area of operations; and it may +be the reason why poetry once lost favour with the more judicious. +However this may be, it cannot be concealed that the vice of falsehood is +one very unbecoming in gentleman, let it assume what guise it will. + +As for that personage of whom I am speaking to you, sir he leads me far +away indeed from this kind of language; for the danger in his case is +not, lest I should lend him anything, but that I might take something +from him; and it is his ill-fortune that, while he has supplied me, so +far as ever a man could, with just and obvious opportunities for +commendation, I find myself unable and unqualified to render it to him-- +I, who am his debtor for so many vivid communications, and who alone have +it in my power to answer for a million of accomplishments, perfections, +and virtues, latent (thanks to his unkind stars) in so noble a soul. For +the nature of things having (I know not how) permitted that truth, fair +and acceptable--as it may be of itself, is only embraced where there are +arts of persuasion, to insinuate it into our minds, I see myself so +wanting, both in authority to support my simple testimony, and in the +eloquence requisite for lending it value and weight, that I was on the +eve of relinquishing the task, having nothing of his which would enable +me to exhibit to the world a proof of his genius and knowledge. + +In truth, sir, having been overtaken by his fate in the flower of his +age, and in the full enjoyment of the most vigorous health, it had been +his design to publish some day works which would have demonstrated to +posterity what sort of a man he was; and, peradventure, he was +indifferent enough to fame, having formed such a plan in his head, to +proceed no further in it. But I have come to the conclusion, that it was +far more excusable in him to bury with him all his rare endowments, than +it would be on my part to bury also with me the knowledge of them which I +had acquired from him; and, therefore, having collected with care all the +remains which I found scattered here and there among his papers, I intend +to distribute them so as to recommend his memory to as many persons as +possible, selecting the most suitable and worthy of my acquaintance, and +those whose testimony might do him greatest honour: such as you, sir, who +may very possibly have had some knowledge of him during his life, but +assuredly too slight to discover the perfect extent of his worth. +Posterity may credit me, if it chooses, when I swear upon my conscience, +that I knew and saw him to be such as, all things considered, I could +neither desire nor imagine a genius surpassing his. + +I beg you very humbly, sir, not only to take his name under your general +protection, but also these ten or twelve French stanzas, which lay +themselves, as of necessity, under shadow of your patronage. For I will +not disguise from you, that their publication was deferred, upon the +appearance of his other writings, under the pretext (as it was alleged +yonder at Paris) that they were too crude to come to light. You will +judge, sir, how much truth there is in this; and since it is thought that +hereabout nothing can be produced in our own dialect but what is +barbarous and unpolished, it falls to you, who, besides your rank as the +first house in Guienne, indeed down from your ancestors, possess every +other sort of qualification, to establish, not merely by your example, +but by your authoritative testimony, that such is not always the case: +the more so that, though 'tis more natural with the Gascons to act than +talk, yet sometimes they employ the tongue more than the arm, and wit in +place of valour. + +For my own part; sir, it is not in my way to judge of such matters; but I +have heard persons who are supposed to understand them, say that these +stanzas are not only worthy to be presented in the market-place, but, +independently of that, as regards beauty and wealth of invention, they +are full of marrow and matter as any compositions of the kind, which have +appeared in our language. Naturally each workman feels himself more +strong in some special part his art, and those are to be regarded as most +fortunate, who lay hands on the noblest, for all the parts essential to +the construction of any whole are not equally precious. We find +elsewhere, perhaps, greater delicacy phrase, greater softness and harmony +of language; but imaginative grace, and in the store of pointed wit, I do +not think he has been surpassed; and we should take the account that he +made these things neither his occupation nor his study, and that he +scarcely took a pen in his hand more than once a year, as is shown by the +very slender quantity of his remains. For you see here, sir, green wood +and dry, without any sort of selection, all that has come into my +possession; insomuch that there are among the rest efforts even of his +boyhood. In point of fact, he seems to have written them merely to show +that he was capable of dealing with all subjects: for otherwise, +thousands of times, in the course of ordinary conversation, I have heard +things drop from him infinitely more worthy of being admired, infinitely +more worthy of being preserved. + +Such, sir, is what justice and affection, forming in this instance a rare +conjunction, oblige me to say of this great and good man; and if I have +at all offended by the freedom which I have taken in addressing myself to +you on such a subject at such a length, be pleased to recollect that the +principal result of greatness and eminence is to lay one open to +importunate appeals on behalf of the rest of the world. Herewith, after +desiring you to accept my affectionate devotion to your service, +I beseech God to vouchsafe you, sir, a fortunate and prolonged life. +From Montaigne, this 1st of September 1570.--Your obedient servant, + +MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE. + + + + + +To Mademoiselle de MONTAIGNE, my Wife.--[Printed as a preface to the +"Consolation of Plutarch to his Wife," pub. fished by Montaigne, with +several other tracts by La Boetie, about 1571.] + +MY WIFE,--You understand well that it is not proper for a man of the +world, according to the rules of this our time, to continue to court and +caress you; for they say that a sensible person may take a wife indeed, +but that to espouse her is to act like a fool. Let them talk; I adhere +for my part the custom of the good old days; I also wear my hair as it +used to be then; and, in truth, novelty costs this poor country up to the +present moment so dear (and I do not know whether we have reached the +highest pitch yet), that everywhere and in everything I renounce the +fashion. Let us live, my wife, you and I, in the old French method. +Now, you may recollect that the late M. de la Boetie, my brother and +inseparable companion, gave me, on his death-bed, all his books and +papers, which have remained ever since the most precious part of my +effects. I do not wish to keep them niggardly to myself alone, nor do I +deserve to have the exclusive use of them; so that I have resolved to +communicate them to my friends; and because I have none, I believe, more +particularly intimate you, I send you the Consolatory Letter written by +Plutarch to his Wife, translated by him into French; regretting much that +fortune has made it so suitable a present you, and that, having had but +one child, and that a daughter, long looked for, after four years of your +married life it was your lot to lose her in the second year of her age. +But I leave to Plutarch the duty of comforting you, acquainting you with +your duty herein, begging you to put your faith in him for my sake; for +he will reveal to you my own ideas, and will express the matter far +better than I should myself. Hereupon, my wife, I commend myself very +heartily to your good will, and pray God to have you in His keeping. +From Paris, this 10th September 1570.--Your good husband, + +MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE. + + + + +VIII. + +To Monsieur DUPUY,--[This is probably the Claude Dupuy, born at Paris in +1545, and one of the fourteen judges sent into Guienne after the treaty +of Fleix in 1580. It was perhaps under these circumstances that +Montaigne addressed to him the present letter.]--the King's Councillor in +his Court and Parliament of Paris. + +MONSIEUR,--The business of the Sieur de Verres, a prisoner, who is +extremely well known to me, deserves, in the arrival at a decision, +the exercise of the clemency natural to you, if, in the public interest, +you can fairly call it into play. He has done a thing not only +excusable, according to the military laws of this age, but necessary and +(as we are of opinion) commendable. He committed the act, without doubt, +unwillingly and under pressure; there is no other passage of his life +which is open to reproach. I beseech you, sir, to lend the matter your +attentive consideration; you will find the character of it as I represent +it to you. He is persecuted on this crime, in a way which is far worse +than the offence itself. If it is likely to be of use to him, I desire +to inform you that he is a man brought up in my house, related to several +respectable families, and a person who, having led an honourable life, +is my particular friend. By saving him you lay me under an extreme +obligation. I beg you very humbly to regard him as recommended by me, +and, after kissing your hands, I pray God, sir, to grant you a long and +happy life. From Castera, this 23 d of April [1580]. Your affectionate +servant, +MONTAIGNE. + + + + + +IX. + +To the Jurats of Bordeaux.--[Published from the original among the +archives of the town of Bordeaux, M. Gustave Brunet in the Bulletin du +Bibliophile, July 1839.] + +GENTLEMEN,--I trust that the journey of Monsieur de Cursol will be of +advantage to the town. Having in hand a case so just and so favourable, +you did all in your power to put the business in good trim; and matters +being so well situated, I beg you to excuse my absence for some little +time longer, and I will abridge my stay so far as the pressure of my +affairs permits. I hope that the delay will be short; however, you will +keep me, if you please, in your good grace, and will command me, if the +occasion shall arise, in employing me in the public service and in yours. +Monsieur de Cursol has also written to me and apprised me of his journey. +I humbly commend myself to you, and pray God, gentlemen, to grant you +long and happy life. From Montaigne, this 21st of May 1582. Your humble +brother and servant, +MONTAIGNE. + + + + +X. + +To the same.--[The original is among the archives of Toulouse.] + +GENTLEMEN,--I have taken my fair share of the satisfaction which you +announce to me as feeling at the good despatch of your business, as +reported to you by your deputies, and I regard it as a favourable sign +that you have made such an auspicious commencement of the year. I hope +to join you at the earliest convenient opportunity. I recommend myself +very humbly to your gracious consideration, and pray God to grant you, +gentlemen, a happy and long life. From Montaigne, this 8th February +1585. Your humble brother and servant, +MONTAIGNE. + + + + +XI. + +To the same. + +GENTLEMEN,--I have here received news of you from M. le Marechal. I will +not spare either my life or anything else for your service, and will +leave it to your judgment whether the assistance I might be able to +render by my presence at the forthcoming election, would be worth the +risk I should run by going into the town, seeing the bad state it is in, +--[This refers to the plague then raging, and which carried off 14,000 +persons at Bordeaux.]--particularly for people coming away from so fine +an air as this is where I am. I will draw as near to you on Wednesday as +I can, that is, to Feuillas, if the malady has not reached that place, +where, as I write to M. de la Molte, I shall be very pleased to have the +honour of seeing one of you to take your directions, and relieve myself +of the credentials which M. le Marechal will give me for you all: +commending myself hereupon humbly to your good grace, and praying God to +grant you, gentlemen, long and happy life. At Libourne, this 30th of +July 1585. Your humble servant and brother, +MONTAIGNE. + + + + +XII.--["According to Dr. Payen, this letter belongs to 1588. Its +authenticity has been called in question; but wrongly, in our opinion. +See 'Documents inedits', 1847, p. 12."--Note in 'Essais', ed. Paris, +1854, iv. 381. It does not appear to whom the letter was addressed.] + +MONSEIGNEUR,--You have heard of our baggage being taken from us under our +eyes in the forest of Villebois: then, after a good deal of discussion +and delay, of the capture being pronounced illegal by the Prince. We +dared not, however, proceed on our way, from an uncertainty as to the +safety of our persons, which should have been clearly expressed on our +passports. The League has done this, M. de Barrant and M. de la +Rochefocault; the storm has burst on me, who had my money in my box. I +have recovered none of it, and most of my papers and cash--[The French +word is hardes, which St. John renders things. But compare Chambers's +"Domestic Annals of Scotland," 2d ed. i. 48.]--remain in their +possession. I have not seen the Prince. Fifty were lost . . . as for +the Count of Thorigny, he lost some ver plate and a few articles of +clothing. He diverged from his route to pay a visit to the mourning +ladies at Montresor, where are the remains of his two brothers and his +grandmother, and came to us again in this town, whence we shall resume +our journey shortly. The journey to Normandy is postponed. The King has +despatched MM. De Bellieure and de la Guiche to M. de Guise to summon him +to court; we shall be there on Thursday. + +From Orleans, this 16th of February, in the morning [1588-9?].--Your very +humble servant, +MONTAIGNE. + + + + + +XIII. + +To Mademoiselle PAULMIER.--[This letter, at the time of the publication +of the variorum edition of 1854, appears to have been in private hands. +See vol. iv. p. 382.] + +MADEMOISELLE,--My friends know that, from the first moment of our +acquaintance, I have destined a copy of my book for you; for I feel that +you have done it much honour. The courtesy of M. Paulmier would deprive +me of the pleasure of giving it to you now, for he has obliged me since a +great deal beyond the worth of my book. You will accept it then, if you +please, as having been yours before I owed it to you, and will confer on +me the favour of loving it, whether for its own sake or for mine; and I +will keep my debt to M. Paulmier undischarged, that I may requite him, if +I have at some other time the means of serving him. + + + + +XIV. + +To the KING, HENRY IV.--[The original is in the French national library, +in the Dupuy collection. It was first discovered by M. Achille Jubinal, +who printed it with a facsimile of the entire autograph, in 1850. St. +John gives the date wrongly as the 1st January 1590.] + +SIRE, It is to be above the weight and crowd of your great and important +affairs, to know, as you do, how to lend yourself, and attend to small +matters in their turn, according to the duty of your royal dignity, which +exposes you at all times to every description and degree of person and +employment. Yet, that your Majesty should have deigned to consider my +letter, and direct a reply to be made to it, I prefer to owe, less to +your strong understanding, than to your kindness of heart. I have always +looked forward to your enjoyment of your present fortune, and you may +recollect that, even when I had to make confession of itto my cure, I +viewed your successes with satisfaction: now, with the greater propriety +and freedom, I embrace them affectionately. They serve you where you are +as positive matters of fact; but they serve us here no less by the fame +which they diffuse: the echo carries as much weight as the blow. We +should not be able to derive from the justice of your cause such powerful +arguments for the maintenance and reduction of your subjects, as we do +from the reports of the success of your undertaking; and then I have to +assure your Majesty, that the recent changes to your advantage, which you +observe hereabouts, the prosperous issue of your proceedings at Dieppe, +have opportunely seconded the honest zeal and marvellous prudence of M. +the Marshal de Matignon, from whom I flatter myself that you do not +receive day by day accounts of such good and signal services without +remembering my assurances and expectations. I look to the next summer, +not only for fruits which we may eat, but for those to grow out of our +common tranquillity, and that it will pass over our heads with the same +even tenor of happiness, dissipating, like its predecessors, all the fine +promises with which your adversaries sustain the spirits of their +followers. The popular inclinations resemble a tidal wave; if the +current once commences in your favour, it will go on of its own force to +the end. I could have desired much that the private gain of the soldiers +of your army, and the necessity for satisfying them, had not deprived +you, especially in this principal town, of the glorious credit of treating +your mutinous subjects, in the midst of victory, with greater clemency +than their own protectors, and that, as distinguished from a passing and +usurped repute, you could have shown them to be really your own, by the +exercise of a protection truly paternal and royal. In the conduct of +such affairs as you have in hand, men are obliged to have recourse to +unusual expedients. It is always seen that they are surmounted by their +magnitude and difficulty; it not being found easy to complete the +conquest by arms and force, the end has been accomplished by clemency and +generosity, excellent lures to draw men particularly towards the just and +legitimate side. If there is to be severity and punishment, let it be +deferred till success has been assured. A great conqueror of past times +boasts that he gave his enemies as great an inducement to love him, as +his friends. And here we feel already some effect of the favourable +impression produced upon our rebellious towns by the contrast between +their rude treatment, and that of those which are loyal to you. Desiring +your Majesty a happiness more tangible and less hazardous, and that you +may be beloved rather than feared by your people, and believing that your +welfare and theirs are of necessity knit together, I rejoice to think that +the progress which you make is one towards more practicable conditions of +peace, as well as towards victory! + +Sire, your letter of the last of November came to my hand only just now, +when the time which it pleased you to name for meeting you at Tours had +already passed. I take it as a singular favour that you should have +deigned to desire a visit from so useless a person, but one who is wholly +yours, and more so even by affection than from duty. You have acted very +commendably in adapting yourself, in the matter of external forms, to +your new fortunes; but the preservation of your old affability and +frankness in private intercourse is entitled to an equal share of praise. +You have condescended to take thought for my age, no less than for the +desire which I have to see you, where you may be at rest from these +laborious agitations. Will not that be soon at Paris, Sire? and may +nothing prevent me from presenting myself there!--Your very humble and +very obedient servant and subject, +MONTAIGNE. + +From Montaigne, this 18th of January [1590]. + + + + +XV. +To the same.--[ This letter is also in the national collection, among the +Dupuy papers. It was first printed in the "Journal de l'Instruction +Publique," 4th November 1846.] + +SIRE,--The letter which it pleased your majesty to write to me on the +20th of July, was not delivered to me till this morning, and found me +laid up with a very violent tertian ague, a complaint very common in this +part of the country during the last month. Sire, I consider myself +greatly honoured by the receipt of your commands, and I have not omitted +to communicate to M. the Marshal de Matignon three times most +emphatically my intention and obligation to proceed to him, and even so +far as to indicate the route by which I proposed to join him secretly, if +he thought proper. Having received no answer, I consider that he has +weighed the difficulty and risk of the journey to me. Sire, your Majesty +dill do me the favour to believe, if you please, that I shall never +complain of the expense on occasions where I should not hesitate to +devote my life. I have never derived any substantial benefit whatever +from the bounty of kings, which I have neither sought nor merited; nor +have I had any recompense for the services which I have performed for +them: whereof your majesty is in part aware. What I have done for your +predecessors I shall do still more readily for you. I am as rich, Sire, +as I desire to be. When I shall have exhausted my purse in attendance on +your Majesty at Paris, I will take the liberty to tell you, and then, if +you should regard me as worthy of being retained any longer in your +suite, you will find me more modest in my claims upon you than the +humblest of your officers. + +Sire, I pray God for your prosperity and health. Your very humble and +very obedient servant and subject, +MONTAIGNE. + +From Montaigne, this 2d of September [1590]. + + + + +XVI. + +To the Governor of Guienne. + +MONSEIGNEUR,--I have received this morning your letter, which I have +communicated to M. de Gourgues, and we have dined together at the house +of M.[the mayor] of Bourdeaux. As to the inconvenience of transporting +the money named in your memorandum, you see how difficult a thing it is +to provide for; but you may be sure that we shall keep as close a watch +over it as possible. I used every exertion to discover the man of whom +you spoke. He has not been here; and M. de Bordeaux has shown me a +letter in which he mentions that he could not come to see the Director of +Bordeaux, as he intended, having been informed that you mistrust him. +The letter is of the day before yesterday. If I could have found him, I +might perhaps have pursued the gentler course, being uncertain of your +views; but I entreat you nevertheless to feel no manner of doubt that I +refuse to carry out any wishes of yours, and that, where your commands +are concerned, I know no distinction of person or matter. I hope that +you have in Guienne many as well affected to you as I am. They report +that the Nantes galleys are advancing towards Brouage. M. the Marshal de +Biron has not yet left. Those who were charged to convey the message to +M. d'Usee say that they cannot find him; and I believe that, if he has +been here, he is so no longer. We keep a vigilant eye on our gates and +guards, and we look after them a little more attentively in your absence, +which makes me apprehensive, not merely on account of the preservation of +the town, but likewise for your oven sake, knowing that the enemies of +the king feel how necessary you are to his service, and how ill we should +prosper without you. I am afraid that, in the part where you are, you +will be overtaken by so many affairs requiring your attention on every +side, that it will take you a long time and involve great difficulty +before you have disposed of everything. If there is any important news, +I will despatch an express at once, and you may conclude that nothing is +stirring if you do not hear from me: at the same time begging you to bear +in mind that movements of this kind are wont to be so sudden and +unexpected that, if they occur, they will grasp me by the throat, before +they say a word. I will do what I can to collect news, and for this +purpose I will make a point of visiting and seeing men of every shade of +opinion. Down to the present time nothing is stirring. M. de Londel has +seen me this morning, and we have been arranging for some advances for +the place, where I shall go to-morrow morning. Since I began this +letter, I have learnt from Chartreux that two gentlemen, describing +themselves as in the service of M. de Guise, and coming from Agen, have +passed near Chartreux; but I was not able to ascertain which road they +have taken. They are expecting you at Agen. The Sieur de Mauvesin came +as far as Canteloup, and thence returned, having got some intelligence. +I am in search of one Captain Rous, to whom . . . wrote, trying to +draw him into his cause by all sorts of promises. The rumour of the two +Nantes galleys ready to descend on Brouage is confirmed as certain; they +carry two companies of foot. M. de Mercure is at Nantes. The Sieur de +la Courbe said to M. the President Nesmond that M. d'Elbeuf is on this +side of Angiers, and lodges with his father. He is drawing towards Lower +Poictou with 4000 foot and 400 or 500 horse, having been reinforced by +the troops of M. de Brissac and others, and M. de Mercure is to join him. +The report goes also that M. du Maine is about to take the command of all +the forces they have collected in Auvergne, and that he will cross Le +Foret to advance on Rouergue and us, that is to say, on the King of +Navarre, against whom all this is being directed. M. de Lansac is at +Bourg, and has two war vessels, which remain in attendance on him. His +functions are naval. I tell you what I learn, and mix up together the +more or less probable hearsay of the town with actual matter of fact, +that you may be in possession of everything. I beg you most humbly to +return directly affairs may allow you to do so, and assure you that, +meanwhile, we shall not spare our labour, or (if that were necessary) our +life, to maintain the king's authority throughout. Monseigneur, I kiss +your hands very respectfully, and pray God to have you in His keeping. +From Bordeaux, Wednesday night, 22d May (1590-91).--Your very humble +servant, + +MONTAIGNE. + +I have seen no one from the king of Navarre; they say that M. de Biron +has seen him. + + + + + + + THE AUTHOR TO THE READER.--[Omitted by Cotton.] + +READER, thou hast here an honest book; it doth at the outset forewarn +thee that, in contriving the same, I have proposed to myself no other +than a domestic and private end: I have had no consideration at all +either to thy service or to my glory. My powers are not capable of any +such design. I have dedicated it to the particular commodity of my +kinsfolk and friends, so that, having lost me (which they must do +shortly), they may therein recover some traits of my conditions and +humours, and by that means preserve more whole, and more life-like, the +knowledge they had of me. Had my intention been to seek the world's +favour, I should surely have adorned myself with borrowed beauties: I +desire therein to be viewed as I appear in mine own genuine, simple, and +ordinary manner, without study and artifice: for it is myself I paint. +My defects are therein to be read to the life, and any imperfections and +my natural form, so far as public reverence hath permitted me. If I had +lived among those nations, which (they say) yet dwell under the sweet +liberty of nature's primitive laws, I assure thee I would most willingly +have painted myself quite fully and quite naked. Thus, reader, myself am +the matter of my book: there's no reason thou shouldst employ thy leisure +about so frivolous and vain a subject. Therefore farewell. + +From Montaigne, the 12th June 1580--[So in the edition of 1595; the +edition of 1588 has 12th June 1588] + + + +From Montaigne, the 1st March 1580. + + --[See Bonnefon, Montaigne, 1893, p. 254. The book had been + licensed for the press on the 9th May previous. The edition of 1588 + has 12th June 1588;]-- + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Arts of persuasion, to insinuate it into our minds +Help: no other effect than that of lengthening my suffering +Judgment of great things is many times formed from lesser thing +Option now of continuing in life or of completing the voyage +Two principal guiding reins are reward and punishment +Virtue and ambition, unfortunately, seldom lodge together + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V1 +by Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +BOOK THE FIRST + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 2. + +I. That Men by Various Ways Arrive at the Same End. +II. Of Sorrow. +III. That our affections carry themselves beyond us . +IV. That the soul discharges her passions upon false objects, where + the true are wanting. +V. Whether the governor of a place besieged ought himself to go + out to parley. +VI. That the hour of parley is dangerous. +VII. That the intention is judge of our actions. +VIII. Of idleness. +IX. Of liars. +X. Of quick or slow speech. +XI. Of prognostications. +XII. Of constancy. + + + +CHAPTER I + +THAT MEN BY VARIOUS WAYS ARRIVE AT THE SAME END. + +The most usual way of appeasing the indignation of such as we have any +way offended, when we see them in possession of the power of revenge, +and find that we absolutely lie at their mercy, is by submission, to move +them to commiseration and pity; and yet bravery, constancy, and +resolution, however quite contrary means, have sometimes served to +produce the same effect.--[Florio's version begins thus: "The most +vsuall waie to appease those minds wee have offended, when revenge lies +in their hands, and that we stand at their mercie, is by submission to +move them to commiseration and pity: Nevertheless, courage, constancie, +and resolution (means altogether opposite) have sometimes wrought the +same effect."--] [The spelling is Florio's D.W.] + +Edward, Prince of Wales [Edward, the Black Prince. D.W.] (the same who +so long governed our Guienne, a personage whose condition and fortune +have in them a great deal of the most notable and most considerable parts +of grandeur), having been highly incensed by the Limousins, and taking +their city by assault, was not, either by the cries of the people, or the +prayers and tears of the women and children, abandoned to slaughter and +prostrate at his feet for mercy, to be stayed from prosecuting his +revenge; till, penetrating further into the town, he at last took notice +of three French gentlemen,--[These were Jean de Villemure, Hugh de la +Roche, and Roger de Beaufort.--Froissart, i. c. 289. {The city was +Limoges. D.W.}]--who with incredible bravery alone sustained the power +of his victorious army. Then it was that consideration and respect unto +so remarkable a valour first stopped the torrent of his fury, and that +his clemency, beginning with these three cavaliers, was afterwards +extended to all the remaining inhabitants of the city. + +Scanderbeg, Prince of Epirus, pursuing one of his soldiers with purpose +to kill him, the soldier, having in vain tried by all the ways of +humility and supplication to appease him, resolved, as his last refuge, +to face about and await him sword in hand: which behaviour of his gave a +sudden stop to his captain's fury, who, for seeing him assume so notable +a resolution, received him into grace; an example, however, that might +suffer another interpretation with such as have not read of the +prodigious force and valour of that prince. + +The Emperor Conrad III. having besieged Guelph, Duke of Bavaria,--[In +1140, in Weinsberg, Upper Bavaria.]--would not be prevailed upon, what +mean and unmanly satisfactions soever were tendered to him, to condescend +to milder conditions than that the ladies and gentlewomen only who were +in the town with the duke might go out without violation of their honour, +on foot, and with so much only as they could carry about them. Whereupon +they, out of magnanimity of heart, presently contrived to carry out, upon +their shoulders, their husbands and children, and the duke himself; +a sight at which the emperor was so pleased, that, ravished with the +generosity of the action, he wept for joy, and immediately extinguishing +in his heart the mortal and capital hatred he had conceived against this +duke, he from that time forward treated him and his with all humanity. +The one and the other of these two ways would with great facility work +upon my nature; for I have a marvellous propensity to mercy and mildness, +and to such a degree that I fancy of the two I should sooner surrender my +anger to compassion than to esteem. And yet pity is reputed a vice +amongst the Stoics, who will that we succour the afflicted, but not that +we should be so affected with their sufferings as to suffer with them. +I conceived these examples not ill suited to the question in hand, and +the rather because therein we observe these great souls assaulted and +tried by these two several ways, to resist the one without relenting, and +to be shook and subjected by the other. It may be true that to suffer a +man's heart to be totally subdued by compassion may be imputed to +facility, effeminacy, and over-tenderness; whence it comes to pass that +the weaker natures, as of women, children, and the common sort of people, +are the most subject to it but after having resisted and disdained the +power of groans and tears, to yield to the sole reverence of the sacred +image of Valour, this can be no other than the effect of a strong and +inflexible soul enamoured of and honouring masculine and obstinate +courage. Nevertheless, astonishment and admiration may, in less generous +minds, beget a like effect: witness the people of Thebes, who, having put +two of their generals upon trial for their lives for having continued in +arms beyond the precise term of their commission, very hardly pardoned +Pelopidas, who, bowing under the weight of so dangerous an accusation, +made no manner of defence for himself, nor produced other arguments than +prayers and supplications; whereas, on the contrary, Epaminondas, falling +to recount magniloquently the exploits he had performed in their service, +and, after a haughty and arrogant manner reproaching them with +ingratitude and injustice, they had not the heart to proceed any further +in his trial, but broke up the court and departed, the whole assembly +highly commending the high courage of this personage.--[Plutarch, How +far a Man may praise Himself, c. 5.] + +Dionysius the elder, after having, by a tedious siege and through +exceeding great difficulties, taken the city of Reggio, and in it the +governor Phyton, a very gallant man, who had made so obstinate a defence, +was resolved to make him a tragical example of his revenge: in order +whereunto he first told him, "That he had the day before caused his son +and all his kindred to be drowned." To which Phyton returned no other +answer but this: "That they were then by one day happier than he." After +which, causing him to be stripped, and delivering him into the hands of +the tormentors, he was by them not only dragged through the streets of +the town, and most ignominiously and cruelly whipped, but moreover +vilified with most bitter and contumelious language: yet still he +maintained his courage entire all the way, with a strong voice and +undaunted countenance proclaiming the honourable and glorious cause of +his death; namely, for that he would not deliver up his country into the +hands of a tyrant; at the same time denouncing against him a speedy +chastisement from the offended gods. At which Dionysius, reading in his +soldiers' looks, that instead of being incensed at the haughty language +of this conquered enemy, to the contempt of their captain and his +triumph, they were not only struck with admiration of so rare a virtue, +but moreover inclined to mutiny, and were even ready to rescue the +prisoner out of the hangman's hands, he caused the torturing to cease, +and afterwards privately caused him to be thrown into the sea.--[Diod. +Sic., xiv. 29.] + +Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject, +and on whom it is very hard to form any certain and uniform judgment. +For Pompey could pardon the whole city of the Mamertines, though +furiously incensed against it, upon the single account of the virtue and +magnanimity of one citizen, Zeno,--[Plutarch calls him Stheno, and also +Sthemnus and Sthenis]--who took the fault of the public wholly upon +himself; neither entreated other favour, but alone to undergo the +punishment for all: and yet Sylla's host, having in the city of Perugia +--[Plutarch says Preneste, a town of Latium.]--manifested the same +virtue, obtained nothing by it, either for himself or his fellow- +citizens. + +And, directly contrary to my first examples, the bravest of all men, and +who was reputed so gracious to all those he overcame, Alexander, having, +after many great difficulties, forced the city of Gaza, and, entering, +found Betis, who commanded there, and of whose valour in the time of this +siege he had most marvellous manifest proof, alone, forsaken by all his +soldiers, his armour hacked and hewed to pieces, covered all over with +blood and wounds, and yet still fighting in the crowd of a number of +Macedonians, who were laying on him on all sides, he said to him, nettled +at so dear-bought a victory (for, in addition to the other damage, he had +two wounds newly received in his own person), "Thou shalt not die, Betis, +as thou dost intend; be sure thou shall suffer all the torments that can +be inflicted on a captive." To which menace the other returning no other +answer, but only a fierce and disdainful look; "What," says Alexander, +observing his haughty and obstinate silence, "is he too stiff to bend a +knee! Is he too proud to utter one suppliant word! Truly, I will +conquer this silence; and if I cannot force a word from his mouth, I +will, at least, extract a groan from his heart." And thereupon +converting his anger into fury, presently commanded his heels to be bored +through, causing him, alive, to be dragged, mangled, and dismembered at a +cart's tail.--[Quintus Curtius, iv. 6. This act of cruelty has been +doubted, notwithstanding the statement of Curtius.]--Was it that the +height of courage was so natural and familiar to this conqueror, that +because he could not admire, he respected it the less? Or was it that he +conceived valour to be a virtue so peculiar to himself, that his pride +could not, without envy, endure it in another? Or was it that the +natural impetuosity of his fury was incapable of opposition? Certainly, +had it been capable of moderation, it is to be believed that in the sack +and desolation of Thebes, to see so many valiant men, lost and totally +destitute of any further defence, cruelly massacred before his eyes, +would have appeased it: where there were above six thousand put to the +sword, of whom not one was seen to fly, or heard to cry out for quarter; +but, on the contrary, every one running here and there to seek out and to +provoke the victorious enemy to help them to an honourable end. Not one +was seen who, however weakened with wounds, did not in his last gasp yet +endeavour to revenge himself, and with all the arms of a brave despair, +to sweeten his own death in the death of an enemy. Yet did their valour +create no pity, and the length of one day was not enough to satiate the +thirst of the conqueror's revenge, but the slaughter continued to the +last drop of blood that was capable of being shed, and stopped not till +it met with none but unarmed persons, old men, women, and children, of +them to carry away to the number of thirty thousand slaves. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF SORROW + +No man living is more free from this passion than I, who yet neither like +it in myself nor admire it in others, and yet generally the world, as a +settled thing, is pleased to grace it with a particular esteem, clothing +therewith wisdom, virtue, and conscience. Foolish and sordid guise! +--["No man is more free from this passion than I, for I neither love nor +regard it: albeit the world hath undertaken, as it were upon covenant, to +grace it with a particular favour. Therewith they adorne age, vertue, +and conscience. Oh foolish and base ornament!" Florio, 1613, p. 3]-- +The Italians have more fitly baptized by this name--[La tristezza]-- +malignity; for 'tis a quality always hurtful, always idle and vain; and +as being cowardly, mean, and base, it is by the Stoics expressly and +particularly forbidden to their sages. + +But the story--[Herodotus, iii. 14.]--says that Psammenitus, King of +Egypt, being defeated and taken prisoner by Cambyses, King of Persia, +seeing his own daughter pass by him as prisoner, and in a wretched habit, +with a bucket to draw water, though his friends about him were so +concerned as to break out into tears and lamentations, yet he himself +remained unmoved, without uttering a word, his eyes fixed upon the +ground; and seeing, moreover, his son immediately after led to execution, +still maintained the same countenance; till spying at last one of his +domestic and familiar friends dragged away amongst the captives, he fell +to tearing his hair and beating his breast, with all the other +extravagances of extreme sorrow. + +A story that may very fitly be coupled with another of the same kind, of +recent date, of a prince of our own nation, who being at Trent, and +having news there brought him of the death of his elder brother, a +brother on whom depended the whole support and honour of his house, and +soon after of that of a younger brother, the second hope of his family, +and having withstood these two assaults with an exemplary resolution; one +of his servants happening a few days after to die, he suffered his +constancy to be overcome by this last accident; and, parting with his +courage, so abandoned himself to sorrow and mourning, that some thence +were forward to conclude that he was only touched to the quick by this +last stroke of fortune; but, in truth, it was, that being before brimful +of grief, the least addition overflowed the bounds of all patience. +Which, I think, might also be said of the former example, did not the +story proceed to tell us that Cambyses asking Psammenitus, "Why, not +being moved at the calamity of his son and daughter, he should with so +great impatience bear the misfortune of his friend?" "It is," answered +he, "because only this last affliction was to be manifested by tears, the +two first far exceeding all manner of expression." + +And, peradventure, something like this might be working in the fancy of +the ancient painter,--[Cicero, De Orator., c. 22 ; Pliny, xxxv. 10.]-- +who having, in the sacrifice of Iphigenia, to represent the sorrow of the +assistants proportionably to the several degrees of interest every one +had in the death of this fair innocent virgin, and having, in the other +figures, laid out the utmost power of his art, when he came to that of +her father, he drew him with a veil over his face, meaning thereby that +no kind of countenance was capable of expressing such a degree of sorrow. +Which is also the reason why the poets feign the miserable mother, Niobe, +having first lost seven sons, and then afterwards as many daughters +(overwhelmed with her losses), to have been at last transformed into a +rock-- + + "Diriguisse malis," + + ["Petrified with her misfortunes."--Ovid, Met., vi. 304.] + +thereby to express that melancholic, dumb, and deaf stupefaction, which +benumbs all our faculties, when oppressed with accidents greater than we +are able to bear. And, indeed, the violence and impression of an +excessive grief must of necessity astonish the soul, and wholly deprive +her of her ordinary functions: as it happens to every one of us, who, +upon any sudden alarm of very ill news, find ourselves surprised, +stupefied, and in a manner deprived of all power of motion, so that the +soul, beginning to vent itself in tears and lamentations, seems to free +and disengage itself from the sudden oppression, and to have obtained +some room to work itself out at greater liberty. + + "Et via vix tandem voci laxata dolore est." + + ["And at length and with difficulty is a passage opened by grief for + utterance."--AEneid, xi. 151.] + +In the war that Ferdinand made upon the widow of King John of Hungary, +about Buda, a man-at-arms was particularly taken notice of by every one +for his singular gallant behaviour in a certain encounter; and, unknown, +highly commended, and lamented, being left dead upon the place: but by +none so much as by Raisciac, a German lord, who was infinitely enamoured +of so rare a valour. The body being brought off, and the count, with the +common curiosity coming to view it, the armour was no sooner taken off +but he immediately knew him to be his own son, a thing that added a +second blow to the compassion of all the beholders; only he, without +uttering a word, or turning away his eyes from the woeful object, stood +fixedly contemplating the body of his son, till the vehemency of sorrow +having overcome his vital spirits, made him sink down stone-dead to the +ground. + + "Chi puo dir com' egli arde, a in picciol fuoco," + + ["He who can say how he burns with love, has little fire" + --Petrarca, Sonetto 137.] + +say the Innamoratos, when they would represent an 'insupportable passion. + + "Misero quod omneis + Eripit sensus mihi: nam simul te, + Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi, + Quod loquar amens. + Lingua sed torpet: tenuis sub artus + Flamma dimanat; sonitu suopte + Tintinant aures; gemina teguntur + Lumina nocte." + + ["Love deprives me of all my faculties: Lesbia, when once in thy + presence, I have not left the power to tell my distracting passion: + my tongue becomes torpid; a subtle flame creeps through my veins; my + ears tingle in deafness; my eyes are veiled with darkness." + Catullus, Epig. li. 5] + +Neither is it in the height and greatest fury of the fit that we are in a +condition to pour out our complaints or our amorous persuasions, the soul +being at that time over-burdened, and labouring with profound thoughts; +and the body dejected and languishing with desire; and thence it is that +sometimes proceed those accidental impotencies that so unseasonably +surprise the lover, and that frigidity which by the force of an +immoderate ardour seizes him even in the very lap of fruition. +--[The edition of 1588 has here, "An accident not unknown to myself."]-- +For all passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are +but moderate: + + "Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent." + + ["Light griefs can speak: deep sorrows are dumb." + --Seneca, Hippolytus, act ii. scene 3.] + +A surprise of unexpected joy does likewise often produce the same effect: + + "Ut me conspexit venientem, et Troja circum + Arma amens vidit, magnis exterrita monstris, + Diriguit visu in medio, calor ossa reliquit, + Labitur, et longo vix tandem tempore fatur." + + ["When she beheld me advancing, and saw, with stupefaction, the + Trojan arms around me, terrified with so great a prodigy, she + fainted away at the very sight: vital warmth forsook her limbs: she + sinks down, and, after a long interval, with difficulty speaks."- + AEneid, iii. 306.] + +Besides the examples of the Roman lady, who died for joy to see her son +safe returned from the defeat of Cannae; and of Sophocles and of +Dionysius the Tyrant,--[Pliny, vii. 53. Diodorus Siculus, however (xv. +c. 20), tells us that Dionysius "was so overjoyed at the news that he +made a great sacrifice upon it to the gods, prepared sumptuous feasts, to +which he invited all his friends, and therein drank so excessively that +it threw him into a very bad distemper."]--who died of joy; and of +Thalna, who died in Corsica, reading news of the honours the Roman Senate +had decreed in his favour, we have, moreover, one in our time, of Pope +Leo X., who upon news of the taking of Milan, a thing he had so ardently +desired, was rapt with so sudden an excess of joy that he immediately +fell into a fever and died.--[Guicciardini, Storia d'Italia, vol. +xiv.]--And for a more notable testimony of the imbecility of human +nature, it is recorded by the ancients--[Pliny, 'ut supra']--that +Diodorus the dialectician died upon the spot, out of an extreme passion +of shame, for not having been able in his own school, and in the presence +of a great auditory, to disengage himself from a nice argument that was +propounded to him. I, for my part, am very little subject to these +violent passions; I am naturally of a stubborn apprehension, which also, +by reasoning, I every day harden and fortify. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THAT OUR AFFECTIONS CARRY THEMSELVES BEYOND US + +Such as accuse mankind of the folly of gaping after future things, and +advise us to make our benefit of those which are present, and to set up +our rest upon them, as having no grasp upon that which is to come, even +less than that which we have upon what is past, have hit upon the most +universal of human errors, if that may be called an error to which nature +herself has disposed us, in order to the continuation of her own work, +prepossessing us, amongst several others, with this deceiving +imagination, as being more jealous of our action than afraid of our +knowledge. + +We are never present with, but always beyond ourselves: fear, desire, +hope, still push us on towards the future, depriving us, in the meantime, +of the sense and consideration of that which is to amuse us with the +thought of what shall be, even when we shall be no more.--[Rousseau, +Emile, livre ii.] + + "Calamitosus est animus futuri auxius." + + ["The mind anxious about the future is unhappy." + --Seneca, Epist., 98.] + +We find this great precept often repeated in Plato, "Do thine own work, +and know thyself." Of which two parts, both the one and the other +generally, comprehend our whole duty, and do each of them in like manner +involve the other; for who will do his own work aright will find that his +first lesson is to know what he is, and that which is proper to himself; +and who rightly understands himself will never mistake another man's work +for his own, but will love and improve himself above all other things, +will refuse superfluous employments, and reject all unprofitable thoughts +and propositions. As folly, on the one side, though it should enjoy all +it desire, would notwithstanding never be content, so, on the other, +wisdom, acquiescing in the present, is never dissatisfied with itself. +--[Cicero, Tusc. Quae., 57, v. 18.]--Epicurus dispenses his sages from +all foresight and care of the future. + +Amongst those laws that relate to the dead, I look upon that to be very +sound by which the actions of princes are to be examined after their +decease.--[Diodorus Siculus, i. 6.]-- They are equals with, if not +masters of the laws, and, therefore, what justice could not inflict upon +their persons, 'tis but reason should be executed upon their reputations +and the estates of their successors--things that we often value above +life itself. 'Tis a custom of singular advantage to those countries +where it is in use, and by all good princes to be desired, who have +reason to take it ill, that the memories of the wicked should be used +with the same reverence and respect with their own. We owe subjection +and obedience to all our kings, whether good or bad, alike, for that has +respect unto their office; but as to esteem and affection, these are only +due to their virtue. Let us grant to political government to endure them +with patience, however unworthy; to conceal their vices; and to assist +them with our recommendation in their indifferent actions, whilst their +authority stands in need of our support. But, the relation of prince and +subject being once at an end, there is no reason we should deny the +expression of our real opinions to our own liberty and common justice, +and especially to interdict to good subjects the glory of having +reverently and faithfully served a prince, whose imperfections were to +them so well known; this were to deprive posterity of a useful example. +And such as, out of respect to some private obligation, unjustly espouse +and vindicate the memory of a faulty prince, do private right at the +expense of public justice. Livy does very truly say,--[xxxv. 48.]-- +"That the language of men bred up in courts is always full of vain +ostentation and false testimony, every one indifferently magnifying his +own master, and stretching his commendation to the utmost extent of +virtue and sovereign grandeur." Some may condemn the freedom of those +two soldiers who so roundly answered Nero to his beard; the one being +asked by him why he bore him ill-will? "I loved thee," answered he, +"whilst thou wert worthy of it, but since thou art become a parricide, an +incendiary, a player, and a coachman, I hate thee as thou dost deserve." +And the other, why he should attempt to kill him? "Because," said he, +"I could think of no other remedy against thy perpetual mischiefs." +--[Tacitus, Annal., xv. 67.]--But the public and universal testimonies +that were given of him after his death (and so will be to all posterity, +both of him and all other wicked princes like him), of his tyrannies and +abominable deportment, who, of a sound judgment, can reprove them? + +I am scandalised, that in so sacred a government as that of the +Lacedaemonians there should be mixed so hypocritical a ceremony at the +interment of their kings; where all their confederates and neighbours, +and all sorts and degrees of men and women, as well as their slaves, cut +and slashed their foreheads in token of sorrow, repeating in their cries +and lamentations that that king (let him have been as wicked as the +devil) was the best that ever they had;--[Herodotus, vi. 68.]--by this +means attributing to his quality the praise that only belongs to merit, +and that of right is due to supreme desert, though lodged in the lowest +and most inferior subject. + +Aristotle, who will still have a hand in everything, makes a 'quaere' +upon the saying of Solon, that none can be said to be happy until he is +dead: "whether, then, he who has lived and died according to his heart's +desire, if he have left an ill repute behind him, and that his posterity +be miserable, can be said to be happy?" Whilst we have life and motion, +we convey ourselves by fancy and preoccupation, whither and to what we +please; but once out of being, we have no more any manner of +communication with that which is, and it had therefore been better said +by Solon that man is never happy, because never so, till he is no more. + + "Quisquam + Vix radicitus e vita se tollit, et eicit; + Sed facit esse sui quiddam super inscius ipse, + Nec removet satis a projecto corpore sese, et + Vindicat." + + ["Scarcely one man can, even in dying, wholly detach himself from + the idea of life; in his ignorance he must needs imagine that there + is in him something that survives him, and cannot sufficiently + separate or emancipate himself from his remains" + --Lucretius, iii. 890.] + +Bertrand de Guesclin, dying at the siege of the Castle of Rancon, near +unto Puy, in Auvergne, the besieged were afterwards, upon surrender, +enjoined to lay down the keys of the place upon the corpse of the dead +general. Bartolommeo d'Alviano, the Venetian General, happening to die +in the service of the Republic in Brescia, and his corpse being to be +carried through the territory of Verona, an enemy's country, most of the +army were inclined to demand safe-conduct from the Veronese; but Theodoro +Trivulzio opposed the motion, rather choosing to make his way by force of +arms, and to run the hazard of a battle, saying it was by no means fit +that he who in his life was never afraid of his enemies should seem to +apprehend them when he was dead. In truth, in affairs of the same +nature, by the Greek laws, he who made suit to an enemy for a body to +give it burial renounced his victory, and had no more right to erect a +trophy, and he to whom such suit was made was reputed victor. By this +means it was that Nicias lost the advantage he had visibly obtained over +the Corinthians, and that Agesilaus, on the contrary, assured that which +he had before very doubtfully gained over the Boeotians.--[Plutarch, +Life of Nicias, c. ii.; Life of Agesilaus, c. vi.] + +These things might appear strange, had it not been a general practice in +all ages not only to extend the concern of ourselves beyond this life, +but, moreover, to fancy that the favour of Heaven does not only very +often accompany us to the grave, but has also, even after life, a concern +for our ashes. Of which there are so many ancient examples (to say +nothing of those of our own observation), that it is not necessary I +should longer insist upon it. Edward I., King of England, having in the +long wars betwixt him and Robert, King of Scotland, had experience of how +great importance his own immediate presence was to the success of his +affairs, having ever been victorious in whatever he undertook in his own +person, when he came to die, bound his son in a solemn oath that, so soon +as he should be dead he should boil his body till the flesh parted from +the bones, and bury the flesh, reserving the bones to carry continually +with him in his army, so often as he should be obliged to go against the +Scots, as if destiny had inevitably attached victory, even to his +remains. John Zisca, the same who, to vindication of Wicliffe's +heresies, troubled the Bohemian state, left order that they should flay +him after his death, and of his skin make a drum to carry in the war +against his enemies, fancying it would contribute to the continuation of +the successes he had always obtained in the wars against them. In like +manner certain of the Indians, in their battles with the Spaniards, +carried with them the bones of one of their captains, in consideration of +the victories they had formerly obtained under his conduct. And other +people of the same New World carry about with them, in their wars, the +relics of valiant men who have died in battle, to incite their courage +and advance their fortune. Of which examples the first reserve nothing +for the tomb but the reputation they have acquired by their former +achievements, but these attribute to them a certain present and active +power. + +The proceeding of Captain Bayard is of a better composition, who finding +himself wounded to death with an harquebuss shot, and being importuned to +retire out of the fight, made answer that he would not begin at the last +gasp to turn his back to the enemy, and accordingly still fought on, till +feeling himself too faint and no longer able to sit on his horse, he +commanded his steward to set him down at the foot of a tree, but so that +he might die with his face towards the enemy, which he did. + +I must yet add another example, equally remarkable for the present +consideration with any of the former. The Emperor Maximilian, great- +grandfather to the now King Philip,--[Philip II. of Spain.]--was a +prince endowed throughout with great and extraordinary qualities, and +amongst the rest with a singular beauty of person, but had withal a +humour very contrary to that of other princes, who for the despatch of +their most important affairs convert their close-stool into a chair of +State, which was, that he would never permit any of his bedchamber, how +familiar soever, to see him in that posture, and would steal aside to +make water as religiously as a virgin, shy to discover to his physician +or any other whomsoever those parts that we are accustomed to conceal. +I myself, who have so impudent a way of talking, am, nevertheless, +naturally so modest this way, that unless at the importunity of necessity +or pleasure, I scarcely ever communicate to the sight of any either those +parts or actions that custom orders us to conceal, wherein I suffer more +constraint than I conceive is very well becoming a man, especially of my +profession. But he nourished this modest humour to such a degree of +superstition as to give express orders in his last will that they should +put him on drawers so soon as he should be dead; to which, methinks, he +would have done well to have added that he should be blindfolded, too, +that put them on. The charge that Cyrus left with his children, that +neither they, nor any other, should either see or touch his body after +the soul was departed from it,--[Xenophon, Cyropedia, viii. 7.]--I +attribute to some superstitious devotion of his; for both his historian +and himself, amongst their great qualities, marked the whole course of +their lives with a singular respect and reverence to religion. + +I was by no means pleased with a story, told me by a man of very great +quality of a relation of mine, and one who had given a very good account +of himself both in peace and war, that, coming to die in a very old age, +of excessive pain of the stone, he spent the last hours of his life in an +extraordinary solicitude about ordering the honour and ceremony of his +funeral, pressing all the men of condition who came to see him to engage +their word to attend him to his grave: importuning this very prince, who +came to visit him at his last gasp, with a most earnest supplication that +he would order his family to be there, and presenting before him several +reasons and examples to prove that it was a respect due to a man of his +condition; and seemed to die content, having obtained this promise, and +appointed the method and order of his funeral parade. I have seldom +heard of so persistent a vanity. + +Another, though contrary curiosity (of which singularity, also, I do not +want domestic example), seems to be somewhat akin to this, that a man +shall cudgel his brains at the last moments of his life to contrive his +obsequies to so particular and unusual a parsimony as of one servant with +a lantern, I see this humour commended, and the appointment of Marcus. +Emilius Lepidus, who forbade his heirs to bestow upon his hearse even the +common ceremonies in use upon such occasions. Is it yet temperance and +frugality to avoid expense and pleasure of which the use and knowledge +are imperceptible to us? See, here, an easy and cheap reformation. If +instruction were at all necessary in this case, I should be of opinion +that in this, as in all other actions of life, each person should +regulate the matter according to his fortune; and the philosopher Lycon +prudently ordered his friends to dispose of his body where they should +think most fit, and as to his funeral, to order it neither too +superfluous nor too mean. For my part, I should wholly refer the +ordering of this ceremony to custom, and shall, when the time comes, +accordingly leave it to their discretion to whose lot it shall fall to do +me that last office. "Totus hic locus est contemnendus in nobis, non +negligendus in nostris;"--["The place of our sepulture is to be contemned +by us, but not to be neglected by our friends."--Cicero, Tusc. i. 45.]-- +and it was a holy saying of a saint, "Curatio funeris, conditio +sepultura: pompa exequiarum, magis sunt vivorum solatia, quam subsidia +mortuorum."--["The care of death, the place of sepulture, the pomps of +obsequies, are rather consolations to the living than succours to the +dead." August. De Civit. Dei, i. 12.]--Which made Socrates answer +Crito, who, at death, asked him how he would be buried: "How you will," +said he. "If I were to concern myself beyond the present about this +affair, I should be most tempted, as the greatest satisfaction of this +kind, to imitate those who in their lifetime entertain themselves with +the ceremony and honours of their own obsequies beforehand, and are +pleased with beholding their own dead countenance in marble. Happy are +they who can gratify their senses by insensibility, and live by their +death!" + +I am ready to conceive an implacable hatred against all popular +domination, though I think it the most natural and equitable of all, so +oft as I call to mind the inhuman injustice of the people of Athens, who, +without remission, or once vouchsafing to hear what they had to say for +themselves, put to death their brave captains newly returned triumphant +from a naval victory they had obtained over the Lacedaemonians near the +Arginusian Isles, the most bloody and obstinate engagement that ever the +Greeks fought at sea; because (after the victory) they followed up the +blow and pursued the advantages presented to them by the rule of war, +rather than stay to gather up and bury their dead. And the execution is +yet rendered more odious by the behaviour of Diomedon, who, being one of +the condemned, and a man of most eminent virtue, political and military, +after having heard the sentence, advancing to speak, no audience till +then having been allowed, instead of laying before them his own cause, +or the impiety of so cruel a sentence, only expressed a solicitude for +his judges' preservation, beseeching the gods to convert this sentence to +their good, and praying that, for neglecting to fulfil the vows which he +and his companions had made (with which he also acquainted them) in +acknowledgment of so glorious a success, they might not draw down the +indignation of the gods upon them; and so without more words went +courageously to his death. + +Fortune, a few years after, punished them in the same kind; for Chabrias, +captain-general of their naval forces, having got the better of Pollis, +Admiral of Sparta, at the Isle of Naxos, totally lost the fruits of his +victory, one of very great importance to their affairs, in order not to +incur the danger of this example, and so that he should not lose a few +bodies of his dead friends that were floating in the sea, gave +opportunity to a world of living enemies to sail away in safety, who +afterwards made them pay dear for this unseasonable superstition:-- + + "Quaeris, quo jaceas, post obitum, loco? + Quo non nata jacent." + + ["Dost ask where thou shalt lie after death? + Where things not born lie, that never being had."] + Seneca, Tyoa. Choro ii. 30. + + +This other restores the sense of repose to a body without a soul: + + "Neque sepulcrum, quo recipiatur, habeat: portum corporis, ubi, + remissa human, vita, corpus requiescat a malis." + + ["Nor let him have a sepulchre wherein he may be received, a haven + for his body, where, life being gone, that body may rest from its + woes."--Ennius, ap. Cicero, Tusc. i. 44.] + +As nature demonstrates to us that several dead things retain yet an +occult relation to life; wine changes its flavour and complexion in +cellars, according to the changes and seasons of the vine from whence it +came; and the flesh of--venison alters its condition in the powdering- +tub, and its taste according to the laws of the living flesh of its kind, +as it is said. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THAT THE SOUL EXPENDS ITS PASSIONS UPON FALSE OBJECTS, WHERE THE TRUE ARE +WANTING + +A gentleman of my country, marvellously tormented with the gout, being +importuned by his physicians totally to abstain from all manner of salt +meats, was wont pleasantly to reply, that in the extremity of his fits he +must needs have something to quarrel with, and that railing at and +cursing, one while the Bologna sausages, and another the dried tongues +and the hams, was some mitigation to his pain. But, in good earnest, as +the arm when it is advanced to strike, if it miss the blow, and goes by +the wind, it pains us; and as also, that, to make a pleasant prospect, +the sight should not be lost and dilated in vague air, but have some +bound and object to limit and circumscribe it at a reasonable distance, + + "Ventus ut amittit vires, nisi robore densa + Occurrant sylvae, spatio diffusus inani." + + ["As the wind loses its force diffused in void space, unless it in + its strength encounters the thick wood."--Lucan, iii. 362.] + +So it seems that the soul, being transported and discomposed, turns its +violence upon itself, if not supplied with something to oppose it, and +therefore always requires an object at which to aim, and whereon to act. +Plutarch says of those who are delighted with little dogs and monkeys, +that the amorous part that is in us, for want of a legitimate object, +rather than lie idle, does after that manner forge and create one false +and frivolous. And we see that the soul, in its passions, inclines +rather to deceive itself, by creating a false and fantastical a subject, +even contrary to its own belief, than not to have something to work upon. +After this manner brute beasts direct their fury to fall upon the stone +or weapon that has hurt them, and with their teeth a even execute revenge +upon themselves for the injury they have received from another: + + "Pannonis haud aliter, post ictum saevior ursa, + Cui jaculum parva Lybis amentavit habena, + Se rotat in vulnus, telumque irata receptum + Impetit, et secum fugientem circuit hastam." + + ["So the she-bear, fiercer after the blow from the Lybian's thong- + hurled dart, turns round upon the wound, and attacking the received + spear, twists it, as she flies."--Lucan, vi. 220.] + +What causes of the misadventures that befall us do we not invent? what +is it that we do not lay the fault to, right or wrong, that we may have +something to quarrel with? It is not those beautiful tresses you tear, +nor is it the white bosom that in your anger you so unmercifully beat, +that with an unlucky bullet have slain your beloved brother; quarrel with +something else. Livy, speaking of the Roman army in Spain, says that for +the loss of the two brothers, their great captains: + + "Flere omnes repente, et offensare capita." + + ["All at once wept and tore their hair."-Livy, xxv. 37.] + +'Tis a common practice. And the philosopher Bion said pleasantly of the +king, who by handsful pulled his hair off his head for sorrow, "Does this +man think that baldness is a remedy for grief?"--[Cicero, Tusc. Quest., +iii. 26.]--Who has not seen peevish gamesters chew and swallow the +cards, and swallow the dice, in revenge for the loss of their money? +Xerxes whipped the sea, and wrote a challenge to Mount Athos; Cyrus +employed a whole army several days at work, to revenge himself of the +river Gyndas, for the fright it had put him into in passing over it; and +Caligula demolished a very beautiful palace for the pleasure his mother +had once enjoyed there. + + --[Pleasure--unless 'plaisir' were originally 'deplaisir'--must be + understood here ironically, for the house was one in which she had + been imprisoned.--Seneca, De Ira. iii. 22]-- + +I remember there was a story current, when I was a boy, that one of our +neighbouring kings--[Probably Alfonso XI. of Castile]--having received +a blow from the hand of God, swore he would be revenged, and in order to +it, made proclamation that for ten years to come no one should pray to +Him, or so much as mention Him throughout his dominions, or, so far as +his authority went, believe in Him; by which they meant to paint not so +much the folly as the vainglory of the nation of which this tale was +told. They are vices that always go together, but in truth such actions +as these have in them still more of presumption than want of wit. +Augustus Caesar, having been tossed with a tempest at sea, fell to +defying Neptune, and in the pomp of the Circensian games, to be revenged, +deposed his statue from the place it had amongst the other deities. +Wherein he was still less excusable than the former, and less than he was +afterwards when, having lost a battle under Quintilius Varus in Germany, +in rage and despair he went running his head against the wall, crying +out, "O Varus! give me back my legions!" for these exceed all folly, +forasmuch as impiety is joined therewith, invading God Himself, or at +least Fortune, as if she had ears that were subject to our batteries; +like the Thracians, who when it thunders or lightens, fall to shooting +against heaven with Titanian vengeance, as if by flights of arrows they +intended to bring God to reason. Though the ancient poet in Plutarch +tells us-- + + "Point ne se faut couroucer aux affaires, + Il ne leur chault de toutes nos choleres." + + ["We must not trouble the gods with our affairs; they take no heed + of our angers and disputes."--Plutarch.] + +But we can never enough decry the disorderly sallies of our minds. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WHETHER THE GOVERNOR OF A PLACE BESIEGED OUGHT HIMSELF +TO GO OUT TO PARLEY + +Quintus Marcius, the Roman legate in the war against Perseus, King of +Macedon, to gain time wherein to reinforce his army, set on foot some +overtures of accommodation, with which the king being lulled asleep, +concluded a truce for some days, by this means giving his enemy +opportunity and leisure to recruit his forces, which was afterwards the +occasion of the king's final ruin. Yet the elder senators, mindful of +their forefathers' manners, condemned this proceeding as degenerating +from their ancient practice, which, they said, was to fight by valour, +and not by artifice, surprises, and night-encounters; neither by +pretended flight nor unexpected rallies to overcome their enemies; never +making war till having first proclaimed it, and very often assigned both +the hour and place of battle. Out of this generous principle it was that +they delivered up to Pyrrhus his treacherous physician, and to the +Etrurians their disloyal schoolmaster. This was, indeed, a procedure +truly Roman, and nothing allied to the Grecian subtlety, nor to the Punic +cunning, where it was reputed a victory of less glory to overcome by +force than by fraud. Deceit may serve for a need, but he only confesses +himself overcome who knows he is neither subdued by policy nor +misadventure, but by dint of valour, man to man, in a fair and just war. +It very well appears, by the discourse of these good old senators, that +this fine sentence was not yet received amongst them. + + "Dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?" + + ["What matters whether by valour or by strategem we overcome the + enemy?"--Aeneid, ii. 390] + +The Achaians, says Polybius, abhorred all manner of double-dealing in +war, not reputing it a victory unless where the courage of the enemy was +fairly subdued: + +"Eam vir sanctus et sapiens sciet veram esse victoriam, quae, salva fide +et integra dignitate, parabitur."--["An honest and prudent man will +acknowledge that only to be a true victory which shall be obtained saving +his own good faith and dignity."--Florus, i. 12.]--Says another: + + "Vosne velit, an me, regnare hera, quidve ferat, + fors virtute experiamur." + + ["Whether you or I shall rule, or what shall happen, let us + determine by valour."--Cicero, De Offic., i. 12] + +In the kingdom of Ternate, amongst those nations which we so broadly call +barbarians, they have a custom never to commence war, till it be first +proclaimed; adding withal an ample declaration of what means they have to +do it with, with what and how many men, what ammunitions, and what, both +offensive and defensive, arms; but also, that being done, if their +enemies do not yield and come to an agreement, they conceive it lawful to +employ without reproach in their wars any means which may help them to +conquer. + +The ancient Florentines were so far from seeking to obtain any advantage +over their enemies by surprise, that they always gave them a month's +warning before they drew their army into the field, by the continual +tolling of a bell they called Martinella.--[After St. Martin.] + +For what concerns ourselves, who are not so scrupulous in this affair, +and who attribute the honour of the war to him who has the profit of it, +and who after Lysander say, "Where the lion's skin is too short, we must +eke it out with a bit from that of a fox"; the most usual occasions of +surprise are derived from this practice, and we hold that there are no +moments wherein a chief ought to be more circumspect, and to have his eye +so much at watch, as those of parleys and treaties of accommodation; and +it is, therefore, become a general rule amongst the martial men of these +latter times, that a governor of a place never ought, in a time of siege, +to go out to parley. It was for this that in our fathers' days the +Seigneurs de Montmord and de l'Assigni, defending Mousson against the +Count of Nassau, were so highly censured. But yet, as to this, it would +be excusable in that governor who, going out, should, notwithstanding, +do it in such manner that the safety and advantage should be on his side; +as Count Guido di Rangone did at Reggio (if we are to believe Du Bellay, +for Guicciardini says it was he himself) when the Seigneur de l'Escut +approached to parley, who stepped so little away from his fort, that a +disorder happening in the interim of parley, not only Monsieur de l'Escut +and his party who were advanced with him, found themselves by much the +weaker, insomuch that Alessandro Trivulcio was there slain, but he +himself follow the Count, and, relying upon his honour, to secure himself +from the danger of the shot within the walls of the town. + +Eumenes, being shut up in the city of Nora by Antigonus, and by him +importuned to come out to speak with him, as he sent him word it was fit +he should to a greater man than himself, and one who had now an advantage +over him, returned this noble answer. "Tell him," said he, "that I shall +never think any man greater than myself whilst I have my sword in my +hand," and would not consent to come out to him till first, according to +his own demand, Antigonus had delivered him his own nephew Ptolomeus in +hostage. + +And yet some have done very well in going out in person to parley, on the +word of the assailant: witness Henry de Vaux, a cavalier of Champagne, +who being besieged by the English in the Castle of Commercy, and +Bartholomew de Brunes, who commanded at the Leaguer, having so sapped the +greatest part of the castle without, that nothing remained but setting +fire to the props to bury the besieged under the ruins, he requested the +said Henry to come out to speak with him for his own good, which he did +with three more in company; and, his ruin being made apparent to him, he +conceived himself singularly obliged to his enemy, to whose discretion he +and his garrison surrendered themselves; and fire being presently applied +to the mine, the props no sooner began to fail, but the castle was +immediately blown up from its foundations, no one stone being left upon +another. + +I could, and do, with great facility, rely upon the faith of another; but +I should very unwillingly do it in such a case, as it should thereby be +judged that it was rather an effect of my despair and want of courage +than voluntarily and out of confidence and security in the faith of him +with whom I had to do. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THAT THE HOUR OF PARLEY DANGEROUS + +I saw, notwithstanding, lately at Mussidan, a place not far from my +house, that those who were driven out thence by our army, and others of +their party, highly complained of treachery, for that during a treaty of +accommodation, and in the very interim that their deputies were treating, +they were surprised and cut to pieces: a thing that, peradventure, in +another age, might have had some colour of foul play; but, as I have just +said, the practice of arms in these days is quite another thing, and +there is now no confidence in an enemy excusable till the treaty is +finally sealed; and even then the conqueror has enough to do to keep his +word: so hazardous a thing it is to entrust the observation of the faith +a man has engaged to a town that surrenders upon easy and favourable +conditions, to the licence of a victorious army, and to give the soldier +free entrance into it in the heat of blood. + +Lucius AEmilius Regillus, the Roman praetor, having lost his time in +attempting to take the city of Phocaea by force, by reason of the +singular valour wherewith the inhabitants defended themselves, +conditioned, at last, to receive them as friends to the people of Rome, +and to enter the town, as into a confederate city, without any manner of +hostility, of which he gave them all assurance; but having, for the +greater pomp, brought his whole army in with him, it was no more in his +power, with all the endeavour he could use, to restrain his people: so +that, avarice and revenge trampling under foot both his authority and all +military discipline, he there saw a considerable part of the city sacked +and ruined before his face. + +Cleomenes was wont to say, "that what mischief soever a man could do his +enemy in time of war was above justice, and nothing accountable to it in +the sight of gods and men." And so, having concluded a truce with those +of Argos for seven days, the third night after he fell upon them when +they were all buried in sleep, and put them to the sword, alleging that +there had no nights been mentioned in the truce; but the gods punished +this subtle perfidy. + +In a time of parley also; and while the citizens were relying upon their +safety warrant, the city of Casilinum was taken by surprise, and that +even in the age of the justest captains and the most perfect Roman +military discipline; for it is not said that it is not lawful for us, in +time and place, to make advantage of our enemies' want of understanding, +as well as their want of courage. + +And, doubtless, war has naturally many privileges that appear reasonable +even to the prejudice of reason. And therefore here the rule fails, +"Neminem id agere ut ex alte rius praedetur inscitia."--["No one should +preys upon another's folly."--Cicero, De 0ffic., iii. 17.]--But I am +astonished at the great liberty allowed by Xenophon in such cases, and +that both by precept and by the example of several exploits of his +complete emperor; an author of very great authority, I confess, in those +affairs, as being in his own person both a great captain and a +philosopher of the first form of Socrates' disciples; and yet I cannot +consent to such a measure of licence as he dispenses in all things and +places. + +Monsieur d'Aubigny, besieging Capua, and after having directed a furious +battery against it, Signor Fabricio Colonna, governor of the town, having +from a bastion begun to parley, and his soldiers in the meantime being a +little more remiss in their guard, our people entered the place at +unawares, and put them all to the sword. And of later memory, at Yvoy, +Signor Juliano Romero having played that part of a novice to go out to +parley with the Constable, at his return found his place taken. But, +that we might not scape scot-free, the Marquess of Pescara having laid +siege to Genoa, where Duke Ottaviano Fregosa commanded under our +protection, and the articles betwixt them being so far advanced that it +was looked upon as a done thing, and upon the point to be concluded, the +Spaniards in the meantime having slipped in, made use of this treachery +as an absolute victory. And since, at Ligny, in Barrois, where the Count +de Brienne commanded, the emperor having in his own person beleaguered +that place, and Bertheville, the said Count's lieutenant, going out to +parley, whilst he was capitulating the town was taken. + + "Fu il vincer sempremai laudabil cosa, + Vincasi o per fortuna, o per ingegno," + + ["Victory is ever worthy of praise, whether obtained by valour or + wisdom."--Ariosto, xv. I.] + +But the philosopher Chrysippus was of another opinion, wherein I also +concur; for he was used to say that those who run a race ought to employ +all the force they have in what they are about, and to run as fast as +they can; but that it is by no means fair in them to lay any hand upon +their adversary to stop him, nor to set a leg before him to throw him +down. And yet more generous was the answer of that great Alexander to +Polypercon who was persuading him to take the advantage of the night's +obscurity to fall upon Darius. "By no means," said be; "it is not for +such a man as I am to steal a victory, 'Malo me fortunae poeniteat, quam +victoria pudeat.'"--["I had rather complain of ill-fortune than be +ashamed of victory." Quint. Curt, iv. 13]-- + + "Atque idem fugientem baud est dignatus Oroden + Sternere, nec jacta caecum dare cuspide vulnus + Obvius, adversoque occurrit, seque viro vir + Contulit, haud furto melior, sed fortibus armis." + + ["He deigned not to throw down Orodes as he fled, or with the darted + spear to give him a wound unseen; but overtaking him, he confronted + him face to face, and encountered man to man: superior, not in + stratagem, but in valiant arms."--AEneid, x. 732.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THAT THE INTENTION IS JUDGE OF OUR ACTIONS + +'Tis a saying, "That death discharges us of all our obligations." I know +some who have taken it in another sense. Henry VII., King of England, +articled with Don Philip, son to Maximilian the emperor, or (to place him +more honourably) father to the Emperor Charles V., that the said Philip +should deliver up the Duke of Suffolk of the White Rose, his enemy, who +was fled into the Low Countries, into his hands; which Philip accordingly +did, but upon condition, nevertheless, that Henry should attempt nothing +against the life of the said Duke; but coming to die, the king in his +last will commanded his son to put him to death immediately after his +decease. And lately, in the tragedy that the Duke of Alva presented to +us in the persons of the Counts Horn and Egmont at Brussels, +--[Decapitated 4th June 1568]--there were very remarkable passages, and +one amongst the rest, that Count Egmont (upon the security of whose word +and faith Count Horn had come and surrendered himself to the Duke of +Alva) earnestly entreated that he might first mount the scaffold, to the +end that death might disengage him from the obligation he had passed to +the other. In which case, methinks, death did not acquit the former of +his promise, and that the second was discharged from it without dying. +We cannot be bound beyond what we are able to perform, by reason that +effect and performance are not at all in our power, and that, indeed, we +are masters of nothing but the will, in which, by necessity, all the +rules and whole duty of mankind are founded and established: therefore +Count Egmont, conceiving his soul and will indebted to his promise, +although he had not the power to make it good, had doubtless been +absolved of his duty, even though he had outlived the other; but the King +of England wilfully and premeditately breaking his faith, was no more to +be excused for deferring the execution of his infidelity till after his +death than the mason in Herodotus, who having inviolably, during the time +of his life, kept the secret of the treasure of the King of Egypt, his +master, at his death discovered it to his children.--[Herod., ii. 121.] + +I have taken notice of several in my time, who, convicted by their +consciences of unjustly detaining the goods of another, have endeavoured +to make amends by their will, and after their decease; but they had as +good do nothing, as either in taking so much time in so pressing an +affair, or in going about to remedy a wrong with so little +dissatisfaction or injury to themselves. They owe, over and above, +something of their own; and by how much their payment is more strict and +incommodious to themselves, by so much is their restitution more just +meritorious. Penitency requires penalty; but they yet do worse than +these, who reserve the animosity against their neighbour to the last +gasp, having concealed it during their life; wherein they manifest little +regard of their own honour, irritating the party offended in their +memory; and less to their the power, even out of to make their malice die +with them, but extending the life of their hatred even beyond their own. +Unjust judges, who defer judgment to a time wherein they can have no +knowledge of the cause! For my part, I shall take care, if I can, that +my death discover nothing that my life has not first and openly declared. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OF IDLENESS + +As we see some grounds that have long lain idle and untilled, when grown +rich and fertile by rest, to abound with and spend their virtue in the +product of innumerable sorts of weeds and wild herbs that are +unprofitable, and that to make them perform their true office, we are to +cultivate and prepare them for such seeds as are proper for our service; +and as we see women that, without knowledge of man, do sometimes of +themselves bring forth inanimate and formless lumps of flesh, but that to +cause a natural and perfect generation they are to be husbanded with +another kind of seed: even so it is with minds, which if not applied to +some certain study that may fix and restrain them, run into a thousand +extravagances, eternally roving here and there in the vague expanse of +the imagination-- + + "Sicut aqua tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis, + Sole repercussum, aut radiantis imagine lunae, + Omnia pervolitat late loca; jamque sub auras + Erigitur, summique ferit laquearia tecti." + + ["As when in brazen vats of water the trembling beams of light, + reflected from the sun, or from the image of the radiant moon, + swiftly float over every place around, and now are darted up on + high, and strike the ceilings of the upmost roof."-- + AEneid, viii. 22.] + +--in which wild agitation there is no folly, nor idle fancy they do not +light upon:-- + + "Velut aegri somnia, vanae + Finguntur species." + + ["As a sick man's dreams, creating vain phantasms."-- + Hor., De Arte Poetica, 7.] + +The soul that has no established aim loses itself, for, as it is said-- + + "Quisquis ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat." + + ["He who lives everywhere, lives nowhere."--Martial, vii. 73.] + +When I lately retired to my own house, with a resolution, as much as +possibly I could, to avoid all manner of concern in affairs, and to spend +in privacy and repose the little remainder of time I have to live, I +fancied I could not more oblige my mind than to suffer it at full leisure +to entertain and divert itself, which I now hoped it might henceforth do, +as being by time become more settled and mature; but I find-- + + "Variam semper dant otia mentem," + + ["Leisure ever creates varied thought."--Lucan, iv. 704] + +that, quite contrary, it is like a horse that has broke from his rider, +who voluntarily runs into a much more violent career than any horseman +would put him to, and creates me so many chimaeras and fantastic +monsters, one upon another, without order or design, that, the better at +leisure to contemplate their strangeness and absurdity, I have begun to +commit them to writing, hoping in time to make it ashamed of itself. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OF LIARS + +There is not a man living whom it would so little become to speak from +memory as myself, for I have scarcely any at all, and do not think that +the world has another so marvellously treacherous as mine. My other +faculties are all sufficiently ordinary and mean; but in this I think +myself very rare and singular, and deserving to be thought famous. +Besides the natural inconvenience I suffer by it (for, certes, the +necessary use of memory considered, Plato had reason when he called it a +great and powerful goddess), in my country, when they would say a man has +no sense, they say, such an one has no memory; and when I complain of the +defect of mine, they do not believe me, and reprove me, as though I +accused myself for a fool: not discerning the difference betwixt memory +and understanding, which is to make matters still worse for me. But they +do me wrong; for experience, rather, daily shows us, on the contrary, +that a strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment. They do, +me, moreover (who am so perfect in nothing as in friendship), a great +wrong in this, that they make the same words which accuse my infirmity, +represent me for an ungrateful person; they bring my affections into +question upon the account of my memory, and from a natural imperfection, +make out a defect of conscience. "He has forgot," says one, "this +request, or that promise; he no more remembers his friends; he has forgot +to say or do, or conceal such and such a thing, for my sake." And, +truly, I am apt enough to forget many things, but to neglect anything my +friend has given me in charge, I never do it. And it should be enough, +methinks, that I feel the misery and inconvenience of it, without +branding me with malice, a vice so contrary to my humour. + +However, I derive these comforts from my infirmity: first, that it is an +evil from which principally I have found reason to correct a worse, that +would easily enough have grown upon me, namely, ambition; the defect +being intolerable in those who take upon them public affairs. That, like +examples in the progress of nature demonstrate to us, she has fortified +me in my other faculties proportionably as she has left me unfurnished in +this; I should otherwise have been apt implicitly to have reposed my mind +and judgment upon the bare report of other men, without ever setting them +to work upon their own force, had the inventions and opinions of others +been ever been present with me by the benefit of memory. That by this +means I am not so talkative, for the magazine of the memory is ever +better furnished with matter than that of the invention. Had mine been +faithful to me, I had ere this deafened all my friends with my babble, +the subjects themselves arousing and stirring up the little faculty I +have of handling and employing them, heating and distending my discourse, +which were a pity: as I have observed in several of my intimate friends, +who, as their memories supply them with an entire and full view of +things, begin their narrative so far back, and crowd it with so many +impertinent circumstances, that though the story be good in itself, they +make a shift to spoil it; and if otherwise, you are either to curse the +strength of their memory or the weakness of their judgment: and it is a +hard thing to close up a discourse, and to cut it short, when you have +once started; there is nothing wherein the force of a horse is so much +seen as in a round and sudden stop. I see even those who are pertinent +enough, who would, but cannot stop short in their career; for whilst they +are seeking out a handsome period to conclude with, they go on at random, +straggling about upon impertinent trivialities, as men staggering upon +weak legs. But, above all, old men who retain the memory of things past, +and forget how often they have told them, are dangerous company; and I +have known stories from the mouth of a man of very great quality, +otherwise very pleasant in themselves, become very wearisome by being +repeated a hundred times over and over again to the same people. + +Secondly, that, by this means, I the less remember the injuries I have +received; insomuch that, as the ancient said,--[Cicero, Pro Ligar. +c. 12.]--I should have a register of injuries, or a prompter, as Darius, +who, that he might not forget the offence he had received from those of +Athens, so oft as he sat down to dinner, ordered one of his pages three +times to repeat in his ear, "Sir, remember the Athenians";--[Herod., v. +105.]--and then, again, the places which I revisit, and the books I read +over again, still smile upon me with a fresh novelty. + +It is not without good reason said "that he who has not a good memory +should never take upon him the trade of lying." I know very well that +the grammarians--[Nigidius, Aulus Gellius, xi. ii; Nonius, v. 80.]-- +distinguish betwixt an untruth and a lie, and say that to tell an untruth +is to tell a thing that is false, but that we ourselves believe to be +true; and that the definition of the word to lie in Latin, from which our +French is taken, is to tell a thing which we know in our conscience to be +untrue; and it is of this last sort of liars only that I now speak. Now, +these do either wholly contrive and invent the untruths they utter, or so +alter and disguise a true story that it ends in a lie. When they +disguise and often alter the same story, according to their own fancy, +'tis very hard for them, at one time or another, to escape being trapped, +by reason that the real truth of the thing, having first taken possession +of the memory, and being there lodged impressed by the medium of +knowledge and science, it will be difficult that it should not represent +itself to the imagination, and shoulder out falsehood, which cannot there +have so sure and settled footing as the other; and the circumstances of +the first true knowledge evermore running in their minds, will be apt to +make them forget those that are illegitimate, and only, forged by their +own fancy. In what they, wholly invent, forasmuch as there is no +contrary impression to jostle their invention there seems to be less +danger of tripping; and yet even this by reason it is a vain body and +without any hold, is very apt to escape the memory, if it be not well +assured. Of which I had very pleasant experience, at the expense of such +as profess only to form and accommodate their speech to the affair they +have in hand, or to humour of the great folks to whom they are speaking; +for the circumstances to which these men stick not to enslave their faith +and conscience being subject to several changes, their language must vary +accordingly: whence it happens that of the same thing they tell one man +that it is this, and another that it is that, giving it several colours; +which men, if they once come to confer notes, and find out the cheat, +what becomes of this fine art? To which may be added, that they must of +necessity very often ridiculously trap themselves; for what memory can be +sufficient to retain so many different shapes as they have forged upon +one and the same subject? I have known many in my time very ambitious of +the repute of this fine wit; but they do not see that if they have the +reputation of it, the effect can no longer be. + +In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have +other tie upon one another, but by our word. If we did but discover the +horror and gravity of it, we should pursue it with fire and sword, and +more justly than other crimes. I see that parents commonly, and with +indiscretion enough, correct their children for little innocent faults, +and torment them for wanton tricks, that have neither impression nor +consequence; whereas, in my opinion, lying only, and, which is of +something a lower form, obstinacy, are the faults which are to be +severely whipped out of them, both in their infancy and in their +progress, otherwise they grow up and increase with them; and after a +tongue has once got the knack of lying, 'tis not to be imagined how +impossible it is to reclaim it whence it comes to pass that we see some, +who are otherwise very honest men, so subject and enslaved to this vice. +I have an honest lad to my tailor, whom I never knew guilty of one truth, +no, not when it had been to his advantage. If falsehood had, like truth, +but one face only, we should be upon better terms; for we should then +take for certain the contrary to what the liar says: but the reverse of +truth has a hundred thousand forms, and a field indefinite, without bound +or limit. The Pythagoreans make good to be certain and finite, and evil, +infinite and uncertain. There are a thousand ways to miss the white, +there is only one to hit it. For my own part, I have this vice in so +great horror, that I am not sure I could prevail with my conscience to +secure myself from the most manifest and extreme danger by an impudent +and solemn lie. An ancient father says "that a dog we know is better +company than a man whose language we do not understand." + + + "Ut externus alieno pene non sit hominis vice." + + ["As a foreigner cannot be said to supply us the place of a man."-- + Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. I] + +And how much less sociable is false speaking than silence? + +King Francis I. vaunted that he had by this means nonplussed Francesco +Taverna, ambassador of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, a man very famous +for his science in talking in those days. This gentleman had been sent +to excuse his master to his Majesty about a thing of very great +consequence, which was this: the King, still to maintain some +intelligence with Italy, out of which he had lately been driven, and +particularly with the duchy of Milan, had thought it convenient to have a +gentleman on his behalf to be with that Duke: an ambassador in effect, +but in outward appearance a private person who pretended to reside there +upon his own particular affairs; for the Duke, much more depending upon +the Emperor, especially at a time when he was in a treaty of marriage +with his niece, daughter to the King of Denmark, who is now dowager of +Lorraine, could not manifest any practice and conference with us without +his great interest. For this commission one Merveille, a Milanese +gentleman, and an equerry to the King, being thought very fit, was +accordingly despatched thither with private credentials, and instructions +as ambassador, and with other letters of recommendation to the Duke about +his own private concerns, the better to mask and colour the business; and +was so long in that court, that the Emperor at last had some inkling of +his real employment there; which was the occasion of what followed after, +as we suppose; which was, that under pretence of some murder, his trial +was in two days despatched, and his head in the night struck off in +prison. Messire Francesco being come, and prepared with a long +counterfeit history of the affair (for the King had applied himself to +all the princes of Christendom, as well as to the Duke himself, to demand +satisfaction), had his audience at the morning council; where, after he +had for the support of his cause laid open several plausible +justifications of the fact, that his master had never looked upon this +Merveille for other than a private gentleman and his own subject, who was +there only in order to his own business, neither had he ever lived under +any other aspect; absolutely disowning that he had ever heard he was one +of the King's household or that his Majesty so much as knew him, so far +was he from taking him for an ambassador: the King, in his turn, pressing +him with several objections and demands, and challenging him on all +sides, tripped him up at last by asking, why, then, the execution was +performed by night, and as it were by stealth? At which the poor +confounded ambassador, the more handsomely to disengage himself, made +answer, that the Duke would have been very loth, out of respect to his +Majesty, that such an execution should have been performed by day. Any +one may guess if he was not well rated when he came home, for having so +grossly tripped in the presence of a prince of so delicate a nostril as +King Francis. + +Pope Julius II. having sent an ambassador to the King of England to +animate him against King Francis, the ambassador having had his audience, +and the King, before he would give an answer, insisting upon the +difficulties he should find in setting on foot so great a preparation as +would be necessary to attack so potent a King, and urging some reasons to +that effect, the ambassador very unseasonably replied that he had also +himself considered the same difficulties, and had represented them to the +Pope. From which saying of his, so directly opposite to the thing +propounded and the business he came about, which was immediately to +incite him to war, the King of England first derived the argument (which +he afterward found to be true), that this ambassador, in his own mind, +was on the side of the French; of which having advertised his master, his +estate at his return home was confiscated, and he himself very narrowly +escaped the losing of his head.--[Erasmi Op. (1703), iv. col. 684.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OF QUICK OR SLOW SPEECH + + "Onc ne furent a touts toutes graces donnees." + + ["All graces were never yet given to any one man."--A verse + in one of La Brebis' Sonnets.] + +So we see in the gift of eloquence, wherein some have such a facility and +promptness, and that which we call a present wit so easy, that they are +ever ready upon all occasions, and never to be surprised; and others more +heavy and slow, never venture to utter anything but what they have long +premeditated, and taken great care and pains to fit and prepare. + +Now, as we teach young ladies those sports and exercises which are most +proper to set out the grace and beauty of those parts wherein their +chiefest ornament and perfection lie, so it should be in these two +advantages of eloquence, to which the lawyers and preachers of our age +seem principally to pretend. If I were worthy to advise, the slow +speaker, methinks, should be more proper for the pulpit, and the other +for the bar: and that because the employment of the first does naturally +allow him all the leisure he can desire to prepare himself, and besides, +his career is performed in an even and unintermitted line, without stop +or interruption; whereas the pleader's business and interest compels him +to enter the lists upon all occasions, and the unexpected objections and +replies of his adverse party jostle him out of his course, and put him, +upon the instant, to pump for new and extempore answers and defences. +Yet, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis at +Marseilles, it happened, quite contrary, that Monsieur Poyet, a man bred +up all his life at the bar, and in the highest repute for eloquence, +having the charge of making the harangue to the Pope committed to him, +and having so long meditated on it beforehand, as, so they said, to have +brought it ready made along with him from Paris; the very day it was to +have been pronounced, the Pope, fearing something might be said that +might give offence to the other princes' ambassadors who were there +attending on him, sent to acquaint the King with the argument which he +conceived most suiting to the time and place, but, by chance, quite +another thing to that Monsieur de Poyet had taken so much pains about: so +that the fine speech he had prepared was of no use, and he was upon the +instant to contrive another; which finding himself unable to do, Cardinal +du Bellay was constrained to perform that office. The pleader's part is, +doubtless, much harder than that of the preacher; and yet, in my opinion, +we see more passable lawyers than preachers, at all events in France. +It should seem that the nature of wit is to have its operation prompt and +sudden, and that of judgment to have it more deliberate and more slow. +But he who remains totally silent, for want of leisure to prepare himself +to speak well, and he also whom leisure does noways benefit to better +speaking, are equally unhappy. + +'Tis said of Severus Cassius that he spoke best extempore, that he stood +more obliged to fortune than to his own diligence; that it was an +advantage to him to be interrupted in speaking, and that his adversaries +were afraid to nettle him, lest his anger should redouble his eloquence. +I know, experimentally, the disposition of nature so impatient of tedious +and elaborate premeditation, that if it do not go frankly and gaily to +work, it can perform nothing to purpose. We say of some compositions +that they stink of oil and of the lamp, by reason of a certain rough +harshness that laborious handling imprints upon those where it has been +employed. But besides this, the solicitude of doing well, and a certain +striving and contending of a mind too far strained and overbent upon its +undertaking, breaks and hinders itself like water, that by force of its +own pressing violence and abundance, cannot find a ready issue through +the neck of a bottle or a narrow sluice. In this condition of nature, +of which I am now speaking, there is this also, that it would not be +disordered and stimulated with such passions as the fury of Cassius (for +such a motion would be too violent and rude); it would not be jostled, +but solicited; it would be roused and heated by unexpected, sudden, and +accidental occasions. If it be left to itself, it flags and languishes; +agitation only gives it grace and vigour. I am always worst in my own +possession, and when wholly at my own disposition: accident has more +title to anything that comes from me than I; occasion, company, and even +the very rising and falling of my own voice, extract more from my fancy +than I can find, when I sound and employ it by myself. By which means, +the things I say are better than those I write, if either were to be +preferred, where neither is worth anything. This, also, befalls me, that +I do not find myself where I seek myself, and I light upon things more by +chance than by any inquisition of my own judgment. I perhaps sometimes +hit upon something when I write, that seems quaint and sprightly to me, +though it will appear dull and heavy to another.--But let us leave these +fine compliments; every one talks thus of himself according to his +talent. But when I come to speak, I am already so lost that I know not +what I was about to say, and in such cases a stranger often finds it out +before me. If I should make erasure so often as this inconvenience +befalls me, I should make clean work; occasion will, at some other time, +lay it as visible to me as the light, and make me wonder what I should +stick at. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OF PROGNOSTICATIONS + +For what concerns oracles, it is certain that a good while before the +coming of Jesus Christ they had begun to lose their credit; for we see +that Cicero troubled to find out the cause of their decay, and he has +these words: + + "Cur isto modo jam oracula Delphis non eduntur, + non modo nostro aetate, sed jam diu; ut nihil + possit esse contemptius?" + + ["What is the reason that the oracles at Delphi are no longer + uttered: not merely in this age of ours, but for a long time past, + insomuch that nothing is more in contempt?"-- + Cicero, De Divin., ii. 57.] + +But as to the other prognostics, calculated from the anatomy of beasts at +sacrifices (to which purpose Plato does, in part, attribute the natural +constitution of the intestines of the beasts themselves), the +scraping of poultry, the flight of birds-- + + "Aves quasdam . . . rerum augurandarum + causa natas esse putamus." + + ["We think some sorts of birds are purposely created to serve + the purposes of augury."--Cicero, De Natura Deor., ii. 64.] + +--claps of thunder, the overflowing of rivers-- + + "Multa cernunt Aruspices, multa Augures provident, + multa oraculis declarantur, multa vaticinationibus, + multa somniis, multa portentis." + + ["The Aruspices discern many things, the Augurs foresee many things, + many things are announced by oracles, many by vaticinations, many by + dreams, many by portents."--Cicero, De Natura Deor., ii. 65.] + +--and others of the like nature, upon which antiquity founded most of +their public and private enterprises, our religion has totally abolished +them. And although there yet remain amongst us some practices of +divination from the stars, from spirits, from the shapes and complexions +of men, from dreams and the like (a notable example of the wild curiosity +of our nature to grasp at and anticipate future things, as if we had not +enough to do to digest the present)-- + + "Cur hanc tibi, rector Olympi, + Sollicitis visum mortalibus addere curam, + Noscant venturas ut dira per omina clades?.... + Sit subitum, quodcumque paras; sit coeca futuri + Mens hominum fati, liceat sperare timenti." + + ["Why, ruler of Olympus, hast thou to anxious mortals thought fit to + add this care, that they should know by, omens future slaughter?... + Let whatever thou art preparing be sudden. Let the mind of men be + blind to fate in store; let it be permitted to the timid to hope."-- + Lucan, ii. 14] + + "Ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit; + miserum est enim, nihil proficientem angi," + + ["It is useless to know what shall come to pass; it is a miserable + thing to be tormented to no purpose."-- + Cicero, De Natura Deor., iii. 6.] + +yet are they of much less authority now than heretofore. Which makes so +much more remarkable the example of Francesco, Marquis of Saluzzo, who +being lieutenant to King Francis I. in his ultramontane army, infinitely +favoured and esteemed in our court, and obliged to the king's bounty for +the marquisate itself, which had been forfeited by his brother; and as to +the rest, having no manner of provocation given him to do it, and even +his own affection opposing any such disloyalty, suffered himself to be so +terrified, as it was confidently reported, with the fine prognostics that +were spread abroad everywhere in favour of the Emperor Charles V., and to +our disadvantage (especially in Italy, where these foolish prophecies +were so far believed, that at Rome great sums of money were ventured out +upon return of greater, when the prognostics came to pass, so certain +they made themselves of our ruin), that, having often bewailed, to those +of his acquaintance who were most intimate with him, the mischiefs that +he saw would inevitably fall upon the Crown of France and the friends he +had in that court, he revolted and turned to the other side; to his own +misfortune, nevertheless, what constellation soever governed at that +time. But he carried himself in this affair like a man agitated by +divers passions; for having both towns and forces in his hands, the +enemy's army under Antonio de Leyva close by him, and we not at all +suspecting his design, it had been in his power to have done more than he +did; for we lost no men by this infidelity of his, nor any town, but +Fossano only, and that after a long siege and a brave defence.--[1536] + + "Prudens futuri temporis exitum + Caliginosa nocte premit Deus, + Ridetque, si mortalis ultra + Fas trepidat." + + ["A wise God covers with thick night the path of the future, and + laughs at the man who alarms himself without reason."-- + Hor., Od., iii. 29.] + + "Ille potens sui + Laetusque deget, cui licet in diem + Dixisse vixi! cras vel atra + Nube polum pater occupato, + Vel sole puro." + + ["He lives happy and master of himself who can say as each day + passes on, 'I HAVE LIVED:' whether to-morrow our Father shall give + us a clouded sky or a clear day."--Hor., Od., iii. 29] + + "Laetus in praesens animus; quod ultra est, + Oderit curare." + + ["A mind happy, cheerful in the present state, will take good care + not to think of what is beyond it."--Ibid., ii. 25] + +And those who take this sentence in a contrary sense interpret it amiss: + + "Ista sic reciprocantur, ut et si divinatio sit, + dii sint; et si dii lint, sit divinatio." + + ["These things are so far reciprocal that if there be divination, + there must be deities; and if deities, divination."--Cicero, De + Divin., i. 6.] + +Much more wisely Pacuvius-- + + "Nam istis, qui linguam avium intelligunt, + Plusque ex alieno jecore sapiunt, quam ex suo, + Magis audiendum, quam auscultandum, censeo." + + + ["As to those who understand the language of birds, and who rather + consult the livers of animals other than their own, I had rather + hear them than attend to them."-- + Cicero, De Divin., i. 57, ex Pacuvio] + +The so celebrated art of divination amongst the Tuscans took its +beginning thus: A labourer striking deep with his cutter into the earth, +saw the demigod Tages ascend, with an infantine aspect, but endued with a +mature and senile wisdom. Upon the rumour of which, all the people ran +to see the sight, by whom his words and science, containing the +principles and means to attain to this art, were recorded, and kept for +many ages.--[Cicero, De Devina, ii. 23]--A birth suitable to its +progress; I, for my part, should sooner regulate my affairs by the chance +of a die than by such idle and vain dreams. And, indeed, in all +republics, a good share of the government has ever been referred to +chance. Plato, in the civil regimen that he models according to his own +fancy, leaves to it the decision of several things of very great +importance, and will, amongst other things, that marriages should be +appointed by lot; attributing so great importance to this accidental +choice as to ordain that the children begotten in such wedlock be brought +up in the country, and those begotten in any other be thrust out as +spurious and base; yet so, that if any of those exiles, notwithstanding, +should, peradventure, in growing up give any good hope of himself, he +might be recalled, as, also, that such as had been retained, should be +exiled, in case they gave little expectation of themselves in their early +growth. + +I see some who are mightily given to study and comment upon their +almanacs, and produce them to us as an authority when anything has fallen +out pat; and, for that matter, it is hardly possible but that these +alleged authorities sometimes stumble upon a truth amongst an infinite +number of lies. + + "Quis est enim, qui totum diem jaculans + non aliquando collineet?" + + ["For who shoots all day at butts that does not sometimes hit the + white?"--Cicero, De Divin., ii. 59.] + +I think never the better of them for some such accidental hit. There +would be more certainty in it if there were a rule and a truth of always +lying. Besides, nobody records their flimflams and false prognostics, +forasmuch as they are infinite and common; but if they chop upon one +truth, that carries a mighty report, as being rare, incredible, and +prodigious. So Diogenes, surnamed the Atheist, answered him in +Samothrace, who, showing him in the temple the several offerings and +stories in painting of those who had escaped shipwreck, said to him, +"Look, you who think the gods have no care of human things, what do you +say to so many persons preserved from death by their especial favour?" +"Why, I say," answered he, "that their pictures are not here who were +cast away, who are by much the greater number."--[Cicero, De Natura +Deor., i. 37.] + +Cicero observes that of all the philosophers who have acknowledged a +deity, Xenophanes the Colophonian only has endeavoured to eradicate all +manner of divination--[Cicero, De Divin., i. 3.]--; which makes it the +less a wonder if we have now and then seen some of our princes, sometimes +to their own cost, rely too much upon these vanities. I had given +anything with my own eyes to see those two great marvels, the book of +Joachim the Calabrian abbot, which foretold all the future Popes, their +names and qualities; and that of the Emperor Leo, which prophesied all +the emperors and patriarchs of Greece. This I have been an eyewitness +of, that in public confusions, men astonished at their fortune, have +abandoned their own reason, superstitiously to seek out in the stars the +ancient causes and menaces of the present mishaps, and in my time have +been so strangely successful in it, as to make me believe that this being +an amusement of sharp and volatile wits, those who have been versed in +this knack of unfolding and untying riddles, are capable, in any sort of +writing, to find out what they desire. But above all, that which gives +them the greatest room to play in, is the obscure, ambiguous, and +fantastic gibberish of the prophetic canting, where their authors deliver +nothing of clear sense, but shroud all in riddle, to the end that +posterity may interpret and apply it according to its own fancy. + +Socrates demon might, perhaps, be no other but a certain impulsion of the +will, which obtruded itself upon him without the advice or consent of his +judgment; and in a soul so enlightened as his was, and so prepared by a +continual exercise of wisdom-and virtue, 'tis to be supposed those +inclinations of his, though sudden and undigested, were very important +and worthy to be followed. Every one finds in himself some image of such +agitations, of a prompt, vehement, and fortuitous opinion; and I may well +allow them some authority, who attribute so little to our prudence, and +who also myself have had some, weak in reason, but violent in persuasion +and dissuasion, which were most frequent with Socrates,--[Plato, in his +account of Theages the Pythagorean]--by which I have suffered myself to +be carried away so fortunately, and so much to my own advantage, that +they might have been judged to have had something in them of a divine +inspiration. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OF CONSTANCY + +The law of resolution and constancy does not imply that we ought not, as +much as in us lies, to decline and secure ourselves from the mischiefs +and inconveniences that threaten us; nor, consequently, that we shall not +fear lest they should surprise us: on the contrary, all decent and honest +ways and means of securing ourselves from harms, are not only permitted, +but, moreover, commendable, and the business of constancy chiefly is, +bravely to stand to, and stoutly to suffer those inconveniences which are +not possibly to be avoided. So that there is no supple motion of body, +nor any movement in the handling of arms, how irregular or ungraceful +soever, that we need condemn, if they serve to protect us from the blow +that is made against us. + +Several very warlike nations have made use of a retreating and flying way +of fight as a thing of singular advantage, and, by so doing, have made +their backs more dangerous to their enemies than their faces. Of which +kind of fighting the Turks still retain something in their practice of +arms; and Socrates, in Plato, laughs at Laches, who had defined fortitude +to be a standing firm in the ranks against the enemy. "What!" says he, +"would it, then, be a reputed cowardice to overcome them by giving +ground?" urging, at the same time, the authority of Homer, who commends +in AEneas the science of flight. And whereas Laches, considering better +of it, admits the practice as to the Scythians, and, in general, all +cavalry whatever, he again attacks him with the example of the +Lacedaemonian foot--a nation of all other the most obstinate in +maintaining their ground--who, in the battle of Plataea, not being able +to break into the Persian phalanx, bethought themselves to disperse and +retire, that by the enemy supposing they fled, they might break and +disunite that vast body of men in the pursuit, and by that stratagem +obtained the victory. + +As for the Scythians, 'tis said of them, that when Darius went his +expedition to subdue them, he sent, by a herald, highly to reproach their +king, that he always retired before him and declined a battle; to which +Idanthyrses,--[Herod., iv. 127.]--for that was his name, returned +answer, that it was not for fear of him, or of any man living, that he +did so, but that it was the way of marching in practice with his nation, +who had neither tilled fields, cities, nor houses to defend, or to fear +the enemy should make any advantage of but that if he had such a stomach +to fight, let him but come to view their ancient places of sepulture, and +there he should have his fill. + +Nevertheless, as to cannon-shot, when a body of men are drawn up in the +face of a train of artillery, as the occasion of war often requires, it +is unhandsome to quit their post to avoid the danger, forasmuch as by +reason of its violence and swiftness we account it inevitable; and many a +one, by ducking, stepping aside, and such other motions of fear, has +been, at all events, sufficiently laughed at by his companions. And yet, +in the expedition that the Emperor Charles V. made against us into +Provence, the Marquis de Guast going to reconnoitre the city of Arles, +and advancing out of the cover of a windmill, under favour of which he +had made his approach, was perceived by the Seigneurs de Bonneval and the +Seneschal of Agenois, who were walking upon the 'theatre aux ayenes'; who +having shown him to the Sieur de Villiers, commissary of the artillery, +he pointed a culverin so admirably well, and levelled it so exactly right +against him, that had not the Marquis, seeing fire given to it, slipped +aside, it was certainly concluded the shot had taken him full in the +body. And, in like manner, some years before, Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke +of Urbino, and father to the queen-mother--[Catherine de' Medici, mother +of Henry III.]--laying siege to Mondolfo, a place in the territories of +the Vicariat in Italy, seeing the cannoneer give fire to a piece that +pointed directly against him, it was well for him that he ducked, for +otherwise the shot, that only razed the top of his head, had doubtless +hit him full in the breast. To say truth, I do not think that these +evasions are performed upon the account of judgment; for how can any man +living judge of high or low aim on so sudden an occasion? And it is much +more easy to believe that fortune favoured their apprehension, and that +it might be as well at another time to make them face the danger, as to +seek to avoid it. For my own part, I confess I cannot forbear starting +when the rattle of a harquebuse thunders in my ears on a sudden, and in a +place where I am not to expect it, which I have also observed in others, +braver fellows than I. + +Neither do the Stoics pretend that the soul of their philosopher need be +proof against the first visions and fantasies that surprise him; but, as +to a natural subjection, consent that he should tremble at the terrible +noise of thunder, or the sudden clatter of some falling ruin, and be +affrighted even to paleness and convulsion; and so in other passions, +provided his judgment remain sound and entire, and that the seat of his +reason suffer no concussion nor alteration, and that he yield no consent +to his fright and discomposure. To him who is not a philosopher, a +fright is the same thing in the first part of it, but quite another thing +in the second; for the impression of passions does not remain +superficially in him, but penetrates farther, even to the very seat of +reason, infecting and corrupting it, so that he judges according to his +fear, and conforms his behaviour to it. In this verse you may see the +true state of the wise Stoic learnedly and plainly expressed:-- + + "Mens immota manet; lachrymae volvuntur inanes." + + ["Though tears flow, the mind remains unmoved." + --Virgil, AEneid, iv. 449] + +The Peripatetic sage does not exempt himself totally from perturbations +of mind, but he moderates them. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Almanacs +Being dead they were then by one day happier than he +Books I read over again, still smile upon me with fresh novelty +Death discharges us of all our obligations +Difference betwixt memory and understanding +Do thine own work, and know thyself +Effect and performance are not at all in our power +Fantastic gibberish of the prophetic canting +Folly of gaping after future things +Good to be certain and finite, and evil, infinite and uncertain +He who lives everywhere, lives nowhere +If they chop upon one truth, that carries a mighty report +Impotencies that so unseasonably surprise the lover +Let it be permitted to the timid to hope +Light griefs can speak: deep sorrows are dumb +Look, you who think the gods have no care of human things +Nature of judgment to have it more deliberate and more slow +Nature of wit is to have its operation prompt and sudden +Nor have other tie upon one another, but by our word +Old men who retain the memory of things past +Pity is reputed a vice amongst the Stoics +Rather complain of ill-fortune than be ashamed of victory +Reverse of truth has a hundred thousand forms +Say of some compositions that they stink of oil and of the lamp +Solon, that none can be said to be happy until he is dead +Strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment +Stumble upon a truth amongst an infinite number of lies +Suffer those inconveniences which are not possibly to be avoided +Superstitiously to seek out in the stars the ancient causes +Their pictures are not here who were cast away +Things I say are better than those I write +We are masters of nothing but the will +We cannot be bound beyond what we are able to perform +Where the lion's skin is too short + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V2 +by Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 3. + +XIII. The ceremony of the interview of princes. +XIV. That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence + of a fort that is not in reason to be defended +XV. Of the punishment of cowardice. +XVI. A proceeding of some ambassadors. +XVII. Of fear. +XVIII. That men are not to judge of our happiness till after death. +XIX. That to study philosophy is to learn to die. +XX. Of the force of imagination. +XXI. That the profit of one man is the damage of another. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE CEREMONY OF THE INTERVIEW OF PRINCES + +There is no subject so frivolous that does not merit a place in this +rhapsody. According to our common rule of civility, it would be a +notable affront to an equal, and much more to a superior, to fail being +at home when he has given you notice he will come to visit you. Nay, +Queen Margaret of Navarre--[Marguerite de Valois, authoress of the +'Heptameron']--further adds, that it would be a rudeness in a gentleman +to go out, as we so often do, to meet any that is coming to see him, let +him be of what high condition soever; and that it is more respectful and +more civil to stay at home to receive him, if only upon the account of +missing him by the way, and that it is enough to receive him at the door, +and to wait upon him. For my part, who as much as I can endeavour to +reduce the ceremonies of my house, I very often forget both the one and +the other of these vain offices. If, peradventure, some one may take +offence at this, I can't help it; it is much better to offend him once +than myself every day, for it would be a perpetual slavery. To what end +do we avoid the servile attendance of courts, if we bring the same +trouble home to our own private houses? It is also a common rule in all +assemblies, that those of less quality are to be first upon the place, by +reason that it is more due to the better sort to make others wait and +expect them. + +Nevertheless, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis at +Marseilles,--[in 1533.]--the King, after he had taken order for the +necessary preparations for his reception and entertainment, withdrew out +of the town, and gave the Pope two or three days' respite for his entry, +and to repose and refresh himself, before he came to him. And in like +manner, at the assignation of the Pope and the Emperor,--[Charles V. in +1532.] at Bologna, the Emperor gave the Pope opportunity to come thither +first, and came himself after; for which the reason given was this, that +at all the interviews of such princes, the greater ought to be first at +the appointed place, especially before the other in whose territories the +interview is appointed to be, intimating thereby a kind of deference to +the other, it appearing proper for the less to seek out and to apply +themselves to the greater, and not the greater to them. + +Not every country only, but every city and every society has its +particular forms of civility. There was care enough to this taken in my +education, and I have lived in good company enough to know the +formalities of our own nation, and am able to give lessons in it. I love +to follow them, but not to be so servilely tied to their observation that +my whole life should be enslaved to ceremonies, of which there are some +so troublesome that, provided a man omits them out of discretion, and not +for want of breeding, it will be every whit as handsome. I have seen +some people rude, by being overcivil and troublesome in their courtesy. + +Still, these excesses excepted, the knowledge of courtesy and good +manners is a very necessary study. It is, like grace and beauty, that +which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first +sight, and in the very beginning of acquaintance; and, consequently, that +which first opens the door and intromits us to instruct ourselves by the +example of others, and to give examples ourselves, if we have any worth +taking notice of and communicating. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THAT MEN ARE JUSTLY PUNISHED FOR BEING OBSTINATE IN THE DEFENCE +OF A FORT THAT IS NOT IN REASON TO BE DEFENDED + +Valour has its bounds as well as other virtues, which, once transgressed, +the next step is into the territories of vice; so that by having too +large a proportion of this heroic virtue, unless a man be very perfect in +its limits, which upon the confines are very hard to discern, he may very +easily unawares run into temerity, obstinacy, and folly. From this +consideration it is that we have derived the custom, in times of war, to +punish, even with death, those who are obstinate to defend a place that +by the rules of war is not tenable; otherwise men would be so confident +upon the hope of impunity, that not a henroost but would resist and seek +to stop an army. + +The Constable Monsieur de Montmorenci, having at the siege of Pavia been +ordered to pass the Ticino, and to take up his quarters in the Faubourg +St. Antonio, being hindered by a tower at the end of the bridge, which +was so obstinate as to endure a battery, hanged every man he found within +it for their labour. And again, accompanying the Dauphin in his +expedition beyond the Alps, and taking the Castle of Villano by assault, +and all within it being put to the sword by the fury of the soldiers, the +governor and his ensign only excepted, he caused them both to be trussed +up for the same reason; as also did the Captain Martin du Bellay, then +governor of Turin, with the governor of San Buono, in the same country, +all his people having been cut to pieces at the taking of the place. + +But forasmuch as the strength or weakness of a fortress is always +measured by the estimate and counterpoise of the forces that attack it-- +for a man might reasonably enough despise two culverins, that would be a +madman to abide a battery of thirty pieces of cannon--where also the +greatness of the prince who is master of the field, his reputation, and +the respect that is due unto him, are also put into the balance, there is +danger that the balance be pressed too much in that direction. And it +may happen that a man is possessed with so great an opinion of himself +and his power, that thinking it unreasonable any place should dare to +shut its gates against him, he puts all to the sword where he meets with +any opposition, whilst his fortune continues; as is plain in the fierce +and arrogant forms of summoning towns and denouncing war, savouring so +much of barbarian pride and insolence, in use amongst the Oriental +princes, and which their successors to this day do yet retain and +practise. And in that part of the world where the Portuguese subdued the +Indians, they found some states where it was a universal and inviolable +law amongst them that every enemy overcome by the king in person, or by +his lieutenant, was out of composition. + +So above all both of ransom and mercy a man should take heed, if he can, +of falling into the hands of a judge who is an enemy and victorious. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +OF THE PUNISHMENT OF COWARDICE + +I once heard of a prince, and a great captain, having a narration given +him as he sat at table of the proceeding against Monsieur de Vervins, who +was sentenced to death for having surrendered Boulogne to the English, +--[To Henry VIII. in 1544]--openly maintaining that a soldier could not +justly be put to death for want of courage. And, in truth, 'tis reason +that a man should make a great difference betwixt faults that merely +proceed from infirmity, and those that are visibly the effects of +treachery and malice: for, in the last, we act against the rules of +reason that nature has imprinted in us; whereas, in the former, it seems +as if we might produce the same nature, who left us in such a state of +imperfection and weakness of courage, for our justification. Insomuch +that many have thought we are not fairly questionable for anything but +what we commit against our conscience; and it is partly upon this rule +that those ground their opinion who disapprove of capital or sanguinary +punishments inflicted upon heretics and misbelievers; and theirs also who +advocate or a judge is not accountable for having from mere ignorance +failed in his administration. + +But as to cowardice, it is certain that the most usual way of chastising +it is by ignominy and and it is supposed that this practice brought into +use by the legislator Charondas; and that, before his time, the laws of +Greece punished those with death who fled from a battle; whereas he +ordained only that they be for three days exposed in the public dressed +in woman's attire, hoping yet for some service from them, having awakened +their courage by this open shame: + + "Suffundere malis homims sanguinem, quam effundere." + + ["Rather bring the blood into a man's cheek than let it out of his + body." Tertullian in his Apologetics.] + +It appears also that the Roman laws did anciently punish those with death +who had run away; for Ammianus Marcellinus says that the Emperor Julian +commanded ten of his soldiers, who had turned their backs in an encounter +against the Parthians, to be first degraded, and afterward put to death, +according, says he, to the ancient laws,--[Ammianus Marcellinus, xxiv. +4; xxv. i.]--and yet elsewhere for the like offence he only condemned +others to remain amongst the prisoners under the baggage ensign. The +severe punishment the people of Rome inflicted upon those who fled from +the battle of Cannae, and those who ran away with Aeneius Fulvius at his +defeat, did not extend to death. And yet, methinks, 'tis to be feared, +lest disgrace should make such delinquents desperate, and not only faint +friends, but enemies. + +Of late memory,--[In 1523]--the Seigneur de Frauget, lieutenant to the +Mareschal de Chatillon's company, having by the Mareschal de Chabannes +been put in government of Fuentarabia in the place of Monsieur de Lude, +and having surrendered it to the Spaniard, he was for that condemned to +be degraded from all nobility, and both himself and his posterity +declared ignoble, taxable, and for ever incapable of bearing arms, which +severe sentence was afterwards accordingly executed at Lyons.--[In 1536] +--And, since that, all the gentlemen who were in Guise when the Count of +Nassau entered into it, underwent the same punishment, as several others +have done since for the like offence. Notwithstanding, in case of such a +manifest ignorance or cowardice as exceeds all ordinary example, 'tis but +reason to take it for a sufficient proof of treachery and malice, and for +such to be punished. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A PROCEEDING OF SOME AMBASSADORS + +I observe in my travels this custom, ever to learn something from the +information of those with whom I confer (which is the best school of all +others), and to put my company upon those subjects they are the best able +to speak of:-- + + "Basti al nocchiero ragionar de' venti, + Al bifolco dei tori; et le sue piaghe + Conti'l guerrier; conti'l pastor gli armenti." + + ["Let the sailor content himself with talking of the winds; the + cowherd of his oxen; the soldier of his wounds; the shepherd of his + flocks."--An Italian translation of Propertius, ii. i, 43] + +For it often falls out that, on the contrary, every one will rather +choose to be prating of another man's province than his own, thinking it +so much new reputation acquired; witness the jeer Archidamus put upon +Pertander, "that he had quitted the glory of being an excellent physician +to gain the repute of a very bad poet.--[Plutarch, Apoth. of the +Lacedaemonians, 'in voce' Archidamus.]--And do but observe how large and +ample Caesar is to make us understand his inventions of building bridges +and contriving engines of war,--[De Bello Gall., iv. 17.]--and how +succinct and reserved in comparison, where he speaks of the offices of +his profession, his own valour, and military conduct. His exploits +sufficiently prove him a great captain, and that he knew well enough; but +he would be thought an excellent engineer to boot; a quality something +different, and not necessary to be expected in him. The elder Dionysius +was a very great captain, as it befitted his fortune he should be; but he +took very great pains to get a particular reputation by poetry, and yet +he was never cut out for a poet. A man of the legal profession being not +long since brought to see a study furnished with all sorts of books, both +of his own and all other faculties, took no occasion at all to entertain +himself with any of them, but fell very rudely and magisterially to +descant upon a barricade placed on the winding stair before the study +door, a thing that a hundred captains and common soldiers see every day +without taking any notice or offence. + + "Optat ephippia bos piger, optat arare caballus." + + ["The lazy ox desires a saddle and bridle; the horse wants to + plough."--Hor., Ep., i. 14,43.] + +By this course a man shall never improve himself, nor arrive at any +perfection in anything. He must, therefore, make it his business always +to put the architect, the painter, the statuary, every mechanic artisan, +upon discourse of their own capacities. + +And, to this purpose, in reading histories, which is everybody's subject, +I use to consider what kind of men are the authors: if they be persons +that profess nothing but mere letters, I, in and from them, principally +observe and learn style and language; if physicians, I the rather incline +to credit what they report of the temperature of the air, of the health +and complexions of princes, of wounds and diseases; if lawyers, we are +from them to take notice of the controversies of rights and wrongs, the +establishment of laws and civil government, and the like; if divines, the +affairs of the Church, ecclesiastical censures, marriages, and +dispensations; if courtiers, manners and ceremonies; if soldiers, the +things that properly belong to their trade, and, principally, the +accounts of the actions and enterprises wherein they were personally +engaged; if ambassadors, we are to observe negotiations, intelligences, +and practices, and the manner how they are to be carried on. + +And this is the reason why (which perhaps I should have lightly passed +over in another) I dwelt upon and maturely considered one passage in the +history written by Monsieur de Langey, a man of very great judgment in +things of that nature: after having given a narrative of the fine oration +Charles V. had made in the Consistory at Rome, and in the presence of the +Bishop of Macon and Monsieur du Velly, our ambassadors there, wherein he +had mixed several injurious expressions to the dishonour of our nation; +and amongst the rest, "that if his captains and soldiers were not men of +another kind of fidelity, resolution, and sufficiency in the knowledge of +arms than those of the King, he would immediately go with a rope about +his neck and sue to him for mercy" (and it should seem the Emperor had +really this, or a very little better opinion of our military men, for he +afterwards, twice or thrice in his life, said the very same thing); as +also, that he challenged the King to fight him in his shirt with rapier +and poignard in a boat. The said Sieur de Langey, pursuing his history, +adds that the forenamed ambassadors, sending a despatch to the King of +these things, concealed the greatest part, and particularly the last two +passages. At which I could not but wonder that it should be in the power +of an ambassador to dispense with anything which he ought to signify to +his master, especially of so great importance as this, coming from the +mouth of such a person, and spoken in so great an assembly; and I should +rather conceive it had been the servant's duty faithfully to have +represented to him the whole thing as it passed, to the end that the +liberty of selecting, disposing, judging, and concluding might have +remained in him: for either to conceal or to disguise the truth for fear +he should take it otherwise than he ought to do, and lest it should +prompt him to some extravagant resolution, and, in the meantime, to leave +him ignorant of his affairs, should seem, methinks, rather to belong to +him who is to give the law than to him who is only to receive it; to him +who is in supreme command, and not to him who ought to look upon himself +as inferior, not only in authority, but also in prudence and good +counsel. I, for my part, would not be so served in my little concerns. + +We so willingly slip the collar of command upon any pretence whatever, +and are so ready to usurp upon dominion, every one does so naturally +aspire to liberty and power, that no utility whatever derived from the +wit or valour of those he employs ought to be so dear to a superior as a +downright and sincere obedience. To obey more upon the account of +understanding than of subjection, is to corrupt the office of command-- +[Taken from Aulus Gellius, i. 13.]--; insomuch that P. Crassus, the same +whom the Romans reputed five times happy, at the time when he was consul +in Asia, having sent to a Greek engineer to cause the greater of two +masts of ships that he had taken notice of at Athens to be brought to +him, to be employed about some engine of battery he had a design to make; +the other, presuming upon his own science and sufficiency in those +affairs, thought fit to do otherwise than directed, and to bring the +less, which, according to the rules of art, was really more proper for +the use to which it was designed; but Crassus, though he gave ear to his +reasons with great patience, would not, however, take them, how sound or +convincing soever, for current pay, but caused him to be well whipped for +his pains, valuing the interest of discipline much more than that of the +work in hand. + +Notwithstanding, we may on the other side consider that so precise and +implicit an obedience as this is only due to positive and limited +commands. The employment of ambassadors is never so confined, many +things in their management of affairs being wholly referred to the +absolute sovereignty of their own conduct; they do not simply execute, +but also, to their own discretion and wisdom, form and model their +master's pleasure. I have, in my time, known men of command checked for +having rather obeyed the express words of the king's letters, than the +necessity of the affairs they had in hand. Men of understanding do yet, +to this day, condemn the custom of the kings of Persia to give their +lieutenants and agents so little rein, that, upon the least arising +difficulties, they must fain have recourse to their further commands; +this delay, in so vast an extent of dominion, having often very much +prejudiced their affairs; and Crassus, writing to a man whose profession +it was best to understand those things, and pre-acquainting him to what +use this mast was designed, did he not seem to consult his advice, and in +a manner invite him to interpose his better judgment? + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OF FEAR + + "Obstupui, steteruntque comae et vox faucibus haesit." + + ["I was amazed, my hair stood on end, and my voice stuck in my + throat." Virgil, AEneid, ii. 774.] + +I am not so good a naturalist (as they call it) as to discern by what +secret springs fear has its motion in us; but, be this as it may, 'tis a +strange passion, and such a one that the physicians say there is no other +whatever that sooner dethrones our judgment from its proper seat; which +is so true, that I myself have seen very many become frantic through +fear; and, even in those of the best settled temper it is most certain +that it begets a terrible astonishment and confusion during the fit. +I omit the vulgar sort, to whom it one while represents their great- +grandsires risen out of their graves in their shrouds, another while +werewolves, nightmares, and chimaeras; but even amongst soldiers, a sort +of men over whom, of all others, it ought to have the least power, how +often has it converted flocks of sheep into armed squadrons, reeds and +bullrushes into pikes and lances, friends into enemies, and the French +white cross into the red cross of Spain! When Monsieur de Bourbon took +Rome,--[In 1527]--an ensign who was upon guard at Borgo San Pietro was +seized with such a fright upon the first alarm, that he threw himself out +at a breach with his colours upon his shoulder, and ran directly upon the +enemy, thinking he had retreated toward the inward defences of the city, +and with much ado, seeing Monsieur de Bourbon's people, who thought it +had been a sally upon them, draw up to receive him, at last came to +himself, and saw his error; and then facing about, he retreated full +speed through the same breach by which he had gone out, but not till he +had first blindly advanced above three hundred paces into the open field. +It did not, however, fall out so well with Captain Giulio's ensign, at +the time when St. Paul was taken from us by the Comte de Bures and +Monsieur de Reu, for he, being so astonished with fear as to throw +himself, colours and all, out of a porthole, was immediately, cut to +pieces by the enemy; and in the same siege, it was a very memorable fear +that so seized, contracted, and froze up the heart of a gentleman, that +he sank down, stone-dead, in the breach, without any manner of wound or +hurt at all. The like madness does sometimes push on a whole multitude; +for in one of the encounters that Germanicus had with the Germans, two +great parties were so amazed with fear that they ran two opposite ways, +the one to the same place from which the other had fled.--[Tacit, Annal., +i. 63.]--Sometimes it adds wings to the heels, as in the two first: +sometimes it nails them to the ground, and fetters them from moving; as +we read of the Emperor Theophilus, who, in a battle he lost against the +Agarenes, was so astonished and stupefied that he had no power to fly-- + + "Adeo pavor etiam auxilia formidat" + + ["So much does fear dread even the means of safety."--Quint. + Curt., ii. II.] + +--till such time as Manuel, one of the principal commanders of his army, +having jogged and shaked him so as to rouse him out of his trance, said +to him, "Sir, if you will not follow me, I will kill you; for it is +better you should lose your life than, by being taken, lose your empire." +--[Zonaras, lib. iii.]--But fear does then manifest its utmost power +when it throws us upon a valiant despair, having before deprived us of +all sense both of duty and honour. In the first pitched battle the +Romans lost against Hannibal, under the Consul Sempronius, a body of ten +thousand foot, that had taken fright, seeing no other escape for their +cowardice, went and threw themselves headlong upon the great battalion of +the enemies, which with marvellous force and fury they charged through +and through, and routed with a very great slaughter of the Carthaginians, +thus purchasing an ignominious flight at the same price they might have +gained a glorious victory.--[Livy, xxi. 56.] + +The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear, that passion alone, +in the trouble of it, exceeding all other accidents. What affliction +could be greater or more just than that of Pompey's friends, who, in his +ship, were spectators of that horrible murder? Yet so it was, that the +fear of the Egyptian vessels they saw coming to board them, possessed +them with so great alarm that it is observed they thought of nothing but +calling upon the mariners to make haste, and by force of oars to escape +away, till being arrived at Tyre, and delivered from fear, they had +leisure to turn their thoughts to the loss of their captain, and to give +vent to those tears and lamentations that the other more potent passion +had till then suspended. + + "Tum pavor sapientiam omnem mihiex animo expectorat." + + ["Then fear drove out all intelligence from my mind."--Ennius, ap. + Cicero, Tusc., iv. 8.] + +Such as have been well rubbed in some skirmish, may yet, all wounded and +bloody as they are, be brought on again the next day to charge; but such +as have once conceived a good sound fear of the enemy, will never be made +so much as to look him in the face. Such as are in immediate fear of a +losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual +anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually +poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk. And the +many people who, impatient of the perpetual alarms of fear, have hanged +or drowned themselves, or dashed themselves to pieces, give us +sufficiently to understand that fear is more importunate and +insupportable than death itself. + +The Greeks acknowledged another kind of fear, differing from any we have +spoken of yet, that surprises us without any visible cause, by an impulse +from heaven, so that whole nations and whole armies have been struck with +it. Such a one was that which brought so wonderful a desolation upon +Carthage, where nothing was to be heard but affrighted voices and +outcries; where the inhabitants were seen to sally out of their houses as +to an alarm, and there to charge, wound, and kill one another, as if they +had been enemies come to surprise their city. All things were in +disorder and fury till, with prayers and sacrifices, they had appeased +their gods--[Diod. Sic., xv. 7]; and this is that they call panic +terrors.--[Ibid. ; Plutarch on Isis and Osiris, c. 8.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THAT MEN ARE NOT TO JUDGE OF OUR HAPPINESS TILL AFTER DEATH. + + [Charron has borrowed with unusual liberality from this and the + succeeding chapter. See Nodier, Questions, p. 206.] + + "Scilicet ultima semper + Exspectanda dies homini est; dicique beatus + Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet." + + ["We should all look forward to our last day: no one can be called + happy till he is dead and buried."--Ovid, Met, iii. 135] + +The very children know the story of King Croesus to this purpose, who +being taken prisoner by Cyrus, and by him condemned to die, as he was +going to execution cried out, "O Solon, Solon!" which being presently +reported to Cyrus, and he sending to inquire of him what it meant, +Croesus gave him to understand that he now found the teaching Solon had +formerly given him true to his cost; which was, "That men, however +fortune may smile upon them, could never be said to be happy till they +had been seen to pass over the last day of their lives," by reason of the +uncertainty and mutability of human things, which, upon very light and +trivial occasions, are subject to be totally changed into a quite +contrary condition. And so it was that Agesilaus made answer to one who +was saying what a happy young man the King of Persia was, to come so +young to so mighty a kingdom: "'Tis true," said he, "but neither was +Priam unhappy at his years."--[Plutarch, Apothegms of the +Lacedaemonians.]--In a short time, kings of Macedon, successors to that +mighty Alexander, became joiners and scriveners at Rome; a tyrant of +Sicily, a pedant at Corinth; a conqueror of one-half of the world and +general of so many armies, a miserable suppliant to the rascally officers +of a king of Egypt: so much did the prolongation of five or six months of +life cost the great Pompey; and, in our fathers' days, Ludovico Sforza, +the tenth Duke of Milan, whom all Italy had so long truckled under, was +seen to die a wretched prisoner at Loches, but not till he had lived ten +years in captivity,--[He was imprisoned by Louis XI. in an iron cage]-- +which was the worst part of his fortune. The fairest of all queens, +--[Mary, Queen of Scots.]--widow to the greatest king in Europe, did she +not come to die by the hand of an executioner? Unworthy and barbarous +cruelty! And a thousand more examples there are of the same kind; for it +seems that as storms and tempests have a malice against the proud and +overtowering heights of our lofty buildings, there are also spirits above +that are envious of the greatnesses here below: + + "Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam + Obterit, et pulchros fasces, saevasque secures + Proculcare, ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur." + + ["So true it is that some occult power upsets human affairs, the + glittering fasces and the cruel axes spurns under foot, and seems to + make sport of them."--Lucretius, v. 1231.] + +And it should seem, also, that Fortune sometimes lies in wait to surprise +the last hour of our lives, to show the power she has, in a moment, to +overthrow what she was so many years in building, making us cry out with +Laberius: + + "Nimirum hac die + Una plus vixi mihi, quam vivendum fuit." + + ["I have lived longer by this one day than I should have + done."--Macrobius, ii. 7.] + +And, in this sense, this good advice of Solon may reasonably be taken; +but he, being a philosopher (with which sort of men the favours and +disgraces of Fortune stand for nothing, either to the making a man happy +or unhappy, and with whom grandeurs and powers are accidents of a quality +almost indifferent) I am apt to think that he had some further aim, and +that his meaning was, that the very felicity of life itself, which +depends upon the tranquillity and contentment of a well-descended spirit, +and the resolution and assurance of a well-ordered soul, ought never to +be attributed to any man till he has first been seen to play the last, +and, doubtless, the hardest act of his part. There may be disguise and +dissimulation in all the rest: where these fine philosophical discourses +are only put on, and where accident, not touching us to the quick, gives +us leisure to maintain the same gravity of aspect; but, in this last +scene of death, there is no more counterfeiting: we must speak out plain, +and discover what there is of good and clean in the bottom of the pot, + + "Nam vera; voces turn demum pectore ab imo + Ejiciuntur; et eripitur persona, manet res." + + ["Then at last truth issues from the heart; the visor's gone, + the man remains."--Lucretius, iii. 57.] + +Wherefore, at this last, all the other actions of our life ought to be +tried and sifted: 'tis the master-day, 'tis the day that is judge of all +the rest, "'tis the day," says one of the ancients,--[Seneca, Ep., 102]-- +"that must be judge of all my foregoing years." To death do I refer the +assay of the fruit of all my studies: we shall then see whether my +discourses came only from my mouth or from my heart. I have seen many by +their death give a good or an ill repute to their whole life. Scipio, +the father-in-law of Pompey, in dying, well removed the ill opinion that +till then every one had conceived of him. Epaminondas being asked which +of the three he had in greatest esteem, Chabrias, Iphicrates, or himself. +"You must first see us die," said he, "before that question can be +resolved."--[Plutarch, Apoth.]--And, in truth, he would infinitely +wrong that man who would weigh him without the honour and grandeur of his +end. + +God has ordered all things as it has best pleased Him; but I have, in my +time, seen three of the most execrable persons that ever I knew in all +manner of abominable living, and the most infamous to boot, who all died +a very regular death, and in all circumstances composed, even to +perfection. There are brave and fortunate deaths: I have seen death cut +the thread of the progress of a prodigious advancement, and in the height +and flower of its increase, of a certain person,--[Montaigne doubtless +refers to his friend Etienne de la Boetie, at whose death in 1563 he was +present.]--with so glorious an end that, in my opinion, his ambitious +and generous designs had nothing in them so high and great as their +interruption. He arrived, without completing his course, at the place to +which his ambition aimed, with greater glory than he could either have +hoped or desired, anticipating by his fall the name and power to which he +aspired in perfecting his career. In the judgment I make of another +man's life, I always observe how he carried himself at his death; and the +principal concern I have for my own is that I may die well--that is, +patiently and tranquilly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THAT TO STUDY PHILOSOPY IS TO LEARN TO DIE + +Cicero says--[Tusc., i. 31.]--"that to study philosophy is nothing but +to prepare one's self to die." The reason of which is, because study and +contemplation do in some sort withdraw from us our soul, and employ it +separately from the body, which is a kind of apprenticeship and a +resemblance of death; or, else, because all the wisdom and reasoning in +the world do in the end conclude in this point, to teach us not to fear +to die. And to say the truth, either our reason mocks us, or it ought to +have no other aim but our contentment only, nor to endeavour anything +but, in sum, to make us live well, and, as the Holy Scripture says, at +our ease. All the opinions of the world agree in this, that pleasure is +our end, though we make use of divers means to attain it: they would, +otherwise, be rejected at the first motion; for who would give ear to him +that should propose affliction and misery for his end? The controversies +and disputes of the philosophical sects upon this point are merely +verbal: + + "Transcurramus solertissimas nugas" + + ["Let us skip over those subtle trifles."--Seneca, Ep., 117.] + +--there is more in them of opposition and obstinacy than is consistent +with so sacred a profession; but whatsoever personage a man takes upon +himself to perform, he ever mixes his own part with it. + +Let the philosophers say what they will, the thing at which we all aim, +even in virtue is pleasure. It amuses me to rattle in ears this word, +which they so nauseate to and if it signify some supreme pleasure and +contentment, it is more due to the assistance of virtue than to any other +assistance whatever. This pleasure, for being more gay, more sinewy, +more robust and more manly, is only the more seriously voluptuous, and we +ought give it the name of pleasure, as that which is more favourable, +gentle, and natural, and not that from which we have denominated it. The +other and meaner pleasure, if it could deserve this fair name, it ought +to be by way of competition, and not of privilege. I find it less exempt +from traverses and inconveniences than virtue itself; and, besides that +the enjoyment is more momentary, fluid, and frail, it has its watchings, +fasts, and labours, its sweat and its blood; and, moreover, has +particular to itself so many several sorts of sharp and wounding +passions, and so dull a satiety attending it, as equal it to the severest +penance. And we mistake if we think that these incommodities serve it +for a spur and a seasoning to its sweetness (as in nature one contrary is +quickened by another), or say, when we come to virtue, that like +consequences and difficulties overwhelm and render it austere and +inaccessible; whereas, much more aptly than in voluptuousness, they +ennoble, sharpen, and heighten the perfect and divine pleasure they +procure us. He renders himself unworthy of it who will counterpoise its +cost with its fruit, and neither understands the blessing nor how to use +it. Those who preach to us that the quest of it is craggy, difficult, +and painful, but its fruition pleasant, what do they mean by that but to +tell us that it is always unpleasing? For what human means will ever +attain its enjoyment? The most perfect have been fain to content +themselves to aspire unto it, and to approach it only, without ever +possessing it. But they are deceived, seeing that of all the pleasures +we know, the very pursuit is pleasant. The attempt ever relishes of the +quality of the thing to which it is directed, for it is a good part of, +and consubstantial with, the effect. The felicity and beatitude that +glitters in Virtue, shines throughout all her appurtenances and avenues, +even to the first entry and utmost limits. + +Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of +death is one of the greatest, as the means that accommodates human life +with a soft and easy tranquillity, and gives us a pure and pleasant taste +of living, without which all other pleasure would be extinct. Which is +the reason why all the rules centre and concur in this one article. And +although they all in like manner, with common accord, teach us also to +despise pain, poverty, and the other accidents to which human life is +subject, it is not, nevertheless, with the same solicitude, as well by +reason these accidents are not of so great necessity, the greater part of +mankind passing over their whole lives without ever knowing what poverty +is, and some without sorrow or sickness, as Xenophilus the musician, who +lived a hundred and six years in a perfect and continual health; as also +because, at the worst, death can, whenever we please, cut short and put +an end to all other inconveniences. But as to death, it is inevitable:-- + + "Omnes eodem cogimur; omnium + Versatur urna serius ocius + Sors exitura, et nos in aeternum + Exilium impositura cymbae." + + ["We are all bound one voyage; the lot of all, sooner or later, is + to come out of the urn. All must to eternal exile sail away." + --Hor., Od., ii. 3, 25.] + +and, consequently, if it frights us, 'tis a perpetual torment, for which +there is no sort of consolation. There is no way by which it may not +reach us. We may continually turn our heads this way and that, as in a +suspected country: + + "Quae, quasi saxum Tantalo, semper impendet." + + ["Ever, like Tantalus stone, hangs over us." + --Cicero, De Finib., i. 18.] + +Our courts of justice often send back condemned criminals to be executed +upon the place where the crime was committed; but, carry them to fine +houses by the way, prepare for them the best entertainment you can-- + + "Non Siculae dapes + Dulcem elaborabunt saporem: + Non avium cyatheaceae cantus + Somnum reducent." + + ["Sicilian dainties will not tickle their palates, nor the melody of + birds and harps bring back sleep."--Hor., Od., iii. 1, 18.] + +Do you think they can relish it? and that the fatal end of their journey +being continually before their eyes, would not alter and deprave their +palate from tasting these regalios? + + "Audit iter, numeratque dies, spatioque viarum + Metitur vitam; torquetur peste futura." + + ["He considers the route, computes the time of travelling, measuring + his life by the length of the journey; and torments himself by + thinking of the blow to come."--Claudianus, in Ruf., ii. 137.] + +The end of our race is death; 'tis the necessary object of our aim, +which, if it fright us, how is it possible to advance a step without a +fit of ague? The remedy the vulgar use is not to think on't; but from +what brutish stupidity can they derive so gross a blindness? They must +bridle the ass by the tail: + + "Qui capite ipse suo instituit vestigia retro," + + ["Who in his folly seeks to advance backwards"--Lucretius, iv. 474] + +'tis no wonder if he be often trapped in the pitfall. They affright +people with the very mention of death, and many cross themselves, as it +were the name of the devil. And because the making a man's will is in +reference to dying, not a man will be persuaded to take a pen in hand to +that purpose, till the physician has passed sentence upon and totally +given him over, and then betwixt and terror, God knows in how fit a +condition of understanding he is to do it. + +The Romans, by reason that this poor syllable death sounded so harshly to +their ears and seemed so ominous, found out a way to soften and spin it +out by a periphrasis, and instead of pronouncing such a one is dead, +said, "Such a one has lived," or "Such a one has ceased to live"-- +[Plutarch, Life of Cicero, c. 22:]--for, provided there was any mention +of life in the case, though past, it carried yet some sound of +consolation. And from them it is that we have borrowed our expression, +"The late Monsieur such and such a one."--["feu Monsieur un tel."] +Peradventure, as the saying is, the term we have lived is worth our +money. I was born betwixt eleven and twelve o'clock in the forenoon the +last day of February 1533, according to our computation, beginning the +year the 1st of January,--[This was in virtue of an ordinance of Charles +IX. in 1563. Previously the year commenced at Easter, so that the 1st +January 1563 became the first day of the year 1563.]--and it is now but +just fifteen days since I was complete nine-and-thirty years old; I make +account to live, at least, as many more. In the meantime, to trouble a +man's self with the thought of a thing so far off were folly. But what? +Young and old die upon the same terms; no one departs out of life +otherwise than if he had but just before entered into it; neither is any +man so old and decrepit, who, having heard of Methuselah, does not think +he has yet twenty good years to come. Fool that thou art! who has +assured unto thee the term of life? Thou dependest upon physicians' +tales: rather consult effects and experience. According to the common +course of things, 'tis long since that thou hast lived by extraordinary +favour; thou hast already outlived the ordinary term of life. And that +it is so, reckon up thy acquaintance, how many more have died before they +arrived at thy age than have attained unto it; and of those who have +ennobled their lives by their renown, take but an account, and I dare lay +a wager thou wilt find more who have died before than after five-and- +thirty years of age. It is full both of reason and piety, too, to take +example by the humanity of Jesus Christ Himself; now, He ended His life +at three-and-thirty years. The greatest man, that was no more than a +man, Alexander, died also at the same age. How many several ways has +death to surprise us? + + "Quid quisque, vitet, nunquam homini satis + Cautum est in horas." + + ["Be as cautious as he may, man can never foresee the danger that + may at any hour befal him."--Hor. O. ii. 13, 13.] + +To omit fevers and pleurisies, who would ever have imagined that a duke +of Brittany,--[Jean II. died 1305.]--should be pressed to death in a +crowd as that duke was at the entry of Pope Clement, my neighbour, into +Lyons?--[Montaigne speaks of him as if he had been a contemporary +neighbour, perhaps because he was the Archbishop of Bordeaux. Bertrand +le Got was Pope under the title of Clement V., 1305-14.]--Hast thou not +seen one of our kings--[Henry II., killed in a tournament, July 10, +1559]--killed at a tilting, and did not one of his ancestors die by +jostle of a hog?--[Philip, eldest son of Louis le Gros.]--AEschylus, +threatened with the fall of a house, was to much purpose circumspect to +avoid that danger, seeing that he was knocked on the head by a tortoise +falling out of an eagle's talons in the air. Another was choked with a +grape-stone;--[Val. Max., ix. 12, ext. 2.]--an emperor killed with +the scratch of a comb in combing his head. AEmilius Lepidus with a +stumble at his own threshold,--[Pliny, Nat. Hist., vii. 33.]--and +Aufidius with a jostle against the door as he entered the council- +chamber. And betwixt the very thighs of women, Cornelius Gallus the +proctor; Tigillinus, captain of the watch at Rome; Ludovico, son of Guido +di Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua; and (of worse example) Speusippus, a +Platonic philosopher, and one of our Popes. The poor judge Bebius gave +adjournment in a case for eight days; but he himself, meanwhile, was +condemned by death, and his own stay of life expired. Whilst Caius +Julius, the physician, was anointing the eyes of a patient, death closed +his own; and, if I may bring in an example of my own blood, a brother of +mine, Captain St. Martin, a young man, three-and-twenty years old, who +had already given sufficient testimony of his valour, playing a match at +tennis, received a blow of a ball a little above his right ear, which, as +it gave no manner of sign of wound or contusion, he took no notice of it, +nor so much as sat down to repose himself, but, nevertheless, died within +five or six hours after of an apoplexy occasioned by that blow. + +These so frequent and common examples passing every day before our eyes, +how is it possible a man should disengage himself from the thought of +death, or avoid fancying that it has us every moment by the throat? What +matter is it, you will say, which way it comes to pass, provided a man +does not terrify himself with the expectation? For my part, I am of this +mind, and if a man could by any means avoid it, though by creeping under +a calf's skin, I am one that should not be ashamed of the shift; all I +aim at is, to pass my time at my ease, and the recreations that will most +contribute to it, I take hold of, as little glorious and exemplary as you +will: + + "Praetulerim . . . delirus inersque videri, + Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant, + Quam sapere, et ringi." + + ["I had rather seem mad and a sluggard, so that my defects are + agreeable to myself, or that I am not painfully conscious of them, + than be wise, and chaptious."--Hor., Ep., ii. 2, 126.] + +But 'tis folly to think of doing anything that way. They go, they come, +they gallop and dance, and not a word of death. All this is very fine; +but withal, when it comes either to themselves, their wives, their +children, or friends, surprising them at unawares and unprepared, then, +what torment, what outcries, what madness and despair! Did you ever see +anything so subdued, so changed, and so confounded? A man must, +therefore, make more early provision for it; and this brutish negligence, +could it possibly lodge in the brain of any man of sense (which I think +utterly impossible), sells us its merchandise too dear. Were it an enemy +that could be avoided, I would then advise to borrow arms even of +cowardice itself; but seeing it is not, and that it will catch you as +well flying and playing the poltroon, as standing to't like an honest +man:-- + + "Nempe et fugacem persequitur virum, + Nec parcit imbellis juventae + Poplitibus timidoque tergo." + + ["He pursues the flying poltroon, nor spares the hamstrings of the + unwarlike youth who turns his back"--Hor., Ep., iii. 2, 14.] + +And seeing that no temper of arms is of proof to secure us:-- + + "Ille licet ferro cautus, se condat et aere, + Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput" + + ["Let him hide beneath iron or brass in his fear, death will pull + his head out of his armour."--Propertious iii. 18] + +--let us learn bravely to stand our ground, and fight him. And to begin +to deprive him of the greatest advantage he has over us, let us take a +way quite contrary to the common course. Let us disarm him of his +novelty and strangeness, let us converse and be familiar with him, and +have nothing so frequent in our thoughts as death. Upon all occasions +represent him to our imagination in his every shape; at the stumbling of +a horse, at the falling of a tile, at the least prick with a pin, let us +presently consider, and say to ourselves, "Well, and what if it had been +death itself?" and, thereupon, let us encourage and fortify ourselves. +Let us evermore, amidst our jollity and feasting, set the remembrance of +our frail condition before our eyes, never suffering ourselves to be so +far transported with our delights, but that we have some intervals of +reflecting upon, and considering how many several ways this jollity of +ours tends to death, and with how many dangers it threatens it. The +Egyptians were wont to do after this manner, who in the height of their +feasting and mirth, caused a dried skeleton of a man to be brought into +the room to serve for a memento to their guests: + + "Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum + Grata superveniet, quae non sperabitur, hora." + + ["Think each day when past is thy last; the next day, as unexpected, + will be the more welcome."--Hor., Ep., i. 4, 13.] + +Where death waits for us is uncertain; let us look for him everywhere. +The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has +learned to die has unlearned to serve. There is nothing evil in life for +him who rightly comprehends that the privation of life is no evil: to +know, how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint. Paulus +Emilius answered him whom the miserable King of Macedon, his prisoner, +sent to entreat him that he would not lead him in his triumph, "Let him +make that request to himself."--[ Plutarch, Life of Paulus Aemilius, +c. 17; Cicero, Tusc., v. 40.] + +In truth, in all things, if nature do not help a little, it is very hard +for art and industry to perform anything to purpose. I am in my own +nature not melancholic, but meditative; and there is nothing I have more +continually entertained myself withal than imaginations of death, even in +the most wanton time of my age: + + "Jucundum quum aetas florida ver ageret." + + ["When my florid age rejoiced in pleasant spring." + --Catullus, lxviii.] + +In the company of ladies, and at games, some have perhaps thought me +possessed with some jealousy, or the uncertainty of some hope, whilst I +was entertaining myself with the remembrance of some one, surprised, a +few days before, with a burning fever of which he died, returning from an +entertainment like this, with his head full of idle fancies of love and +jollity, as mine was then, and that, for aught I knew, the same-destiny +was attending me. + + "Jam fuerit, nec post unquam revocare licebit." + + ["Presently the present will have gone, never to be recalled." + Lucretius, iii. 928.] + +Yet did not this thought wrinkle my forehead any more than any other. +It is impossible but we must feel a sting in such imaginations as these, +at first; but with often turning and returning them in one's mind, they, +at last, become so familiar as to be no trouble at all: otherwise, I, for +my part, should be in a perpetual fright and frenzy; for never man was so +distrustful of his life, never man so uncertain as to its duration. +Neither health, which I have hitherto ever enjoyed very strong and +vigorous, and very seldom interrupted, does prolong, nor sickness +contract my hopes. Every minute, methinks, I am escaping, and it +eternally runs in my mind, that what may be done to-morrow, may be done +to-day. Hazards and dangers do, in truth, little or nothing hasten our +end; and if we consider how many thousands more remain and hang over our +heads, besides the accident that immediately threatens us, we shall find +that the sound and the sick, those that are abroad at sea, and those that +sit by the fire, those who are engaged in battle, and those who sit idle +at home, are the one as near it as the other. + + "Nemo altero fragilior est; nemo in crastinum sui certior." + + ["No man is more fragile than another: no man more certain than + another of to-morrow."--Seneca, Ep., 91.] + +For anything I have to do before I die, the longest leisure would appear +too short, were it but an hour's business I had to do. + +A friend of mine the other day turning over my tablets, found therein a +memorandum of something I would have done after my decease, whereupon I +told him, as it was really true, that though I was no more than a +league's distance only from my own house, and merry and well, yet when +that thing came into my head, I made haste to write it down there, +because I was not certain to live till I came home. As a man that am +eternally brooding over my own thoughts, and confine them to my own +particular concerns, I am at all hours as well prepared as I am ever like +to be, and death, whenever he shall come, can bring nothing along with +him I did not expect long before. We should always, as near as we can, +be booted and spurred, and ready to go, and, above all things, take care, +at that time, to have no business with any one but one's self:-- + + "Quid brevi fortes jaculamur avo + Multa?" + + ["Why for so short a life tease ourselves with so many projects?" + --Hor., Od., ii. 16, 17.] + +for we shall there find work enough to do, without any need of addition. +One man complains, more than of death, that he is thereby prevented of a +glorious victory; another, that he must die before he has married his +daughter, or educated his children; a third seems only troubled that he +must lose the society of his wife; a fourth, the conversation of his son, +as the principal comfort and concern of his being. For my part, I am, +thanks be to God, at this instant in such a condition, that I am ready to +dislodge, whenever it shall please Him, without regret for anything +whatsoever. I disengage myself throughout from all worldly relations; +my leave is soon taken of all but myself. Never did any one prepare to +bid adieu to the world more absolutely and unreservedly, and to shake +hands with all manner of interest in it, than I expect to do. The +deadest deaths are the best: + + "'Miser, O miser,' aiunt, 'omnia ademit + Una dies infesta mihi tot praemia vitae.'" + + ["'Wretch that I am,' they cry, 'one fatal day has deprived me of + all joys of life.'"--Lucretius, iii. 911.] + + +And the builder, + + "Manuet," says he, "opera interrupta, minaeque + Murorum ingentes." + + ["The works remain incomplete, the tall pinnacles of the walls + unmade."--AEneid, iv. 88.] + +A man must design nothing that will require so much time to the +finishing, or, at least, with no such passionate desire to see it brought +to perfection. We are born to action: + + "Quum moriar, medium solvar et inter opus." + + ["When I shall die, let it be doing that I had designed." + --Ovid, Amor., ii. 10, 36.] + +I would always have a man to be doing, and, as much as in him lies, to +extend and spin out the offices of life; and then let death take me +planting my cabbages, indifferent to him, and still less of my gardens +not being finished. I saw one die, who, at his last gasp, complained of +nothing so much as that destiny was about to cut the thread of a +chronicle he was then compiling, when he was gone no farther than the +fifteenth or sixteenth of our kings: + + "Illud in his rebus non addunt: nec tibi earum + jam desiderium rerum super insidet una." + + ["They do not add, that dying, we have no longer a desire to possess + things."--Lucretius, iii. 913.] + +We are to discharge ourselves from these vulgar and hurtful humours. +To this purpose it was that men first appointed the places of sepulture +adjoining the churches, and in the most frequented places of the city, to +accustom, says Lycurgus, the common people, women, and children, that +they should not be startled at the sight of a corpse, and to the end, +that the continual spectacle of bones, graves, and funeral obsequies +should put us in mind of our frail condition: + + "Quin etiam exhilarare viris convivia caede + Mos olim, et miscere epulis spectacula dira + Certantum ferro, saepe et super ipsa cadentum + Pocula, respersis non parco sanguine mensis." + + ["It was formerly the custom to enliven banquets with slaughter, and + to combine with the repast the dire spectacle of men contending with + the sword, the dying in many cases falling upon the cups, and + covering the tables with blood."--Silius Italicus, xi. 51.] + +And as the Egyptians after their feasts were wont to present the company +with a great image of death, by one that cried out to them, "Drink and be +merry, for such shalt thou be when thou art dead"; so it is my custom to +have death not only in my imagination, but continually in my mouth. +Neither is there anything of which I am so inquisitive, and delight to +inform myself, as the manner of men's deaths, their words, looks, and +bearing; nor any places in history I am so intent upon; and it is +manifest enough, by my crowding in examples of this kind, that I have a +particular fancy for that subject. If I were a writer of books, I would +compile a register, with a comment, of the various deaths of men: he who +should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live. +Dicarchus made one, to which he gave that title; but it was designed for +another and less profitable end. + +Peradventure, some one may object, that the pain and terror of dying so +infinitely exceed all manner of imagination, that the best fencer will be +quite out of his play when it comes to the push. Let them say what they +will: to premeditate is doubtless a very great advantage; and besides, is +it nothing to go so far, at least, without disturbance or alteration? +Moreover, Nature herself assists and encourages us: if the death be +sudden and violent, we have not leisure to fear; if otherwise, I perceive +that as I engage further in my disease, I naturally enter into a certain +loathing and disdain of life. I find I have much more ado to digest this +resolution of dying, when I am well in health, than when languishing of a +fever; and by how much I have less to do with the commodities of life, +by reason that I begin to lose the use and pleasure of them, by so much I +look upon death with less terror. Which makes me hope, that the further +I remove from the first, and the nearer I approach to the latter, I shall +the more easily exchange the one for the other. And, as I have +experienced in other occurrences, that, as Caesar says, things often +appear greater to us at distance than near at hand, I have found, that +being well, I have had maladies in much greater horror than when really +afflicted with them. The vigour wherein I now am, the cheerfulness and +delight wherein I now live, make the contrary estate appear in so great a +disproportion to my present condition, that, by imagination, I magnify +those inconveniences by one-half, and apprehend them to be much more +troublesome, than I find them really to be, when they lie the most heavy +upon me; I hope to find death the same. + +Let us but observe in the ordinary changes and declinations we daily +suffer, how nature deprives us of the light and sense of our bodily +decay. What remains to an old man of the vigour of his youth and better +days? + + "Heu! senibus vitae portio quanta manet." + + ["Alas, to old men what portion of life remains!"---Maximian, vel + Pseudo-Gallus, i. 16.] + +Caesar, to an old weather-beaten soldier of his guards, who came to ask +him leave that he might kill himself, taking notice of his withered body +and decrepit motion, pleasantly answered, "Thou fanciest, then, that thou +art yet alive."--[Seneca, Ep., 77.]--Should a man fall into this +condition on the sudden, I do not think humanity capable of enduring such +a change: but nature, leading us by the hand, an easy and, as it were, an +insensible pace, step by step conducts us to that miserable state, and by +that means makes it familiar to us, so that we are insensible of the +stroke when our youth dies in us, though it be really a harder death than +the final dissolution of a languishing body, than the death of old age; +forasmuch as the fall is not so great from an uneasy being to none at +all, as it is from a sprightly and flourishing being to one that is +troublesome and painful. The body, bent and bowed, has less force to +support a burden; and it is the same with the soul, and therefore it is, +that we are to raise her up firm and erect against the power of this +adversary. For, as it is impossible she should ever be at rest, whilst +she stands in fear of it; so, if she once can assure herself, she may +boast (which is a thing as it were surpassing human condition) that it is +impossible that disquiet, anxiety, or fear, or any other disturbance, +should inhabit or have any place in her: + + "Non vulnus instants Tyranni + Mentha cadi solida, neque Auster + Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae, + Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus." + + ["Not the menacing look of a tyrant shakes her well-settled soul, + nor turbulent Auster, the prince of the stormy Adriatic, nor yet the + strong hand of thundering Jove, such a temper moves." + --Hor., Od., iii. 3, 3.] + +She is then become sovereign of all her lusts and passions, mistress of +necessity, shame, poverty, and all the other injuries of fortune. Let +us, therefore, as many of us as can, get this advantage; 'tis the true +and sovereign liberty here on earth, that fortifies us wherewithal to +defy violence and injustice, and to contemn prisons and chains: + + "In manicis et + Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo. + Ipse Deus, simul atque volam, me solvet. Opinor, + Hoc sentit; moriar; mors ultima linea rerum est." + + ["I will keep thee in fetters and chains, in custody of a + savage keeper.--A god will when I ask Him, set me free. + This god I think is death. Death is the term of all things." + --Hor., Ep., i. 16, 76.] + +Our very religion itself has no surer human foundation than the contempt +of death. Not only the argument of reason invites us to it--for why +should we fear to lose a thing, which being lost, cannot be lamented?-- +but, also, seeing we are threatened by so many sorts of death, is it not +infinitely worse eternally to fear them all, than once to undergo one of +them? And what matters it, when it shall happen, since it is inevitable? +To him that told Socrates, "The thirty tyrants have sentenced thee to +death"; "And nature them," said he.--[Socrates was not condemned to death +by the thirty tyrants, but by the Athenians.-Diogenes Laertius, ii.35.]-- +What a ridiculous thing it is to trouble ourselves about taking the only +step that is to deliver us from all trouble! As our birth brought us the +birth of all things, so in our death is the death of all things included. +And therefore to lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence, +is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago. +Death is the beginning of another life. So did we weep, and so much it +cost us to enter into this, and so did we put off our former veil in +entering into it. Nothing can be a grievance that is but once. Is it +reasonable so long to fear a thing that will so soon be despatched? +Long life, and short, are by death made all one; for there is no long, +nor short, to things that are no more. Aristotle tells us that there are +certain little beasts upon the banks of the river Hypanis, that never +live above a day: they which die at eight of the clock in the morning, +die in their youth, and those that die at five in the evening, in their +decrepitude: which of us would not laugh to see this moment of +continuance put into the consideration of weal or woe? The most and the +least, of ours, in comparison with eternity, or yet with the duration of +mountains, rivers, stars, trees, and even of some animals, is no less +ridiculous.--[ Seneca, Consol. ad Marciam, c. 20.] + +But nature compels us to it. "Go out of this world," says she, "as you +entered into it; the same pass you made from death to life, without +passion or fear, the same, after the same manner, repeat from life to +death. Your death is a part of the order of the universe, 'tis a part of +the life of the world. + + "Inter se mortales mutua vivunt + ................................ + Et, quasi cursores, vitai lampada tradunt." + + ["Mortals, amongst themselves, live by turns, and, like the runners + in the games, give up the lamp, when they have won the race, to the + next comer.--"Lucretius, ii. 75, 78.] + +"Shall I exchange for you this beautiful contexture of things? 'Tis the +condition of your creation; death is a part of you, and whilst you +endeavour to evade it, you evade yourselves. This very being of yours +that you now enjoy is equally divided betwixt life and death. The day of +your birth is one day's advance towards the grave: + + "Prima, qux vitam dedit, hora carpsit." + + ["The first hour that gave us life took away also an hour." + --Seneca, Her. Fur., 3 Chor. 874.] + + "Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet." + + ["As we are born we die, and the end commences with the beginning." + --Manilius, Ast., iv. 16.] + +"All the whole time you live, you purloin from life and live at the +expense of life itself. The perpetual work of your life is but to lay +the foundation of death. You are in death, whilst you are in life, +because you still are after death, when you are no more alive; or, if you +had rather have it so, you are dead after life, but dying all the while +you live; and death handles the dying much more rudely than the dead, and +more sensibly and essentially. If you have made your profit of life, you +have had enough of it; go your way satisfied. + + "Cur non ut plenus vita; conviva recedis?" + + ["Why not depart from life as a sated guest from a feast? + "Lucretius, iii. 951.] + +"If you have not known how to make the best use of it, if it was +unprofitable to you, what need you care to lose it, to what end would you +desire longer to keep it? + + "'Cur amplius addere quaeris, + Rursum quod pereat male, et ingratum occidat omne?' + + ["Why seek to add longer life, merely to renew ill-spent time, and + be again tormented?"--Lucretius, iii. 914.] + +"Life in itself is neither good nor evil; it is the scene of good or evil +as you make it.' And, if you have lived a day, you have seen all: one day +is equal and like to all other days. There is no other light, no other +shade; this very sun, this moon, these very stars, this very order and +disposition of things, is the same your ancestors enjoyed, and that shall +also entertain your posterity: + + "'Non alium videre patres, aliumve nepotes + Aspicient.' + + ["Your grandsires saw no other thing; nor will your posterity." + --Manilius, i. 529.] + +"And, come the worst that can come, the distribution and variety of all +the acts of my comedy are performed in a year. If you have observed the +revolution of my four seasons, they comprehend the infancy, the youth, +the virility, and the old age of the world: the year has played his part, +and knows no other art but to begin again; it will always be the same +thing: + + "'Versamur ibidem, atque insumus usque.' + + ["We are turning in the same circle, ever therein confined." + --Lucretius, iii. 1093.] + + "'Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.' + + ["The year is ever turning around in the same footsteps." + --Virgil, Georg., ii. 402.] + +"I am not prepared to create for you any new recreations: + + "'Nam tibi prxterea quod machiner, inveniamque + Quod placeat, nihil est; eadem sunt omnia semper.' + + ["I can devise, nor find anything else to please you: 'tis the same + thing over and over again."--Lucretius iii. 957] + +"Give place to others, as others have given place to you. Equality is +the soul of equity. Who can complain of being comprehended in the same +destiny, wherein all are involved? Besides, live as long as you can, you +shall by that nothing shorten the space you are to be dead; 'tis all to +no purpose; you shall be every whit as long in the condition you so much +fear, as if you had died at nurse: + + "'Licet quot vis vivendo vincere secla, + Mors aeterna tamen nihilominus illa manebit.' + + ["Live triumphing over as many ages as you will, death still will + remain eternal."--Lucretius, iii. 1103] + +"And yet I will place you in such a condition as you shall have no reason +to be displeased. + + "'In vera nescis nullum fore morte alium te, + Qui possit vivus tibi to lugere peremptum, + Stansque jacentem.' + + ["Know you not that, when dead, there can be no other living self to + lament you dead, standing on your grave."--Idem., ibid., 898.] + +"Nor shall you so much as wish for the life you are so concerned about: + + "'Nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitamque requirit. + .................................................. + "'Nec desiderium nostri nos afficit ullum.' + +"Death is less to be feared than nothing, if there could be anything less +than nothing. + + "'Multo . . . mortem minus ad nos esse putandium, + Si minus esse potest, quam quod nihil esse videmus.' + +"Neither can it any way concern you, whether you are living or dead: +living, by reason that you are still in being; dead, because you are no +more. Moreover, no one dies before his hour: the time you leave behind +was no more yours than that was lapsed and gone before you came into the +world; nor does it any more concern you. + + "'Respice enim, quam nil ad nos anteacta vetustas + Temporis aeterni fuerit.' + + ["Consider how as nothing to us is the old age of times past." + --Lucretius iii. 985] + +Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The utility of living consists +not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived +long, and yet lived but a little. Make use of time while it is present +with you. It depends upon your will, and not upon the number of days, to +have a sufficient length of life. Is it possible you can imagine never +to arrive at the place towards which you are continually going? and yet +there is no journey but hath its end. And, if company will make it more +pleasant or more easy to you, does not all the world go the self-same +way? + + "'Omnia te, vita perfuncta, sequentur.' + + ["All things, then, life over, must follow thee." + --Lucretius, iii. 981.] + +"Does not all the world dance the same brawl that you do? Is there +anything that does not grow old, as well as you? A thousand men, a +thousand animals, a thousand other creatures, die at the same moment that +you die: + + "'Nam nox nulla diem, neque noctem aurora sequuta est, + Quae non audierit mistos vagitibus aegris + Ploratus, mortis comites et funeris atri.' + + ["No night has followed day, no day has followed night, in which + there has not been heard sobs and sorrowing cries, the companions of + death and funerals."--Lucretius, v. 579.] + +"To what end should you endeavour to draw back, if there be no +possibility to evade it? you have seen examples enough of those who have +been well pleased to die, as thereby delivered from heavy miseries; but +have you ever found any who have been dissatisfied with dying? It must, +therefore, needs be very foolish to condemn a thing you have neither +experimented in your own person, nor by that of any other. Why dost thou +complain of me and of destiny? Do we do thee any wrong? Is it for thee +to govern us, or for us to govern thee? Though, peradventure, thy age +may not be accomplished, yet thy life is: a man of low stature is as much +a man as a giant; neither men nor their lives are measured by the ell. +Chiron refused to be immortal, when he was acquainted with the conditions +under which he was to enjoy it, by the god of time itself and its +duration, his father Saturn. Do but seriously consider how much more +insupportable and painful an immortal life would be to man than what I +have already given him. If you had not death, you would eternally curse +me for having deprived you of it; I have mixed a little bitterness with +it, to the end, that seeing of what convenience it is, you might not too +greedily and indiscreetly seek and embrace it: and that you might be so +established in this moderation, as neither to nauseate life, nor have any +antipathy for dying, which I have decreed you shall once do, I have +tempered the one and the other betwixt pleasure and pain. It was I that +taught Thales, the most eminent of your sages, that to live and to die +were indifferent; which made him, very wisely, answer him, 'Why then he +did not die?' 'Because,' said he, 'it is indifferent.'--[Diogenes +Laertius, i. 35.]--Water, earth, air, and fire, and the other parts of +this creation of mine, are no more instruments of thy life than they are +of thy death. Why dost thou fear thy last day? it contributes no more to +thy dissolution, than every one of the rest: the last step is not the +cause of lassitude: it does not confess it. Every day travels towards +death; the last only arrives at it." These are the good lessons our +mother Nature teaches. + +I have often considered with myself whence it should proceed, that in war +the image of death, whether we look upon it in ourselves or in others, +should, without comparison, appear less dreadful than at home in our own +houses (for if it were not so, it would be an army of doctors and whining +milksops), and that being still in all places the same, there should be, +notwithstanding, much more assurance in peasants and the meaner sort of +people, than in others of better quality. I believe, in truth, that it +is those terrible ceremonies and preparations wherewith we set it out, +that more terrify us than the thing itself; a new, quite contrary way of +living; the cries of mothers, wives, and children; the visits of +astounded and afflicted friends; the attendance of pale and blubbering +servants; a dark room, set round with burning tapers; our beds environed +with physicians and divines; in sum, nothing but ghostliness and horror +round about us; we seem dead and buried already. Children are afraid +even of those they are best acquainted with, when disguised in a visor; +and so 'tis with us; the visor must be removed as well from things as +from persons, that being taken away, we shall find nothing underneath but +the very same death that a mean servant or a poor chambermaid died a day +or two ago, without any manner of apprehension. Happy is the death that +deprives us of leisure for preparing such ceremonials. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +OF THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION + + "Fortis imaginatio generat casum," say the schoolmen. + + ["A strong imagination begets the event itself."--Axiom. Scholast.] + +I am one of those who are most sensible of the power of imagination: +every one is jostled by it, but some are overthrown by it. It has a very +piercing impression upon me; and I make it my business to avoid, wanting +force to resist it. I could live by the sole help of healthful and jolly +company: the very sight of another's pain materially pains me, and I +often usurp the sensations of another person. A perpetual cough in +another tickles my lungs and throat. I more unwillingly visit the sick +in whom by love and duty I am interested, than those I care not for, to +whom I less look. I take possession of the disease I am concerned at, +and take it to myself. I do not at all wonder that fancy should give +fevers and sometimes kill such as allow it too much scope, and are too +willing to entertain it. Simon Thomas was a great physician of his time: +I remember, that happening one day at Toulouse to meet him at a rich old +fellow's house, who was troubled with weak lungs, and discoursing with +the patient about the method of his cure, he told him, that one thing +which would be very conducive to it, was to give me such occasion to be +pleased with his company, that I might come often to see him, by which +means, and by fixing his eyes upon the freshness of my complexion, and +his imagination upon the sprightliness and vigour that glowed in my +youth, and possessing all his senses with the flourishing age wherein I +then was, his habit of body might, peradventure, be amended; but he +forgot to say that mine, at the same time, might be made worse. Gallus +Vibius so much bent his mind to find out the essence and motions of +madness, that, in the end, he himself went out of his wits, and to such a +degree, that he could never after recover his judgment, and might brag +that he was become a fool by too much wisdom. Some there are who through +fear anticipate the hangman; and there was the man, whose eyes being +unbound to have his pardon read to him, was found stark dead upon the +scaffold, by the stroke of imagination. We start, tremble, turn pale, +and blush, as we are variously moved by imagination; and, being a-bed, +feel our bodies agitated with its power to that degree, as even sometimes +to expiring. And boiling youth, when fast asleep, grows so warm with +fancy, as in a dream to satisfy amorous desires:-- + + "Ut, quasi transactis saepe omnibu rebu, profundant + Fluminis ingentes, fluctus, vestemque cruentent." + +Although it be no new thing to see horns grown in a night on the forehead +of one that had none when he went to bed, notwithstanding, what befell +Cippus, King of Italy, is memorable; who having one day been a very +delighted spectator of a bullfight, and having all the night dreamed that +he had horns on his head, did, by the force of imagination, really cause +them to grow there. Passion gave to the son of Croesus the voice which +nature had denied him. And Antiochus fell into a fever, inflamed with +the beauty of Stratonice, too deeply imprinted in his soul. Pliny +pretends to have seen Lucius Cossitius, who from a woman was turned into +a man upon her very wedding-day. Pontanus and others report the like +metamorphosis to have happened in these latter days in Italy. And, +through the vehement desire of him and his mother: + + "Volta puer solvit, quae foemina voverat, Iphis." + +Myself passing by Vitry le Francois, saw a man the Bishop of Soissons +had, in confirmation, called Germain, whom all the inhabitants of the +place had known to be a girl till two-and-twenty years of age, called +Mary. He was, at the time of my being there, very full of beard, old, +and not married. He told us, that by straining himself in a leap his +male organs came out; and the girls of that place have, to this day, a +song, wherein they advise one another not to take too great strides, for +fear of being turned into men, as Mary Germain was. It is no wonder if +this sort of accident frequently happen; for if imagination have any +power in such things, it is so continually and vigorously bent upon this +subject, that to the end it may not so often relapse into the same +thought and violence of desire, it were better, once for all, to give +these young wenches the things they long for. + +Some attribute the scars of King Dagobert and of St. Francis to the force +of imagination. It is said, that by it bodies will sometimes be removed +from their places; and Celsus tells us of a priest whose soul would be +ravished into such an ecstasy that the body would, for a long time, +remain without sense or respiration. St. Augustine makes mention of +another, who, upon the hearing of any lamentable or doleful cries, would +presently fall into a swoon, and be so far out of himself, that it was in +vain to call, bawl in his ears, pinch or burn him, till he voluntarily +came to himself; and then he would say, that he had heard voices as it +were afar off, and did feel when they pinched and burned him; and, to +prove that this was no obstinate dissimulation in defiance of his sense +of feeling, it was manifest, that all the while he had neither pulse nor +breathing. + +'Tis very probable, that visions, enchantments, and all extraordinary +effects of that nature, derive their credit principally from the power of +imagination, working and making its chiefest impression upon vulgar and +more easy souls, whose belief is so strangely imposed upon, as to think +they see what they do not see. + +I am not satisfied whether those pleasant ligatures--[Les nouements +d'aiguillettes, as they were called, knots tied by some one, at a +wedding, on a strip of leather, cotton, or silk, and which, especially +when passed through the wedding-ring, were supposed to have the magical +effect of preventing a consummation of the marriage until they were +untied. See Louandre, La Sorcellerie, 1853, p. 73. The same +superstition and appliance existed in England.]--with which this age of +ours is so occupied, that there is almost no other talk, are not mere +voluntary impressions of apprehension and fear; for I know, by +experience, in the case of a particular friend of mine, one for whom I +can be as responsible as for myself, and a man that cannot possibly fall +under any manner of suspicion of insufficiency, and as little of being +enchanted, who having heard a companion of his make a relation of an +unusual frigidity that surprised him at a very unseasonable time; being +afterwards himself engaged upon the same account, the horror of the +former story on a sudden so strangely possessed his imagination, that he +ran the same fortune the other had done; and from that time forward, the +scurvy remembrance of his disaster running in his mind and tyrannising +over him, he was subject to relapse into the same misfortune. He found +some remedy, however, for this fancy in another fancy, by himself frankly +confessing and declaring beforehand to the party with whom he was to have +to do, this subjection of his, by which means, the agitation of his soul +was, in some sort, appeased; and knowing that, now, some such +misbehaviour was expected from him, the restraint upon his faculties grew +less. And afterwards, at such times as he was in no such apprehension, +when setting about the act (his thoughts being then disengaged and free, +and his body in its true and natural estate) he was at leisure to cause +the part to be handled and communicated to the knowledge of the other +party, he was totally freed from that vexatious infirmity. After a man +has once done a woman right, he is never after in danger of misbehaving +himself with that person, unless upon the account of some excusable +weakness. Neither is this disaster to be feared, but in adventures, +where the soul is overextended with desire or respect, and, especially, +where the opportunity is of an unforeseen and pressing nature; in those +cases, there is no means for a man to defend himself from such a +surprise, as shall put him altogether out of sorts. I have known some, +who have secured themselves from this mischance, by coming half sated +elsewhere, purposely to abate the ardour of the fury, and others, who, +being grown old, find themselves less impotent by being less able; and +one, who found an advantage in being assured by a friend of his, that he +had a counter-charm of enchantments that would secure him from this +disgrace. The story itself is not, much amiss, and therefore you shall +have it. + +A Count of a very great family, and with whom I was very intimate, being +married to a fair lady, who had formerly been courted by one who was at +the wedding, all his friends were in very great fear; but especially an +old lady his kinswoman, who had the ordering of the solemnity, and in +whose house it was kept, suspecting his rival would offer foul play by +these sorceries. Which fear she communicated to me. I bade her rely +upon me: I had, by chance, about me a certain flat plate of gold, whereon +were graven some celestial figures, supposed good against sunstroke or +pains in the head, being applied to the suture: where, that it might the +better remain firm, it was sewed to a ribbon to be tied under the chin; a +foppery cousin-german to this of which I am speaking. Jaques Pelletier, +who lived in my house, had presented this to me for a singular rarity. +I had a fancy to make some use of this knack, and therefore privately +told the Count, that he might possibly run the same fortune other +bridegrooms had sometimes done, especially some one being in the house, +who, no doubt, would be glad to do him such a courtesy: but let him +boldly go to bed. For I would do him the office of a friend, and, if +need were, would not spare a miracle it was in my power to do, provided +he would engage to me, upon his honour, to keep it to himself; and only, +when they came to bring him his caudle,--[A custom in France to bring the +bridegroom a caudle in the middle of the night on his wedding-night]-- +if matters had not gone well with him, to give me such a sign, and leave +the rest to me. Now he had had his ears so battered, and his mind so +prepossessed with the eternal tattle of this business, that when he came +to't, he did really find himself tied with the trouble of his +imagination, and, accordingly, at the time appointed, gave me the sign. +Whereupon, I whispered him in the ear, that he should rise, under +pretence of putting us out of the room, and after a jesting manner pull +my nightgown from my shoulders--we were of much about the same height-- +throw it over his own, and there keep it till he had performed what I had +appointed him to do, which was, that when we were all gone out of the +chamber, he should withdraw to make water, should three times repeat such +and such words, and as often do such and such actions; that at every of +the three times, he should tie the ribbon I put into his hand about his +middle, and be sure to place the medal that was fastened to it, the +figures in such a posture, exactly upon his reins, which being done, and +having the last of the three times so well girt and fast tied the ribbon +that it could neither untie nor slip from its place, let him confidently +return to his business, and withal not forget to spread my gown upon the +bed, so that it might be sure to cover them both. These ape's tricks are +the main of the effect, our fancy being so far seduced as to believe that +such strange means must, of necessity, proceed from some abstruse +science: their very inanity gives them weight and reverence. And, +certain it is, that my figures approved themselves more venereal than +solar, more active than prohibitive. 'Twas a sudden whimsey, mixed with +a little curiosity, that made me do a thing so contrary to my nature; for +I am an enemy to all subtle and counterfeit actions, and abominate all +manner of trickery, though it be for sport, and to an advantage; for +though the action may not be vicious in itself, its mode is vicious. + +Amasis, King of Egypt, having married Laodice, a very beautiful Greek +virgin, though noted for his abilities elsewhere, found himself quite +another man with his wife, and could by no means enjoy her; at which he +was so enraged, that he threatened to kill her, suspecting her to be a +witch. As 'tis usual in things that consist in fancy, she put him upon +devotion, and having accordingly made his vows to Venus, he found himself +divinely restored the very first night after his oblations and +sacrifices. Now women are to blame to entertain us with that disdainful, +coy, and angry countenance, which extinguishes our vigour, as it kindles +our desire; which made the daughter-in-law of Pythagoras--[Theano, the +lady in question was the wife, not the daughter-in-law of Pythagoras.]-- +say, "That the woman who goes to bed to a man, must put off her modesty +with her petticoat, and put it on again with the same." The soul of the +assailant, being disturbed with many several alarms, readily loses the +power of performance; and whoever the imagination has once put this trick +upon, and confounded with the shame of it (and she never does it but at +the first acquaintance, by reason men are then more ardent and eager, and +also, at this first account a man gives of himself, he is much more +timorous of miscarrying), having made an ill beginning, he enters into +such fever and despite at the accident, as are apt to remain and continue +with him upon following occasions. + +Married people, having all their time before them, ought never to compel +or so much as to offer at the feat, if they do not find themselves quite +ready: and it is less unseemly to fail of handselling the nuptial sheets, +when a man perceives himself full of agitation and trembling, and to +await another opportunity at more private and more composed leisure, than +to make himself perpetually miserable, for having misbehaved himself and +been baffled at the first assault. Till possession be taken, a man that +knows himself subject to this infirmity, should leisurely and by degrees +make several little trials and light offers, without obstinately +attempting at once, to Force an absolute conquest over his own mutinous +and indisposed faculties. Such as know their members to be naturally +obedient, need take no other care but only to counterplot their +fantasies. + +The indocile liberty of this member is very remarkable, so importunately +unruly in its tumidity and impatience, when we do not require it, and so +unseasonably disobedient, when we stand most in need of it: so +imperiously contesting in authority with the will, and with so much +haughty obstinacy denying all solicitation, both of hand and mind. And +yet, though his rebellion is so universally complained of, and that proof +is thence deduced to condemn him, if he had, nevertheless, feed me to +plead his cause, I should peradventure, bring the rest of his fellow- +members into suspicion of complotting this mischief against him, out of +pure envy at the importance and pleasure especial to his employment; and +to have, by confederacy, armed the whole world against him, by +malevolently charging him alone, with their common offence. For let any +one consider, whether there is any one part of our bodies that does not +often refuse to perform its office at the precept of the will, and that +does not often exercise its function in defiance of her command. They +have every one of them passions of their own, that rouse and awaken, +stupefy and benumb them, without our leave or consent. How often do the +involuntary motions of the countenance discover our inward thoughts, and +betray our most private secrets to the bystanders. The same cause that +animates this member, does also, without our knowledge, animate the +lungs, pulse, and heart, the sight of a pleasing object imperceptibly +diffusing a flame through all our parts, with a feverish motion. Is +there nothing but these veins and muscles that swell and flag without the +consent, not only of the will, but even of our knowledge also? We do not +command our hairs to stand on end, nor our skin to shiver either with +fear or desire; the hands often convey themselves to parts to which we do +not direct them; the tongue will be interdict, and the voice congealed, +when we know not how to help it. When we have nothing to eat, and would +willingly forbid it, the appetite does not, for all that, forbear to stir +up the parts that are subject to it, no more nor less than the other +appetite we were speaking of, and in like manner, as unseasonably leaves +us, when it thinks fit. The vessels that serve to discharge the belly +have their own proper dilatations and compressions, without and beyond +our concurrence, as well as those which are destined to purge the reins; +and that which, to justify the prerogative of the will, St. Augustine +urges, of having seen a man who could command his rear to discharge as +often together as he pleased, Vives, his commentator, yet further +fortifies with another example in his time,--of one that could break wind +in tune; but these cases do not suppose any more pure obedience in that +part; for is anything commonly more tumultuary or indiscreet? To which +let me add, that I myself knew one so rude and ungoverned, as for forty +years together made his master vent with one continued and unintermitted +outbursting, and 'tis like will do so till he die of it. And I could +heartily wish, that I only knew by reading, how often a man's belly, by +the denial of one single puff, brings him to the very door of an +exceeding painful death; and that the emperor,--[The Emperor Claudius, +who, however, according to Suetonius (Vita, c. 32), only intended to +authorise this singular privilege by an edict.]--who gave liberty to let +fly in all places, had, at the same time, given us power to do it. But +for our will, in whose behalf we prefer this accusation, with how much +greater probability may we reproach herself with mutiny and sedition, for +her irregularity and disobedience? Does she always will what we would +have her to do? Does she not often will what we forbid her to will, and +that to our manifest prejudice? Does she suffer herself, more than any +of the rest, to be governed and directed by the results of our reason? +To conclude, I should move, in the behalf of the gentleman, my client, it +might be considered, that in this fact, his cause being inseparably and +indistinctly conjoined with an accessory, yet he only is called in +question, and that by arguments and accusations, which cannot be charged +upon the other; whose business, indeed, it is sometimes inopportunely to +invite, but never to refuse, and invite, moreover, after a tacit and +quiet manner; and therefore is the malice and injustice of his accusers +most manifestly apparent. But be it how it will, protesting against the +proceedings of the advocates and judges, nature will, in the meantime, +proceed after her own way, who had done but well, had she endowed this +member with some particular privilege; the author of the sole immortal +work of mortals; a divine work, according to Socrates; and love, the +desire of immortality, and himself an immortal demon. + +Some one, perhaps, by such an effect of imagination may have had the good +luck to leave behind him here, the scrofula, which his companion who has +come after, has carried with him into Spain. And 'tis for this reason +you may see why men in such cases require a mind prepared for the thing +that is to be done. Why do the physicians possess, before hand, their +patients' credulity with so many false promises of cure, if not to the +end, that the effect of imagination may supply the imposture of their +decoctions? They know very well, that a great master of their trade has +given it under his hand, that he has known some with whom the very sight +of physic would work. All which conceits come now into my head, by the +remembrance of a story was told me by a domestic apothecary of my +father's, a blunt Swiss, a nation not much addicted to vanity and lying, +of a merchant he had long known at Toulouse, who being a valetudinary, +and much afflicted with the stone, had often occasion to take clysters, +of which he caused several sorts to be prescribed him by the physicians, +acccording to the accidents of his disease; which, being brought him, and +none of the usual forms, as feeling if it were not too hot, and the like, +being omitted, he lay down, the syringe advanced, and all ceremonies +performed, injection alone excepted; after which, the apothecary being +gone, and the patient accommodated as if he had really received a +clyster, he found the same operation and effect that those do who have +taken one indeed; and if at any time the physician did not find the +operation sufficient, he would usually give him two or three more doses, +after the same manner. And the fellow swore, that to save charges (for +he paid as if he had really taken them) this sick man's wife, having +sometimes made trial of warm water only, the effect discovered the cheat, +and finding these would do no good, was fain to return to the old way. + +A woman fancying she had swallowed a pin in a piece of bread, cried and +lamented as though she had an intolerable pain in her throat, where she +thought she felt it stick; but an ingenious fellow that was brought to +her, seeing no outward tumour nor alteration, supposing it to be only a +conceit taken at some crust of bread that had hurt her as it went down, +caused her to vomit, and, unseen, threw a crooked pin into the basin, +which the woman no sooner saw, but believing she had cast it up, she +presently found herself eased of her pain. I myself knew a gentleman, +who having treated a large company at his house, three or four days after +bragged in jest (for there was no such thing), that he had made them eat +of a baked cat; at which, a young gentlewoman, who had been at the feast, +took such a horror, that falling into a violent vomiting and fever, there +was no possible means to save her. Even brute beasts are subject to the +force of imagination as well as we; witness dogs, who die of grief for +the loss of their masters; and bark and tremble and start in their sleep; +so horses will kick and whinny in their sleep. + +Now all this may be attributed to the close affinity and relation betwixt +the soul and the body intercommunicating their fortunes; but 'tis quite +another thing when the imagination works not only upon one's own +particular body, but upon that of others also. And as an infected body +communicates its malady to those that approach or live near it, as we see +in the plague, the smallpox, and sore eyes, that run through whole +families and cities:-- + + "Dum spectant oculi laesos, laeduntur et ipsi; + Multaque corporibus transitione nocent." + + ["When we look at people with sore eyes, our own eyes become sore. + Many things are hurtful to our bodies by transition." + --Ovid, De Rem. Amor., 615.] + +--so the imagination, being vehemently agitated, darts out infection +capable of offending the foreign object. The ancients had an opinion of +certain women of Scythia, that being animated and enraged against any +one, they killed him only with their looks. Tortoises and ostriches +hatch their eggs with only looking on them, which infers that their eyes +have in them some ejaculative virtue. And the eyes of witches are said +to be assailant and hurtful:-- + + "Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos." + + ["Some eye, I know not whose is bewitching my tender lambs." + --Virgil, Eclog., iii. 103.] + +Magicians are no very good authority with me. But we experimentally see +that women impart the marks of their fancy to the children they carry in +the womb; witness her that was brought to bed of a Moor; and there was +presented to Charles the Emperor and King of Bohemia, a girl from about +Pisa, all over rough and covered with hair, whom her mother said to be so +conceived by reason of a picture of St. John the Baptist, that hung +within the curtains of her bed. + +It is the same with beasts; witness Jacob's sheep, and the hares and +partridges that the snow turns white upon the mountains. There was at my +house, a little while ago, a cat seen watching a bird upon the top of a +tree: these, for some time, mutually fixing their eyes one upon another, +the bird at last let herself fall dead into the cat's claws, either +dazzled by the force of its own imagination, or drawn by some attractive +power of the cat. Such as are addicted to the pleasures of the field, +have, I make no question, heard the story of the falconer, who having +earnestly fixed his eyes upon a kite in the air; laid a wager that he +would bring her down with the sole power of his sight, and did so, as it +was said; for the tales I borrow I charge upon the consciences of those +from whom I have them. The discourses are my own, and found themselves +upon the proofs of reason, not of experience; to which every one has +liberty to add his own examples; and who has none, let him not forbear, +the number and varieties of accidents considered, to believe that there +are plenty of them; if I do not apply them well, let some other do it for +me. And, also, in the subject of which I treat, our manners and motions, +testimonies and instances; how fabulous soever, provided they are +possible, serve as well as the true; whether they have really happened or +no, at Rome or Paris, to John or Peter, 'tis still within the verge of +human capacity, which serves me to good use. I see, and make my +advantage of it, as well in shadow as in substance; and amongst the +various readings thereof in history, I cull out the most rare and +memorable to fit my own turn. There are authors whose only end and +design it is to give an account of things that have happened; mine, if I +could arrive unto it, should be to deliver of what may happen. There is +a just liberty allowed in the schools, of supposing similitudes, when +they have none at hand. I do not, however, make any use of that +privilege, and as to that matter, in superstitious religion, surpass all +historical authority. In the examples which I here bring in, of what I +have heard, read, done, or said, I have forbidden myself to dare to alter +even the most light and indifferent circumstances; my conscience does not +falsify one tittle; what my ignorance may do, I cannot say. + +And this it is that makes me sometimes doubt in my own mind, whether a +divine, or a philosopher, and such men of exact and tender prudence and +conscience, are fit to write history: for how can they stake their +reputation upon a popular faith? how be responsible for the opinions of +men they do not know? and with what assurance deliver their conjectures +for current pay? Of actions performed before their own eyes, wherein +several persons were actors, they would be unwilling to give evidence +upon oath before a judge; and there is no man, so familiarly known to +them, for whose intentions they would become absolute caution. For my +part, I think it less hazardous to write of things past, than present, by +how much the writer is only to give an account of things every one knows +he must of necessity borrow upon trust. + +I am solicited to write the affairs of my own time by some, who fancy I +look upon them with an eye less blinded with passion than another, and +have a clearer insight into them by reason of the free access fortune has +given me to the heads of various factions; but they do not consider, that +to purchase the glory of Sallust, I would not give myself the trouble, +sworn enemy as I am to obligation, assiduity, or perseverance: that there +is nothing so contrary to my style, as a continued narrative, I so often +interrupt and cut myself short in my writing for want of breath; I have +neither composition nor explanation worth anything, and am ignorant, +beyond a child, of the phrases and even the very words proper to express +the most common things; and for that reason it is, that I have undertaken +to say only what I can say, and have accommodated my subject to my +strength. Should I take one to be my guide, peradventure I should not be +able to keep pace with him; and in the freedom of my liberty might +deliver judgments, which upon better thoughts, and according to reason, +would be illegitimate and punishable. Plutarch would say of what he has +delivered to us, that it is the work of others: that his examples are all +and everywhere exactly true: that they are useful to posterity, and are +presented with a lustre that will light us the way to virtue, is his own +work. It is not of so dangerous consequence, as in a medicinal drug, +whether an old story be so or so. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THAT THE PROFIT OF ONE MAN IS THE DAMAGE OF ANOTHER + +Demades the Athenian--[Seneca, De Beneficiis, vi. 38, whence nearly the +whole of this chapter is taken.]--condemned one of his city, whose trade +it was to sell the necessaries for funeral ceremonies, upon pretence that +he demanded unreasonable profit, and that that profit could not accrue to +him, but by the death of a great number of people. A judgment that +appears to be ill grounded, forasmuch as no profit whatever can possibly +be made but at the expense of another, and that by the same rule he +should condemn all gain of what kind soever. The merchant only thrives +by the debauchery of youth, the husband man by the dearness of grain, the +architect by the ruin of buildings, lawyers and officers of justice by +the suits and contentions of men: nay, even the honour and office of +divines are derived from our death and vices. A physician takes no +pleasure in the health even of his friends, says the ancient Greek comic +writer, nor a soldier in the peace of his country, and so of the rest. +And, which is yet worse, let every one but dive into his own bosom, and +he will find his private wishes spring and his secret hopes grow up at +another's expense. Upon which consideration it comes into my head, that +nature does not in this swerve from her general polity; for physicians +hold, that the birth, nourishment, and increase of every thing is the +dissolution and corruption of another: + + "Nam quodcumque suis mutatum finibus exit, + Continuo hoc mors est illius, quod fuit ante." + + ["For, whatever from its own confines passes changed, this is at + once the death of that which before it was."--Lucretius, ii. 752.] + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Accommodated my subject to my strength +Affright people with the very mention of death +All I aim at is, to pass my time at my ease +All think he has yet twenty good years to come +Apprenticeship and a resemblance of death +Become a fool by too much wisdom +Both himself and his posterity declared ignoble, taxable +Caesar: he would be thought an excellent engineer to boot +Courtesy and good manners is a very necessary study +Dangers do, in truth, little or nothing hasten our end +Death can, whenever we please, cut short inconveniences +Death has us every moment by the throat +Death is a part of you +Denying all solicitation, both of hand and mind +Did my discourses came only from my mouth or from my heart +Die well--that is, patiently and tranquilly. +Discover what there is of good and clean in the bottom of the po +Downright and sincere obedience +Every day travels towards death; the last only arrives at it. +Fear is more importunate and insupportable than death itself +Fear to lose a thing, which being lost, cannot be lamented? +Fear: begets a terrible astonishment and confusion +Feared, lest disgrace should make such delinquents desperate +Give these young wenches the things they long for +Have you ever found any who have been dissatisfied with dying? +How many more have died before they arrived at thy age +How many several ways has death to surprise us? +How much more insupportable and painful an immortal life +I have lived longer by this one day than I should have done +I take hold of, as little glorious and exemplary as you will +If nature do not help a little, it is very hard +In this last scene of death, there is no more counterfeiting +Inclination to love one another at the first sight +Indocile liberty of this member +Insensible of the stroke when our youth dies in us +Live at the expense of life itself. +Much better to offend him once than myself every day +Nature, who left us in such a state of imperfection +Neither men nor their lives are measured by the ell +No man more certain than another of to-morrow.--Seneca +No one can be called happy till he is dead and buried +Not certain to live till I came home +Not melancholic, but meditative +Nothing can be a grievance that is but once +Philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die +Premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty +Profit made only at the expense of another +Rather prating of another man's province than his own +Same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago +Slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk +some people rude, by being overcivil in their courtesy +The day of your birth is one day's advance towards the grave +The deadest deaths are the best +The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear +There is no long, nor short, to things that are no more +Thing at which we all aim, even in virtue is pleasure +Things often appear greater to us at distance than near at hand +To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die +Utility of living consists not in the length of days +Valour has its bounds as well as other virtues +Valuing the interest of discipline +Well, and what if it had been death itself? +What may be done to-morrow, may be done to-day. +Who would weigh him without the honour and grandeur of his end. +Willingly slip the collar of command upon any pretence whatever +Woman who goes to bed to a man, must put off her modesty +You must first see us die +Young and old die upon the same terms + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V3 +by Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 4. + +XXII. Of custom, and that we should not easily change a law received +XXIII. Various events from the same counsel. +XXIV. Of pedantry. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +OF CUSTOM, AND THAT WE SHOULD NOT EASILY CHANGE A LAW RECEIVED + +He seems to me to have had a right and true apprehension of the power of +custom, who first invented the story of a country-woman who, having +accustomed herself to play with and carry a young calf in her arms, and +daily continuing to do so as it grew up, obtained this by custom, that, +when grown to be a great ox, she was still able to bear it. For, in +truth, custom is a violent and treacherous schoolmistress. She, by +little and little, slily and unperceived, slips in the foot of her +authority, but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the +benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and +tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the courage or the +power so much as to lift up our eyes. We see her, at every turn, forcing +and violating the rules of nature: + + "Usus efficacissimus rerum omnium magister." + + ["Custom is the best master of all things." + --Pliny, Nat. Hist.,xxvi. 2.] + +I refer to her Plato's cave in his Republic, and the physicians, who so +often submit the reasons of their art to her authority; as the story of +that king, who by custom brought his stomach to that pass, as to live by +poison, and the maid that Albertus reports to have lived upon spiders. +In that new world of the Indies, there were found great nations, and in +very differing climates, who were of the same diet, made provision of +them, and fed them for their tables; as also, they did grasshoppers, +mice, lizards, and bats; and in a time of scarcity of such delicacies, a +toad was sold for six crowns, all which they cook, and dish up with +several sauces. There were also others found, to whom our diet, and the +flesh we eat, were venomous and mortal: + + "Consuetudinis magna vis est: pernoctant venatores in nive: + in montibus uri se patiuntur: pugiles, caestibus contusi, + ne ingemiscunt quidem." + + ["The power of custom is very great: huntsmen will lie out all + night in the snow, or suffer themselves to be burned up by the sun + on the mountains; boxers, hurt by the caestus, never utter a + groan."--Cicero, Tusc., ii. 17] + +These strange examples will not appear so strange if we consider what we +have ordinary experience of, how much custom stupefies our senses. We +need not go to what is reported of the people about the cataracts of the +Nile; and what philosophers believe of the music of the spheres, that the +bodies of those circles being solid and smooth, and coming to touch and +rub upon one another, cannot fail of creating a marvellous harmony, the +changes and cadences of which cause the revolutions and dances of the +stars; but that the hearing sense of all creatures here below, being +universally, like that of the Egyptians, deafened, and stupefied with the +continual noise, cannot, how great soever, perceive it--[This passage is +taken from Cicero, "Dream of Scipio"; see his De Republica, vi. II. The +Egyptians were said to be stunned by the noise of the Cataracts.]-- +Smiths, millers, pewterers, forgemen, and armourers could never be able +to live in the perpetual noise of their own trades, did it strike their +ears with the same violence that it does ours. + +My perfumed doublet gratifies my own scent at first; but after I have +worn it three days together, 'tis only pleasing to the bystanders. This +is yet more strange, that custom, notwithstanding long intermissions and +intervals, should yet have the power to unite and establish the effect of +its impressions upon our senses, as is manifest in such as live near unto +steeples and the frequent noise of the bells. I myself lie at home in a +tower, where every morning and evening a very great bell rings out the +Ave Maria: the noise shakes my very tower, and at first seemed +insupportable to me; but I am so used to it, that I hear it without any +manner of offence, and often without awaking at it. + +Plato--[Diogenes Laertius, iii. 38. But he whom Plato censured was not +a boy playing at nuts, but a man throwing dice.]--reprehending a boy for +playing at nuts, "Thou reprovest me," says the boy, "for a very little +thing." "Custom," replied Plato, "is no little thing." I find that our +greatest vices derive their first propensity from our most tender +infancy, and that our principal education depends upon the nurse. +Mothers are mightily pleased to see a child writhe off the neck of a +chicken, or to please itself with hurting a dog or a cat; and such wise +fathers there are in the world, who look upon it as a notable mark of a +martial spirit, when they hear a son miscall, or see him domineer over a +poor peasant, or a lackey, that dares not reply, nor turn again; and a +great sign of wit, when they see him cheat and overreach his playfellow +by some malicious treachery and deceit. Yet these are the true seeds and +roots of cruelty, tyranny, and treason; they bud and put out there, and +afterwards shoot up vigorously, and grow to prodigious bulk, cultivated +by custom. And it is a very dangerous mistake to excuse these vile +inclinations upon the tenderness of their age, and the triviality of the +subject: first, it is nature that speaks, whose declaration is then more +sincere, and inward thoughts more undisguised, as it is more weak and +young; secondly, the deformity of cozenage does not consist nor depend +upon the difference betwixt crowns and pins; but I rather hold it more +just to conclude thus: why should he not cozen in crowns since he does it +in pins, than as they do, who say they only play for pins, they would not +do it if it were for money? Children should carefully be instructed to +abhor vices for their own contexture; and the natural deformity of those +vices ought so to be represented to them, that they may not only avoid +them in their actions, but especially so to abominate them in their +hearts, that the very thought should be hateful to them, with what mask +soever they may be disguised. + +I know very well, for what concerns myself, that from having been brought +up in my childhood to a plain and straightforward way of dealing, and +from having had an aversion to all manner of juggling and foul play in my +childish sports and recreations (and, indeed, it is to be noted, that the +plays of children are not performed in play, but are to be judged in them +as their most serious actions), there is no game so small wherein from my +own bosom naturally, and without study or endeavour, I have not an +extreme aversion from deceit. I shuffle and cut and make as much clatter +with the cards, and keep as strict account for farthings, as it were for +double pistoles; when winning or losing against my wife and daughter, +'tis indifferent to me, as when I play in good earnest with others, for +round sums. At all times, and in all places, my own eyes are sufficient +to look to my fingers; I am not so narrowly watched by any other, neither +is there any I have more respect to. + +I saw the other day, at my own house, a little fellow, a native of +Nantes, born without arms, who has so well taught his feet to perform the +services his hands should have done him, that truly these have half +forgotten their natural office; and, indeed, the fellow calls them his +hands; with them he cuts anything, charges and discharges a pistol, +threads a needle, sews, writes, puts off his hat, combs his head, plays +at cards and dice, and all this with as much dexterity as any other could +do who had more, and more proper limbs to assist him. The money I gave +him--for he gains his living by shewing these feats--he took in his foot, +as we do in our hand. I have seen another who, being yet a boy, +flourished a two-handed sword, and, if I may so say, handled a halberd +with the mere motions of his neck and shoulders for want of hands; tossed +them into the air, and caught them again, darted a dagger, and cracked a +whip as well as any coachman in France. + +But the effects of custom are much more manifest in the strange +impressions she imprints in our minds, where she meets with less +resistance. What has she not the power to impose upon our judgments and +beliefs? Is there any so fantastic opinion (omitting the gross +impostures of religions, with which we see so many great nations, and so +many understanding men, so strangely besotted; for this being beyond the +reach of human reason, any error is more excusable in such as are not +endued, through the divine bounty, with an extraordinary illumination +from above), but, of other opinions, are there any so extravagant, that +she has not planted and established for laws in those parts of the world +upon which she has been pleased to exercise her power? And therefore +that ancient exclamation was exceeding just: + + "Non pudet physicum, id est speculatorem venatoremque naturae, + ab animis consuetudine imbutis petere testimonium veritatis?" + + ["Is it not a shame for a natural philosopher, that is, for an + observer and hunter of nature, to seek testimony of the truth from + minds prepossessed by custom?"--Cicero, De Natura Deor., i. 30.] + +I do believe, that no so absurd or ridiculous fancy can enter into human +imagination, that does not meet with some example of public practice, and +that, consequently, our reason does not ground and back up. There are +people, amongst whom it is the fashion to turn their backs upon him they +salute, and never look upon the man they intend to honour. There is a +place, where, whenever the king spits, the greatest ladies of his court +put out their hands to receive it; and another nation, where the most +eminent persons about him stoop to take up his ordure in a linen cloth. +Let us here steal room to insert a story. + +A French gentleman was always wont to blow his nose with his fingers (a +thing very much against our fashion), and he justifying himself for so +doing, and he was a man famous for pleasant repartees, he asked me, what +privilege this filthy excrement had, that we must carry about us a fine +handkerchief to receive it, and, which was more, afterwards to lap it +carefully up, and carry it all day about in our pockets, which, he said, +could not but be much more nauseous and offensive, than to see it thrown +away, as we did all other evacuations. I found that what he said was not +altogether without reason, and by being frequently in his company, that +slovenly action of his was at last grown familiar to me; which +nevertheless we make a face at, when we hear it reported of another +country. Miracles appear to be so, according to our ignorance of nature, +and not according to the essence of nature the continually being +accustomed to anything, blinds the eye of our judgment. Barbarians are +no more a wonder to us, than we are to them; nor with any more reason, as +every one would confess, if after having travelled over those remote +examples, men could settle themselves to reflect upon, and rightly to +confer them, with their own. Human reason is a tincture almost equally +infused into all our opinions and manners, of what form soever they are; +infinite in matter, infinite in diversity. But I return to my subject. + +There are peoples, where, his wife and children excepted, no one speaks +to the king but through a tube. In one and the same nation, the virgins +discover those parts that modesty should persuade them to hide, and the +married women carefully cover and conceal them. To which, this custom, +in another place, has some relation, where chastity, but in marriage, is +of no esteem, for unmarried women may prostitute themselves to as many as +they please, and being got with child, may lawfully take physic, in the +sight of every one, to destroy their fruit. And, in another place, if a +tradesman marry, all of the same condition, who are invited to the +wedding, lie with the bride before him; and the greater number of them +there is, the greater is her honour, and the opinion of her ability and +strength: if an officer marry, 'tis the same, the same with a labourer, +or one of mean condition; but then it belongs to the lord of the place to +perform that office; and yet a severe loyalty during marriage is +afterward strictly enjoined. There are places where brothels of young +men are kept for the pleasure of women; where the wives go to war as well +as the husbands, and not only share in the dangers of battle, but, +moreover, in the honours of command. Others, where they wear rings not +only through their noses, lips, cheeks, and on their toes, but also +weighty gimmals of gold thrust through their paps and buttocks; where, in +eating, they wipe their fingers upon their thighs, genitories, and the +soles of their feet: where children are excluded, and brothers and +nephews only inherit; and elsewhere, nephews only, saving in the +succession of the prince: where, for the regulation of community in goods +and estates, observed in the country, certain sovereign magistrates have +committed to them the universal charge and overseeing of the agriculture, +and distribution of the fruits, according to the necessity of every one +where they lament the death of children, and feast at the decease of old +men: where they lie ten or twelve in a bed, men and their wives together: +where women, whose husbands come to violent ends, may marry again, and +others not: where the condition of women is looked upon with such +contempt, that they kill all the native females, and buy wives of their +neighbours to supply their use; where husbands may repudiate their wives, +without showing any cause, but wives cannot part from their husbands, for +what cause soever; where husbands may sell their wives in case of +sterility; where they boil the bodies of their dead, and afterward pound +them to a pulp, which they mix with their wine, and drink it; where the +most coveted sepulture is to be eaten by dogs, and elsewhere by birds; +where they believe the souls of the blessed live in all manner of +liberty, in delightful fields, furnished with all sorts of delicacies, +and that it is these souls, repeating the words we utter, which we call +Echo; where they fight in the water, and shoot their arrows with the most +mortal aim, swimming; where, for a sign of subjection, they lift up their +shoulders, and hang down their heads; where they put off their shoes when +they enter the king's palace; where the eunuchs, who take charge of the +sacred women, have, moreover, their lips and noses cut off, that they may +not be loved; where the priests put out their own eyes, to be better +acquainted with their demons, and the better to receive their oracles; +where every one makes to himself a deity of what he likes best; the +hunter of a lion or a fox, the fisher of some fish; idols of every human +action or passion; in which place, the sun, the moon, and the earth are +the 'principal deities, and the form of taking an oath is, to touch the +earth, looking up to heaven; where both flesh and fish is eaten raw; +where the greatest oath they take is, to swear by the name of some dead +person of reputation, laying their hand upon his tomb; where the +newyear's gift the king sends every year to the princes, his vassals, is +fire, which being brought, all the old fire is put out, and the +neighbouring people are bound to fetch of the new, every one for +themselves, upon pain of high treason; where, when the king, to betake +himself wholly to devotion, retires from his administration (which often +falls out), his next successor is obliged to do the same, and the right +of the kingdom devolves to the third in succession: where they vary the +form of government, according to the seeming necessity of affairs: depose +the king when they think good, substituting certain elders to govern in +his stead, and sometimes transferring it into the hands of the +commonality: where men and women are both circumcised and also baptized: +where the soldier, who in one or several engagements, has been so +fortunate as to present seven of the enemies' heads to the king, is made +noble: where they live in that rare and unsociable opinion of the +mortality of the soul: where the women are delivered without pain or +fear: where the women wear copper leggings upon both legs, and if a louse +bite them, are bound in magnanimity to bite them again, and dare not +marry, till first they have made their king a tender of their virginity, +if he please to accept it: where the ordinary way of salutation is by +putting a finger down to the earth, and then pointing it up toward +heaven: where men carry burdens upon their heads, and women on their +shoulders; where the women make water standing, and the men squatting: +where they send their blood in token of friendship, and offer incense to +the men they would honour, like gods: where, not only to the fourth, but +in any other remote degree, kindred are not permitted to marry: where the +children are four years at nurse, and often twelve; in which place, also, +it is accounted mortal to give the child suck the first day after it is +born: where the correction of the male children is peculiarly designed to +the fathers, and to the mothers of the girls; the punishment being to +hang them by the heels in the smoke: where they circumcise the women: +where they eat all sorts of herbs, without other scruple than of the +badness of the smell: where all things are open the finest houses, +furnished in the richest manner, without doors, windows, trunks, or +chests to lock, a thief being there punished double what they are in +other places: where they crack lice with their teeth like monkeys, and +abhor to see them killed with one's nails: where in all their lives they +neither cut their hair nor pare their nails; and, in another place, pare +those of the right hand only, letting the left grow for ornament and +bravery: where they suffer the hair on the right side to grow as long as +it will, and shave the other; and in the neighbouring provinces, some let +their hair grow long before, and some behind, shaving close the rest: +where parents let out their children, and husbands their wives, to their +guests to hire: where a man may get his own mother with child, and +fathers make use of their own daughters or sons, without scandal: where, +at their solemn feasts, they interchangeably lend their children to one +another, without any consideration of nearness of blood. In one place, +men feed upon human flesh; in another, 'tis reputed a pious office for a +man to kill his father at a certain age; elsewhere, the fathers dispose +of their children, whilst yet in their mothers' wombs, some to be +preserved and carefully brought up, and others to be abandoned or made +away. Elsewhere the old husbands lend their wives to young men; and in +another place they are in common without offence; in one place +particularly, the women take it for a mark of honour to have as many gay +fringed tassels at the bottom of their garment, as they have lain with +several men. Moreover, has not custom made a republic of women +separately by themselves? has it not put arms into their hands, and made +them raise armies and fight battles? And does she not, by her own +precept, instruct the most ignorant vulgar, and make them perfect in +things which all the philosophy in the world could never beat into the +heads of the wisest men? For we know entire nations, where death was not +only despised, but entertained with the greatest triumph; where children +of seven years old suffered themselves to be whipped to death, without +changing countenance; where riches were in such contempt, that the +meanest citizen would not have deigned to stoop to take up a purse of +crowns. And we know regions, very fruitful in all manner of provisions, +where, notwithstanding, the most ordinary diet, and that they are most +pleased with, is only bread, cresses, and water. Did not custom, +moreover, work that miracle in Chios that, in seven hundred years, it was +never known that ever maid or wife committed any act to the prejudice of +her honour? + +To conclude; there is nothing, in my opinion, that she does not, or may +not do; and therefore, with very good reason it is that Pindar calls her +the ruler of the world. He that was seen to beat his father, and +reproved for so doing, made answer, that it was the custom of their +family; that, in like manner, his father had beaten his grandfather, his +grandfather his great-grandfather, "And this," says he, pointing to his +son, "when he comes to my age, shall beat me." And the father, whom the +son dragged and hauled along the streets, commanded him to stop at a +certain door, for he himself, he said, had dragged his father no farther, +that being the utmost limit of the hereditary outrage the sons used to +practise upon the fathers in their family. It is as much by custom as +infirmity, says Aristotle, that women tear their hair, bite their nails, +and eat coals and earth, and more by custom than nature that men abuse +themselves with one another. + +The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, +proceed from custom; every one, having an inward veneration for the +opinions and manners approved and received amongst his own people, +cannot, without very great reluctance, depart from them, nor apply +himself to them without applause. In times past, when those of Crete +would curse any one, they prayed the gods to engage him in some ill +custom. But the principal effect of its power is, so to seize and +ensnare us, that it is hardly in us to disengage ourselves from its +gripe, or so to come to ourselves, as to consider of and to weigh the +things it enjoins. To say the truth, by reason that we suck it in with +our milk, and that the face of the world presents itself in this posture +to our first sight, it seems as if we were born upon condition to follow +on this track; and the common fancies that we find in repute everywhere +about us, and infused into our minds with the seed of our fathers, appear +to be the most universal and genuine; from whence it comes to pass, that +whatever is off the hinges of custom, is believed to be also off the +hinges of reason; how unreasonably for the most part, God knows. + +If, as we who study ourselves have learned to do, every one who hears a +good sentence, would immediately consider how it does in any way touch +his own private concern, every one would find, that it was not so much a +good saying, as a severe lash to the ordinary stupidity of his own +judgment: but men receive the precepts and admonitions of truth, as +directed to the common sort, and never to themselves; and instead of +applying them to their own manners, do only very ignorantly and +unprofitably commit them to memory. But let us return to the empire of +custom. + +Such people as have been bred up to liberty, and subject to no other +dominion but the authority of their own will, look upon all other form of +government as monstrous and contrary to nature. Those who are inured to +monarchy do the same; and what opportunity soever fortune presents them +with to change, even then, when with the greatest difficulties they have +disengaged themselves from one master, that was troublesome and grievous +to them, they presently run, with the same difficulties, to create +another; being unable to take into hatred subjection itself. + +'Tis by the mediation of custom, that every one is content with the place +where he is planted by nature; and the Highlanders of Scotland no more +pant after Touraine; than the Scythians after Thessaly. Darius asking +certain Greeks what they would take to assume the custom of the Indians, +of eating the dead bodies of their fathers (for that was their use, +believing they could not give them a better nor more noble sepulture than +to bury them in their own bodies), they made answer, that nothing in the +world should hire them to do it; but having also tried to persuade the +Indians to leave their custom, and, after the Greek manner, to burn the +bodies of their fathers, they conceived a still greater horror at the +motion.--[Herodotus, iii. 38.]--Every one does the same, for use veils +from us the true aspect of things. + + "Nil adeo magnum, nec tam mirabile quidquam + Principio, quod non minuant mirarier omnes Paullatim." + + ["There is nothing at first so grand, so admirable, which by degrees + people do not regard with less admiration."--Lucretius, ii. 1027] + +Taking upon me once to justify something in use amongst us, and that was +received with absolute authority for a great many leagues round about us, +and not content, as men commonly do, to establish it only by force of law +and example, but inquiring still further into its origin, I found the +foundation so weak, that I who made it my business to confirm others, was +very near being dissatisfied myself. 'Tis by this receipt that Plato-- +[Laws, viii. 6.]--undertakes to cure the unnatural and preposterous +loves of his time, as one which he esteems of sovereign virtue, namely, +that the public opinion condemns them; that the poets, and all other +sorts of writers, relate horrible stories of them; a recipe, by virtue of +which the most beautiful daughters no more allure their fathers' lust; +nor brothers, of the finest shape and fashion, their sisters' desire; the +very fables of Thyestes, OEdipus, and Macareus, having with the harmony +of their song, infused this wholesome opinion and belief into the tender +brains of children. Chastity is, in truth, a great and shining virtue, +and of which the utility is sufficiently known; but to treat of it, and +to set it off in its true value, according to nature, is as hard as 'tis +easy to do so according to custom, laws, and precepts. The fundamental +and universal reasons are of very obscure and difficult research, and our +masters either lightly pass them over, or not daring so much as to touch +them, precipitate themselves into the liberty and protection of custom, +there puffing themselves out and triumphing to their heart's content: +such as will not suffer themselves to be withdrawn from this original +source, do yet commit a greater error, and subject themselves to wild +opinions; witness Chrysippus,--[Sextus Empiricus, Pyyrhon. Hypotyp., i. +14.]--who, in so many of his writings, has strewed the little account he +made of incestuous conjunctions, committed with how near relations +soever. + +Whoever would disengage himself from this violent prejudice of custom, +would find several things received with absolute and undoubting opinion, +that have no other support than the hoary head and rivelled face of +ancient usage. But the mask taken off, and things being referred to the +decision of truth and reason, he will find his judgment as it were +altogether overthrown, and yet restored to a much more sure estate. For +example, I shall ask him, what can be more strange than to see a people +obliged to obey laws they never understood; bound in all their domestic +affairs, as marriages, donations, wills, sales, and purchases, to rules +they cannot possibly know, being neither written nor published in their +own language, and of which they are of necessity to purchase both the +interpretation and the use? Not according to the ingenious opinion of +Isocrates,--[Discourse to Nicocles.]--who counselled his king to make +the traffics and negotiations of his subjects, free, frank, and of profit +to them, and their quarrels and disputes burdensome, and laden with heavy +impositions and penalties; but, by a prodigious opinion, to make sale of +reason itself, and to give to laws a course of merchandise. I think +myself obliged to fortune that, as our historians report, it was a Gascon +gentleman, a countryman of mine, who first opposed Charlemagne, when he +attempted to impose upon us Latin and imperial laws. + +What can be more savage, than to see a nation where, by lawful custom, +the office of a judge is bought and sold, where judgments are paid for +with ready money, and where justice may legitimately be denied to him +that has not wherewithal to pay; a merchandise in so great repute, as in +a government to create a fourth estate of wrangling lawyers, to add to +the three ancient ones of the church, nobility, and people; which fourth +estate, having the laws in their own hands, and sovereign power over +men's lives and fortunes, makes another body separate from nobility: +whence it comes to pass, that there are double laws, those of honour and +those of justice, in many things altogether opposite one to another; the +nobles as rigorously condemning a lie taken, as the other do a lie +revenged: by the law of arms, he shall be degraded from all nobility and +honour who puts up with an affront; and by the civil law, he who +vindicates his reputation by revenge incurs a capital punishment: he who +applies himself to the law for reparation of an offence done to his +honour, disgraces himself; and he who does not, is censured and punished +by the law. Yet of these two so different things, both of them referring +to one head, the one has the charge of peace, the other of war; those +have the profit, these the honour; those the wisdom, these the virtue; +those the word, these the action; those justice, these valour; those +reason, these force; those the long robe, these the short;--divided +betwixt them. + +For what concerns indifferent things, as clothes, who is there seeking to +bring them back to their true use, which is the body's service and +convenience, and upon which their original grace and fitness depend; for +the most fantastic, in my opinion, that can be imagined, I will instance +amongst others, our flat caps, that long tail of velvet that hangs down +from our women's heads, with its party-coloured trappings; and that vain +and futile model of a member we cannot in modesty so much as name, which, +nevertheless, we make show and parade of in public. These +considerations, notwithstanding, will not prevail upon any understanding +man to decline the common mode; but, on the contrary, methinks, all +singular and particular fashions are rather marks of folly and vain +affectation than of sound reason, and that a wise man, within, ought to +withdraw and retire his soul from the crowd, and there keep it at liberty +and in power to judge freely of things; but as to externals, absolutely +to follow and conform himself to the fashion of the time. Public society +has nothing to do with our thoughts, but the rest, as our actions, our +labours, our fortunes, and our lives, we are to lend and abandon them to +its service and to the common opinion, as did that good and great +Socrates who refused to preserve his life by a disobedience to the +magistrate, though a very wicked and unjust one for it is the rule of +rules, the general law of laws, that every one observe those of the place +wherein he lives. + + ["It is good to obey the laws of one's country." + --Excerpta ex Trag. Gyaecis, Grotio interp., 1626, p. 937.] + +And now to another point. It is a very great doubt, whether any so +manifest benefit can accrue from the alteration of a law received, let it +be what it will, as there is danger and inconvenience in altering it; +forasmuch as government is a structure composed of divers parts and +members joined and united together, with so strict connection, that it is +impossible to stir so much as one brick or stone, but the whole body will +be sensible of it. The legislator of the Thurians--[Charondas; Diod. +Sic., xii. 24.]--ordained, that whosoever would go about either to +abolish an old law, or to establish a new, should present himself with a +halter about his neck to the people, to the end, that if the innovation +he would introduce should not be approved by every one, he might +immediately be hanged; and he of the Lacedaemonians employed his life to +obtain from his citizens a faithful promise that none of his laws should +be violated.--[Lycurgus; Plutarch, in Vita, c. 22.]--The Ephoros who so +rudely cut the two strings that Phrynis had added to music never stood to +examine whether that addition made better harmony, or that by its means +the instrument was more full and complete; it was enough for him to +condemn the invention, that it was a novelty, and an alteration of the +old fashion. Which also is the meaning of the old rusty sword carried +before the magistracy of Marseilles. + +For my own part, I have a great aversion from a novelty, what face or +what pretence soever it may carry along with it, and have reason, having +been an eyewitness of the great evils it has produced. For those which +for so many years have lain so heavy upon us, it is not wholly +accountable; but one may say, with colour enough, that it has +accidentally produced and begotten the mischiefs and ruin that have since +happened, both without and against it; it, principally, we are to accuse +for these disorders: + + "Heu! patior telis vulnera facta meis." + + ["Alas! The wounds were made by my own weapons." + --Ovid, Ep. Phyll. Demophoonti, vers. 48.] + +They who give the first shock to a state, are almost naturally the first +overwhelmed in its ruin the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed +by him who was the first motor; he beats and disturbs the water for +another's net. The unity and contexture of this monarchy, of this grand +edifice, having been ripped and torn in her old age, by this thing called +innovation, has since laid open a rent, and given sufficient admittance +to such injuries: the royal majesty with greater difficulty declines from +the summit to the middle, then it falls and tumbles headlong from the +middle to the bottom. But if the inventors do the greater mischief, the +imitators are more vicious to follow examples of which they have felt and +punished both the horror and the offence. And if there can be any degree +of honour in ill-doing, these last must yield to the others the glory of +contriving, and the courage of making the first attempt. All sorts of +new disorders easily draw, from this primitive and ever-flowing fountain, +examples and precedents to trouble and discompose our government: we read +in our very laws, made for the remedy of this first evil, the beginning +and pretences of all sorts of wicked enterprises; and that befalls us, +which Thucydides said of the civil wars of his time, that, in favour of +public vices, they gave them new and more plausible names for their +excuse, sweetening and disguising their true titles; which must be done, +forsooth, to reform our conscience and belief: + + "Honesta oratio est;" + + ["Fine words truly."--Ter. And., i. I, 114.] + +but the best pretence for innovation is of very dangerous consequence: + + "Aden nihil motum ex antiquo probabile est." + + ["We are ever wrong in changing ancient ways."--Livy, xxxiv. 54] + +And freely to speak my thoughts, it argues a strange self-love and great +presumption to be so fond of one's own opinions, that a public peace must +be overthrown to establish them, and to introduce so many inevitable +mischiefs, and so dreadful a corruption of manners, as a civil war and +the mutations of state consequent to it, always bring in their train, and +to introduce them, in a thing of so high concern, into the bowels of +one's own country. Can there be worse husbandry than to set up so many +certain and knowing vices against errors that are only contested and +disputable? And are there any worse sorts of vices than those committed +against a man's own conscience, and the natural light of his own reason? +The Senate, upon the dispute betwixt it and the people about the +administration of their religion, was bold enough to return this evasion +for current pay: + + "Ad deos id magis, quam ad se, pertinere: ipsos visuros, + ne sacra sua polluantur;" + + ["Those things belong to the gods to determine than to them; let the + gods, therefore, take care that their sacred mysteries were not + profaned."--Livy, x. 6.] + +according to what the oracle answered to those of Delphos who, fearing to +be invaded by the Persians in the Median war, inquired of Apollo, how +they should dispose of the holy treasure of his temple; whether they +should hide, or remove it to some other place? He returned them answer, +that they should stir nothing from thence, and only take care of +themselves, for he was sufficient to look to what belonged to him. +--[Herodotus, viii. 36.].-- + +The Christian religion has all the marks of the utmost utility and +justice: but none more manifest than the severe injunction it lays +indifferently upon all to yield absolute obedience to the civil +magistrate, and to maintain and defend the laws. Of which, what a +wonderful example has the divine wisdom left us, that, to establish the +salvation of mankind, and to conduct His glorious victory over death and +sin, would do it after no other way, but at the mercy of our ordinary +forms of justice subjecting the progress and issue of so high and so +salutiferous an effect, to the blindness and injustice of our customs +and observances; sacrificing the innocent blood of so many of His elect, +and so long a loss of so many years, to the maturing of this inestimable +fruit? There is a vast difference betwixt the case of one who follows +the forms and laws of his country, and of another who will undertake to +regulate and change them; of whom the first pleads simplicity, obedience, +and example for his excuse, who, whatever he shall do, it cannot be +imputed to malice; 'tis at the worst but misfortune: + + "Quis est enim, quem non moveat clarissimis monumentis + testata consignataque antiquitas?" + + ["For who is there that antiquity, attested and confirmed by the + fairest monuments, cannot move?"--Cicero, De Divin., i. 40.] + +besides what Isocrates says, that defect is nearer allied to moderation +than excess: the other is a much more ruffling gamester; for whosoever +shall take upon him to choose and alter, usurps the authority of judging, +and should look well about him, and make it his business to discern +clearly the defect of what he would abolish, and the virtue of what he is +about to introduce. + +This so vulgar consideration is that which settled me in my station, and +kept even my most extravagant and ungoverned youth under the rein, so as +not to burden my shoulders with so great a weight, as to render myself +responsible for a science of that importance, and in this to dare, what +in my better and more mature judgment, I durst not do in the most easy +and indifferent things I had been instructed in, and wherein the temerity +of judging is of no consequence at all; it seeming to me very unjust to +go about to subject public and established customs and institutions, to +the weakness and instability of a private and particular fancy (for +private reason has but a private jurisdiction), and to attempt that upon +the divine, which no government will endure a man should do, upon the +civil laws; with which, though human reason has much more commerce than +with the other, yet are they sovereignly judged by their own proper +judges, and the extreme sufficiency serves only to expound and set forth +the law and custom received, and neither to wrest it, nor to introduce +anything, of innovation. If, sometimes, the divine providence has gone +beyond the rules to which it has necessarily bound and obliged us men, +it is not to give us any dispensation to do the same; those are +masterstrokes of the divine hand, which we are not to imitate, but to +admire, and extraordinary examples, marks of express and particular +purposes, of the nature of miracles, presented before us for +manifestations of its almightiness, equally above both our rules and +force, which it would be folly and impiety to attempt to represent and +imitate; and that we ought not to follow, but to contemplate with the +greatest reverence: acts of His personage, and not for us. Cotta very +opportunely declares: + + "Quum de religione agitur, Ti. Coruncanium, P. Scipionem, + P. Scaevolam, pontifices maximos, non Zenonem, aut Cleanthem, + aut Chrysippum, sequor." + + ["When matter of religion is in question, I follow the high priests + T. Coruncanius, P. Scipio, P. Scaevola, and not Zeno, Cleanthes, or + Chrysippus."--Cicero, De Natura Deor., iii. 2.] + +God knows, in the present quarrel of our civil war, where there are a +hundred articles to dash out and to put in, great and very considerable, +how many there are who can truly boast, they have exactly and perfectly +weighed and understood the grounds and reasons of the one and the other +party; 'tis a number, if they make any number, that would be able to give +us very little disturbance. But what becomes of all the rest, under what +ensigns do they march, in what quarter do they lie? Theirs have the same +effect with other weak and ill-applied medicines; they have only set the +humours they would purge more violently in work, stirred and exasperated +by the conflict, and left them still behind. The potion was too weak to +purge, but strong enough to weaken us; so that it does not work, but we +keep it still in our bodies, and reap nothing from the operation but +intestine gripes and dolours. + +So it is, nevertheless, that Fortune still reserving her authority in +defiance of whatever we are able to do or say, sometimes presents us with +a necessity so urgent, that 'tis requisite the laws should a little yield +and give way; and when one opposes the increase of an innovation that +thus intrudes itself by violence, to keep a man's self in so doing, in +all places and in all things within bounds and rules against those who +have the power, and to whom all things are lawful that may in any way +serve to advance their design, who have no other law nor rule but what +serves best to their own purpose, 'tis a dangerous obligation and an +intolerable inequality: + + "Aditum nocendi perfido praestat fides," + + ["Putting faith in a treacherous person, opens the door to + harm."--Seneca, OEdip., act iii., verse 686.] + +forasmuch as the ordinary discipline of a healthful state does not +provide against these extraordinary accidents; it presupposes a body that +supports itself in its principal members and offices, and a common +consent to its obedience and observation. A legitimate proceeding is +cold, heavy, and constrained, and not fit to make head against a +headstrong and unbridled proceeding. 'Tis known to be to this day cast +in the dish of those two great men, Octavius and Cato, in the two civil +wars of Sylla and Caesar, that they would rather suffer their country to +undergo the last extremities, than relieve their fellow-citizens at the +expense of its laws, or be guilty of any innovation; for in truth, in +these last necessities, where there is no other remedy, it would, +peradventure, be more discreetly done, to stoop and yield a little to +receive the blow, than, by opposing without possibility of doing good, +to give occasion to violence to trample all under foot; and better to +make the laws do what they can, when they cannot do what they would. +After this manner did he--[Agesilaus.]--who suspended them for four-and- +twenty hours, and he who, for once shifted a day in the calendar, and +that other--[Alexander the Great.]--who of the month of June made a +second of May. The Lacedaemonians themselves, who were so religious +observers of the laws of their country, being straitened by one of their +own edicts, by which it was expressly forbidden to choose the same man +twice to be admiral; and on the other side, their affairs necessarily +requiring, that Lysander should again take upon him that command, they +made one Aratus admiral; 'tis true, but withal, Lysander went general of +the navy; and, by the same subtlety, one of their ambassadors being sent +to the Athenians to obtain the revocation of some decree, and Pericles +remonstrating to him, that it was forbidden to take away the tablet +wherein a law had once been engrossed, he advised him to turn it only, +that being not forbidden; and Plutarch commends Philopoemen, that being +born to command, he knew how to do it, not only according to the laws, +but also to overrule even the laws themselves, when the public necessity +so required. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +VARIOUS EVENTS FROM THE SAME COUNSEL + +Jacques Amiot, grand almoner of France, one day related to me this story, +much to the honour of a prince of ours (and ours he was upon several very +good accounts, though originally of foreign extraction),--[The Duc de +Guise, surnamed Le Balafre.]--that in the time of our first commotions, +at the siege of Rouen,--[In 1562]--this prince, having been advertised +by the queen-mother of a conspiracy against his life, and in her letters +particular notice being given him of the person who was to execute the +business (who was a gentleman of Anjou or of Maine, and who to this +effect ordinarily frequented this prince's house), discovered not a +syllable of this intelligence to any one whatever; but going the next day +to the St. Catherine's Mount,--[An eminence outside Rouen overlooking the +Seine. D.W.]--from which our battery played against the town (for it +was during the time of the siege), and having in company with him the +said lord almoner, and another bishop, he saw this gentleman, who had +been denoted to him, and presently sent for him; to whom, being come +before him, seeing him already pale and trembling with the conscience of +his guilt, he thus said, "Monsieur," such an one, "you guess what I have +to say to you; your countenance discovers it; 'tis in vain to disguise +your practice, for I am so well informed of your business, that it will +but make worse for you, to go about to conceal or deny it: you know very +well such and such passages" (which were the most secret circumstances of +his conspiracy), "and therefore be sure, as you tender your own life, +to confess to me the whole truth of the design." The poor man seeing +himself thus trapped and convicted (for the whole business had been +discovered to the queen by one of the accomplices), was in such a taking, +he knew not what to do; but, folding his hands, to beg and sue for mercy, +he threw himself at his prince's feet, who taking him up, proceeded to +say, "Come, sir; tell me, have I at any time done you offence? or have +I, through private hatred or malice, offended any kinsman or friend of +yours? It is not above three weeks that I have known you; what +inducement, then, could move you to attempt my death?" To which the +gentleman with a trembling voice replied, "That it was no particular +grudge he had to his person, but the general interest and concern of his +party, and that he had been put upon it by some who had persuaded him it +would be a meritorious act, by any means, to extirpate so great and so +powerful an enemy of their religion." "Well," said the prince, "I will +now let you see, how much more charitable the religion is that I +maintain, than that which you profess: yours has counselled you to kill +me, without hearing me speak, and without ever having given you any cause +of offence; and mine commands me to forgive you, convict as you are, by +your own confession, of a design to kill me without reason.--[Imitated by +Voltaire. See Nodier, Questions, p. 165.]--Get you gone; let me see you +no more; and, if you are wise, choose henceforward honester men for your +counsellors in your designs."--[Dampmartin, La Fortune de la Coup, liv. +ii., p. 139] + +The Emperor Augustus,--[This story is taken from Seneca, De Clementia, +i. 9.]--being in Gaul, had certain information of a conspiracy L. Cinna +was contriving against him; he therefore resolved to make him an example; +and, to that end, sent to summon his friends to meet the next morning in +counsel. But the night between he passed in great unquietness of mind, +considering that he was about to put to death a young man, of an +illustrious family, and nephew to the great Pompey, and this made him +break out into several passionate complainings. "What then," said he, +"is it possible that I am to live in perpetual anxiety and alarm, and +suffer my would-be assassin, meantime, to walk abroad at liberty? Shall +he go unpunished, after having conspired against my life, a life that I +have hitherto defended in so many civil wars, in so many battles by land +and by sea? And after having settled the universal peace of the whole +world, shall this man be pardoned, who has conspired not only to murder, +but to sacrifice me?"--for the conspiracy was to kill him at sacrifice. +After which, remaining for some time silent, he began again, in louder +tones, and exclaimed against himself, saying: "Why livest thou, if it be +for the good of so many that thou shouldst die? must there be no end of +thy revenges and cruelties? Is thy life of so great value, that so many +mischiefs must be done to preserve it?" His wife Livia, seeing him in +this perplexity: "Will you take a woman's counsel?" said she. "Do as +the physicians do, who, when the ordinary recipes will do no good, make +trial of the contrary. By severity you have hitherto prevailed nothing; +Lepidus has followed Salvidienus; Murena, Lepidus; Caepio, Murena; +Egnatius, Caepio. Begin now, and try how sweetness and clemency will +succeed. Cinna is convict; forgive him, he will never henceforth have +the heart to hurt thee, and it will be an act to thy glory." Augustus +was well pleased that he had met with an advocate of his own humour; +wherefore, having thanked his wife, and, in the morning, countermanded +his friends he had before summoned to council, he commanded Cinna all +alone to be brought to him; who being accordingly come, and a chair by +his appointment set him, having ordered all the rest out of the room, he +spake to him after this manner: "In the first place, Cinna, I demand of +thee patient audience; do not interrupt me in what I am about to say, and +I will afterwards give thee time and leisure to answer. Thou knowest, +Cinna,--[This passage, borrowed from Seneca, has been paraphrased in +verse by Corneille. See Nodier, Questions de la Literature llgale, 1828, +pp. 7, 160. The monologue of Augustus in this chapter is also from +Seneca. Ibid., 164.]--that having taken thee prisoner in the enemy's +camp, and thou an enemy, not only so become, but born so, I gave thee thy +life, restored to thee all thy goods, and, finally, put thee in so good a +posture, by my bounty, of living well and at thy ease, that the +victorious envied the conquered. The sacerdotal office which thou madest +suit to me for, I conferred upon thee, after having denied it to others, +whose fathers have ever borne arms in my service. After so many +obligations, thou hast undertaken to kill me." At which Cinna crying out +that he was very far from entertaining any so wicked a thought: "Thou +dost not keep thy promise, Cinna," continued Augustus, "that thou wouldst +not interrupt me. Yes, thou hast undertaken to murder me in such a +place, on such a day, in such and such company, and in such a manner." +At which words, seeing Cinna astounded and silent, not upon the account +of his promise so to be, but interdict with the weight of his conscience: +"Why," proceeded Augustus, "to what end wouldst thou do it? Is it to be +emperor? Believe me, the Republic is in very ill condition, if I am the +only man betwixt thee and the empire. Thou art not able so much as to +defend thy own house, and but t'other day was baffled in a suit, by the +opposed interest of a mere manumitted slave. What, hast thou neither +means nor power in any other thing, but only to undertake Caesar? I quit +the throne, if there be no other than I to obstruct thy hopes. Canst +thou believe that Paulus, that Fabius, that the Cossii and the Servilii, +and so many noble Romans, not only so in title, but who by their virtue +honour their nobility, would suffer or endure thee?" After this, and a +great deal more that he said to him (for he was two long hours in +speaking), "Now go, Cinna, go thy way: I give thee that life as traitor +and parricide, which I before gave thee in the quality of an enemy. Let +friendship from this time forward begin betwixt us, and let us show +whether I have given, or thou hast received thy life with the better +faith"; and so departed from him. Some time after, he preferred him to +the consular dignity, complaining that he had not the confidence to +demand it; had him ever after for his very great friend, and was, at +last, made by him sole heir to all his estate. Now, from the time of +this accident which befell Augustus in the fortieth year of his age, he +never had any conspiracy or attempt against him, and so reaped the due +reward of this his so generous clemency. But it did not so happen with +our prince, his moderation and mercy not so securing him, but that he +afterwards fell into the toils of the like treason,--[The Duc de Guise +was assassinated in 1563 by Poltrot.]--so vain and futile a thing is +human prudence; throughout all our projects, counsels and precautions, +Fortune will still be mistress of events. + +We repute physicians fortunate when they hit upon a lucky cure, as if +there was no other art but theirs that could not stand upon its own legs, +and whose foundations are too weak to support itself upon its own basis; +as if no other art stood in need of Fortune's hand to help it. For my +part, I think of physic as much good or ill as any one would have me: +for, thanks be to God, we have no traffic together. I am of a quite +contrary humour to other men, for I always despise it; but when I am +sick, instead of recanting, or entering into composition with it, I +begin, moreover, to hate and fear it, telling them who importune me to +take physic, that at all events they must give me time to recover my +strength and health, that I may be the better able to support and +encounter the violence and danger of their potions. I let nature work, +supposing her to be sufficiently armed with teeth and claws to defend +herself from the assaults of infirmity, and to uphold that contexture, +the dissolution of which she flies and abhors. I am afraid, lest, +instead of assisting her when close grappled and struggling with disease, +I should assist her adversary, and burden her still more with work to do. + +Now, I say, that not in physic only, but in other more certain arts, +fortune has a very great part. + +The poetic raptures, the flights of fancy, that ravish and transport the +author out of himself, why should we not attribute them to his good +fortune, since he himself confesses that they exceed his sufficiency and +force, and acknowledges them to proceed from something else than himself, +and that he has them no more in his power than the orators say they have +those extraordinary motions and agitations that sometimes push them +beyond their design. It is the same in painting, where touches shall +sometimes slip from the hand of the painter, so surpassing both his +conception and his art, as to beget his own admiration and astonishment. +But Fortune does yet more evidently manifest the share she has in all +things of this kind, by the graces and elegances we find in them, not +only beyond the intention, but even without the knowledge of the workman: +a competent reader often discovers in other men's writings other +perfections than the author himself either intended or perceived, a +richer sense and more quaint expression. + +As to military enterprises, every one sees how great a hand Fortune has +in them. Even in our counsels and deliberations there must, certainly, +be something of chance and good-luck mixed with human prudence; for all +that our wisdom can do alone is no great matter; the more piercing, +quick, and apprehensive it is, the weaker it finds itself, and is by so +much more apt to mistrust itself. I am of Sylla's opinion;--["Who freed +his great deeds from envy by ever attributing them to his good fortune, +and finally by surnaming himself Faustus, the Lucky."--Plutarch, How far a +Man may praise Himself, c. 9.]--and when I closely examine the most +glorious exploits of war, I perceive, methinks, that those who carry them +on make use of counsel and debate only for custom's sake, and leave the +best part of the enterprise to Fortune, and relying upon her aid, +transgress, at every turn, the bounds of military conduct and the rules +of war. There happen, sometimes, fortuitous alacrities and strange +furies in their deliberations, that for the most part prompt them to +follow the worst grounded counsels, and swell their courage beyond the +limits of reason. Whence it happened that several of the great captains +of old, to justify those rash resolutions, have been fain to tell their +soldiers that they were invited to such attempts by some inspiration, +some sign and prognostic. + +Wherefore, in this doubt and uncertainty, that the shortsightedness of +human wisdom to see and choose the best (by reason of the difficulties +that the various accidents and circumstances of things bring along with +them) perplexes us withal, the surest way, in my opinion, did no other +consideration invite us to it, is to pitch upon that wherein is the +greatest appearance of honesty and justice; and not, being certain of the +shortest, to keep the straightest and most direct way; as in the two +examples I have just given, there is no question but it was more noble +and generous in him who had received the offence, to pardon it, than to +do otherwise. If the former--[The Duc de Guise.]--miscarried in it, he +is not, nevertheless, to be blamed for his good intention; neither does +any one know if he had proceeded otherwise, whether by that means he had +avoided the end his destiny had appointed for him; and he had, moreover, +lost the glory of so humane an act. + +You will read in history, of many who have been in such apprehension, +that the most part have taken the course to meet and anticipate +conspiracies against them by punishment and revenge; but I find very few +who have reaped any advantage by this proceeding; witness so many Roman +emperors. Whoever finds himself in this danger, ought not to expect much +either from his vigilance or power; for how hard a thing is it for a man +to secure himself from an enemy, who lies concealed under the countenance +of the most assiduous friend we have, and to discover and know the wills +and inward thoughts of those who are in our personal service. 'Tis to +much purpose to have a guard of foreigners about one, and to be always +fenced about with a pale of armed men; whosoever despises his own life, +is always master of that of another man.--[Seneca, Ep., 4.]--And +moreover, this continual suspicion, that makes a prince jealous of all +the world, must of necessity be a strange torment to him. Therefore it +was, that Dion, being advertised that Callippus watched all opportunities +to take away his life, had never the heart to inquire more particularly +into it, saying, that he had rather die than live in that misery, that he +must continually stand upon his guard, not only against his enemies, but +his friends also;--[Plutarch, Apothegms.]--which Alexander much more +vividly and more roundly manifested in effect, when, having notice by a +letter from Parmenio, that Philip, his most beloved physician, was by +Darius' money corrupted to poison him, at the same time he gave the +letter to Philip to read, drank off the potion he had brought him. Was +not this to express a resolution, that if his friends had a mind to +despatch him out of the world, he was willing to give them opportunity to +do it? This prince is, indeed, the sovereign pattern of hazardous +actions; but I do not know whether there be another passage in his life +wherein there is so much firm courage as in this, nor so illustrious an +image of the beauty and greatness of his mind. + +Those who preach to princes so circumspect and vigilant a jealousy and +distrust, under colour of security, preach to them ruin and dishonour: +nothing noble can be performed without danger. I know a person, +naturally of a very great daring and enterprising courage, whose good +fortune is continually marred by such persuasions, that he keep himself +close surrounded by his friends, that he must not hearken to any +reconciliation with his ancient enemies, that he must stand aloof, and +not trust his person in hands stronger than his own, what promises or +offers soever they may make him, or what advantages soever he may see +before him. And I know another, who has unexpectedly advanced his +fortunes by following a clear contrary advice. + +Courage, the reputation and glory of which men seek with so greedy an +appetite, presents itself, when need requires, as magnificently in +cuerpo, as in full armour; in a closet, as in a camp; with arms pendant, +as with arms raised. + +This over-circumspect and wary prudence is a mortal enemy to all high and +generous exploits. Scipio, to sound Syphax's intention, leaving his +army, abandoning Spain, not yet secure nor well settled in his new +conquest, could pass over into Africa in two small ships, to commit +himself, in an enemy's country, to the power of a barbarian king, to a +faith untried and unknown, without obligation, without hostage, under the +sole security of the grandeur of his own courage, his good fortune, and +the promise of his high hopes.--[ Livy, xxviii. 17.] + + "Habita fides ipsam plerumque fidem obligat." + + ["Trust often obliges fidelity."--Livy, xxii. 22.] + +In a life of ambition and glory, it is necessary to hold a stiff rein +upon suspicion: fear and distrust invite and draw on offence. The most +mistrustful of our kings--[ Louis XI.]--established his affairs +principally by voluntarily committing his life and liberty into his +enemies' hands, by that action manifesting that he had absolute +confidence in them, to the end they might repose as great an assurance in +him. Caesar only opposed the authority of his countenance and the +haughty sharpness of his rebukes to his mutinous legions in arms against +him: + + "Stetit aggere fulti + Cespitis, intrepidus vultu: meruitque timeri, + Nil metuens." + + ["He stood on a mound, his countenance intrepid, and merited to be + feared, he fearing nothing."--Lucan, v. 316.] + +But it is true, withal, that this undaunted assurance is not to be +represented in its simple and entire form, but by such whom the +apprehension of death, and the worst that can happen, does not terrify +and affright; for to represent a pretended resolution with a pale and +doubtful countenance and trembling limbs, for the service of an important +reconciliation, will effect nothing to purpose. 'Tis an excellent way to +gain the heart and will of another, to submit and intrust one's self to +him, provided it appear to be freely done, and without the constraint of +necessity, and in such a condition, that a man manifestly does it out of +a pure and entire confidence in the party, at least, with a countenance +clear from any cloud of suspicion. I saw, when I was a boy, a gentleman, +who was governor of a great city, upon occasion of a popular commotion +and fury, not knowing what other course to take, go out of a place of +very great strength and security, and commit himself to the mercy of the +seditious rabble, in hopes by that means to appease the tumult before it +grew to a more formidable head; but it was ill for him that he did so, +for he was there miserably slain. But I am not, nevertheless, of +opinion, that he committed so great an error in going out, as men +commonly reproach his memory withal, as he did in choosing a gentle and +submissive way for the effecting his purpose, and in endeavouring to +quiet this storm, rather by obeying than commanding, and by entreaty +rather than remonstrance; and I am inclined to believe, that a gracious +severity, with a soldierlike way of commanding, full of security and +confidence, suitable to the quality of his person, and the dignity of his +command, would have succeeded better with him; at least, he had perished +with greater decency and, reputation. There is nothing so little to be +expected or hoped for from this many-headed monster, in its fury, as +humanity and good nature; it is much more capable of reverence and fear. +I should also reproach him, that having taken a resolution (in my +judgment rather brave than rash) to expose himself, weak and naked, in +this tempestuous sea of enraged madmen, he ought to have stuck to his +text, and not for an instant to have abandoned the high part he had +undertaken; whereas, coming to discover his danger nearer hand, and his +nose happening to bleed, he again changed that demiss and fawning +countenance he had at first put on, into another of fear and amazement, +filling his voice with entreaties and his eyes with tears, and, +endeavouring so to withdraw and secure his person, that carriage more +inflamed their fury, and soon brought the effects of it upon him. + +It was upon a time intended that there should be a general muster of +several troops in arms (and that is the most proper occasion of secret +revenges, and there is no place where they can be executed with greater +safety), and there were public and manifest appearances, that there was +no safe coming for some, whose principal and necessary office it was to +review them. Whereupon a consultation was held, and several counsels +were proposed, as in a case that was very nice and of great difficulty; +and moreover of grave consequence. Mine, amongst the rest, was, that +they should by all means avoid giving any sign of suspicion, but that the +officers who were most in danger should boldly go, and with cheerful and +erect countenances ride boldly and confidently through the ranks, and +that instead of sparing fire (which the counsels of the major part tended +to) they should entreat the captains to command the soldiers to give +round and full volleys in honour of the spectators, and not to spare +their powder. This was accordingly done, and served so good use, as to +please and gratify the suspected troops, and thenceforward to beget a +mutual and wholesome confidence and intelligence amongst them. + +I look upon Julius Caesar's way of winning men to him as the best and +finest that can be put in practice. First, he tried by clemency to make +himself beloved even by his very enemies, contenting himself, in detected +conspiracies, only publicly to declare, that he was pre-acquainted with +them; which being done, he took a noble resolution to await without +solicitude or fear, whatever might be the event, wholly resigning himself +to the protection of the gods and fortune: for, questionless, in this +state he was at the time when he was killed. + +A stranger having publicly said, that he could teach Dionysius, the +tyrant of Syracuse, an infallible way to find out and discover all the +conspiracies his subjects could contrive against him, if he would give +him a good sum of money for his pains, Dionysius hearing of it, caused +the man to be brought to him, that he might learn an art so necessary to +his preservation. The man made answer, that all the art he knew, was, +that he should give him a talent, and afterwards boast that he had +obtained a singular secret from him. Dionysius liked the invention, and +accordingly caused six hundred crowns to be counted out to him. +--[Plutarch, Apothegms.]--It was not likely he should give so great a +sum to a person unknown, but upon the account of some extraordinary +discovery, and the belief of this served to keep his enemies in awe. +Princes, however, do wisely to publish the informations they receive of +all the practices against their lives, to possess men with an opinion +they have so good intelligence that nothing can be plotted against them, +but they have present notice of it. The Duke of Athens did a great many +foolish things in the establishment of his new tyranny over Florence: +but this especially was most notable, that having received the first +intimation of the conspiracies the people were hatching against him, from +Matteo di Morozzo, one of the conspirators, he presently put him to +death, to suppress that rumour, that it might not be thought any of the +city disliked his government. + +I remember I have formerly read a story--[In Appian's Civil Wars, book +iv..]--of some Roman of great quality who, flying the tyranny of the +Triumvirate, had a thousand times by the subtlety of as many inventions +escaped from falling into the hands of those that pursued him. It +happened one day that a troop of horse, which was sent out to take him, +passed close by a brake where he was squat, and missed very narrowly of +spying him: but he considering, at this point, the pains and difficulties +wherein he had so long continued to evade the strict and incessant +searches that were every day made for him, the little pleasure he could +hope for in such a kind of life, and how much better it was for him to +die once for all, than to be perpetually at this pass, he started from +his seat, called them back, showed them his form,--[as of a squatting +hare.]--and voluntarily delivered himself up to their cruelty, by that +means to free both himself and them from further trouble. To invite a +man's enemies to come and cut his throat, seems a resolution a little +extravagant and odd; and yet I think he did better to take that course, +than to live in continual feverish fear of an accident for which there +was no cure. But seeing all the remedies a man can apply to such a +disease, are full of unquietness and uncertainty, 'tis better with a +manly courage to prepare one's self for the worst that can happen, and to +extract some consolation from this, that we are not certain the thing we +fear will ever come to pass. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +OF PEDANTRY + +I was often, when a boy, wonderfully concerned to see, in the Italian +farces, a pedant always brought in for the fool of the play, and that the +title of Magister was in no greater reverence amongst us: for being +delivered up to their tuition, what could I do less than be jealous of +their honour and reputation? I sought indeed to excuse them by the +natural incompatibility betwixt the vulgar sort and men of a finer +thread, both in judgment and knowledge, forasmuch as they go a quite +contrary way to one another: but in this, the thing I most stumbled at +was, that the finest gentlemen were those who most despised them; witness +our famous poet Du Bellay-- + + "Mais je hay par sur tout un scavoir pedantesque." + + ["Of all things I hate pedantic learning."--Du Bellay] + +And 'twas so in former times; for Plutarch says that Greek and Scholar +were terms of reproach and contempt amongst the Romans. But since, with +the better experience of age, I find they had very great reason so to do, +and that-- + + "Magis magnos clericos non sunt magis magnos sapientes." + + ["The greatest clerks are not the wisest men." A proverb given in + Rabelais' Gargantua, i. 39.] + +But whence it should come to pass, that a mind enriched with the +knowledge of so many things should not become more quick and sprightly, +and that a gross and vulgar understanding should lodge within it, without +correcting and improving itself, all the discourses and judgments of the +greatest minds the world ever had, I am yet to seek. To admit so many +foreign conceptions, so great, and so high fancies, it is necessary (as a +young lady, one of the greatest princesses of the kingdom, said to me +once, speaking of a certain person) that a man's own brain must be +crowded and squeezed together into a less compass, to make room for the +others; I should be apt to conclude, that as plants are suffocated and +drowned with too much nourishment, and lamps with too much oil, so with +too much study and matter is the active part of the understanding which, +being embarrassed, and confounded with a great diversity of things, loses +the force and power to disengage itself, and by the pressure of this +weight, is bowed, subjected, and doubled up. But it is quite otherwise; +for our soul stretches and dilates itself proportionably as it fills; and +in the examples of elder times, we see, quite contrary, men very proper +for public business, great captains, and great statesmen very learned +withal. + +And, as to the philosophers, a sort of men remote from all public +affairs, they have been sometimes also despised by the comic liberty of +their times; their opinions and manners making them appear, to men of +another sort, ridiculous. Would you make them judges of a lawsuit, of +the actions of men? they are ready to take it upon them, and straight +begin to examine if there be life, if there be motion, if man be any +other than an ox;--["If Montaigne has copied all this from Plato's +Theatetes, p.127, F. as it is plain by all which he has added +immediately after, that he has taken it from that dialogue, he has +grossly mistaken Plato's sentiment, who says here no more than this, that +the philosopher is so ignorant of what his neighbour does, that he scarce +knows whether he is a man, or some other animal:--Coste."]--what it is to +do and to suffer? what animals law and justice are? Do they speak of +the magistrates, or to him, 'tis with a rude, irreverent, and indecent +liberty. Do they hear their prince, or a king commended? they make no +more of him, than of a shepherd, goatherd, or neatherd: a lazy Coridon, +occupied in milking and shearing his herds and flocks, but more rudely +and harshly than the herd or shepherd himself. Do you repute any man the +greater for being lord of two thousand acres of land? they laugh at such +a pitiful pittance, as laying claim themselves to the whole world for +their possession. Do you boast of your nobility, as being descended from +seven rich successive ancestors? they look upon you with an eye of +contempt, as men who have not a right idea of the universal image of +nature, and that do not consider how many predecessors every one of us +has had, rich, poor, kings, slaves, Greeks, and barbarians; and though +you were the fiftieth descendant from Hercules, they look upon it as a +great vanity, so highly to value this, which is only a gift of fortune. +And 'twas so the vulgar sort contemned them, as men ignorant of the most +elementary and ordinary things; as presumptuous and insolent. + +But this Platonic picture is far different from that these pedants are +presented by. Those were envied for raising themselves above the common +sort, for despising the ordinary actions and offices of life, for having +assumed a particular and inimitable way of living, and for using a +certain method of high-flight and obsolete language, quite different from +the ordinary way of speaking: but these are contemned as being as much +below the usual form, as incapable of public employment, as leading a +life and conforming themselves to the mean and vile manners of the +vulgar: + + "Odi ignava opera, philosopha sententia." + + ["I hate men who jabber about philosophy, but do nothing." + --Pacuvius, ap Gellium, xiii. 8.] + + +For what concerns the philosophers, as I have said, if they were in +science, they were yet much greater in action. And, as it is said of the +geometrician of Syracuse,--[Archimedes.]--who having been disturbed from +his contemplation, to put some of his skill in practice for the defence +of his country, that he suddenly set on foot dreadful and prodigious +engines, that wrought effects beyond all human expectation; himself, +notwithstanding, disdaining all his handiwork, and thinking in this he +had played the mere mechanic, and violated the dignity of his art, of +which these performances of his he accounted but trivial experiments and +playthings so they, whenever they have been put upon the proof of action, +have been seen to fly to so high a pitch, as made it very well appear, +their souls were marvellously elevated, and enriched by the knowledge of +things. But some of them, seeing the reins of government in the hands of +incapable men, have avoided all management of political affairs; and he +who demanded of Crates, how long it was necessary to philosophise, +received this answer: "Till our armies are no more commanded by fools." +--[Diogenes Laertius, vi. 92.]--Heraclitus resigned the royalty to his +brother; and, to the Ephesians, who reproached him that he spent his time +in playing with children before the temple: "Is it not better," said he, +"to do so, than to sit at the helm of affairs in your company?" Others +having their imagination advanced above the world and fortune, have +looked upon the tribunals of justice, and even the thrones of kings, as +paltry and contemptible; insomuch, that Empedocles refused the royalty +that the Agrigentines offered to him. Thales, once inveighing in +discourse against the pains and care men put themselves to to become +rich, was answered by one in the company, that he did like the fox, who +found fault with what he could not obtain. Whereupon, he had a mind, for +the jest's sake, to show them to the contrary; and having, for this +occasion, made a muster of all his wits, wholly to employ them in the +service of profit and gain, he set a traffic on foot, which in one year +brought him in so great riches, that the most experienced in that trade +could hardly in their whole lives, with all their industry, have raked so +much together.--[Diogenes Laertius, Life of Thales, i. 26; Cicero, De +Divin., i. 49.]--That which Aristotle reports of some who called both +him and Anaxagoras, and others of their profession, wise but not prudent, +in not applying their study to more profitable things--though I do not +well digest this verbal distinction--that will not, however, serve to +excuse my pedants, for to see the low and necessitous fortune wherewith +they are content, we have rather reason to pronounce that they are +neither wise nor prudent. + +But letting this first reason alone, I think it better to say, that this +evil proceeds from their applying themselves the wrong way to the study +of the sciences; and that, after the manner we are instructed, it is no +wonder if neither the scholars nor the masters become, though more +learned, ever the wiser, or more able. In plain truth, the cares and +expense our parents are at in our education, point at nothing, but to +furnish our heads with knowledge; but not a word of judgment and virtue. +Cry out, of one that passes by, to the people: "O, what a learned man!" +and of another, "O, what a good man!"--[Translated from Seneca, Ep., +88.]--they will not fail to turn their eyes, and address their respect +to the former. There should then be a third crier, "O, the blockheads!" +Men are apt presently to inquire, does such a one understand Greek or +Latin? Is he a poet? or does he write in prose? But whether he be +grown better or more discreet, which are qualities of principal concern, +these are never thought of. We should rather examine, who is better +learned, than who is more learned. + +We only labour to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the +understanding unfurnished and void. Like birds who fly abroad to forage +for grain, and bring it home in the beak, without tasting it themselves, +to feed their young; so our pedants go picking knowledge here and there, +out of books, and hold it at the tongue's end, only to spit it out and +distribute it abroad. And here I cannot but smile to think how I have +paid myself in showing the foppery of this kind of learning, who myself +am so manifest an example; for, do I not the same thing throughout almost +this whole composition? I go here and there, culling out of several +books the sentences that best please me, not to keep them (for I have no +memory to retain them in), but to transplant them into this; where, to +say the truth, they are no more mine than in their first places. We are, +I conceive, knowing only in present knowledge, and not at all in what is +past, or more than is that which is to come. But the worst on't is, +their scholars and pupils are no better nourished by this kind of +inspiration; and it makes no deeper impression upon them, but passes from +hand to hand, only to make a show to be tolerable company, and to tell +pretty stories, like a counterfeit coin in counters, of no other use or +value, but to reckon with, or to set up at cards: + + "Apud alios loqui didicerunt non ipsi secum." + + ["They have learned to speak from others, not from themselves." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes, v. 36.] + + "Non est loquendum, sed gubernandum." + + ["Speaking is not so necessary as governing."--Seneca, Ep., 108.] + +Nature, to shew that there is nothing barbarous where she has the sole +conduct, oftentimes, in nations where art has the least to do, causes +productions of wit, such as may rival the greatest effect of art +whatever. In relation to what I am now speaking of, the Gascon proverb, +derived from a cornpipe, is very quaint and subtle: + + "Bouha prou bouha, mas a remuda lous dits quem." + + ["You may blow till your eyes start out; but if once you offer to + stir your fingers, it is all over."] + +We can say, Cicero says thus; these were the manners of Plato; these are +the very words of Aristotle: but what do we say ourselves? What do we +judge? A parrot would say as much as that. + +And this puts me in mind of that rich gentleman of Rome,--[Calvisius +Sabinus. Seneca, Ep., 27.]--who had been solicitous, with very great +expense, to procure men that were excellent in all sorts of science, whom +he had always attending his person, to the end, that when amongst his +friends any occasion fell out of speaking of any subject whatsoever, they +might supply his place, and be ready to prompt him, one with a sentence +of Seneca, another with a verse of Homer, and so forth, every one +according to his talent; and he fancied this knowledge to be his own, +because it was in the heads of those who lived upon his bounty; as they +also do, whose learning consists in having noble libraries. I know one, +who, when I question him what he knows, he presently calls for a book to +shew me, and dares not venture to tell me so much, as that he has piles +in his posteriors, till first he has consulted his dictionary, what piles +and what posteriors are. + +We take other men's knowledge and opinions upon trust; which is an idle +and superficial learning. We must make it our own. We are in this very +like him, who having need of fire, went to a neighbour's house to fetch +it, and finding a very good one there, sat down to warm himself without +remembering to carry any with him home.--[Plutarch, How a Man should +Listen.]--What good does it do us to have the stomach full of meat, if +it do not digest, if it be not incorporated with us, if it does not +nourish and support us? Can we imagine that Lucullus, whom letters, +without any manner of experience, made so great a captain, learned to be +so after this perfunctory manner?--[Cicero, Acad., ii. I.]--We suffer +ourselves to lean and rely so strongly upon the arm of another, that we +destroy our own strength and vigour. Would I fortify myself against the +fear of death, it must be at the expense of Seneca: would I extract +consolation for myself or my friend, I borrow it from Cicero. I might +have found it in myself, had I been trained to make use of my own reason. +I do not like this relative and mendicant understanding; for though we +could become learned by other men's learning, a man can never be wise but +by his own wisdom: + + ["I hate the wise man, who in his own concern is not wise." + --Euripides, ap. Cicero, Ep. Fam., xiii. 15.] + +Whence Ennius: + + "Nequidquam sapere sapientem, qui ipse sibi prodesse non quiret." + + ["That wise man knows nothing, who cannot profit himself by his + wisdom."--Cicero, De Offic., iii. 15.] + + "Si cupidus, si + Vanus, et Euganea quantumvis mollior agna." + + ["If he be grasping, or a boaster, and something softer than an + Euganean lamb."--Juvenal, Sat., viii. 14.] + + "Non enim paranda nobis solum, sed fruenda sapientia est." + + [" For wisdom is not only to be acquired, but to be utilised." + --Cicero, De Finib., i. I.] + +Dionysius--[It was not Dionysius, but Diogenes the cynic. Diogenes +Laertius, vi. 27.]--laughed at the grammarians, who set themselves to +inquire into the miseries of Ulysses, and were ignorant of their own; +at musicians, who were so exact in tuning their instruments, and never +tuned their manners; at orators, who made it a study to declare what is +justice, but never took care to do it. If the mind be not better +disposed, if the judgment be no better settled, I had much rather my +scholar had spent his time at tennis, for, at least, his body would by +that means be in better exercise and breath. Do but observe him when he +comes back from school, after fifteen or sixteen years that he has been +there; there is nothing so unfit for employment; all you shall find he +has got, is, that his Latin and Greek have only made him a greater +coxcomb than when he went from home. He should bring back his soul +replete with good literature, and he brings it only swelled and puffed up +with vain and empty shreds and patches of learning; and has really +nothing more in him than he had before.--[Plato's Dialogues: Protagoras.] + +These pedants of ours, as Plato says of the Sophists, their cousin- +germans, are, of all men, they who most pretend to be useful to mankind, +and who alone, of all men, not only do not better and improve that which +is committed to them, as a carpenter or a mason would do, but make them +much worse, and make us pay them for making them worse, to boot. If the +rule which Protagoras proposed to his pupils were followed--either that +they should give him his own demand, or make affidavit upon oath in the +temple how much they valued the profit they had received under his +tuition, and satisfy him accordingly--my pedagogues would find themselves +sorely gravelled, if they were to be judged by the affidavits of my +experience. My Perigordin patois very pleasantly calls these pretenders +to learning, 'lettre-ferits', as a man should say, letter-marked--men on +whom letters have been stamped by the blow of a mallet. And, in truth, +for the most part, they appear to be deprived even of common sense; for +you see the husbandman and the cobbler go simply and fairly about their +business, speaking only of what they know and understand; whereas these +fellows, to make parade and to get opinion, mustering this ridiculous +knowledge of theirs, that floats on the superficies of the brain, are +perpetually perplexing, and entangling themselves in their own nonsense. +They speak fine words sometimes, 'tis true, but let somebody that is +wiser apply them. They are wonderfully well acquainted with Galen, but +not at all with the disease of the patient; they have already deafened +you with a long ribble-row of laws, but understand nothing of the case in +hand; they have the theory of all things, let who will put it in +practice. + +I have sat by, when a friend of mine, in my own house, for sport-sake, +has with one of these fellows counterfeited a jargon of Galimatias, +patched up of phrases without head or tail, saving that he interlarded +here and there some terms that had relation to their dispute, and held +the coxcomb in play a whole afternoon together, who all the while thought +he had answered pertinently and learnedly to all his objections; and yet +this was a man of letters, and reputation, and a fine gentleman of the +long robe: + + "Vos, O patricius sanguis, quos vivere par est + Occipiti caeco, posticae occurrite sannae." + + ["O you, of patrician blood, to whom it is permitted to live + with(out) eyes in the back of your head, beware of grimaces at you + from behind."--Persius, Sat., i. 61.] + +Whosoever shall narrowly pry into and thoroughly sift this sort of +people, wherewith the world is so pestered, will, as I have done, find, +that for the most part, they neither understand others, nor themselves; +and that their memories are full enough, but the judgment totally void +and empty; some excepted, whose own nature has of itself formed them into +better fashion. As I have observed, for example, in Adrian Turnebus, who +having never made other profession than that of mere learning only, and +in that, in my opinion, he was the greatest man that has been these +thousand years, had nothing at all in him of the pedant, but the wearing +of his gown, and a little exterior fashion, that could not be civilised +to courtier ways, which in themselves are nothing. I hate our people, +who can worse endure an ill-contrived robe than an ill-contrived mind, +and take their measure by the leg a man makes, by his behaviour, and so +much as the very fashion of his boots, what kind of man he is. For +within there was not a more polished soul upon earth. I have often +purposely put him upon arguments quite wide of his profession, wherein I +found he had so clear an insight, so quick an apprehension, so solid a +judgment, that a man would have thought he had never practised any other +thing but arms, and been all his life employed in affairs of State. +These are great and vigorous natures, + + "Queis arte benigna + Et meliore luto finxit praecordia Titan." + + ["Whom benign Titan (Prometheus) has framed of better clay." + --Juvenal, xiv. 34.] + +that can keep themselves upright in despite of a pedantic education. But +it is not enough that our education does not spoil us; it must, moreover, +alter us for the better. + +Some of our Parliaments, when they are to admit officers, examine only +their learning; to which some of the others also add the trial of +understanding, by asking their judgment of some case in law; of these the +latter, methinks, proceed with the better method; for although both are +necessary, and that it is very requisite they should be defective in +neither, yet, in truth, knowledge is not so absolutely necessary as +judgment; the last may make shift without the other, but the other never +without this. For as the Greek verse says-- + + ["To what use serves learning, if understanding be away." + --Apud Stobaeus, tit. iii., p. 37 (1609).] + +Would to God that, for the good of our judicature, these societies were +as well furnished with understanding and conscience as they are with +knowledge. + + "Non vita, sed scolae discimus." + + ["We do not study for life, but only for the school." + --Seneca, Ep., 106.] + +We are not to tie learning to the soul, but to work and incorporate them +together: not to tincture it only, but to give it a thorough and perfect +dye; which, if it will not take colour, and meliorate its imperfect +state, it were without question better to let it alone. 'Tis a dangerous +weapon, that will hinder and wound its master, if put into an awkward and +unskilful hand: + + "Ut fuerit melius non didicisse." + + ["So that it were better not to have learned." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 4.] + +And this, peradventure, is the reason why neither we nor theology require +much learning in women; and that Francis, Duke of Brittany, son of John V., +one talking with him about his marriage with Isabella the daughter of +Scotland, and adding that she was homely bred, and without any manner of +learning, made answer, that he liked her the better, and that a woman was +wise enough, if she could distinguish her husband's shirt from his +doublet. So that it is no so great wonder, as they make of it, that our +ancestors had letters in no greater esteem, and that even to this day +they are but rarely met with in the principal councils of princes; and if +the end and design of acquiring riches, which is the only thing we +propose to ourselves, by the means of law, physic, pedantry, and even +divinity itself, did not uphold and keep them in credit, you would, with +doubt, see them in as pitiful a condition as ever. And what loss would +this be, if they neither instruct us to think well nor to do well? + + "Postquam docti prodierunt, boni desunt." + + [Seneca, Ep., 95. "Since the 'savans' have made their appearance + among us, the good people have become eclipsed." + --Rousseau, Discours sur les Lettres.] + +All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not the science of +goodness. + +But the reason I glanced upon but now, may it not also hence proceed, +that, our studies in France having almost no other aim but profit, except +as to those who, by nature born to offices and employments rather of +glory than gain, addict themselves to letters, if at all, only for so +short a time (being taken from their studies before they can come to have +any taste of them, to a profession that has nothing to do with books), +there ordinarily remain no others to apply themselves wholly to learning, +but people of mean condition, who in that only seek the means to live; +and by such people, whose souls are, both by nature and by domestic +education and example, of the basest alloy the fruits of knowledge are +immaturely gathered and ill digested, and delivered to their recipients +quite another thing. For it is not for knowledge to enlighten a soul +that is dark of itself, nor to make a blind man see. Her business is not +to find a man's eyes, but to guide, govern, and direct them, provided he +have sound feet and straight legs to go upon. Knowledge is an excellent +drug, but no drug has virtue enough to preserve itself from corruption +and decay, if the vessel be tainted and impure wherein it is put to keep. +Such a one may have a sight clear enough who looks asquint, and +consequently sees what is good, but does not follow it, and sees +knowledge, but makes no use of it. Plato's principal institution in his +Republic is to fit his citizens with employments suitable to their +nature. Nature can do all, and does all. Cripples are very unfit for +exercises of the body, and lame souls for exercises of the mind. +Degenerate and vulgar souls are unworthy of philosophy. If we see a +shoemaker with his shoes out at the toes, we say, 'tis no wonder; for, +commonly, none go worse shod than they. In like manner, experience often +presents us a physician worse physicked, a divine less reformed, and +(constantly) a scholar of less sufficiency, than other people. + +Old Aristo of Chios had reason to say that philosophers did their +auditors harm, forasmuch as most of the souls of those that heard them +were not capable of deriving benefit from instruction, which, if not +applied to good, would certainly be applied to ill: + + ["They proceeded effeminate debauchees from the school of + Aristippus, cynics from that of Zeno." + --Cicero, De Natura Deor., iii., 31.] + +In that excellent institution that Xenophon attributes to the Persians, +we find that they taught their children virtue, as other nations do +letters. Plato tells us that the eldest son in their royal succession +was thus brought up; after his birth he was delivered, not to women, but +to eunuchs of the greatest authority about their kings for their virtue, +whose charge it was to keep his body healthful and in good plight; and +after he came to seven years of age, to teach him to ride and to go +a-hunting. When he arrived at fourteen he was transferred into the hands +of four, the wisest, the most just, the most temperate, and most valiant +of the nation; of whom the first was to instruct him in religion, the +second to be always upright and sincere, the third to conquer his +appetites and desires, and the fourth to despise all danger. + +It is a thing worthy of very great consideration, that in that excellent, +and, in truth, for its perfection, prodigious form of civil regimen set +down by Lycurgus, though so solicitous of the education of children, +as a thing of the greatest concern, and even in the very seat of the +Muses, he should make so little mention of learning; as if that generous +youth, disdaining all other subjection but that of virtue, ought to be +supplied, instead of tutors to read to them arts and sciences, with such +masters as should only instruct them in valour, prudence, and justice; +an example that Plato has followed in his laws. The manner of their +discipline was to propound to them questions in judgment upon men and +their actions; and if they commended or condemned this or that person or +fact, they were to give a reason for so doing; by which means they at +once sharpened their understanding, and learned what was right. +Astyages, in Xenophon, asks Cyrus to give an account of his last lesson; +and thus it was, "A great boy in our school, having a little short +cassock, by force took a longer from another that was not so tall as he, +and gave him his own in exchange: whereupon I, being appointed judge of +the controversy, gave judgment, that I thought it best each should keep +the coat he had, for that they both of them were better fitted with that +of one another than with their own: upon which my master told me, I had +done ill, in that I had only considered the fitness of the garments, +whereas I ought to have considered the justice of the thing, which +required that no one should have anything forcibly taken from him that is +his own." And Cyrus adds that he was whipped for his pains, as we are in +our villages for forgetting the first aorist of------. + + [Cotton's version of this story commences differently, and includes + a passage which is not in any of the editions of the original before + me: + + "Mandane, in Xenophon, asking Cyrus how he would do to learn + justice, and the other virtues amongst the Medes, having left all + his masters behind him in Persia? He made answer, that he had + learned those things long since; that his master had often made him + a judge of the differences amongst his schoolfellows, and had one + day whipped him for giving a wrong sentence."--W.C.H.] + +My pedant must make me a very learned oration, 'in genere demonstrativo', +before he can persuade me that his school is like unto that. They knew +how to go the readiest way to work; and seeing that science, when most +rightly applied and best understood, can do no more but teach us +prudence, moral honesty, and resolution, they thought fit, at first hand, +to initiate their children with the knowledge of effects, and to instruct +them, not by hearsay and rote, but by the experiment of action, in lively +forming and moulding them; not only by words and precepts, but chiefly by +works and examples; to the end it might not be a knowledge in the mind +only, but its complexion and habit: not an acquisition, but a natural +possession. One asking to this purpose, Agesilaus, what he thought most +proper for boys to learn? "What they ought to do when they come to be +men," said he.--[Plutarch, Apothegms of the Lacedamonians. Rousseau +adopts the expression in his Diswuys sur tes Lettres.]--It is no wonder, +if such an institution produced so admirable effects. + +They used to go, it is said, to the other cities of Greece, to inquire +out rhetoricians, painters, and musicians; but to Lacedaemon for +legislators, magistrates, and generals of armies; at Athens they learned +to speak well: here to do well; there to disengage themselves from a +sophistical argument, and to unravel the imposture of captious +syllogisms; here to evade the baits and allurements of pleasure, and with +a noble courage and resolution to conquer the menaces of fortune and +death; those cudgelled their brains about words, these made it their +business to inquire into things; there was an eternal babble of the +tongue, here a continual exercise of the soul. And therefore it is +nothing strange if, when Antipater demanded of them fifty children for +hostages, they made answer, quite contrary to what we should do, that +they would rather give him twice as many full-grown men, so much did they +value the loss of their country's education. When Agesilaus courted +Xenophon to send his children to Sparta to be bred, "it is not," said he, +"there to learn logic or rhetoric, but to be instructed in the noblest of +all sciences, namely, the science to obey and to command."--[Plutarch, +Life of Agesilaus, c. 7.] + +It is very pleasant to see Socrates, after his manner, rallying Hippias, +--[Plato's Dialogues: Hippias Major.]--who recounts to him what a world +of money he has got, especially in certain little villages of Sicily, by +teaching school, and that he made never a penny at Sparta: "What a +sottish and stupid people," said Socrates, "are they, without sense or +understanding, that make no account either of grammar or poetry, and only +busy themselves in studying the genealogies and successions of their +kings, the foundations, rises, and declensions of states, and such tales +of a tub!" After which, having made Hippias from one step to another +acknowledge the excellency of their form of public administration, and +the felicity and virtue of their private life, he leaves him to guess at +the conclusion he makes of the inutilities of his pedantic arts. + +Examples have demonstrated to us that in military affairs, and all others +of the like active nature, the study of sciences more softens and +untempers the courages of men than it in any way fortifies and excites +them. The most potent empire that at this day appears to be in the whole +world is that of the Turks, a people equally inured to the estimation of +arms and the contempt of letters. I find Rome was more valiant before +she grew so learned. The most warlike nations at this time in being are +the most rude and ignorant: the Scythians, the Parthians, Tamerlane, +serve for sufficient proof of this. When the Goths overran Greece, the +only thing that preserved all the libraries from the fire was, that some +one possessed them with an opinion that they were to leave this kind of +furniture entire to the enemy, as being most proper to divert them from +the exercise of arms, and to fix them to a lazy and sedentary life. +When our King Charles VIII., almost without striking a blow, saw himself +possessed of the kingdom of Naples and a considerable part of Tuscany, +the nobles about him attributed this unexpected facility of conquest to +this, that the princes and nobles of Italy, more studied to render +themselves ingenious and learned, than vigorous and warlike. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A parrot would say as much as that +Agesilaus, what he thought most proper for boys to learn? +But it is not enough that our education does not spoil us +Conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature +Culling out of several books the sentences that best please me +"Custom," replied Plato, "is no little thing" +Education +Examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned +Fear and distrust invite and draw on offence +Fortune will still be mistress of events +Fox, who found fault with what he could not obtain +Fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed +Gave them new and more plausible names for their excuse +Give me time to recover my strength and health +Great presumption to be so fond of one's own opinions +Gross impostures of religions +Hoary head and rivelled face of ancient usage +Hold a stiff rein upon suspicion +I have a great aversion from a novelty +Knowledge is not so absolutely necessary as judgment +Laws do what they can, when they cannot do what they would +Man can never be wise but by his own wisdom +Memories are full enough, but the judgment totally void +Miracles appear to be so, according to our ignorance of nature +Nothing noble can be performed without danger +Only set the humours they would purge more violently in work +Ought not to expect much either from his vigilance or power +Ought to withdraw and retire his soul from the crowd +Over-circumspect and wary prudence is a mortal enemy +Physic +Physician worse physicked +Plays of children are not performed in play +Present himself with a halter about his neck to the people +Rome was more valiant before she grew so learned +Study to declare what is justice, but never took care to do it. +Testimony of the truth from minds prepossessed by custom? +They neither instruct us to think well nor to do well +Think of physic as much good or ill as any one would have me +Use veils from us the true aspect of things +Victorious envied the conquered +We only labour to stuff the memory +We take other men's knowledge and opinions upon trust +Weakness and instability of a private and particular fancy +What they ought to do when they come to be men +Whosoever despises his own life, is always master +Worse endure an ill-contrived robe than an ill-contrived mind + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V4 +by Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 5. + +XXV. Of the education of children. +XXVI. That it is folly to measure truth and error by our own + capacity. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +OF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN + +TO MADAME DIANE DE FOIX, Comtesse de Gurson + +I never yet saw that father, but let his son be never so decrepit or +deformed, would not, notwithstanding, own him: not, nevertheless, if he +were not totally besotted, and blinded with his paternal affection, that +he did not well enough discern his defects; but that with all defaults he +was still his. Just so, I see better than any other, that all I write +here are but the idle reveries of a man that has only nibbled upon the +outward crust of sciences in his nonage, and only retained a general and +formless image of them; who has got a little snatch of everything and +nothing of the whole, 'a la Francoise'. For I know, in general, that +there is such a thing as physic, as jurisprudence: four parts in +mathematics, and, roughly, what all these aim and point at; and, +peradventure, I yet know farther, what sciences in general pretend unto, +in order to the service of our life: but to dive farther than that, and +to have cudgelled my brains in the study of Aristotle, the monarch of all +modern learning, or particularly addicted myself to any one science, +I have never done it; neither is there any one art of which I am able to +draw the first lineaments and dead colour; insomuch that there is not a +boy of the lowest form in a school, that may not pretend to be wiser than +I, who am not able to examine him in his first lesson, which, if I am at +any time forced upon, I am necessitated in my own defence, to ask him, +unaptly enough, some universal questions, such as may serve to try his +natural understanding; a lesson as strange and unknown to him, as his is +to me. + +I never seriously settled myself to the reading any book of solid +learning but Plutarch and Seneca; and there, like the Danaides, I +eternally fill, and it as constantly runs out; something of which drops +upon this paper, but little or nothing stays with me. History is my +particular game as to matter of reading, or else poetry, for which I have +particular kindness and esteem: for, as Cleanthes said, as the voice, +forced through the narrow passage of a trumpet, comes out more forcible +and shrill: so, methinks, a sentence pressed within the harmony of verse +darts out more briskly upon the understanding, and strikes my ear and +apprehension with a smarter and more pleasing effect. As to the natural +parts I have, of which this is the essay, I find them to bow under the +burden; my fancy and judgment do but grope in the dark, tripping and +stumbling in the way; and when I have gone as far as I can, I am in no +degree satisfied; I discover still a new and greater extent of land +before me, with a troubled and imperfect sight and wrapped up in clouds, +that I am not able to penetrate. And taking upon me to write +indifferently of whatever comes into my head, and therein making use of +nothing but my own proper and natural means, if it befall me, as oft- +times it does, accidentally to meet in any good author, the same heads +and commonplaces upon which I have attempted to write (as I did but just +now in Plutarch's "Discourse of the Force of Imagination"), to see myself +so weak and so forlorn, so heavy and so flat, in comparison of those +better writers, I at once pity or despise myself. Yet do I please myself +with this, that my opinions have often the honour and good fortune to +jump with theirs, and that I go in the same path, though at a very great +distance, and can say, "Ah, that is so." I am farther satisfied to find +that I have a quality, which every one is not blessed withal, which is, +to discern the vast difference between them and me; and notwithstanding +all that, suffer my own inventions, low and feeble as they are, to run on +in their career, without mending or plastering up the defects that this +comparison has laid open to my own view. And, in plain truth, a man had +need of a good strong back to keep pace with these people. The +indiscreet scribblers of our times, who, amongst their laborious +nothings, insert whole sections and pages out of ancient authors, with a +design, by that means, to illustrate their own writings, do quite +contrary; for this infinite dissimilitude of ornaments renders the +complexion of their own compositions so sallow and deformed, that they +lose much more than they get. + +The philosophers, Chrysippus and Epicurus, were in this of two quite +contrary humours: the first not only in his books mixed passages and +sayings of other authors, but entire pieces, and, in one, the whole Medea +of Euripides; which gave Apollodorus occasion to say, that should a man +pick out of his writings all that was none of his, he would leave him +nothing but blank paper: whereas the latter, quite on the contrary, in +three hundred volumes that he left behind him, has not so much as one +quotation.--[Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Chyysippus, vii. 181, and +Epicurus, x. 26.] + +I happened the other day upon this piece of fortune; I was reading a +French book, where after I had a long time run dreaming over a great many +words, so dull, so insipid, so void of all wit or common sense, that +indeed they were only French words: after a long and tedious travel, I +came at last to meet with a piece that was lofty, rich, and elevated to +the very clouds; of which, had I found either the declivity easy or the +ascent gradual, there had been some excuse; but it was so perpendicular +a precipice, and so wholly cut off from the rest of the work, that by the +first six words, I found myself flying into the other world, and thence +discovered the vale whence I came so deep and low, that I have never had +since the heart to descend into it any more. If I should set out one of +my discourses with such rich spoils as these, it would but too evidently +manifest the imperfection of my own writing. To reprehend the fault in +others that I am guilty of myself, appears to me no more unreasonable, +than to condemn, as I often do, those of others in myself: they are to be +everywhere reproved, and ought to have no sanctuary allowed them. I know +very well how audaciously I myself, at every turn, attempt to equal +myself to my thefts, and to make my style go hand in hand with them, not +without a temerarious hope of deceiving the eyes of my reader from +discerning the difference; but withal it is as much by the benefit of my +application, that I hope to do it, as by that of my invention or any +force of my own. Besides, I do not offer to contend with the whole body +of these champions, nor hand to hand with anyone of them: 'tis only by +flights and little light attempts that I engage them; I do not grapple +with them, but try their strength only, and never engage so far as I make +a show to do. If I could hold them in play, I were a brave fellow; for I +never attack them; but where they are most sinewy and strong. To cover a +man's self (as I have seen some do) with another man's armour, so as not +to discover so much as his fingers' ends; to carry on a design (as it is +not hard for a man that has anything of a scholar in him, in an ordinary +subject to do) under old inventions patched up here and there with his +own trumpery, and then to endeavour to conceal the theft, and to make it +pass for his own, is first injustice and meanness of spirit in those who +do it, who having nothing in them of their own fit to procure them a +reputation, endeavour to do it by attempting to impose things upon the +world in their own name, which they have no manner of title to; and next, +a ridiculous folly to content themselves with acquiring the ignorant +approbation of the vulgar by such a pitiful cheat, at the price at the +same time of degrading themselves in the eyes of men of understanding, +who turn up their noses at all this borrowed incrustation, yet whose +praise alone is worth the having. For my own part, there is nothing I +would not sooner do than that, neither have I said so much of others, but +to get a better opportunity to explain myself. Nor in this do I glance +at the composers of centos, who declare themselves for such; of which +sort of writers I have in my time known many very ingenious, and +particularly one under the name of Capilupus, besides the ancients. +These are really men of wit, and that make it appear they are so, both by +that and other ways of writing; as for example, Lipsius, in that learned +and laborious contexture of his Politics. + +But, be it how it will, and how inconsiderable soever these ineptitudes +may be, I will say I never intended to conceal them, no more than my old +bald grizzled likeness before them, where the painter has presented you +not with a perfect face, but with mine. For these are my own particular +opinions and fancies, and I deliver them as only what I myself believe, +and not for what is to be believed by others. I have no other end in +this writing, but only to discover myself, who, also shall, peradventure, +be another thing to-morrow, if I chance to meet any new instruction to +change me. I have no authority to be believed, neither do I desire it, +being too conscious of my own inerudition to be able to instruct others. + +Some one, then, having seen the preceding chapter, the other day told me +at my house, that I should a little farther have extended my discourse on +the education of children.--[" Which, how fit I am to do, let my friends +flatter me if they please, I have in the meantime no such opinion of my +own talent, as to promise myself any very good success from my +endeavour." This passage would appear to be an interpolation by Cotton. +At all events, I do not find it in the original editions before me, or in +Coste.]-- + +Now, madam, if I had any sufficiency in this subject, I could not +possibly better employ it, than to present my best instructions to the +little man that threatens you shortly with a happy birth (for you are too +generous to begin otherwise than with a male); for, having had so great a +hand in the treaty of your marriage, I have a certain particular right +and interest in the greatness and prosperity of the issue that shall +spring from it; beside that, your having had the best of my services so +long in possession, sufficiently obliges me to desire the honour and +advantage of all wherein you shall be concerned. But, in truth, all I +understand as to that particular is only this, that the greatest and most +important difficulty of human science is the education of children. For +as in agriculture, the husbandry that is to precede planting, as also +planting itself, is certain, plain, and well known; but after that which +is planted comes to life, there is a great deal more to be done, more art +to be used, more care to be taken, and much more difficulty to cultivate +and bring it to perfection so it is with men; it is no hard matter to get +children; but after they are born, then begins the trouble, solicitude, +and care rightly to train, principle, and bring them up. The symptoms of +their inclinations in that tender age are so obscure, and the promises so +uncertain and fallacious, that it is very hard to establish any solid +judgment or conjecture upon them. Look at Cimon, for example, and +Themistocles, and a thousand others, who very much deceived the +expectation men had of them. Cubs of bears and puppies readily discover +their natural inclination; but men, so soon as ever they are grownup, +applying themselves to certain habits, engaging themselves in certain +opinions, and conforming themselves to particular laws and customs, +easily alter, or at least disguise, their true and real disposition; and +yet it is hard to force the propension of nature. Whence it comes to +pass, that for not having chosen the right course, we often take very +great pains, and consume a good part of our time m training up children +to things, for which, by their natural constitution, they are totally +unfit. In this difficulty, nevertheless, I am clearly of opinion, that +they ought to be elemented in the best and most advantageous studies, +without taking too much notice of, or being too superstitious in those +light prognostics they give of themselves in their tender years, and to +which Plato, in his Republic, gives, methinks, too much authority. + +Madam, science is a very great ornament, and a thing of marvellous use, +especially in persons raised to that degree of fortune in which you are. +And, in truth, in persons of mean and low condition, it cannot perform +its true and genuine office, being naturally more prompt to assist in the +conduct of war, in the government of peoples, in negotiating the leagues +and friendships of princes and foreign nations, than in forming a +syllogism in logic, in pleading a process in law, or in prescribing a +dose of pills in physic. Wherefore, madam, believing you will not omit +this so necessary feature in the education of your children, who yourself +have tasted its sweetness, and are of a learned extraction (for we yet +have the writings of the ancient Counts of Foix, from whom my lord, your +husband, and yourself, are both of you descended, and Monsieur de +Candale, your uncle, every day obliges the world with others, which will +extend the knowledge of this quality in your family for so many +succeeding ages), I will, upon this occasion, presume to acquaint your +ladyship with one particular fancy of my own, contrary to the common +method, which is all I am able to contribute to your service in this +affair. + +The charge of the tutor you shall provide for your son, upon the choice +of whom depends the whole success of his education, has several other +great and considerable parts and duties required in so important a trust, +besides that of which I am about to speak: these, however, I shall not +mention, as being unable to add anything of moment to the common rules: +and in this, wherein I take upon me to advise, he may follow it so far +only as it shall appear advisable. + +For a, boy of quality then, who pretends to letters not upon the account +of profit (for so mean an object is unworthy of the grace and favour +of the Muses, and moreover, in it a man directs his service to and +depends upon others), nor so much for outward ornament, as for his own +proper and peculiar use, and to furnish and enrich himself within, having +rather a desire to come out an accomplished cavalier than a mere scholar +or learned man; for such a one, I say, I would, also, have his friends +solicitous to find him out a tutor, who has rather a well-made than a +well-filled head;--["'Tete bien faite', an expression created by +Montaigne, and which has remained a part of our language."--Servan.]-- +seeking, indeed, both the one and the other, but rather of the two to +prefer manners and judgment to mere learning, and that this man should +exercise his charge after a new method. + +'Tis the custom of pedagogues to be eternally thundering in their pupil's +ears, as they were pouring into a funnel, whilst the business of the +pupil is only to repeat what the others have said: now I would have a +tutor to correct this error, and, that at the very first, he should +according to the capacity he has to deal with, put it to the test, +permitting his pupil himself to taste things, and of himself to discern +and choose them, sometimes opening the way to him, and sometimes leaving +him to open it for himself; that is, I would not have him alone to invent +and speak, but that he should also hear his pupil speak in turn. +Socrates, and since him Arcesilaus, made first their scholars speak, and +then they spoke to them--[Diogenes Laertius, iv. 36.] + + "Obest plerumque iis, qui discere volunt, + auctoritas eorum, qui docent." + + ["The authority of those who teach, is very often an impediment to + those who desire to learn."--Cicero, De Natura Deor., i. 5.] + +It is good to make him, like a young horse, trot before him, that he may +judge of his going, and how much he is to abate of his own speed, to +accommodate himself to the vigour and capacity of the other. For want of +which due proportion we spoil all; which also to know how to adjust, and +to keep within an exact and due measure, is one of the hardest things I +know, and 'tis the effect of a high and well-tempered soul, to know how +to condescend to such puerile motions and to govern and direct them. +I walk firmer and more secure up hill than down. + +Such as, according to our common way of teaching, undertake, with one and +the same lesson, and the same measure of direction, to instruct several +boys of differing and unequal capacities, are infinitely mistaken; and +'tis no wonder, if in a whole multitude of scholars, there are not found +above two or three who bring away any good account of their time and +discipline. Let the master not only examine him about the grammatical +construction of the bare words of his lesson, but about the sense and let +him judge of the profit he has made, not by the testimony of his memory, +but by that of his life. Let him make him put what he has learned into a +hundred several forms, and accommodate it to so many several subjects, to +see if he yet rightly comprehends it, and has made it his own, taking +instruction of his progress by the pedagogic institutions of Plato. 'Tis +a sign of crudity and indigestion to disgorge what we eat in the same +condition it was swallowed; the stomach has not performed its office +unless it have altered the form and condition of what was committed to it +to concoct. Our minds work only upon trust, when bound and compelled to +follow the appetite of another's fancy, enslaved and captivated under the +authority of another's instruction; we have been so subjected to the +trammel, that we have no free, nor natural pace of our own; our own +vigour and liberty are extinct and gone: + + "Nunquam tutelae suae fiunt." + + ["They are ever in wardship."--Seneca, Ep., 33.] + +I was privately carried at Pisa to see a very honest man, but so great an +Aristotelian, that his most usual thesis was: "That the touchstone and +square of all solid imagination, and of all truth, was an absolute +conformity to Aristotle's doctrine; and that all besides was nothing but +inanity and chimera; for that he had seen all, and said all." A position, +that for having been a little too injuriously and broadly interpreted, +brought him once and long kept him in great danger of the Inquisition at +Rome. + +Let him make him examine and thoroughly sift everything he reads, and +lodge nothing in his fancy upon simple authority and upon trust. +Aristotle's principles will then be no more principles to him, than those +of Epicurus and the Stoics: let this diversity of opinions be propounded +to, and laid before him; he will himself choose, if he be able; if not, +he will remain in doubt. + + "Che non men the saver, dubbiar m' aggrata." + + ["I love to doubt, as well as to know."--Dante, Inferno, xi. 93] + +for, if he embrace the opinions of Xenophon and Plato, by his own reason, +they will no more be theirs, but become his own. Who follows another, +follows nothing, finds nothing, nay, is inquisitive after nothing. + + "Non sumus sub rege; sibi quisque se vindicet." + + ["We are under no king; let each vindicate himself." + --Seneca, Ep.,33] + +Let him, at least, know that he knows. It will be necessary that he +imbibe their knowledge, not that he be corrupted with their precepts; +and no matter if he forget where he had his learning, provided he know +how to apply it to his own use. Truth and reason are common to every +one, and are no more his who spake them first, than his who speaks them +after: 'tis no more according to Plato, than according to me, since both +he and I equally see and understand them. Bees cull their several sweets +from this flower and that blossom, here and there where they find them, +but themselves afterwards make the honey, which is all and purely their +own, and no more thyme and marjoram: so the several fragments he borrows +from others, he will transform and shuffle together to compile a work +that shall be absolutely his own; that is to say, his judgment: +his instruction, labour and study, tend to nothing else but to form that. +He is not obliged to discover whence he got the materials that have +assisted him, but only to produce what he has himself done with them. +Men that live upon pillage and borrowing, expose their purchases and +buildings to every one's view: but do not proclaim how they came by the +money. We do not see the fees and perquisites of a gentleman of the long +robe; but we see the alliances wherewith he fortifies himself and his +family, and the titles and honours he has obtained for him and his. No +man divulges his revenue; or, at least, which way it comes in but every +one publishes his acquisitions. The advantages of our study are to +become better and more wise. 'Tis, says Epicharmus, the understanding +that sees and hears, 'tis the understanding that improves everything, +that orders everything, and that acts, rules, and reigns: all other +faculties are blind, and deaf, and without soul. And certainly we render +it timorous and servile, in not allowing it the liberty and privilege to +do anything of itself. Whoever asked his pupil what he thought of +grammar and rhetoric, or of such and such a sentence of Cicero? Our +masters stick them, full feathered, in our memories, and there establish +them like oracles, of which the letters and syllables are of the +substance of the thing. To know by rote, is no knowledge, and signifies +no more but only to retain what one has intrusted to our memory. That +which a man rightly knows and understands, he is the free disposer of at +his own full liberty, without any regard to the author from whence he had +it, or fumbling over the leaves of his book. A mere bookish learning is +a poor, paltry learning; it may serve for ornament, but there is yet no +foundation for any superstructure to be built upon it, according to the +opinion of Plato, who says, that constancy, faith, and sincerity, are the +true philosophy, and the other sciences, that are directed to other ends; +mere adulterate paint. I could wish that Paluel or Pompey, those two +noted dancers of my time, could have taught us to cut capers, by only +seeing them do it, without stirring from our places, as these men pretend +to inform the understanding without ever setting it to work, or that we +could learn to ride, handle a pike, touch a lute, or sing without the +trouble of practice, as these attempt to make us judge and speak well, +without exercising us in judging or speaking. Now in this initiation of +our studies in their progress, whatsoever presents itself before us is +book sufficient; a roguish trick of a page, a sottish mistake of a +servant, a jest at the table, are so many new subjects. + +And for this reason, conversation with men is of very great use and +travel into foreign countries; not to bring back (as most of our young +monsieurs do) an account only of how many paces Santa Rotonda--[The +Pantheon of Agrippa.]--is in circuit; or of the richness of Signora +Livia's petticoats; or, as some others, how much Nero's face, in a statue +in such an old ruin, is longer and broader than that made for him on some +medal; but to be able chiefly to give an account of the humours, manners, +customs, and laws of those nations where he has been, and that we may +whet and sharpen our wits by rubbing them against those of others. I +would that a boy should be sent abroad very young, and first, so as to +kill two birds with one stone, into those neighbouring nations whose +language is most differing from our own, and to which, if it be not +formed betimes, the tongue will grow too stiff to bend. + +And also 'tis the general opinion of all, that a child should not be +brought up in his mother's lap. Mothers are too tender, and their +natural affection is apt to make the most discreet of them all so +overfond, that they can neither find in their hearts to give them due +correction for the faults they may commit, nor suffer them to be inured +to hardships and hazards, as they ought to be. They will not endure to +see them return all dust and sweat from their exercise, to drink cold +drink when they are hot, nor see them mount an unruly horse, nor take a +foil in hand against a rude fencer, or so much as to discharge a carbine. +And yet there is no remedy; whoever will breed a boy to be good for +anything when he comes to be a man, must by no means spare him when +young, and must very often transgress the rules of physic: + + "Vitamque sub dio, et trepidis agat + In rebus." + + ["Let him live in open air, and ever in movement about something." + --Horace, Od. ii., 3, 5.] + +It is not enough to fortify his soul; you are also to make his sinews +strong; for the soul will be oppressed if not assisted by the members, +and would have too hard a task to discharge two offices alone. I know +very well to my cost, how much mine groans under the burden, from being +accommodated with a body so tender and indisposed, as eternally leans and +presses upon her; and often in my reading perceive that our masters, in +their writings, make examples pass for magnanimity and fortitude of mind, +which really are rather toughness of skin and hardness of bones; for I +have seen men, women, and children, naturally born of so hard and +insensible a constitution of body, that a sound cudgelling has been less +to them than a flirt with a finger would have been to me, and that would +neither cry out, wince, nor shrink, for a good swinging beating; and when +wrestlers counterfeit the philosophers in patience, 'tis rather strength +of nerves than stoutness of heart. Now to be inured to undergo labour, +is to be accustomed to endure pain: + + "Labor callum obducit dolori." + + ["Labour hardens us against pain."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 15.] + +A boy is to be broken in to the toil and roughness of exercise, so as to +be trained up to the pain and suffering of dislocations, cholics, +cauteries, and even imprisonment and the rack itself; for he may come by +misfortune to be reduced to the worst of these, which (as this world +goes) is sometimes inflicted on the good as well as the bad. As for +proof, in our present civil war whoever draws his sword against the laws, +threatens the honestest men with the whip and the halter. + +And, moreover, by living at home, the authority of this governor, which +ought to be sovereign over the boy he has received into his charge, is +often checked and hindered by the presence of parents; to which may also +be added, that the respect the whole family pay him, as their master's +son, and the knowledge he has of the estate and greatness he is heir to, +are, in my opinion, no small inconveniences in these tender years. + +And yet, even in this conversing with men I spoke of but now, I have +observed this vice, that instead of gathering observations from others, +we make it our whole business to lay ourselves open to them, and are more +concerned how to expose and set out our own commodities, than how to +increase our stock by acquiring new. Silence, therefore, and modesty are +very advantageous qualities in conversation. One should, therefore, +train up this boy to be sparing and an husband of his knowledge when he +has acquired it; and to forbear taking exceptions at or reproving every +idle saying or ridiculous story that is said or told in his presence; for +it is a very unbecoming rudeness to carp at everything that is not +agreeable to our own palate. Let him be satisfied with correcting +himself, and not seem to condemn everything in another he would not do +himself, nor dispute it as against common customs. + + "Licet sapere sine pompa, sine invidia." + + ["Let us be wise without ostentation, without envy." + --Seneca, Ep., 103.] + +Let him avoid these vain and uncivil images of authority, this childish +ambition of coveting to appear better bred and more accomplished, than he +really will, by such carriage, discover himself to be. And, as if +opportunities of interrupting and reprehending were not to be omitted, to +desire thence to derive the reputation of something more than ordinary. +For as it becomes none but great poets to make use of the poetical +licence, so it is intolerable for any but men of great and illustrious +souls to assume privilege above the authority of custom: + + "Si quid Socrates ant Aristippus contra morem et consuetudinem + fecerunt, idem sibi ne arbitretur licere: magnis enim illi et + divinis bonis hanc licentiam assequebantur." + + ["If Socrates and Aristippus have committed any act against manners + and custom, let him not think that he is allowed to do the same; for + it was by great and divine benefits that they obtained this + privilege."--Cicero, De Offic., i. 41.] + +Let him be instructed not to engage in discourse or dispute but with a +champion worthy of him, and, even there, not to make use of all the +little subtleties that may seem pat for his purpose, but only such +arguments as may best serve him. Let him be taught to be curious in the +election and choice of his reasons, to abominate impertinence, and +consequently, to affect brevity; but, above all, let him be lessoned to +acquiesce and submit to truth so soon as ever he shall discover it, +whether in his opponent's argument, or upon better consideration of his +own; for he shall never be preferred to the chair for a mere clatter of +words and syllogisms, and is no further engaged to any argument whatever, +than as he shall in his own judgment approve it: nor yet is arguing a +trade, where the liberty of recantation and getting off upon better +thoughts, are to be sold for ready money: + + "Neque, ut omnia, qux praescripta et imperata sint, + defendat, necessitate ulla cogitur." + + ["Neither is their any necessity upon him, that he should defend + all things that are prescribed and enjoined him." + --Cicero, Acad., ii. 3.] + +If his governor be of my humour, he will form his will to be a very good +and loyal subject to his prince, very affectionate to his person, and +very stout in his quarrel; but withal he will cool in him the desire of +having any other tie to his service than public duty. Besides several +other inconveniences that are inconsistent with the liberty every honest +man ought to have, a man's judgment, being bribed and prepossessed by +these particular obligations, is either blinded and less free to exercise +its function, or is blemished with ingratitude and indiscretion. A man +that is purely a courtier, can neither have power nor will to speak or +think otherwise than favourably and well of a master, who, amongst so +many millions of other subjects, has picked out him with his own hand to +nourish and advance; this favour, and the profit flowing from it, must +needs, and not without some show of reason, corrupt his freedom and +dazzle him; and we commonly see these people speak in another kind of +phrase than is ordinarily spoken by others of the same nation, though +what they say in that courtly language is not much to be believed. + +Let his conscience and virtue be eminently manifest in his speaking, and +have only reason for their guide. Make him understand, that to +acknowledge the error he shall discover in his own argument, though only +found out by himself, is an effect of judgment and sincerity, which are +the principal things he is to seek after; that obstinacy and contention +are common qualities, most appearing in mean souls; that to revise and +correct himself, to forsake an unjust argument in the height and heat of +dispute, are rare, great, and philosophical qualities. + +Let him be advised, being in company, to have his eye and ear in every +corner; for I find that the places of greatest honour are commonly seized +upon by men that have least in them, and that the greatest fortunes are +seldom accompanied with the ablest parts. I have been present when, +whilst they at the upper end of the chamber have been only commenting the +beauty of the arras, or the flavour of the wine, many things that have +been very finely said at the lower end of the table have been lost and +thrown away. Let him examine every man's talent; a peasant, a +bricklayer, a passenger: one may learn something from every one of these +in their several capacities, and something will be picked out of their +discourse whereof some use may be made at one time or another; nay, even +the folly and impertinence of others will contribute to his instruction. +By observing the graces and manners of all he sees, he will create to +himself an emulation of the good, and a contempt of the bad. + +Let an honest curiosity be suggested to his fancy of being inquisitive +after everything; whatever there is singular and rare near the place +where he is, let him go and see it; a fine house, a noble fountain, an +eminent man, the place where a battle has been anciently fought, the +passages of Caesar and Charlemagne: + + "Qux tellus sit lenta gelu, quae putris ab aestu, + Ventus in Italiam quis bene vela ferat." + + ["What country is bound in frost, what land is friable with heat, + what wind serves fairest for Italy."--Propertius, iv. 3, 39.] + +Let him inquire into the manners, revenues, and alliances of princes, +things in themselves very pleasant to learn, and very useful to know. + +In this conversing with men, I mean also, and principally, those who only +live in the records of history; he shall, by reading those books, +converse with the great and heroic souls of the best ages. 'Tis an idle +and vain study to those who make it so by doing it after a negligent +manner, but to those who do it with care and observation, 'tis a study of +inestimable fruit and value; and the only study, as Plato reports, that +the Lacedaemonians reserved to themselves. What profit shall he not reap +as to the business of men, by reading the Lives of Plutarch? But, +withal, let my governor remember to what end his instructions are +principally directed, and that he do not so much imprint in his pupil's +memory the date of the ruin of Carthage, as the manners of Hannibal and +Scipio; nor so much where Marcellus died, as why it was unworthy of his +duty that he died there. Let him not teach him so much the narrative +parts of history as to judge them; the reading of them, in my opinion, +is a thing that of all others we apply ourselves unto with the most +differing measure. I have read a hundred things in Livy that another has +not, or not taken notice of at least; and Plutarch has read a hundred +more there than ever I could find, or than, peradventure, that author +ever wrote; to some it is merely a grammar study, to others the very +anatomy of philosophy, by which the most abstruse parts of our human +nature penetrate. There are in Plutarch many long discourses very worthy +to be carefully read and observed, for he is, in my opinion, of all +others the greatest master in that kind of writing; but there are a +thousand others which he has only touched and glanced upon, where he only +points with his finger to direct us which way we may go if we will, and +contents himself sometimes with giving only one brisk hit in the nicest +article of the question, whence we are to grope out the rest. As, for +example, where he says'--[In the Essay on False Shame.]--that the +inhabitants of Asia came to be vassals to one only, for not having been +able to pronounce one syllable, which is No. Which saying of his gave +perhaps matter and occasion to La Boetie to write his "Voluntary +Servitude." Only to see him pick out a light action in a man's life, or +a mere word that does not seem to amount even to that, is itself a whole +discourse. 'Tis to our prejudice that men of understanding should so +immoderately affect brevity; no doubt their reputation is the better by +it, but in the meantime we are the worse. Plutarch had rather we should +applaud his judgment than commend his knowledge, and had rather leave us +with an appetite to read more, than glutted with that we have already +read. He knew very well, that a man may say too much even upon the best +subjects, and that Alexandridas justly reproached him who made very good. +but too long speeches to the Ephori, when he said: "O stranger! thou +speakest the things thou shouldst speak, but not as thou shouldst speak +them."--[Plutarch, Apothegms of the Lacedamonians.]--Such as have lean +and spare bodies stuff themselves out with clothes; so they who are +defective in matter endeavour to make amends with words. + +Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation +with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, +and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses. One asking +Socrates of what country he was, he did not make answer, of Athens, but +of the world;--[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 37; Plutarch, On Exile, c. 4.]-- +he whose imagination was fuller and wider, embraced the whole world for +his country, and extended his society and friendship to all mankind; +not as we do, who look no further than our feet. When the vines of my +village are nipped with the frost, my parish priest presently concludes, +that the indignation of God has gone out against all the human race, and +that the cannibals have already got the pip. Who is it that, seeing the +havoc of these civil wars of ours, does not cry out, that the machine of +the world is near dissolution, and that the day of judgment is at hand; +without considering, that many worse things have been seen, and that in +the meantime, people are very merry in a thousand other parts of the +earth for all this? For my part, considering the licence and impunity +that always attend such commotions, I wonder they are so moderate, and +that there is no more mischief done. To him who feels the hailstones +patter about his ears, the whole hemisphere appears to be in storm and +tempest; like the ridiculous Savoyard, who said very gravely, that if +that simple king of France could have managed his fortune as he should +have done, he might in time have come to have been steward of the +household to the duke his master: the fellow could not, in his shallow +imagination, conceive that there could be anything greater than a Duke of +Savoy. And, in truth, we are all of us, insensibly, in this error, an +error of a very great weight and very pernicious consequence. But +whoever shall represent to his fancy, as in a picture, that great image +of our mother nature, in her full majesty and lustre, whoever in her face +shall read so general and so constant a variety, whoever shall observe +himself in that figure, and not himself but a whole kingdom, no bigger +than the least touch or prick of a pencil in comparison of the whole, +that man alone is able to value things according to their true estimate +and grandeur. + +This great world which some do yet multiply as several species under one +genus, is the mirror wherein we are to behold ourselves, to be able to +know ourselves as we ought to do in the true bias. In short, I would +have this to be the book my young gentleman should study with the most +attention. So many humours, so many sects, so many judgments, opinions, +laws, and customs, teach us to judge aright of our own, and inform our +understanding to discover its imperfection and natural infirmity, which +is no trivial speculation. So many mutations of states and kingdoms, and +so many turns and revolutions of public fortune, will make us wise enough +to make no great wonder of our own. So many great names, so many famous +victories and conquests drowned and swallowed in oblivion, render our +hopes ridiculous of eternising our names by the taking of half-a-score of +light horse, or a henroost, which only derives its memory from its ruin. +The pride and arrogance of so many foreign pomps, the inflated majesty of +so many courts and grandeurs, accustom and fortify our sight without +closing our eyes to behold the lustre of our own; so many trillions of +men, buried before us, encourage us not to fear to go seek such good +company in the other world: and so of the rest Pythagoras was want to +say,--[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 3.]--that our life resembles the great +and populous assembly of the Olympic games, wherein some exercise the +body, that they may carry away the glory of the prize: others bring +merchandise to sell for profit: there are also some (and those none of +the worst sort) who pursue no other advantage than only to look on, and +consider how and why everything is done, and to be spectators of the +lives of other men, thereby the better to judge of and regulate their +own. + +To examples may fitly be applied all the profitable discourses of +philosophy, to which all human actions, as to their best rule, ought to +be especially directed: a scholar shall be taught to know-- + + "Quid fas optare: quid asper + Utile nummus habet: patrix carisque propinquis + Quantum elargiri deceat: quern te Deus esse + Jussit, et humana qua parte locatus es in re; + Quid sumus, et quidnam victuri gignimur." + + ["Learn what it is right to wish; what is the true use of coined + money; how much it becomes us to give in liberality to our country + and our dear relations; whom and what the Deity commanded thee to + be; and in what part of the human system thou art placed; what we + are ant to what purpose engendered."--Persius, iii. 69] + +what it is to know, and what to be ignorant; what ought to be the end and +design of study; what valour, temperance, and justice are; the difference +betwixt ambition and avarice, servitude and subjection, licence and +liberty; by what token a man may know true and solid contentment; how far +death, affliction, and disgrace are to be apprehended; + + "Et quo quemque modo fugiatque feratque laborem." + + ["And how you may shun or sustain every hardship." + --Virgil, AEneid, iii. 459.] + +by what secret springs we move, and the reason of our various agitations +and irresolutions: for, methinks the first doctrine with which one should +season his understanding, ought to be that which regulates his manners +and his sense; that teaches him to know himself, and how both well to dig +and well to live. Amongst the liberal sciences, let us begin with that +which makes us free; not that they do not all serve in some measure to +the instruction and use of life, as all other things in some sort also +do; but let us make choice of that which directly and professedly serves +to that end. If we are once able to restrain the offices of human life +within their just and natural limits, we shall find that most of the +sciences in use are of no great use to us, and even in those that are, +that there are many very unnecessary cavities and dilatations which we +had better let alone, and, following Socrates' direction, limit the +course of our studies to those things only where is a true and real +utility: + + "Sapere aude; + Incipe; Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam, + Rusticus exspectat, dum defluat amnis; at ille + Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis oevum." + + ["Dare to be wise; begin! he who defers the hour of living well is + like the clown, waiting till the river shall have flowed out: but + the river still flows, and will run on, with constant course, to + ages without end."--Horace, Ep., i. 2.] + +'Tis a great foolery to teach our children: + + "Quid moveant Pisces, animosaque signa Leonis, + Lotus et Hesperia quid Capricornus aqua," + + ["What influence Pisces have, or the sign of angry Leo, or + Capricorn, washed by the Hesperian wave."--Propertius, iv. I, 89.] + +the knowledge of the stars and the motion of the eighth sphere before +their own: + + ["What care I about the Pleiades or the stars of Taurus?" + --Anacreon, Ode, xvii. 10.] + +Anaximenes writing to Pythagoras, "To what purpose," said he, "should I +trouble myself in searching out the secrets of the stars, having death or +slavery continually before my eyes?" for the kings of Persia were at that +time preparing to invade his country. Every one ought to say thus, +"Being assaulted, as I am by ambition, avarice, temerity, superstition, +and having within so many other enemies of life, shall I go ponder over +the world's changes?" + +After having taught him what will make him more wise and good, you may +then entertain him with the elements of logic, physics, geometry, +rhetoric, and the science which he shall then himself most incline to, +his judgment being beforehand formed and fit to choose, he will quickly +make his own. The way of instructing him ought to be sometimes by +discourse, and sometimes by reading; sometimes his governor shall put the +author himself, which he shall think most proper for him, into his hands, +and sometimes only the marrow and substance of it; and if himself be not +conversant enough in books to turn to all the fine discourses the books +contain for his purpose, there may some man of learning be joined to him, +that upon every occasion shall supply him with what he stands in need of, +to furnish it to his pupil. And who can doubt but that this way of +teaching is much more easy and natural than that of Gaza,--[Theodore +Gaza, rector of the Academy of Ferrara.]--in which the precepts are so +intricate, and so harsh, and the words so vain, lean; and insignificant, +that there is no hold to be taken of them, nothing that quickens and +elevates the wit and fancy, whereas here the mind has what to feed upon +and to digest. This fruit, therefore, is not only without comparison, +much more fair and beautiful; but will also be much more early ripe. + +'Tis a thousand pities that matters should be at such a pass in this age +of ours, that philosophy, even with men of understanding, should be, +looked upon as a vain and fantastic name, a thing of no use, no value, +either in opinion or effect, of which I think those ergotisms and petty +sophistries, by prepossessing the avenues to it, are the cause. And +people are much to blame to represent it to children for a thing of so +difficult access, and with such a frowning, grim, and formidable aspect. +Who is it that has disguised it thus, with this false, pale, and ghostly +countenance? There is nothing more airy, more gay, more frolic, and I +had like to have said, more wanton. She preaches nothing but feasting +and jollity; a melancholic anxious look shows that she does not inhabit +there. Demetrius the grammarian finding in the temple of Delphos a knot +of philosophers set chatting together, said to them,--[Plutarch, Treatise +on Oracles which have ceased]--"Either I am much deceived, or by your +cheerful and pleasant countenances, you are engaged in no, very deep +discourse." To which one of them, Heracleon the Megarean, replied: +"Tis for such as are puzzled about inquiring whether the future tense of +the verb------is spelt with a double A, or that hunt after the +derivation of the comparatives-----and-----, and the superlatives---- +and------, to knit their brows whilst discoursing of their science: but +as to philosophical discourses, they always divert and cheer up those +that entertain them, and never deject them or make them sad." + + "Deprendas animi tormenta latentis in aegro + Corpore; deprendas et gaudia; sumit utrumque + Inde habitum facies." + + ["You may discern the torments of mind lurking in a sick body; you + may discern its joys: either expression the face assumes from the + mind."--Juvenal, ix. 18] + +The soul that lodges philosophy, ought to be of such a constitution of +health, as to render the body in like manner healthful too; she ought to +make her tranquillity and satisfaction shine so as to appear without, and +her contentment ought to fashion the outward behaviour to her own mould, +and consequently to fortify it with a graceful confidence, an active and +joyous carriage, and a serene and contented countenance. The most +manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like +that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene. +'Tis Baroco and Baralipton--[Two terms of the ancient scholastic +logic.]--that render their disciples so dirty and ill-favoured, and not +she; they do not so much as know her but by hearsay. What! It is she +that calms and appeases the storms and tempests of the soul, and who +teaches famine and fevers to laugh and sing; and that, not by certain +imaginary epicycles, but by natural and manifest reasons. She has virtue +for her end, which is not, as the schoolmen say, situate upon the summit +of a perpendicular, rugged, inaccessible precipice: such as have +approached her find her, quite on the contrary, to be seated in a fair, +fruitful, and flourishing plain, whence she easily discovers all things +below; to which place any one may, however, arrive, if he know but the +way, through shady, green, and sweetly-flourishing avenues, by a +pleasant, easy, and smooth descent, like that of the celestial vault. +'Tis for not having frequented this supreme, this beautiful, triumphant, +and amiable, this equally delicious and courageous virtue, this so +professed and implacable enemy to anxiety, sorrow, fear, and constraint, +who, having nature for her guide, has fortune and pleasure for her +companions, that they have gone, according to their own weak imagination, +and created this ridiculous, this sorrowful, querulous, despiteful, +threatening, terrible image of it to themselves and others, and placed it +upon a rock apart, amongst thorns and brambles, and made of it a +hobgoblin to affright people. + +But the governor that I would have, that is such a one as knows it to be +his duty to possess his pupil with as much or more affection than +reverence to virtue, will be able to inform him, that the poets have +evermore accommodated themselves to the public humour, and make him +sensible, that the gods have planted more toil and sweat in the avenues +of the cabinets of Venus than in those of Minerva. And when he shall +once find him begin to apprehend, and shall represent to him a Bradamante +or an Angelica--[Heroines of Ariosto.]--for a mistress, a natural, +active, generous, and not a viragoish, but a manly beauty, in comparison +of a soft, delicate, artificial simpering, and affected form; the one in +the habit of a heroic youth, wearing a glittering helmet, the other +tricked up in curls and ribbons like a wanton minx; he will then look +upon his own affection as brave and masculine, when he shall choose quite +contrary to that effeminate shepherd of Phrygia. + +Such a tutor will make a pupil digest this new lesson, that the height +and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure +of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that boys, as well as men, and +the innocent as well as the subtle, may make it their own; it is by +order, and not by force, that it is to be acquired. Socrates, her first +minion, is so averse to all manner of violence, as totally to throw it +aside, to slip into the more natural facility of her own progress; 'tis +the nursing mother of all human pleasures, who in rendering them just, +renders them also pure and permanent; in moderating them, keeps them in +breath and appetite; in interdicting those which she herself refuses, +whets our desire to those that she allows; and, like a kind and liberal +mother, abundantly allows all that nature requires, even to satiety, if +not to lassitude: unless we mean to say that the regimen which stops the +toper before he has drunk himself drunk, the glutton before he has eaten +to a surfeit, and the lecher before he has got the pox, is an enemy to +pleasure. If the ordinary fortune fail, she does without it, and forms +another, wholly her own, not so fickle and unsteady as the other. She +can be rich, be potent and wise, and knows how to lie upon soft perfumed +beds: she loves life, beauty, glory, and health; but her proper and +peculiar office is to know how to regulate the use of all these good +things, and how to lose them without concern: an office much more noble +than troublesome, and without which the whole course of life is +unnatural, turbulent, and deformed, and there it is indeed, that men may +justly represent those monsters upon rocks and precipices. + +If this pupil shall happen to be of so contrary a disposition, that he +had rather hear a tale of a tub than the true narrative of some noble +expedition or some wise and learned discourse; who at the beat of drum, +that excites the youthful ardour of his companions, leaves that to follow +another that calls to a morris or the bears; who would not wish, and find +it more delightful and more excellent, to return all dust and sweat +victorious from a battle, than from tennis or from a ball, with the prize +of those exercises; I see no other remedy, but that he be bound prentice +in some good town to learn to make minced pies, though he were the son of +a duke; according to Plato's precept, that children are to be placed out +and disposed of, not according to the wealth, qualities, or condition of +the father, but according to the faculties and the capacity of their own +souls. + +Since philosophy is that which instructs us to live, and that infancy has +there its lessons as well as other ages, why is it not communicated to +children betimes? + + "Udum et molle lutum est; nunc, nunc properandus, et acri + Fingendus sine fine rota." + + ["The clay is moist and soft: now, now make haste, and form the + pitcher on the rapid wheel."--Persius, iii. 23.] + +They begin to teach us to live when we have almost done living. +A hundred students have got the pox before they have come to read +Aristotle's lecture on temperance. Cicero said, that though he should +live two men's ages, he should never find leisure to study the lyric +poets; and I find these sophisters yet more deplorably unprofitable. +The boy we would breed has a great deal less time to spare; he owes but +the first fifteen or sixteen years of his life to education; the +remainder is due to action. Let us, therefore, employ that short time in +necessary instruction. Away with the thorny subtleties of dialectics; +they are abuses, things by which our lives can never be amended: take the +plain philosophical discourses, learn how rightly to choose, and then +rightly to apply them; they are more easy to be understood than one of +Boccaccio's novels; a child from nurse is much more capable of them, than +of learning to read or to write. Philosophy has discourses proper for +childhood, as well as for the decrepit age of men. + +I am of Plutarch's mind, that Aristotle did not so much trouble his great +disciple with the knack of forming syllogisms, or with the elements of +geometry; as with infusing into him good precepts concerning valour, +prowess, magnanimity, temperance, and the contempt of fear; and with this +ammunition, sent him, whilst yet a boy, with no more than thirty thousand +foot, four thousand horse, and but forty-two thousand crowns, to +subjugate the empire of the whole earth. For the other acts and +sciences, he says, Alexander highly indeed commended their excellence and +charm, and had them in very great honour and esteem, but not ravished +with them to that degree as to be tempted to affect the practice of them +In his own person: + + "Petite hinc, juvenesque senesque, + Finem ammo certum, miserisque viatica canis." + + ["Young men and old men, derive hence a certain end to the mind, + and stores for miserable grey hairs."--Persius, v. 64.] + +Epicurus, in the beginning of his letter to Meniceus,--[Diogenes +Laertius, x. 122.]--says, "That neither the youngest should refuse to +philosophise, nor the oldest grow weary of it." Who does otherwise, +seems tacitly to imply, that either the time of living happily is +not yet come, or that it is already past. And yet, a for all that, I +would not have this pupil of ours imprisoned and made a slave to his +book; nor would I have him given up to the morosity and melancholic +humour of a sour ill-natured pedant. + +I would not have his spirit cowed and subdued, by applying him to the +rack, and tormenting him, as some do, fourteen or fifteen hours a day, +and so make a pack-horse of him. Neither should I think it good, when, +by reason of a solitary and melancholic complexion, he is discovered to +be overmuch addicted to his book, to nourish that humour in him; for that +renders him unfit for civil conversation, and diverts him from better +employments. And how many have I seen in my time totally brutified by an +immoderate thirst after knowledge? Carneades was so besotted with it, +that he would not find time so much as to comb his head or to pare his +nails. Neither would I have his generous manners spoiled and corrupted +by the incivility and barbarism of those of another. The French wisdom +was anciently turned into proverb: "Early, but of no continuance." And, +in truth, we yet see, that nothing can be more ingenious and pleasing +than the children of France; but they ordinarily deceive the hope and +expectation that have been conceived of them; and grown up to be men, +have nothing extraordinary or worth taking notice of: I have heard men of +good understanding say, these colleges of ours to which we send our young +people (and of which we have but too many) make them such animals as they +are.--[Hobbes said that if he Had been at college as long as other people +he should have been as great a blockhead as they. W.C.H.] [And Bacon +before Hobbe's time had discussed the "futility" of university teaching. +D.W.] + +But to our little monsieur, a closet, a garden, the table, his bed, +solitude, and company, morning and evening, all hours shall be the same, +and all places to him a study; for philosophy, who, as the formatrix of +judgment and manners, shall be his principal lesson, has that privilege +to have a hand in everything. The orator Isocrates, being at a feast +entreated to speak of his art, all the company were satisfied with and +commended his answer: "It is not now a time," said he, "to do what I can +do; and that which it is now time to do, I cannot do."--[Plutarch, +Symp., i. I.]--For to make orations and rhetorical disputes in a company +met together to laugh and make good cheer, had been very unreasonable and +improper, and as much might have been said of all the other sciences. +But as to what concerns philosophy, that part of it at least that treats +of man, and of his offices and duties, it has been the common opinion of +all wise men, that, out of respect to the sweetness of her conversation, +she is ever to be admitted in all sports and entertainments. And Plato, +having invited her to his feast, we see after how gentle and obliging a +manner, accommodated both to time and place, she entertained the company, +though in a discourse of the highest and most important nature: + + "Aeque pauperibus prodest, locupletibus aeque; + Et, neglecta, aeque pueris senibusque nocebit." + + ["It profits poor and rich alike, but, neglected, equally hurts old + and young."--Horace, Ep., i. 25.] + +By this method of instruction, my young pupil will be much more and +better employed than his fellows of the college are. But as the steps we +take in walking to and fro in a gallery, though three times as many, do +not tire a man so much as those we employ in a formal journey, so our +lesson, as it were accidentally occurring, without any set obligation of +time or place, and falling naturally into every action, will insensibly +insinuate itself. By which means our very exercises and recreations, +running, wrestling, music, dancing, hunting, riding, and fencing, will +prove to be a good part of our study. I would have his outward fashion +and mien, and the disposition of his limbs, formed at the same time with +his mind. 'Tis not a soul, 'tis not a body that we are training up, but +a man, and we ought not to divide him. And, as Plato says, we are not to +fashion one without the other, but make them draw together like two +horses harnessed to a coach. By which saying of his, does he not seem to +allow more time for, and to take more care of exercises for the body, and +to hold that the mind, in a good proportion, does her business at the +same time too? + +As to the rest, this method of education ought to be carried on with a +severe sweetness, quite contrary to the practice of our pedants, who, +instead of tempting and alluring children to letters by apt and gentle +ways, do in truth present nothing before them but rods and ferules, +horror and cruelty. Away with this violence! away with this compulsion! +than which, I certainly believe nothing more dulls and degenerates a +well-descended nature. If you would have him apprehend shame and +chastisement, do not harden him to them: inure him to heat and cold, to +wind and sun, and to dangers that he ought to despise; wean him from all +effeminacy and delicacy in clothes and lodging, eating and drinking; +accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet- +knight, but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man. I have ever from a +child to the age wherein I now am, been of this opinion, and am still +constant to it. But amongst other things, the strict government of most +of our colleges has evermore displeased me; peradventure, they might have +erred less perniciously on the indulgent side. 'Tis a real house of +correction of imprisoned youth. They are made debauched by being +punished before they are so. Do but come in when they are about their +lesson, and you shall hear nothing but the outcries of boys under +execution, with the thundering noise of their pedagogues drunk with fury. +A very pretty way this, to tempt these tender and timorous souls to love +their book, with a furious countenance, and a rod in hand! A cursed and +pernicious way of proceeding! Besides what Quintilian has very well +observed, that this imperious authority is often attended by very +dangerous consequences, and particularly our way of chastising. How much +more decent would it be to see their classes strewed with green leaves +and fine flowers, than with the bloody stumps of birch and willows? Were +it left to my ordering. I should paint the school with the pictures of +joy and gladness; Flora and the Graces, as the philosopher Speusippus did +his. Where their profit is, let them there have their pleasure too. +Such viands as are proper and wholesome for children, should be sweetened +with sugar, and such as are dangerous to them, embittered with gall. +'Tis marvellous to see how solicitous Plato is in his Laws concerning the +gaiety and diversion of the youth of his city, and how much and often he +enlarges upon the races, sports, songs, leaps, and dances: of which, he +says, that antiquity has given the ordering and patronage particularly to +the gods themselves, to Apollo, Minerva, and the Muses. He insists long +upon, and is very particular in, giving innumerable precepts for +exercises; but as to the lettered sciences, says very little, and only +seems particularly to recommend poetry upon the account of music. + +All singularity in our manners and conditions is to be avoided, as +inconsistent with civil society. Who would not be astonished at so +strange a constitution as that of Demophoon, steward to Alexander the +Great, who sweated in the shade and shivered in the sun? I have seen +those who have run from the smell of a mellow apple with greater +precipitation than from a harquebuss-shot; others afraid of a mouse; +others vomit at the sight of cream; others ready to swoon at the making +of a feather bed; Germanicus could neither endure the sight nor the +crowing of a cock. I will not deny, but that there may, peradventure, +be some occult cause and natural aversion in these cases; but, in my +opinion, a man might conquer it, if he took it in time. Precept has in +this wrought so effectually upon me, though not without some pains on my +part, I confess, that beer excepted, my appetite accommodates itself +indifferently to all sorts of diet. Young bodies are supple; one should, +therefore, in that age bend and ply them to all fashions and customs: and +provided a man can contain the appetite and the will within their due +limits, let a young man, in God's name, be rendered fit for all nations +and all companies, even to debauchery and excess, if need be; that is, +where he shall do it out of complacency to the customs of the place. +Let him be able to do everything, but love to do nothing but what is +good. The philosophers themselves do not justify Callisthenes for +forfeiting the favour of his master Alexander the Great, by refusing to +pledge him a cup of wine. Let him laugh, play, wench with his prince: +nay, I would have him, even in his debauches, too hard for the rest of +the company, and to excel his companions in ability and vigour, and that +he may not give over doing it, either through defect of power or +knowledge how to do it, but for want of will. + + "Multum interest, utrum peccare ali quis nolit, an nesciat." + + ["There is a vast difference betwixt forbearing to sin, and not + knowing how to sin."--Seneca, Ep., 90] + +I thought I passed a compliment upon a lord, as free from those excesses +as any man in France, by asking him before a great deal of very good +company, how many times in his life he had been drunk in Germany, in the +time of his being there about his Majesty's affairs; which he also took +as it was intended, and made answer, "Three times"; and withal told us +the whole story of his debauches. I know some who, for want of this +faculty, have found a great inconvenience in negotiating with that +nation. I have often with great admiration reflected upon the wonderful +constitution of Alcibiades, who so easily could transform himself to so +various fashions without any prejudice to his health; one while outdoing +the Persian pomp and luxury, and another, the Lacedaemonian austerity and +frugality; as reformed in Sparta, as voluptuous in Ionia: + + "Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et status, et res." + + ["Every complexion of life, and station, and circumstance became + Aristippus."--Horace, Ep., xvii. 23.] + +I would have my pupil to be such an one, + + "Quem duplici panno patentia velat, + Mirabor, vitae via si conversa decebit, + Personamque feret non inconcinnus utramque." + + ["I should admire him who with patience bearing a patched garment, + bears well a changed fortune, acting both parts equally well." + --Horace Ep., xvii. 25.] + +These are my lessons, and he who puts them in practice shall reap more +advantage than he who has had them read to him only, and so only knows +them. If you see him, you hear him; if you hear him, you see him. God +forbid, says one in Plato, that to philosophise were only to read a great +many books, and to learn the arts. + + "Hanc amplissimam omnium artium bene vivendi disciplinam, + vita magis quam literis, persequuti sunt." + + ["They have proceeded to this discipline of living well, which of + all arts is the greatest, by their lives, rather than by their + reading."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iv. 3.] + +Leo, prince of the Phliasians, asking Heraclides Ponticus--[It was not +Heraclides of Pontus who made this answer, but Pythagoras.]--of what art +or science he made profession: "I know," said he, "neither art nor +science, but I am a philosopher." One reproaching Diogenes that, being +ignorant, he should pretend to philosophy; "I therefore," answered he, +"pretend to it with so much the more reason." Hegesias entreated that he +would read a certain book to him: "You are pleasant," said he; "you +choose those figs that are true and natural, and not those that are +painted; why do you not also choose exercises which are naturally true, +rather than those written?" + +The lad will not so much get his lesson by heart as he will practise it: +he will repeat it in his actions. We shall discover if there be prudence +in his exercises, if there be sincerity and justice in his deportment, if +there be grace and judgment in his speaking; if there be constancy in his +sickness; if there be modesty in his mirth, temperance in his pleasures, +order in his domestic economy, indifference in palate, whether what he +eats or drinks be flesh or fish, wine or water: + + "Qui disciplinam suam non ostentationem scientiae, sed legem vitae + putet: quique obtemperet ipse sibi, et decretis pareat." + + ["Who considers his own discipline, not as a vain ostentation of + science, but as a law and rule of life; and who obeys his own + decrees, and the laws he has prescribed for himself." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 4.] + +The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine. Zeuxidamus, +to one who asked him, why the Lacedaemonians did not commit their +constitutions of chivalry to writing, and deliver them to their young men +to read, made answer, that it was because they would inure them to +action, and not amuse them with words. With such a one, after fifteen or +sixteen years' study, compare one of our college Latinists, who has +thrown away so much time in nothing but learning to speak. The world is +nothing but babble; and I hardly ever yet saw that man who did not rather +prate too much, than speak too little. And yet half of our age is +embezzled this way: we are kept four or five years to learn words only, +and to tack them together into clauses; as many more to form them into a +long discourse, divided into four or five parts; and other five years, at +least, to learn succinctly to mix and interweave them after a subtle and +intricate manner let us leave all this to those who make a profession of +it. + +Going one day to Orleans, I met in that plain on this side Clery, two +pedants who were travelling towards Bordeaux, about fifty paces distant +from one another; and, a good way further behind them, I discovered a +troop of horse, with a gentleman at the head of them, who was the late +Monsieur le Comte de la Rochefoucauld. One of my people inquired of the +foremost of these masters of arts, who that gentleman was that came after +him; he, having not seen the train that followed after, and thinking his +companion was meant, pleasantly answered, "He is not a gentleman; he is a +grammarian; and I am a logician." Now we who, quite contrary, do not +here pretend to breed a grammarian or a logician, but a gentleman, let us +leave them to abuse their leisure; our business lies elsewhere. Let but +our pupil be well furnished with things, words will follow but too fast; +he will pull them after him if they do not voluntarily follow. I have +observed some to make excuses, that they cannot express themselves, and +pretend to have their fancies full of a great many very fine things, +which yet, for want of eloquence, they cannot utter; 'tis a mere shift, +and nothing else. Will you know what I think of it? I think they are +nothing but shadows of some imperfect images and conceptions that they +know not what to make of within, nor consequently bring out; they do not +yet themselves understand what they would be at, and if you but observe +how they haggle and stammer upon the point of parturition, you will soon +conclude, that their labour is not to delivery, but about conception, and +that they are but licking their formless embryo. For my part, I hold, +and Socrates commands it, that whoever has in his mind a sprightly and +clear imagination, he will express it well enough in one kind of tongue +or another, and, if he be dumb, by signs-- + + "Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequentur;" + + ["Once a thing is conceived in the mind, the words to express it + soon present themselves." ("The words will not reluctantly follow the + thing preconceived.")--Horace, De Arte Poetica. v. 311] + +And as another as poetically says in his prose: + + "Quum res animum occupavere, verbs ambiunt," + + ["When things are once in the mind, the words offer themselves + readily." ("When things have taken possession of the mind, the + words trip.")--Seneca, Controvers., iii. proem.] + +and this other. + + "Ipsae res verbs rapiunt." + + ["The things themselves force the words to express them." + --Cicero, De Finib., iii. 5.] + +He knows nothing of ablative, conjunctive, substantive, or grammar, no +more than his lackey, or a fishwife of the Petit Pont; and yet these will +give you a bellyful of talk, if you will hear them, and peradventure +shall trip as little in their language as the best masters of art in +France. He knows no rhetoric, nor how in a preface to bribe the +benevolence of the courteous reader; neither does he care to know it. +Indeed all this fine decoration of painting is easily effaced by the +lustre of a simple and blunt truth; these fine flourishes serve only to +amuse the vulgar, of themselves incapable of more solid and nutritive +diet, as Aper very evidently demonstrates in Tacitus." The ambassadors +of Samos, prepared with a long and elegant oration, came to Cleomenes, +king of Sparta, to incite him to a war against the tyrant Polycrates; +who, after he had heard their harangue with great gravity and patience, +gave them this answer: "As to the exordium, I remember it not, nor +consequently the middle of your speech; and for what concerns your +conclusion, I will not do what you desire:"--[Plutarch, Apothegms of the +Lacedaemonians.]--a very pretty answer this, methinks, and a pack of +learned orators most sweetly gravelled. And what did the other man say? +The Athenians were to choose one of two architects for a very great +building they had designed; of these, the first, a pert affected fellow, +offered his service in a long premeditated discourse upon the subject of +the work in hand, and by his oratory inclined the voices of the people in +his favour; but the other in three words: "O Athenians, what this man +says, I will do."--[Plutarch, Instructions to Statesmen, c. 4.]-- +When Cicero was in the height and heat of an eloquent harangue, many were +struck with admiration; but Cato only laughed, saying, "We have a +pleasant (mirth-making) consul." Let it go before, or come after, a good +sentence or a thing well said, is always in season; if it neither suit +well with what went before, nor has much coherence with what follows +after, it is good in itself. I am none of those who think that good +rhyme makes a good poem. Let him make short long, and long short if he +will, 'tis no great matter; if there be invention, and that the wit and +judgment have well performed their offices, I will say, here's a good +poet, but an ill rhymer. + + "Emunctae naris, durus componere versus." + + ["Of delicate humour, but of rugged versification." + --Horace, Sat, iv. 8.] + +Let a man, says Horace, divest his work of all method and measure, + + "Tempora certa modosque, et, quod prius ordine verbum est, + Posterius facias, praeponens ultima primis + Invenias etiam disjecti membra poetae." + + ["Take away certain rhythms and measures, and make the word which + was first in order come later, putting that which should be last + first, you will still find the scattered remains of the poet." + --Horace, Sat., i. 4, 58.] + +he will never the more lose himself for that; the very pieces will be +fine by themselves. Menander's answer had this meaning, who being +reproved by a friend, the time drawing on at which he had promised a +comedy, that he had not yet fallen in hand with it; "It is made, and +ready," said he, "all but the verses."--[Plutarch, Whether the Athenians +more excelled in Arms or in Letters.]--Having contrived the subject, and +disposed the scenes in his fancy, he took little care for the rest. +Since Ronsard and Du Bellay have given reputation to our French poesy, +every little dabbler, for aught I see, swells his words as high, and +makes his cadences very near as harmonious as they: + + "Plus sonat, quam valet." + + ["More sound than sense"--Seneca, Ep., 40.] + +For the vulgar, there were never so many poetasters as now; but though +they find it no hard matter to imitate their rhyme, they yet fall +infinitely short of imitating the rich descriptions of the one, and the +delicate invention of the other of these masters. + +But what will become of our young gentleman, if he be attacked with the +sophistic subtlety of some syllogism? "A Westfalia ham makes a man +drink; drink quenches thirst: ergo a Westfalia ham quenches thirst." +Why, let him laugh at it; it will be more discretion to do so, than to go +about to answer it; or let him borrow this pleasant evasion from +Aristippus: "Why should I trouble myself to untie that, which bound as +it is, gives me so much trouble?"--[Diogenes Laertius, ii. 70.]-- +One offering at this dialectic juggling against Cleanthes, Chrysippus +took him short, saying, "Reserve these baubles to play with children, +and do not by such fooleries divert the serious thoughts of a man of +years." If these ridiculous subtleties, + + "Contorta et aculeata sophismata," + +as Cicero calls them, are designed to possess him with an untruth, they +are dangerous; but if they signify no more than only to make him laugh, +I do not see why a man need to be fortified against them. There are some +so ridiculous, as to go a mile out of their way to hook in a fine word: + + "Aut qui non verba rebus aptant, sed res extrinsecus + arcessunt, quibus verba conveniant." + + ["Who do not fit words to the subject, but seek out for things + quite from the purpose to fit the words."--Quintilian, viii. 3.] + +And as another says, + + "Qui, alicujus verbi decore placentis, vocentur ad id, + quod non proposuerant scribere." + + ["Who by their fondness of some fine sounding word, are tempted to + something they had no intention to treat of."--Seneca, Ep., 59.] + +I for my part rather bring in a fine sentence by head and shoulders to +fit my purpose, than divert my designs to hunt after a sentence. On the +contrary, words are to serve, and to follow a man's purpose; and let +Gascon come in play where French will not do. I would have things so +excelling, and so wholly possessing the imagination of him that hears, +that he should have something else to do, than to think of words. The +way of speaking that I love, is natural and plain, the same in writing as +in speaking, and a sinewy and muscular way of expressing a man's self, +short and pithy, not so elegant and artificial as prompt and vehement; + + "Haec demum sapiet dictio, qux feriet;" + + ["That has most weight and wisdom which pierces the ear." ("That + utterance indeed will have a taste which shall strike the ear.") + --Epitaph on Lucan, in Fabricius, Biblioth. Lat., ii. 10.] + +rather hard than wearisome; free from affectation; irregular, +incontinuous, and bold; where every piece makes up an entire body; not +like a pedant, a preacher, or a pleader, but rather a soldier-like style, +as Suetonius calls that of Julius Caesar; and yet I see no reason why he +should call it so. I have ever been ready to imitate the negligent garb, +which is yet observable amongst the young men of our time, to wear my +cloak on one shoulder, my cap on one side, a stocking in disorder, which +seems to express a kind of haughty disdain of these exotic ornaments, and +a contempt of the artificial; but I find this negligence of much better +use in the form of speaking. All affectation, particularly in the French +gaiety and freedom, is ungraceful in a courtier, and in a monarchy every +gentleman ought to be fashioned according to the court model; for which +reason, an easy and natural negligence does well. I no more like a web +where the knots and seams are to be seen, than a fine figure, so +delicate, that a man may tell all the bones and veins: + + "Quae veritati operam dat oratio, incomposita sit et simplex." + + ["Let the language that is dedicated to truth be plain and + unaffected.--Seneca, Ep. 40.] + + "Quis accurat loquitur, nisi qui vult putide loqui?" + + ["For who studies to speak accurately, that does not at the same + time wish to perplex his auditory?"--Idem, Ep., 75.] + +That eloquence prejudices the subject it would advance, that wholly +attracts us to itself. And as in our outward habit, 'tis a ridiculous +effeminacy to distinguish ourselves by a particular and unusual garb or +fashion; so in language, to study new phrases, and to affect words that +are not of current use, proceeds from a puerile and scholastic ambition. +May I be bound to speak no other language than what is spoken in the +market-places of Paris! Aristophanes the grammarian was quite out, when +he reprehended Epicurus for his plain way of delivering himself, and the +design of his oratory, which was only perspicuity of speech. +The imitation of words, by its own facility, immediately disperses itself +through a whole people; but the imitation of inventing and fitly applying +those words is of a slower progress. The generality of readers, for +having found a like robe, very mistakingly imagine they have the same +body and inside too, whereas force and sinews are never to be borrowed; +the gloss, and outward ornament, that is, words and elocution, may. Most +of those I converse with, speak the same language I here write; but +whether they think the same thoughts I cannot say. The Athenians, says +Plato, study fulness and elegancy of speaking; the Lacedaemonians affect +brevity, and those of Crete to aim more at the fecundity of conception +than the fertility of speech; and these are the best. Zeno used to say +that he had two sorts of disciples, one that he called cy-----ous, +curious to learn things, and these were his favourites; the other, +aoy---ous, that cared for nothing but words. Not that fine speaking is +not a very good and commendable quality; but not so excellent and so +necessary as some would make it; and I am scandalised that our whole life +should be spent in nothing else. I would first understand my own +language, and that of my neighbours, with whom most of my business and +conversation lies. + +No doubt but Greek and Latin are very great ornaments, and of very great +use, but we buy them too dear. I will here discover one way, which has +been experimented in my own person, by which they are to be had better +cheap, and such may make use of it as will. My late father having made +the most precise inquiry that any man could possibly make amongst men of +the greatest learning and judgment, of an exact method of education, was +by them cautioned of this inconvenience then in use, and made to believe, +that the tedious time we applied to the learning of the tongues of them +who had them for nothing, was the sole cause we could not arrive to the +grandeur of soul and perfection of knowledge, of the ancient Greeks and +Romans. I do not, however, believe that to be the only cause. So it is, +that the expedient my father found out for this was, that in my infancy, +and before I began to speak, he committed me to the care of a German, who +since died a famous physician in France, totally ignorant of our +language, and very fluent and a great critic in Latin. This man, whom he +had fetched out of his own country, and whom he entertained with a great +salary for this only one end, had me continually with him; he had with +him also joined two others, of inferior learning, to attend me, and to +relieve him; these spoke to me in no other language but Latin. As to the +rest of his household, it was an inviolable rule, that neither himself, +nor my mother, nor valet, nor chambermaid, should speak anything in my +company, but such Latin words as each one had learned to gabble with me. +--[These passages are, the basis of a small volume by the Abbe Mangin: +"Education de Montaigne; ou, L'Art d'enseigner le Latin a l'instar des +meres latines."]--It is not to be imagined how great an advantage this +proved to the whole family; my father and my mother by this means learned +Latin enough to understand it perfectly well, and to speak it to such a +degree as was sufficient for any necessary use; as also those of the +servants did who were most frequently with me. In short, we Latined it +at such a rate, that it overflowed to all the neighbouring villages, +where there yet remain, that have established themselves by custom, +several Latin appellations of artisans and their tools. As for what +concerns myself, I was above six years of age before I understood either +French or Perigordin, any more than Arabic; and without art, book, +grammar, or precept, whipping, or the expense of a tear, I had, by that +time, learned to speak as pure Latin as my master himself, for I had no +means of mixing it up with any other. If, for example, they were to give +me a theme after the college fashion, they gave it to others in French; +but to me they were to give it in bad Latin, to turn it into that which +was good. And Nicolas Grouchy, who wrote a book De Comitiis Romanorum; +Guillaume Guerente, who wrote a comment upon Aristotle: George Buchanan, +that great Scottish poet: and Marc Antoine Muret (whom both France and +Italy have acknowledged for the best orator of his time), my domestic +tutors, have all of them often told me that I had in my infancy that +language so very fluent and ready, that they were afraid to enter into +discourse with me. And particularly Buchanan, whom I since saw attending +the late Mareschal de Brissac, then told me, that he was about to write a +treatise of education, the example of which he intended to take from +mine; for he was then tutor to that Comte de Brissac who afterward proved +so valiant and so brave a gentleman. + +As to Greek, of which I have but a mere smattering, my father also +designed to have it taught me by a device, but a new one, and by way of +sport; tossing our declensions to and fro, after the manner of those who, +by certain games of tables, learn geometry and arithmetic. For he, +amongst other rules, had been advised to make me relish science and duty +by an unforced will, and of my own voluntary motion, and to educate my +soul in all liberty and delight, without any severity or constraint; +which he was an observer of to such a degree, even of superstition, if I +may say so, that some being of opinion that it troubles and disturbs the +brains of children suddenly to wake them in the morning, and to snatch +them violently--and over-hastily from sleep (wherein they are much more +profoundly involved than we), he caused me to be wakened by the sound of +some musical instrument, and was never unprovided of a musician for that +purpose. By this example you may judge of the rest, this alone being +sufficient to recommend both the prudence and the affection of so good a +father, who is not to be blamed if he did not reap fruits answerable to +so exquisite a culture. Of this, two things were the cause: first, a +sterile and improper soil; for, though I was of a strong and healthful +constitution, and of a disposition tolerably sweet and tractable, yet I +was, withal, so heavy, idle, and indisposed, that they could not rouse me +from my sloth, not even to get me out to play. What I saw, I saw clearly +enough, and under this heavy complexion nourished a bold imagination and +opinions above my age. I had a slow wit that would go no faster than it +was led; a tardy understanding, a languishing invention, and above all, +incredible defect of memory; so that, it is no wonder, if from all these +nothing considerable could be extracted. Secondly, like those who, +impatient of along and steady cure, submit to all sorts of prescriptions +and recipes, the good man being extremely timorous of any way failing in +a thing he had so wholly set his heart upon, suffered himself at last to +be overruled by the common opinions, which always follow their leader as +a flight of cranes, and complying with the method of the time, having no +more those persons he had brought out of Italy, and who had given him the +first model of education, about him, he sent me at six years of age to +the College of Guienne, at that time the best and most flourishing in +France. And there it was not possible to add anything to the care he had +to provide me the most able tutors, with all other circumstances of +education, reserving also several particular rules contrary to the +college practice; but so it was, that with all these precautions, it was +a college still. My Latin immediately grew corrupt, of which also by +discontinuance I have since lost all manner of use; so that this new way +of education served me to no other end, than only at my first coming to +prefer me to the first forms; for at thirteen years old, that I came out +of the college, I had run through my whole course (as they call it), and, +in truth, without any manner of advantage, that I can honestly brag of, +in all this time. + +The first taste which I had for books came to me from the pleasure in +reading the fables of Ovid's Metamorphoses; for, being about seven or +eight years old, I gave up all other diversions to read them, both by +reason that this was my own natural language, the easiest book that I was +acquainted with, and for the subject, the most accommodated to the +capacity of my age: for as for the Lancelot of the Lake, the Amadis of +Gaul, the Huon of Bordeaux, and such farragos, by which children are most +delighted with, I had never so much as heard their names, no more than I +yet know what they contain; so exact was the discipline wherein I was +brought up. But this was enough to make me neglect the other lessons +that were prescribed me; and here it was infinitely to my advantage, +to have to do with an understanding tutor, who very well knew discreetly +to connive at this and other truantries of the same nature; for by this +means I ran through Virgil's AEneid, and then Terence, and then Plautus, +and then some Italian comedies, allured by the sweetness of the subject; +whereas had he been so foolish as to have taken me off this diversion, +I do really believe, I had brought away nothing from the college but a +hatred of books, as almost all our young gentlemen do. But he carried +himself very discreetly in that business, seeming to take no notice, and +allowing me only such time as I could steal from my other regular +studies, which whetted my appetite to devour those books. For the chief +things my father expected from their endeavours to whom he had delivered +me for education, were affability and good-humour; and, to say the truth, +my manners had no other vice but sloth and want of metal. The fear was +not that I should do ill, but that I should do nothing; nobody +prognosticated that I should be wicked, but only useless; they foresaw +idleness, but no malice; and I find it falls out accordingly: +The complaints I hear of myself are these: "He is idle, cold in the +offices of friendship and relation, and in those of the public, too +particular, too disdainful." But the most injurious do not say, "Why has +he taken such a thing? Why has he not paid such an one?" but, "Why does +he part with nothing? Why does he not give?" And I should take it for a +favour that men would expect from me no greater effects of supererogation +than these. But they are unjust to exact from me what I do not owe, far +more rigorously than they require from others that which they do owe. +In condemning me to it, they efface the gratification of the action, and +deprive me of the gratitude that would be my due for it; whereas the +active well-doing ought to be of so much the greater value from my hands, +by how much I have never been passive that way at all. I can the more +freely dispose of my fortune the more it is mine, and of myself the more +I am my own. Nevertheless, if I were good at setting out my own actions, +I could, peradventure, very well repel these reproaches, and could give +some to understand, that they are not so much offended, that I do not +enough, as that I am able to do a great deal more than I do. + +Yet for all this heavy disposition of mine, my mind, when retired into +itself, was not altogether without strong movements, solid and clear +judgments about those objects it could comprehend, and could also, +without any helps, digest them; but, amongst other things, I do really +believe, it had been totally impossible to have made it to submit by +violence and force. Shall I here acquaint you with one faculty of my +youth? I had great assurance of countenance, and flexibility of voice +and gesture, in applying myself to any part I undertook to act: for +before-- + + "Alter ab undecimo tum me vix ceperat annus," + + ["I had just entered my twelfth year."--Virgil, Bucol., 39.] + +I played the chief parts in the Latin tragedies of Buchanan, Guerente, +and Muret, that were presented in our College of Guienne with great +dignity: now Andreas Goveanus, our principal, as in all other parts of +his charge, was, without comparison, the best of that employment in +France; and I was looked upon as one of the best actors. 'Tis an +exercise that I do not disapprove in young people of condition; and I +have since seen our princes, after the example of some of the ancients, +in person handsomely and commendably perform these exercises; it was even +allowed to persons of quality to make a profession of it in Greece. + + "Aristoni tragico actori rem aperit: huic et genus et + fortuna honesta erant: nec ars, quia nihil tale apud + Graecos pudori est, ea deformabat." + + ["He imparted this matter to Aristo the tragedian; a man of good + family and fortune, which neither of them receive any blemish by + that profession; nothing of this kind being reputed a disparagement + in Greece."--Livy, xxiv. 24.] + +Nay, I have always taxed those with impertinence who condemn these +entertainments, and with injustice those who refuse to admit such +comedians as are worth seeing into our good towns, and grudge the people +that public diversion. Well-governed corporations take care to assemble +their citizens, not only to the solemn duties of devotion, but also to +sports and spectacles. They find society and friendship augmented by it; +and besides, can there possibly be allowed a more orderly and regular +diversion than what is performed m the sight of every one, and very often +in the presence of the supreme magistrate himself? And I, for my part, +should think it reasonable, that the prince should sometimes gratify his +people at his own expense, out of paternal goodness and affection; and +that in populous cities there should be theatres erected for such +entertainments, if but to divert them from worse and private actions. + +To return to my subject, there is nothing like alluring the appetite and +affections; otherwise you make nothing but so many asses laden with +books; by dint of the lash, you give them their pocketful of learning to +keep; whereas, to do well you should not only lodge it with them, but +make them espouse it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THAT IT IS FOLLY TO MEASURE TRUTH AND ERROR BY OUR OWN CAPACITY + +'Tis not, perhaps, without reason, that we attribute facility of belief +and easiness of persuasion to simplicity and ignorance: for I fancy I +have heard belief compared to the impression of a seal upon the soul, +which by how much softer and of less resistance it is, is the more easy +to be impressed upon. + + "Ut necesse est, lancem in Libra, ponderibus impositis, + deprimi, sic animum perspicuis cedere." + + ["As the scale of the balance must give way to the weight that + presses it down, so the mind yields to demonstration." + --Cicero, Acad., ii. 12.] + +By how much the soul is more empty and without counterpoise, with so much +greater facility it yields under the weight of the first persuasion. And +this is the reason that children, the common people, women, and sick +folks, are most apt to be led by the ears. But then, on the other hand, +'tis a foolish presumption to slight and condemn all things for false +that do not appear to us probable; which is the ordinary vice of such as +fancy themselves wiser than their neighbours. I was myself once one of +those; and if I heard talk of dead folks walking, of prophecies, +enchantments, witchcrafts, or any other story I had no mind to believe: + + "Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, + Nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala," + + ["Dreams, magic terrors, marvels, sorceries, Thessalian prodigies." + --Horace. Ep. ii. 3, 208.] + +I presently pitied the poor people that were abused by these follies. +Whereas I now find, that I myself was to be pitied as much, at least, +as they; not that experience has taught me anything to alter my former +opinions, though my curiosity has endeavoured that way; but reason has +instructed me, that thus resolutely to condemn anything for false and +impossible, is arrogantly and impiously to circumscribe and limit the +will of God, and the power of our mother nature, within the bounds of my +own capacity, than which no folly can be greater. If we give the names +of monster and miracle to everything our reason cannot comprehend, how +many are continually presented before our eyes? Let us but consider +through what clouds, and as it were groping in the dark, our teachers +lead us to the knowledge of most of the things about us; assuredly we +shall find that it is rather custom than knowledge that takes away their +strangeness-- + + "Jam nemo, fessus saturusque videndi, + Suspicere in coeli dignatur lucida templa;" + + ["Weary of the sight, now no one deigns to look up to heaven's lucid + temples."--Lucretius, ii. 1037. The text has 'statiate videnai'] + +and that if those things were now newly presented to us, we should think +them as incredible, if not more, than any others. + + "Si nunc primum mortalibus adsint + Ex improviso, si sint objecta repente, + Nil magis his rebus poterat mirabile dici, + Aute minus ante quod auderent fore credere gentes." + + [Lucretius, ii. 1032. The sense of the passage is in the preceding + sentence.] + +He that had never seen a river, imagined the first he met with to be the +sea; and the greatest things that have fallen within our knowledge, we +conclude the extremes that nature makes of the kind. + + "Scilicet et fluvius qui non est maximus, ei'st + Qui non ante aliquem majorem vidit; et ingens + Arbor, homoque videtur, et omnia de genere omni + Maxima quae vidit quisque, haec ingentia fingit." + + ["A little river seems to him, who has never seen a larger river, a + mighty stream; and so with other things--a tree, a man--anything + appears greatest to him that never knew a greater."--Idem, vi. 674.] + + "Consuetudine oculorum assuescunt animi, neque admirantur, + neque requirunt rationes earum rerum, quas semper vident." + + ["Things grow familiar to men's minds by being often seen; so that + they neither admire nor are they inquisitive about things they daily + see."--Cicero, De Natura Deor., lib. ii. 38.] + +The novelty, rather than the greatness of things, tempts us to inquire +into their causes. We are to judge with more reverence, and with greater +acknowledgment of our own ignorance and infirmity, of the infinite power +of nature. How many unlikely things are there testified by people worthy +of faith, which, if we cannot persuade ourselves absolutely to believe, +we ought at least to leave them in suspense; for, to condemn them as +impossible, is by a temerarious presumption to pretend to know the utmost +bounds of possibility. Did we rightly understand the difference betwixt +the impossible and the unusual, and betwixt that which is contrary to the +order and course of nature and contrary to the common opinion of men, in +not believing rashly, and on the other hand, in not being too +incredulous, we should observe the rule of 'Ne quid nimis' enjoined by +Chilo. + +When we find in Froissart, that the Comte de Foix knew in Bearn the +defeat of John, king of Castile, at Jubera the next day after it +happened, and the means by which he tells us he came to do so, we may be +allowed to be a little merry at it, as also at what our annals report, +that Pope Honorius, the same day that King Philip Augustus died at +Mantes, performed his public obsequies at Rome, and commanded the like +throughout Italy, the testimony of these authors not being, perhaps, of +authority enough to restrain us. But what if Plutarch, besides several +examples that he produces out of antiquity, tells us, he knows of certain +knowledge, that in the time of Domitian, the news of the battle lost by +Antony in Germany was published at Rome, many days' journey from thence, +and dispersed throughout the whole world, the same day it was fought; +and if Caesar was of opinion, that it has often happened, that the report +has preceded the incident, shall we not say, that these simple people +have suffered themselves to be deceived with the vulgar, for not having +been so clear-sighted as we? Is there anything more delicate, more +clear, more sprightly; than Pliny's judgment, when he is pleased to set +it to work? Anything more remote from vanity? Setting aside his +learning, of which I make less account, in which of these excellences do +any of us excel him? And yet there is scarce a young schoolboy that does +not convict him of untruth, and that pretends not to instruct him in the +progress of the works of nature. When we read in Bouchet the miracles of +St. Hilary's relics, away with them: his authority is not sufficient to +deprive us of the liberty of contradicting him; but generally and offhand +to condemn all suchlike stories, seems to me a singular impudence. That +great St. Augustin' testifies to have seen a blind child recover sight +upon the relics of St. Gervasius and St. Protasius at Milan; a woman at +Carthage cured of a cancer, by the sign of the cross made upon her by a +woman newly baptized; Hesperius, a familiar friend of his, to have driven +away the spirits that haunted his house, with a little earth of the +sepulchre of our Lord; which earth, being also transported thence into +the church, a paralytic to have there been suddenly cured by it; a woman +in a procession, having touched St. Stephen's shrine with a nosegay, and +rubbing her eyes with it, to have recovered her sight, lost many years +before; with several other miracles of which he professes himself to have +been an eyewitness: of what shall we excuse him and the two holy bishops, +Aurelius and Maximinus, both of whom he attests to the truth of these +things? Shall it be of ignorance, simplicity, and facility; or of malice +and imposture? Is any man now living so impudent as to think himself +comparable to them in virtue, piety, learning, judgment, or any kind of +perfection? + + "Qui, ut rationem nullam afferrent, + ipsa auctoritate me frangerent." + + + ["Who, though they should adduce no reason, would convince me with + their authority alone."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes, i. 21.] + +'Tis a presumption of great danger and consequence, besides the absurd +temerity it draws after it, to contemn what we do not comprehend. For +after, according to your fine understanding, you have established the +limits of truth and error, and that, afterwards, there appears a +necessity upon you of believing stranger things than those you have +contradicted, you are already obliged to quit your limits. Now, that +which seems to me so much to disorder our consciences in the commotions +we are now in concerning religion, is the Catholics dispensing so much +with their belief. They fancy they appear moderate, and wise, when they +grant to their opponents some of the articles in question; but, besides +that they do not discern what advantage it is to those with whom we +contend, to begin to give ground and to retire, and how much this +animates our enemy to follow his blow: these articles which they select +as things indifferent, are sometimes of very great importance. We are +either wholly and absolutely to submit ourselves to the authority of our +ecclesiastical polity, or totally throw off all obedience to it: 'tis not +for us to determine what and how much obedience we owe to it. And this I +can say, as having myself made trial of it, that having formerly taken +the liberty of my own swing and fancy, and omitted or neglected certain +rules of the discipline of our Church, which seemed to me vain and +strange coming afterwards to discourse of it with learned men, I have +found those same things to be built upon very good and solid ground and +strong foundation; and that nothing but stupidity and ignorance makes us +receive them with less reverence than the rest. Why do we not consider +what contradictions we find in our own judgments; how many things were +yesterday articles of our faith, that to-day appear no other than fables? +Glory and curiosity are the scourges of the soul; the last prompts us to +thrust our noses into everything, the other forbids us to leave anything +doubtful and undecided. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A child should not be brought up in his mother's lap +Acquiesce and submit to truth +Affect words that are not of current use +Anything appears greatest to him that never knew a greater +Appetite to read more, than glutted with that we have +Applaud his judgment than commend his knowledge +Attribute facility of belief to simplicity and ignorance +Away with this violence! away with this compulsion! +Bears well a changed fortune, acting both parts equally well +Belief compared to the impression of a seal upon the soul +cloak on one shoulder, my cap on one side, a stocking disordered +College: a real house of correction of imprisoned youth +Disgorge what we eat in the same condition it was swallowed +Education ought to be carried on with a severe sweetness +Eloquence prejudices the subject it would advance +Fear was not that I should do ill, but that I should do nothing +Glory and curiosity are the scourges of the soul +Hobbes said that if he had been at college as long as others---- +Inquisitive after everything +Insert whole sections and pages out of ancient authors +It is no hard matter to get children +Learn what it is right to wish +Least touch or prick of a pencil in comparison of the whole +Let him be satisfied with correcting himself +Let him examine every man's talent +Light prognostics they give of themselves in their tender years +Living well, which of all arts is the greatest +Lodge nothing in his fancy upon simple authority and upon trust +Man may say too much even upon the best subjects +Miracle: everything our reason cannot comprehend +Morosity and melancholic humour of a sour ill-natured pedant +Mothers are too tender +Negligent garb, which is yet observable amongst the young men +Nobody prognosticated that I should be wicked, but only useless +Not having been able to pronounce one syllable, which is No! +O Athenians, what this man says, I will do +Obstinacy and contention are common qualities +Occasion to La Boetie to write his "Voluntary Servitude" +Philosophy has discourses proper for childhood +Philosophy is that which instructs us to live +Philosophy looked upon as a vain and fantastic name +Preface to bribe the benevolence of the courteous reader +Reading those books, converse with the great and heroic souls +Silence, therefore, and modesty are very advantageous qualities +So many trillions of men, buried before us +Sparing and an husband of his knowledge +The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine +The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness +Their labour is not to delivery, but about conception +There is nothing like alluring the appetite and affections +They begin to teach us to live when we have almost done living +Things grow familiar to men's minds by being often seen +To condemn them as impossible, is by a temerarious presumption +To contemn what we do not comprehend +To go a mile out of their way to hook in a fine word +To know by rote, is no knowledge +Tongue will grow too stiff to bend +Totally brutified by an immoderate thirst after knowledge +Unbecoming rudeness to carp at everything +Unjust to exact from me what I do not owe +Where their profit is, let them there have their pleasure too +Who by their fondness of some fine sounding word + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V5 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 6. + +XXVII. Of friendship. +XXVIII. Nine-and-twenty sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie. +XXIX. Of moderation. +XXX. Of cannibals. +XXXI. That a man is soberly to judge of the divine ordinances. +XXXII. That we are to avoid pleasures, even at the expense of life. +XXXIII. That fortune is oftentimes observed to act by the rule of + reason. +XXXIV. Of one defect in our government. +XXXV. Of the custom of wearing clothes. +XXXVI. Of Cato the Younger. +XXXVII. That we laugh and cry for the same thing. +XXXVIII. Of solitude. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +OF FRIENDSHIP + +Having considered the proceedings of a painter that serves me, I had a +mind to imitate his way. He chooses the fairest place and middle of any +wall, or panel, wherein to draw a picture, which he finishes with his +utmost care and art, and the vacuity about it he fills with grotesques, +which are odd fantastic figures without any grace but what they derive +from their variety, and the extravagance of their shapes. And in truth, +what are these things I scribble, other than grotesques and monstrous +bodies, made of various parts, without any certain figure, or any other +than accidental order, coherence, or proportion? + + "Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne." + + ["A fair woman in her upper form terminates in a fish." + --Horace, De Arte Poetica, v. 4.] + +In this second part I go hand in hand with my painter; but fall very +short of him in the first and the better, my power of handling not being +such, that I dare to offer at a rich piece, finely polished, and set off +according to art. I have therefore thought fit to borrow one of Estienne +de la Boetie, and such a one as shall honour and adorn all the rest of my +work--namely, a discourse that he called 'Voluntary Servitude'; but, +since, those who did not know him have properly enough called it "Le +contr Un." He wrote in his youth,--["Not being as yet eighteen years +old."--Edition of 1588.] by way of essay, in honour of liberty against +tyrants; and it has since run through the hands of men of great learning +and judgment, not without singular and merited commendation; for it is +finely written, and as full as anything can possibly be. And yet one may +confidently say it is far short of what he was able to do; and if in that +more mature age, wherein I had the happiness to know him, he had taken a +design like this of mine, to commit his thoughts to writing, we should +have seen a great many rare things, and such as would have gone very near +to have rivalled the best writings of antiquity: for in natural parts +especially, I know no man comparable to him. But he has left nothing +behind him, save this treatise only (and that too by chance, for I +believe he never saw it after it first went out of his hands), and some +observations upon that edict of January--[1562, which granted to the +Huguenots the public exercise of their religion.]--made famous by our +civil-wars, which also shall elsewhere, peradventure, find a place. +These were all I could recover of his remains, I to whom with so +affectionate a remembrance, upon his death-bed, he by his last will +bequeathed his library and papers, the little book of his works only +excepted, which I committed to the press. And this particular obligation +I have to this treatise of his, that it was the occasion of my first +coming acquainted with him; for it was showed to me long before I had the +good fortune to know him; and the first knowledge of his name, proving +the first cause and foundation of a friendship, which we afterwards +improved and maintained, so long as God was pleased to continue us +together, so perfect, inviolate, and entire, that certainly the like is +hardly to be found in story, and amongst the men of this age, there is no +sign nor trace of any such thing in use; so much concurrence is required +to the building of such a one, that 'tis much, if fortune bring it but +once to pass in three ages. + +There is nothing to which nature seems so much to have inclined us, as to +society; and Aristotle , says that the good legislators had more respect +to friendship than to justice. Now the most supreme point of its +perfection is this: for, generally, all those that pleasure, profit, +public or private interest create and nourish, are so much the less +beautiful and generous, and so much the less friendships, by how much +they mix another cause, and design, and fruit in friendship, than itself. +Neither do the four ancient kinds, natural, social, hospitable, venereal, +either separately or jointly, make up a true and perfect friendship. + +That of children to parents is rather respect: friendship is nourished by +communication, which cannot by reason of the great disparity, be betwixt +these, but would rather perhaps offend the duties of nature; for neither +are all the secret thoughts of fathers fit to be communicated to +children, lest it beget an indecent familiarity betwixt them; nor can the +advices and reproofs, which is one of the principal offices of +friendship, be properly performed by the son to the father. There are +some countries where 'twas the custom for children to kill their fathers; +and others, where the fathers killed their children, to avoid their being +an impediment one to another in life; and naturally the expectations of +the one depend upon the ruin of the other. There have been great +philosophers who have made nothing of this tie of nature, as Aristippus +for one, who being pressed home about the affection he owed to his +children, as being come out of him, presently fell to spit, saying, that +this also came out of him, and that we also breed worms and lice; and +that other, that Plutarch endeavoured to reconcile to his brother: +"I make never the more account of him," said he, "for coming out of the +same hole." This name of brother does indeed carry with it a fine and +delectable sound, and for that reason, he and I called one another +brothers but the complication of interests, the division of estates, and +that the wealth of the one should be the property of the other, strangely +relax and weaken the fraternal tie: brothers pursuing their fortune and +advancement by the same path, 'tis hardly possible but they must of +necessity often jostle and hinder one another. Besides, why is it +necessary that the correspondence of manners, parts, and inclinations, +which begets the true and perfect friendships, should always meet in +these relations? The father and the son may be of quite contrary +humours, and so of brothers: he is my son, he is my brother; but he is +passionate, ill-natured, or a fool. And moreover, by how much these are +friendships that the law and natural obligation impose upon us, so much +less is there of our own choice and voluntary freedom; whereas that +voluntary liberty of ours has no production more promptly and; properly +its own than affection and friendship. Not that I have not in my own +person experimented all that can possibly be expected of that kind, +having had the best and most indulgent father, even to his extreme old +age, that ever was, and who was himself descended from a family for many +generations famous and exemplary for brotherly concord: + + "Et ipse + Notus in fratres animi paterni." + + ["And I myself, known for paternal love toward my brothers." + --Horace, Ode, ii. 2, 6.] + +We are not here to bring the love we bear to women, though it be an act +of our own choice, into comparison, nor rank it with the others. The +fire of this, I confess, + + "Neque enim est dea nescia nostri + Qux dulcem curis miscet amaritiem," + + ["Nor is the goddess unknown to me who mixes a sweet bitterness + with my love."---Catullus, lxviii. 17.] + +is more active, more eager, and more sharp: but withal, 'tis more +precipitant, fickle, moving, and inconstant; a fever subject to +intermissions and paroxysms, that has seized but on one part of us. +Whereas in friendship, 'tis a general and universal fire, but temperate +and equal, a constant established heat, all gentle and smooth, without +poignancy or roughness. Moreover, in love, 'tis no other than frantic +desire for that which flies from us: + + "Come segue la lepre il cacciatore + Al freddo, al caldo, alla montagna, al lito; + Ne piu l'estima poi the presa vede; + E sol dietro a chi fugge affretta il piede" + + ["As the hunter pursues the hare, in cold and heat, to the mountain, + to the shore, nor cares for it farther when he sees it taken, and + only delights in chasing that which flees from him."--Aristo, x. 7.] + +so soon as it enters unto the terms of friendship, that is to say, into a +concurrence of desires, it vanishes and is gone, fruition destroys it, +as having only a fleshly end, and such a one as is subject to satiety. +Friendship, on the contrary, is enjoyed proportionably as it is desired; +and only grows up, is nourished and improved by enjoyment, as being of +itself spiritual, and the soul growing still more refined by practice. +Under this perfect friendship, the other fleeting affections have in my +younger years found some place in me, to say nothing of him, who himself +so confesses but too much in his verses; so that I had both these +passions, but always so, that I could myself well enough distinguish +them, and never in any degree of comparison with one another; the first +maintaining its flight in so lofty and so brave a place, as with disdain +to look down, and see the other flying at a far humbler pitch below. + +As concerning marriage, besides that it is a covenant, the entrance into +which only is free, but the continuance in it forced and compulsory, +having another dependence than that of our own free will, and a bargain +commonly contracted to other ends, there almost always happens a thousand +intricacies in it to unravel, enough to break the thread and to divert +the current of a lively affection: whereas friendship has no manner of +business or traffic with aught but itself. Moreover, to say truth, the +ordinary talent of women is not such as is sufficient to maintain the +conference and communication required to the support of this sacred tie; +nor do they appear to be endued with constancy of mind, to sustain the +pinch of so hard and durable a knot. And doubtless, if without this, +there could be such a free and voluntary familiarity contracted, where +not only the souls might have this entire fruition, but the bodies also +might share in the alliance, and a man be engaged throughout, the +friendship would certainly be more full and perfect; but it is without +example that this sex has ever yet arrived at such perfection; and, by +the common consent of the ancient schools, it is wholly rejected from it. + +That other Grecian licence is justly abhorred by our manners, which also, +from having, according to their practice, a so necessary disparity of age +and difference of offices betwixt the lovers, answered no more to the +perfect union and harmony that we here require than the other: + + "Quis est enim iste amor amicitiae? cur neque deformem + adolescentem quisquam amat, neque formosum senem?" + + ["For what is that friendly love? why does no one love a deformed + youth or a comely old man?"--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iv. 33.] + +Neither will that very picture that the Academy presents of it, as I +conceive, contradict me, when I say, that this first fury inspired by the +son of Venus into the heart of the lover, upon sight of the flower and +prime of a springing and blossoming youth, to which they allow all the +insolent and passionate efforts that an immoderate ardour can produce, +was simply founded upon external beauty, the false image of corporal +generation; for it could not ground this love upon the soul, the sight of +which as yet lay concealed, was but now springing, and not of maturity to +blossom; that this fury, if it seized upon a low spirit, the means by +which it preferred its suit were rich presents, favour in advancement to +dignities, and such trumpery, which they by no means approve; if on a +more generous soul, the pursuit was suitably generous, by philosophical +instructions, precepts to revere religion, to obey the laws, to die for +the good of one's country; by examples of valour, prudence, and justice, +the lover studying to render himself acceptable by the grace and beauty +of the soul, that of his body being long since faded and decayed, hoping +by this mental society to establish a more firm and lasting contract. +When this courtship came to effect in due season (for that which they do +not require in the lover, namely, leisure and discretion in his pursuit, +they strictly require in the person loved, forasmuch as he is to judge of +an internal beauty, of difficult knowledge and abstruse discovery), then +there sprung in the person loved the desire of a spiritual conception; +by the mediation of a spiritual beauty. This was the principal; the +corporeal, an accidental and secondary matter; quite the contrary as to +the lover. For this reason they prefer the person beloved, maintaining +that the gods in like manner preferred him too, and very much blame the +poet AEschylus for having, in the loves of Achilles and Patroclus, given +the lover's part to Achilles, who was in the first and beardless flower +of his adolescence, and the handsomest of all the Greeks. After this +general community, the sovereign, and most worthy part presiding and +governing, and performing its proper offices, they say, that thence great +utility was derived, both by private and public concerns; that it +constituted the force and power of the countries where it prevailed, and +the chiefest security of liberty and justice. Of which the healthy loves +of Harmodius and Aristogiton are instances. And therefore it is that +they called it sacred and divine, and conceive that nothing but the +violence of tyrants and the baseness of the common people are inimical to +it. Finally, all that can be said in favour of the Academy is, that it +was a love which ended in friendship, which well enough agrees with the +Stoical definition of love: + + "Amorem conatum esse amicitiae faciendae + ex pulchritudinis specie." + + ["Love is a desire of contracting friendship arising from the beauty + of the object."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., vi. 34.] + +I return to my own more just and true description: + + "Omnino amicitiae, corroboratis jam confirmatisque, + et ingeniis, et aetatibus, judicandae sunt." + + ["Those are only to be reputed friendships that are fortified and + confirmed by judgement and the length of time." + --Cicero, De Amicit., c. 20.] + +For the rest, what we commonly call friends and friendships, are nothing +but acquaintance and familiarities, either occasionally contracted, or +upon some design, by means of which there happens some little intercourse +betwixt our souls. But in the friendship I speak of, they mix and work +themselves into one piece, with so universal a mixture, that there is no +more sign of the seam by which they were first conjoined. If a man +should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no +otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because +it was I. There is, beyond all that I am able to say, I know not what +inexplicable and fated power that brought on this union. We sought one +another long before we met, and by the characters we heard of one +another, which wrought upon our affections more than, in reason, mere +reports should do; I think 'twas by some secret appointment of heaven. +We embraced in our names; and at our first meeting, which was +accidentally at a great city entertainment, we found ourselves so +mutually taken with one another, so acquainted, and so endeared betwixt +ourselves, that from thenceforward nothing was so near to us as one +another. He wrote an excellent Latin satire, since printed, wherein he +excuses the precipitation of our intelligence, so suddenly come to +perfection, saying, that destined to have so short a continuance, as +begun so late (for we were both full-grown men, and he some years the +older), there was no time to lose, nor were we tied to conform to the +example of those slow and regular friendships, that require so many +precautions of long preliminary conversation: This has no other idea than +that of itself, and can only refer to itself: this is no one special +consideration, nor two, nor three, nor four, nor a thousand; 'tis I know +not what quintessence of all this mixture, which, seizing my whole will, +carried it to plunge and lose itself in his, and that having seized his +whole will, brought it back with equal concurrence and appetite to plunge +and lose itself in mine. I may truly say lose, reserving nothing to +ourselves that was either his or mine.--[All this relates to Estienne de +la Boetie.] + +When Laelius,--[Cicero, De Amicit., c. II.]--in the presence of the +Roman consuls, who after thay had sentenced Tiberius Gracchus, prosecuted +all those who had had any familiarity with him also; came to ask Caius +Blosius, who was his chiefest friend, how much he would have done for +him, and that he made answer: "All things."--"How! All things!" said +Laelius. "And what if he had commanded you to fire our temples?"--"He +would never have commanded me that," replied Blosius.--"But what if he +had?" said Laelius.--"I would have obeyed him," said the other. If he +was so perfect a friend to Gracchus as the histories report him to have +been, there was yet no necessity of offending the consuls by such a bold +confession, though he might still have retained the assurance he had of +Gracchus' disposition. However, those who accuse this answer as +seditious, do not well understand the mystery; nor presuppose, as it was +true, that he had Gracchus' will in his sleeve, both by the power of a +friend, and the perfect knowledge he had of the man: they were more +friends than citizens, more friends to one another than either enemies or +friends to their country, or than friends to ambition and innovation; +having absolutely given up themselves to one another, either held +absolutely the reins of the other's inclination; and suppose all this +guided by virtue, and all this by the conduct of reason, which also +without these it had not been possible to do, Blosius' answer was such as +it ought to be. If any of their actions flew out of the handle, they +were neither (according to my measure of friendship) friends to one +another, nor to themselves. As to the rest, this answer carries no worse +sound, than mine would do to one that should ask me: "If your will should +command you to kill your daughter, would you do it?" and that I should +make answer, that I would; for this expresses no consent to such an act, +forasmuch as I do not in the least suspect my own will, and as little +that of such a friend. 'Tis not in the power of all the eloquence in the +world, to dispossess me of the certainty I have of the intentions and +resolutions of my friend; nay, no one action of his, what face soever it +might bear, could be presented to me, of which I could not presently, +and at first sight, find out the moving cause. Our souls had drawn so +unanimously together, they had considered each other with so ardent an +affection, and with the like affection laid open the very bottom of our +hearts to one another's view, that I not only knew his as well as my own; +but should certainly in any concern of mine have trusted my interest much +more willingly with him, than with myself. + +Let no one, therefore, rank other common friendships with such a one as +this. I have had as much experience of these as another, and of the most +perfect of their kind: but I do not advise that any should confound the +rules of the one and the other, for they would find themselves much +deceived. In those other ordinary friendships, you are to walk with +bridle in your hand, with prudence and circumspection, for in them the +knot is not so sure that a man may not half suspect it will slip. "Love +him," said Chilo,--[Aulus Gellius, i. 3.]--"so as if you were one day to +hate him; and hate him so as you were one day to love him." This +precept, though abominable in the sovereign and perfect friendship I +speak of, is nevertheless very sound as to the practice of the ordinary +and customary ones, and to which the saying that Aristotle had so +frequent in his mouth, "O my friends, there is no friend," may very fitly +be applied. In this noble commerce, good offices, presents, and +benefits, by which other friendships are supported and maintained, do not +deserve so much as to be mentioned; and the reason is the concurrence of +our wills; for, as the kindness I have for myself receives no increase, +for anything I relieve myself withal in time of need (whatever the Stoics +say), and as I do not find myself obliged to myself for any service I do +myself: so the union of such friends, being truly perfect, deprives them +of all idea of such duties, and makes them loathe and banish from their +conversation these words of division and distinction, benefits, +obligation, acknowledgment, entreaty, thanks, and the like. All things, +wills, thoughts, opinions, goods, wives, children, honours, and lives, +being in effect common betwixt them, and that absolute concurrence of +affections being no other than one soul in two bodies (according to that +very proper definition of Aristotle), they can neither lend nor give +anything to one another. This is the reason why the lawgivers, to honour +marriage with some resemblance of this divine alliance, interdict all +gifts betwixt man and wife; inferring by that, that all should belong to +each of them, and that they have nothing to divide or to give to each +other. + +If, in the friendship of which I speak, one could give to the other, the +receiver of the benefit would be the man that obliged his friend; for +each of them contending and above all things studying how to be useful to +the other, he that administers the occasion is the liberal man, in giving +his friend the satisfaction of doing that towards him which above all +things he most desires. When the philosopher Diogenes wanted money, he +used to say, that he redemanded it of his friends, not that he demanded +it. And to let you see the practical working of this, I will here +produce an ancient and singular example. Eudamidas, a Corinthian, had +two friends, Charixenus a Sicyonian and Areteus a Corinthian; this man +coming to die, being poor, and his two friends rich, he made his will +after this manner. "I bequeath to Areteus the maintenance of my mother, +to support and provide for her in her old age; and to Charixenus I +bequeath the care of marrying my daughter, and to give her as good a +portion as he is able; and in case one of these chance to die, I hereby +substitute the survivor in his place." They who first saw this will made +themselves very merry at the contents: but the legatees, being made +acquainted with it, accepted it with very great content; and one of them, +Charixenus, dying within five days after, and by that means the charge of +both duties devolving solely on him, Areteus nurtured the old woman with +very great care and tenderness, and of five talents he had in estate, he +gave two and a half in marriage with an only daughter he had of his own, +and two and a half in marriage with the daughter of Eudamidas, and on one +and the same day solemnised both their nuptials. + +This example is very full, if one thing were not to be objected, namely +the multitude of friends for the perfect friendship I speak of is +indivisible; each one gives himself so entirely to his friend, that he +has nothing left to distribute to others: on the contrary, is sorry that +he is not double, treble, or quadruple, and that he has not many souls +and many wills, to confer them all upon this one object. Common +friendships will admit of division; one may love the beauty of this +person, the good-humour of that, the liberality of a third, the paternal +affection of a fourth, the fraternal love of a fifth, and so of the rest: +but this friendship that possesses the whole soul, and there rules and +sways with an absolute sovereignty, cannot possibly admit of a rival. +If two at the same time should call to you for succour, to which of them +would you run? Should they require of you contrary offices, how could +you serve them both? Should one commit a thing to your silence that it +were of importance to the other to know, how would you disengage +yourself? A unique and particular friendship dissolves all other +obligations whatsoever: the secret I have sworn not to reveal to any +other, I may without perjury communicate to him who is not another, but +myself. 'Tis miracle enough certainly, for a man to double himself, and +those that talk of tripling, talk they know not of what. Nothing is +extreme, that has its like; and he who shall suppose, that of two, I love +one as much as the other, that they mutually love one another too, and +love me as much as I love them, multiplies into a confraternity the most +single of units, and whereof, moreover, one alone is the hardest thing in +the world to find. The rest of this story suits very well with what I +was saying; for Eudamidas, as a bounty and favour, bequeaths to his +friends a legacy of employing themselves in his necessity; he leaves them +heirs to this liberality of his, which consists in giving them the +opportunity of conferring a benefit upon him; and doubtless, the force of +friendship is more eminently apparent in this act of his, than in that of +Areteus. In short, these are effects not to be imagined nor comprehended +by such as have not experience of them, and which make me infinitely +honour and admire the answer of that young soldier to Cyrus, by whom +being asked how much he would take for a horse, with which he had won the +prize of a race, and whether he would exchange him for a kingdom?-- +"No, truly, sir," said he, "but I would give him with all my heart, to +get thereby a true friend, could I find out any man worthy of that +alliance."--[Xenophon, Cyropadia, viii. 3.]--He did not say ill in +saying, "could I find": for though one may almost everywhere meet with +men sufficiently qualified for a superficial acquaintance, yet in this, +where a man is to deal from the very bottom of his heart, without any +manner of reservation, it will be requisite that all the wards and +springs be truly wrought and perfectly sure. + +In confederations that hold but by one end, we are only to provide +against the imperfections that particularly concern that end. It can be +of no importance to me of what religion my physician or my lawyer is; +this consideration has nothing in common with the offices of friendship +which they owe me; and I am of the same indifference in the domestic +acquaintance my servants must necessarily contract with me. I never +inquire, when I am to take a footman, if he be chaste, but if he be +diligent; and am not solicitous if my muleteer be given to gaming, as if +he be strong and able; or if my cook be a swearer, if he be a good cook. +I do not take upon me to direct what other men should do in the +government of their families, there are plenty that meddle enough with +that, but only give an account of my method in my own: + + "Mihi sic usus est: tibi, ut opus est facto, face." + + ["This has been my way; as for you, do as you find needful. + --"Terence, Heaut., i. I., 28.] + +For table-talk, I prefer the pleasant and witty before the learned and +the grave; in bed, beauty before goodness; in common discourse the ablest +speaker, whether or no there be sincerity in the case. And, as he that +was found astride upon a hobby-horse, playing with his children, +entreated the person who had surprised him in that posture to say nothing +of it till himself came to be a father,--[Plutarch, Life of Agesilaus, +c. 9.]--supposing that the fondness that would then possess his own +soul, would render him a fairer judge of such an action; so I, also, +could wish to speak to such as have had experience of what I say: though, +knowing how remote a thing such a friendship is from the common practice, +and how rarely it is to be found, I despair of meeting with any such +judge. For even these discourses left us by antiquity upon this subject, +seem to me flat and poor, in comparison of the sense I have of it, and in +this particular, the effects surpass even the precepts of philosophy + + "Nil ego contulerim jucundo sanus amico." + + ["While I have sense left to me, there will never be anything more + acceptable to me than an agreeable friend." + --Horace, Sat., i. 5, 44.] + +The ancient Menander declared him to be happy that had had the good +fortune to meet with but the shadow of a friend: and doubtless he had +good reason to say so, especially if he spoke by experience: for in good +earnest, if I compare all the rest of my life, though, thanks be to God, +I have passed my time pleasantly enough, and at my ease, and the loss of +such a friend excepted, free from any grievous affliction, and in great +tranquillity of mind, having been contented with my natural and original +commodities, without being solicitous after others; if I should compare +it all, I say, with the four years I had the happiness to enjoy the sweet +society of this excellent man, 'tis nothing but smoke, an obscure and +tedious night. From the day that I lost him: + + "Quern semper acerbum, + Semper honoratum (sic, di, voluistis) habebo," + + ["A day for me ever sad, for ever sacred, so have you willed ye + gods."--AEneid, v. 49.] + +I have only led a languishing life; and the very pleasures that present +themselves to me, instead of administering anything of consolation, +double my affliction for his loss. We were halves throughout, and to +that degree, that methinks, by outliving him, I defraud him of his part. + + "Nec fas esse ulla me voluptate hic frui + Decrevi, tantisper dum ille abest meus particeps." + + ["I have determined that it will never be right for me to enjoy any + pleasure, so long as he, with whom I shared all pleasures is away." + --Terence, Heaut., i. I. 97.] + +I was so grown and accustomed to be always his double in all places and +in all things, that methinks I am no more than half of myself: + + "Illam meae si partem anima tulit + Maturior vis, quid moror altera? + Nec carus aeque, nec superstes + Integer? Ille dies utramque + Duxit ruinam." + + ["If that half of my soul were snatch away from me by an untimely + stroke, why should the other stay? That which remains will not be + equally dear, will not be whole: the same day will involve the + destruction of both."] + + or: + + ["If a superior force has taken that part of my soul, why do I, the + remaining one, linger behind? What is left is not so dear, nor an + entire thing: this day has wrought the destruction of both." + --Horace, Ode, ii. 17, 5.] + +There is no action or imagination of mine wherein I do not miss him; as I +know that he would have missed me: for as he surpassed me by infinite +degrees in virtue and all other accomplishments, so he also did in the +duties of friendship: + + "Quis desiderio sit pudor, aut modus + Tam cari capitis?" + + ["What shame can there, or measure, in lamenting so dear a friend?" + --Horace, Ode, i. 24, I.] + + "O misero frater adempte mihi! + Omnia tecum una perierunt gaudia nostra, + Quae tuus in vita dulcis alebat amor. + Tu mea, tu moriens fregisti commoda, frater; + Tecum una tota est nostra sepulta anima + Cujus ego interitu tota de menthe fugavi + Haec studia, atque omnes delicias animi. + Alloquar? audiero nunquam tua verba loquentem? + Nunquam ego te, vita frater amabilior + Aspiciam posthac; at certe semper amabo;" + + ["O brother, taken from me miserable! with thee, all our joys have + vanished, those joys which, in thy life, thy dear love nourished. + Dying, thou, my brother, hast destroyed all my happiness. My whole + soul is buried with thee. Through whose death I have banished from + my mind these studies, and all the delights of the mind. Shall I + address thee? I shall never hear thy voice. Never shall I behold + thee hereafter. O brother, dearer to me than life. Nought remains, + but assuredly I shall ever love thee."--Catullus, lxviii. 20; lxv.] + +But let us hear a boy of sixteen speak: + + --[In Cotton's translation the work referred to is "those Memoirs + upon the famous edict of January," of which mention has already been + made in the present edition. The edition of 1580, however, and the + Variorum edition of 1872-1900, indicate no particular work; but the + edition of 1580 has it "this boy of eighteen years"(which was the + age at which La Boetie wrote his "Servitude Volontaire"), speaks of + "a boy of sixteen" as occurring only in the common editions, and it + would seem tolerably clear that this more important work was, in + fact, the production to which Montaigne refers, and that the proper + reading of the text should be "sixteen years." What "this boy + spoke" is not given by Montaigne, for the reason stated in the next + following paragraph.] + +"Because I have found that that work has been since brought out, and with +a mischievous design, by those who aim at disturbing and changing the +condition of our government, without troubling themselves to think +whether they are likely to improve it: and because they have mixed up his +work with some of their own performance, I have refrained from inserting +it here. But that the memory of the author may not be injured, nor +suffer with such as could not come near-hand to be acquainted with his +principles, I here give them to understand, that it was written by him in +his boyhood, and that by way of exercise only, as a common theme that has +been hackneyed by a thousand writers. I make no question but that he +himself believed what he wrote, being so conscientious that he would not +so much as lie in jest: and I moreover know, that could it have been in +his own choice, he had rather have been born at Venice, than at Sarlac; +and with reason. But he had another maxim sovereignty imprinted in his +soul, very religiously to obey and submit to the laws under which he was +born. There never was a better citizen, more affectionate to his +country; nor a greater enemy to all the commotions and innovations of his +time: so that he would much rather have employed his talent to the +extinguishing of those civil flames, than have added any fuel to them; +he had a mind fashioned to the model of better ages. Now, in exchange of +this serious piece, I will present you with another of a more gay and +frolic air, from the same hand, and written at the same age." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +NINE AND TWENTY SONNETS OF ESTIENNE DE LA BOITIE + +TO MADAME DE GRAMMONT, COMTESSE DE GUISSEN. + + [They scarce contain anything but amorous complaints, expressed in a + very rough style, discovering the follies and outrages of a restless + passion, overgorged, as it were, with jealousies, fears and + suspicions.--Coste.] + + [These....contained in the edition of 1588 nine-and-twenty sonnets + of La Boetie, accompanied by a dedicatory epistle to Madame de + Grammont. The former, which are referred to at the end of Chap. + XXVIL, do not really belong to the book, and are of very slight + interest at this time; the epistle is transferred to the + Correspondence. The sonnets, with the letter, were presumably sent + some time after Letters V. et seq. Montaigne seems to have had + several copies written out to forward to friends or acquaintances.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +OF MODERATION + +As if we had an infectious touch, we, by our manner of handling, corrupt +things that in themselves are laudable and good: we may grasp virtue so +that it becomes vicious, if we embrace it too stringently and with too +violent a desire. Those who say, there is never any excess in virtue, +forasmuch as it is not virtue when it once becomes excess, only play upon +words: + + "Insani sapiens nomen ferat, aequus iniqui, + Ultra quam satis est, virtutem si petat ipsam." + + ["Let the wise man bear the name of a madman, the just one of an + unjust, if he seek wisdom more than is sufficient." + --Horace, Ep., i. 6, 15.] + + ["The wise man is no longer wise, the just man no longer just, if he + seek to carry his love for wisdom or virtue beyond that which is + necessary."] + +This is a subtle consideration of philosophy. A man may both be too much +in love with virtue, and be excessive in a just action. Holy Writ agrees +with this, Be not wiser than you should, but be soberly wise.--[St. +Paul, Epistle to the Romans, xii. 3.]--I have known a great man, + + --["It is likely that Montaigne meant Henry III., king of France. + The Cardinal d'Ossat, writing to Louise, the queen-dowager, told + her, in his frank manner, that he had lived as much or more like a + monk than a monarch (Letter XXIII.) And Pope Sextus V., speaking of + that prince one day to the Cardinal de Joyeuse, protector of the + affairs of France, said to him pleasantly, 'There is nothing that + your king hath not done, and does not do so still, to be a monk, nor + anything that I have not done, not to be a monk.'"--Coste.] + +prejudice the opinion men had of his devotion, by pretending to be devout +beyond all examples of others of his condition. I love temperate and +moderate natures. An immoderate zeal, even to that which is good, even +though it does not offend, astonishes me, and puts me to study what name +to give it. Neither the mother of Pausanias, + + --["Montaigne would here give us to understand, upon the authority of + Diodorus Siculus, that Pausanias' mother gave the first hint of the + punishment that was to be inflicted on her son. 'Pausanias,' says + this historian, 'perceiving that the ephori, and some other + Lacedoemonians, aimed at apprehending him, got the start of them, + and went and took sanctuary m Minerva's temple: and the + Lacedaemonians, being doubtful whether they ought to take him from + thence in violation of the franchise there, it is said that his own + mother came herself to the temple but spoke nothing nor did anything + more than lay a piece of brick, which she brought with her, on the + threshold of the temple, which, when she had done, she returned + home. The Lacedaemonians, taking the hint from the mother, caused + the gate of the temple to be walled up, and by this means starved + Pausanias, so that he died with hunger, &c. (lib. xi. cap. 10., of + Amyot's translation). The name of Pausanias' mother was Alcithea, + as we are informed by Thucydides' scholiast, who only says that it + was reported, that when they set about walling up the gates of the + chapel in which Pausanias had taken refuge, his mother Alcithea laid + the first stone."--Coste.] + +who was the first instructor of her son's process, and threw the first +stone towards his death, nor Posthumius the dictator, who put his son to +death, whom the ardour of youth had successfully pushed upon the enemy a +little more advanced than the rest of his squadron, do appear to me so +much just as strange; and I should neither advise nor like to follow so +savage a virtue, and that costs so dear. + + --["Opinions differ as to the truth of this fact. Livy thinks he + has good authority for rejecting it because it does not appear in + history that Posthumious was branded with it, as Titus Manlius was, + about 100 years after his time; for Manlius, having put his son to + death for the like cause, obtained the odious name of Imperiosus, + and since that time Manliana imperia has been used as a term to + signify orders that are too severe; Manliana Imperia, says Livy, + were not only horrible for the time present, but of a bad example to + posterity. And this historian makes no doubt but such commands + would have been actually styled Posthumiana Imperia, if Posthumius + had been the first who set so barbarous an example (Livy, lib. iv. + cap. 29, and lib. viii. cap. 7). But, however, Montaigne has Valer. + Maximus on his side, who says expressly, that Posthumius caused his + son to be put to death, and Diodorus of Sicily (lib. xii. cap. + 19)."--Coste.] + +The archer that shoots over, misses as much as he that falls short, and +'tis equally troublesome to my sight, to look up at a great light, and +to look down into a dark abyss. Callicles in Plato says, that the +extremity of philosophy is hurtful, and advises not to dive into it +beyond the limits of profit; that, taken moderately, it is pleasant and +useful; but that in the end it renders a man brutish and vicious, a +contemner of religion and the common laws, an enemy to civil +conversation, and all human pleasures, incapable of all public +administration, unfit either to assist others or to relieve himself, and +a fit object for all sorts of injuries and affronts. He says true; for +in its excess, it enslaves our natural freedom, and by an impertinent +subtlety, leads us out of the fair and beaten way that nature has traced +for us. + +The love we bear to our wives is very lawful, and yet theology thinks fit +to curb and restrain it. As I remember, I have read in one place of St. +Thomas Aquinas,--[Secunda Secundx, Quaest. 154, art. 9.]--where he +condemns marriages within any of the forbidden degrees, for this reason, +amongst others, that there is some danger, lest the friendship a man +bears to such a woman, should be immoderate; for if the conjugal +affection be full and perfect betwixt them, as it ought to be, and that +it be over and above surcharged with that of kindred too, there is no +doubt, but such an addition will carry the husband beyond the bounds of +reason. + +Those sciences that regulate the manners of men, divinity and philosophy, +will have their say in everything; there is no action so private and +secret that can escape their inspection and jurisdiction. They are best +taught who are best able to control and curb their own liberty; women +expose their nudities as much as you will upon the account of pleasure, +though in the necessities of physic they are altogether as shy. I will, +therefore, in their behalf: + + --[Coste translates this: "on the part of philosophy and theology," + observing that but few wives would think themselves obliged to + Montaigne for any such lesson to their husbands.]-- + +teach the husbands, that is, such as are too vehement in the exercise of +the matrimonial duty--if such there still be--this lesson, that the very +pleasures they enjoy in the society of their wives are reproachable if +immoderate, and that a licentious and riotous abuse of them is a fault as +reprovable here as in illicit connections. Those immodest and debauched +tricks and postures, that the first ardour suggests to us in this affair, +are not only indecently but detrimentally practised upon our wives. Let +them at least learn impudence from another hand; they are ever ready +enough for our business, and I for my part always went the plain way to +work. + +Marriage is a solemn and religious tie, and therefore the pleasure we +extract from it should be a sober and serious delight, and mixed with a +certain kind of gravity; it should be a sort of discreet and +conscientious pleasure. And seeing that the chief end of it is +generation, some make a question, whether when men are out of hopes as +when they are superannuated or already with child, it be lawful to +embrace our wives. 'Tis homicide, according to Plato.--[Laws, 8.]-- +Certain nations (the Mohammedan, amongst others) abominate all conjunction +with women with child, others also, with those who are in their courses. +Zenobia would never admit her husband for more than one encounter, after +which she left him to his own swing for the whole time of her conception, +and not till after that would again receive him:--[Trebellius Pollio, +Triginta Tyran., c. 30.]--a brave and generous example of conjugal +continence. It was doubtless from some lascivious poet,--[The lascivious +poet is Homer; see his Iliad, xiv. 294.]--and one that himself was in +great distress for a little of this sport, that Plato borrowed this +story; that Jupiter was one day so hot upon his wife, that not having so +much patience as till she could get to the couch, he threw her upon the +floor, where the vehemence of pleasure made him forget the great and +important resolutions he had but newly taken with the rest of the gods in +his celestial council, and to brag that he had had as good a bout, as +when he got her maidenhead, unknown to their parents. + +The kings of Persia were wont to invite their wives to the beginning of +their festivals; but when the wine began to work in good earnest, and +that they were to give the reins to pleasure, they sent them back to +their private apartments, that they might not participate in their +immoderate lust, sending for other women in their stead, with whom they +were not obliged to so great a decorum of respect.--[Plutarch, Precepts +of Marriage, c. 14.]--All pleasures and all sorts of gratifications +are not properly and fitly conferred upon all sorts of persons. +Epaminondas had committed to prison a young man for certain debauches; +for whom Pelopidas mediated, that at his request he might be set at +liberty, which Epaminondas denied to him, but granted it at the first +word to a wench of his, that made the same intercession; saying, that it +was a gratification fit for such a one as she, but not for a captain. +Sophocles being joint praetor with Pericles, seeing accidentally a fine +boy pass by: "O what a charming boy is that!" said he. "That might be +very well," answered Pericles, "for any other than a praetor, who ought +not only to have his hands, but his eyes, too, chaste."--[Cicero, De +Offic., i. 40.] AElius Verus, the emperor, answered his wife, who +reproached him with his love to other women, that he did it upon a +conscientious account, forasmuch as marriage was a name of honour and +dignity, not of wanton and lascivious desire; and our ecclesiastical +history preserves the memory of that woman in great veneration, who +parted from her husband because she would not comply with his indecent +and inordinate desires. In fine, there is no pleasure so just and +lawful, where intemperance and excess are not to be condemned. + +But, to speak the truth, is not man a most miserable creature the while? +It is scarce, by his natural condition, in his power to taste one +pleasure pure and entire; and yet must he be contriving doctrines and +precepts to curtail that little he has; he is not yet wretched enough, +unless by art and study he augment his own misery: + + "Fortunae miseras auximus arte vias." + + ["We artificially augment the wretchedness of fortune." + --Properitius, lib. iii. 7, 44.] + +Human wisdom makes as ill use of her talent, when she exercises it in +rescinding from the number and sweetness of those pleasures that are +naturally our due, as she employs it favourably and well in artificially +disguising and tricking out the ills of life, to alleviate the sense of +them. Had I ruled the roast, I should have taken another and more +natural course, which, to say the truth, is both commodious and holy, and +should, peradventure, have been able to have limited it too; +notwithstanding that both our spiritual and corporal physicians, as by +compact betwixt themselves, can find no other way to cure, nor other +remedy for the infirmities of the body and the soul, than by misery and +pain. To this end, watchings, fastings, hair-shirts, remote and solitary +banishments, perpetual imprisonments, whips and other afflictions, have +been introduced amongst men: but so, that they should carry a sting with +them, and be real afflictions indeed; and not fall out as it once did to +one Gallio, who having been sent an exile into the isle of Lesbos, news +was not long after brought to Rome, that he there lived as merry as the +day was long; and that what had been enjoined him for a penance, turned +to his pleasure and satisfaction: whereupon the Senate thought fit to +recall him home to his wife and family, and confine him to his own house, +to accommodate their punishment to his feeling and apprehension. For to +him whom fasting would make more healthful and more sprightly, and to him +to whose palate fish were more acceptable than flesh, the prescription of +these would have no curative effect; no more than in the other sort of +physic, where drugs have no effect upon him who swallows them with +appetite and pleasure: the bitterness of the potion and the abhorrence of +the patient are necessary circumstances to the operation. The nature +that would eat rhubarb like buttered turnips, would frustrate the use and +virtue of it; it must be something to trouble and disturb the stomach, +that must purge and cure it; and here the common rule, that things are +cured by their contraries, fails; for in this one ill is cured by +another. + +This belief a little resembles that other so ancient one, of thinking to +gratify the gods and nature by massacre and murder: an opinion +universally once received in all religions. And still, in these later +times wherein our fathers lived, Amurath at the taking of the Isthmus, +immolated six hundred young Greeks to his father's soul, in the nature of +a propitiatory sacrifice for his sins. And in those new countries +discovered in this age of ours, which are pure and virgin yet, in +comparison of ours, this practice is in some measure everywhere received: +all their idols reek with human blood, not without various examples of +horrid cruelty: some they burn alive, and take, half broiled, off the +coals to tear out their hearts and entrails; some, even women, they flay +alive, and with their bloody skins clothe and disguise others. Neither +are we without great examples of constancy and resolution in this affair +the poor souls that are to be sacrificed, old men, women, and children, +themselves going about some days before to beg alms for the offering of +their sacrifice, presenting themselves to the slaughter, singing and +dancing with the spectators. + +The ambassadors of the king of Mexico, setting out to Fernando Cortez the +power and greatness of their master, after having told him, that he had +thirty vassals, of whom each was able to raise an hundred thousand +fighting men, and that he kept his court in the fairest and best +fortified city under the sun, added at last, that he was obliged yearly +to offer to the gods fifty thousand men. And it is affirmed, that he +maintained a continual war, with some potent neighbouring nations, not +only to keep the young men in exercise, but principally to have +wherewithal to furnish his sacrifices with his prisoners of war. At a +certain town in another place, for the welcome of the said Cortez, they +sacrificed fifty men at once. I will tell you this one tale more, and I +have done; some of these people being beaten by him, sent to acknowledge +him, and to treat with him of a peace, whose messengers carried him three +sorts of gifts, which they presented in these terms: "Behold, lord, here +are five slaves: if thou art a furious god that feedeth upon flesh and +blood, eat these, and we will bring thee more; if thou art an affable +god, behold here incense and feathers; but if thou art a man, take these +fowls and these fruits that we have brought thee." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +OF CANNIBALS + +When King Pyrrhus invaded Italy, having viewed and considered the order +of the army the Romans sent out to meet him; "I know not," said he, +"what kind of barbarians" (for so the Greeks called all other nations) +"these may be; but the disposition of this army that I see has nothing of +barbarism in it."--[Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus, c. 8.]--As much said the +Greeks of that which Flaminius brought into their country; and Philip, +beholding from an eminence the order and distribution of the Roman camp +formed in his kingdom by Publius Sulpicius Galba, spake to the same +effect. By which it appears how cautious men ought to be of taking +things upon trust from vulgar opinion, and that we are to judge by the +eye of reason, and not from common report. + +I long had a man in my house that lived ten or twelve years in the New +World, discovered in these latter days, and in that part of it where +Villegaignon landed,--[At Brazil, in 1557.]--which he called Antarctic +France. This discovery of so vast a country seems to be of very great +consideration. I cannot be sure, that hereafter there may not be +another, so many wiser men than we having been deceived in this. I am +afraid our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that we have more +curiosity than capacity; for we grasp at all, but catch nothing but wind. + +Plato brings in Solon,--[In Timaeus.]--telling a story that he had +heard from the priests of Sais in Egypt, that of old, and before the +Deluge, there was a great island called Atlantis, situate directly at the +mouth of the straits of Gibraltar, which contained more countries than +both Africa and Asia put together; and that the kings of that country, +who not only possessed that Isle, but extended their dominion so far into +the continent that they had a country of Africa as far as Egypt, and +extending in Europe to Tuscany, attempted to encroach even upon Asia, and +to subjugate all the nations that border upon the Mediterranean Sea, as +far as the Black Sea; and to that effect overran all Spain, the Gauls, +and Italy, so far as to penetrate into Greece, where the Athenians +stopped them: but that some time after, both the Athenians, and they and +their island, were swallowed by the Flood. + +It is very likely that this extreme irruption and inundation of water +made wonderful changes and alterations in the habitations of the earth, +as 'tis said that the sea then divided Sicily from Italy-- + + "Haec loca, vi quondam et vasta convulsa ruina, + Dissiluisse ferunt, quum protenus utraque tellus + Una foret" + + ["These lands, they say, formerly with violence and vast desolation + convulsed, burst asunder, where erewhile were."--AEneid, iii. 414.] + +Cyprus from Syria, the isle of Negropont from the continent of Beeotia, +and elsewhere united lands that were separate before, by filling up the +channel betwixt them with sand and mud: + + "Sterilisque diu palus, aptaque remis, + Vicinas urbes alit, et grave sentit aratrum." + + ["That which was once a sterile marsh, and bore vessels on its + bosom, now feeds neighbouring cities, and admits the plough." + --Horace, De Arte Poetica, v. 65.] + +But there is no great appearance that this isle was this New World so +lately discovered: for that almost touched upon Spain, and it were an +incredible effect of an inundation, to have tumbled back so prodigious a +mass, above twelve hundred leagues: besides that our modern navigators +have already almost discovered it to be no island, but terra firma, and +continent with the East Indies on the one side, and with the lands under +the two poles on the other side; or, if it be separate from them, it is +by so narrow a strait and channel, that it none the more deserves the +name of an island for that. + +It should seem, that in this great body, there are two sorts of motions, +the one natural and the other febrific, as there are in ours. When I +consider the impression that our river of Dordogne has made in my time on +the right bank of its descent, and that in twenty years it has gained so +much, and undermined the foundations of so many houses, I perceive it to +be an extraordinary agitation: for had it always followed this course, +or were hereafter to do it, the aspect of the world would be totally +changed. But rivers alter their course, sometimes beating against the +one side, and sometimes the other, and some times quietly keeping the +channel. I do not speak of sudden inundations, the causes of which +everybody understands. In Medoc, by the seashore, the Sieur d'Arsac, my +brother, sees an estate he had there, buried under the sands which the +sea vomits before it: where the tops of some houses are yet to be seen, +and where his rents and domains are converted into pitiful barren +pasturage. The inhabitants of this place affirm, that of late years the +sea has driven so vehemently upon them, that they have lost above four +leagues of land. These sands are her harbingers: and we now see great +heaps of moving sand, that march half a league before her, and occupy the +land. + +The other testimony from antiquity, to which some would apply this +discovery of the New World, is in Aristotle; at least, if that little +book of Unheard of Miracles be his--[one of the spurious publications +brought out under his name--D.W.]. He there tells us, that certain +Carthaginians, having crossed the Atlantic Sea without the Straits of +Gibraltar, and sailed a very long time, discovered at last a great and +fruitful island, all covered over with wood, and watered with several +broad and deep rivers, far remote from all terra firma; and that they, +and others after them, allured by the goodness and fertility of the soil, +went thither with their wives and children, and began to plant a colony. +But the senate of Carthage perceiving their people by little and little +to diminish, issued out an express prohibition, that none, upon pain of +death, should transport themselves thither; and also drove out these new +inhabitants; fearing, 'tis said, lest' in process of time they should so +multiply as to supplant themselves and ruin their state. But this +relation of Aristotle no more agrees with our new-found lands than the +other. + +This man that I had was a plain ignorant fellow, and therefore the more +likely to tell truth: for your better-bred sort of men are much more +curious in their observation, 'tis true, and discover a great deal more; +but then they gloss upon it, and to give the greater weight to what they +deliver, and allure your belief, they cannot forbear a little to alter +the story; they never represent things to you simply as they are, but +rather as they appeared to them, or as they would have them appear to +you, and to gain the reputation of men of judgment, and the better to +induce your faith, are willing to help out the business with something +more than is really true, of their own invention. Now in this case, we +should either have a man of irreproachable veracity, or so simple that he +has not wherewithal to contrive, and to give a colour of truth to false +relations, and who can have no ends in forging an untruth. Such a one +was mine; and besides, he has at divers times brought to me several +seamen and merchants who at the same time went the same voyage. I shall +therefore content myself with his information, without inquiring what the +cosmographers say to the business. We should have topographers to trace +out to us the particular places where they have been; but for having had +this advantage over us, to have seen the Holy Land, they would have the +privilege, forsooth, to tell us stories of all the other parts of the +world beside. I would have every one write what he knows, and as much as +he knows, but no more; and that not in this only but in all other +subjects; for such a person may have some particular knowledge and +experience of the nature of such a river, or such a fountain, who, as to +other things, knows no more than what everybody does, and yet to give a +currency to his little pittance of learning, will undertake to write the +whole body of physics: a vice from which great inconveniences derive +their original. + +Now, to return to my subject, I find that there is nothing barbarous and +savage in this nation, by anything that I can gather, excepting, that +every one gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use +in his own country. As, indeed, we have no other level of truth and +reason than the example and idea of the opinions and customs of the place +wherein we live: there is always the perfect religion, there the perfect +government, there the most exact and accomplished usage of all things. +They are savages at the same rate that we say fruits are wild, which +nature produces of herself and by her own ordinary progress; whereas, in +truth, we ought rather to call those wild whose natures we have changed +by our artifice and diverted from the common order. In those, the +genuine, most useful, and natural virtues and properties are vigorous and +sprightly, which we have helped to degenerate in these, by accommodating +them to the pleasure of our own corrupted palate. And yet for all this, +our taste confesses a flavour and delicacy excellent even to emulation of +the best of ours, in several fruits wherein those countries abound +without art or culture. Neither is it reasonable that art should gain +the pre-eminence of our great and powerful mother nature. We have so +surcharged her with the additional ornaments and graces we have added to +the beauty and riches of her own works by our inventions, that we have +almost smothered her; yet in other places, where she shines in her own +purity and proper lustre, she marvellously baffles and disgraces all our +vain and frivolous attempts: + + "Et veniunt hederae sponte sua melius; + Surgit et in solis formosior arbutus antris; + Et volucres nulls dulcius arte canunt." + + ["The ivy grows best spontaneously, the arbutus best in shady caves; + and the wild notes of birds are sweeter than art can teach. + --"Propertius, i. 2, 10.] + +Our utmost endeavours cannot arrive at so much as to imitate the nest of +the least of birds, its contexture, beauty, and convenience: not so much +as the web of a poor spider. + +All things, says Plato,--[Laws, 10.]--are produced either by nature, by +fortune, or by art; the greatest and most beautiful by the one or the +other of the former, the least and the most imperfect by the last. + +These nations then seem to me to be so far barbarous, as having received +but very little form and fashion from art and human invention, and +consequently to be not much remote from their original simplicity. The +laws of nature, however, govern them still, not as yet much vitiated with +any mixture of ours: but 'tis in such purity, that I am sometimes +troubled we were not sooner acquainted with these people, and that they +were not discovered in those better times, when there were men much more +able to judge of them than we are. I am sorry that Lycurgus and Plato +had no knowledge of them; for to my apprehension, what we now see in +those nations, does not only surpass all the pictures with which the +poets have adorned the golden age, and all their inventions in feigning a +happy state of man, but, moreover, the fancy and even the wish and desire +of philosophy itself; so native and so pure a simplicity, as we by +experience see to be in them, could never enter into their imagination, +nor could they ever believe that human society could have been maintained +with so little artifice and human patchwork. I should tell Plato that it +is a nation wherein there is no manner of traffic, no knowledge of +letters, no science of numbers, no name of magistrate or political +superiority; no use of service, riches or poverty, no contracts, no +successions, no dividends, no properties, no employments, but those of +leisure, no respect of kindred, but common, no clothing, no agriculture, +no metal, no use of corn or wine; the very words that signify lying, +treachery, dissimulation, avarice, envy, detraction, pardon, never heard +of. + + --[This is the famous passage which Shakespeare, through Florio's + version, 1603, or ed. 1613, p. 102, has employed in the "Tempest," + ii. 1.] + +How much would he find his imaginary Republic short of his perfection? + + "Viri a diis recentes." + + ["Men fresh from the gods."--Seneca, Ep., 90.] + + "Hos natura modos primum dedit." + + ["These were the manners first taught by nature." + --Virgil, Georgics, ii. 20.] + +As to the rest, they live in a country very pleasant and temperate, so +that, as my witnesses inform me, 'tis rare to hear of a sick person, and +they moreover assure me, that they never saw any of the natives, either +paralytic, bleareyed, toothless, or crooked with age. The situation of +their country is along the sea-shore, enclosed on the other side towards +the land, with great and high mountains, having about a hundred leagues +in breadth between. They have great store of fish and flesh, that have +no resemblance to those of ours: which they eat without any other +cookery, than plain boiling, roasting, and broiling. The first that rode +a horse thither, though in several other voyages he had contracted an +acquaintance and familiarity with them, put them into so terrible a +fright, with his centaur appearance, that they killed him with their +arrows before they could come to discover who he was. Their buildings +are very long, and of capacity to hold two or three hundred people, made +of the barks of tall trees, reared with one end upon the ground, and +leaning to and supporting one another at the top, like some of our barns, +of which the covering hangs down to the very ground, and serves for the +side walls. They have wood so hard, that they cut with it, and make their +swords of it, and their grills of it to broil their meat. Their beds are +of cotton, hung swinging from the roof, like our seamen's hammocks, every +man his own, for the wives lie apart from their husbands. They rise with +the sun, and so soon as they are up, eat for all day, for they have no +more meals but that; they do not then drink, as Suidas reports of some +other people of the East that never drank at their meals; but drink very +often all day after, and sometimes to a rousing pitch. Their drink is +made of a certain root, and is of the colour of our claret, and they +never drink it but lukewarm. It will not keep above two or three days; +it has a somewhat sharp, brisk taste, is nothing heady, but very +comfortable to the stomach; laxative to strangers, but a very pleasant +beverage to such as are accustomed to it. They make use, instead of +bread, of a certain white compound, like coriander seeds; I have tasted +of it; the taste is sweet and a little flat. The whole day is spent in +dancing. Their young men go a-hunting after wild beasts with bows and +arrows; one part of their women are employed in preparing their drink the +while, which is their chief employment. One of their old men, in the +morning before they fall to eating, preaches to the whole family, walking +from the one end of the house to the other, and several times repeating +the same sentence, till he has finished the round, for their houses are +at least a hundred yards long. Valour towards their enemies and love +towards their wives, are the two heads of his discourse, never failing in +the close, to put them in mind, that 'tis their wives who provide them +their drink warm and well seasoned. The fashion of their beds, ropes, +swords, and of the wooden bracelets they tie about their wrists, when +they go to fight, and of the great canes, bored hollow at one end, by the +sound of which they keep the cadence of their dances, are to be seen in +several places, and amongst others, at my house. They shave all over, +and much more neatly than we, without other razor than one of wood or +stone. They believe in the immortality of the soul, and that those who +have merited well of the gods are lodged in that part of heaven where the +sun rises, and the accursed in the west. + +They have I know not what kind of priests and prophets, who very rarely +present themselves to the people, having their abode in the mountains. +At their arrival, there is a great feast, and solemn assembly of many +villages: each house, as I have described, makes a village, and they are +about a French league distant from one another. This prophet declaims to +them in public, exhorting them to virtue and their duty: but all their +ethics are comprised in these two articles, resolution in war, and +affection to their wives. He also prophesies to them events to come, and +the issues they are to expect from their enterprises, and prompts them to +or diverts them from war: but let him look to't; for if he fail in his +divination, and anything happen otherwise than he has foretold, he is cut +into a thousand pieces, if he be caught, and condemned for a false +prophet: for that reason, if any of them has been mistaken, he is no more +heard of. + +Divination is a gift of God, and therefore to abuse it, ought to be a +punishable imposture. Amongst the Scythians, where their diviners failed +in the promised effect, they were laid, bound hand and foot, upon carts +loaded with firs and bavins, and drawn by oxen, on which they were burned +to death.--[Herodotus, iv. 69.]--Such as only meddle with things +subject to the conduct of human capacity, are excusable in doing the best +they can: but those other fellows that come to delude us with assurances +of an extraordinary faculty, beyond our understanding, ought they not to +be punished, when they do not make good the effect of their promise, and +for the temerity of their imposture? + +They have continual war with the nations that live further within the +mainland, beyond their mountains, to which they go naked, and without +other arms than their bows and wooden swords, fashioned at one end like +the head of our javelins. The obstinacy of their battles is wonderful, +and they never end without great effusion of blood: for as to running +away, they know not what it is. Every one for a trophy brings home the +head of an enemy he has killed, which he fixes over the door of his +house. After having a long time treated their prisoners very well, and +given them all the regales they can think of, he to whom the prisoner +belongs, invites a great assembly of his friends. They being come, he +ties a rope to one of the arms of the prisoner, of which, at a distance, +out of his reach, he holds the one end himself, and gives to the friend +he loves best the other arm to hold after the same manner; which being. +done, they two, in the presence of all the assembly, despatch him with +their swords. After that, they roast him, eat him amongst them, and send +some chops to their absent friends. They do not do this, as some think, +for nourishment, as the Scythians anciently did, but as a representation +of an extreme revenge; as will appear by this: that having observed the +Portuguese, who were in league with their enemies, to inflict another +sort of death upon any of them they took prisoners, which was to set them +up to the girdle in the earth, to shoot at the remaining part till it was +stuck full of arrows, and then to hang them, they thought those people of +the other world (as being men who had sown the knowledge of a great many +vices amongst their neighbours, and who were much greater masters in all +sorts of mischief than they) did not exercise this sort of revenge +without a meaning, and that it must needs be more painful than theirs, +they began to leave their old way, and to follow this. I am not sorry +that we should here take notice of the barbarous horror of so cruel an +action, but that, seeing so clearly into their faults, we should be so +blind to our own. I conceive there is more barbarity in eating a man +alive, than when he is dead; in tearing a body limb from limb by racks +and torments, that is yet in perfect sense; in roasting it by degrees; in +causing it to be bitten and worried by dogs and swine (as we have not +only read, but lately seen, not amongst inveterate and mortal enemies, +but among neighbours and fellow-citizens, and, which is worse, under +colour of piety and religion), than to roast and eat him after he is +dead. + +Chrysippus and Zeno, the two heads of the Stoic sect, were of opinion +that there was no hurt in making use of our dead carcasses, in what way +soever for our necessity, and in feeding upon them too;--[Diogenes +Laertius, vii. 188.]--as our own ancestors, who being besieged by +Caesar in the city Alexia, resolved to sustain the famine of the siege +with the bodies of their old men, women, and other persons who were +incapable of bearing arms. + + "Vascones, ut fama est, alimentis talibus usi + Produxere animas." + + ["'Tis said the Gascons with such meats appeased their hunger." + --Juvenal, Sat., xv. 93.] + +And the physicians make no bones of employing it to all sorts of use, +either to apply it outwardly; or to give it inwardly for the health of +the patient. But there never was any opinion so irregular, as to excuse +treachery, disloyalty, tyranny, and cruelty, which are our familiar +vices. We may then call these people barbarous, in respect to the rules +of reason: but not in respect to ourselves, who in all sorts of barbarity +exceed them. Their wars are throughout noble and generous, and carry as +much excuse and fair pretence, as that human malady is capable of; having +with them no other foundation than the sole jealousy of valour. Their +disputes are not for the conquest of new lands, for these they already +possess are so fruitful by nature, as to supply them without labour or +concern, with all things necessary, in such abundance that they have no +need to enlarge their borders. And they are, moreover, happy in this, +that they only covet so much as their natural necessities require: all +beyond that is superfluous to them: men of the same age call one another +generally brothers, those who are younger, children; and the old men are +fathers to all. These leave to their heirs in common the full possession +of goods, without any manner of division, or other title than what nature +bestows upon her creatures, in bringing them into the world. If their +neighbours pass over the mountains to assault them, and obtain a victory, +all the victors gain by it is glory only, and the advantage of having +proved themselves the better in valour and virtue: for they never meddle +with the goods of the conquered, but presently return into their own +country, where they have no want of anything necessary, nor of this +greatest of all goods, to know happily how to enjoy their condition and +to be content. And those in turn do the same; they demand of their +prisoners no other ransom, than acknowledgment that they are overcome: +but there is not one found in an age, who will not rather choose to die +than make such a confession, or either by word or look recede from the +entire grandeur of an invincible courage. There is not a man amongst +them who had not rather be killed and eaten, than so much as to open his +mouth to entreat he may not. They use them with all liberality and +freedom, to the end their lives may be so much the dearer to them; but +frequently entertain them with menaces of their approaching death, of the +torments they are to suffer, of the preparations making in order to it, +of the mangling their limbs, and of the feast that is to be made, where +their carcass is to be the only dish. All which they do, to no other +end, but only to extort some gentle or submissive word from them, or to +frighten them so as to make them run away, to obtain this advantage that +they were terrified, and that their constancy was shaken; and indeed, if +rightly taken, it is in this point only that a true victory consists: + + "Victoria nulla est, + Quam quae confessor animo quoque subjugat hostes." + + ["No victory is complete, which the conquered do not admit to be + so.--"Claudius, De Sexto Consulatu Honorii, v. 248.] + +The Hungarians, a very warlike people, never pretend further than to +reduce the enemy to their discretion; for having forced this confession +from them, they let them go without injury or ransom, excepting, at the +most, to make them engage their word never to bear arms against them +again. We have sufficient advantages over our enemies that are borrowed +and not truly our own; it is the quality of a porter, and no effect of +virtue, to have stronger arms and legs; it is a dead and corporeal +quality to set in array; 'tis a turn of fortune to make our enemy +stumble, or to dazzle him with the light of the sun; 'tis a trick of +science and art, and that may happen in a mean base fellow, to be a good +fencer. The estimate and value of a man consist in the heart and in the +will: there his true honour lies. Valour is stability, not of legs and +arms, but of the courage and the soul; it does not lie in the goodness of +our horse or our arms but in our own. He that falls obstinate in his +courage-- + + "Si succiderit, de genu pugnat" + + ["If his legs fail him, he fights on his knees." + --Seneca, De Providentia, c. 2.] + +--he who, for any danger of imminent death, abates nothing of his +assurance; who, dying, yet darts at his enemy a fierce and disdainful +look, is overcome not by us, but by fortune; he is killed, not conquered; +the most valiant are sometimes the most unfortunate. There are defeats +more triumphant than victories. Never could those four sister victories, +the fairest the sun ever be held, of Salamis, Plataea, Mycale, and +Sicily, venture to oppose all their united glories, to the single glory +of the discomfiture of King Leonidas and his men, at the pass of +Thermopylae. Who ever ran with a more glorious desire and greater +ambition, to the winning, than Captain Iscolas to the certain loss of a +battle?--[Diodorus Siculus, xv. 64.]--Who could have found out a more +subtle invention to secure his safety, than he did to assure his +destruction? He was set to defend a certain pass of Peloponnesus against +the Arcadians, which, considering the nature of the place and the +inequality of forces, finding it utterly impossible for him to do, and +seeing that all who were presented to the enemy, must certainly be left +upon the place; and on the other side, reputing it unworthy of his own +virtue and magnanimity and of the Lacedaemonian name to fail in any part +of his duty, he chose a mean betwixt these two extremes after this +manner; the youngest and most active of his men, he preserved for the +service and defence of their country, and sent them back; and with the +rest, whose loss would be of less consideration, he resolved to make good +the pass, and with the death of them, to make the enemy buy their entry +as dear as possibly he could; as it fell out, for being presently +environed on all sides by the Arcadians, after having made a great +slaughter of the enemy, he and his were all cut in pieces. Is there any +trophy dedicated to the conquerors which was not much more due to these +who were overcome? The part that true conquering is to play, lies in the +encounter, not in the coming off; and the honour of valour consists in +fighting, not in subduing. + +But to return to my story: these prisoners are so far from discovering +the least weakness, for all the terrors that can be represented to them, +that, on the contrary, during the two or three months they are kept, they +always appear with a cheerful countenance; importune their masters to +make haste to bring them to the test, defy, rail at them, and reproach +them with cowardice, and the number of battles they have lost against +those of their country. I have a song made by one of these prisoners, +wherein he bids them "come all, and dine upon him, and welcome, for they +shall withal eat their own fathers and grandfathers, whose flesh has +served to feed and nourish him. These muscles," says he, "this flesh and +these veins, are your own: poor silly souls as you are, you little think +that the substance of your ancestors' limbs is here yet; notice what you +eat, and you will find in it the taste of your own flesh:" in which song +there is to be observed an invention that nothing relishes of the +barbarian. Those that paint these people dying after this manner, +represent the prisoner spitting in the faces of his executioners and +making wry mouths at them. And 'tis most certain, that to the very last +gasp, they never cease to brave and defy them both in word and gesture. +In plain truth, these men are very savage in comparison of us; of +necessity, they must either be absolutely so or else we are savages; for +there is a vast difference betwixt their manners and ours. + +The men there have several wives, and so much the greater number, by how +much they have the greater reputation for valour. And it is one very +remarkable feature in their marriages, that the same jealousy our wives +have to hinder and divert us from the friendship and familiarity of other +women, those employ to promote their husbands' desires, and to procure +them many spouses; for being above all things solicitous of their +husbands' honour, 'tis their chiefest care to seek out, and to bring in +the most companions they can, forasmuch as it is a testimony of the +husband's virtue. Most of our ladies will cry out, that 'tis monstrous; +whereas in truth it is not so, but a truly matrimonial virtue, and of the +highest form. In the Bible, Sarah, with Leah and Rachel, the two wives +of Jacob, gave the most beautiful of their handmaids to their husbands; +Livia preferred the passions of Augustus to her own interest; +--[Suetonius, Life of Augustus, c. 71.]--and the wife of King Deiotarus, +Stratonice, did not only give up a fair young maid that served her to her +husband's embraces, but moreover carefully brought up the children he had +by her, and assisted them in the succession to their father's crown. + +And that it may not be supposed, that all this is done by a simple and +servile obligation to their common practice, or by any authoritative +impression of their ancient custom, without judgment or reasoning, and +from having a soul so stupid that it cannot contrive what else to do, I +must here give you some touches of their sufficiency in point of +understanding. Besides what I repeated to you before, which was one of +their songs of war, I have another, a love-song, that begins thus: + + "Stay, adder, stay, that by thy pattern my sister may draw the + fashion and work of a rich ribbon, that I may present to my beloved, + by which means thy beauty and the excellent order of thy scales + shall for ever be preferred before all other serpents." + +Wherein the first couplet, "Stay, adder," &c., makes the burden of the +song. Now I have conversed enough with poetry to judge thus much that +not only there is nothing barbarous in this invention, but, moreover, +that it is perfectly Anacreontic. To which it may be added, that their +language is soft, of a pleasing accent, and something bordering upon the +Greek termination. + +Three of these people, not foreseeing how dear their knowledge of the +corruptions of this part of the world will one day cost their happiness +and repose, and that the effect of this commerce will be their ruin, as I +presuppose it is in a very fair way (miserable men to suffer themselves +to be deluded with desire of novelty and to have left the serenity of +their own heaven to come so far to gaze at ours!), were at Rouen at the +time that the late King Charles IX. was there. The king himself talked +to them a good while, and they were made to see our fashions, our pomp, +and the form of a great city. After which, some one asked their opinion, +and would know of them, what of all the things they had seen, they found +most to be admired? To which they made answer, three things, of which I +have forgotten the third, and am troubled at it, but two I yet remember. +They said, that in the first place they thought it very strange that so +many tall men, wearing beards, strong, and well armed, who were about the +king ('tis like they meant the Swiss of the guard), should submit to obey +a child, and that they did not rather choose out one amongst themselves +to command. Secondly (they have a way of speaking in their language to +call men the half of one another), that they had observed that there were +amongst us men full and crammed with all manner of commodities, whilst, +in the meantime, their halves were begging at their doors, lean and half- +starved with hunger and poverty; and they thought it strange that these +necessitous halves were able to suffer so great an inequality and +injustice, and that they did not take the others by the throats, or set +fire to their houses. + +I talked to one of them a great while together, but I had so ill an +interpreter, and one who was so perplexed by his own ignorance to +apprehend my meaning, that I could get nothing out of him of any moment: +Asking him what advantage he reaped from the superiority he had amongst +his own people (for he was a captain, and our mariners called him king), +he told me, to march at the head of them to war. Demanding of him +further how many men he had to follow him, he showed me a space of +ground, to signify as many as could march in such a compass, which might +be four or five thousand men; and putting the question to him whether or +no his authority expired with the war, he told me this remained: that +when he went to visit the villages of his dependence, they planed him +paths through the thick of their woods, by which he might pass at his +ease. All this does not sound very ill, and the last was not at all +amiss, for they wear no breeches. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THAT A MAN IS SOBERLY TO JUDGE OF THE DIVINE ORDINANCES + +The true field and subject of imposture are things unknown, forasmuch as, +in the first place, their very strangeness lends them credit, and +moreover, by not being subjected to our ordinary reasons, they deprive us +of the means to question and dispute them: For which reason, says Plato, +--[In Critias.]--it is much more easy to satisfy the hearers, when +speaking of the nature of the gods than of the nature of men, because the +ignorance of the auditory affords a fair and large career and all manner +of liberty in the handling of abstruse things. Thence it comes to pass, +that nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know; nor any people +so confident, as those who entertain us with fables, such as your +alchemists, judicial astrologers, fortune-tellers, and physicians, + + "Id genus omne." + + ["All that sort of people."--Horace, Sat., i. 2, 2.] + +To which I would willingly, if I durst, join a pack of people that take +upon them to interpret and control the designs of God Himself, pretending +to find out the cause of every accident, and to pry into the secrets of +the divine will, there to discover the incomprehensible motive, of His +works; and although the variety, and the continual discordance of events, +throw them from corner to corner, and toss them from east to west, yet do +they still persist in their vain inquisition, and with the same pencil to +paint black and white. + +In a nation of the Indies, there is this commendable custom, that when +anything befalls them amiss in any encounter or battle, they publicly ask +pardon of the sun, who is their god, as having committed an unjust +action, always imputing their good or evil fortune to the divine justice, +and to that submitting their own judgment and reason. 'Tis enough for a +Christian to believe that all things come from God, to receive them with +acknowledgment of His divine and inscrutable wisdom, and also thankfully +to accept and receive them, with what face soever they may present +themselves. But I do not approve of what I see in use, that is, to seek +to affirm and support our religion by the prosperity of our enterprises. +Our belief has other foundation enough, without going about to authorise +it by events: for the people being accustomed to such plausible arguments +as these and so proper to their taste, it is to be feared, lest when they +fail of success they should also stagger in their faith: as in the war +wherein we are now engaged upon the account of religion, those who had +the better in the business of Rochelabeille,--[May 1569.]--making great +brags of that success as an infallible approbation of their cause, when +they came afterwards to excuse their misfortunes of Moncontour and +Jarnac, by saying they were fatherly scourges and corrections that they +had not a people wholly at their mercy, they make it manifestly enough +appear, what it is to take two sorts of grist out of the same sack, and +with the same mouth to blow hot and cold. It were better to possess the +vulgar with the solid and real foundations of truth. 'Twas a fine naval +battle that was gained under the command of Don John of Austria a few +months since--[That of Lepanto, October 7, 1571.]--against the Turks; +but it has also pleased God at other times to let us see as great +victories at our own expense. In fine, 'tis a hard matter to reduce +divine things to our balance, without waste and losing a great deal of +the weight. And who would take upon him to give a reason that Arius and +his Pope Leo, the principal heads of the Arian heresy, should die, at +several times, of so like and strange deaths (for being withdrawn from +the disputation by a griping in the bowels, they both of them suddenly +gave up the ghost upon the stool), and would aggravate this divine +vengeance by the circumstances of the place, might as well add the death +of Heliogabalus, who was also slain in a house of office. And, indeed, +Irenaeus was involved in the same fortune. God, being pleased to show +us, that the good have something else to hope for and the wicked +something else to fear, than the fortunes or misfortunes of this world, +manages and applies these according to His own occult will and pleasure, +and deprives us of the means foolishly to make thereof our own profit. +And those people abuse themselves who will pretend to dive into these +mysteries by the strength of human reason. They never give one hit that +they do not receive two for it; of which St. Augustine makes out a great +proof upon his adversaries. 'Tis a conflict that is more decided by +strength of memory than by the force of reason. We are to content +ourselves with the light it pleases the sun to communicate to us, by +virtue of his rays; and who will lift up his eyes to take in a greater, +let him not think it strange, if for the reward of his presumption, he +there lose his sight. + + "Quis hominum potest scire consilium Dei? + Aut quis poterit cogitare quid velit Dominus?" + + ["Who of men can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the + will of the Lord is."--Book of Wisdom, ix. 13.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THAT WE ARE TO AVOID PLEASURES, EVEN AT THE EXPENSE OF LIFE + +I had long ago observed most of the opinions of the ancients to concur in +this, that it is high time to die when there is more ill than good in +living, and that to preserve life to our own torment and inconvenience is +contrary to the very rules of nature, as these old laws instruct us. + + ["Either tranquil life, or happy death. It is well to die when life + is wearisome. It is better to die than to live miserable." + --Stobaeus, Serm. xx.] + +But to push this contempt of death so far as to employ it to the removing +our thoughts from the honours, riches, dignities, and other favours and +goods, as we call them, of fortune, as if reason were not sufficient to +persuade us to avoid them, without adding this new injunction, I had +never seen it either commanded or practised, till this passage of Seneca +fell into my hands; who advising Lucilius, a man of great power and +authority about the emperor, to alter his voluptuous and magnificent way +of living, and to retire himself from this worldly vanity and ambition, +to some solitary, quiet, and philosophical life, and the other alleging +some difficulties: "I am of opinion," says he, "either that thou leave +that life of thine, or life itself; I would, indeed, advise thee to the +gentle way, and to untie, rather than to break, the knot thou hast +indiscreetly knit, provided, that if it be not otherwise to be untied, +thou resolutely break it. There is no man so great a coward, that had +not rather once fall than to be always falling." I should have found +this counsel conformable enough to the Stoical roughness: but it appears +the more strange, for being borrowed from Epicurus, who writes the same +thing upon the like occasion to Idomeneus. And I think I have observed +something like it, but with Christian moderation, amongst our own people. + +St. Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, that famous enemy of the Arian heresy, +being in Syria, had intelligence thither sent him, that Abra, his only +daughter, whom he left at home under the eye and tuition of her mother, +was sought in marriage by the greatest noblemen of the country, as being +a virgin virtuously brought up, fair, rich, and in the flower of her age; +whereupon he wrote to her (as appears upon record), that she should +remove her affection from all the pleasures and advantages proposed to +her; for that he had in his travels found out a much greater and more +worthy fortune for her, a husband of much greater power and magnificence, +who would present her with robes and jewels of inestimable value; wherein +his design was to dispossess her of the appetite and use of worldly +delights, to join her wholly to God; but the nearest and most certain way +to this, being, as he conceived, the death of his daughter; he never +ceased, by vows, prayers, and orisons, to beg of the Almighty, that He +would please to call her out of this world, and to take her to Himself; +as accordingly it came to pass; for soon after his return, she died, at +which he expressed a singular joy. This seems to outdo the other, +forasmuch as he applies himself to this means at the outset, which they +only take subsidiarily; and, besides, it was towards his only daughter. +But I will not omit the latter end of this story, though it be for my +purpose; St. Hilary's wife, having understood from him how the death of +their daughter was brought about by his desire and design, and how much +happier she was to be removed out of this world than to have stayed in +it, conceived so vivid an apprehension of the eternal and heavenly +beatitude, that she begged of her husband, with the extremest +importunity, to do as much for her; and God, at their joint request, +shortly after calling her to Him, it was a death embraced with singular +and mutual content. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THAT FORTUNE IS OFTENTIMES OBSERVED TO ACT BY THE RULE OF REASON + +The inconstancy and various motions of Fortune + + [The term Fortune, so often employed by Montaigne, and in passages + where he might have used Providence, was censured by the doctors who + examined his Essays when he was at Rome in 1581. See his Travels, + i. 35 and 76.] + +may reasonably make us expect she should present us with all sorts of +faces. Can there be a more express act of justice than this? The Duc de +Valentinois,--[Caesar Borgia.]--having resolved to poison Adrian, +Cardinal of Corneto, with whom Pope Alexander VI., his father and +himself, were to sup in the Vatican, he sent before a bottle of poisoned +wine, and withal, strict order to the butler to keep it very safe. +The Pope being come before his son, and calling for drink, the butler +supposing this wine had not been so strictly recommended to his care, +but only upon the account of its excellency, presented it forthwith to +the Pope, and the duke himself coming in presently after, and being +confident they had not meddled with his bottle, took also his cup; so +that the father died immediately upon the spot--[Other historians assign +the Pope several days of misery prior to death. D.W.]--, and the son, +after having been long tormented with sickness, was reserved to another +and a worse fortune. + +Sometimes she seems to play upon us, just in the nick of an affair; +Monsieur d'Estrees, at that time ensign to Monsieur de Vendome, and +Monsieur de Licques, lieutenant in the company of the Duc d'Ascot, being +both pretenders to the Sieur de Fougueselles' sister, though of several +parties (as it oft falls out amongst frontier neighbours), the Sieur de +Licques carried her; but on the same day he was married, and which was +worse, before he went to bed to his wife, the bridegroom having a mind to +break a lance in honour of his new bride, went out to skirmish near St. +Omer, where the Sieur d'Estrees proving the stronger, took him prisoner, +and the more to illustrate his victory, the lady was fain-- + + "Conjugis ante coacta novi dimittere collum, + Quam veniens una atque altera rursus hyems + Noctibus in longis avidum saturasset amorem," + + ["Compelled to abstain from embracing her new spouse in her arms + before two winters pass in succession, during their long nights had + satiated her eager love."--Catullus, lxviii. 81.] + +--to request him of courtesy, to deliver up his prisoner to her, as he +accordingly did, the gentlemen of France never denying anything to +ladies. + +Does she not seem to be an artist here? Constantine, son of Helena, +founded the empire of Constantinople, and so many ages after, +Constantine, the son of Helen, put an end to it. Sometimes she is +pleased to emulate our miracles we are told, that King Clovis besieging +Angouleme, the walls fell down of themselves by divine favour and Bouchet +has it from some author, that King Robert having sat down before a city, +and being stolen away from the siege to go keep the feast of St. Aignan +at Orleans, as he was in devotion at a certain part of the Mass, the +walls of the beleaguered city, without any manner of violence, fell down +with a sudden ruin. But she did quite contrary in our Milan wars; for, +le Capitaine Rense laying siege for us to the city Arona, and having +carried a mine under a great part of the wall, the mine being sprung, the +wall was lifted from its base, but dropped down again nevertheless, whole +and entire, and so exactly upon its foundation, that the besieged +suffered no inconvenience by that attempt. + +Sometimes she plays the physician. Jason of Pheres being given over by +the physicians, by reason of an imposthume in his breast, having a mind +to rid himself of his pain, by death at least, threw himself in a battle +desperately into the thickest of the enemy, where he was so fortunately +wounded quite through the body, that the imposthume broke, and he was +perfectly cured. Did she not also excel the painter Protogenes in his +art? who having finished the picture of a dog quite tired and out of +breath, in all the other parts excellently well to his own liking, but +not being able to express, as he would, the slaver and foam that should +come out of its mouth, vexed and angry at his work, he took his sponge, +which by cleaning his pencils had imbibed several sorts of colours, and +threw it in a rage against the picture, with an intent utterly to deface +it; when fortune guiding the sponge to hit just upon the mouth of the +dog, it there performed what all his art was not able to do. Does she +not sometimes direct our counsels and correct them? Isabel, Queen of +England, having to sail from Zealand into her own kingdom,--[in 1326]-- +with an army, in favour of her son against her husband, had been lost, +had she come into the port she intended, being there laid wait for by the +enemy; but fortune, against her will, threw her into another haven, where +she landed in safety. And that man of old who, throwing a stone at a +dog, hit and killed his mother-in-law, had he not reason to pronounce +this verse: + + ["Fortune has more judgement than we."--Menander] + +Icetes had contracted with two soldiers to kill Timoleon at Adrana in +Sicily.--[Plutarch, Life of Timoleon, c. 7.]--They took their time to do +it when he was assisting at a sacrifice, and thrusting into the crowd, +as they were making signs to one another, that now was a fit time to do +their business, in steps a third, who, with a sword takes one of them +full drive over the pate, lays him dead upon the place and runs away, +which the others see, and concluding himself discovered and lost, runs to +the altar and begs for mercy, promising to discover the whole truth, +which as he was doing, and laying open the full conspiracy, behold the +third man, who being apprehended, was, as a murderer, thrust and hauled +by the people through the press, towards Timoleon, and the other most +eminent persons of the assembly, before whom being brought, he cries out +for pardon, pleading that he had justly slain his father's murderer; +which he, also, proving upon the spot, by sufficient witnesses, whom his +good fortune very opportunely supplied him withal, that his father was +really killed in the city of Leontini, by that very man on whom he had +taken his revenge, he was presently awarded ten Attic minae, for having +had the good fortune, by designing to revenge the death of his father, +to preserve the life of the common father of Sicily. Fortune, truly, in +her conduct surpasses all the rules of human prudence. + +But to conclude: is there not a direct application of her favour, bounty, +and piety manifestly discovered in this action? Ignatius the father and +Ignatius the son being proscribed by the triumvirs of Rome, resolved upon +this generous act of mutual kindness, to fall by the hands of one +another, and by that means to frustrate and defeat the cruelty of the +tyrants; and accordingly with their swords drawn, ran full drive upon one +another, where fortune so guided the points, that they made two equally +mortal wounds, affording withal so much honour to so brave a friendship, +as to leave them just strength enough to draw out their bloody swords, +that they might have liberty to embrace one another in this dying +condition, with so close and hearty an embrace, that the executioner cut +off both their heads at once, leaving the bodies still fast linked +together in this noble bond, and their wounds joined mouth to mouth, +affectionately sucking in the last blood and remainder of the lives of +each other. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +OF ONE DEFECT IN OUR GOVERNMENT + +My late father, a man that had no other advantages than experience and +his own natural parts, was nevertheless of a very clear judgment, +formerly told me that he once had thoughts of endeavouring to introduce +this practice; that there might be in every city a certain place assigned +to which such as stood in need of anything might repair, and have their +business entered by an officer appointed for that purpose. As for +example: I want a chapman to buy my pearls; I want one that has pearls to +sell; such a one wants company to go to Paris; such a one seeks a servant +of such a quality; such a one a master; such a one such an artificer; +some inquiring for one thing, some for another, every one according to +what he wants. And doubtless, these mutual advertisements would be of no +contemptible advantage to the public correspondence and intelligence: for +there are evermore conditions that hunt after one another, and for want +of knowing one another's occasions leave men in very great necessity. + +I have heard, to the great shame of the age we live in, that in our very +sight two most excellent men for learning died so poor that they had +scarce bread to put in their mouths: Lilius Gregorius Giraldus in Italy +and Sebastianus Castalio in Germany: and I believe there are a thousand +men would have invited them into their families, with very advantageous +conditions, or have relieved them where they were, had they known their +wants. The world is not so generally corrupted, but that I know a man +that would heartily wish the estate his ancestors have left him might be +employed, so long as it shall please fortune to give him leave to enjoy +it, to secure rare and remarkable persons of any kind, whom misfortune +sometimes persecutes to the last degree, from the dangers of necessity; +and at least place them in such a condition that they must be very hard +to please, if they are not contented. + +My father in his domestic economy had this rule (which I know how to +commend, but by no means to imitate), namely, that besides the day-book +or memorial of household affairs, where the small accounts, payments, and +disbursements, which do not require a secretary's hand, were entered, and +which a steward always had in custody, he ordered him whom he employed to +write for him, to keep a journal, and in it to set down all the +remarkable occurrences, and daily memorials of the history of his house: +very pleasant to look over, when time begins to wear things out of +memory, and very useful sometimes to put us out of doubt when such a +thing was begun, when ended; what visitors came, and when they went; our +travels, absences, marriages, and deaths; the reception of good or ill +news; the change of principal servants, and the like. An ancient custom, +which I think it would not be amiss for every one to revive in his own +house; and I find I did very foolishly in neglecting it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +OF THE CUSTOM OF WEARING CLOTHES + +Whatever I shall say upon this subject, I am of necessity to invade some +of the bounds of custom, so careful has she been to shut up all the +avenues. I was disputing with myself in this shivering season, whether +the fashion of going naked in those nations lately discovered is imposed +upon them by the hot temperature of the air, as we say of the Indians and +Moors, or whether it be the original fashion of mankind. Men of +understanding, forasmuch as all things under the sun, as the Holy Writ +declares, are subject to the same laws, were wont in such considerations +as these, where we are to distinguish the natural laws from those which +have been imposed by man's invention, to have recourse to the general +polity of the world, where there can be nothing counterfeit. Now, all +other creatures being sufficiently furnished with all things necessary +for the support of their being--[Montaigne's expression is, "with needle +and thread."--W.C.H.]--it is not to be imagined that we only are brought +into the world in a defective and indigent condition, and in such a state +as cannot subsist without external aid. Therefore it is that I believe, +that as plants, trees, and animals, and all things that have life, are +seen to be by nature sufficiently clothed and covered, to defend them +from the injuries of weather: + + "Proptereaque fere res omnes ant corio sunt, + Aut seta, ant conchis, ant callo, ant cortice tectae," + + ["And that for this reason nearly all things are clothed with skin, + or hair, or shells, or bark, or some such thing." + --Lucretius, iv. 936.] + +so were we: but as those who by artificial light put out that of day, so +we by borrowed forms and fashions have destroyed our own. And 'tis plain +enough to be seen, that 'tis custom only which renders that impossible +that otherwise is nothing so; for of those nations who have no manner of +knowledge of clothing, some are situated under the same temperature that +we are, and some in much colder climates. And besides, our most tender +parts are always exposed to the air, as the eyes, mouth, nose, and ears; +and our country labourers, like our ancestors in former times, go with +their breasts and bellies open. Had we been born with a necessity upon +us of wearing petticoats and breeches, there is no doubt but nature would +have fortified those parts she intended should be exposed to the fury of +the seasons with a thicker skin, as she has done the finger-ends and the +soles of the feet. And why should this seem hard to believe? I observe +much greater distance betwixt my habit and that of one of our country +boors, than betwixt his and that of a man who has no other covering but +his skin. How many men, especially in Turkey, go naked upon the account +of devotion? Some one asked a beggar, whom he saw in his shirt in the +depth of winter, as brisk and frolic as he who goes muffled up to the +ears in furs, how he was able to endure to go so? "Why, sir," he +answered, "you go with your face bare: I am all face." The Italians have +a story of the Duke of Florence's fool, whom his master asking how, being +so thinly clad, he was able to support the cold, when he himself, warmly +wrapped up as he was, was hardly able to do it? "Why," replied the fool, +"use my receipt to put on all your clothes you have at once, and you'll +feel no more cold than I." King Massinissa, to an extreme old age, could +never be prevailed upon to go with his head covered, how cold, stormy, or +rainy soever the weather might be; which also is reported of the Emperor +Severus. Herodotus tells us, that in the battles fought betwixt the +Egyptians and the Persians, it was observed both by himself and by +others, that of those who were left dead upon the field, the heads of the +Egyptians were without comparison harder than those of the Persians, by +reason that the last had gone with their heads always covered from their +infancy, first with biggins, and then with turbans, and the others always +shaved and bare. King Agesilaus continued to a decrepit age to wear +always the same clothes in winter that he did in summer. Caesar, says +Suetonius, marched always at the head of his army, for the most part on +foot, with his head bare, whether it was rain or sunshine, and as much is +said of Hannibal: + + "Tum vertice nudo, + Excipere insanos imbres, coelique ruinam." + + ["Bareheaded he marched in snow, exposed to pouring rain and the + utmost rigour of the weather."--Silius Italicus, i. 250.] + +A Venetian who has long lived in Pegu, and has lately returned thence, +writes that the men and women of that kingdom, though they cover all +their other parts, go always barefoot and ride so too; and Plato very +earnestly advises for the health of the whole body, to give the head and +the feet no other clothing than what nature has bestowed. He whom the +Poles have elected for their king,--[Stephen Bathory]--since ours came +thence, who is, indeed, one of the greatest princes of this age, never +wears any gloves, and in winter or whatever weather can come, never wears +other cap abroad than that he wears at home. Whereas I cannot endure to +go unbuttoned or untied; my neighbouring labourers would think themselves +in chains, if they were so braced. Varro is of opinion, that when it was +ordained we should be bare in the presence of the gods and before the +magistrate, it was so ordered rather upon the score of health, and to +inure us to the injuries of weather, than upon the account of reverence; +and since we are now talking of cold, and Frenchmen used to wear variety +of colours (not I myself, for I seldom wear other than black or white, in +imitation of my father), let us add another story out of Le Capitaine +Martin du Bellay, who affirms, that in the march to Luxembourg he saw so +great frost, that the munition-wine was cut with hatchets and wedges, and +delivered out to the soldiers by weight, and that they carried it away in +baskets: and Ovid, + + "Nudaque consistunt, formam servantia testae, + Vina; nec hausta meri, sed data frusta, bibunt." + + ["The wine when out of the cask retains the form of the cask; + and is given out not in cups, but in bits." + --Ovid, Trist., iii. 10, 23.] + +At the mouth of Lake Maeotis the frosts are so very sharp, that in the +very same place where Mithridates' lieutenant had fought the enemy +dryfoot and given them a notable defeat, the summer following he obtained +over them a naval victory. The Romans fought at a very great +disadvantage, in the engagement they had with the Carthaginians near +Piacenza, by reason that they went to the charge with their blood +congealed and their limbs numbed with cold, whereas Hannibal had caused +great fires to be dispersed quite through his camp to warm his soldiers, +and oil to be distributed amongst them, to the end that anointing +themselves, they might render their nerves more supple and active, and +fortify the pores against the violence of the air and freezing wind, +which raged in that season. + +The retreat the Greeks made from Babylon into their own country is famous +for the difficulties and calamities they had to overcome; of which this +was one, that being encountered in the mountains of Armenia with a +horrible storm of snow, they lost all knowledge of the country and of the +ways, and being driven up, were a day and a night without eating or +drinking; most of their cattle died, many of themselves were starved to +death, several struck blind with the force of the hail and the glare of +the snow, many of them maimed in their fingers and toes, and many stiff +and motionless with the extremity of the cold, who had yet their +understanding entire. + +Alexander saw a nation, where they bury their fruit-trees in winter to +protect them from being destroyed by the frost, and we also may see the +same. + +But, so far as clothes go, the King of Mexico changed four times a day +his apparel, and never put it on again, employing that he left off in his +continual liberalities and rewards; and neither pot, dish, nor other +utensil of his kitchen or table was ever served twice. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +OF CATO THE YOUNGER + + ["I am not possessed with this common errour, to judge of others + according to what I am my selfe. I am easie to beleeve things + differing from my selfe. Though I be engaged to one forme, I do not + tie the world unto it, as every man doth. And I beleeve and + conceive a thousand manners of life, contrary to the common sorte." + --Florio, ed. 1613, p. 113.] + +I am not guilty of the common error of judging another by myself. I +easily believe that in another's humour which is contrary to my own; and +though I find myself engaged to one certain form, I do not oblige others +to it, as many do; but believe and apprehend a thousand ways of living; +and, contrary to most men, more easily admit of difference than +uniformity amongst us. I as frankly as any one would have me, discharge +a man from my humours and principles, and consider him according to his +own particular model. Though I am not continent myself, I nevertheless +sincerely approve the continence of the Feuillans and Capuchins, and +highly commend their way of living. I insinuate myself by imagination +into their place, and love and honour them the more for being other than +I am. I very much desire that we may be judged every man by himself, and +would not be drawn into the consequence of common examples. My own +weakness nothing alters the esteem I ought to have for the force and +vigour of those who deserve it: + + "Sunt qui nihil suadent, quam quod se imitari posse confidunt." + + ["There are who persuade nothing but what they believe they can + imitate themselves."--Cicero, De Orator., c. 7.] + +Crawling upon the slime of the earth, I do not for all that cease to +observe up in the clouds the inimitable height of some heroic souls. +'Tis a great deal for me to have my judgment regular and just, if the +effects cannot be so, and to maintain this sovereign part, at least, free +from corruption; 'tis something to have my will right and good where my +legs fail me. This age wherein we live, in our part of the world at +least, is grown so stupid, that not only the exercise, but the very +imagination of virtue is defective, and seems to be no other but college +jargon: + + "Virtutem verba putant, ut + Lucum ligna:" + + ["They think words virtue, as they think mere wood a sacred grove." + --Horace, Ep., i. 6, 31.] + + "Quam vereri deberent, etiam si percipere non possent." + + ["Which they ought to reverence, though they cannot comprehend." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quas., v. 2.] + +'Tis a gewgaw to hang in a cabinet or at the end of the tongue, as on the +tip of the ear, for ornament only. There are no longer virtuous actions +extant; those actions that carry a show of virtue have yet nothing of its +essence; by reason that profit, glory, fear, custom, and other suchlike +foreign causes, put us on the way to produce them. Our justice also, +valour, courtesy, may be called so too, in respect to others and +according to the face they appear with to the public; but in the doer it +can by no means be virtue, because there is another end proposed, another +moving cause. Now virtue owns nothing to be hers, but what is done by +herself and for herself alone. + +In that great battle of Plataea, that the Greeks under the command of +Pausanias gained against Mardonius and the Persians, the conquerors, +according to their custom, coming to divide amongst them the glory of the +exploit, attributed to the Spartan nation the pre-eminence of valour in +the engagement. The Spartans, great judges of virtue, when they came to +determine to what particular man of their nation the honour was due of +having the best behaved himself upon this occasion, found that +Aristodemus had of all others hazarded his person with the greatest +bravery; but did not, however, allow him any prize, by reason that his +virtue had been incited by a desire to clear his reputation from the +reproach of his miscarriage at the business of Thermopylae, and to die +bravely to wipe off that former blemish. + +Our judgments are yet sick, and obey the humour of our depraved manners. +I observe most of the wits of these times pretend to ingenuity, by +endeavouring to blemish and darken the glory of the bravest and most +generous actions of former ages, putting one vile interpretation or +another upon them, and forging and supposing vain causes and motives for +the noble things they did: a mighty subtlety indeed! Give me the +greatest and most unblemished action that ever the day beheld, and I will +contrive a hundred plausible drifts and ends to obscure it. God knows, +whoever will stretch them out to the full, what diversity of images our +internal wills suffer under. They do not so maliciously play the +censurers, as they do it ignorantly and rudely in all their detractions. + +The same pains and licence that others take to blemish and bespatter +these illustrious names, I would willingly undergo to lend them a +shoulder to raise them higher. These rare forms, that are culled out by +the consent of the wisest men of all ages, for the world's example, +I should not stick to augment in honour, as far as my invention would +permit, in all the circumstances of favourable interpretation; and we may +well believe that the force of our invention is infinitely short of their +merit. 'Tis the duty of good men to portray virtue as beautiful as they +can, and there would be nothing wrong should our passion a little +transport us in favour of so sacred a form. What these people do, on the +contrary, they either do out of malice, or by the vice of confining their +belief to their own capacity; or, which I am more inclined to think, for +not having their sight strong, clear, and elevated enough to conceive the +splendour of virtue in her native purity: as Plutarch complains, that in +his time some attributed the cause of the younger Cato's death to his +fear of Caesar, at which he seems very angry, and with good reason; and +by this a man may guess how much more he would have been offended with +those who have attributed it to ambition. Senseless people! He would +rather have performed a noble, just, and generous action, and to have had +ignominy for his reward, than for glory. That man was in truth a pattern +that nature chose out to show to what height human virtue and constancy +could arrive. + +But I am not capable of handling so rich an argument, and shall therefore +only set five Latin poets together, contending in the praise of Cato; +and, incidentally, for their own too. Now, a well-educated child will +judge the two first, in comparison of the others, a little flat and +languid; the third more vigorous, but overthrown by the extravagance of +his own force; he will then think that there will be room for one or two +gradations of invention to come to the fourth, and, mounting to the pitch +of that, he will lift up his hands in admiration; coming to the last, the +first by some space' (but a space that he will swear is not to be filled +up by any human wit), he will be astounded, he will not know where he is. + +And here is a wonder: we have far more poets than judges and interpreters +of poetry; it is easier to write it than to understand it. There is, +indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well +enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine +poesy is above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of +it with the most assured and most steady sight, sees no more than the +quick reflection of a flash of lightning: it does not exercise, but +ravishes and overwhelms our judgment. The fury that possesses him who is +able to penetrate into it wounds yet a third man by hearing him repeat +it; like a loadstone that not only attracts the needle, but also infuses +into it the virtue to attract others. And it is more evidently manifest +in our theatres, that the sacred inspiration of the Muses, having first +stirred up the poet to anger, sorrow, hatred, and out of himself, to +whatever they will, does moreover by the poet possess the actor, and by +the actor consecutively all the spectators. So much do our passions hang +and depend upon one another. + +Poetry has ever had that power over me from a child to transpierce and +transport me; but this vivid sentiment that is natural to me has been +variously handled by variety of forms, not so much higher or lower (for +they were ever the highest of every kind), as differing in colour. +First, a gay and sprightly fluency; afterwards, a lofty and penetrating +subtlety; and lastly, a mature and constant vigour. Their names will +better express them: Ovid, Lucan, Virgil. + +But our poets are beginning their career: + + "Sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Caesare major," + + ["Let Cato, whilst he live, be greater than Caesar." + --Martial, vi. 32] + +says one. + + "Et invictum, devicta morte, Catonem," + + ["And Cato invincible, death being overcome." + --Manilius, Astron., iv. 87.] + +says the second. And the third, speaking of the civil wars betwixt +Caesar and Pompey, + + "Victrix causa diis placuit, set victa Catoni." + + ["The victorious cause blessed the gods, the defeated one Cato. + --"Lucan, i. 128.] + +And the fourth, upon the praises of Caesar: + + "Et cuncta terrarum subacta, + Praeter atrocem animum Catonis." + + ["And conquered all but the indomitable mind of Cato." + --Horace, Od., ii. 1, 23.] + +And the master of the choir, after having set forth all the great names +of the greatest Romans, ends thus: + + "His dantem jura Catonem." + + ["Cato giving laws to all the rest."--AEneid, viii. 670.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +THAT WE LAUGH AND CRY FOR THE SAME THING + +When we read in history that Antigonus was very much displeased with his +son for presenting him the head of King Pyrrhus his enemy, but newly +slain fighting against him, and that seeing it, he wept; and that Rene, +Duke of Lorraine, also lamented the death of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, +whom he had himself defeated, and appeared in mourning at his funeral; +and that in the battle of D'Auray (which Count Montfort obtained over +Charles de Blois, his competitor for the duchy of Brittany), the +conqueror meeting the dead body of his enemy, was very much afflicted at +his death, we must not presently cry out: + + "E cosi avven, the l'animo ciascuna + Sua passion sotto 'l contrario manto, + Ricopre, con la vista or'chiara, or'bruna." + + ["And thus it happens that the mind of each veils its passion under + a different appearance, and beneath a smiling visage, gay beneath a + sombre air."--Petrarch.] + +When Pompey's head was presented to Caesar, the histories tell us that he +turned away his face, as from a sad and unpleasing object. There had +been so long an intelligence and society betwixt them in the management +of the public affairs, so great a community of fortunes, so many mutual +offices, and so near an alliance, that this countenance of his ought not +to suffer under any misinterpretation, or to be suspected for either +false or counterfeit, as this other seems to believe: + + "Tutumque putavit + Jam bonus esse socer; lacrymae non sponte cadentes, + Effudit, gemitusque expressit pectore laeto;" + + ["And now he thought it safe to play the kind father-in-law, + shedding forced tears, and from a joyful breast discharging sighs + and groans."--Lucan, ix. 1037.] + +for though it be true that the greatest part of our actions are no other +than visor and disguise, and that it may sometimes be true that + + "Haeredis fletus sub persona rises est," + + ["The heir's tears behind the mask are smiles." + --Publius Syrus, apud Gellium, xvii. 14.] + +yet, in judging of these accidents, we are to consider how much our souls +are oftentimes agitated with divers passions. And as they say that in +our bodies there is a congregation of divers humours, of which that is +the sovereign which, according to the complexion we are of, is commonly +most predominant in us: so, though the soul have in it divers motions to +give it agitation, yet must there of necessity be one to overrule all the +rest, though not with so necessary and absolute a dominion but that +through the flexibility and inconstancy of the soul, those of less +authority may upon occasion reassume their place and make a little sally +in turn. Thence it is, that we see not only children, who innocently +obey and follow nature, often laugh and cry at the same thing, but not +one of us can boast, what journey soever he may have in hand that he has +the most set his heart upon, but when he comes to part with his family +and friends, he will find something that troubles him within; and though +he refrain his tears yet he puts foot in the stirrup with a sad and +cloudy countenance. And what gentle flame soever may warm the heart of +modest and wellborn virgins, yet are they fain to be forced from about +their mothers' necks to be put to bed to their husbands, whatever this +boon companion is pleased to say: + + "Estne novis nuptis odio Venus? anne parentum + Frustrantur falsis gaudia lachrymulis, + Ubertim thalami quasi intra limina fundunt? + Non, ita me divi, vera gemunt, juverint." + + ["Is Venus really so alarming to the new-made bride, or does she + honestly oppose her parent's rejoicing the tears she so abundantly + sheds on entering the nuptial chamber? No, by the Gods, these are + no true tears."--Catullus, lxvi. 15.] + + ["Is Venus really so repugnant to newly-married maids? Do they meet + the smiles of parents with feigned tears? They weep copiously + within the very threshold of the nuptial chamber. No, so the gods + help me, they do not truly grieve."--Catullus, lxvi. 15.]-- + [A more literal translation. D.W.] + +Neither is it strange to lament a person dead whom a man would by no +means should be alive. When I rattle my man, I do it with all the mettle +I have, and load him with no feigned, but downright real curses; but the +heat being over, if he should stand in need of me, I should be very ready +to do him good: for I instantly turn the leaf. When I call him calf and +coxcomb, I do not pretend to entail those titles upon him for ever; +neither do I think I give myself the lie in calling him an honest fellow +presently after. No one quality engrosses us purely and universally. +Were it not the sign of a fool to talk to one's self, there would hardly +be a day or hour wherein I might not be heard to grumble and mutter to +myself and against myself, "Confound the fool!" and yet I do not think +that to be my definition. Who for seeing me one while cold and presently +very fond towards my wife, believes the one or the other to be +counterfeited, is an ass. Nero, taking leave of his mother whom he was +sending to be drowned, was nevertheless sensible of some emotion at this +farewell, and was struck with horror and pity. 'Tis said, that the light +of the sun is not one continuous thing, but that he darts new rays so +thick one upon another that we cannot perceive the intermission: + + "Largus enim liquidi fons luminis, aetherius sol, + Irrigat assidue coelum candore recenti, + Suppeditatque novo confestim lumine lumen." + + ["So the wide fountain of liquid light, the ethereal sun, steadily + fertilises the heavens with new heat, and supplies a continuous + store of fresh light."--Lucretius, v. 282.] + +Just so the soul variously and imperceptibly darts out her passions. + +Artabanus coming by surprise once upon his nephew Xerxes, chid him for +the sudden alteration of his countenance. He was considering the +immeasurable greatness of his forces passing over the Hellespont for the +Grecian expedition: he was first seized with a palpitation of joy, to see +so many millions of men under his command, and this appeared in the +gaiety of his looks: but his thoughts at the same instant suggesting to +him that of so many lives, within a century at most, there would not be +one left, he presently knit his brows and grew sad, even to tears. + +We have resolutely pursued the revenge of an injury received, and been +sensible of a singular contentment for the victory; but we shall weep +notwithstanding. 'Tis not for the victory, though, that we shall weep: +there is nothing altered in that but the soul looks upon things with +another eye and represents them to itself with another kind of face; for +everything has many faces and several aspects. + +Relations, old acquaintances, and friendships, possess our imaginations +and make them tender for the time, according to their condition; but the +turn is so quick, that 'tis gone in a moment: + + "Nil adeo fieri celeri ratione videtur, + Quam si mens fieri proponit, et inchoat ipsa, + Ocius ergo animus, quam res se perciet ulla, + Ante oculos quorum in promptu natura videtur;" + + ["Nothing therefore seems to be done in so swift a manner than if + the mind proposes it to be done, and itself begins. It is more + active than anything which we see in nature."--Lucretius, iii. 183.] + +and therefore, if we would make one continued thing of all this +succession of passions, we deceive ourselves. When Timoleon laments the +murder he had committed upon so mature and generous deliberation, he does +not lament the liberty restored to his country, he does not lament the +tyrant; but he laments his brother: one part of his duty is performed; +let us give him leave to perform the other. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +OF SOLITUDE + +Let us pretermit that long comparison betwixt the active and the solitary +life; and as for the fine sayings with which ambition and avarice +palliate their vices, that we are not born for ourselves but for the +public,--[This is the eulogium passed by Lucan on Cato of Utica, ii. +383.]--let us boldly appeal to those who are in public affairs; let them +lay their hands upon their hearts, and then say whether, on the contrary, +they do not rather aspire to titles and offices and that tumult of the +world to make their private advantage at the public expense. The corrupt +ways by which in this our time they arrive at the height to which their +ambitions aspire, manifestly enough declares that their ends cannot be +very good. Let us tell ambition that it is she herself who gives us a +taste of solitude; for what does she so much avoid as society? What does +she so much seek as elbowroom? A man many do well or ill everywhere; but +if what Bias says be true, that the greatest part is the worse part, or +what the Preacher says: there is not one good of a thousand: + + "Rari quippe boni: numero vix sunt totidem quot + Thebarum portae, vel divitis ostia Nili," + + ["Good men forsooth are scarce: there are hardly as many as there + are gates of Thebes or mouths of the rich Nile." + --Juvenal, Sat., xiii. 26.] + +the contagion is very dangerous in the crowd. A man must either imitate +the vicious or hate them both are dangerous things, either to resemble +them because they are many or to hate many because they are unresembling +to ourselves. Merchants who go to sea are in the right when they are +cautious that those who embark with them in the same bottom be neither +dissolute blasphemers nor vicious other ways, looking upon such society +as unfortunate. And therefore it was that Bias pleasantly said to some, +who being with him in a dangerous storm implored the assistance of the +gods: "Peace, speak softly," said he, "that they may not know you are +here in my company."--[Diogenes Laertius]--And of more pressing +example, Albuquerque, viceroy in the Indies for Emmanuel, king of +Portugal, in an extreme peril of shipwreck, took a young boy upon his +shoulders, for this only end that, in the society of their common danger +his innocence might serve to protect him, and to recommend him to the +divine favour, that they might get safe to shore. 'Tis not that a wise +man may not live everywhere content, and be alone in the very crowd of a +palace; but if it be left to his own choice, the schoolman will tell you +that he should fly the very sight of the crowd: he will endure it if need +be; but if it be referred to him, he will choose to be alone. He cannot +think himself sufficiently rid of vice, if he must yet contend with it in +other men. Charondas punished those as evil men who were convicted of +keeping ill company. There is nothing so unsociable and sociable as man, +the one by his vice, the other by his nature. And Antisthenes, in my +opinion, did not give him a satisfactory answer, who reproached him with +frequenting ill company, by saying that the physicians lived well enough +amongst the sick, for if they contribute to the health of the sick, no +doubt but by the contagion, continual sight of, and familiarity with +diseases, they must of necessity impair their own. + +Now the end, I take it, is all one, to live at more leisure and at one's +ease: but men do not always take the right way. They often think they +have totally taken leave of all business, when they have only exchanged +one employment for another: there is little less trouble in governing a +private family than a whole kingdom. Wherever the mind is perplexed, it +is in an entire disorder, and domestic employments are not less +troublesome for being less important. Moreover, for having shaken off +the court and the exchange, we have not taken leave of the principal +vexations of life: + + "Ratio et prudentia curas, + Non locus effusi late maris arbiter, aufert;" + + ["Reason and prudence, not a place with a commanding view of the + great ocean, banish care."--Horace, Ep., i. 2.] + +ambition, avarice, irresolution, fear, and inordinate desires, do not +leave us because we forsake our native country: + + "Et + Post equitem sedet atra cura;" + + ["Black care sits behind the horse man." + --Horace, Od., iii. 1, 40]. + +they often follow us even to cloisters and philosophical schools; nor +deserts, nor caves, hair-shirts, nor fasts, can disengage us from them: + + "Haeret lateri lethalis arundo." + + ["The fatal shaft adheres to the side."--AEneid, iv. 73.] + +One telling Socrates that such a one was nothing improved by his travels: +"I very well believe it," said he, "for he took himself along with him" + + "Quid terras alio calentes + Sole mutamus? patriae quis exsul + Se quoque fugit?" + + ["Why do we seek climates warmed by another sun? Who is the man + that by fleeing from his country, can also flee from himself?" + --Horace, Od., ii. 16, 18.] + +If a man do not first discharge both himself and his mind of the burden +with which he finds himself oppressed, motion will but make it press the +harder and sit the heavier, as the lading of a ship is of less +encumbrance when fast and bestowed in a settled posture. You do a sick +man more harm than good in removing him from place to place; you fix and +establish the disease by motion, as stakes sink deeper and more firmly +into the earth by being moved up and down in the place where they are +designed to stand. Therefore, it is not enough to get remote from the +public; 'tis not enough to shift the soil only; a man must flee from the +popular conditions that have taken possession of his soul, he must +sequester and come again to himself: + + "Rupi jam vincula, dicas + Nam luctata canis nodum arripit; attamen illi, + Quum fugit, a collo trahitur pars longa catenae." + + ["You say, perhaps, you have broken your chains: the dog who after + long efforts has broken his chain, still in his flight drags a heavy + portion of it after him."--Persius, Sat., v. 158.] + +We still carry our fetters along with us. 'Tis not an absolute liberty; +we yet cast back a look upon what we have left behind us; the fancy is +still full of it: + + "Nisi purgatum est pectus, quae praelia nobis + Atque pericula tunc ingratis insinuandum? + Quantae connscindunt hominem cupedinis acres + Sollicitum curae? quantique perinde timores? + Quidve superbia, spurcitia, ac petulantia, quantas + Efficiunt clades? quid luxus desidiesque?" + + ["But unless the mind is purified, what internal combats and dangers + must we incur in spite of all our efforts! How many bitter + anxieties, how many terrors, follow upon unregulated passion! + What destruction befalls us from pride, lust, petulant anger! + What evils arise from luxury and sloth!"--Lucretius, v. 4.] + +Our disease lies in the mind, which cannot escape from itself; + + "In culpa est animus, qui se non effugit unquam," + --Horace, Ep., i. 14, 13. + +and therefore is to be called home and confined within itself: that is +the true solitude, and that may be enjoyed even in populous cities and +the courts of kings, though more commodiously apart. + +Now, since we will attempt to live alone, and to waive all manner of +conversation amongst them, let us so order it that our content may depend +wholly upon ourselves; let us dissolve all obligations that ally us to +others; let us obtain this from ourselves, that we may live alone in good +earnest, and live at our ease too. + +Stilpo having escaped from the burning of his town, where he lost wife, +children, and goods, Demetrius Poliorcetes seeing him, in so great a ruin +of his country, appear with an undisturbed countenance, asked him if he +had received no loss? To which he made answer, No; and that, thank God, +nothing was lost of his.--[Seneca, Ep. 7.]--This also was the meaning of +the philosopher Antisthenes, when he pleasantly said, that "men should +furnish themselves with such things as would float, and might with the +owner escape the storm";--[Diogenes Laertius, vi. 6.] and certainly a +wise man never loses anything if he have himself. When the city of Nola +was ruined by the barbarians, Paulinus, who was bishop of that place, +having there lost all he had, himself a prisoner, prayed after this +manner: "O Lord, defend me from being sensible of this loss; for Thou +knowest they have yet touched nothing of that which is mine."--[St. +Augustin, De Civit. Dei, i. 10.]--The riches that made him rich and the +goods that made him good, were still kept entire. This it is to make +choice of treasures that can secure themselves from plunder and violence, +and to hide them in such a place into which no one can enter and that is +not to be betrayed by any but ourselves. Wives, children, and goods must +be had, and especially health, by him that can get it; but we are not so +to set our hearts upon them that our happiness must have its dependence +upon them; we must reserve a backshop, wholly our own and entirely free, +wherein to settle our true liberty, our principal solitude and retreat. +And in this we must for the most part entertain ourselves with ourselves, +and so privately that no exotic knowledge or communication be admitted +there; there to laugh and to talk, as if without wife, children, goods, +train, or attendance, to the end that when it shall so fall out that we +must lose any or all of these, it may be no new thing to be without them. +We have a mind pliable in itself, that will be company; that has +wherewithal to attack and to defend, to receive and to give: let us not +then fear in this solitude to languish under an uncomfortable vacuity. + + "In solis sis tibi turba locis." + + ["In solitude, be company for thyself."--Tibullus, vi. 13. 12.] + +Virtue is satisfied with herself, without discipline, without words, +without effects. In our ordinary actions there is not one of a thousand +that concerns ourselves. He that thou seest scrambling up the ruins of +that wall, furious and transported, against whom so many harquebuss-shots +are levelled; and that other all over scars, pale, and fainting with +hunger, and yet resolved rather to die than to open the gates to him; +dost thou think that these men are there upon their own account? No; +peradventure in the behalf of one whom they never saw and who never +concerns himself for their pains and danger, but lies wallowing the while +in sloth and pleasure: this other slavering, blear-eyed, slovenly fellow, +that thou seest come out of his study after midnight, dost thou think he +has been tumbling over books to learn how to become a better man, wiser, +and more content? No such matter; he will there end his days, but he +will teach posterity the measure of Plautus' verses and the true +orthography of a Latin word. Who is it that does not voluntarily +exchange his health, his repose, and his very life for reputation and +glory, the most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes current +amongst us? Our own death does not sufficiently terrify and trouble us; +let us, moreover, charge ourselves with those of our wives, children, and +family: our own affairs do not afford us anxiety enough; let us undertake +those of our neighbours and friends, still more to break our brains and +torment us: + + "Vah! quemquamne hominem in animum instituere, aut + Parare, quod sit carius, quam ipse est sibi?" + + ["Ah! can any man conceive in his mind or realise what is dearer + than he is to himself?"--Terence, Adelph., i. I, 13.] + +Solitude seems to me to wear the best favour in such as have already +employed their most active and flourishing age in the world's service, +after the example of Thales. We have lived enough for others; let us at +least live out the small remnant of life for ourselves; let us now call +in our thoughts and intentions to ourselves, and to our own ease and +repose. 'Tis no light thing to make a sure retreat; it will be enough +for us to do without mixing other enterprises. Since God gives us +leisure to order our removal, let us make ready, truss our baggage, take +leave betimes of the company, and disentangle ourselves from those +violent importunities that engage us elsewhere and separate us from +ourselves. + +We must break the knot of our obligations, how strong soever, and +hereafter love this or that, but espouse nothing but ourselves: that is +to say, let the remainder be our own, but not so joined and so close as +not to be forced away without flaying us or tearing out part of our +whole. The greatest thing in the world is for a man to know that he is +his own. 'Tis time to wean ourselves from society when we can no longer +add anything to it; he who is not in a condition to lend must forbid +himself to borrow. Our forces begin to fail us; let us call them in and +concentrate them in and for ourselves. He that can cast off within +himself and resolve the offices of friendship and company, let him do it. +In this decay of nature which renders him useless, burdensome, and +importunate to others, let him take care not to be useless, burdensome, +and importunate to himself. Let him soothe and caress himself, and above +all things be sure to govern himself with reverence to his reason and +conscience to that degree as to be ashamed to make a false step in their +presence: + + "Rarum est enim, ut satis se quisque vereatur." + + ["For 'tis rarely seen that men have respect and reverence enough + for themselves."--Quintilian, x. 7.] + +Socrates says that boys are to cause themselves to be instructed, men to +exercise themselves in well-doing, and old men to retire from all civil +and military employments, living at their own discretion, without the +obligation to any office. There are some complexions more proper for +these precepts of retirement than others. Such as are of a soft and dull +apprehension, and of a tender will and affection, not readily to be +subdued or employed, whereof I am one, both by natural condition and by +reflection, will sooner incline to this advice than active and busy +souls, which embrace: all, engage in all, are hot upon everything, which +offer, present, and give themselves up to every occasion. We are to use +these accidental and extraneous commodities, so far as they are pleasant +to us, but by no means to lay our principal foundation there; 'tis no +true one; neither nature nor reason allows it so to be. Why therefore +should we, contrary to their laws, enslave our own contentment to the +power of another? To anticipate also the accidents of fortune, to +deprive ourselves of the conveniences we have in our own power, as +several have done upon the account of devotion, and some philosophers by +reasoning; to be one's own servant, to lie hard, to put out our own eyes, +to throw our wealth into the river, to go in search of grief; these, by +the misery of this life, aiming at bliss in another; those by laying +themselves low to avoid the danger of falling: all such are acts of an +excessive virtue. The stoutest and most resolute natures render even +their seclusion glorious and exemplary: + + "Tuta et parvula laudo, + Quum res deficiunt, satis inter vilia fortis + Verum, ubi quid melius contingit et unctius, idem + Hos sapere et solos aio bene vivere, quorum + Conspicitur nitidis fundata pecunia villis." + + ["When means are deficient, I laud a safe and humble condition, + content with little: but when things grow better and more easy, I + all the same say that you alone are wise and live well, whose + invested money is visible in beautiful villas." + --Horace, Ep., i. 15, 42.] + +A great deal less would serve my turn well enough. 'Tis enough for me, +under fortune's favour, to prepare myself for her disgrace, and, being at +my ease, to represent to myself, as far as my imagination can stretch, +the ill to come; as we do at jousts and tiltings, where we counterfeit +war in the greatest calm of peace. I do not think Arcesilaus the +philosopher the less temperate and virtuous for knowing that he made use +of gold and silver vessels, when the condition of his fortune allowed him +so to do; I have indeed a better opinion of him than if he had denied +himself what he used with liberality and moderation. I see the utmost +limits of natural necessity: and considering a poor man begging at my +door, ofttimes more jocund and more healthy than I myself am, I put +myself into his place, and attempt to dress my mind after his mode; +and running, in like manner, over other examples, though I fancy death, +poverty, contempt, and sickness treading on my heels, I easily resolve +not to be affrighted, forasmuch as a less than I takes them with so much +patience; and am not willing to believe that a less understanding can do +more than a greater, or that the effects of precept cannot arrive to as +great a height as those of custom. And knowing of how uncertain duration +these accidental conveniences are, I never forget, in the height of all +my enjoyments, to make it my chiefest prayer to Almighty God, that He +will please to render me content with myself and the condition wherein I +am. I see young men very gay and frolic, who nevertheless keep a mass of +pills in their trunk at home, to take when they've got a cold, which they +fear so much the less, because they think they have remedy at hand. +Every one should do in like manner, and, moreover, if they find +themselves subject to some more violent disease, should furnish +themselves with such medicines as may numb and stupefy the part. + +The employment a man should choose for such a life ought neither to be a +laborious nor an unpleasing one; otherwise 'tis to no purpose at all to +be retired. And this depends upon every one's liking and humour. Mine +has no manner of complacency for husbandry, and such as love it ought to +apply themselves to it with moderation: + + ["Endeavour to make circumstances subject to me, + and not me subject to circumstances." + --Horace, Ep., i. i, 19.] + +Husbandry is otherwise a very servile employment, as Sallust calls it; +though some parts of it are more excusable than the rest, as the care of +gardens, which Xenophon attributes to Cyrus; and a mean may be found out +betwixt the sordid and low application, so full of perpetual solicitude, +which is seen in men who make it their entire business and study, and the +stupid and extreme negligence, letting all things go at random which we +see in others + + "Democriti pecus edit agellos + Cultaque, dum peregre est animus sine corpore velox." + + ["Democritus' cattle eat his corn and spoil his fields, whilst his + soaring mind ranges abroad without the body." + --Horace, Ep., i, 12, 12.] + +But let us hear what advice the younger Pliny gives his friend Caninius +Rufus upon the subject of solitude: "I advise thee, in the full and +plentiful retirement wherein thou art, to leave to thy hinds the care of +thy husbandry, and to addict thyself to the study of letters, to extract +from thence something that may be entirely and absolutely thine own." By +which he means reputation; like Cicero, who says that he would employ his +solitude and retirement from public affairs to acquire by his writings an +immortal life. + + "Usque adeone + Scire tuum, nihil est, nisi to scire hoc, sciat alter?" + + ["Is all that thy learning nothing, unless another knows + that thou knowest?"--Persius, Sat., i. 23.] + +It appears to be reason, when a man talks of retiring from the world, +that he should look quite out of [for] himself. These do it but by +halves: they design well enough for themselves when they shall be no more +in it; but still they pretend to extract the fruits of that design from +the world, when absent from it, by a ridiculous contradiction. + +The imagination of those who seek solitude upon the account of devotion, +filling their hopes and courage with certainty of divine promises in the +other life, is much more rationally founded. They propose to themselves +God, an infinite object in goodness and power; the soul has there +wherewithal, at full liberty, to satiate her desires: afflictions and +sufferings turn to their advantage, being undergone for the acquisition +of eternal health and joy; death is to be wished and longed for, where it +is the passage to so perfect a condition; the asperity of the rules they +impose upon themselves is immediately softened by custom, and all their +carnal appetites baffled and subdued, by refusing to humour and feed +them, these being only supported by use and exercise. This sole end of +another happily immortal life is that which really merits that we should +abandon the pleasures and conveniences of this; and he who can really and +constantly inflame his soul with the ardour of this vivid faith and hope, +erects for himself in solitude a more voluptuous and delicious life than +any other sort of existence. + +Neither the end, then, nor the means of this advice pleases me, for we +often fall out of the frying-pan into the fire.--[or: we always relapse +ill from fever into fever.]--This book-employment is as painful as any +other, and as great an enemy to health, which ought to be the first thing +considered; neither ought a man to be allured with the pleasure of it, +which is the same that destroys the frugal, the avaricious, the +voluptuous, and the ambitious man. + + ["This plodding occupation of bookes is as painfull as any other, + and as great an enemie vnto health, which ought principally to be + considered. And a man should not suffer him selfe to be inveagled + by the pleasure he takes in them."--Florio, edit. 1613, p. 122.] + +The sages give us caution enough to beware the treachery of our desires, +and to distinguish true and entire pleasures from such as are mixed and +complicated with greater pain. For the most of our pleasures, say they, +wheedle and caress only to strangle us, like those thieves the Egyptians +called Philistae; if the headache should come before drunkenness, we +should have a care of drinking too much; but pleasure, to deceive us, +marches before and conceals her train. Books are pleasant, but if, by +being over-studious, we impair our health and spoil our goodhumour, the +best pieces we have, let us give it over; I, for my part, am one of those +who think, that no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a +loss. As men who have long felt themselves weakened by indisposition, +give themselves up at last to the mercy of medicine and submit to certain +rules of living, which they are for the future never to transgress; so he +who retires, weary of and disgusted with the common way of living, ought +to model this new one he enters into by the rules of reason, and to +institute and establish it by premeditation and reflection. He ought to +have taken leave of all sorts of labour, what advantage soever it may +promise, and generally to have shaken off all those passions which +disturb the tranquillity of body and soul, and then choose the way that +best suits with his own humour: + + "Unusquisque sua noverit ire via." + +In husbandry, study, hunting, and all other exercises, men are to proceed +to the utmost limits of pleasure, but must take heed of engaging further, +where trouble begins to mix with it. We are to reserve so much +employment only as is necessary to keep us in breath and to defend us +from the inconveniences that the other extreme of a dull and stupid +laziness brings along with it. There are sterile knotty sciences, +chiefly hammered out for the crowd; let such be left to them who are +engaged in the world's service. I for my part care for no other books, +but either such as are pleasant and easy, to amuse me, or those that +comfort and instruct me how to regulate my life and death: + + "Tacitum sylvas inter reptare salubres, + Curantem, quidquid dignum sapienti bonoque est." + + ["Silently meditating in the healthy groves, whatever is worthy + of a wise and good man."--Horace, Ep., i. 4, 4.] + +Wiser men, having great force and vigour of soul, may propose to +themselves a rest wholly spiritual but for me, who have a very ordinary +soul, it is very necessary to support myself with bodily conveniences; +and age having of late deprived me of those pleasures that were more +acceptable to me, I instruct and whet my appetite to those that remain, +more suitable to this other reason. We ought to hold with all our force, +both of hands and teeth, the use of the pleasures of life that our years, +one after another, snatch away from us: + + "Carpamus dulcia; nostrum est, + Quod vivis; cinis, et manes, et fabula fies." + + ["Let us pluck life's sweets, 'tis for them we live: by and by we + shall be ashes, a ghost, a mere subject of talk." + --Persius, Sat., v. 151.] + +Now, as to the end that Pliny and Cicero propose to us of glory, 'tis +infinitely wide of my account. Ambition is of all others the most +contrary humour to solitude; glory and repose are things that cannot +possibly inhabit in one and the same place. For so much as I understand, +these have only their arms and legs disengaged from the crowd; their soul +and intention remain confined behind more than ever: + + "Tun', vetule, auriculis alienis colligis escas?" + + ["Dost thou, then, old man, collect food for others' ears?" + --Persius, Sat., i. 22.] + +they have only retired to take a better leap, and by a stronger motion to +give a brisker charge into the crowd. Will you see how they shoot short? +Let us put into the counterpoise the advice of two philosophers, of two +very different sects, writing, the one to Idomeneus, the other to +Lucilius, their friends, to retire into solitude from worldly honours and +affairs. "You have," say they, "hitherto lived swimming and floating; +come now and die in the harbour: you have given the first part of your +life to the light, give what remains to the shade. It is impossible to +give over business, if you do not also quit the fruit; therefore +disengage yourselves from all concern of name and glory; 'tis to be +feared the lustre of your former actions will give you but too much +light, and follow you into your most private retreat. Quit with other +pleasures that which proceeds from the approbation of another man: and as +to your knowledge and parts, never concern yourselves; they will not lose +their effect if yourselves be the better for them. Remember him, who +being asked why he took so much pains in an art that could come to the +knowledge of but few persons? 'A few are enough for me,' replied he; +'I have enough with one; I have enough with never an one.'--[Seneca, Ep., +7.]--He said true; you and a companion are theatre enough to one +another, or you to yourself. Let the people be to you one, and be you +one to the whole people. 'Tis an unworthy ambition to think to derive +glory from a man's sloth and privacy: you are to do like the beasts of +chase, who efface the track at the entrance into their den. You are no +more to concern yourself how the world talks of you, but how you are to +talk to yourself. Retire yourself into yourself, but first prepare +yourself there to receive yourself: it were a folly to trust yourself in +your own hands, if you cannot govern yourself. A man may miscarry alone +as well as in company. Till you have rendered yourself one before whom +you dare not trip, and till you have a bashfulness and respect for +yourself, + + "Obversentur species honestae animo;" + + ["Let honest things be ever present to the mind" + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 22.] + +present continually to your imagination Cato, Phocion, and Aristides, in +whose presence the fools themselves will hide their faults, and make them +controllers of all your intentions; should these deviate from virtue, +your respect to those will set you right; they will keep you in this way +to be contented with yourself; to borrow nothing of any other but +yourself; to stay and fix your soul in certain and limited thoughts, +wherein she may please herself, and having understood the true and real +goods, which men the more enjoy the more they understand, to rest +satisfied, without desire of prolongation of life or name." This is the +precept of the true and natural philosophy, not of a boasting and prating +philosophy, such as that of the two former. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man must either imitate the vicious or hate them +Abhorrence of the patient are necessary circumstances +Acquire by his writings an immortal life +Addict thyself to the study of letters +Always the perfect religion +And hate him so as you were one day to love him +Archer that shoots over, misses as much as he that falls short +Art that could come to the knowledge of but few persons +Being over-studious, we impair our health and spoil our humour +By the misery of this life, aiming at bliss in another +Carnal appetites only supported by use and exercise +Coming out of the same hole +Common friendships will admit of division +Dost thou, then, old man, collect food for others' ears? +Either tranquil life, or happy death +Enslave our own contentment to the power of another? +Entertain us with fables: astrologers and physicians +Everything has many faces and several aspects +Extremity of philosophy is hurtful +Friendships that the law and natural obligation impose upon us +Gewgaw to hang in a cabinet or at the end of the tongue +Gratify the gods and nature by massacre and murder +He took himself along with him +He will choose to be alone +Headache should come before drunkenness +High time to die when there is more ill than good in living +Honour of valour consists in fighting, not in subduing +How uncertain duration these accidental conveniences are +I bequeath to Areteus the maintenance of my mother +I for my part always went the plain way to work. +I love temperate and moderate natures. +Impostures: very strangeness lends them credit +In solitude, be company for thyself.--Tibullus +In the meantime, their halves were begging at their doors +Interdict all gifts betwixt man and wife +It is better to die than to live miserable +Judge by the eye of reason, and not from common report +Knot is not so sure that a man may not half suspect it will slip +Lascivious poet: Homer +Laying themselves low to avoid the danger of falling +Leave society when we can no longer add anything to it +Little less trouble in governing a private family than a kingdom +Love we bear to our wives is very lawful +Man (must) know that he is his own +Marriage +Men should furnish themselves with such things as would float +Methinks I am no more than half of myself +Must for the most part entertain ourselves with ourselves +Never represent things to you simply as they are +No effect of virtue, to have stronger arms and legs +Not in a condition to lend must forbid himself to borrow +Nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know +O my friends, there is no friend: Aristotle +Oftentimes agitated with divers passions +Ordinary friendships, you are to walk with bridle in your hand +Ought not only to have his hands, but his eyes, too, chaste +Our judgments are yet sick +Perfect friendship I speak of is indivisible +Philosophy +Phusicians cure by by misery and pain +Prefer in bed, beauty before goodness +Pretending to find out the cause of every accident +Reputation: most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes +Reserve a backshop, wholly our own and entirely free +Rest satisfied, without desire of prolongation of life or name +Stilpo lost wife, children, and goods +Stilpo: thank God, nothing was lost of his +Take two sorts of grist out of the same sack +Taking things upon trust from vulgar opinion +Tearing a body limb from limb by racks and torments +The consequence of common examples +There are defeats more triumphant than victories +They can neither lend nor give anything to one another +They have yet touched nothing of that which is mine +They must be very hard to please, if they are not contented +Things that engage us elsewhere and separate us from ourselves +This decay of nature which renders him useless, burdensome +This plodding occupation of bookes is as painfull as any other +Those immodest and debauched tricks and postures +Though I be engaged to one forme, I do not tie the world unto it +Title of barbarism to everything that is not familiar +To give a currency to his little pittance of learning +To make their private advantage at the public expense +Under fortune's favour, to prepare myself for her disgrace +Vice of confining their belief to their own capacity +We have lived enough for others +We have more curiosity than capacity +We still carry our fetters along with us +When time begins to wear things out of memory +Wherever the mind is perplexed, it is in an entire disorder +Who can flee from himself +Wise man never loses anything if he have himself +Wise whose invested money is visible in beautiful villas +Write what he knows, and as much as he knows, but no more +You and companion are theatre enough to one another + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V6 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 7. + +XXXIX. A consideration upon Cicero. +XL. That the relish of good and evil depends in a great measure + upon opinion. +XLI. Not to communicate a man's honour. +XLII. Of the inequality amongst us. +XLIII. Of sumptuary laws. +XLIV. Of sleep. +XLV. Of the battle of Dreux. +XLVI. Of names. +XLVII. Of the uncertainty of our judgment. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +A CONSIDERATION UPON CICERO + +One word more by way of comparison betwixt these two. There are to be +gathered out of the writings of Cicero and the younger Pliny (but little, +in my opinion, resembling his uncle in his humours) infinite testimonies +of a beyond measure ambitious nature; and amongst others, this for one, +that they both, in the sight of all the world, solicit the historians of +their time not to forget them in their memoirs; and fortune, as if in +spite, has made the vanity of those requests live upon record down to +this age of ours, while she has long since consigned the histories +themselves to oblivion. But this exceeds all meanness of spirit in +persons of such a quality as they were, to think to derive any great +renown from babbling and prating; even to the publishing of their private +letters to their friends, and so withal, that though some of them were +never sent, the opportunity being lost, they nevertheless presented them +to the light, with this worthy excuse that they were unwilling to lose +their labours and lucubrations. Was it not very well becoming two +consuls of Rome, sovereign magistrates of the republic that commanded the +world, to spend their leisure in contriving quaint and elegant missives, +thence to gain the reputation of being versed in their own mother- +tongues? What could a pitiful schoolmaster have done worse, whose trade +it was thereby to get his living? If the acts of Xenophon and Caesar had +not far transcended their eloquence, I scarce believe they would ever +have taken the pains to have written them; they made it their business to +recommend not their speaking, but their doing. And could the perfection +of eloquence have added a lustre suitable to a great personage, certainly +Scipio and Laelius had never resigned the honour of their comedies, with +all the luxuriances and elegances of the Latin tongue, to an African +slave; for that the work was theirs, its beauty and excellence +sufficiently declare; Terence himself confesses as much, and I should +take it ill from any one that would dispossess me of that belief. + +'Tis a kind of mockery and offence to extol a man for qualities +misbecoming his condition, though otherwise commendable in themselves, +but such as ought not, however, to be his chief talent; as if a man +should commend a king for being a good painter, a good architect, a good +marksman, or a good runner at the ring: commendations that add no honour, +unless mentioned altogether and in the train of those that are properly +applicable to him, namely, justice and the science of governing and +conducting his people both in peace and war. At this rate, agriculture +was an honour to Cyrus, and eloquence and the knowledge of letters to +Charlemagne. I have in my time known some, who by writing acquired both +their titles and fortune, disown their apprenticeship, corrupt their +style, and affect ignorance in so vulgar a quality (which also our nation +holds to be rarely seen in very learned hands), and to seek a reputation +by better qualities. Demosthenes' companions in the embassy to Philip, +extolling that prince as handsome, eloquent, and a stout drinker, +Demosthenes said that those were commendations more proper for a woman, +an advocate, or a sponge, than for a king': + + "Imperet bellante prior, jacentem + Lenis in hostem." + + ["In the fight, overthrow your enemy, but be merciful to him when + fallen.--"Horace, Carm. Saec., v. 51.] + +'Tis not his profession to know either how to hunt or to dance well; + + "Orabunt causas alii, coelique meatus + Describent radio, et fulgentia sidera dicent; + Hic regere imperio populos sciat." + + ["Let others plead at the bar, or describe the spheres, and point + out the glittering stars; let this man learn to rule the nations." + --AEneid, vi. 849.] + +Plutarch says, moreover, that to appear so excellent in these less +necessary qualities is to produce witness against a man's self, that he +has spent his time and applied his study ill, which ought to have been +employed in the acquisition of more necessary and more useful things. +So that Philip, king of Macedon, having heard that great Alexander his +son sing once at a feast to the wonder of the best musicians there: "Art +thou not ashamed," said he to him, "to sing so well?" And to the same +Philip a musician, with whom he was disputing about some things +concerning his art: "Heaven forbid, sir," said he, "that so great a +misfortune should ever befall you as to understand these things better +than I." A king should be able to answer as Iphicrates did the orator, +who pressed upon him in his invective after this manner: "And what art +thou that thou bravest it at this rate? art thou a man at arms, art thou +an archer, art thou a pikeman?"--"I am none of all this; but I know how +to command all these." And Antisthenes took it for an argument of little +value in Ismenias that he was commended for playing excellently well upon +a flute. + +I know very well, that when I hear any one dwell upon the language of my +essays, I had rather a great deal he would say nothing: 'tis not so much +to elevate the style as to depress the sense, and so much the more +offensively as they do it obliquely; and yet I am much deceived if many +other writers deliver more worth noting as to the matter, and, how well +or ill soever, if any other writer has sown things much more materials or +at all events more downright, upon his paper than myself. To bring the +more in, I only muster up the heads; should I annex the sequel, I should +trebly multiply the volume. And how many stories have I scattered up and +down in this book that I only touch upon, which, should any one more +curiously search into, they would find matter enough to produce infinite +essays. Neither those stories nor my quotations always serve simply for +example, authority, or ornament; I do not only regard them for the use I +make of them: they carry sometimes besides what I apply them to, the seed +of a more rich and a bolder matter, and sometimes, collaterally, a more +delicate sound both to myself who will say no more about it in this +place, and to others who shall be of my humour. + +But returning to the speaking virtue: I find no great choice betwixt not +knowing to speak anything but ill, and not knowing to speak anything but +well. + + "Non est ornamentum virile concimitas." + + ["A carefully arranged dress is no manly ornament." + --Seneca, Ep., 115.] + +The sages tell us that, as to what concerns knowledge, 'tis nothing but +philosophy; and as to what concerns effects, nothing but virtue, which is +generally proper to all degrees and to all orders. + +There is something like this in these two other philosophers, for they +also promise eternity to the letters they write to their friends; but +'tis after another manner, and by accommodating themselves, for a good +end, to the vanity of another; for they write to them that if the concern +of making themselves known to future ages, and the thirst of glory, do +yet detain them in the management of public affairs, and make them fear +the solitude and retirement to which they would persuade them, let them +never trouble themselves more about it, forasmuch as they shall have +credit enough with posterity to ensure them that were there nothing else +but the letters thus written to them, those letters will render their +names as known and famous as their own public actions could do. And +besides this difference, these are not idle and empty letters, that +contain nothing but a fine jingle of well-chosen words and delicate +couched phrases, but rather replete and abounding with grand discourses +of reason, by which a man may render himself not more eloquent, but more +wise, and that instruct us not to speak, but to do well. Away with that +eloquence that enchants us with itself, and not with actual things! +unless you will allow that of Cicero to be of so supreme a perfection as +to form a complete body of itself. + +I shall farther add one story we read of him to this purpose, wherein his +nature will much more manifestly be laid open to us. He was to make an +oration in public, and found himself a little straitened for time to make +himself ready at his ease; when Eros, one of his slaves, brought him word +that the audience was deferred till the next day, at which he was so +ravished with joy that he enfranchised him for the good news. + +Upon this subject of letters, I will add this more to what has been +already said, that it is a kind of writing wherein my friends think I can +do something; and I am willing to confess I should rather have chosen to +publish my whimsies that way than any other, had I had to whom to write; +but I wanted such a settled intercourse, as I once had, to attract me to +it, to raise my fancy, and to support me. For to traffic with the wind, +as some others have done, and to forge vain names to direct my letters +to, in a serious subject, I could never do it but in a dream, being a +sworn enemy to all manner of falsification. I should have been more +diligent and more confident had I had a judicious and indulgent friend +whom to address, than thus to expose myself to the various judgments of a +whole people, and I am deceived if I had not succeeded better. I have +naturally a humorous and familiar style; but it is a style of my own, not +proper for public business, but, like the language I speak, too compact, +irregular, abrupt, and singular; and as to letters of ceremony that have +no other substance than a fine contexture of courteous words, I am wholly +to seek. I have neither faculty nor relish for those tedious tenders of +service and affection; I believe little in them from others, and I should +not forgive myself should I say to others more than I myself believe. +'Tis, doubtless, very remote from the present practice; for there never +was so abject and servile prostitution of offers: life, soul, devotion, +adoration, vassal, slave, and I cannot tell what, as now; all which +expressions are so commonly and so indifferently posted to and fro by +every one and to every one, that when they would profess a greater and +more respectful inclination upon more just occasions, they have not +wherewithal to express it. I mortally hate all air of flattery, which is +the cause that I naturally fall into a shy, rough, and crude way of +speaking, that, to such as do not know me, may seem a little to relish of +disdain. I honour those most to whom I show the least honour, and where +my soul moves with the greatest cheerfulness, I easily forget the +ceremonies of look and gesture, and offer myself faintly and bluntly to +them to whom I am the most devoted: methinks they should read it in my +heart, and that the expression of my words does but injure the love I +have conceived within. To welcome, take leave, give thanks, accost, +offer my service, and such verbal formalities as the ceremonious laws of +our modern civility enjoin, I know no man so stupidly unprovided of +language as myself; and I have never been employed in writing letters of +favour and recommendation, that he, in whose behalf it was written, did +not think my mediation cold and imperfect. The Italians are great +printers of letters; I do believe I have at least an hundred several +volumes of them; of all which those of Annibale Caro seem to me to be the +best. If all the paper I have scribbled to the ladies at the time when +my hand was really prompted by my passion, were now in being, there +might, peradventure, be found a page worthy to be communicated to our +young inamoratos, that are besotted with that fury. I always write my +letters post-haste--so precipitately, that though I write intolerably +ill, I rather choose to do it myself, than to employ another; for I can +find none able to follow me: and I never transcribe any. I have +accustomed the great ones who know me to endure my blots and dashes, and +upon paper without fold or margin. Those that cost me the most pains, +are the worst; when I once begin to draw it in by head and shoulders, +'tis a sign that I am not there. I fall too without premeditation or +design; the first word begets the second, and so to the end of the +chapter. The letters of this age consist more in fine edges and prefaces +than in matter. Just as I had rather write two letters than close and +fold up one, and always assign that employment to some other, so, when +the real business of my letter is dispatched, I would with all my heart +transfer it to another hand to add those long harangues, offers, and +prayers, that we place at the bottom, and should be glad that some new +custom would discharge us of that trouble; as also of superscribing them +with a long legend of qualities and titles, which for fear of mistakes, +I have often not written at all, and especially to men of the long robe +and finance; there are so many new offices, such a dispensation and +ordering of titles of honour, that 'tis hard to set them forth aright +yet, being so dearly bought, they are neither to be altered nor forgotten +without offence. I find it equally in bad taste to encumber the fronts +and inscriptions of the books we commit to the press with such. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +THAT THE RELISH FOR GOOD AND EVIL DEPENDS IN GREAT MEASURE UPON THE +OPINION WE HAVE OF THEM + +Men (says an ancient Greek sentence)--[Manual of Epictetus, c. 10.]-- +are tormented with the opinions they have of things and not by the things +themselves. It were a great victory obtained for the relief of our +miserable human condition, could this proposition be established for +certain and true throughout. For if evils have no admission into us but +by the judgment we ourselves make of them, it should seem that it is, +then, in our own power to despise them or to turn them to good. If +things surrender themselves to our mercy, why do we not convert and +accommodate them to our advantage? If what we call evil and torment is +neither evil nor torment of itself, but only that our fancy gives it that +quality, it is in us to change it, and it being in our own choice, if +there be no constraint upon us, we must certainly be very strange fools +to take arms for that side which is most offensive to us, and to give +sickness, want, and contempt a bitter and nauseous taste, if it be in our +power to give them a pleasant relish, and if, fortune simply providing +the matter, 'tis for us to give it the form. Now, that what we call evil +is not so of itself, or at least to that degree that we make it, and that +it depends upon us to give it another taste and complexion (for all comes +to one), let us examine how that can be maintained. + +If the original being of those things we fear had power to lodge itself +in us by its own authority, it would then lodge itself alike, and in like +manner, in all; for men are all of the same kind, and saving in greater +and less proportions, are all provided with the same utensils and +instruments to conceive and to judge; but the diversity of opinions we +have of those things clearly evidences that they only enter us by +composition; one person, peradventure, admits them in their true being, +but a thousand others give them a new and contrary being in them. We +hold death, poverty, and pain for our principal enemies; now, this death, +which some repute the most dreadful of all dreadful things, who does not +know that others call it the only secure harbour from the storms and +tempests of life, the sovereign good of nature, the sole support of +liberty, and the common and prompt remedy of all evils? And as the one +expect it with fear and trembling, the others support it with greater +ease than life. That one complains of its facility: + + "Mors! utinam pavidos vitae subducere nolles. + Sed virtus to sola daret!" + + ["O death! wouldst that thou might spare the coward, but that + valour alone should pay thee tribute."--Lucan, iv. 580.] + +Now, let us leave these boastful courages. Theodorus answered +Lysimachus, who threatened to kill him, "Thou wilt do a brave feat," said +he, "to attain the force of a cantharides." The majority of philosophers +are observed to have either purposely anticipated, or hastened and +assisted their own death. How many ordinary people do we see led to +execution, and that not to a simple death, but mixed with shame and +sometimes with grievous torments, appear with such assurance, whether +through firm courage or natural simplicity, that a man can discover no +change from their ordinary condition; settling their domestic affairs, +commending themselves to their friends, singing, preaching, and +addressing the people, nay, sometimes sallying into jests, and drinking +to their companions, quite as well as Socrates? + +One that they were leading to the gallows told them they must not take +him through such a street, lest a merchant who lived there should arrest +him by the way for an old debt. Another told the hangman he must not +touch his neck for fear of making him laugh, he was so ticklish. Another +answered his confessor, who promised him he should that day sup with our +Lord, "Do you go then," said he, "in my room [place]; for I for my part +keep fast to-day." Another having called for drink, and the hangman +having drunk first, said he would not drink after him, for fear of +catching some evil disease. Everybody has heard the tale of the Picard, +to whom, being upon the ladder, they presented a common wench, telling +him (as our law does some times permit) that if he would marry her they +would save his life; he, having a while considered her and perceiving +that she halted: "Come, tie up, tie up," said he, she limps." And they +tell another story of the same kind of a fellow in Denmark, who being +condemned to lose his head, and the like condition being proposed to him +upon the scaffold, refused it, by reason the girl they offered him had +hollow cheeks and too sharp a nose. A servant at Toulouse being accused +of heresy, for the sum of his belief referred himself to that of his +master, a young student, prisoner with him, choosing rather to die than +suffer himself to be persuaded that his master could err. We read that +of the inhabitants of Arras, when Louis XI. took that city, a great many +let themselves be hanged rather than they would say, "God save the King." +And amongst that mean-souled race of men, the buffoons, there have been +some who would not leave their fooling at the very moment of death. One +that the hang man was turning off the ladder cried: Launch the galley," +an ordinary saying of his. Another, whom at the point of death his +friends had laid upon a bed of straw before the fire, the physician +asking him where his pain lay: "Betwixt the bench and the fire," said he, +and the priest, to give him extreme unction, groping for his feet which +his pain had made him pull up to him: "You will find them," said he, "at +the end of my legs." To one who being present exhorted him to recommend +himself to God: "Why, who goes thither?" said he; and the other +replying: "It will presently be yourself, if it be His good pleasure." +"Shall I be sure to be there by to-morrow night?" said he. "Do, but +recommend yourself to Him," said the other, "and you will soon be there." +"I were best then," said he, "to carry my recommendations myself." + +In the kingdom of Narsingah to this day the wives of their priests are +buried alive with the bodies of their husbands; all other wives are burnt +at their husbands' funerals, which they not only firmly but cheerfully +undergo. At the death of their king, his wives and concubines, his +favourites, all his officers, and domestic servants, who make up a whole +people, present themselves so gaily to the fire where his body is burnt, +that they seem to take it for a singular honour to accompany their master +in death. During our late wars of Milan, where there happened so many +takings and retakings of towns, the people, impatient of so many changes +of fortune, took such a resolution to die, that I have heard my father +say he there saw a list taken of five-and-twenty masters of families who +made themselves away in one week's time: an incident somewhat resembling +that of the Xanthians, who being besieged by Brutus, fell--men, women, +and children--into such a furious appetite of dying, that nothing can be +done to evade death which they did not to avoid life; insomuch that +Brutus had much difficulty in saving a very small number.--["Only fifty +were saved."--Plutarch, Life of Brutus, c. 8.] + +Every opinion is of force enough to cause itself to be espoused at the +expense of life. The first article of that valiant oath that Greece took +and observed in the Median war, was that every one should sooner exchange +life for death, than their own laws for those of Persia. What a world of +people do we see in the wars betwixt the Turks and the Greeks, rather +embrace a cruel death than uncircumcise themselves to admit of baptism? +An example of which no sort of religion is incapable. + +The kings of Castile having banished the Jews out of their dominions, +John, King of Portugal, in consideration of eight crowns a head, sold +them a retreat into his for a certain limited time, upon condition that +the time fixed coming to expire they should begone, and he to furnish +them with shipping to transport them into Africa. The day comes, which +once lapsed they were given to understand that such as were afterward +found in the kingdom should remain slaves; vessels were very slenderly +provided; and those who embarked in them were rudely and villainously +used by the passengers, who, besides other indignities, kept them +cruising upon the sea, one while forwards and another backwards, till +they had spent all their provisions, and were constrained to buy of them +at so dear a rate and so long withal, that they set them not on shore +till they were all stripped to the very shirts. The news of this inhuman +usage being brought to those who remained behind, the greater part of +them resolved upon slavery and some made a show of changing religion. +Emmanuel, the successor of John, being come to the crown, first set them +at liberty, and afterwards altering his mind, ordered them to depart his +country, assigning three ports for their passage. He hoped, says Bishop +Osorius, no contemptible Latin historian of these later times, that the +favour of the liberty he had given them having failed of converting them +to Christianity, yet the difficulty of committing themselves to the mercy +of the mariners and of abandoning a country they were now habituated to +and were grown very rich in, to go and expose themselves in strange and +unknown regions, would certainly do it. But finding himself deceived in +his expectation, and that they were all resolved upon the voyage, he cut +off two of the three ports he had promised them, to the end that the +length and incommodity of the passage might reduce some, or that he might +have opportunity, by crowding them all into one place, the more +conveniently to execute what he had designed, which was to force all the +children under fourteen years of age from the arms of their fathers and +mothers, to transport them from their sight and conversation, into a +place where they might be instructed and brought up in our religion. He +says that this produced a most horrid spectacle the natural affection +betwixt the parents and their children, and moreover their zeal to their +ancient belief, contending against this violent decree, fathers and +mothers were commonly seen making themselves away, and by a yet much more +rigorous example, precipitating out of love and compassion their young +children into wells and pits, to avoid the severity of this law. As to +the remainder of them, the time that had been prefixed being expired, +for want of means to transport them they again returned into slavery. +Some also turned Christians, upon whose faith, as also that of their +posterity, even to this day, which is a hundred years since, few +Portuguese can yet rely; though custom and length of time are much more +powerful counsellors in such changes than all other constraints whatever. +In the town of Castelnaudari, fifty heretic Albigeois at one time +suffered themselves to be burned alive in one fire rather than they would +renounce their opinions. + + "Quoties non modo ductores nostri, sed universi etiam exercitus, + ad non dubiam mortem concurrerunt?" + + ["How often have not only our leaders, but whole armies, run to a + certain and manifest death."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., i. 37.] + +I have seen an intimate friend of mine run headlong upon death with a +real affection, and that was rooted in his heart by divers plausible +arguments which he would never permit me to dispossess him of, and upon +the first honourable occasion that offered itself to him, precipitate +himself into it, without any manner of visible reason, with an obstinate +and ardent desire of dying. We have several examples in our own times of +persons, even young children, who for fear of some little inconvenience +have despatched themselves. And what shall we not fear, says one of the +ancients--[Seneca, Ep., 70.]--to this purpose, if we dread that which +cowardice itself has chosen for its refuge? + +Should I here produce a long catalogue of those, of all sexes and +conditions and sects, even in the most happy ages, who have either with +great constancy looked death in the face, or voluntarily sought it, and +sought it not only to avoid the evils of this life, but some purely to +avoid the satiety of living, and others for the hope of a better +condition elsewhere, I should never have done. Nay, the number is so +infinite that in truth I should have a better bargain on't to reckon up +those who have feared it. This one therefore shall serve for all: +Pyrrho the philosopher being one day in a boat in a very great tempest, +shewed to those he saw the most affrighted about him, and encouraged +them, by the example of a hog that was there, nothing at all concerned at +the storm. Shall we then dare to say that this advantage of reason, of +which we so much boast, and upon the account of which we think ourselves +masters and emperors over the rest of all creation, was given us for a +torment? To what end serves the knowledge of things if it renders us +more unmanly? if we thereby lose the tranquillity and repose we should +enjoy without it? and if it put us into a worse condition than Pyrrho's +hog? Shall we employ the understanding that was conferred upon us for +our greatest good to our own ruin; setting ourselves against the design +of nature and the universal order of things, which intend that every one +should make use of the faculties, members, and means he has to his own +best advantage? + +But it may, peradventure, be objected against me: Your rule is true +enough as to what concerns death; but what will you say of indigence? +What will you, moreover, say of pain, which Aristippus, Hieronimus, and +most of the sages have reputed the worst of evils; and those who have +denied it by word of mouth have, however, confessed it in effect? +Posidonius being extremely tormented with a sharp and painful disease, +Pompeius came to visit him, excusing himself that he had taken so +unseasonable a time to come to hear him discourse of philosophy. +"The gods forbid," said Posidonius to him, "that pain should ever have +the power to hinder me from talking," and thereupon fell immediately upon +a discourse of the contempt of pain : but, in the meantime, his own +infirmity was playing his part, and plagued him to purpose; to which he +cried out, "Thou mayest work thy will, pain, and torment me with all the +power thou hast, but thou shalt never make me say that thou art an evil." +This story that they make such a clutter withal, what has it to do, +I fain would know, with the contempt of pain? He only fights it with +words, and in the meantime, if the shootings and dolours he felt did not +move him, why did he interrupt his discourse? Why did he fancy he did so +great a thing in forbearing to confess it an evil? All does not here +consist in the imagination; our fancies may work upon other things: but +here is the certain science that is playing its part, of which our senses +themselves are judges: + + "Qui nisi sunt veri, ratio quoque falsa sit omnis." + + ["Which, if they be not true, all reasoning may also be false. + --"Lucretius, iv. 486.] + +Shall we persuade our skins that the jerks of a whip agreeably tickle us, +or our taste that a potion of aloes is vin de Graves? Pyrrho's hog is +here in the same predicament with us; he is not afraid of death, 'tis +true, but if you beat him he will cry out to some purpose. Shall we +force the general law of nature, which in every living creature under +heaven is seen to tremble under pain? The very trees seem to groan under +the blows they receive. Death is only felt by reason, forasmuch as it is +the motion of an instant; + + "Aut fuit, aut veniet; nihil est praesentis in illa." + + ["Death has been, or will come: there is nothing of the present in + it."--Estienne de la Boetie, Satires.] + + "Morsque minus poenae, quam mora mortis, habet;" + + ["The delay of death is more painful than death itself." + --Ovid, Ep. Ariadne to Theseus, v. 42.] + +a thousand beasts, a thousand men, are sooner dead than threatened. That +also which we principally pretend to fear in death is pain, its ordinary +forerunner: yet, if we may believe a holy father: + + "Malam mortem non facit, nisi quod sequitur mortem." + + ["That which follows death makes death bad." + --St. Augustin, De Civit. Dei, i. ii.] + +And I should yet say, more probably, that neither that which goes before +nor that which follows after is at all of the appurtenances of death. + +We excuse ourselves falsely: and I find by experience that it is rather +the impatience of the imagination of death that makes us impatient of +pain, and that we find it doubly grievous as it threatens us with death. +But reason accusing our cowardice for fearing a thing so sudden, so +inevitable, and so insensible, we take the other as the more excusable +pretence. All ills that carry no other danger along with them but simply +the evils themselves, we treat as things of no danger: the toothache or +the gout, painful as they are, yet being not reputed mortal, who reckons +them in the catalogue of diseases? + +But let us presuppose that in death we principally regard the pain; as +also there is nothing to be feared in poverty but the miseries it brings +along with it of thirst, hunger, cold, heat, watching, and the other +inconveniences it makes us suffer, still we have nothing to do with +anything but pain. I will grant, and very willingly, that it is the +worst incident of our being (for I am the man upon earth who the most +hates and avoids it, considering that hitherto, I thank God, I have had +so little traffic with it), but still it is in us, if not to annihilate, +at least to lessen it by patience; and though the body and the reason +should mutiny, to maintain the soul, nevertheless, in good condition. +Were it not so, who had ever given reputation to virtue; valour, force, +magnanimity, and resolution? where were their parts to be played if +there were no pain to be defied? + + "Avida est periculi virtus." + + ["Courage is greedy of danger."--Seneca, De Providentia, c. 4] + +Were there no lying upon the hard ground, no enduring, armed at all +points, the meridional heats, no feeding upon the flesh of horses and +asses, no seeing a man's self hacked and hewed to pieces, no suffering a +bullet to be pulled out from amongst the shattered bones, no sewing up, +cauterising and searching of wounds, by what means were the advantage we +covet to have over the vulgar to be acquired? 'Tis far from flying evil +and pain, what the sages say, that of actions equally good, a man should +most covet to perform that wherein there is greater labour and pain. + + "Non est enim hilaritate, nec lascivia, nec risu, aut joco + comite levitatis, sed saepe etiam tristes firmitate et + constantia sunt beati." + + ["For men are not only happy by mirth and wantonness, by laughter + and jesting, the companion of levity, but ofttimes the serious sort + reap felicity from their firmness and constancy." + --Cicero, De Finib. ii. 10.] + +And for this reason it has ever been impossible to persuade our +forefathers but that the victories obtained by dint of force and the +hazard of war were not more honourable than those performed in great +security by stratagem or practice: + + "Laetius est, quoties magno sibi constat honestum." + + [" A good deed is all the more a satisfaction by how much the more + it has cost us"--Lucan, ix. 404.] + +Besides, this ought to be our comfort, that naturally, if the pain be +violent, 'tis but short; and if long, nothing violent: + + "Si gravis, brevis; + Si longus, levis." + +Thou wilt not feel it long if thou feelest it too much; it will either +put an end to itself or to thee; it comes to the same thing; if thou +canst not support it, it will export thee: + + ["Remember that the greatest pains are terminated by death; that + slighter pains have long intermissions of repose, and that we are + masters of the more moderate sort: so that, if they be tolerable, + we bear them; if not, we can go out of life, as from a theatre, when + it does not please us"--Cicero, De Finib. i. 15.] + +That which makes us suffer pain with so much impatience is the not being +accustomed to repose our chiefest contentment in the soul; that we do not +enough rely upon her who is the sole and sovereign mistress of our +condition. The body, saving in the greater or less proportion, has but +one and the same bent and bias; whereas the soul is variable into all +sorts of forms; and subject to herself and to her own empire, all things +whatsoever, both the senses of the body and all other accidents: and +therefore it is that we ought to study her, to inquire into her, and to +rouse up all her powerful faculties. There is neither reason, force, nor +prescription that can anything prevail against her inclination and +choice. Of so many thousands of biases that she has at her disposal, let +us give her one proper to our repose and conversation, and then we shall +not only be sheltered and secured from all manner of injury and offence, +but moreover gratified and obliged, if she will, with evils and offences. +She makes her profit indifferently of all things; error, dreams, serve +her to good use, as loyal matter to lodge us in safety and contentment. +'Tis plain enough to be seen that 'tis the sharpness of our mind that +gives the edge to our pains and pleasures: beasts that have no such +thing, leave to their bodies their own free and natural sentiments, and +consequently in every kind very near the same, as appears by the +resembling application of their motions. If we would not disturb in our +members the jurisdiction that appertains to them in this, 'tis to be +believed it would be the better for us, and that nature has given them a +just and moderate temper both to pleasure and pain; neither can it fail +of being just, being equal and common. But seeing we have enfranchised +ourselves from her rules to give ourselves up to the rambling liberty of +our own fancies, let us at least help to incline them to the most +agreeable side. Plato fears our too vehemently engaging ourselves with +pain and pleasure, forasmuch as these too much knit and ally the soul to +the body; whereas I rather, quite contrary, by reason it too much +separates and disunites them. As an enemy is made more fierce by our +flight, so pain grows proud to see us truckle under her. She will +surrender upon much better terms to them who make head against her: a man +must oppose and stoutly set himself against her. In retiring and giving +ground, we invite and pull upon ourselves the ruin that threatens us. As +the body is more firm in an encounter, the more stiffly and obstinately +it applies itself to it, so is it with the soul. + +But let us come to examples, which are the proper game of folks of such +feeble force as myself; where we shall find that it is with pain as with +stones, that receive a brighter or a duller lustre according to the foil +they are set in, and that it has no more room in us than we are pleased +to allow it: + + "Tantum doluerunt, quantum doloribus se inseruerunt." + + ["They suffered so much the more, by how much more they gave way to + suffering."--St. Augustin, De Civit. Dei, i. 10.] + +We are more sensible of one little touch of a surgeon's lancet than of +twenty wounds with a sword in the heat of fight. The pains of +childbearing, said by the physicians and by God himself to be great, and +which we pass through with so many ceremonies--there are whole nations +that make nothing of them. I set aside the Lacedaemonian women, but what +else do you find in the Swiss among our foot-soldiers, if not that, as +they trot after their husbands, you see them to-day carry the child at +their necks that they carried yesterday in their bellies? The +counterfeit Egyptians we have amongst us go themselves to wash theirs, +so soon as they come into the world, and bathe in the first river they +meet. Besides so many wenches as daily drop their children by stealth, +as they conceived them, that fair and noble wife of Sabinus, a patrician +of Rome, for another's interest, endured alone, without help, without +crying out, or so much as a groan, the bearing of twins.--[Plutarch, On +Love, c. 34.]--A poor simple boy of Lacedaemon having stolen a fox (for +they more fear the shame of stupidity in stealing than we do the +punishment of the knavery), and having got it under his coat, rather +endured the tearing out of his bowels than he would discover his theft. +And another offering incense at a sacrifice, suffered himself to be +burned to the bone by a coal that fell into his sleeve, rather than +disturb the ceremony. And there have been a great number, for a sole +trial of virtue, following their institutions, who have at seven years +old endured to be whipped to death without changing their countenance. +And Cicero has seen them fight in parties, with fists, feet, and teeth, +till they have fainted and sunk down, rather than confess themselves +overcome: + + ["Custom could never conquer nature; she is ever invincible; but we + have infected the mind with shadows, delights, negligence, sloth; + we have grown effeminate through opinions and corrupt morality." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 27.] + +Every one knows the story of Scaevola, that having slipped into the +enemy's camp to kill their general, and having missed his blow, to repair +his fault, by a more strange invention and to deliver his country, he +boldly confessed to Porsenna, who was the king he had a purpose to kill, +not only his design, but moreover added that there were then in the camp +a great number of Romans, his accomplices in the enterprise, as good men +as he; and to show what a one he himself was, having caused a pan of +burning coals to be brought, he saw and endured his arm to broil and +roast, till the king himself, conceiving horror at the sight, commanded +the pan to be taken away. What would you say of him that would not +vouchsafe to respite his reading in a book whilst he was under incision? +And of the other that persisted to mock and laugh in contempt of the +pains inflicted upon him; so that the provoked cruelty of the +executioners that had him in handling, and all the inventions of tortures +redoubled upon him, one after another, spent in vain, gave him the +bucklers? But he was a philosopher. But what! a gladiator of Caesar's +endured, laughing all the while, his wounds to be searched, lanced, and +laid open: + + ["What ordinary gladiator ever groaned? Which of them ever changed + countenance? Which of them not only stood or fell indecorously? + Which, when he had fallen and was commanded to receive the stroke of + the sword, contracted his neck."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 17.] + + +Let us bring in the women too. Who has not heard at Paris of her that +caused her face to be flayed only for the fresher complexion of a new +skin? There are who have drawn good and sound teeth to make their voices +more soft and sweet, or to place the other teeth in better order. How +many examples of the contempt of pain have we in that sex? What can they +not do, what do they fear to do, for never so little hope of an addition +to their beauty? + + "Vallere queis cura est albos a stirpe capillos, + Et faciem, dempta pelle, referre novam." + + ["Who carefully pluck out their grey hairs by the roots, and renew + their faces by peeling off the old skin."--Tibullus, i. 8, 45.] + +I have seen some of them swallow sand, ashes, and do their utmost to +destroy their stomachs to get pale complexions. To make a fine Spanish +body, what racks will they not endure of girding and bracing, till they +have notches in their sides cut into the very quick, and sometimes to +death? + +It is an ordinary thing with several nations at this day to wound +themselves in good earnest to gain credit to what they profess; of which +our king, relates notable examples of what he has seen in Poland and done +towards himself.--[Henry III.]--But besides this, which I know to have +been imitated by some in France, when I came from that famous assembly of +the Estates at Blois, I had a little before seen a maid in Picardy, who +to manifest the ardour of her promises, as also her constancy, give +herself, with a bodkin she wore in her hair, four or five good lusty +stabs in the arm, till the blood gushed out to some purpose. The Turks +give themselves great scars in honour of their mistresses, and to the end +they may the longer remain, they presently clap fire to the wound, where +they hold it an incredible time to stop the blood and form the cicatrice; +people that have been eyewitnesses of it have both written and sworn it +to me. But for ten aspers--[A Turkish coin worth about a penny]--there +are there every day fellows to be found that will give themselves a good +deep slash in the arms or thighs. I am willing, however, to have the +testimonies nearest to us when we have most need of them; for Christendom +furnishes us with enough. After the example of our blessed Guide there +have been many who have crucified themselves. We learn by testimony very +worthy of belief, that King St. Louis wore a hair-shirt till in his old +age his confessor gave him a dispensation to leave it off; and that every +Friday he caused his shoulders to be drubbed by his priest with five +small chains of iron which were always carried about amongst his night +accoutrements for that purpose. + +William, our last Duke of Guienne, the father of that Eleanor who +transmitted that duchy to the houses of France and England, continually +for the last ten or twelve years of his life wore a suit of armour under +a religious habit by way of penance. Foulke, Count of Anjou, went as far +as Jerusalem, there to cause himself to be whipped by two of his +servants, with a rope about his neck, before the sepulchre of our Lord. +But do we not, moreover, every Good Friday, in various places, see great +numbers of men and women beat and whip themselves till they lacerate and +cut the flesh to the very bones? I have often seen it, and 'tis without +any enchantment; and it was said there were some amongst them (for they +go disguised) who for money undertook by this means to save harmless the +religion of others, by a contempt of pain, so much the greater, as the +incentives of devotion are more effectual than those of avarice. +Q. Maximus buried his son when he was a consul, and M. Cato his when +praetor elect, and L. Paulus both his, within a few days one after +another, with such a countenance as expressed no manner of grief. I said +once merrily of a certain person, that he had disappointed the divine +justice; for the violent death of three grown-up children of his being +one day sent him, for a severe scourge, as it is to be supposed, he was +so far from being afflicted at the accident, that he rather took it for a +particular grace and favour of heaven. I do not follow these monstrous +humours, though I lost two or three at nurse, if not without grief, at +least without repining, and yet there is hardly any accident that pierces +nearer to the quick. I see a great many other occasions of sorrow, that +should they happen to me I should hardly feel; and have despised some, +when they have befallen me, to which the world has given so terrible a +figure that I should blush to boast of my constancy: + + "Ex quo intelligitur, non in natura, sed in opinione, + esse aegritudinem." + + ["By which one may understand that grief is not in nature, but in + opinion."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iii. 28.] + +Opinion is a powerful party, bold, and without measure. Who ever so +greedily hunted after security and repose as Alexander and Caesar did +after disturbance and difficulties? Teres, the father of Sitalces, was +wont to say that when he had no wars, he fancied there was no difference +betwixt him and his groom." Cato the consul, to secure some cities of +Spain from revolt, only interdicting the inhabitants from wearing arms, a +great many killed themselves: + + "Ferox gens, nullam vitam rati sine armis esse." + + ["A fierce people, who thought there was no life without war." + --Livy, xxxiv. 17.] + +How many do we know who have forsaken the calm and sweetness of a quiet +life at home amongst their acquaintance, to seek out the horror of +unhabitable deserts; and having precipitated themselves into so abject a +condition as to become the scorn and contempt of the world, have hugged +themselves with the conceit, even to affectation. Cardinal Borromeo, who +died lately at Milan, amidst all the jollity that the air of Italy, his +youth, birth, and great riches, invited him to, kept himself in so +austere a way of living, that the same robe he wore in summer served him +for winter too; he had only straw for his bed, and his hours of leisure +from affairs he continually spent in study upon his knees, having a +little bread and a glass of water set by his book, which was all the +provision of his repast, and all the time he spent in eating. + +I know some who consentingly have acquired both profit and advancement +from cuckoldom, of which the bare name only affrights so many people. + +If the sight be not the most necessary of all our senses, 'tis at least +the most pleasant; but the most pleasant and most useful of all our +members seem to be those of generation; and yet a great many have +conceived a mortal hatred against them only for this, that they were too +pleasant, and have deprived themselves of them only for their value: +as much thought he of his eyes that put them out. The generality and +more solid sort of men look upon abundance of children as a great +blessing; I, and some others, think it as great a benefit to be without +them. And when you ask Thales why he does not marry, he tells you, +because he has no mind to leave any posterity behind him. + +That our opinion gives the value to things is very manifest in the great +number of those which we do, not so much prizing them, as ourselves, and +never considering either their virtues or their use, but only how dear +they cost us, as though that were a part of their substance; and we only +repute for value in them, not what they bring to us, but what we add to +them. By which I understand that we are great economisers of our +expense: as it weighs, it serves for so much as it weighs. Our opinion +will never suffer it to want of its value: the price gives value to the +diamond; difficulty to virtue; suffering to devotion; and griping to +physic. A certain person, to be poor, threw his crowns into the same sea +to which so many come, in all parts of the world, to fish for riches. +Epicurus says that to be rich is no relief, but only an alteration, of +affairs. In truth, it is not want, but rather abundance, that creates +avarice. I will deliver my own experience concerning this affair. + +I have since my emergence from childhood lived in three sorts of +conditions. The first, which continued for some twenty years, I passed +over without any other means but what were casual and depending upon the +allowance and assistance of others, without stint, but without certain +revenue. I then spent my money so much the more cheerfully, and with so +much the less care how it went, as it wholly depended upon my +overconfidence of fortune. I never lived more at my ease; I never had +the repulse of finding the purse of any of my friends shut against me, +having enjoined myself this necessity above all other necessities +whatever, by no means to fail of payment at the appointed time, which +also they have a thousand times respited, seeing how careful I was to +satisfy them; so that I practised at once a thrifty, and withal a kind of +alluring, honesty. I naturally feel a kind of pleasure in paying, as if +I eased my shoulders of a troublesome weight and freed myself from an +image of slavery; as also that I find a ravishing kind of satisfaction in +pleasing another and doing a just action. I except payments where the +trouble of bargaining and reckoning is required; and in such cases; where +I can meet with nobody to ease me of that charge, I delay them, how +scandalously and injuriously soever, all I possibly can, for fear of the +wranglings for which both my humour and way of speaking are so totally +improper and unfit. There is nothing I hate so much as driving a +bargain; 'tis a mere traffic of cozenage and impudence, where, after an +hour's cheapening and hesitating, both parties abandon their word and +oath for five sols' abatement. Yet I always borrowed at great +disadvantage; for, wanting the confidence to speak to the person myself, +I committed my request to the persuasion of a letter, which usually is no +very successful advocate, and is of very great advantage to him who has a +mind to deny. I, in those days, more jocundly and freely referred the +conduct of my affairs to the stars, than I have since done to my own +providence and judgment. Most good managers look upon it as a horrible +thing to live always thus in uncertainty, and do not consider, in the +first place, that the greatest part of the world live so: how many worthy +men have wholly abandoned their own certainties, and yet daily do it, to +the winds, to trust to the inconstant favour of princes and of fortune? +Caesar ran above a million of gold, more than he was worth, in debt to +become Caesar; and how many merchants have begun their traffic by the +sale of their farms, which they sent into the Indies, + + "Tot per impotentia freta." + + ["Through so many ungovernable seas."--Catullus, iv. 18.] + +In so great a siccity of devotion as we see in these days, we have a +thousand and a thousand colleges that pass it over commodiously enough, +expecting every day their dinner from the liberality of Heaven. +Secondly, they do not take notice that this certitude upon which they so +much rely is not much less uncertain and hazardous than hazard itself. +I see misery as near beyond two thousand crowns a year as if it stood +close by me; for besides that it is in the power of chance to make a +hundred breaches to poverty through the greatest strength of our riches-- +there being very often no mean betwixt the highest and the lowest +fortune: + + "Fortuna vitrea est: turn, quum splendet, frangitur," + + ["Fortune is glass: in its greatest brightness it breaks." + --Ex Mim. P. Syrus.] + +and to turn all our barricadoes and bulwarks topsy-turvy, I find that, by +divers causes, indigence is as frequently seen to inhabit with those who +have estates as with those that have none; and that, peradventure, it is +then far less grievous when alone than when accompanied with riches. +These flow more from good management than from revenue; + + "Faber est suae quisque fortunae" + + ["Every one is the maker of his own fortune." + --Sallust, De Repub. Ord., i. I.] + +and an uneasy, necessitous, busy, rich man seems to me more miserable +than he that is simply poor. + + "In divitiis mopes, quod genus egestatis gravissimum est." + + ["Poor in the midst of riches, which is the sorest kind of poverty." + --Seneca, Ep., 74.] + +The greatest and most wealthy princes are by poverty and want driven to +the most extreme necessity; for can there be any more extreme than to +become tyrants and unjust usurpers of their subjects' goods and estates? + +My second condition of life was to have money of my own, wherein I so +ordered the matter that I had soon laid up a very notable sum out of a +mean fortune, considering with myself that that only was to be reputed +having which a man reserves from his ordinary expense, and that a man +cannot absolutely rely upon revenue he hopes to receive, how clear soever +the hope may be. For what, said I, if I should be surprised by such or +such an accident? And after such-like vain and vicious imaginations, +would very learnedly, by this hoarding of money, provide against all +inconveniences; and could, moreover, answer such as objected to me that +the number of these was too infinite, that if I could not lay up for all, +I could, however, do it at least for some and for many. Yet was not this +done without a great deal of solicitude and anxiety of mind; I kept it +very close, and though I dare talk so boldly of myself, never spoke of my +money, but falsely, as others do, who being rich, pretend to be poor, and +being poor, pretend to be rich, dispensing their consciences from ever +telling sincerely what they have: a ridiculous and shameful prudence. +Was I going a journey? Methought I was never enough provided: and the +more I loaded myself with money, the more also was I loaded with fear, +one while of the danger of the roads, another of the fidelity of him who +had the charge of my baggage, of whom, as some others that I know, I was +never sufficiently secure if I had him not always in my eye. If I +chanced to leave my cash-box behind me, O, what strange suspicions and +anxiety of mind did I enter into, and, which was worse, without daring to +acquaint anybody with it. My mind was eternally taken up with such +things as these, so that, all things considered, there is more trouble in +keeping money than in getting it. And if I did not altogether so much as +I say, or was not really so scandalously solicitous of my money as I have +made myself out to be, yet it cost me something at least to restrain +myself from being so. I reaped little or no advantage by what I had, and +my expenses seemed nothing less to me for having the more to spend; for, +as Bion said, the hairy men are as angry as the bald to be pulled; and +after you are once accustomed to it and have once set your heart upon +your heap, it is no more at your service; you cannot find in your heart +to break it: 'tis a building that you will fancy must of necessity all +tumble down to ruin if you stir but the least pebble; necessity must +first take you by the throat before you can prevail upon yourself to +touch it; and I would sooner have pawned anything I had, or sold a horse, +and with much less constraint upon myself, than have made the least +breach in that beloved purse I had so carefully laid by. But the danger +was that a man cannot easily prescribe certain limits to this desire +(they are hard to find in things that a man conceives to be good), and to +stint this good husbandry so that it may not degenerate into avarice: men +still are intent upon adding to the heap and increasing the stock from +sum to sum, till at last they vilely deprive themselves of the enjoyment +of their own proper goods, and throw all into reserve, without making any +use of them at all. According to this rule, they are the richest people +in the world who are set to guard the walls and gates of a wealthy city. +All moneyed men I conclude to be covetous. Plato places corporal or +human goods in this order: health, beauty, strength, riches; and riches, +says he, are not blind, but very clear-sighted, when illuminated by +prudence. Dionysius the son did a very handsome act upon this subject; +he was informed that one of the Syracusans had hid a treasure in the +earth, and thereupon sent to the man to bring it to him, which he +accordingly did, privately reserving a small part of it only to himself, +with which he went to another city, where being cured of his appetite of +hoarding, he began to live at a more liberal rate; which Dionysius +hearing, caused the rest of his treasure to be restored to him, saying, +that since he had learned to use it, he very willingly returned it back +to him. + +I continued some years in this hoarding humour, when I know not what good +demon fortunately put me out of it, as he did the Syracusan, and made me +throw abroad all my reserve at random, the pleasure of a certain journey +I took at very great expense having made me spurn this fond love of money +underfoot; by which means I am now fallen into a third way of living (I +speak what I think of it), doubtless much more pleasant and regular, +which is, that I live at the height of my revenue; sometimes the one, +sometimes the other may perhaps exceed, but 'tis very little and but +rarely that they differ. I live from hand to mouth, and content myself +in having sufficient for my present and ordinary expense; for as to +extraordinary occasions, all the laying up in the world would never +suffice. And 'tis the greatest folly imaginable to expect that fortune +should ever sufficiently arm us against herself; 'tis with our own arms +that we are to fight her; accidental ones will betray us in the pinch of +the business. If I lay up, 'tis for some near and contemplated purpose; +not to purchase lands, of which I have no need, but to purchase pleasure: + + "Non esse cupidum, pecunia est; non esse emacem, vertigal est." + + ["Not to be covetous, is money; not to be acquisitive, is revenue." + --Cicero, Paradox., vi. 3.] + +I neither am in any great apprehension of wanting, nor in desire of any +more: + + "Divinarum fructus est in copia; copiam declarat satietas." + + ["The fruit of riches is in abundance; satiety declares abundance." + --Idem, ibid., vi. 2.] + +And I am very well pleased that this reformation in me has fallen out in +an age naturally inclined to avarice, and that I see myself cleared of a +folly so common to old men, and the most ridiculous of all human follies. + +Feraulez, a man that had run through both fortunes, and found that the +increase of substance was no increase of appetite either to eating or +drinking, sleeping or the enjoyment of his wife, and who on the other +side felt the care of his economics lie heavy upon his shoulders, as it +does on mine, was resolved to please a poor young man, his faithful +friend, who panted after riches, and made him a gift of all his, which +were excessively great, and, moreover, of all he was in the daily way of +getting by the liberality of Cyrus, his good master, and by the war; +conditionally that he should take care handsomely to maintain and +plentifully to entertain him as his guest and friend; which being +accordingly done, they afterwards lived very happily together, both of +them equally content with the change of their condition. 'Tis an example +that I could imitate with all my heart; and I very much approve the +fortune of the aged prelate whom I see to have so absolutely stripped +himself of his purse, his revenue, and care of his expense, committing +them one while to one trusty servant, and another while to another, that +he his spun out a long succession of years, as ignorant, by this means, +of his domestic affairs as a mere stranger. + +The confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's +own, and God willingly favours such a confidence. As to what concerns +him of whom I am speaking, I see nowhere a better governed house, more +nobly and constantly maintained than his. Happy to have regulated his +affairs to so just a proportion that his estate is sufficient to do it +without his care or trouble, and without any hindrance, either in the +spending or laying it up, to his other more quiet employments, and more +suitable both to his place and liking. + +Plenty, then, and indigence depend upon the opinion every one has of +them; and riches no more than glory or health have other beauty or +pleasure than he lends them by whom they are possessed. + +Every one is well or ill at ease, according as he so finds himself; not +he whom the world believes, but he who believes himself to be so, is +content; and in this alone belief gives itself being and reality. +Fortune does us neither good nor hurt; she only presents us the matter +and the seed, which our soul, more powerful than she, turns and applies +as she best pleases; the sole cause and sovereign mistress of her own +happy or unhappy condition. All external accessions receive taste and +colour from the internal constitution, as clothes warm us, not with their +heat, but our own, which they are fit to cover and nourish; he who would +shield therewith a cold body, would do the same service for the cold, for +so snow and ice are preserved. And, certes, after the same manner that +study is a torment to an idle man, abstinence from wine to a drunkard, +frugality to the spendthrift, and exercise to a lazy, tender-bred fellow, +so it is of all the rest. The things are not so painful and difficult of +themselves, but our weakness or cowardice makes them so. To judge of +great, and high matters requires a suitable soul; otherwise we attribute +the vice to them which is really our own. A straight oar seems crooked +in the water it does not only import that we see the thing, but how and +after what manner we see it. + +After all this, why, amongst so many discourses that by so many arguments +persuade men to despise death and to endure pain, can we not find out one +that helps us? And of so many sorts of imaginations as have so prevailed +upon others as to persuade them to do so, why does not every one apply +some one to himself, the most suitable to his own humour? If he cannot +digest a strong-working decoction to eradicate the evil, let him at least +take a lenitive to ease it: + + ["It is an effeminate and flimsy opinion, nor more so in pain than + in pleasure, in which, while we are at our ease, we cannot bear + without a cry the sting of a bee. The whole business is to commend + thyself."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 22.] + +As to the rest, a man does not transgress philosophy by permitting the +acrimony of pains and human frailty to prevail so much above measure; for +they constrain her to go back to her unanswerable replies: "If it be ill +to live in necessity, at least there is no necessity upon a man to live +in necessity": "No man continues ill long but by his own fault." He who +has neither the courage to die nor the heart to live, who will neither +resist nor fly, what can we do with him? + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +NOT TO COMMUNICATE A MAN'S HONOUR + +Of all the follies of the world, that which is most universally received +is the solicitude of reputation and glory; which we are fond of to that +degree as to abandon riches, peace, life, and health, which are effectual +and substantial goods, to pursue this vain phantom and empty word, that +has neither body nor hold to be taken of it: + + La fama, ch'invaghisce a un dolce suono + Gli superbi mortali, et par si bella, + E un eco, un sogno, anzi d'un sogno un'ombra, + Ch'ad ogni vento si dilegua a sgombra." + + ["Fame, which with alluring sound charms proud mortals, and appears + so fair, is but an echo, a dream, nay, the shadow of a dream, which + at every breath vanishes and dissolves." + --Tasso, Gerus., xiv. 63.] + +And of all the irrational humours of men, it should seem that the +philosophers themselves are among the last and the most reluctant to +disengage themselves from this: 'tis the most restive and obstinate of +all: + + "Quia etiam bene proficientes animos tentare non cessat." + + ["Because it ceases not to assail even well-directed minds" + --St. Augustin, De Civit. Dei, v. 14.] + +There is not any one of which reason so clearly accuses the vanity; but +it is so deeply rooted in us that I dare not determine whether any one +ever clearly discharged himself from it or no. After you have said all +and believed all has been said to its prejudice, it produces so intestine +an inclination in opposition to your best arguments that you have little +power to resist it; for, as Cicero says, even those who most controvert +it, would yet that the books they write about it should visit the light +under their own names, and seek to derive glory from seeming to despise +it. All other things are communicable and fall into commerce: we lend +our goods and stake our lives for the necessity and service of our +friends; but to communicate a man's honour, and to robe another with a +man's own glory, is very rarely seen. + +And yet we have some examples of that kind. Catulus Luctatius in the +Cimbrian war, having done all that in him lay to make his flying soldiers +face about upon the enemy, ran himself at last away with the rest, and +counterfeited the coward, to the end his men might rather seem to follow +their captain than to fly from the enemy; which was to abandon his own +reputation in order to cover the shame of others. When Charles V. came +into Provence in the year 1537, 'tis said that Antonio de Leva, seeing +the emperor positively resolved upon this expedition, and believing it +would redound very much to his honour, did, nevertheless, very stiffly +oppose it in the council, to the end that the entire glory of that +resolution should be attributed to his master, and that it might be said +his own wisdom and foresight had been such as that, contrary to the +opinion of all, he had brought about so great an enterprise; which was to +do him honour at his own expense. The Thracian ambassadors coming to +comfort Archileonida, the mother of Brasidas, upon the death of her son, +and commending him to that height as to say he had not left his like +behind him, she rejected this private and particular commendation to +attribute it to the public: "Tell me not that," said she; "I know the +city of Sparta has many citizens both greater and of greater worth than +he." In the battle of Crecy, the Prince of Wales, being then very +young, had the vanguard committed to him: the main stress of the battle +happened to be in that place, which made the lords who were with him, +finding themselves overmatched, send to King Edward to advance to their +relief. He inquired of the condition his son was in, and being answered +that he was alive and on horseback: "I should, then, do him wrong," said +the king, "now to go and deprive him of the honour of winning this battle +he has so long and so bravely sustained; what hazard soever he runs, that +shall be entirely his own"; and, accordingly, would neither go nor send, +knowing that if he went, it would be said all had been lost without his +succour, and that the honour of the victory would be wholly attributed to +him. + + "Semper enim quod postremum adjectum est, + id rem totam videtur traxisse." + + ["For always that which is last added, seems to have accomplished + the whole affair."--Livy, xxvii. 45.] + +Many at Rome thought, and would usually say, that the greatest of +Scipio's acts were in part due to Laelius, whose constant practice it was +still to advance and support Scipio's grandeur and renown, without any +care of his own. And Theopompus, king of Sparta, to him who told him the +republic could not miscarry since he knew so well how to command, "Tis +rather," answered he, "because the people know so well how to obey." +As women succeeding to peerages had, notwithstanding their sex, the +privilege to attend and give their votes in the trials that appertained +to the jurisdiction of peers; so the ecclesiastical peers, +notwithstanding their profession, were obliged to attend our kings in +their wars, not only with their friends and servants, but in their own +persons. As the Bishop of Beauvais did, who being with Philip Augustus +at the battle of Bouvines, had a notable share in that action; but he did +not think it fit for him to participate in the fruit and glory of that +violent and bloody trade. He with his own hand reduced several of the +enemy that day to his mercy, whom he delivered to the first gentleman he +met either to kill or receive them to quarter, referring the whole +execution to this other hand; and he did this with regard to William, +Earl of Salisbury, whom he gave up to Messire Jehan de Nesle. With a +like subtlety of conscience to that I have just named, he would kill but +not wound, and for that reason ever fought with a mace. And a certain +person of my time, being reproached by the king that he had laid hands on +a priest, stiffly and positively denied he had done any such thing: the +meaning of which was, he had cudgelled and kicked him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +OF THE INEQUALITY AMOUNGST US. + +Plutarch says somewhere that he does not find so great a difference +betwixt beast and beast as he does betwixt man and man; which he says in +reference to the internal qualities and perfections of the soul. And, in +truth, I find so vast a distance betwixt Epaminondas, according to my +judgment of him, and some that I know, who are yet men of good sense, +that I could willingly enhance upon Plutarch, and say that there is more +difference betwixt such and such a man than there is betwixt such a man +and such a beast: + + ["Ah! how much may one man surpass another!" + --Terence, Eunuchus, ii. 2.] + +and that there are as many and innumerable degrees of mind as there are +cubits betwixt this and heaven. But as touching the estimate of men, +'tis strange that, ourselves excepted, no other creature is esteemed +beyond its proper qualities; we commend a horse for his strength and +sureness of foot, + + "Volucrem + Sic laudamus equum, facili cui plurima palma + Fervet, et exsultat rauco victoria circo," + + ["So we praise the swift horse, for whose easy mastery many a hand + glows in applause, and victory exults in the hoarse circus. + --"Juvenal, viii. 57.] + +and not for his rich caparison; a greyhound for his speed of heels, not +for his fine collar; a hawk for her wing, not for her gesses and bells. +Why, in like manner, do we not value a man for what is properly his own? +He has a great train, a beautiful palace, so much credit, so many +thousand pounds a year: all these are about him, but not in him. You +will not buy a pig in a poke: if you cheapen a horse, you will see him +stripped of his housing-cloths, you will see him naked and open to your +eye; or if he be clothed, as they anciently were wont to present them to +princes to sell, 'tis only on the less important parts, that you may not +so much consider the beauty of his colour or the breadth of his crupper, +as principally to examine his legs, eyes, and feet, which are the members +of greatest use: + + "Regibus hic mos est: ubi equos mercantur, opertos + Inspiciunt; ne, si facies, ut saepe, decora + Molli fulta pede est, emptorem inducat hiantem" + + ["This is the custom of kings: when they buy horses, they have open + inspection, lest, if a fair head, as often chances, is supported by + a weak foot, it should tempt the gaping purchaser." + --Horace, Sat., i. 2, 86.] + +why, in giving your estimate of a man, do you prize him wrapped and +muffled up in clothes? He then discovers nothing to you but such parts +as are not in the least his own, and conceals those by which alone one +may rightly judge of his value. 'Tis the price of the blade that you +inquire into, not of the scabbard: you would not peradventure bid a +farthing for him, if you saw him stripped. You are to judge him by +himself and not by what he wears; and, as one of the ancients very +pleasantly said: "Do you know why you repute him tall? You reckon withal +the height of his pattens."--[Seneca, Ep. 76.]--The pedestal is no part +of the statue. Measure him without his stilts; let him lay aside his +revenues and his titles; let him present himself in his shirt. Then +examine if his body be sound and sprightly, active and disposed to +perform its functions. What soul has he? Is she beautiful, capable, and +happily provided of all her faculties? Is she rich of what is her own, +or of what she has borrowed? Has fortune no hand in the affair? Can +she, without winking, stand the lightning of swords? is she indifferent +whether her life expire by the mouth or through the throat? Is she +settled, even and content? This is what is to be examined, and by that +you are to judge of the vast differences betwixt man and man. Is he: + + "Sapiens, sibique imperiosus, + Quern neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent; + Responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores + Fortis; et in seipso totus teres atque rotundus, + Externi ne quid valeat per laeve morari; + In quem manca ruit semper fortuna?" + + + ["The wise man, self-governed, whom neither poverty, nor death, + nor chains affright: who has the strength to resist his appetites + and to contemn honours: who is wholly self-contained: whom no + external objects affect: whom fortune assails in vain." + --Horace, Sat., ii. 7,] + +such a man is five hundred cubits above kingdoms and duchies; he is an +absolute monarch in and to himself: + + "Sapiens, . . . Pol! ipse fingit fortunam sibi;" + + ["The wise man is the master of his own fortune," + --Plautus, Trin., ii. 2, 84.] + +what remains for him to covet or desire? + + "Nonne videmus, + Nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut, quoi + Corpore sejunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur, + Jucundo sensu, cura semotu' metuque?" + + ["Do we not see that human nature asks no more for itself than + that, free from bodily pain, it may exercise its mind agreeably, + exempt from care and fear."--Lucretius, ii. 16.] + +Compare with such a one the common rabble of mankind, stupid and mean- +spirited, servile, instable, and continually floating with the tempest of +various passions, that tosses and tumbles them to and fro, and all +depending upon others, and you will find a greater distance than betwixt +heaven and earth; and yet the blindness of common usage is such that we +make little or no account of it; whereas if we consider a peasant and a +king, a nobleman and a vassal, a magistrate and a private man, a rich man +and a poor, there appears a vast disparity, though they differ no more, +as a man may say, than in their breeches. + +In Thrace the king was distinguished from his people after a very +pleasant and especial manner; he had a religion by himself, a god all his +own, and which his subjects were not to presume to adore, which was +Mercury, whilst, on the other hand, he disdained to have anything to do +with theirs, Mars, Bacchus, and Diana. And yet they are no other than +pictures that make no essential dissimilitude; for as you see actors in a +play representing the person of a duke or an emperor upon the stage, and +immediately after return to their true and original condition of valets +and porters, so the emperor, whose pomp and lustre so dazzle you in +public: + + "Scilicet grandes viridi cum luce smaragdi + Auto includuntur, teriturque thalassina vestis + Assidue, et Veneris sudorem exercita potat;" + + ["Because he wears great emeralds richly set in gold, darting green + lustre; and the sea-blue silken robe, worn with pressure, and moist + with illicit love (and absorbs the sweat of Venus)." + --Lucretius, iv. 1123.] + +do but peep behind the curtain, and you will see no thing more than an +ordinary man, and peradventure more contemptible than the meanest of his +subjects: + + "Ille beatus introrsum est, istius bracteata felicitas est;" + + ["The one is happy in himself; the happiness of the other is + counterfeit."--Seneca, Ep., 115.] + +cowardice, irresolution, ambition, spite, and envy agitate him as much as +another: + + "Non enim gazae, neque consularis + Submovet lictor miseros tumultus + Mentis, et curas laqueata circum + Tecta volantes." + + ["For not treasures, nor the consular lictor, can remove the + miserable tumults of the mind, nor cares that fly about panelled + ceilings."--Horace, Od., ii. 16, 9.] + +Care and fear attack him even in the centre of his battalions: + + "Re veraque metus hominum curaeque sequaces + Nec metuunt sonitus armorum, nee fera tela; + Audacterque inter reges, rerumque potentes + Versantur, neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro." + + ["And in truth the fears and haunting cares of men fear not the + clash of arms nor points of darts, and mingle boldly with great + kings and men in authority, nor respect the glitter of gold." + --Lucretius, ii. 47.] + +Do fevers, gout, and apoplexies spare him any more than one of us? When +old age hangs heavy upon his shoulders, can the yeomen of his guard ease +him of the burden? When he is astounded with the apprehension of death, +can the gentlemen of his bedchamber comfort and assure him? When +jealousy or any other caprice swims in his brain, can our compliments and +ceremonies restore him to his good-humour? The canopy embroidered with +pearl and gold he lies under has no virtue against a violent fit of the +colic: + + "Nee calidae citius decedunt corpore febres + Textilibus si in picturis, ostroque rubenti + Jactaris, quam si plebeia in veste cubandum est." + + ["Nor do burning fevers quit you sooner if you are stretched on a + couch of rich tapestry and in a vest of purple dye, than if you be + in a coarse blanket."--Idem, ii. 34.] + +The flatterers of Alexander the Great possessed him that he was the son +of Jupiter; but being one day wounded, and observing the blood stream +from his wound: "What say you now, my masters," said he, "is not this +blood of a crimson colour and purely human? This is not of the +complexion of that which Homer makes to issue from the wounded gods." +The poet Hermodorus had written a poem in honour of Antigonus, wherein he +called him the son of the sun: "He who has the emptying of my close- +stool," said Antigonus, "knows to the contrary." He is but a man at +best, and if he be deformed or ill-qualified from his birth, the empire +of the universe cannot set him to rights: + + "Puellae + Hunc rapiant; quidquid calcaverit hic, rosa fiat," + + ["Let girls carry him off; wherever he steps let there spring up a + rose!"--Persius, Sat., ii. 38.] + +what of all that, if he be a fool? even pleasure and good fortune are +not relished without vigour and understanding: + + "Haec perinde sunt, ut ilius animus; qui ea possidet + Qui uti scit, ei bona; illi, qui non uritur recte, mala." + + ["Things are, as is the mind of their possessor; who knows how to + use them, to him they are good; to him who abuses them, ill." + --Terence, Heart., i. 3, 21.] + +Whatever the benefits of fortune are, they yet require a palate to relish +them. 'Tis fruition, and not possession, that renders us happy: + + ["'Tis not lands, or a heap of brass and gold, that has removed + fevers from the ailing body of the owner, or cares from his mind. + The possessor must be healthy, if he thinks to make good use of his + realised wealth. To him who is covetous or timorous his house and + estate are as a picture to a blind man, or a fomentation to a + gouty."--Horace, Ep., i. 2, 47.] + +He is a sot, his taste is palled and flat; he no more enjoys what he has +than one that has a cold relishes the flavour of canary, or than a horse +is sensible of his rich caparison. Plato is in the right when he tells +us that health, beauty, vigour, and riches, and all the other things +called goods, are equally evil to the unjust as good to the just, and the +evil on the contrary the same. And therefore where the body and the mind +are in disorder, to what use serve these external conveniences: +considering that the least prick with a pin, or the least passion of the +soul, is sufficient to deprive one of the pleasure of being sole monarch +of the world. At the first twitch of the gout it signifies much to be +called Sir and Your Majesty! + + "Totus et argento conflatus, totus et auro;" + + ["Wholly made up of silver and gold."--Tibullus, i. 2, 70.] + +does he not forget his palaces and girandeurs? If he be angry, can his +being a prince keep him from looking red and looking pale, and grinding +his teeth like a madman? Now, if he be a man of parts and of right +nature, royalty adds very little to his happiness; + + "Si ventri bene, si lateri est, pedibusque tuffs, nil + Divitix poterunt regales addere majus;" + + ["If it is well with thy belly, thy side and thy feet, regal wealth + will be able to add nothing."--Horace, Ep., i. 12, 5.] + +he discerns 'tis nothing but counterfeit and gullery. Nay, perhaps he +would be of King Seleucus' opinion, that he who knew the weight of a +sceptre would not stoop to pick it up, if he saw it lying before him, so +great and painful are the duties incumbent upon a good king.--[Plutarch, +If a Sage should Meddle with Affairs of Stale, c. 12.]--Assuredly it can +be no easy task to rule others, when we find it so hard a matter to +govern ourselves; and as to dominion, that seems so charming, the frailty +of human judgment and the difficulty of choice in things that are new and +doubtful considered, I am very much of opinion that it is far more easy +and pleasant to follow than to lead; and that it is a great settlement +and satisfaction of mind to have only one path to walk in, and to have +none to answer for but a man's self; + + "Ut satius multo jam sit parere quietum, + Quam regere imperio res velle." + + ["'Tis much better quietly to obey than wish to rule." + --Lucretius, V, 1126.] + +To which we may add that saying of Cyrus, that no man was fit to rule but +he who in his own worth was of greater value than those he was to govern; +but King Hiero in Xenophon says further, that in the fruition even of +pleasure itself they are in a worse condition than private men; forasmuch +as the opportunities and facility they have of commanding those things at +will takes off from the delight that ordinary folks enjoy: + + "Pinguis amor, nimiumque patens, in taedia nobis + Vertitur, et, stomacho dulcis ut esca, nocet." + + ["Love in excess and too palpable turns to weariness, and, like + sweetmeats to the stomach, is injurious."--Ovid, Amoy., ii. 19, 25.] + +Can we think that the singing boys of the choir take any great delight in +music? the satiety rather renders it troublesome and tedious to them. +Feasts, balls, masquerades and tiltings delight such as but rarely see, +and desire to see, them; but having been frequently at such +entertainments, the relish of them grows flat and insipid. Nor do women +so much delight those who make a common practice of the sport. He who +will not give himself leisure to be thirsty can never find the true +pleasure of drinking. Farces and tumbling tricks are pleasant to the +spectators, but a wearisome toil to those by whom they are performed. +And that this is so, we see that princes divert themselves sometimes in +disguising their quality, awhile to depose themselves, and to stoop to +the poor and ordinary way of living of the meanest of their people. + + "Plerumque gratae divitibus vices + Mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum + Coenae, sine aulaeis et ostro, + Soliicitam explicuere frontem." + + ["The rich are often pleased with variety; and the plain supper in a + poor cottage, without tapestry and purple, has relaxed the anxious + brow."--Horace, Od., iii. 29, 13.] + +Nothing is so distasteful and clogging as abundance. What appetite would +not be baffled to see three hundred women at its mercy, as the grand +signor has in his seraglio? And, of his ancestors what fruition or taste +of sport did he reserve to himself, who never went hawking without seven +thousand falconers? And besides all this, I fancy that this lustre of +grandeur brings with it no little disturbance and uneasiness upon the +enjoyment of the most tempting pleasures; the great are too conspicuous +and lie too open to every one's view. Neither do I know to what end a +man should more require of them to conceal their errors, since what is +only reputed indiscretion in us, the people in them brand with the names +of tyranny and contempt of the laws, and, besides their proclivity to +vice, are apt to hold that it is a heightening of pleasure to them, to +insult over and to trample upon public observances. Plato, indeed, in +his Goygias, defines a tyrant to be one who in a city has licence to do +whatever his own will leads him to do; and by reason of this impunity, +the display and publication of their vices do ofttimes more mischief than +the vice itself. Every one fears to be pried into and overlooked; but +princes are so, even to their very gestures, looks and thoughts, the +people conceiving they have right and title to be judges of them besides +that the blemishes of the great naturally appear greater by reason of the +eminence and lustre of the place where they are seated, and that a mole +or a wart appears greater in them than a wide gash in others. And this +is the reason why the poets feign the amours of Jupiter to be performed +in the disguises of so many borrowed shapes, and that amongst the many +amorous practices they lay to his charge, there is only one, as I +remember, where he appears in his own majesty and grandeur. + +But let us return to Hiero, who further complains of the inconveniences +he found in his royalty, in that he could not look abroad and travel the +world at liberty, being as it were a prisoner in the bounds and limits of +his own dominion, and that in all his actions he was evermore surrounded +with an importunate crowd. And in truth, to see our kings sit all alone +at table, environed with so many people prating about them, and so many +strangers staring upon them, as they always are, I have often been moved +rather to pity than to envy their condition. King Alfonso was wont to +say, that in this asses were in a better condition than kings, their +masters permitting them to feed at their own ease and pleasure, a favour +that kings cannot obtain of their servants. And it has never come into +my fancy that it could be of any great benefit to the life of a man of +sense to have twenty people prating about him when he is at stool; or +that the services of a man of ten thousand livres a year, or that has +taken Casale or defended Siena, should be either more commodious or more +acceptable to him, than those of a good groom of the chamber who +understands his place. The advantages of sovereignty are in a manner but +imaginary: every degree of fortune has in it some image of principality. +Caesar calls all the lords of France, having free franchise within their +own demesnes, roitelets or petty kings; and in truth, the name of sire +excepted, they go pretty far towards kingship; for do but look into the +provinces remote from court, as Brittany for example; take notice of the +train, the vassals, the officers, the employments, service, ceremony, and +state of a lord who lives retired from court in his own house, amongst +his own tenants and servants; and observe withal the flight of his +imagination; there is nothing more royal; he hears talk of his master +once a year, as of a king of Persia, without taking any further +recognition of him, than by some remote kindred his secretary keeps in +some register. And, to speak the truth, our laws are easy enough, so +easy that a gentleman of France scarce feels the weight of sovereignty +pinch his shoulders above twice in his life. Real and effectual +subjection only concerns such amongst us as voluntarily thrust their +necks under the yoke, and who design to get wealth and honours by such +services: for a man that loves his own fireside, and can govern his house +without falling by the ears with his neighbours or engaging in suits of +law, is as free as a Duke of Venice. + + "Paucos servitus, plures servitutem tenent." + + ["Servitude enchains few, but many enchain themselves to + servitude."--Seneca, Ep., 22.] + +But that which Hiero is most concerned at is, that he finds himself +stripped of all friendship, deprived of all mutual society, wherein the +true and most perfect fruition of human life consists. For what +testimony of affection and goodwill can I extract from him that owes me, +whether he will or no, all that he is able to do? Can I form any +assurance of his real respect to me, from his humble way of speaking and +submissive behaviour, when these are ceremonies it is not in his choice +to deny? The honour we receive from those that fear us is not honour; +those respects are due to royalty and not to me: + + "Maximum hoc regni bonum est + Quod facta domini cogitur populus sui + Quam ferre, tam laudare." + + ["'Tis the greatest benefit of a kingdom that the people is forced + to commend, as well as to bear the acts of the ruler." + --Seneca, Thyestes, ii. i, 30.] + +Do I not see that the wicked and the good king, he that is hated and he +that is beloved, have the one as much reverence paid him as the other? +My predecessor was, and my successor shall be, served with the same +ceremony and state. If my subjects do me no harm, 'tis no evidence of +any good affection; why should I look upon it as such, seeing it is not +in their power to do it if they would? No one follows me or obeys my +commands upon the account of any friendship, betwixt him and me; there +can be no contracting of friendship where there is so little relation and +correspondence: my own height has put me out of the familiarity of and +intelligence with men; there is too great disparity and disproportion +betwixt us. They follow me either upon the account of decency and +custom; or rather my fortune, than me, to increase their own. All they +say to me or do for me is but outward paint, appearance, their liberty +being on all parts restrained by the great power and authority I have +over them. I see nothing about me but what is dissembled and disguised. + +The Emperor Julian being one day applauded by his courtiers for his exact +justice: "I should be proud of these praises," said he, "did they come +from persons that durst condemn or disapprove the contrary, in case I +should do it." All the real advantages of princes are common to them +with men of meaner condition ('tis for the gods to mount winged horses +and feed upon ambrosia): they have no other sleep, nor other appetite +than we; the steel they arm themselves withal is of no better temper than +that we also use; their crowns neither defend them from the rain nor the +sun. + +Diocletian, who wore a crown so fortunate and revered, resigned it to +retire to the felicity of a private life; and some time after the +necessity of public affairs requiring that he should reassume his charge, +he made answer to those who came to court him to it: "You would not +offer," said he, "to persuade me to this, had you seen the fine order of +the trees I have planted in my orchard, and the fair melons I have sown +in my garden." + +In Anacharsis' opinion, the happiest state of government would be where, +all other things being equal, precedence should be measured out by the +virtues, and repulses by the vices of men. + +When King Pyrrhus prepared for his expedition into Italy, his wise +counsellor Cyneas, to make him sensible of the vanity of his ambition: +"Well, sir," said he, "to what end do you make all this mighty +preparation?"--"To make myself master of Italy," replied the king. +"And what after that is done?" said Cyneas. "I will pass over into Gaul +and Spain," said the other. "And what then?"--"I will then go to subdue +Africa; and lastly, when I have brought the whole world to my subjection, +I will sit down and rest content at my own ease." + +"For God sake, sir," replied Cyneas, "tell me what hinders that you may +not, if you please, be now in the condition you speak of? Why do you not +now at this instant settle yourself in the state you seem to aim at, and +spare all the labour and hazard you interpose?" + + "Nimirum, quia non cognovit, qux esset habendi + Finis, et omnino quoad crescat vera voluptas." + + ["Forsooth because he does not know what should be the limit of + acquisition, and altogether how far real pleasure should increase." + --Lucretius, v. 1431] + +I will conclude with an old versicle, that I think very apt to the +purpose: + + "Mores cuique sui fingunt fortunam." + + ["Every man frames his own fortune." + --Cornelius Nepos, Life of Atticus] + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +OF SUMPTUARY LAWS + +The way by which our laws attempt to regulate idle and vain expenses in +meat and clothes, seems to be quite contrary to the end designed. The +true way would be to beget in men a contempt of silks and gold, as vain, +frivolous, and useless; whereas we augment to them the honours, and +enhance the value of such things, which, sure, is a very improper way to +create a disgust. For to enact that none but princes shall eat turbot, +shall wear velvet or gold lace, and interdict these things to the people, +what is it but to bring them into a greater esteem, and to set every one +more agog to eat and wear them? Let kings leave off these ensigns of +grandeur; they have others enough besides; those excesses are more +excusable in any other than a prince. We may learn by the example of +several nations better ways of exterior distinction of quality (which, +truly, I conceive to be very requisite in a state) enough, without +fostering to this purpose such corruption and manifest inconvenience. +'Tis strange how suddenly and with how much ease custom in these +indifferent things establishes itself and becomes authority. We had +scarce worn cloth a year, in compliance with the court, for the mourning +of Henry II., but that silks were already grown into such contempt with +every one, that a man so clad was presently concluded a citizen: silks +were divided betwixt the physicians and surgeons, and though all other +people almost went in the same habit, there was, notwithstanding, in one +thing or other, sufficient distinction of the several conditions of men. +How suddenly do greasy chamois and linen doublets become the fashion in +our armies, whilst all neatness and richness of habit fall into contempt? +Let kings but lead the dance and begin to leave off this expense, and in +a month the business will be done throughout the kingdom, without edict +or ordinance; we shall all follow. It should be rather proclaimed, on +the contrary, that no one should wear scarlet or goldsmiths' work but +courtesans and tumblers. + +Zeleucus by the like invention reclaimed the corrupted manners of the +Locrians. His laws were, that no free woman should be allowed any more +than one maid to follow her, unless she was drunk: nor was to stir out of +the city by night, wear jewels of gold about her, or go in an embroidered +robe, unless she was a professed and public prostitute; that, bravos +excepted, no man was to wear a gold ring, nor be seen in one of those +effeminate robes woven in the city of Miletus. By which infamous +exceptions he discreetly diverted his citizens from superfluities and +pernicious pleasures, and it was a project of great utility to attract +then by honour and ambition to their duty and obedience. + +Our kings can do what they please in such external reformations; their +own inclination stands in this case for a law: + + "Quicquid principes faciunt, praecipere videntur." + + ["What princes themselves do, they seem to prescribe." + --Quintil., Declam., 3.] + +Whatever is done at court passes for a rule through the rest of France. +Let the courtiers fall out with these abominable breeches, that discover +so much of those parts should be concealed; these great bellied doublets, +that make us look like I know not what, and are so unfit to admit of +arms; these long effeminate locks of hair; this foolish custom of kissing +what we present to our equals, and our hands in saluting them, a ceremony +in former times only due to princes. Let them not permit that a +gentleman shall appear in place of respect without his sword, unbuttoned +and untrussed, as though he came from the house of office; and that, +contrary to the custom of our forefathers and the particular privilege of +the nobles of this kingdom, we stand a long time bare to them in what +place soever, and the same to a hundred others, so many tiercelets and +quartelets of kings we have got nowadays and other like vicious +innovations: they will see them all presently vanish and cried down. +These are, 'tis true, but superficial errors; but they are of ill augury, +and enough to inform us that the whole fabric is crazy and tottering, +when we see the roughcast of our walls to cleave and split. + +Plato in his Laws esteems nothing of more pestiferous consequence to his +city than to give young men the liberty of introducing any change in +their habits, gestures, dances, songs, and exercises, from one form to +another; shifting from this to that, hunting after novelties, and +applauding the inventors; by which means manners are corrupted and the +old institutions come to be nauseated and despised. In all things, +saving only in those that are evil, a change is to be feared; even the +change of seasons, winds, viands, and humours. And no laws are in their +true credit, but such to which God has given so long a continuance that +no one knows their beginning, or that there ever was any other. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +OF SLEEP + +Reason directs that we should always go the same way, but not always at +the same pace. And, consequently, though a wise man ought not so much to +give the reins to human passions as to let him deviate from the right +path, he may, notwithstanding, without prejudice to his duty, leave it to +them to hasten or to slacken his speed, and not fix himself like a +motionless and insensible Colossus. Could virtue itself put on flesh and +blood, I believe the pulse would beat faster going on to assault than in +going to dinner: that is to say, there is a necessity she should heat and +be moved upon this account. I have taken notice, as of an extraordinary +thing, of some great men, who in the highest enterprises and most +important affairs have kept themselves in so settled and serene a calm, +as not at all to break their sleep. Alexander the Great, on the day +assigned for that furious battle betwixt him and Darius, slept so +profoundly and so long in the morning, that Parmenio was forced to enter +his chamber, and coming to his bedside, to call him several times by his +name, the time to go to fight compelling him so to do. The Emperor Otho, +having put on a resolution to kill himself that night, after having +settled his domestic affairs, divided his money amongst his servants, and +set a good edge upon a sword he had made choice of for the purpose, and +now staying only to be satisfied whether all his friends had retired in +safety, he fell into so sound a sleep that the gentlemen of his chamber +heard him snore. The death of this emperor has in it circumstances +paralleling that of the great Cato, and particularly this just related +for Cato being ready to despatch himself, whilst he only stayed his hand +in expectation of the return of a messenger he had sent to bring him news +whether the senators he had sent away were put out from the Port of +Utica, he fell into so sound a sleep, that they heard him snore in the +next room; and the man, whom he had sent to the port, having awakened him +to let him know that the tempestuous weather had hindered the senators +from putting to sea, he despatched away another messenger, and composing +again himself in the bed, settled to sleep, and slept till by the return +of the last messenger he had certain intelligence they were gone. We may +here further compare him with Alexander in the great and dangerous storm +that threatened him by the sedition of the tribune Metellus, who, +attempting to publish a decree for the calling in of Pompey with his army +into the city at the time of Catiline's conspiracy, was only and that +stoutly opposed by Cato, so that very sharp language and bitter menaces +passed betwixt them in the senate about that affair; but it was the next +day, in the forenoon, that the controversy was to be decided, where +Metellus, besides the favour of the people and of Caesar--at that time of +Pompey's faction--was to appear accompanied with a rabble of slaves and +gladiators; and Cato only fortified with his own courage and constancy; +so that his relations, domestics, and many virtuous people of his friends +were in great apprehensions for him; and to that degree, that some there +were who passed over the whole night without sleep, eating, or drinking, +for the danger they saw him running into; his wife and sisters did +nothing but weep and torment themselves in his house; whereas, he, on the +contrary, comforted every one, and after having supped after his usual +manner, went to bed, and slept profoundly till morning, when one of his +fellow-tribunes roused him to go to the encounter. The knowledge we have +of the greatness of this man's courage by the rest of his life, may +warrant us certainly to judge that his indifference proceeded from a soul +so much elevated above such accidents, that he disdained to let it take +any more hold of his fancy than any ordinary incident. + +In the naval engagement that Augustus won of Sextus Pompeius in Sicily, +just as they were to begin the fight, he was so fast asleep that his +friends were compelled to wake him to give the signal of battle: and this +was it that gave Mark Antony afterwards occasion to reproach him that he +had not the courage so much as with open eyes to behold the order of his +own squadrons, and not to have dared to present himself before the +soldiers, till first Agrippa had brought him news of the victory +obtained. But as to the young Marius, who did much worse (for the day of +his last battle against Sylla, after he had marshalled his army and given +the word and signal of battle, he laid him down under the shade of a tree +to repose himself, and fell so fast asleep that the rout and flight of +his men could hardly waken him, he having seen nothing of the fight), he +is said to have been at that time so extremely spent and worn out with +labour and want of sleep, that nature could hold out no longer. Now, +upon what has been said, the physicians may determine whether sleep be so +necessary that our lives depend upon it: for we read that King Perseus of +Macedon, being prisoner at Rome, was killed by being kept from sleep; but +Pliny instances such as have lived long without sleep. Herodotus speaks +of nations where the men sleep and wake by half-years, and they who write +the life of the sage Epimenides affirm that he slept seven-and-fifty +years together. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +OF THE BATTLE OF DREUX + + [December 19, 1562, in which the Catholics, under the command of the + Duc de Guise and the Constable de Montmorenci, defeated the + Protestants, commanded by the Prince de Conde. See Sismondi, Hist. + des Francais, vol. xviii., p. 354.] + +Our battle of Dreux is remarkable for several extraordinary incidents; +but such as have no great kindness for M. de Guise, nor much favour his +reputation, are willing to have him thought to blame, and that his making +a halt and delaying time with the forces he commanded, whilst the +Constable, who was general of the army, was racked through and through +with the enemy's artillery, his battalion routed, and himself taken +prisoner, is not to be excused; and that he had much better have run the +hazard of charging the enemy in flank, than staying for the advantage of +falling in upon the rear, to suffer so great and so important a loss. +But, besides what the event demonstrated, he who will consider it without +passion or prejudice will easily be induced to confess that the aim and +design, not of a captain only, but of every private soldier, ought to +regard the victory in general, and that no particular occurrences, how +nearly soever they may concern his own interest, should divert him from +that pursuit. Philopoemen, in an encounter with Machanidas, having sent +before a good strong party of his archers and slingers to begin the +skirmish, and these being routed and hotly pursued by the enemy, who, +pushing on the fortune of their arms, and in that pursuit passing by the +battalion where Philopoemen was, though his soldiers were impatient to +fall on, he did not think fit to stir from his post nor to present +himself to the enemy to relieve his men, but having suffered these to be +chased and cut in pieces before his face, charged in upon the enemy's +foot when he saw them left unprotected by the horse, and notwithstanding +that they were Lacedaemonians, yet taking them in the nick, when thinking +themselves secure of the victory, they began to disorder their ranks; he +did this business with great facility, and then put himself in pursuit of +Machanidas. Which case is very like that of Monsieur de Guise. + +In that bloody battle betwixt Agesilaus and the Boeotians, which +Xenophon, who was present at it, reports to be the sharpest that he had +ever seen, Agesilaus waived the advantage that fortune presented him, to +let the Boeotian battalions pass by and then to charge them in the rear, +how certain soever he might make himself of the victory, judging it would +rather be an effect of conduct than valour, to proceed that way; and +therefore, to show his prowess, rather chose with a marvellous ardour of +courage to charge them in the front; but he was well beaten and well +wounded for his pains, and constrained at last to disengage himself, and +to take the course he had at first neglected; opening his battalion to +give way to this torrent of Boeotians, and they being passed by, taking +notice that they marched in disorder, like men who thought themselves out +of danger, he pursued and charged them in flank; yet could not so prevail +as to bring it to so general a rout but that they leisurely retreated, +still facing about upon him till they had retired to safety. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +OF NAMES + +What variety of herbs soever are shufed together in the dish, yet the +whole mass is swallowed up under one name of a sallet. In like manner, +under the consideration of names, I will make a hodge-podge of divers +articles. + +Every nation has certain names, that, I know not why, are taken in no +good sense, as with us, John, William, Benedict. In the genealogy of +princes, also, there seem to be certain names fatally affected, as the +Ptolemies of Egypt, the Henries in England, the Charleses in France, the +Baldwins in Flanders, and the Williams of our ancient Aquitaine, from +whence, 'tis said, the name of Guyenne has its derivation; which would +seem far fetched were there not as crude derivations in Plato himself. + +Item, 'tis a frivolous thing in itself, but nevertheless worthy to be +recorded for the strangeness of it, that is written by an eyewitness, +that Henry, Duke of Normandy, son of Henry II., king of England, making a +great feast in France, the concourse of nobility and gentry was so great, +that being, for sport's sake, divided into troops, according to their +names, in the first troop, which consisted of Williams, there were found +an hundred and ten knights sitting at the table of that name, without +reckoning the ordinary gentlemen and servants. + +It is as pleasant to distinguish the tables by the names of the guests as +it was in the Emperor Geta to distinguish the several courses of his meat +by the first letters of the meats themselves; so that those that began +with B were served up together, as brawn, beef, bream, bustards, becca- +ficos; and so of the others. Item, there is a saying that it is a good +thing to have a good name, that is to say, credit and a good repute; but +besides this, it is really convenient to have a well-sounding name, such +as is easy of pronunciation and easy to be remembered, by reason that +kings and other great persons do by that means the more easily know and +the more hardly forget us; and indeed of our own servants we more +frequently call and employ those whose names are most ready upon the +tongue. I myself have seen Henry II., when he could not for his heart +hit of a gentleman's name of our country of Gascony, and moreover was +fain to call one of the queen's maids of honour by the general name of +her race, her own family name being so difficult to pronounce or +remember; and Socrates thinks it worthy a father's care to give fine +names to his children. + +Item,'tis said that the foundation of Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers +took its original from hence that a debauched young fellow formerly +living in that place, having got to him a wench, and, at her first coming +in, asking her name, and being answered that it was Mary, he felt himself +so suddenly pierced through with the awe of religion and the reverence to +that sacred name of the Blessed Virgin, that he not only immediately sent +the girl away, but became a reformed man and so continued the remainder +of his life; and that, in consideration of this miracle, there was +erected upon the place where this young man's house stood, first a chapel +dedicated to our Lady and afterwards the church that we now see standing +there. This vocal and auricular reproof wrought upon the conscience, and +that right into the soul; this that follows, insinuated itself merely by +the senses. Pythagoras being in company with some wild young fellows, +and perceiving that, heated with the feast, they comploted to go violate +an honest house, commanded the singing wench to alter her wanton airs; +and by a solemn, grave, and spondaic music, gently enchanted and laid +asleep their ardour. + +Item, will not posterity say that our modern reformation has been +wonderfully delicate and exact, in having not only combated errors and +vices, and filled the world with devotion, humility, obedience, peace, +and all sorts of virtue; but in having proceeded so far as to quarrel +with our ancient baptismal names of Charles, Louis, Francis, to fill the +world with Methuselahs, Ezekiels, and Malachis, names of a more spiritual +sound? A gentleman, a neighbour of mine, a great admirer of antiquity, +and who was always extolling the excellences of former times in +comparison with this present age of ours, did not, amongst the rest, +forget to dwell upon the lofty and magnificent sound of the gentleman's +names of those days, Don Grumedan, Quedregan, Agesilan, which, but to +hear named he conceived to denote other kind of men than Pierre, Guillot, +and Michel. + +Item, I am mightily pleased with Jacques Amyot for leaving, throughout a +whole French oration, the Latin names entire, without varying and +garbling them to give them a French cadence. It seemed a little harsh +and rough at first; but already custom, by the authority of his Plutarch, +has overcome that novelty. I have often wished that such as write +histories in Latin would leave our names as they find them and as they +are; for in making Vaudemont into Vallemontanus, and metamorphosing names +to make them suit better with the Greek or Latin, we know not where we +are, and with the persons of the men lose the benefit of the story. + +To conclude, 'tis a scurvy custom and of very ill consequence that we +have in our kingdom of France to call every one by the name of his manor +or seigneury; 'tis the thing in the world that the most prejudices and +confounds families and descents. A younger brother of a good family, +having a manor left him by his father, by the name of which he has been +known and honoured, cannot handsomely leave it; ten years after his +decease it falls into the hand of a stranger, who does the same: do but +judge whereabouts we shall be concerning the knowledge of these men. We +need look no further for examples than our own royal family, where every +partition creates a new surname, whilst, in the meantime, the original of +the family is totally lost. There is so great liberty taken in these +mutations, that I have not in my time seen any one advanced by fortune to +any extraordinary condition who has not presently had genealogical titles +added to him, new and unknown to his father, and who has not been +inoculated into some illustrious stem by good luck; and the obscurest +families are the most apt for falsification. How many gentlemen have we +in France who by their own account are of royal extraction? more, I +think, than who will confess they are not. Was it not a pleasant passage +of a friend of mine? There were, several gentlemen assembled together +about the dispute of one seigneur with another; which other had, in +truth, some preeminence of titles and alliances above the ordinary +gentry. Upon the debate of this prerogative, every one, to make himself +equal to him, alleged, this one extraction, that another; this, the near +resemblance of name, that, of arms; another, an old worm-eaten patent; +the very least of them was great-grandchild to some foreign king. When +they came to sit down, to dinner, my friend, instead of taking his place +amongst them, retiring with most profound conges, entreated the company +to excuse him for having hitherto lived with them at the saucy rate of a +companion; but being now better informed of their quality, he would begin +to pay them the respect due to their birth and grandeur, and that it +would ill become him to sit down among so many princes--ending this farce +with a thousand reproaches: "Let us, in God's name, satisfy ourselves +with what our fathers were contented with, with what we are. We are +great enough, if we rightly understand how to maintain it. Let us not +disown the fortune and condition of our ancestors, and let us lay aside +these ridiculous pretences, that can never be wanting to any one that has +the impudence to allege them." + +Arms have no more security than surnames. I bear azure powdered with +trefoils or, with a lion's paw of the same armed gules in fesse. What +privilege has this to continue particularly in my house? A son-in-law +will transport it into another family, or some paltry purchaser will make +them his first arms. There is nothing wherein there is more change and +confusion. + +But this consideration leads me, perforce, into another subject. Let us +pry a little narrowly into, and, in God's name, examine upon what +foundation we erect this glory and reputation for which the world is +turned topsy-turvy: wherein do we place this renown that we hunt after +with so much pains? It is, in the end, Peter or William that carries it, +takes it into his possession, and whom it only concerns. O what a +valiant faculty is hope, that in a mortal subject, and in a moment, makes +nothing of usurping infinity, immensity, eternity, and of supplying its +master's indigence, at its pleasure, with all things he can imagine or +desire! Nature has given us this passion for a pretty toy to play +withal. And this Peter or William, what is it but a sound, when all is +done? or three or four dashes with a pen, so easy to be varied that I +would fain know to whom is to be attributed the glory of so many +victories, to Guesquin, to Glesquin, or to Gueaquin? and yet there would +be something of greater moment in the case than in Lucian, that Sigma +should serve Tau with a process; for + + "Non levia aut ludicra petuntur + Praemia;" + + ["They aim at no slight or jocular rewards."--AEneid, xii. 764.] + +the chase is there in very good earnest: the question is, which of these +letters is to be rewarded for so many sieges, battles, wounds, +imprisonments, and services done to the crown of France by this famous +constable? Nicholas Denisot--[Painter and poet, born at Le Mans,1515.]-- +never concerned himself further than the letters of his name, of which he +has altered the whole contexture to build up by anagram the Count +d'Alsinois, whom he has handsomely endowed with the glory of his poetry +and painting. The historian Suetonius was satisfied with only the +meaning of his name, which made him cashier his father's surname, Lenis, +to leave Tranquillus successor to the reputation of his writings. Who +would believe that Captain Bayard should have no honour but what he +derives from the deeds of Peter Terrail; and that Antonio Iscalin should +suffer himself to his face to be robbed of the honour of so many +navigations and commands at sea and land by Captain Paulin and the Baron +de la Garde? Secondly, these are dashes of the pen common to a thousand +people. How many are there, in every family, of the same name and +surname? and how many more in several families, ages, and countries? +History tells us of three of the name of Socrates, of five Platos, of +eight Aristotles, of seven Xenophons, of twenty Demetrii, and of twenty +Theodores; and how many more she was not acquainted with we may imagine. +Who hinders my groom from calling himself Pompey the Great? But after +all, what virtue, what authority, or what secret springs are there that +fix upon my deceased groom, or the other Pompey, who had his head cut off +in Egypt, this glorious renown, and these so much honoured flourishes of +the pen, so as to be of any advantage to them? + + "Id cinerem et manes credis curare sepultos?" + + ["Do you believe the dead regard such things?"--AEneid, iv. 34.] + +What sense have the two companions in greatest esteem amongst me, +Epaminondas, of this fine verse that has been so many ages current in his +praise, + + "Consiliis nostris laus est attrita Laconum;" + + ["The glory of the Spartans is extinguished by my plans. + --"Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 17.] + +or Africanus, of this other, + + "A sole exoriente supra Maeotis Paludes + Nemo est qui factis me aequiparare queat." + + ["From where the sun rises over the Palus Maeotis, to where it sets, + there is no one whose acts can compare with mine"--Idem, ibid.] + +Survivors indeed tickle themselves with these fine phrases, and by them +incited to jealousy and desire, inconsiderately and according to their +own fancy, attribute to the dead this their own feeling, vainly +flattering themselves that they shall one day in turn be capable of the +same character. However: + + "Ad haec se + Romanus Graiusque, et Barbaras induperator + Erexit; caucus discriminis atque laboris + Inde habuit: tanto major famae sitis est, quam + Virtutis." + + ["For these the Roman, the Greek, and the Barbarian commander hath + aroused himself; he has incurred thence causes of danger and toil: + so much greater is the thirst for fame than for virtue." + --Juvenal, x. 137.] + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +OF THE UNCERTAINTY OF OUR JUDGMENT + +Well says this verse: + + ["There is everywhere much liberty of speech."--Iliad, xx. 249.] + +For example: + + ["Hannibal conquered, but knew not how to make the best use of his + victorious venture."--Petrarch, Son., 83.] + +Such as would improve this argument, and condemn the oversight of our +leaders in not pushing home the victory at Moncontour, or accuse the King +of Spain of not knowing how to make the best use of the advantage he had +against us at St. Quentin, may conclude these oversights to proceed from +a soul already drunk with success, or from a spirit which, being full and +overgorged with this beginning of good fortune, had lost the appetite of +adding to it, already having enough to do to digest what it had taken in: +he has his arms full, and can embrace no more: unworthy of the benefit +fortune has conferred upon him and the advantage she had put into his +hands: for what utility does he reap from it, if, notwithstanding, he +give his enemy respite to rally and make head against him? What hope is +there that he will dare at another time to attack an enemy reunited and +recomposed, and armed anew with anger and revenge, who did not dare to +pursue them when routed and unmanned by fear? + + "Dum fortuna calet, dum conficit omnia terror." + + ["Whilst fortune is fresh, and terror finishes all." + --Lucan, vii. 734.] + +But withal, what better opportunity can he expect than that he has lost? +'Tis not here, as in fencing, where the most hits gain the prize; for so +long as the enemy is on foot, the game is new to begin, and that is not +to be called a victory that puts not an end to the war. In the encounter +where Caesar had the worst, near the city of Oricum, he reproached +Pompey's soldiers that he had been lost had their general known how to +overcome; and afterwards clawed him in a very different fashion when it +came to his turn. + +But why may not a man also argue, on the contrary, that it is the effect +of a precipitous and insatiate spirit not to know how to bound and +restrain its coveting; that it is to abuse the favours of God to exceed +the measure He has prescribed them: and that again to throw a man's self +into danger after a victory obtained is again to expose himself to the +mercy of fortune: that it is one of the greatest discretions in the rule +of war not to drive an enemy to despair? Sylla and Marius in the social +war, having defeated the Marsians, seeing yet a body of reserve that, +prompted by despair, was coming on like enraged brutes to dash in upon +them, thought it not convenient to stand their charge. Had not Monsieur +de Foix's ardour transported him so furiously to pursue the remains of +the victory of Ravenna, he had not obscured it by his own death. And yet +the recent memory of his example served to preserve Monsieur d'Anguien +from the same misfortune at the battle of Serisoles. 'Tis dangerous to +attack a man you have deprived of all means to escape but by his arms, +for necessity teaches violent resolutions: + + "Gravissimi sunt morsus irritatae necessitatis." + + ["Irritated necessity bites deepest."--Portius Latro., Declam.] + + "Vincitur haud gratis, jugulo qui provocat hostem." + + ["He is not readily beaten who provokes the enemy by shewing + his throat."--or: "He who presents himself to his foe, sells his + life dear."--Lucan, iv. 275.] + +This was it that made Pharax withhold the King of Lacedaemon, who had won +a battle against the Mantineans, from going to charge a thousand Argians, +who had escaped in an entire body from the defeat, but rather let them +steal off at liberty that he might not encounter valour whetted and +enraged by mischance. Clodomir, king of Aquitaine, after his victory +pursuing Gondemar, king of Burgundy, beaten and making off as fast as he +could for safety, compelled him to face about and make head, wherein his +obstinacy deprived him of the fruit of his conquest, for he there lost +his life. + +In like manner, if a man were to choose whether he would have his +soldiers richly and sumptuously accoutred or armed only for the necessity +of the matter in hand, this argument would step in to favour the first, +of which opinion was Sertorius, Philopcemen, Brutus, Caesar, and others, +that it is to a soldier an enflaming of courage and a spur himself in +brave attire; and withal a motive to be more obstinate in fight, having +his arms, which are in a manner his estate and whole inheritance to +defend; which is the reason, says Xenophon, why those of Asia carried +their wives and concubines, with their choicest jewels and greatest +wealth, along with them to the wars. But then these arguments would be +as ready to stand up for the other side; that a general ought rather to +lessen in his men their solicitude of preserving themselves than to +increase it; that by such means they will be in a double fear of +hazarding their persons, as it will be a double temptation to the enemy +to fight with greater resolution where so great booty and so rich spoils +are to be obtained; and this very thing has been observed in former +times, notably to encourage the Romans against the Samnites. Antiochus, +shewing Hannibal the army he had raised, wonderfully splendid and rich in +all sorts of equipage, asked him if the Romans would be satisfied with +that army? "Satisfied," replied the other, "yes, doubtless, were their +avarice never so great." Lycurgus not only forbad his soldiers all +manner of bravery in their equipage, but, moreover, to strip their +conquered enemies, because he would, as he said, that poverty and +frugality should shine with the rest of the battle. + +At sieges and elsewhere, where occasion draws us near to the enemy, we +willingly suffer our men to brave, rate, and affront him with all sorts +of injurious language; and not without some colour of reason: for it is +of no little consequence to take from them all hopes of mercy and +composition, by representing to them that there is no fair quarter to be +expected from an enemy they have incensed to that degree, nor other +remedy remaining but in victory. And yet Vitellius found himself +deceived in this way of proceeding; for having to do with Otho, weaker in +the valour of his soldiers, long unaccustomed to war and effeminated with +the delights of the city, he so nettled them at last with injurious +language, reproaching them with cowardice and regret for the mistresses +and entertainments they had left behind at Rome, that by this means he +inspired them with such resolution as no exhortation had had the power to +have done, and himself made them fall upon him, with whom their own +captains before could by no means prevail. And, indeed, when they are +injuries that touch to the quick, it may very well fall out that he who +went but unwillingly to work in the behalf of his prince will fall to't +with another sort of mettle when the quarrel is his own. + +Considering of how great importance is the preservation of the general of +an army, and that the universal aim of an enemy is levelled directly at +the head, upon which all the others depend, the course seems to admit of +no dispute, which we know has been taken by so many great captains, of +changing their habit and disguising their persons upon the point of going +to engage. Nevertheless, the inconvenience a man by so doing runs into +is not less than that he thinks to avoid; for the captain, by this means +being concealed from the knowledge of his own men, the courage they +should derive from his presence and example happens by degrees to cool +and to decay; and not seeing the wonted marks and ensigns of their +leader, they presently conclude him either dead, or that, despairing of +the business, he is gone to shift for himself. And experience shows us +that both these ways have been successful and otherwise. What befell +Pyrrhus in the battle he fought against the Consul Levinus in Italy will +serve us to both purposes; for though by shrouding his person under the +armour of Megacles and making him wear his own, he undoubtedly preserved +his own life, yet, by that very means, he was withal very near running +into the other mischief of losing the battle. Alexander, Caesar, and +Lucullus loved to make themselves known in a battle by rich accoutrements +and armour of a particular lustre and colour: Agis, Agesilaus, and that +great Gilippus, on the contrary, used to fight obscurely armed, and +without any imperial attendance or distinction. + +Amongst other oversights Pompey is charged withal at the battle of +Pharsalia, he is condemned for making his army stand still to receive the +enemy's charge; by "reason that" (I shall here steal Plutarch's own +words, which are better than mine) "he by so doing deprived himself of +the violent impression the motion of running adds to the first shock of +arms, and hindered that clashing of the combatants against one another +which is wont to give them greater impetuosity and fury; especially when +they come to rush in with their utmost vigour, their courages increasing +by the shouts and the career; 'tis to render the soldiers' ardour, as a +man may say, more reserved and cold." This is what he says. But if +Caesar had come by the worse, why might it not as well have been urged by +another, that, on the contrary, the strongest and most steady posture of +fighting is that wherein a man stands planted firm without motion; and +that they who are steady upon the march, closing up, and reserving their +force within themselves for the push of the business, have a great +advantage against those who are disordered, and who have already spent +half their breath in running on precipitately to the charge? Besides +that an army is a body made up of so many individual members, it is +impossible for it to move in this fury with so exact a motion as not to +break the order of battle, and that the best of them are not engaged +before their fellows can come on to help them. In that unnatural battle +betwixt the two Persian brothers, the Lacedaemonian Clearchus, who +commanded the Greeks of Cyrus' party, led them on softly and without +precipitation to the charge; but, coming within fifty paces, hurried them +on full speed, hoping in so short a career both to keep their order and +to husband their breath, and at the same time to give the advantage of +impetuosity and impression both to their persons and their missile arms. +Others have regulated this question as to their armies thus if your enemy +come full drive upon you, stand firm to receive him; if he stand to +receive you, run full drive upon him. + +In the expedition of the Emperor Charles V. into Provence, King Francis +was put to choose either to go meet him in Italy or to await him in his +own dominions; wherein, though he very well considered of how great +advantage it was to preserve his own territory entire and clear from the +troubles of war, to the end that, being unexhausted of its stores, it +might continually supply men and money at need; that the necessity of war +requires at every turn to spoil and lay waste the country before us, +which cannot very well be done upon one's own; to which may be added, +that the country people do not so easily digest such a havoc by those of +their own party as from an enemy, so that seditions and commotions might +by such means be kindled amongst us; that the licence of pillage and +plunder (which are not to be tolerated at home) is a great ease and +refreshment against the fatigues and sufferings of war; and that he who +has no other prospect of gain than his bare pay will hardly be kept from +running home, being but two steps from his wife and his own house; that +he who lays the cloth is ever at the charge of the feast; that there is +more alacrity in assaulting than defending; and that the shock of a +battle's loss in our own bowels is so violent as to endanger the +disjointing of the whole body, there being no passion so contagious as +that of fear, that is so easily believed, or that so suddenly diffuses +itself; and that the cities that should hear the rattle of this tempest +at their gates, that should take in their captains and soldiers yet +trembling and out of breath, would be in danger in this heat and hurry to +precipitate themselves upon some untoward resolution: notwithstanding all +this, so it was that he chose to recall the forces he had beyond the +mountains and to suffer the enemy to come to him. For he might, on the +other hand, imagine that, being at home and amongst his friends, he could +not fail of plenty of all manner of conveniences; the rivers and passes +he had at his devotion would bring him in both provisions and money in +all security, and without the trouble of convoy; that he should find his +subjects by so much the more affectionate to him, by how much their +danger was more near and pressing; that having so many cities and +barriers to secure him, it would be in his power to give the law of +battle at his own opportunity and advantage; and that, if it pleased him +to delay the time, under cover and at his ease he might see his enemy +founder and defeat himself with the difficulties he was certain to +encounter, being engaged in a hostile country, where before, behind, and +on every side war would be made upon him; no means to refresh himself or +to enlarge his quarters, should diseases infest them, or to lodge his +wounded men in safety; no money, no victuals, but at the point of the +lance; no leisure to repose and take breath; no knowledge of the ways or +country to secure him from ambushes and surprises; and in case of losing +a battle, no possible means of saving the remains. Neither is there want +of example in both these cases. + +Scipio thought it much better to go and attack his enemy's territories in +Africa than to stay at home to defend his own and to fight him in Italy, +and it succeeded well with him. But, on the contrary, Hannibal in the +same war ruined himself by abandoning the conquest of a foreign country +to go and defend his own. The Athenians having left the enemy in their +own dominions to go over into Sicily, were not favoured by fortune in +their design; but Agathocles, king of Syracuse, found her favourable to +him when he went over into Africa and left the war at home. + +By which examples we are wont to conclude, and with some reason, that +events, especially in war, for the most part depend upon fortune, who +will not be governed by nor submit unto human reasons and prudence, +according to the poet: + + "Et male consultis pretium est: prudentia fallit + Nec fortune probat causas, sequiturque merentes, + Sed vaga per cunctos nullo discrimine fertur. + Scilicet est aliud, quod nos cogatque regatque + Majus, et in proprias ducat mortalia leges." + + ["And there is value in ill counsel: prudence deceives: nor does + fortune inquire into causes, nor aid the most deserving, but turns + hither and thither without discrimination. Indeed there is a + greater power which directs and rules us, and brings mortal affairs + under its own laws."--Manilius, iv. 95.] + +But, to take the thing right, it should seem that our counsels and +deliberations depend as much upon fortune as anything else we do, and +that she engages also our arguments in her uncertainty and confusion. +"We argue rashly and adventurously," says Timaeus in Plato, "by reason +that, as well as ourselves, our discourses have great participation in +the temerity of chance." + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +"Art thou not ashamed," said he to him, "to sing so well?" +As great a benefit to be without (children) +Away with that eloquence that enchants us with itself +Because the people know so well how to obey +Blemishes of the great naturally appear greater +Change is to be feared +Cicero: on fame +Confidence in another man's virtue +Dangerous man you have deprived of all means to escape +Depend as much upon fortune as anything else we do +Fame: an echo, a dream, nay, the shadow of a dream +Far more easy and pleasant to follow than to lead +He who lays the cloth is ever at the charge of the feast +I honour those most to whom I show the least honour +In war not to drive an enemy to despair +My words does but injure the love I have conceived within. +Neither the courage to die nor the heart to live +Never spoke of my money, but falsely, as others do +No great choice betwixt not knowing to speak anything but ill +No man continues ill long but by his own fault +No necessity upon a man to live in necessity +No passion so contagious as that of fear +Not a victory that puts not an end to the war +Not want, but rather abundance, that creates avarice +Only secure harbour from the storms and tempests of life +Opinions they have of things and not by the things themselves +People conceiving they have right and title to be judges +Pyrrho's hog +Repute for value in them, not what they bring to us +Satisfaction of mind to have only one path to walk in +That which cowardice itself has chosen for its refuge +The honour we receive from those that fear us is not honour +The pedestal is no part of the statue +There is more trouble in keeping money than in getting it. +There is nothing I hate so much as driving a bargain +Thou wilt not feel it long if thou feelest it too much +Tis the sharpnss of our mind that gives the edge to our pains +Titles being so dearly bought +Twenty people prating about him when he is at stool +Valour whetted and enraged by mischance +What can they not do; what do they fear to do (for beauty) + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V7 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 8. + +XLVIII. Of war-horses, or destriers. +XLIX. Of ancient customs. +L. Of Democritus and Heraclitus. +LI. Of the vanity of words. +LII. Of the parsimony of the Ancients. +LIII. Of a saying of Caesar. +LIV. Of vain subtleties. +LV. Of smells. +LVI. Of prayers. +LVII. Of age. + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +OF WAR HORSES, OR DESTRIERS + +I here have become a grammarian, I who never learned any language but by +rote, and who do not yet know adjective, conjunction, or ablative. I +think I have read that the Romans had a sort of horses by them called +'funales' or 'dextrarios', which were either led horses, or horses laid +on at several stages to be taken fresh upon occasion, and thence it is +that we call our horses of service 'destriers'; and our romances commonly +use the phrase of 'adestrer' for 'accompagner', to accompany. They also +called those that were trained in such sort, that running full speed, +side by side, without bridle or saddle, the Roman gentlemen, armed at all +pieces, would shift and throw themselves from one to the other, +'desultorios equos'. The Numidian men-at-arms had always a led horse in +one hand, besides that they rode upon, to change in the heat of battle: + + "Quibus, desultorum in modum, binos trahentibus equos, inter + acerrimam saepe pugnam, in recentem equum, ex fesso, armatis + transultare mos erat: tanta velocitas ipsis, tamque docile + equorum genus." + + ["To whom it was a custom, leading along two horses, often in the + hottest fight, to leap armed from a tired horse to a fresh one; so + active were the men, and the horses so docile."--Livy, xxiii. 29.] + +There are many horses trained to help their riders so as to run upon any +one, that appears with a drawn sword, to fall both with mouth and heels +upon any that front or oppose them: but it often happens that they do +more harm to their friends than to their enemies; and, moreover, you +cannot loose them from their hold, to reduce them again into order, when +they are once engaged and grappled, by which means you remain at the +mercy of their quarrel. It happened very ill to Artybius, general of the +Persian army, fighting, man to man, with Onesilus, king of Salamis, to be +mounted upon a horse trained after this manner, it being the occasion of +his death, the squire of Onesilus cleaving the horse down with a scythe +betwixt the shoulders as it was reared up upon his master. And what the +Italians report, that in the battle of Fornova, the horse of Charles +VIII., with kicks and plunges, disengaged his master from the enemy that +pressed upon him, without which he had been slain, sounds like a very +great chance, if it be true. + + [In the narrative which Philip de Commines has given of this battle, + in which he himself was present (lib. viii. ch. 6), he tells us + of wonderful performances by the horse on which the king was + mounted. The name of the horse was Savoy, and it was the most + beautiful horse he had ever seen. During the battle the king was + personally attacked, when he had nobody near him but a valet de + chambre, a little fellow, and not well armed. "The king," says + Commines, "had the best horse under him in the world, and therefore + he stood his ground bravely, till a number of his men, not a great + way from him, arrived at the critical minute."] + +The Mamalukes make their boast that they have the most ready horses of +any cavalry in the world; that by nature and custom they were taught to +know and distinguish the enemy, and to fall foul upon them with mouth and +heels, according to a word or sign given; as also to gather up with their +teeth darts and lances scattered upon the field, and present them to +their riders, on the word of command. 'T is said, both of Caesar and +Pompey, that amongst their other excellent qualities they were both very +good horsemen, and particularly of Caesar, that in his youth, being +mounted on the bare back, without saddle or bridle, he could make the +horse run, stop, and turn, and perform all its airs, with his hands +behind him. As nature designed to make of this person, and of Alexander, +two miracles of military art, so one would say she had done her utmost to +arm them after an extraordinary manner for every one knows that +Alexander's horse, Bucephalus, had a head inclining to the shape of a +bull; that he would suffer himself to be mounted and governed by none but +his master, and that he was so honoured after his death as to have a city +erected to his name. Caesar had also one which had forefeet like those +of a man, his hoofs being divided in the form of fingers, which likewise +was not to be ridden, by any but Caesar himself, who, after his death, +dedicated his statue to the goddess Venus. + +I do not willingly alight when I am once on horseback, for it is the +place where, whether well or sick, I find myself most at ease. Plato +recommends it for health, as also Pliny says it is good for the stomach +and the joints. Let us go further into this matter since here we are. + +We read in Xenophon a law forbidding any one who was master of a horse to +travel on foot. Trogus Pompeius and Justin say that the Parthians were +wont to perform all offices and ceremonies, not only in war but also all +affairs whether public or private, make bargains, confer, entertain, take +the air, and all on horseback; and that the greatest distinction betwixt +freemen and slaves amongst them was that the one rode on horseback and +the other went on foot, an institution of which King Cyrus was the +founder. + +There are several examples in the Roman history (and Suetonius more +particularly observes it of Caesar) of captains who, on pressing +occasions, commanded their cavalry to alight, both by that means to take +from them all hopes of flight, as also for the advantage they hoped in +this sort of fight. + + "Quo baud dubie superat Romanus," + + ["Wherein the Roman does questionless excel."--Livy, ix. 22.] + +says Livy. And so the first thing they did to prevent the mutinies and +insurrections of nations of late conquest was to take from them their +arms and horses, and therefore it is that we so often meet in Caesar: + + "Arma proferri, jumenta produci, obsides dari jubet." + + ["He commanded the arms to be produced, the horses brought out, + hostages to be given."--De Bello Gall., vii. II.] + +The Grand Signior to this day suffers not a Christian or a Jew to keep a +horse of his own throughout his empire. + +Our ancestors, and especially at the time they had war with the English, +in all their greatest engagements and pitched battles fought for the most +part on foot, that they might have nothing but their own force, courage, +and constancy to trust to in a quarrel of so great concern as life and +honour. You stake (whatever Chrysanthes in Xenophon says to the +contrary) your valour and your fortune upon that of your horse; his +wounds or death bring your person into the same danger; his fear or fury +shall make you reputed rash or cowardly; if he have an ill mouth or will +not answer to the spur, your honour must answer for it. And, therefore, +I do not think it strange that those battles were more firm and furious +than those that are fought on horseback: + + "Caedebant pariter, pariterque ruebant + Victores victique; neque his fuga nota, neque illis." + + ["They fought and fell pell-mell, victors and vanquished; nor was + flight thought of by either."--AEneid, x. 756.] + +Their battles were much better disputed. Nowadays there are nothing but +routs: + + "Primus clamor atque impetus rem decernit." + + ["The first shout and charge decides the business."--Livy, xxv. 41.] + +And the means we choose to make use of in so great a hazard should be as +much as possible at our own command: wherefore I should advise to choose +weapons of the shortest sort, and such of which we are able to give the +best account. A man may repose more confidence in a sword he holds in +his hand than in a bullet he discharges out of a pistol, wherein there +must be a concurrence of several circumstances to make it perform its +office, the powder, the stone, and the wheel: if any of which fail it +endangers your fortune. A man himself strikes much surer than the air +can direct his blow: + + "Et, quo ferre velint, permittere vulnera ventis + Ensis habet vires; et gens quaecumque virorum est, + Bella gerit gladiis." + + ["And so where they choose to carry [the arrows], the winds allow + the wounds; the sword has strength of arm: and whatever nation of + men there is, they wage war with swords."--Lucan, viii. 384.] + +But of that weapon I shall speak more fully when I come to compare the +arms of the ancients with those of modern use; only, by the way, the +astonishment of the ear abated, which every one grows familiar with in a +short time, I look upon it as a weapon of very little execution, and hope +we shall one day lay it aside. That missile weapon which the Italians +formerly made use of both with fire and by sling was much more terrible: +they called a certain kind of javelin, armed at the point with an iron +three feet long, that it might pierce through and through an armed man, +Phalarica, which they sometimes in the field darted by hand, sometimes +from several sorts of engines for the defence of beleaguered places; the +shaft being rolled round with flax, wax, rosin, oil, and other +combustible matter, took fire in its flight, and lighting upon the body +of a man or his target, took away all the use of arms and limbs. And +yet, coming to close fight, I should think they would also damage the +assailant, and that the camp being as it were planted with these flaming +truncheons, would produce a common inconvenience to the whole crowd: + + "Magnum stridens contorta Phalarica venit, + Fulminis acta modo." + + ["The Phalarica, launched like lightning, flies through + the air with a loud rushing sound."--AEneid, ix. 705.] + +They had, moreover, other devices which custom made them perfect in +(which seem incredible to us who have not seen them), by which they +supplied the effects of our powder and shot. They darted their spears +with so great force, as ofttimes to transfix two targets and two armed +men at once, and pin them together. Neither was the effect of their +slings less certain of execution or of shorter carriage: + + ["Culling round stones from the beach for their slings; and with + these practising over the waves, so as from a great distance to + throw within a very small circuit, they became able not only to + wound an enemy in the head, but hit any other part at pleasure." + --Livy, xxxviii. 29.] + +Their pieces of battery had not only the execution but the thunder of our +cannon also: + + "Ad ictus moenium cum terribili sonitu editos, + pavor et trepidatio cepit." + + ["At the battery of the walls, performed with a terrible noise, + the defenders began to fear and tremble."--Idem, ibid., 5.] + +The Gauls, our kinsmen in Asia, abominated these treacherous missile +arms, it being their use to fight, with greater bravery, hand to hand: + + ["They are not so much concerned about large gashes-the bigger and + deeper the wound, the more glorious do they esteem the combat but + when they find themselves tormented by some arrow-head or bullet + lodged within, but presenting little outward show of wound, + transported with shame and anger to perish by so imperceptible a + destroyer, they fall to the ground."---Livy, xxxviii. 21.] + +A pretty description of something very like an arquebuse-shot. The ten +thousand Greeks in their long and famous retreat met with a nation who +very much galled them with great and strong bows, carrying arrows so long +that, taking them up, one might return them back like a dart, and with +them pierce a buckler and an armed man through and through. The engines, +that Dionysius invented at Syracuse to shoot vast massy darts and stones +of a prodigious greatness with so great impetuosity and at so great a +distance, came very near to our modern inventions. + +But in this discourse of horses and horsemanship, we are not to forget +the pleasant posture of one Maistre Pierre Pol, a doctor of divinity, +upon his mule, whom Monstrelet reports always to have ridden sideways +through the streets of Paris like a woman. He says also, elsewhere, that +the Gascons had terrible horses, that would wheel in their full speed, +which the French, Picards, Flemings, and Brabanters looked upon as a +miracle, "having never seen the like before," which are his very words. + +Caesar, speaking of the Suabians: "in the charges they make on +horseback," says he, "they often throw themselves off to fight on foot, +having taught their horses not to stir in the meantime from the place, +to which they presently run again upon occasion; and according to their +custom, nothing is so unmanly and so base as to use saddles or pads, and +they despise such as make use of those conveniences: insomuch that, being +but a very few in number, they fear not to attack a great many." That +which I have formerly wondered at, to see a horse made to perform all his +airs with a switch only and the reins upon his neck, was common with the +Massilians, who rid their horses without saddle or bridle: + + "Et gens, quae nudo residens Massylia dorso, + Ora levi flectit, fraenorum nescia, virga." + + ["The Massylians, mounted on the bare backs of their horses, + bridleless, guide them by a mere switch."--Lucan, iv. 682.] + + "Et Numidae infraeni cingunt." + + ["The Numidians guiding their horses without bridles." + --AEneid, iv. 41.] + + "Equi sine fraenis, deformis ipse cursus, + rigida cervice et extento capite currentium." + + ["The career of a horse without a bridle is ungraceful; the neck + extended stiff, and the nose thrust out."--Livy, xxxv. II.] + +King Alfonso,--[Alfonso XI., king of Leon and Castile, died 1350.]-- +he who first instituted the Order of the Band or Scarf in Spain, amongst +other rules of the order, gave them this, that they should never ride +mule or mulet, upon penalty of a mark of silver; this I had lately out of +Guevara's Letters. Whoever gave these the title of Golden Epistles had +another kind of opinion of them than I have. The Courtier says, that +till his time it was a disgrace to a gentleman to ride on one of these +creatures: but the Abyssinians, on the contrary, the nearer they are to +the person of Prester John, love to be mounted upon large mules, for the +greatest dignity and grandeur. + +Xenophon tells us, that the Assyrians were fain to keep their horses +fettered in the stable, they were so fierce and vicious; and that it +required so much time to loose and harness them, that to avoid any +disorder this tedious preparation might bring upon them in case of +surprise, they never sat down in their camp till it was first well +fortified with ditches and ramparts. His Cyrus, who was so great a +master in all manner of horse service, kept his horses to their due work, +and never suffered them to have anything to eat till first they had +earned it by the sweat of some kind of exercise. The Scythians when in +the field and in scarcity of provisions used to let their horses blood, +which they drank, and sustained themselves by that diet: + + "Venit et epoto Sarmata pastus equo." + + ["The Scythian comes, who feeds on horse-flesh" + --Martial, De Spectaculis Libey, Epigr. iii. 4.] + +Those of Crete, being besieged by Metellus, were in so great necessity +for drink that they were fain to quench their thirst with their horses +urine.--[Val. Max., vii. 6, ext. 1.] + +To shew how much cheaper the Turkish armies support themselves than our +European forces, 'tis said that besides the soldiers drink nothing but +water and eat nothing but rice and salt flesh pulverised (of which every +one may easily carry about with him a month's provision), they know how +to feed upon the blood of their horses as well as the Muscovite and +Tartar, and salt it for their use. + +These new-discovered people of the Indies [Mexico and Yucatan D.W.], +when the Spaniards first landed amongst them, had so great an opinion +both of the men and horses, that they looked upon the first as gods and +the other as animals ennobled above their nature; insomuch that after +they were subdued, coming to the men to sue for peace and pardon, and to +bring them gold and provisions, they failed not to offer of the same to +the horses, with the same kind of harangue to them they had made to the +others: interpreting their neighing for a language of truce and +friendship. + +In the other Indies, to ride upon an elephant was the first and royal +place of honour; the second to ride in a coach with four horses; the +third to ride upon a camel; and the last and least honour to be carried +or drawn by one horse only. Some one of our late writers tells us that +he has been in countries in those parts where they ride upon oxen with +pads, stirrups, and bridles, and very much at their ease. + +Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, in a battle with the Samnites, seeing +his horse, after three or four charges, had failed of breaking into the +enemy's battalion, took this course, to make them unbridle all their +horses and spur their hardest, so that having nothing to check their +career, they might through weapons and men open the way to his foot, who +by that means gave them a bloody defeat. The same command was given by +Quintus Fulvius Flaccus against the Celtiberians: + + ["You will do your business with greater advantage of your horses' + strength, if you send them unbridled upon the enemy, as it is + recorded the Roman horse to their great glory have often done; their + bits being taken off, they charged through and again back through + the enemy's ranks with great slaughter, breaking down all their + spears."--Idem, xl. 40.] + +The Duke of Muscovy was anciently obliged to pay this reverence to the +Tartars, that when they sent an embassy to him he went out to meet them +on foot, and presented them with a goblet of mares' milk (a beverage of +greatest esteem amongst them), and if, in drinking, a drop fell by chance +upon their horse's mane, he was bound to lick it off with his tongue. +The army that Bajazet had sent into Russia was overwhelmed with so +dreadful a tempest of snow, that to shelter and preserve themselves from +the cold, many killed and embowelled their horses, to creep into their +bellies and enjoy the benefit of that vital heat. Bajazet, after that +furious battle wherein he was overthrown by Tamerlane, was in a hopeful +way of securing his own person by the fleetness of an Arabian mare he had +under him, had he not been constrained to let her drink her fill at the +ford of a river in his way, which rendered her so heavy and indisposed, +that he was afterwards easily overtaken by those that pursued him. They +say, indeed, that to let a horse stale takes him off his mettle, but as +to drinking, I should rather have thought it would refresh him. + +Croesus, marching his army through certain waste lands near Sardis, met +with an infinite number of serpents, which the horses devoured with great +appetite, and which Herodotus says was a prodigy of ominous portent to +his affairs. + +We call a horse entire, that has his mane and ears so, and no other will +pass muster. The Lacedaemonians, having defeated the Athenians in +Sicily, returning triumphant from the victory into the city of Syracuse, +amongst other insolences, caused all the horses they had taken to be +shorn and led in triumph. Alexander fought with a nation called Dahas, +whose discipline it was to march two and two together armed on one horse, +to the war; and being in fight, one of them alighted, and so they fought +on horseback and on foot, one after another by turns. + +I do not think that for graceful riding any nation in the world excels +the French. A good horseman, according to our way of speaking, seems +rather to have respect to the courage of the man than address in riding. +Of all that ever I saw, the most knowing in that art, who had the best +seat and the best method in breaking horses, was Monsieur de Carnavalet, +who served our King Henry II. + +I have seen a man ride with both his feet upon the saddle, take off his +saddle, and at his return take it up again and replace it, riding all the +while full speed; having galloped over a cap, make at it very good shots +backwards with his bow; take up anything from the ground, setting one +foot on the ground and the other in the stirrup: with twenty other ape's +tricks, which he got his living by. + +There has been seen in my time at Constantinople two men upon one horse, +who, in the height of its speed, would throw themselves off and into the +saddle again by turn; and one who bridled and saddled his horse with +nothing but his teeth; an other who betwixt two horses, one foot upon one +saddle and the other upon another, carrying the other man upon his +shoulders, would ride full career, the other standing bolt upright upon +and making very good shots with his bow; several who would ride full +speed with their heels upward, and their heads upon the saddle betwixt +several scimitars, with the points upwards, fixed in the harness. When I +was a boy, the prince of Sulmona, riding an unbroken horse at Naples, +prone to all sorts of action, held reals--[A small coin of Spain, the +Two Sicilies, &c.]--under his knees and toes, as if they had been nailed +there, to shew the firmness of his seat. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +OF ANCIENT CUSTOMS + +I should willingly pardon our people for admitting no other pattern or +rule of perfection than their own peculiar manners and customs; for 'tis +a common vice, not of the vulgar only, but almost of all men, to walk in +the beaten road their ancestors have trod before them. I am content, +when they see Fabricius or Laelius, that they look upon their countenance +and behaviour as barbarous, seeing they are neither clothed nor fashioned +according to our mode. But I find fault with their singular indiscretion +in suffering themselves to be so blinded and imposed upon by the +authority of the present usage as every month to alter their opinion, if +custom so require, and that they should so vary their judgment in their +own particular concern. When they wore the busk of their doublets up as +high as their breasts, they stiffly maintained that they were in their +proper place; some years after it was slipped down betwixt their thighs, +and then they could laugh at the former fashion as uneasy and +intolerable. The fashion now in use makes them absolutely condemn the +other two with so great resolution and so universal consent, that a man +would think there was a certain kind of madness crept in amongst them, +that infatuates their understandings to this strange degree. Now, seeing +that our change of fashions is so prompt and sudden, that the inventions +of all the tailors in the world cannot furnish out new whim-whams enow to +feed our vanity withal, there will often be a necessity that the despised +forms must again come in vogue, these immediately after fall into the +same contempt; and that the same judgment must, in the space of fifteen +or twenty years, take up half-a-dozen not only divers but contrary +opinions, with an incredible lightness and inconstancy; there is not any +of us so discreet, who suffers not himself to be gulled with this +contradiction, and both in external and internal sight to be insensibly +blinded. + +I wish to muster up here some old customs that I have in memory, some of +them the same with ours, the others different, to the end that, bearing +in mind this continual variation of human things, we may have our +judgment more clearly and firmly settled. + +The thing in use amongst us of fighting with rapier and cloak was in +practice amongst the Romans also: + + "Sinistras sagis involvunt, gladiosque distringunt," + + ["They wrapt their cloaks upon the left arm, and drew their + swords."--De Bello Civili, i. 75.] + +says Caesar; and he observes a vicious custom of our nation, that +continues yet amongst us, which is to stop passengers we meet upon the +road, to compel them to give an account who they are, and to take it for +an affront and just cause of quarrel if they refuse to do it. + +At the Baths, which the ancients made use of every day before they went +to dinner, and as frequently as we wash our hands, they at first only +bathed their arms and legs; but afterwards, and by a custom that has +continued for many ages in most nations of the world, they bathed stark +naked in mixed and perfumed water, looking upon it as a great simplicity +to bathe in mere water. The most delicate and affected perfumed +themselves all over three or four times a day. They often caused their +hair to be pinched off, as the women of France have some time since taken +up a custom to do their foreheads, + + "Quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod brachia veilis," + + ["You pluck the hairs out of your breast, your arms, and thighs." + --Martial, ii. 62, i.] + +though they had ointments proper for that purpose: + + "Psilotro nitet, aut acids latet oblita creta." + + ["She shines with unguents, or with chalk dissolved in vinegar." + --Idem, vi. 93, 9.] + +They delighted to lie soft, and alleged it as a great testimony of +hardiness to lie upon a mattress. They ate lying upon beds, much after +the manner of the Turks in this age: + + "Inde thoro pater AEneas sic orsus ab alto." + + ["Thus Father AEneas, from his high bed of state, spoke." + --AEneid, ii. 2.] + +And 'tis said of the younger Cato, that after the battle of Pharsalia, +being entered into a melancholy disposition at the ill posture of the +public affairs, he took his repasts always sitting, assuming a strict and +austere course of life. It was also their custom to kiss the hands of +great persons; the more to honour and caress them. And meeting with +friends, they always kissed in salutation, as do the Venetians: + + "Gratatusque darem cum dulcibus oscula verbis." + + ["And kindest words I would mingle with kisses." + --Ovid, De Pont., iv. 9, 13] + +In petitioning or saluting any great man, they used to lay their hands +upon his knees. Pasicles the philosopher, brother of Crates, instead of +laying his hand upon the knee laid it upon the private parts, and being +roughly repulsed by him to whom he made that indecent compliment: +"What," said he, "is not that part your own as well as the other?"-- +[Diogenes Laertius, vi. 89.]--They used to eat fruit, as we do, after +dinner. They wiped their fundaments (let the ladies, if they please, +mince it smaller) with a sponge, which is the reason that 'spongia' is a +smutty word in Latin; which sponge was fastened to the end of a stick, as +appears by the story of him who, as he was led along to be thrown to the +wild beasts in the sight of the people, asking leave to do his business, +and having no other way to despatch himself, forced the sponge and stick +down his throat and choked himself.--[Seneca, Ep., 70.] They used to +wipe, after coition, with perfumed wool: + + "At tibi nil faciam; sed Iota mentula lana." + +They had in the streets of Rome vessels and little tubs for passengers to +urine in: + + "Pusi saepe lacum propter se, ac dolia curta. + Somno devincti, credunt extollere vestem." + + ["The little boys in their sleep often think they are near the + public urinal, and raise their coats to make use of it." + --Lucretius, iv.] + +They had collation betwixt meals, and had in summer cellars of snow to +cool their wine; and some there were who made use of snow in winter, not +thinking their wine cool enough, even at that cold season of the year. +The men of quality had their cupbearers and carvers, and their buffoons +to make them sport. They had their meat served up in winter upon chafing +dishes, which were set upon the table, and had portable kitchens (of +which I myself have seen some) wherein all their service was carried +about with them: + + "Has vobis epulas habete, lauti + Nos offendimur ambulante caena." + + ["Do you, if you please, esteem these feasts: we do not like the + ambulatory suppers."--Martial, vii. 48, 4.] + +In summer they had a contrivance to bring fresh and clear rills through +their lower rooms, wherein were great store of living fish, which the +guests took out with their own hands to be dressed every man according to +his own liking. Fish has ever had this pre-eminence, and keeps it still, +that the grandees, as to them, all pretend to be cooks; and indeed the +taste is more delicate than that of flesh, at least to my fancy. But in +all sorts of magnificence, debauchery, and voluptuous inventions of +effeminacy and expense, we do, in truth, all we can to parallel them; +for our wills are as corrupt as theirs: but we want ability to equal +them. Our force is no more able to reach them in their vicious, than in +their virtuous, qualities, for both the one and the other proceeded from +a vigour of soul which was without comparison greater in them than in us; +and souls, by how much the weaker they are, by so much have they less +power to do either very well or very ill. + +The highest place of honour amongst them was the middle. The name going +before, or following after, either in writing or speaking, had no +signification of grandeur, as is evident by their writings; they will as +soon say Oppius and Caesar, as Caesar and Oppius; and me and thee, as +thee and me. This is the reason that made me formerly take notice in the +life of Flaminius, in our French Plutarch, of one passage, where it seems +as if the author, speaking of the jealousy of honour betwixt the +AEtolians and Romans, about the winning of a battle they had with their +joined forces obtained, made it of some importance, that in the Greek +songs they had put the AEtolians before the Romans: if there be no +amphibology in the words of the French translation. + +The ladies, in their baths, made no scruple of admitting men amongst +them, and moreover made use of their serving-men to rub and anoint them: + + "Inguina succinctus nigri tibi servus aluta + Stat, quoties calidis nuda foveris aquis." + + ["A slave--his middle girded with a black apron--stands before you, + when, naked, you take a hot bath."--Martial, vii. 35, i.] + +They all powdered themselves with a certain powder, to moderate their +sweats. + +The ancient Gauls, says Sidonius Apollinaris, wore their hair long before +and the hinder part of the head shaved, a fashion that begins to revive +in this vicious and effeminate age. + +The Romans used to pay the watermen their fare at their first stepping +into the boat, which we never do till after landing: + + "Dum aes exigitur, dum mula ligatur, + Tota abit hora." + + ["Whilst the fare's paying, and the mule is being harnessed, a whole + hour's time is past."--Horace, Sat. i. 5, 13.] + +The women used to lie on the side of the bed next the wall: and for that +reason they called Caesar, + + "Spondam regis Nicomedis," + + ["The bed of King Nicomedes."--Suetonius, Life of Caesar, 49.] + +They took breath in their drinking, and watered their wine + + "Quis puer ocius + Restinguet ardentis Falerni + Pocula praetereunte lympha?" + + ["What boy will quickly come and cool the heat of the Falernian + wine with clear water?"--Horace, Od., ii. z, 18.] + +And the roguish looks and gestures of our lackeys were also in use +amongst them: + + "O Jane, a tergo quern nulls ciconia pinsit, + Nec manus, auriculas imitari est mobilis albas, + Nec lingua, quantum sitiat canis Appula, tantum." + + ["O Janus, whom no crooked fingers, simulating a stork, peck at + behind your back, whom no quick hands deride behind you, by + imitating the motion of the white ears of the ass, against whom no + mocking tongue is thrust out, as the tongue of the thirsty Apulian + dog."--Persius, i. 58.] + +The Argian and Roman ladies mourned in white, as ours did formerly and +should do still, were I to govern in this point. But there are whole +books on this subject. + + + + +CHAPTER L + +OF DEMOCRITUS AND HERACLITUS + +The judgment is an utensil proper for all subjects, and will have an oar +in everything: which is the reason, that in these Essays I take hold of +all occasions where, though it happen to be a subject I do not very well +understand, I try, however, sounding it at a distance, and finding it too +deep for my stature, I keep me on the shore; and this knowledge that a +man can proceed no further, is one effect of its virtue, yes, one of +those of which it is most proud. One while in an idle and frivolous +subject, I try to find out matter whereof to compose a body, and then to +prop and support it; another while, I employ it in a noble subject, one +that has been tossed and tumbled by a thousand hands, wherein a man can +scarce possibly introduce anything of his own, the way being so beaten on +every side that he must of necessity walk in the steps of another: in +such a case, 'tis the work of the judgment to take the way that seems +best, and of a thousand paths, to determine that this or that is the +best. I leave the choice of my arguments to fortune, and take that she +first presents to me; they are all alike to me, I never design to go +through any of them; for I never see all of anything: neither do they who +so largely promise to show it others. Of a hundred members and faces +that everything has, I take one, onewhile to look it over only, another +while to ripple up the skin, and sometimes to pinch it to the bones: I +give a stab, not so wide but as deep as I can, and am for the most part +tempted to take it in hand by some new light I discover in it. Did I +know myself less, I might perhaps venture to handle something or other to +the bottom, and to be deceived in my own inability; but sprinkling here +one word and there another, patterns cut from several pieces and +scattered without design and without engaging myself too far, I am not +responsible for them, or obliged to keep close to my subject, without +varying at my own liberty and pleasure, and giving up myself to doubt and +uncertainty, and to my own governing method, ignorance. + +All motion discovers us: the very same soul of Caesar, that made itself +so conspicuous in marshalling and commanding the battle of Pharsalia, was +also seen as solicitous and busy in the softer affairs of love and +leisure. A man makes a judgment of a horse, not only by seeing him when +he is showing off his paces, but by his very walk, nay, and by seeing him +stand in the stable. + +Amongst the functions of the soul, there are some of a lower and meaner +form; he who does not see her in those inferior offices as well as in +those of nobler note, never fully discovers her; and, peradventure, she +is best shown where she moves her simpler pace. The winds of passions +take most hold of her in her highest flights; and the rather by reason +that she wholly applies herself to, and exercises her whole virtue upon, +every particular subject, and never handles more than one thing at a +time, and that not according to it, but according to herself. Things in +respect to themselves have, peradventure, their weight, measures, and +conditions; but when we once take them into us, the soul forms them as +she pleases. Death is terrible to Cicero, coveted by Cato, indifferent +to Socrates. Health, conscience, authority, knowledge, riches, beauty, +and their contraries, all strip themselves at their entering into us, and +receive a new robe, and of another fashion, from the soul; and of what +colour, brown, bright, green, dark, and of what quality, sharp, sweet, +deep, or superficial, as best pleases each of them, for they are not +agreed upon any common standard of forms, rules, or proceedings; every +one is a queen in her own dominions. Let us, therefore, no more excuse +ourselves upon the external qualities of things; it belongs to us to give +ourselves an account of them. Our good or ill has no other dependence +but on ourselves. 'Tis there that our offerings and our vows are due, +and not to fortune she has no power over our manners; on the contrary, +they draw and make her follow in their train, and cast her in their own +mould. Why should not I judge of Alexander at table, ranting and +drinking at the prodigious rate he sometimes used to do? + +Or, if he played at chess? what string of his soul was not touched by +this idle and childish game? I hate and avoid it, because it is not play +enough, that it is too grave and serious a diversion, and I am ashamed to +lay out as much thought and study upon it as would serve to much better +uses. He did not more pump his brains about his glorious expedition into +the Indies, nor than another in unravelling a passage upon which depends +the safety of mankind. To what a degree does this ridiculous diversion +molest the soul, when all her faculties are summoned together upon this +trivial account! and how fair an opportunity she herein gives every one +to know and to make a right judgment of himself? I do not more +thoroughly sift myself in any other posture than this: what passion are +we exempted from in it? Anger, spite, malice, impatience, and a vehement +desire of getting the better in a concern wherein it were more excusable +to be ambitious of being overcome; for to be eminent, to excel above the +common rate in frivolous things, nowise befits a man of honour. What I +say in this example may be said in all others. Every particle, every +employment of man manifests him equally with any other. + +Democritus and Heraclitus were two philosophers, of whom the first, +finding human condition ridiculous and vain, never appeared abroad but +with a jeering and laughing countenance; whereas Heraclitus commiserating +that same condition of ours, appeared always with a sorrowful look, and +tears in his eyes: + + "Alter + Ridebat, quoties a limine moverat unum + Protuleratque pedem; flebat contrarius alter." + + ["The one always, as often as he had stepped one pace from his + threshold, laughed, the other always wept."--Juvenal, Sat., x. 28.] + + [Or, as Voltaire: "Life is a comedy to those who think; + a tragedy to those who feel." D.W.] + +I am clearly for the first humour; not because it is more pleasant to +laugh than to weep, but because it expresses more contempt and +condemnation than the other, and I think we can never be despised +according to our full desert. Compassion and bewailing seem to imply +some esteem of and value for the thing bemoaned; whereas the things we +laugh at are by that expressed to be of no moment. I do not think that +we are so unhappy as we are vain, or have in us so much malice as folly; +we are not so full of mischief as inanity; nor so miserable as we are +vile and mean. And therefore Diogenes, who passed away his time in +rolling himself in his tub, and made nothing of the great Alexander, +esteeming us no better than flies or bladders puffed up with wind, was a +sharper and more penetrating, and, consequently in my opinion, a juster +judge than Timon, surnamed the Man-hater; for what a man hates he lays to +heart. This last was an enemy to all mankind, who passionately desired +our ruin, and avoided our conversation as dangerous, proceeding from +wicked and depraved natures: the other valued us so little that we could +neither trouble nor infect him by our example; and left us to herd one +with another, not out of fear, but from contempt of our society: +concluding us as incapable of doing good as evil. + +Of the same strain was Statilius' answer, when Brutus courted him into +the conspiracy against Caesar; he was satisfied that the enterprise was +just, but he did not think mankind worthy of a wise man's concern'; +according to the doctrine of Hegesias, who said, that a wise man ought to +do nothing but for himself, forasmuch as he only was worthy of it: and to +the saying of Theodorus, that it was not reasonable a wise man should +hazard himself for his country, and endanger wisdom for a company of +fools. Our condition is as ridiculous as risible. + + + + +CHAPTER LI + +OF THE VANITY OF WORDS + +A rhetorician of times past said, that to make little things appear great +was his profession. This was a shoemaker, who can make a great shoe for +a little foot.--[A saying of Agesilaus.]--They would in Sparta have +sent such a fellow to be whipped for making profession of a tricky and +deceitful act; and I fancy that Archidamus, who was king of that country, +was a little surprised at the answer of Thucydides, when inquiring of +him, which was the better wrestler, Pericles, or he, he replied, that it +was hard to affirm; for when I have thrown him, said he, he always +persuades the spectators that he had no fall and carries away the prize. +--[Quintilian, ii. 15.]--The women who paint, pounce, and plaster up +their ruins, filling up their wrinkles and deformities, are less to +blame, because it is no great matter whether we see them in their natural +complexions; whereas these make it their business to deceive not our +sight only but our judgments, and to adulterate and corrupt the very +essence of things. The republics that have maintained themselves in a +regular and well-modelled government, such as those of Lacedaemon and +Crete, had orators in no very great esteem. Aristo wisely defined +rhetoric to be "a science to persuade the people;" Socrates and Plato +"an art to flatter and deceive." And those who deny it in the general +description, verify it throughout in their precepts. The Mohammedans +will not suffer their children to be instructed in it, as being useless, +and the Athenians, perceiving of how pernicious consequence the practice +of it was, it being in their city of universal esteem, ordered the +principal part, which is to move the affections, with their exordiums and +perorations, to be taken away. 'Tis an engine invented to manage and +govern a disorderly and tumultuous rabble, and that never is made use of, +but like physic to the sick, in a discomposed state. In those where the +vulgar or the ignorant, or both together, have been all-powerful and able +to give the law, as in those of Athens, Rhodes, and Rome, and where the +public affairs have been in a continual tempest of commotion, to such +places have the orators always repaired. And in truth, we shall find few +persons in those republics who have pushed their fortunes to any great +degree of eminence without the assistance of eloquence. + +Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, Lucullus, Lentulus, Metellus, thence took their +chiefest spring, to mount to that degree of authority at which they at +last arrived, making it of greater use to them than arms, contrary to the +opinion of better times; for, L. Volumnius speaking publicly in favour of +the election of Q. Fabius and Pub. Decius, to the consular dignity: +"These are men," said he, "born for war and great in execution; in the +combat of the tongue altogether wanting; spirits truly consular. The +subtle, eloquent, and learned are only good for the city, to make +praetors of, to administer justice."--[Livy, x. 22.] + +Eloquence most flourished at Rome when the public affairs were in the +worst condition and most disquieted with intestine commotions; as a free +and untilled soil bears the worst weeds. By which it should seem that a +monarchical government has less need of it than any other: for the +stupidity and facility natural to the common people, and that render them +subject to be turned and twined and, led by the ears by this charming +harmony of words, without weighing or considering the truth and reality +of things by the force of reason: this facility, I say, is not easily +found in a single person, and it is also more easy by good education and +advice to secure him from the impression of this poison. There was never +any famous orator known to come out of Persia or Macedon. + +I have entered into this discourse upon the occasion of an Italian I +lately received into my service, and who was clerk of the kitchen to the +late Cardinal Caraffa till his death. I put this fellow upon an account +of his office: when he fell to discourse of this palate-science, with +such a settled countenance and magisterial gravity, as if he had been +handling some profound point of divinity. He made a learned distinction +of the several sorts of appetites; of that a man has before he begins to +eat, and of those after the second and third service; the means simply to +satisfy the first, and then to raise and actuate the other two; the +ordering of the sauces, first in general, and then proceeded to the +qualities of the ingredients and their effects; the differences of salads +according to their seasons, those which ought to be served up hot, and +which cold; the manner of their garnishment and decoration to render them +acceptable to the eye. After which he entered upon the order of the +whole service, full of weighty and important considerations: + + "Nec minimo sane discrimine refert, + Quo gestu lepores, et quo gallina secetur;" + + ["Nor with less discrimination observes how we should carve a hare, + and how a hen." or, ("Nor with the least discrimination relates how + we should carve hares, and how cut up a hen.)" + --Juvenal, Sat., v. 123.] + +and all this set out with lofty and magnificent words, the very same we +make use of when we discourse of the government of an empire. Which +learned lecture of my man brought this of Terence into my memory: + + "Hoc salsum est, hoc adustum est, hoc lautum est, parum: + Illud recte: iterum sic memento: sedulo + Moneo, qux possum, pro mea sapientia. + Postremo, tanquam in speculum, in patinas, + Demea, Inspicere jubeo, et moneo, quid facto usus sit." + + ["This is too salt, that's burnt, that's not washed enough; that's + well; remember to do so another time. Thus do I ever advise them to + have things done properly, according to my capacity; and lastly, + Demea, I command my cooks to look into every dish as if it were a + mirror, and tell them what they should do." + --Terence, Adelph., iii. 3, 71.] + +And yet even the Greeks themselves very much admired and highly applauded +the order and disposition that Paulus AEmilius observed in the feast he +gave them at his return from Macedon. But I do not here speak of +effects, I speak of words only. + +I do not know whether it may have the same operation upon other men that +it has upon me, but when I hear our architects thunder out their bombast +words of pilasters, architraves, and cornices, of the Corinthian and +Doric orders, and suchlike jargon, my imagination is presently possessed +with the palace of Apollidon; when, after all, I find them but the paltry +pieces of my own kitchen door. + +To hear men talk of metonomies, metaphors, and allegories, and other +grammar words, would not one think they signified some rare and exotic +form of speaking? And yet they are phrases that come near to the babble +of my chambermaid. + +And this other is a gullery of the same stamp, to call the offices of our +kingdom by the lofty titles of the Romans, though they have no similitude +of function, and still less of authority and power. And this also, which +I doubt will one day turn to the reproach of this age of ours, unworthily +and indifferently to confer upon any we think fit the most glorious +surnames with which antiquity honoured but one or two persons in several +ages. Plato carried away the surname of Divine, by so universal a +consent that never any one repined at it, or attempted to take it from +him; and yet the Italians, who pretend, and with good reason, to more +sprightly wits and sounder sense than the other nations of their time, +have lately bestowed the same title upon Aretin, in whose writings, save +tumid phrases set out with smart periods, ingenious indeed but far- +fetched and fantastic, and the eloquence, be it what it may, I see +nothing in him above the ordinary writers of his time, so far is he from +approaching the ancient divinity. And we make nothing of giving the +surname of great to princes who have nothing more than ordinary in them. + + + + +CHAPTER LII + +OF THE PARSIMONY OF THE ANCIENTS + +Attilius Regulus, general of the Roman army in Africa, in the height of +all his glory and victories over the Carthaginians, wrote to the Republic +to acquaint them that a certain hind he had left in trust with his +estate, which was in all but seven acres of land, had run away with all +his instruments of husbandry, and entreating therefore, that they would +please to call him home that he might take order in his own affairs, lest +his wife and children should suffer by this disaster. Whereupon the +Senate appointed another to manage his business, caused his losses to be +made good, and ordered his family to be maintained at the public expense. + +The elder Cato, returning consul from Spain, sold his warhorse to save +the money it would have cost in bringing it back by sea into Italy; and +being Governor of Sardinia, he made all his visits on foot, without other +train than one officer of the Republic who carried his robe and a censer +for sacrifices, and for the most part carried his trunk himself. He +bragged that he had never worn a gown that cost above ten crowns, nor had +ever sent above tenpence to the market for one day's provision; and that +as to his country houses, he had not one that was rough-cast on the +outside. + +Scipio AEmilianus, after two triumphs and two consulships, went an +embassy with no more than seven servants in his train. 'Tis said that +Homer had never more than one, Plato three, and Zeno, founder of the sect +of Stoics, none at all. Tiberius Gracchus was allowed but fivepence +halfpenny a day when employed as public minister about the public +affairs, and being at that time the greatest man of Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII + +OF A SAYING OF CAESAR + +If we would sometimes bestow a little consideration upon ourselves, and +employ the time we spend in prying into other men's actions, and +discovering things without us, in examining our own abilities we should +soon perceive of how infirm and decaying material this fabric of ours is +composed. Is it not a singular testimony of imperfection that we cannot +establish our satisfaction in any one thing, and that even our own fancy +and desire should deprive us of the power to choose what is most proper +and useful for us? A very good proof of this is the great dispute that +has ever been amongst the philosophers, of finding out man's sovereign +good, that continues yet, and will eternally continue, without solution +or accord: + + "Dum abest quod avemus, id exsuperare videtur + Caetera; post aliud, quum contigit illud, avemus, + Et sitis aequa tenet." + + ["While that which we desire is wanting, it seems to surpass all the + rest; then, when we have got it, we want something else; 'tis ever + the same thirst"--Lucretius, iii. 1095.] + +Whatever it is that falls into our knowledge and possession, we find that +it satisfies not, and we still pant after things to come and unknown, +inasmuch as those present do not suffice for us; not that, in my +judgment, they have not in them wherewith to do it, but because we seize +them with an unruly and immoderate haste: + + "Nam quum vidit hic, ad victum qux flagitat usus, + Et per quae possent vitam consistere tutam, + Omnia jam ferme mortalibus esse parata; + Divitiis homines, et honore, et laude potentes + Aflluere, atque bona natorum excellere fama; + Nec minus esse domi cuiquam tamen anxia corda, + Atque animi ingratis vitam vexare querelis + Causam, quae infestis cogit saevire querelis, + Intellegit ibi; vitium vas efficere ipsum, + Omniaque, illius vitio, corrumpier intus, + Qux collata foris et commoda quomque venirent." + + ["For when he saw that almost all things necessarily required for + subsistence, and which may render life comfortable, are already + prepared to their hand, that men may abundantly attain wealth, + honour, praise, may rejoice in the reputation of their children, yet + that, notwithstanding, every one has none the less in his heart and + home anxieties and a mind enslaved by wearing complaints, he saw + that the vessel itself was in fault, and that all good things which + were brought into it from without were spoilt by its own + imperfections."--Lucretius, vi. 9.] + +Our appetite is irresolute and fickle; it can neither keep nor enjoy +anything with a good grace: and man concluding it to be the fault of the +things he is possessed of, fills himself with and feeds upon the idea of +things he neither knows nor understands, to which he devotes his hopes +and his desires, paying them all reverence and honour, according to the +saying of Caesar: + + "Communi fit vitio naturae, ut invisis, latitantibus + atque incognitis rebus magis confidamas, + vehementiusque exterreamur." + + ["'Tis the common vice of nature, that we at once repose most + confidence, and receive the greatest apprehensions, from things + unseen, concealed, and unknown."--De Bello Civil, xi. 4.] + + + + +CHAPTER LIV + +OF VAIN SUBTLETIES + +There are a sort of little knacks and frivolous subtleties from which men +sometimes expect to derive reputation and applause: as poets, who compose +whole poems with every line beginning with the same letter; we see the +shapes of eggs, globes, wings, and hatchets cut out by the ancient Greeks +by the measure of their verses, making them longer or shorter, to +represent such or such a figure. Of this nature was his employment who +made it his business to compute into how many several orders the letters +of the alphabet might be transposed, and found out that incredible number +mentioned in Plutarch. I am mightily pleased with the humour of him, + + ["Alexander, as may be seen in Quintil., Institut. Orat., lib. + ii., cap. 20, where he defines Maratarexvia to be a certain + unnecessary imitation of art, which really does neither good nor + harm, but is as unprofitable and ridiculous as was the labour of + that man who had so perfectly learned to cast small peas through the + eye of a needle at a good distance that he never missed one, and was + justly rewarded for it, as is said, by Alexander, who saw the + performance, with a bushel of peas."--Coste.] + +who having a man brought before him that had learned to throw a grain of +millet with such dexterity and assurance as never to miss the eye of a +needle; and being afterwards entreated to give something for the reward +of so rare a performance, he pleasantly, and in my opinion justly, +ordered a certain number of bushels of the same grain to be delivered to +him, that he might not want wherewith to exercise so famous an art. 'Tis +a strong evidence of a weak judgment when men approve of things for their +being rare and new, or for their difficulty, where worth and usefulness +are not conjoined to recommend them. + +I come just now from playing with my own family at who could find out the +most things that hold by their two extremities; as Sire, which is a title +given to the greatest person in the nation, the king, and also to the +vulgar, as merchants, but never to any degree of men between. The women +of great quality are called Dames, inferior gentlewomen, Demoiselles, and +the meanest sort of women, Dames, as the first. The cloth of state over +our tables is not permitted but in the palaces of princes and in taverns. +Democritus said, that gods and beasts had sharper sense than men, who are +of a middle form. The Romans wore the same habit at funerals and feasts. +It is most certain that an extreme fear and an extreme ardour of courage +equally trouble and relax the belly. The nickname of Trembling with +which they surnamed Sancho XII., king of Navarre, tells us that valour +will cause a trembling in the limbs as well as fear. Those who were +arming that king, or some other person, who upon the like occasion was +wont to be in the same disorder, tried to compose him by representing the +danger less he was going to engage himself in: "You understand me ill," +said he, "for could my flesh know the danger my courage will presently +carry it into, it would sink down to the ground." The faintness that +surprises us from frigidity or dislike in the exercises of Venus are also +occasioned by a too violent desire and an immoderate heat. Extreme +coldness and extreme heat boil and roast. Aristotle says, that sows of +lead will melt and run with cold and the rigour of winter just as with a +vehement heat. Desire and satiety fill all the gradations above and +below pleasure with pain. Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre +of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents. The +wise control and triumph over ill, the others know it not: these last +are, as a man may say, on this side of accidents, the others are beyond +them, who after having well weighed and considered their qualities, +measured and judged them what they are, by virtue of a vigorous soul leap +out of their reach; they disdain and trample them underfoot, having a +solid and well-fortified soul, against which the darts of fortune, coming +to strike, must of necessity rebound and blunt themselves, meeting with a +body upon which they can fix no impression; the ordinary and middle +condition of men are lodged betwixt these two extremities, consisting of +such as perceive evils, feel them, and are not able to support them. +Infancy and decrepitude meet in the imbecility of the brain; avarice and +profusion in the same thirst and desire of getting. + +A man may say with some colour of truth that there is an Abecedarian +ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes +after it: an ignorance that knowledge creates and begets, at the same +time that it despatches and destroys the first. Of mean understandings, +little inquisitive, and little instructed, are made good Christians, who +by reverence and obedience simply believe and are constant in their +belief. In the average understandings and the middle sort of capacities, +the error of opinion is begotten; they follow the appearance of the first +impression, and have some colour of reason on their side to impute our +walking on in the old beaten path to simplicity and stupidity, meaning us +who have not informed ourselves by study. The higher and nobler souls, +more solid and clear-sighted, make up another sort of true believers, who +by a long and religious investigation of truth, have obtained a clearer +and more penetrating light into the Scriptures, and have discovered the +mysterious and divine secret of our ecclesiastical polity; and yet we see +some, who by the middle step, have arrived at that supreme degree with +marvellous fruit and confirmation, as to the utmost limit of Christian +intelligence, and enjoy their victory with great spiritual consolation, +humble acknowledgment of the divine favour, reformation of manners, and +singular modesty. I do not intend with these to rank those others, who +to clear themselves from all suspicion of their former errors and to +satisfy us that they are sound and firm, render themselves extremely +indiscreet and unjust, in the carrying on our cause, and blemish it with +infinite reproaches of violence and oppression. The simple peasants are +good people, and so are the philosophers, or whatever the present age +calls them, men of strong and clear reason, and whose souls are enriched +with an ample instruction of profitable sciences. The mongrels who have +disdained the first form of the ignorance of letters, and have not been +able to attain to the other (sitting betwixt two stools, as I and a great +many more of us do), are dangerous, foolish, and importunate; these are +they that trouble the world. And therefore it is that I, for my own +part, retreat as much as I can towards the first and natural station, +whence I so vainly attempted to advance. + +Popular and purely natural poesy + + ["The term poesie populaire was employed, for the first time, in the + French language on this occasion. Montaigne created the expression, + and indicated its nature."--Ampere.] + +has in it certain artless graces, by which she may come into comparison +with the greatest beauty of poetry perfected by art: as we see in our +Gascon villanels and the songs that are brought us from nations that have +no knowledge of any manner of science, nor so much as the use of writing. +The middle sort of poesy betwixt these two is despised, of no value, +honour, or esteem. + +But seeing that the path once laid open to the fancy, I have found, as it +commonly falls out, that what we have taken for a difficult exercise and +a rare subject, prove to be nothing so, and that after the invention is +once warm, it finds out an infinite number of parallel examples. I shall +only add this one--that, were these Essays of mine considerable enough to +deserve a critical judgment, it might then, I think, fall out that they +would not much take with common and vulgar capacities, nor be very +acceptable to the singular and excellent sort of men; the first would not +understand them enough, and the last too much; and so they may hover in +the middle region. + + + +CHAPTER LV + +OF SMELLS + +It has been reported of some, as of Alexander the Great, that their sweat +exhaled an odoriferous smell, occasioned by some rare and extraordinary +constitution, of which Plutarch and others have been inquisitive into the +cause. But the ordinary constitution of human bodies is quite otherwise, +and their best and chiefest excellency is to be exempt from smell. Nay, +the sweetness even of the purest breath has nothing in it of greater +perfection than to be without any offensive smell, like those of +healthful children, which made Plautus say of a woman: + + "Mulier tum bene olet, ubi nihil olet." + + ["She smells sweetest, who smells not at all." + --Plautus, Mostel, i. 3, 116.] + +And such as make use of fine exotic perfumes are with good reason to be +suspected of some natural imperfection which they endeavour by these +odours to conceal. To smell, though well, is to stink: + + "Rides nos, Coracine, nil olentes + Malo, quam bene olere, nil olere." + + ["You laugh at us, Coracinus, because we are not scented; I would, + rather than smell well, not smell at all."--Martial, vi. 55, 4.] + +And elsewhere: + + "Posthume, non bene olet, qui bene semper olet." + + ["Posthumus, he who ever smells well does not smell well." + --Idem, ii. 12, 14.] + +I am nevertheless a great lover of good smells, and as much abominate the +ill ones, which also I scent at a greater distance, I think, than other +men: + + "Namque sagacius unus odoror, + Polypus, an gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in aliis + Quam canis acer, ubi latest sus." + + ["My nose is quicker to scent a fetid sore or a rank armpit, than a + dog to smell out the hidden sow."--Horace, Epod., xii. 4.] + +Of smells, the simple and natural seem to me the most pleasing. Let the +ladies look to that, for 'tis chiefly their concern: amid the most +profound barbarism, the Scythian women, after bathing, were wont to +powder and crust their faces and all their bodies with a certain +odoriferous drug growing in their country, which being cleansed off, when +they came to have familiarity with men they were found perfumed and +sleek. 'Tis not to be believed how strangely all sorts of odours cleave +to me, and how apt my skin is to imbibe them. He that complains of +nature that she has not furnished mankind with a vehicle to convey smells +to the nose had no reason; for they will do it themselves, especially to +me; my very mustachios, which are full, perform that office; for if I +stroke them but with my gloves or handkerchief, the smell will not out a +whole day; they manifest where I have been, and the close, luscious, +devouring, viscid melting kisses of youthful ardour in my wanton age left +a sweetness upon my lips for several hours after. And yet I have ever +found myself little subject to epidemic diseases, that are caught, either +by conversing with the sick or bred by the contagion of the air, and have +escaped from those of my time, of which there have been several sorts in +our cities and armies. We read of Socrates, that though he never +departed from Athens during the frequent plagues that infested the city, +he only was never infected. + +Physicians might, I believe, extract greater utility from odours than +they do, for I have often observed that they cause an alteration in me +and work upon my spirits according to their several virtues; which makes +me approve of what is said, that the use of incense and perfumes in +churches, so ancient and so universally received in all nations and +religions, was intended to cheer us, and to rouse and purify the senses, +the better to fit us for contemplation. + +I could have been glad, the better to judge of it, to have tasted the +culinary art of those cooks who had so rare a way of seasoning exotic +odours with the relish of meats; as it was particularly observed in the +service of the king of Tunis, who in our days--[Muley-Hassam, in 1543.] +--landed at Naples to have an interview with Charles the Emperor. His +dishes were larded with odoriferous drugs, to that degree of expense that +the cookery of one peacock and two pheasants amounted to a hundred ducats +to dress them after their fashion; and when the carver came to cut them +up, not only the dining-room, but all the apartments of his palace and +the adjoining streets were filled with an aromatic vapour which did not +presently vanish. + +My chiefest care in choosing my lodgings is always to avoid a thick and +stinking air; and those beautiful cities, Venice and Paris, very much +lessen the kindness I have for them, the one by the offensive smell of +her marshes, and the other of her dirt. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI + +OF PRAYERS + +I propose formless and undetermined fancies, like those who publish +doubtful questions, to be after a disputed upon in the schools, not to +establish truth but to seek it; and I submit them to the judgments of +those whose office it is to regulate, not my writings and actions only, +but moreover my very thoughts. Let what I here set down meet with +correction or applause, it shall be of equal welcome and utility to me, +myself beforehand condemning as absurd and impious, if anything shall be +found, through ignorance or inadvertency, couched in this rhapsody, +contrary to the holy resolutions and prescriptions of the Catholic +Apostolic and Roman Church, into which I was born and in which I will +die. And yet, always submitting to the authority of their censure, which +has an absolute power over me, I thus rashly venture at everything, as in +treating upon this present subject. + +I know not if or no I am wrong, but since, by a particular favour of the +divine bounty, a certain form of prayer has been prescribed and dictated +to us, word by word, from the mouth of God Himself, I have ever been of +opinion that we ought to have it in more frequent use than we yet have; +and if I were worthy to advise, at the sitting down to and rising from +our tables, at our rising from and going to bed, and in every particular +action wherein prayer is used, I would that Christians always make use of +the Lord's Prayer, if not alone, yet at least always. The Church may +lengthen and diversify prayers, according to the necessity of our +instruction, for I know very well that it is always the same in substance +and the same thing: but yet such a privilege ought to be given to that +prayer, that the people should have it continually in their mouths; for +it is most certain that all necessary petitions are comprehended in it, +and that it is infinitely proper for all occasions. 'Tis the only prayer +I use in all places and conditions, and which I still repeat instead of +changing; whence it also happens that I have no other so entirely by +heart as that. + +It just now came into my mind, whence it is we should derive that error +of having recourse to God in all our designs and enterprises, to call Him +to our assistance in all sorts of affairs, and in all places where our +weakness stands in need of support, without considering whether the +occasion be just or otherwise; and to invoke His name and power, in what +state soever we are, or action we are engaged in, howsoever vicious. He +is indeed, our sole and unique protector, and can do all things for us: +but though He is pleased to honour us with this sweet paternal alliance, +He is, notwithstanding, as just as He is good and mighty; and more often +exercises His justice than His power, and favours us according to that, +and not according to our petitions. + +Plato in his Laws, makes three sorts of belief injurious to the gods; +"that there are none; that they concern not themselves about our affairs; +that they never refuse anything to our vows, offerings, and sacrifices." +The first of these errors (according to his opinion, never continued +rooted in any man from his infancy to his old age); the other two, he +confesses, men might be obstinate in. + +God's justice and His power are inseparable; 'tis in vain we invoke His +power in an unjust cause. We are to have our souls pure and clean, at +that moment at least wherein we pray to Him, and purified from all +vicious passions; otherwise we ourselves present Him the rods wherewith +to chastise us; instead of repairing anything we have done amiss, we +double the wickedness and the offence when we offer to Him, to whom we +are to sue for pardon, an affection full of irreverence and hatred. +Which makes me not very apt to applaud those whom I observe to be so +frequent on their knees, if the actions nearest to the prayer do not give +me some evidence of amendment and reformation: + + "Si, nocturnus adulter, + Tempora Santonico velas adoperta cucullo." + + ["If a night adulterer, thou coverest thy head with a Santonic + cowl."--Juvenal, Sat., viii. 144.--The Santones were the people + who inhabited Saintonge in France, from whom the Romans derived the + use of hoods or cowls covering the head and face.] + +And the practice of a man who mixes devotion with an execrable life seems +in some sort more to be condemned than that of a man conformable to his +own propension and dissolute throughout; and for that reason it is that +our Church denies admittance to and communion with men obstinate and +incorrigible in any notorious wickedness. We pray only by custom and for +fashion's sake; or rather, we read or pronounce our prayers aloud, which +is no better than an hypocritical show of devotion; and I am scandalised +to see a man cross himself thrice at the Benedicite, and as often at +Grace (and the more, because it is a sign I have in great veneration and +continual use, even when I yawn), and to dedicate all the other hours of +the day to acts of malice, avarice, and injustice. One hour to God, the +rest to the devil, as if by composition and compensation. 'Tis a wonder +to see actions so various in themselves succeed one another with such an +uniformity of method as not to interfere nor suffer any alteration, even +upon the very confines and passes from the one to the other. What a +prodigious conscience must that be that can be at quiet within itself +whilst it harbours under the same roof, with so agreeing and so calm a +society, both the crime and the judge? + +A man whose whole meditation is continually working upon nothing but +impurity which he knows to be so odious to Almighty God, what can he say +when he comes to speak to Him? He draws back, but immediately falls into +a relapse. If the object of divine justice and the presence of his Maker +did, as he pretends, strike and chastise his soul, how short soever the +repentance might be, the very fear of offending the Infinite Majesty +would so often present itself to his imagination that he would soon see +himself master of those vices that are most natural and vehement in him. +But what shall we say of those who settle their whole course of life upon +the profit and emolument of sins, which they know to be mortal? How many +trades and vocations have we admitted and countenanced amongst us, whose +very essence is vicious? And he that, confessing himself to me, +voluntarily told me that he had all his lifetime professed and practised +a religion, in his opinion damnable and contrary to that he had in his +heart, only to preserve his credit and the honour of his employments, how +could his courage suffer so infamous a confession? What can men say to +the divine justice upon this subject? + +Their repentance consisting in a visible and manifest reparation, they +lose the colour of alleging it both to God and man. Are they so impudent +as to sue for remission without satisfaction and without penitence? +I look upon these as in the same condition with the first: but the +obstinacy is not there so easy to be overcome. This contrariety and +volubility of opinion so sudden, so violent, that they feign, are a kind +of miracle to me: they present us with the state of an indigestible agony +of mind. + +It seemed to me a fantastic imagination in those who, these late years +past, were wont to reproach every man they knew to be of any +extraordinary parts, and made profession of the Catholic religion, that +it was but outwardly; maintaining, moreover, to do him honour forsooth, +that whatever he might pretend to the contrary he could not but in his +heart be of their reformed opinion. An untoward disease, that a man +should be so riveted to his own belief as to fancy that others cannot +believe otherwise than as he does; and yet worse, that they should +entertain so vicious an opinion of such great parts as to think any man +so qualified, should prefer any present advantage of fortune to the +promises of eternal life and the menaces of eternal damnation. They may +believe me: could anything have tempted my youth, the ambition of the +danger and difficulties in the late commotions had not been the least +motives. + +It is not without very good reason, in my opinion, that the Church +interdicts the promiscuous, indiscreet, and irreverent use of the holy +and divine Psalms, with which the Holy Ghost inspired King David. We +ought not to mix God in our actions, but with the highest reverence and +caution; that poesy is too holy to be put to no other use than to +exercise the lungs and to delight our ears; it ought to come from the +conscience, and not from the tongue. It is not fit that a prentice in +his shop, amongst his vain and frivolous thoughts, should be permitted to +pass away his time and divert himself with such sacred things. Neither +is it decent to see the Holy Book of the holy mysteries of our belief +tumbled up and down a hall or a kitchen they were formerly mysteries, but +are now become sports and recreations. 'Tis a book too serious and too +venerable to be cursorily or slightly turned over: the reading of the +scripture ought to be a temperate and premeditated act, and to which men +should always add this devout preface, 'sursum corda', preparing even the +body to so humble and composed a gesture and countenance as shall +evidence a particular veneration and attention. Neither is it a book for +everyone to fist, but the study of select men set apart for that purpose, +and whom Almighty God has been pleased to call to that office and sacred +function: the wicked and ignorant grow worse by it. 'Tis, not a story to +tell, but a history to revere, fear, and adore. Are not they then +pleasant men who think they have rendered this fit for the people's +handling by translating it into the vulgar tongue? Does the +understanding of all therein contained only stick at words? Shall I +venture to say further, that by coming so near to understand a little, +they are much wider of the whole scope than before. A pure and simple +ignorance and wholly depending upon the exposition of qualified persons, +was far more learned and salutary than this vain and verbal knowledge, +which has only temerity and presumption. + +And I do further believe that the liberty every one has taken to disperse +the sacred writ into so many idioms carries with it a great deal more of +danger than utility. The Jews, Mohammedans, and almost all other +peoples, have reverentially espoused the language wherein their mysteries +were first conceived, and have expressly, and not without colour of +reason, forbidden the alteration of them into any other. Are we assured +that in Biscay and in Brittany there are enough competent judges of this +affair to establish this translation into their own language? The +universal Church has not a more difficult and solemn judgment to make. +In preaching and speaking the interpretation is vague, free, mutable, and +of a piece by itself; so 'tis not the same thing. + +One of our Greek historians age justly censures the he lived in, because +the secrets of the Christian religion were dispersed into the hands of +every mechanic, to expound and argue upon, according to his own fancy, +and that we ought to be much ashamed, we who by God's especial favour +enjoy the pure mysteries of piety, to suffer them to be profaned by the +ignorant rabble; considering that the Gentiles expressly forbad Socrates, +Plato, and the other sages to inquire into or so much as mention the +things committed to the priests of Delphi; and he says, moreover, that +the factions of princes upon theological subjects are armed not with zeal +but fury; that zeal springs from the divine wisdom and justice, and +governs itself with prudence and moderation, but degenerates into hatred +and envy, producing tares and nettles instead of corn and wine when +conducted by human passions. And it was truly said by another, who, +advising the Emperor Theodosius, told him that disputes did not so much +rock the schisms of the Church asleep, as it roused and animated +heresies; that, therefore, all contentions and dialectic disputations +were to be avoided, and men absolutely to acquiesce in the prescriptions +and formulas of faith established by the ancients. And the Emperor +Andronicus having overheard some great men at high words in his palace +with Lapodius about a point of ours of great importance, gave them so +severe a check as to threaten to cause them to be thrown into the river +if they did not desist. The very women and children nowadays take upon +them to lecture the oldest and most experienced men about the +ecclesiastical laws; whereas the first of those of Plato forbids them to +inquire so much as into the civil laws, which were to stand instead of +divine ordinances; and, allowing the old men to confer amongst themselves +or with the magistrate about those things, he adds, provided it be not in +the presence of young or profane persons. + +A bishop has left in writing that at the other end of the world there is +an isle, by the ancients called Dioscorides, abundantly fertile in all +sorts of trees and fruits, and of an exceedingly healthful air; the +inhabitants of which are Christians, having churches and altars, only +adorned with crosses without any other images, great observers of fasts +and feasts, exact payers of their tithes to the priests, and so chaste, +that none of them is permitted to have to do with more than one woman in +his life--[What Osorius says is that these people only had one wife at a +time. ]--as to the rest, so content with their condition, that environed +with the sea they know nothing of navigation, and so simple that they +understand not one syllable of the religion they profess and wherein they +are so devout: a thing incredible to such as do not know that the Pagans, +who are so zealous idolaters, know nothing more of their gods than their +bare names and their statues. The ancient beginning of 'Menalippus', a +tragedy of Euripides, ran thus: + + "O Jupiter! for that name alone + Of what thou art to me is known." + +I have also known in my time some men's writings found fault with for +being purely human and philosophical, without any mixture of theology; +and yet, with some show of reason, it might, on the contrary, be said +that the divine doctrine, as queen and regent of the rest, better keeps +her state apart, that she ought to be sovereign throughout, not +subsidiary and suffragan, and that, peradventure, grammatical, +rhetorical, logical examples may elsewhere be more suitably chosen, as +also the material for the stage, games, and public entertainments, than +from so sacred a matter; that divine reasons are considered with greater +veneration and attention by themselves, and in their own proper style, +than when mixed with and adapted to human discourse; that it is a fault +much more often observed that the divines write too humanly, than that +the humanists write not theologically enough. Philosophy, says St. +Chrysostom, has long been banished the holy schools, as an handmaid +altogether useless and thought unworthy to look, so much as in passing +by the door, into the sanctuary of the holy treasures of the celestial +doctrine; that the human way of speaking is of a much lower form and +ought not to adopt for herself the dignity and majesty of divine +eloquence. Let who will 'verbis indisciplinatis' talk of fortune, +destiny, accident, good and evil hap, and other suchlike phrases, +according to his own humour; I for my part propose fancies merely human +and merely my own, and that simply as human fancies, and separately +considered, not as determined by any decree from heaven, incapable of +doubt or dispute; matter of opinion, not matter of faith; things which I +discourse of according to my own notions, not as I believe, according to +God; after a laical, not clerical, and yet always after a very religious +manner, as children prepare their exercises, not to instruct but to be +instructed. + +And might it not be said, that an edict enjoining all people but such as +are public professors of divinity, to be very reserved in writing of +religion, would carry with it a very good colour of utility and justice-- +and to me, amongst the rest peradventure, to hold my prating? I have +been told that even those who are not of our Church nevertheless amongst +themselves expressly forbid the name of God to be used in common +discourse, nor so much even by way of interjection, exclamation, +assertion of a truth, or comparison; and I think them in the right: upon +what occasion soever we call upon God to accompany and assist us, it +ought always to be done with the greatest reverence and devotion. + +There is, as I remember, a passage in Xenophon where he tells us that we +ought so much the more seldom to call upon God, by how much it is hard to +compose our souls to such a degree of calmness, patience, and devotion as +it ought to be in at such a time; otherwise our prayers are not only vain +and fruitless, but vicious: "forgive us," we say, "our trespasses, as we +forgive them that trespass against us"; what do we mean by this petition +but that we present to God a soul free from all rancour and revenge? And +yet we make nothing of invoking God's assistance in our vices, and +inviting Him into our unjust designs: + + "Quae, nisi seductis, nequeas committere divis" + + ["Which you can only impart to the gods, when you have gained them + over."--Persius, ii. 4.] + +the covetous man prays for the conservation of his vain and superfluous +riches; the ambitious for victory and the good conduct of his fortune; +the thief calls Him to his assistance, to deliver him from the dangers +and difficulties that obstruct his wicked designs, or returns Him thanks +for the facility he has met with in cutting a man's throat; at the door +of the house men are going to storm or break into by force of a petard, +they fall to prayers for success, their intentions and hopes of cruelty, +avarice, and lust. + + "Hoc igitur, quo to Jovis aurem impellere tentas, + Dic agedum Staio: 'proh Jupiter! O bone, clamet, + Jupiter!' At sese non clamet Jupiter ipse." + + ["This therefore, with which you seek to draw the ear of Jupiter, + say to Staius. 'O Jupiter! O good Jupiter!' let him cry. Think + you Jupiter himself would not cry out upon it?"--Persius, ii. 21.] + +Marguerite, Queen of Navarre,--[In the Heptameron.]--tells of a young +prince, who, though she does not name him, is easily enough by his great +qualities to be known, who going upon an amorous assignation to lie with +an advocate's wife of Paris, his way thither being through a church, he +never passed that holy place going to or returning from his pious +exercise, but he always kneeled down to pray. Wherein he would employ +the divine favour, his soul being full of such virtuous meditations, +I leave others to judge, which, nevertheless, she instances for a +testimony of singular devotion. But this is not the only proof we have +that women are not very fit to treat of theological affairs. + +A true prayer and religious reconciling of ourselves to Almighty God +cannot enter into an impure soul, subject at the very time to the +dominion of Satan. He who calls God to his assistance whilst in a course +of vice, does as if a cut-purse should call a magistrate to help him, or +like those who introduce the name of God to the attestation of a lie. + + "Tacito mala vota susurro + Concipimus." + + ["We whisper our guilty prayers."---Lucan, v. 104.] + +There are few men who durst publish to the world the prayers they make to +Almighty God: + + "Haud cuivis promptum est, murmurque, humilesque susurros + Tollere de templis, et aperto vivere voto" + + ["'Tis not convenient for every one to bring the prayers he mutters + out of the temple, and to give his wishes to the public ear. + --"Persius, ii. 6.] + + [See: "Letters To the Earth" by Mark Twain in the story of Abner + Schofield, Coal Dealer, Buffalo, N.Y.: for a discussion of the + contradictions between 'public' and 'private' prayers. D.W.] + +and this is the reason why the Pythagoreans would have them always public +and heard by every one, to the end they might not prefer indecent or +unjust petitions as this man: + + "Clare quum dixit, Apollo! + Labra movet, metuens audiri: Pulcra Laverna, + Da mihi fallere, da justum sanctumque videri; + Noctem peccatis, et fraudibus objice nubem." + + ["When he has clearly said Apollo! he moves his lips, fearful to be + heard; he murmurs: O fair Laverna, grant me the talent to deceive; + grant me to appear holy and just; shroud my sins with night, and + cast a cloud over my frauds."--Horace, Ep., i. 16, 59.--(Laverna + was the goddess of thieves.)] + +The gods severely punished the wicked prayers of OEdipus in granting +them: he had prayed that his children might amongst themselves determine +the succession to his throne by arms, and was so miserable as to see +himself taken at his word. We are not to pray that all things may go as +we would have them, but as most concurrent with prudence. + +We seem, in truth, to make use of our prayers as of a kind of jargon, and +as those do who employ holy words about sorceries and magical operations; +and as if we reckoned the benefit we are to reap from them as depending +upon the contexture, sound, and jingle of words, or upon the grave +composing of the countenance. For having the soul contaminated with +concupiscence, not touched with repentance, or comforted by any late +reconciliation with God, we go to present Him such words as the memory +suggests to the tongue, and hope from thence to obtain the remission of +our sins. There is nothing so easy, so sweet, and so favourable, as the +divine law: it calls and invites us to her, guilty and abominable as we +are; extends her arms and receives us into her bosom, foul and polluted +as we at present are, and are for the future to be. But then, in return, +we are to look upon her with a respectful eye; we are to receive this +pardon with all gratitude arid submission, and for that instant at least, +wherein we address ourselves to her, to have the soul sensible of the +ills we have committed, and at enmity with those passions that seduced us +to offend her; neither the gods nor good men (says Plato) will accept the +present of a wicked man: + + "Immunis aram si terigit manus, + Non sumptuosa blandior hostia + Mollivit aversos Penates + Farre pio et saliente mica." + + ["If a pure hand has touched the altar, the pious offering of a + small cake and a few grains of salt will appease the offended gods + more effectually than costly sacrifices." + --Horace, Od., iii. 23, 17.] + + + + +CHAPTER LVII + +OF AGE + +I cannot allow of the way in which we settle for ourselves the duration +of our life. I see that the sages contract it very much in comparison of +the common opinion: "what," said the younger Cato to those who would stay +his hand from killing himself, "am I now of an age to be reproached that +I go out of the world too soon?" And yet he was but eight-and-forty +years old. He thought that to be a mature and advanced age, considering +how few arrive unto it. And such as, soothing their thoughts with I know +not what course of nature, promise to themselves some years beyond it, +could they be privileged from the infinite number of accidents to which +we are by a natural subjection exposed, they might have some reason so to +do. What am idle conceit is it to expect to die of a decay of strength, +which is the effect of extremest age, and to propose to ourselves no +shorter lease of life than that, considering it is a kind of death of all +others the most rare and very seldom seen? We call that only a natural +death; as if it were contrary to nature to see a man break his neck with +a fall, be drowned in shipwreck, be snatched away with a pleurisy or the +plague, and as if our ordinary condition did not expose us to these +inconveniences. Let us no longer flatter ourselves with these fine +words; we ought rather, peradventure, to call that natural which is +general, common, and universal. + +To die of old age is a death rare, extraordinary, and singular, and, +therefore, so much less natural than the others; 'tis the last and +extremest sort of dying: and the more remote, the less to be hoped for. +It is, indeed, the bourn beyond which we are not to pass, and which the +law of nature has set as a limit, not to be exceeded; but it is, withal, +a privilege she is rarely seen to give us to last till then. 'Tis a +lease she only signs by particular favour, and it may be to one only in +the space of two or three ages, and then with a pass to boot, to carry +him through all the traverses and difficulties she has strewed in the way +of this long career. And therefore my opinion is, that when once forty +years we should consider it as an age to which very few arrive. For +seeing that men do not usually proceed so far, it is a sign that we are +pretty well advanced; and since we have exceeded the ordinary bounds, +which is the just measure of life, we ought not to expect to go much +further; having escaped so many precipices of death, whereinto we have +seen so many other men fall, we should acknowledge that so extraordinary +a fortune as that which has hitherto rescued us from those eminent +perils, and kept us alive beyond the ordinary term of living, is not like +to continue long. + +'Tis a fault in our very laws to maintain this error: these say that a +man is not capable of managing his own estate till he be five-and-twenty +years old, whereas he will have much ado to manage his life so long. +Augustus cut off five years from the ancient Roman standard, and declared +that thirty years old was sufficient for a judge. Servius Tullius +superseded the knights of above seven-and-forty years of age from the +fatigues of war; Augustus dismissed them at forty-five; though methinks +it seems a little unreasonable that men should be sent to the fireside +till five-and-fifty or sixty years of age. I should be of opinion that +our vocation and employment should be as far as possible extended for the +public good: I find the fault on the other side, that they do not employ +us early enough. This emperor was arbiter of the whole world at +nineteen, and yet would have a man to be thirty before he could be fit to +determine a dispute about a gutter. + +For my part, I believe our souls are adult at twenty as much as they are +ever like to be, and as capable then as ever. A soul that has not by +that time given evident earnest of its force and virtue will never after +come to proof. The natural qualities and virtues produce what they have +of vigorous and fine, within that term or never, + + "Si l'espine rion picque quand nai, + A pene que picque jamai," + + ["If the thorn does not prick at its birth, + 'twill hardly ever prick at all."] + +as they say in Dauphin. + +Of all the great human actions I ever heard or read of, of what sort +soever, I have observed, both in former ages and our own, more were +performed before the age of thirty than after; and this ofttimes in the +very lives of the same men. May I not confidently instance in those of +Hannibal and his great rival Scipio? The better half of their lives they +lived upon the glory they had acquired in their youth; great men after, +'tis true, in comparison of others; but by no means in comparison of +themselves. As to my own particular, I do certainly believe that since +that age, both my understanding and my constitution have rather decayed +than improved, and retired rather than advanced. 'Tis possible, that +with those who make the best use of their time, knowledge and experience +may increase with their years; but vivacity, promptitude, steadiness, and +other pieces of us, of much greater importance, and much more essentially +our own, languish and decay: + + "Ubi jam validis quassatum est viribus aevi + Corpus, et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus, + Claudicat ingenium, delirat linguaque, mensque." + + ["When once the body is shaken by the violence of time, + blood and vigour ebbing away, the judgment halts, + the tongue and the mind dote."--Lucretius, iii. 452.] + +Sometimes the body first submits to age, sometimes the mind; and I have +seen enough who have got a weakness in their brains before either in +their legs or stomach; and by how much the more it is a disease of no +great pain to the sufferer, and of obscure symptoms, so much greater is +the danger. For this reason it is that I complain of our laws, not that +they keep us too long to our work, but that they set us to work too late. +For the frailty of life considered, and to how many ordinary and natural +rocks it is exposed, one ought not to give up so large a portion of it to +childhood, idleness, and apprenticeship. + + [Which Cotton thus renders: "Birth though noble, ought not to share + so large a vacancy, and so tedious a course of education." Florio + (1613) makes the passage read as-follows: "Methinks that, + considering the weakness of our life, and seeing the infinite number + of ordinary rocks and natural dangers it is subject unto, we should + not, so soon as we come into the world, allot so large a share + thereof unto unprofitable wantonness in youth, ill-breeding + idleness, and slow-learning prentisage."] + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Advise to choose weapons of the shortest sort +An ignorance that knowledge creates and begets +Ashamed to lay out as much thought and study upon it +Can neither keep nor enjoy anything with a good grace +Change of fashions +Chess: this idle and childish game +Death is terrible to Cicero, coveted by Cato +Death of old age the most rare and very seldom seen +Diogenes, esteeming us no better than flies or bladders +Do not to pray that all things may go as we would have them +Excel above the common rate in frivolous things +Expresses more contempt and condemnation than the other +Fancy that others cannot believe otherwise than as he does +Gradations above and below pleasure +Greatest apprehensions, from things unseen, concealed +He did not think mankind worthy of a wise man's concern +Home anxieties and a mind enslaved by wearing complaints +How infirm and decaying material this fabric of ours is +I do not willingly alight when I am once on horseback +Led by the ears by this charming harmony of words +Little knacks and frivolous subtleties +Men approve of things for their being rare and new +Must of necessity walk in the steps of another +Natural death the most rare and very seldom seen +Not to instruct but to be instructed. +Present Him such words as the memory suggests to the tongue +Psalms of King David: promiscuous, indiscreet +Rhetoric: an art to flatter and deceive +Rhetoric: to govern a disorderly and tumultuous rabble +Sitting betwixt two stools +Sometimes the body first submits to age, sometimes the mind +Stupidity and facility natural to the common people +The Bible: the wicked and ignorant grow worse by it. +The faintness that surprises in the exercises of Venus +Thucydides: which was the better wrestler +To die of old age is a death rare, extraordinary, and singular +To make little things appear great was his profession +To smell, though well, is to stink +Valour will cause a trembling in the limbs as well as fear +Viscid melting kisses of youthful ardour in my wanton age +We can never be despised according to our full desert +When we have got it, we want something else +Women who paint, pounce, and plaster up their ruins + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V8 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 9. + +I. Of the inconstancy of our actions. +II. Of drunkenness. +III. A custom of the Isle of Cea. +IV. To-morrow's a new day. +V. Of conscience. +VI. Use makes perfect. + + + +ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE + +BOOK THE SECOND + +CHAPTER I + +OF THE INCONSTANCY OF OUR ACTIONS + +Such as make it their business to oversee human actions, do not find +themselves in anything so much perplexed as to reconcile them and bring +them into the world's eye with the same lustre and reputation; for they +commonly so strangely contradict one another that it seems impossible +they should proceed from one and the same person. We find the younger +Marius one while a son of Mars and another a son of Venus. Pope Boniface +VIII. entered, it is said, into his Papacy like a fox, behaved himself in +it like a lion, and died like a dog; and who could believe it to be the +same Nero, the perfect image of all cruelty, who, having the sentence of +a condemned man brought to him to sign, as was the custom, cried out, +"O that I had never been taught to write!" so much it went to his heart +to condemn a man to death. All story is full of such examples, and every +man is able to produce so many to himself, or out of his own practice or +observation, that I sometimes wonder to see men of understanding give +themselves the trouble of sorting these pieces, considering that +irresolution appears to me to be the most common and manifest vice of our +nature witness the famous verse of the player Publius: + + "Malum consilium est, quod mutari non potest." + + ["'Tis evil counsel that will admit no change." + --Pub. Mim., ex Aul. Gell., xvii. 14.] + +There seems some reason in forming a judgment of a man from the most +usual methods of his life; but, considering the natural instability of +our manners and opinions, I have often thought even the best authors a +little out in so obstinately endeavouring to make of us any constant and +solid contexture; they choose a general air of a man, and according to +that interpret all his actions, of which, if they cannot bend some to a +uniformity with the rest, they are presently imputed to dissimulation. +Augustus has escaped them, for there was in him so apparent, sudden, and +continual variety of actions all the whole course of his life, that he +has slipped away clear and undecided from the most daring critics. I can +more hardly believe a man's constancy than any other virtue, and believe +nothing sooner than the contrary. He that would judge of a man in detail +and distinctly, bit by bit, would oftener be able to speak the truth. It +is a hard matter, from all antiquity, to pick out a dozen men who have +formed their lives to one certain and constant course, which is the +principal design of wisdom; for to comprise it all in one word, says one +of the ancients, and to contract all the rules of human life into one, +"it is to will, and not to will, always one and the same thing: I will +not vouchsafe," says he, "to add, provided the will be just, for if it be +not just, it is impossible it should be always one." I have indeed +formerly learned that vice is nothing but irregularity, and want of +measure, and therefore 'tis impossible to fix constancy to it. 'Tis a +saying of. Demosthenes, "that the beginning oh all virtue is +consultation and deliberation; the end and perfection, constancy." If we +would resolve on any certain course by reason, we should pitch upon the +best, but nobody has thought on't: + + "Quod petiit, spernit; repetit, quod nuper omisit; + AEstuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto." + + ["That which he sought he despises; what he lately lost, he seeks + again. He fluctuates, and is inconsistent in the whole order of + life."--Horace, Ep., i. I, 98.] + +Our ordinary practice is to follow the inclinations of our appetite, be +it to the left or right, upwards or downwards, according as we are wafted +by the breath of occasion. We never meditate what we would have till the +instant we have a mind to have it; and change like that little creature +which receives its colour from what it is laid upon. What we but just +now proposed to ourselves we immediately alter, and presently return +again to it; 'tis nothing but shifting and inconsistency: + + "Ducimur, ut nervis alienis mobile lignum." + + ["We are turned about like the top with the thong of others." + --Idem, Sat., ii. 7, 82.] + +We do not go, we are driven; like things that float, now leisurely, then +with violence, according to the gentleness or rapidity of the current: + + "Nonne videmus, + Quid sibi quisque velit, nescire, et quaerere semper + Commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit?" + + ["Do we not see them, uncertain what they want, and always asking + for something new, as if they could get rid of the burthen." + --Lucretius, iii. 1070.] + +Every day a new whimsy, and our humours keep motion with the time. + + "Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse + Juppiter auctificas lustravit lumine terras." + + ["Such are the minds of men, that they change as the light with + which father Jupiter himself has illumined the increasing earth." + --Cicero, Frag. Poet, lib. x.] + +We fluctuate betwixt various inclinations; we will nothing freely, +nothing absolutely, nothing constantly. In any one who had prescribed +and established determinate laws and rules in his head for his own +conduct, we should perceive an equality of manners, an order and an +infallible relation of one thing or action to another, shine through his +whole life; Empedocles observed this discrepancy in the Agrigentines, +that they gave themselves up to delights, as if every day was their last, +and built as if they had been to live for ever. The judgment would not +be hard to make, as is very evident in the younger Cato; he who therein +has found one step, it will lead him to all the rest; 'tis a harmony of +very according sounds, that cannot jar. But with us 't is quite +contrary; every particular action requires a particular judgment. The +surest way to steer, in my opinion, would be to take our measures from +the nearest allied circumstances, without engaging in a longer +inquisition, or without concluding any other consequence. I was told, +during the civil disorders of our poor kingdom, that a maid, hard by the +place where I then was, had thrown herself out of a window to avoid being +forced by a common soldier who was quartered in the house; she was not +killed by the fall, and therefore, repeating her attempt would have cut +her own throat, had she not been prevented; but having, nevertheless, +wounded herself to some show of danger, she voluntarily confessed that +the soldier had not as yet importuned her otherwise; than by courtship, +earnest solicitation, and presents; but that she was afraid that in the +end he would have proceeded to violence, all which she delivered with +such a countenance and accent, and withal embrued in her own blood, the +highest testimony of her virtue, that she appeared another Lucretia; and +yet I have since been very well assured that both before and after she +was not so difficult a piece. And, according to my host's tale in +Ariosto, be as handsome a man and as worthy a gentleman as you will, do +not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity for having +been repulsed; you do not know but she may have a better stomach to your +muleteer. + +Antigonus, having taken one of his soldiers into a great degree of favour +and esteem for his valour, gave his physicians strict charge to cure him +of a long and inward disease under which he had a great while languished, +and observing that, after his cure, he went much more coldly to work than +before, he asked him what had so altered and cowed him: "Yourself, sir," +replied the other, "by having eased me of the pains that made me weary of +my life." Lucullus's soldier having been rifled by the enemy, performed +upon them in revenge a brave exploit, by which having made himself a +gainer, Lucullus, who had conceived a good opinion of him from that +action, went about to engage him in some enterprise of very great danger, +with all the plausible persuasions and promises he could think of; + + "Verbis, quae timido quoque possent addere mentem" + + ["Words which might add courage to any timid man." + --Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 1, 2.] + +"Pray employ," answered he, "some miserable plundered soldier in that +affair": + + "Quantumvis rusticus, ibit, + Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit;" + + ["Some poor fellow, who has lost his purse, will go whither you + wish, said he."--Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 39.] + +and flatly refused to go. When we read that Mahomet having furiously +rated Chasan, Bassa of the Janissaries, because he had seen the +Hungarians break into his squadrons, and himself behave very ill in the +business, and that Chasan, instead of any other answer, rushed furiously +alone, scimitar in hand, into the first body of the enemy, where he was +presently cut to pieces, we are not to look upon that action, +peradventure, so much as vindication as a turn of mind, not so much +natural valour as a sudden despite. The man you saw yesterday so +adventurous and brave, you must not think it strange to see him as great +a poltroon the next: anger, necessity, company, wine, or the sound of the +trumpet had roused his spirits; this is no valour formed and established +by reason, but accidentally created by such circumstances, and therefore +it is no wonder if by contrary circumstances it appear quite another +thing. + +These supple variations and contradictions so manifest in us, have given +occasion to some to believe that man has two souls; other two distinct +powers that always accompany and incline us, the one towards good and the +other towards ill, according to their own nature and propension; so +abrupt a variety not being imaginable to flow from one and the same +source. + +For my part, the puff of every accident not only carries me along with it +according to its own proclivity, but moreover I discompose and trouble +myself by the instability of my own posture; and whoever will look +narrowly into his own bosom, will hardly find himself twice in the same +condition. I give to my soul sometimes one face and sometimes another, +according to the side I turn her to. If I speak variously of myself, it +is because I consider myself variously; all the contrarieties are there +to be found in one corner or another; after one fashion or another: +bashful, insolent; chaste, lustful; prating, silent; laborious, delicate; +ingenious, heavy; melancholic, pleasant; lying, true; knowing, ignorant; +liberal, covetous, and prodigal: I find all this in myself, more or less, +according as I turn myself about; and whoever will sift himself to the +bottom, will find in himself, and even in his own judgment, this +volubility and discordance. I have nothing to say of myself entirely, +simply, and solidly without mixture and confusion. 'Distinguo' is the +most universal member of my logic. Though I always intend to speak well +of good things, and rather to interpret such things as fall out in the +best sense than otherwise, yet such is the strangeness of our condition, +that we are often pushed on to do well even by vice itself, if well-doing +were not judged by the intention only. One gallant action, therefore, +ought not to conclude a man valiant; if a man were brave indeed, he would +be always so, and upon all occasions. If it were a habit of valour and +not a sally, it would render a man equally resolute in all accidents; the +same alone as in company; the same in lists as in a battle: for, let them +say what they will, there is not one valour for the pavement and another +for the field; he would bear a sickness in his bed as bravely as a wound +in the field, and no more fear death in his own house than at an assault. +We should not then see the same man charge into a breach with a brave +assurance, and afterwards torment himself like a woman for the loss of a +trial at law or the death of a child; when, being an infamous coward, he +is firm in the necessities of poverty; when he shrinks at the sight of a +barber's razor, and rushes fearless upon the swords of the enemy, the +action is commendable, not the man. + +Many of the Greeks, says Cicero,--[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 27.]-- +cannot endure the sight of an enemy, and yet are courageous in sickness; +the Cimbrians and Celtiberians quite contrary; + + "Nihil enim potest esse aequabile, + quod non a certa ratione proficiscatur." + + ["Nothing can be regular that does not proceed from a fixed ground + of reason."--Idem, ibid., c. 26.] + +No valour can be more extreme in its kind than that of Alexander: but it +is of but one kind, nor full enough throughout, nor universal. +Incomparable as it is, it has yet some blemishes; of which his being so +often at his wits' end upon every light suspicion of his captains +conspiring against his life, and the carrying himself in that inquisition +with so much vehemence and indiscreet injustice, and with a fear that +subverted his natural reason, is one pregnant instance. The +superstition, also, with which he was so much tainted, carries along with +it some image of pusillanimity; and the excess of his penitence for the +murder of Clytus is also a testimony of the unevenness of his courage. +All we perform is no other than a cento, as a man may say, of several +pieces, and we would acquire honour by a false title. Virtue cannot be +followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some +other purpose, she presently pulls it away again. 'Tis a vivid and +strong tincture which, when the soul has once thoroughly imbibed it, will +not out but with the piece. And, therefore, to make a right judgment of +a man, we are long and very observingly to follow his trace: if constancy +does not there stand firm upon her own proper base, + + "Cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est," + + ["If the way of his life is thoroughly considered and traced out." + --Cicero, Paradox, v. 1.] + +if the variety of occurrences makes him alter his pace (his path, I mean, +for the pace may be faster or slower) let him go; such an one runs before +the wind, "Avau le dent," as the motto of our Talebot has it. + +'Tis no wonder, says one of the ancients, that chance has so great a +dominion over us, since it is by chance we live. It is not possible for +any one who has not designed his life for some certain end, it is +impossible for any one to arrange the pieces, who has not the whole form +already contrived in his imagination. Of what use are colours to him +that knows not what he is to paint? No one lays down a certain design +for his life, and we only deliberate thereof by pieces. The archer ought +first to know at what he is to aim, and then accommodate his arm, bow, +string, shaft, and motion to it; our counsels deviate and wander, because +not levelled to any determinate end. No wind serves him who addresses +his voyage to no certain, port. I cannot acquiesce in the judgment given +by one in the behalf of Sophocles, who concluded him capable of the +management of domestic affairs, against the accusation of his son, from +having read one of his tragedies. + +Neither do I allow of the conjecture of the Parians, sent to regulate the +Milesians sufficient for such a consequence as they from thence derived +coming to visit the island, they took notice of such grounds as were best +husbanded, and such country-houses as were best governed; and having +taken the names of the owners, when they had assembled the citizens, they +appointed these farmers for new governors and magistrates; concluding +that they, who had been so provident in their own private concerns, would +be so of the public too. We are all lumps, and of so various and inform +a contexture, that every piece plays, every moment, its own game, and +there is as much difference betwixt us and ourselves as betwixt us and +others: + + "Magnam rem puta, unum hominem agere." + + ["Esteem it a great thing always to act as one and the same + man."--Seneca, Ep., 150.] + +Since ambition can teach man valour, temperance, and liberality, and even +justice too; seeing that avarice can inspire the courage of a shop-boy, +bred and nursed up in obscurity and ease, with the assurance to expose +himself so far from the fireside to the mercy of the waves and angry +Neptune in a frail boat; that she further teaches discretion and +prudence; and that even Venus can inflate boys under the discipline of +the rod with boldness and resolution, and infuse masculine courage into +the heart of tender virgins in their mothers' arms: + + "Hac duce, custodes furtim transgressa jacentes, + Ad juvenem tenebris sola puella venit:" + + ["She leading, the maiden, furtively passing by the recumbent + guards, goes alone in the darkness to the youth." + --Tibullus, ii. 2, 75.] + +'tis not all the understanding has to do, simply to judge us by our +outward actions; it must penetrate the very soul, and there discover by +what springs the motion is guided. But that being a high and hazardous +undertaking, I could wish that fewer would attempt it. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF DRUNKENNESS + +The world is nothing but variety and disemblance, vices are all alike, as +they are vices, and peradventure the Stoics understand them so; but +although they are equally vices, yet they are not all equal vices; and he +who has transgressed the ordinary bounds a hundred paces: + + "Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum," + + ["Beyond or within which the right cannot exist." + --Horace, Sat., i, 1, 107.] + +should not be in a worse condition than he that has advanced but ten, is +not to be believed; or that sacrilege is not worse than stealing a +cabbage: + + "Nec vincet ratio hoc, tantumdem ut peccet, idemque, + Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti, + Et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit." + +There is in this as great diversity as in anything whatever. The +confounding of the order and measure of sins is dangerous: murderers, +traitors, and tyrants get too much by it, and it is not reasonable they +should flatter their consciences, because another man is idle, +lascivious, or not assiduous at his devotion. Every one overrates the +offence of his companions, but extenuates his own. Our very instructors +themselves rank them sometimes, in my opinion, very ill. As Socrates +said that the principal office of wisdom was to distinguish good from +evil, we, the best of whom are vicious, ought also to say the same of the +science of distinguishing betwixt vice and vice, without which, and that +very exactly performed, the virtuous and the wicked will remain +confounded and unrecognised. + +Now, amongst the rest, drunkenness seems to me to be a gross and brutish +vice. The soul has greater part in the rest, and there are some vices +that have something, if a man may so say, of generous in them; there are +vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence, valour, +prudence, dexterity, and address; this one is totally corporeal and +earthly. And the rudest nation this day in Europe is that alone where it +is in fashion. Other vices discompose the understanding: this totally +overthrows it and renders the body stupid: + + "Cum vini vis penetravit . . . + Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur + Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens, + Nant oculi; clamor, singultus, jurgia, gliscunt." + + ["When the power of wine has penetrated us, a heaviness of the limbs + follows, the legs of the tottering person are impeded; the tongue + grows torpid, the mind is dimmed, the eyes swim; noise, hiccup, and + quarrels arise.--"Lucretius, i. 3, 475.] + +The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and +government of himself. And 'tis said amongst other things upon this +subject, that, as the must fermenting in a vessel, works up to the top +whatever it has in the bottom, so wine, in those who have drunk beyond +measure, vents the most inward secrets: + + "Tu sapientum + Curas et arcanum jocoso + Consilium retegis Lyaeo." + + ["Thou disclosest to the merry Lyacus the cares and secret + counsel of the wise."--Horace, Od., xxi. 1, 114.] + + [Lyacus, a name given to Bacchus.] + +Josephus tells us that by giving an ambassador the enemy had sent to him +his full dose of liquor, he wormed out his secrets. And yet, Augustus, +committing the most inward secrets of his affairs to Lucius Piso, who +conquered Thrace, never found him faulty in the least, no more than +Tiberias did Cossus, with whom he intrusted his whole counsels, though we +know they were both so given to drink that they have often been fain to +carry both the one and the other drunk out of the Senate: + + "Hesterno inflatum venas ut semper, Lyaeo." + + ["Their veins full, as usual, of yesterday's wine." + --Virgil, Egl., vi. 15.] + +And the design of killing Caesar was as safely communicated to Cimber, +though he would often be drunk, as to Cassius, who drank nothing but +water. + + [As to which Cassius pleasantly said: "What, shall I bear + a tyrant, I who cannot bear wine?"] + +We see our Germans, when drunk as the devil, know their post, remember +the word, and keep to their ranks: + + "Nec facilis victoria de madidis, et + Blaesis, atque mero titubantibus." + + ["Nor is a victory easily obtained over men so drunk, they can + scarce speak or stand."--Juvenal, Sat., xv. 47.] + +I could not have believed there had been so profound, senseless, and dead +a degree of drunkenness had I not read in history that Attalus having, +to put a notable affront upon him, invited to supper the same Pausanias, +who upon the very same occasion afterwards killed Philip of Macedon, +a king who by his excellent qualities gave sufficient testimony of his +education in the house and company of Epaminondas, made him drink to such +a pitch that he could after abandon his beauty, as of a hedge strumpet, +to the muleteers and servants of the basest office in the house. And I +have been further told by a lady whom I highly honour and esteem, that +near Bordeaux and about Castres where she lives, a country woman, a +widow of chaste repute, perceiving in herself the first symptoms of +breeding, innocently told her neighbours that if she had a husband she +should think herself with child; but the causes of suspicion every day +more and more increasing, and at last growing up to a manifest proof, the +poor woman was reduced to the necessity of causing it to be proclaimed in +her parish church, that whoever had done that deed and would frankly +confess it, she did not only promise to forgive, but moreover to marry +him, if he liked the motion; whereupon a young fellow that served her in +the quality of a labourer, encouraged by this proclamation, declared that +he had one holiday found her, having taken too much of the bottle, so +fast asleep by the chimney and in so indecent a posture, that he could +conveniently do his business without waking her; and they yet live +together man and wife. + +It is true that antiquity has not much decried this vice; the writings +even of several philosophers speak very tenderly of it, and even amongst +the Stoics there are some who advise folks to give themselves sometimes +the liberty to drink, nay, to drunkenness, to refresh the soul: + + "Hoc quoque virtutum quondam certamine, magnum + Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt." + + ["In this trial of power formerly they relate that the great + Socrates deserved the palm."--Cornet. Gallus, Ep., i. 47.] + +That censor and reprover of others, Cato, was reproached that he was a +hard drinker: + + "Narratur et prisci Catonis + Saepe mero caluisse virtus." + + ["And of old Cato it is said, that his courage was often warmed with + wine."--Horace, Od., xxi. 3, 11.--Cato the Elder.] + +Cyrus, that so renowned king, amongst the other qualities by which he +claimed to be preferred before his brother Artaxerxes, urged this +excellence, that he could drink a great deal more than he. And in the +best governed nations this trial of skill in drinking is very much in +use. I have heard Silvius, an excellent physician of Paris, say that +lest the digestive faculties of the stomach should grow idle, it were not +amiss once a month to rouse them by this excess, and to spur them lest +they should grow dull and rusty; and one author tells us that the +Persians used to consult about their most important affairs after being +well warmed with wine. + +My taste and constitution are greater enemies to this vice than my +discourse; for besides that I easily submit my belief to the authority of +ancient opinions, I look upon it indeed as an unmanly and stupid vice, +but less malicious and hurtful than the others, which, almost all, more +directly jostle public society. And if we cannot please ourselves but it +must cost us something, as they hold, I find this vice costs a man's +conscience less than the others, besides that it is of no difficult +preparation, nor hard to be found, a consideration not altogether to be +despised. A man well advanced both in dignity and age, amongst three +principal commodities that he said remained to him of life, reckoned to +me this for one, and where would a man more justly find it than amongst +the natural conveniences? But he did not take it right, for delicacy and +the curious choice of wines is therein to be avoided. If you found your +pleasure upon drinking of the best, you condemn yourself to the penance +of drinking of the worst. Your taste must be more indifferent and free; +so delicate a palate is not required to make a good toper. The Germans +drink almost indifferently of all wines with delight; their business is +to pour down and not to taste; and it's so much the better for them: +their pleasure is so much the more plentiful and nearer at hand. + +Secondly, to drink, after the French fashion, but at two meals, and then +very moderately, is to be too sparing of the favours of the god. There +is more time and constancy required than so. The ancients spent whole +nights in this exercise, and ofttimes added the day following to eke it +out, and therefore we are to take greater liberty and stick closer to our +work. I have seen a great lord of my time, a man of high enterprise and +famous success, that without setting himself to't, and after his ordinary +rate of drinking at meals, drank not much less than five quarts of wine, +and at his going away appeared but too wise and discreet, to the +detriment of our affairs. The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course +of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it; +we should, like shopboys and labourers, refuse no occasion nor omit any +opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds. Methinks we +every day abridge and curtail the use of wine, and that the after +breakfasts, dinner snatches, and collations I used to see in my father's +house, when I was a boy, were more usual and frequent then than now. + +Is it that we pretend to a reformation? Truly, no: but it may be we are +more addicted to Venus than our fathers were. They are two exercises +that thwart and hinder one another in their vigour. Lechery weakens our +stomach on the one side; and on the other sobriety renders us more spruce +and amorous for the exercise of love. + +'Tis wonderful what strange stories I have heard my father tell of the +chastity of that age wherein he lived. It was for him to say it, being +both by art and nature cut out and finished for the service of ladies. +He spoke well and little: ever mixing his language with some illustration +out of authors most in use, especially in Spanish, and among the Spanish +he whom they called Marcus Aurelius--[ Guevara's Golden Book of Marcus +Aurelius Antoninus.]--was ordinarily in his mouth. His behaviour was +gently grave, humble, and very modest; he was very solicitous of neatness +and propriety both in his person and clothes, whether on horseback or +afoot, he was monstrously punctual in his word; and of a conscience and +religion generally tending rather towards superstition than otherwise. +For a man of little stature, very strong, well proportioned, and well +knit; of a pleasing countenance inclining to brown, and very adroit in +all noble exercises. I have yet in the house to be seen canes poured +full of lead, with which they say he exercised his arms for throwing the +bar or the stone, or in fencing; and shoes with leaden soles to make him +lighter for running or leaping. Of his vaulting he has left little +miracles behind him: I have seen him when past three score laugh at our +exercises, and throw himself in his furred gown into the saddle, make the +tour of a table upon his thumbs and scarce ever mount the stairs into his +chamber without taking three or four steps at a time. But as to what I +was speaking of before; he said there was scarce one woman of quality of +ill fame in the whole province: he would tell of strange confidences, and +some of them his own, with virtuous women, free from any manner of +suspicion of ill, and for his own part solemnly swore he was a virgin at +his marriage; and yet it was after a long practice of arms beyond the +mountains, of which wars he left us a journal under his own hand, wherein +he has given a precise account from point to point of all passages, both +relating to the public and to himself. And he was, moreover, married at +a well advanced maturity, in the year 1528, the three-and-thirtieth year +of his age, upon his way home from Italy. But let us return to our +bottles. + +The incommodities of old age, that stand in need of some refreshment and +support, might with reason beget in me a desire of this faculty, it being +as it were the last pleasure the course of years deprives us of. The +natural heat, say the good-fellows, first seats itself in the feet: that +concerns infancy; thence it mounts into the middle region, where it makes +a long abode and produces, in my opinion, the sole true pleasures of +human life; all other pleasures in comparison sleep; towards the end, +like a vapour that still mounts upward, it arrives at the throat, where +it makes its final residence, and concludes the progress. I do not, +nevertheless, understand how a man can extend the pleasure of drinking +beyond thirst, and forge in his imagination an appetite artificial and +against nature; my stomach would not proceed so far; it has enough to do +to deal with what it takes in for its necessity. My constitution is not +to care for drink but as following eating and washing down my meat, and +for that reason my last draught is always the greatest. And seeing that +in old age we have our palate furred with phlegms or depraved by some +other ill constitution, the wine tastes better to us as the pores are +cleaner washed and laid more open. At least, I seldom taste the first +glass well. Anacharsis wondered that the Greeks drank in greater glasses +towards the end of a meal than at the beginning; which was, I suppose, +for the same reason the Germans do the same, who then begin the battle of +drink. + +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age, and to get drunk +till forty; but, after forty, gives them leave to please themselves, and +to mix a little liberally in their feasts the influence of Dionysos, that +good deity who restores to younger men their gaiety and to old men their +youth; who mollifies the passions of the soul, as iron is softened by +fire; and in his Lazes allows such merry meetings, provided they have a +discreet chief to govern and keep them in order, as good and of great +utility; drunkenness being, he says, a true and certain trial of every +one's nature, and, withal, fit to inspire old men with mettle to divert +themselves in dancing and music; things of great use, and that they dare +not attempt when sober. He, moreover, says that wine is able to supply +the soul with temperance and the body with health. Nevertheless, these +restrictions, in part borrowed from the Carthaginians, please him: that +men forbear excesses in the expeditions of war; that every judge and +magistrate abstain from it when about the administrations of his place or +the consultations of the public affairs; that the day is not to be +employed with it, that being a time due to other occupations, nor the +night on which a man intends to get children. + +'Tis said that the philosopher Stilpo, when oppressed with age, purposely +hastened his end by drinking pure wine. The same thing, but not designed +by him, despatched also the philosopher Arcesilaus. + +But 'tis an old and pleasant question, whether the soul of a wise man can +be overcome by the strength of wine? + + "Si munitae adhibet vim sapientiae." + +To what vanity does the good opinion we have of ourselves push us? The +most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to +keep itself upright, and from being overthrown by its own weakness. +There is not one of a thousand that is right and settled so much as one +minute in a whole life, and that may not very well doubt, whether +according to her natural condition she ever can be; but to join constancy +to it is her utmost perfection; I mean when nothing should jostle and +discompose her, which a thousand accidents may do. 'Tis to much purpose +that the great poet Lucretius keeps such a clatter with his philosophy, +when, behold! he goes mad with a love philtre. Is it to be imagined +that an apoplexy will not stun Socrates as well as a porter? Some men +have forgotten their own names by the violence of a disease; and a slight +wound has turned the judgment of others topsy-turvy. Let him be as wise +as he will, after all he is but a man; and than that what is there more +frail, more miserable, or more nothing? Wisdom does not force our +natural dispositions, + + "Sudores itaque, et pallorem exsistere toto + Corpore, et infringi linguam, vocemque aboriri, + Caligare oculos, sonere aures, succidere artus, + Demque concidere, ex animi terrore, videmus." + + ["Sweat and paleness come over the whole body, the tongue is + rendered powerless, the voice dies away, the eyes are darkened, + there is ringing in the ears, the limbs sink under us by the + influence of fear."--Lucretius, iii. 155.] + +he must shut his eyes against the blow that threatens him; he must +tremble upon the margin of a precipice, like a child; nature having +reserved these light marks of her authority, not to be forced by our +reason and the stoic virtue, to teach man his mortality and our weakness; +he turns pale with fear, red with shame, and groans with the cholic, if +not with desperate outcry, at least with hoarse and broken voice: + + "Humani a se nihil alienum putet." + + ["Let him not think himself exempt from that which is incidental to + men in general."--Terence, Heauton, i. 1, 25.] + +The poets, that feign all things at pleasure, dare not acquit their +greatest heroes of tears: + + "Sic fatur lacrymans, classique immittit habenas." + + ["Thus he speaks, weeping, and then sets sail with his fleet." + --Aeneid, vi. i.] + +'Tis sufficient for a man to curb and moderate his inclinations, for +totally to suppress them is not in him to do. Even our great Plutarch, +that excellent and perfect judge of human actions, when he sees Brutus +and Torquatus kill their children, begins to doubt whether virtue could +proceed so far, and to question whether these persons had not rather been +stimulated by some other passion.--[Plutarch, Life of Publicola, c. 3.] +--All actions exceeding the ordinary bounds are liable to sinister +interpretation, for as much as our liking no more holds with what is +above than with what is below it. + +Let us leave that other sect, that sets up an express profession of +scornful superiority--[The Stoics.]--: but when even in that sect, +reputed the most quiet and gentle, we hear these rhodomontades of +Metrodorus: + + "Occupavi te, Fortuna, atque cepi: omnesque aditus tuos + interclusi ut ad me aspirare non posses;" + + ["Fortune, I have got the better of thee, and have made all the + avenues so sure thou canst not come at me." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 9.] + +when Anaxarchus, by command of Nicocreon the tyrant of Cyprus, was put +into a stone mortar, and laid upon with mauls of iron, ceases not to say, +"Strike, batter, break; 'tis not Anaxarchus, 'tis but his sheath that you +pound and bray so"; when we hear our martyrs cry out to the tyrant from +the middle of the flame, "This side is roasted enough, fall to and eat, +it is enough done; fall to work with the other;" when we hear the child +in Josephus' torn piece-meal with pincers, defying Antiochus, and crying +out with a constant and assured voice: "Tyrant, thou losest thy labour, +I am still at ease; where is the pain, where are the torments with which +thou didst so threaten me? Is this all thou canst do? My constancy +torments thee more than thy cruelty does me. O pitiful coward, thou +faintest, and I grow stronger; make me complain, make me bend, make me +yield if thou canst; encourage thy guards, cheer up thy executioners; +see, see they faint, and can do no more; arm them, flesh them anew, spur +them up"; truly, a man must confess that there is some phrenzy, some +fury, how holy soever, that at that time possesses those souls. When we +come to these Stoical sallies: "I had rather be mad than voluptuous," a +saying of Antisthenes. When Sextius tells us, "he had rather be fettered +with affliction than pleasure": when Epicurus takes upon him to play with +his gout, and, refusing health and ease, defies all torments, and +despising the lesser pains, as disdaining to contend with them, he covets +and calls out for others sharper, more violent, and more worthy of him; + + "Spumantemque dari, pecora inter inertia, votis + Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem:" + + ["And instead of timid beasts, wishes the foaming boar or tawny lion + would come from the mountain."--AEneid, iv. 158.] + +who but must conclude that these are wild sallies pushed on by a courage +that has broken loose from its place? Our soul cannot from her own seat +reach so high; 'tis necessary she must leave it, raise herself up, and, +taking the bridle in her teeth, transport her man so far that he shall +afterwards himself be astonished at what he has done; as, in war, the +heat of battle impels generous soldiers to perform things of so infinite +danger, as afterwards, recollecting them, they themselves are the first +to wonder at; as it also fares with the poets, who are often rapt with +admiration of their own writings, and know not where again to find the +track through which they performed so fine a Career; which also is in +them called fury and rapture. And as Plato says, 'tis to no purpose for +a sober-minded man to knock at the door of poesy: so Aristotle says, that +no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness; and he has reason +to call all transports, how commendable soever, that surpass our own +judgment and understanding, madness; forasmuch as wisdom is a regular +government of the soul, which is carried on with measure and proportion, +and for which she is to herself responsible. Plato argues thus, that the +faculty of prophesying is so far above us, that we must be out of +ourselves when we meddle with it, and our prudence must either be +obstructed by sleep or sickness, or lifted from her place by some +celestial rapture. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A CUSTOM OF THE ISLE OF CEA + + [Cos. Cea is the form of the name given by Pliny] + +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt, much more to write at +random and play the fool, as I do, ought to be reputed doubting, for it +is for novices and freshmen to inquire and to dispute, and for the +chairman to moderate and determine. + +My moderator is the authority of the divine will, that governs us without +contradiction, and that is seated above these human and vain +contestations. + +Philip having forcibly entered into Peloponnesus, and some one saying to +Damidas that the Lacedaemonians were likely very much to suffer if they +did not in time reconcile themselves to his favour: "Why, you pitiful +fellow," replied he, "what can they suffer who do not fear to die?" It +being also asked of Agis, which way a man might live free? "Why," said +he, "by despising death." These, and a thousand other sayings to the +same purpose, distinctly sound of something more than the patient +attending the stroke of death when it shall come; for there are several +accidents in life far worse to suffer than death itself. Witness the +Lacedaemonian boy taken by Antigonus, and sold for a slave, who being by +his master commanded to some base employment: "Thou shalt see," says the +boy, "whom thou hast bought; it would be a shame for me to serve, being +so near the reach of liberty," and having so said, threw himself from the +top of the house. Antipater severely threatening the Lacedaemonians, +that he might the better incline them to acquiesce in a certain demand of +his: "If thou threatenest us with more than death," replied they, "we +shall the more willingly die"; and to Philip, having written them word +that he would frustrate all their enterprises: "What, wilt thou also +hinder us from dying?" This is the meaning of the sentence, "That the +wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can; and that the +most obliging present Nature has made us, and which takes from us all +colour of complaint of our condition, is to have delivered into our own +custody the keys of life; she has only ordered, one door into life, but a +hundred thousand ways out. We may be straitened for earth to live upon, +but earth sufficient to die upon can never be wanting, as Boiocalus +answered the Romans."--[Tacitus, Annal., xiii. 56.]--Why dost thou +complain of this world? it detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the +cause, if thou livest in pain. There needs no more to die but to will to +die: + + "Ubique mors est; optime hoc cavit deus. + Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest; + At nemo mortem; mille ad hanc aditus patent." + + ["Death is everywhere: heaven has well provided for that. Any one + may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death. To death + there are a thousand avenues."--Seneca, Theb:, i, I, 151.] + +Neither is it a recipe for one disease only; death is the infallible cure +of all; 'tis a most assured port that is never to be feared, and very +often to be sought. It comes all to one, whether a man give himself his +end, or stays to receive it by some other means; whether he pays before +his day, or stay till his day of payment come; from whencesoever it +comes, it is still his; in what part soever the thread breaks, there's +the end of the clue. The most voluntary death is the finest. Life +depends upon the pleasure of others; death upon our own. We ought not to +accommodate ourselves to our own humour in anything so much as in this. +Reputation is not concerned in such an enterprise; 'tis folly to be +concerned by any such apprehension. Living is slavery if the liberty of +dying be wanting. The ordinary method of cure is carried on at the +expense of life; they torment us with caustics, incisions, and +amputations of limbs; they interdict aliment and exhaust our blood; one +step farther and we are cured indeed and effectually. Why is not the +jugular vein as much at our disposal as the median vein? For a desperate +disease a desperate cure. Servius the grammarian, being tormented with +the gout, could think of no better remedy than to apply poison to his +legs, to deprive them of their sense; let them be gouty at their will, so +they were insensible of pain. God gives us leave enough to go when He is +pleased to reduce us to such a condition that to live is far worse than +to die. 'Tis weakness to truckle under infirmities, but it's madness to +nourish them. The Stoics say, that it is living according to nature in a +wise man to, take his leave of life, even in the height of prosperity, +if he do it opportunely; and in a fool to prolong it, though he be +miserable, provided he be not indigent of those things which they repute +to be according to nature. As I do not offend the law against thieves +when I embezzle my own money and cut my own purse; nor that against +incendiaries when I burn my own wood; so am I not under the lash of those +made against murderers for having deprived myself of my own life. +Hegesias said, that as the condition of life did, so the condition of +death ought to depend upon our own choice. And Diogenes meeting the +philosopher Speusippus, so blown up with an inveterate dropsy that he was +fain to be carried in a litter, and by him saluted with the compliment, +"I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other, +"who art content to live in such a condition." + +And in fact, not long after, Speusippus, weary of so languishing a state +of life, found a means to die. + +But this does not pass without admitting a dispute: for many are of +opinion that we cannot quit this garrison of the world without the +express command of Him who has placed us in it; and that it appertains to +God who has placed us here, not for ourselves only but for His Glory and +the service of others, to dismiss us when it shall best please Him, and +not for us to depart without His licence: that we are not born for +ourselves only, but for our country also, the laws of which require an +account from us upon the score of their own interest, and have an action +of manslaughter good against us; and if these fail to take cognisance of +the fact, we are punished in the other world as deserters of our duty: + + "Proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum + Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi + Proiecere animas." + + ["Thence the sad ones occupy the next abodes, who, though free + from guilt, were by their own hands slain, and, hating light, + sought death."--AEneid, vi. 434.] + +There is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied to than in +breaking it, and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in +Cato; 'tis indiscretion and impatience that push us on to these +precipices: no accidents can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks +and requires evils, pains, and grief, as the things by which she is +nourished and supported; the menaces of tyrants, racks, and tortures +serve only to animate and rouse her: + + "Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus + Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, + Per damma, percmdes, ab ipso + Ducit opes, animumque ferro." + + ["As in Mount Algidus, the sturdy oak even from the axe itself + derives new vigour and life."--Horace, Od., iv. 4, 57.] + +And as another says: + + "Non est, ut putas, virtus, pater, + Timere vitam; sed malis ingentibus + Obstare, nec se vertere, ac retro dare." + + ["Father, 'tis no virtue to fear life, but to withstand great + misfortunes, nor turn back from them."--Seneca, Theb., i. 190.] + +Or as this: + + "Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem + Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest." + + ["It is easy in adversity to despise death; but he acts more + bravely, who can live wretched."--Martial, xi. 56, 15.] + +'Tis cowardice, not virtue, to lie squat in a furrow, under a tomb, to +evade the blows of fortune; virtue never stops nor goes out of her path, +for the greatest storm that blows: + + "Si fractus illabatur orbis, + Impavidum ferient ruinae." + + ["Should the world's axis crack, the ruins will but crush + a fearless head."--Horace, Od., iii. 3, 7.] + +For the most part, the flying from other inconveniences brings us to +this; nay, endeavouring to evade death, we often run into its very mouth: + + "Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori?" + + ["Tell me, is it not madness, that one should die for fear + of dying?"--Martial, ii. 80, 2.] + +like those who, from fear of a precipice, throw themselves headlong into +it; + + "Multos in summa pericula misfit + Venturi timor ipse mali: fortissimus ille est, + Qui promptus metuenda pati, si cominus instent, + Et differre potest." + + ["The fear of future ills often makes men run into extreme danger; + he is truly brave who boldly dares withstand the mischiefs he + apprehends, when they confront him and can be deferred." + --Lucan, vii. 104.] + + "Usque adeo, mortis formidine, vitae + Percipit humanos odium, lucisque videndae, + Ut sibi consciscant moerenti pectore lethum + Obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem." + + ["Death to that degree so frightens some men, that causing them to + hate both life and light, they kill themselves, miserably forgetting + that this same fear is the fountain of their cares." + --Lucretius, iii. 79.] + +Plato, in his Laws, assigns an ignominious sepulture to him who has +deprived his nearest and best friend, namely himself, of life and his +destined course, being neither compelled so to do by public judgment, +by any sad and inevitable accident of fortune, nor by any insupportable +disgrace, but merely pushed on by cowardice and the imbecility of a +timorous soul. And the opinion that makes so little of life, is +ridiculous; for it is our being, 'tis all we have. Things of a nobler +and more elevated being may, indeed, reproach ours; but it is against +nature for us to contemn and make little account of ourselves; 'tis a +disease particular to man, and not discerned in any other creatures, to +hate and despise itself. And it is a vanity of the same stamp to desire +to be something else than what we are; the effect of such a desire does +not at all touch us, forasmuch as it is contradicted and hindered in +itself. He that desires of a man to be made an angel, does nothing for +himself; he would be never the better for it; for, being no more, who +shall rejoice or be sensible of this benefit for him. + + "Debet enim, misere cui forti, aegreque futurum est, + Ipse quoque esse in eo turn tempore, cum male possit + Accidere." + + ["For he to whom misery and pain are to be in the future, must + himself then exist, when these ills befall him." + --Idem, ibid., 874.] + +Security, indolence, impassability, the privation of the evils of this +life, which we pretend to purchase at the price of dying, are of no +manner of advantage to us: that man evades war to very little purpose who +can have no fruition of peace; and as little to the purpose does he avoid +trouble who cannot enjoy repose. + +Amongst those of the first of these two opinions, there has been great +debate, what occasions are sufficient to justify the meditation of self- +murder, which they call "A reasonable exit."--[ Diogenes Laertius, Life +of Zeno.]--For though they say that men must often die for trivial +causes, seeing those that detain us in life are of no very great weight, +yet there is to be some limit. There are fantastic and senseless humours +that have prompted not only individual men, but whole nations to destroy +themselves, of which I have elsewhere given some examples; and we further +read of the Milesian virgins, that by a frantic compact they hanged +themselves one after another till the magistrate took order in it, +enacting that the bodies of such as should be found so hanged should be +drawn by the same halter stark naked through the city. When Therykion +tried to persuade Cleomenes to despatch himself, by reason of the ill +posture of his affairs, and, having missed a death of more honour in the +battle he had lost, to accept of this the second in honour to it, and not +to give the conquerors leisure to make him undergo either an ignominious +death or an infamous life; Cleomenes, with a courage truly Stoic and +Lacedaemonian, rejected his counsel as unmanly and mean; "that," said he, +"is a remedy that can never be wanting, but which a man is never to make +use of, whilst there is an inch of hope remaining": telling him, "that +it was sometimes constancy and valour to live; that he would that even +his death should be of use to his country, and would make of it an act of +honour and virtue." Therykion, notwithstanding, thought himself in the +right, and did his own business; and Cleomenes afterwards did the same, +but not till he had first tried the utmost malevolence of fortune. All +the inconveniences in the world are not considerable enough that a man +should die to evade them; and, besides, there being so many, so sudden +and unexpected changes in human things, it is hard rightly to judge when +we are at the end of our hope: + + "Sperat et in saeva victus gladiator arena, + Sit licet infesto pollice turba minax." + + ["The gladiator conquered in the lists hopes on, though the + menacing spectators, turning their thumb, order him to die." + --Pentadius, De Spe, ap. Virgilii Catadecta.] + +All things, says an old adage, are to be hoped for by a man whilst he +lives; ay, but, replies Seneca, why should this rather be always running +in a man's head that fortune can do all things for the living man, than +this, that fortune has no power over him that knows how to die? +Josephus, when engaged in so near and apparent danger, a whole people +being violently bent against him, that there was no visible means of +escape, nevertheless, being, as he himself says, in this extremity +counselled by one of his friends to despatch himself, it was well for him +that he yet maintained himself in hope, for fortune diverted the accident +beyond all human expectation, so that he saw himself delivered without +any manner of inconvenience. Whereas Brutus and Cassius, on the +contrary, threw away the remains of the Roman liberty, of which they were +the sole protectors, by the precipitation and temerity wherewith they +killed themselves before the due time and a just occasion. Monsieur +d'Anguien, at the battle of Serisolles, twice attempted to run himself +through, despairing of the fortune of the day, which went indeed very +untowardly on that side of the field where he was engaged, and by that +precipitation was very near depriving himself of the enjoyment of so +brave a victory. I have seen a hundred hares escape out of the very +teeth of the greyhounds: + + "Aliquis carnifici suo superstes fuit." + + ["Some have survived their executioners."--Seneca, Ep., 13.] + + "Multa dies, variusque labor mutabilis nevi + Rettulit in melius; multos alterna revisens + Lusit, et in solido rursus fortuna locavit." + + ["Length of days, and the various labour of changeful time, have + brought things to a better state; fortune turning, shews a reverse + face, and again restores men to prosperity."--AEneid, xi. 425.] + +Piny says there are but three sorts of diseases, to escape which a man +has good title to destroy himself; the worst of which is the stone in the +bladder, when the urine is suppressed. + + ["In the quarto edition of these essays, in 1588, Pliny is said to + mention two more, viz., a pain in the stomach and a headache, which, + he says (lib. xxv. c. 9.), were the only three distempers almost + for which men killed themselves."] + +Seneca says those only which for a long time are discomposing the +functions of the soul. And some there have been who, to avoid a worse +death, have chosen one to their own liking. Democritus, general of the +AEtolians, being brought prisoner to Rome, found means to make his escape +by night: but close pursued by his keepers, rather than suffer himself to +be retaken, he fell upon his own sword and died. Antinous and Theodotus, +their city of Epirus being reduced by the Romans to the last extremity, +gave the people counsel universally to kill themselves; but, these +preferring to give themselves up to the enemy, the two chiefs went to +seek the death they desired, rushing furiously upon the enemy, with +intention to strike home but not to ward a blow. The Island of Gozzo +being taken some years ago by the Turks, a Sicilian, who had two +beautiful daughters marriageable, killed them both with his own hand, and +their mother, running in to save them, to boot, which having done, +sallying out of the house with a cross-bow and harquebus, with two shots +he killed two of the Turks nearest to his door, and drawing his sword, +charged furiously in amongst the rest, where he was suddenly enclosed and +cut to pieces, by that means delivering his family and himself from +slavery and dishonour. The Jewish women, after having circumcised their +children, threw them and themselves down a precipice to avoid the cruelty +of Antigonus. I have been told of a person of condition in one of our +prisons, that his friends, being informed that he would certainly be +condemned, to avoid the ignominy of such a death suborned a priest to +tell him that the only means of his deliverance was to recommend himself +to such a saint, under such and such vows, and to fast eight days +together without taking any manner of nourishment, what weakness or +faintness soever he might find in himself during the time; he followed +their advice, and by that means destroyed himself before he was aware, +not dreaming of death or any danger in the experiment. Scribonia +advising her nephew Libo to kill himself rather than await the stroke of +justice, told him that it was to do other people's business to preserve +his life to put it after into the hands of those who within three or four +days would fetch him to execution, and that it was to serve his enemies +to keep his blood to gratify their malice. + +We read in the Bible that Nicanor, the persecutor of the law of God, +having sent his soldiers to seize upon the good old man Razis, surnamed +in honour of his virtue the father of the Jews: the good man, seeing no +other remedy, his gates burned down, and the enemies ready to seize him, +choosing rather to die nobly than to fall into the hands of his wicked +adversaries and suffer himself to be cruelly butchered by them, contrary +to the honour of his rank and quality, stabbed himself with his own +sword, but the blow, for haste, not having been given home, he ran and +threw himself from the top of a wall headlong among them, who separating +themselves and making room, he pitched directly upon his head; +notwithstanding which, feeling yet in himself some remains of life, he +renewed his courage, and starting up upon his feet all bloody and wounded +as he was, and making his way through the crowd to a precipitous rock, +there, through one of his wounds, drew out his bowels, which, tearing and +pulling to pieces with both his hands, he threw amongst his pursuers, all +the while attesting and invoking the Divine vengeance upon them for their +cruelty and injustice. + +Of violences offered to the conscience, that against the chastity of +woman is, in my opinion, most to be avoided, forasmuch as there is a +certain pleasure naturally mixed with it, and for that reason the dissent +therein cannot be sufficiently perfect and entire, so that the violence +seems to be mixed with a little consent of the forced party. The +ecclesiastical history has several examples of devout persons who have +embraced death to secure them from the outrages prepared by tyrants +against their religion and honour. Pelagia and Sophronia, both +canonised, the first of these precipitated herself with her mother and +sisters into the river to avoid being forced by some soldiers, and the +last also killed herself to avoid being ravished by the Emperor +Maxentius. + +It may, peradventure, be an honour to us in future ages, that a learned +author of this present time, and a Parisian, takes a great deal of pains +to persuade the ladies of our age rather to take any other course than to +enter into the horrid meditation of such a despair. I am sorry he had +never heard, that he might have inserted it amongst his other stories, +the saying of a woman, which was told me at Toulouse, who had passed +through the handling of some soldiers: "God be praised," said she, "that +once at least in my life I have had my fill without sin." In truth, +these cruelties are very unworthy the French good nature, and also, God +be thanked, our air is very well purged of them since this good advice: +'tis enough that they say "no" in doing it, according to the rule of the +good Marot. + "Un doulx nenny, avec un doulx sourire + Est tant honneste."--Marot. + +History is everywhere full of those who by a thousand ways have exchanged +a painful and irksome life for death. Lucius Aruntius killed himself, to +fly, he said, both the future and the past. Granius Silvanus and Statius +Proximus, after having been pardoned by Nero, killed themselves; either +disdaining to live by the favour of so wicked a man, or that they might +not be troubled, at some other time, to obtain a second pardon, +considering the proclivity of his nature to suspect and credit +accusations against worthy men. Spargapises, son of Queen Tomyris, being +a prisoner of war to Cyrus, made use of the first favour Cyrus shewed +him, in commanding him to be unbound, to kill himself, having pretended +to no other benefit of liberty, but only to be revenged of himself for +the disgrace of being taken. Boges, governor in Eion for King Xerxes, +being besieged by the Athenian army under the conduct of Cimon, refused +the conditions offered, that he might safe return into Asia with all his +wealth, impatient to survive the loss of a place his master had given him +to keep; wherefore, having defended the city to the last extremity, +nothing being left to eat, he first threw all the gold and whatever else +the enemy could make booty of into the river Strymon, and then causing a +great pile to be set on fire, and the throats of all the women, children, +concubines, and servants to be cut, he threw their bodies into the fire, +and at last leaped into it himself. + +Ninachetuen, an Indian lord, so soon as he heard the first whisper of the +Portuguese Viceroy's determination to dispossess him, without any +apparent cause, of his command in Malacca, to transfer it to the King of +Campar, he took this resolution with himself: he caused a scaffold, more +long than broad, to be erected, supported by columns royally adorned with +tapestry and strewed with flowers and abundance of perfumes; all which +being prepared, in a robe of cloth of gold, set full of jewels of great +value, he came out into the street, and mounted the steps to the +scaffold, at one corner of which he had a pile lighted of aromatic wood. +Everybody ran to see to what end these unusual preparations were made; +when Ninachetuen, with a manly but displeased countenance, set forth how +much he had obliged the Portuguese nation, and with how unspotted +fidelity he had carried himself in his charge; that having so often, +sword in hand, manifested in the behalf of others, that honour was much +more dear to him than life, he was not to abandon the concern of it for +himself: that fortune denying him all means of opposing the affront +designed to be put upon him, his courage at least enjoined him to free +himself from the sense of it, and not to serve for a fable to the people, +nor for a triumph to men less deserving than himself; which having said +he leaped into the fire. + +Sextilia, wife of Scaurus, and Paxaea, wife of Labeo, to encourage their +husbands to avoid the dangers that pressed upon them, wherein they had no +other share than conjugal affection, voluntarily sacrificed their own +lives to serve them in this extreme necessity for company and example. +What they did for their husbands, Cocceius Nerva did for his country, +with less utility though with equal affection: this great lawyer, +flourishing in health, riches, reputation, and favour with the Emperor, +had no other cause to kill himself but the sole compassion of the +miserable state of the Roman Republic. Nothing can be added to the +beauty of the death of the wife of Fulvius, a familiar favourite of +Augustus: Augustus having discovered that he had vented an important +secret he had entrusted him withal, one morning that he came to make his +court, received him very coldly and looked frowningly upon him. He +returned home, full of, despair, where he sorrowfully told his wife that, +having fallen into this misfortune, he was resolved to kill himself: to +which she roundly replied, "'tis but reason you should, seeing that +having so often experienced the incontinence of my tongue, you could not +take warning: but let me kill myself first," and without any more saying +ran herself through the body with a sword. Vibius Virrius, despairing of +the safety of his city besieged by the Romans and of their mercy, in the +last deliberation of his city's senate, after many arguments conducing to +that end, concluded that the most noble means to escape fortune was by +their own hands: telling them that the enemy would have them in honour, +and Hannibal would be sensible how many faithful friends he had +abandoned; inviting those who approved of his advice to come to a good +supper he had ready at home, where after they had eaten well, they would +drink together of what he had prepared; a beverage, said he, that will +deliver our bodies from torments, our souls from insult, and our eyes and +ears from the sense of so many hateful mischiefs, as the conquered suffer +from cruel and implacable conquerors. I have, said he, taken order for +fit persons to throw our bodies into a funeral pile before my door so +soon as we are dead. Many enough approved this high resolution, but few +imitated it; seven-and-twenty senators followed him, who, after having +tried to drown the thought of this fatal determination in wine, ended the +feast with the mortal mess; and embracing one another, after they had +jointly deplored the misfortune of their country, some retired home to +their own houses, others stayed to be burned with Vibius in his funeral +pyre; and were all of them so long in dying, the vapour of the wine +having prepossessed the veins, and by that means deferred the effect of +poison, that some of them were within an hour of seeing the enemy inside +the walls of Capua, which was taken the next morning, and of undergoing +the miseries they had at so dear a rate endeavoured to avoid. Jubellius +Taurea, another citizen of the same country, the Consul Fulvius returning +from the shameful butchery he had made of two hundred and twenty-five +senators, called him back fiercely by name, and having made him stop: +"Give the word," said he, "that somebody may dispatch me after the +massacre of so many others, that thou mayest boast to have killed a much +more valiant man than thyself." Fulvius, disdaining him as a man out of +his wits, and also having received letters from Rome censuring the +inhumanity of his execution which tied his hands, Jubellius proceeded: +"Since my country has been taken, my friends dead, and having with my own +hands slain my wife and children to rescue them from the desolation of +this ruin, I am denied to die the death of my fellow-citizens, let me +borrow from virtue vengeance on this hated life," and therewithal drawing +a short sword he carried concealed about him, he ran it through his own +bosom, falling down backward, and expiring at the consul's feet. + +Alexander, laying siege to a city of the Indies, those within, finding +themselves very hardly set, put on a vigorous resolution to deprive him +of the pleasure of his victory, and accordingly burned themselves in +general, together with their city, in despite of his humanity: a new kind +of war, where the enemies sought to save them, and they to destroy +themselves, doing to make themselves sure of death, all that men do to +secure life. + +Astapa, a city of Spain, finding itself weak in walls and defence to +withstand the Romans, the inhabitants made a heap of all their riches and +furniture in the public place; and, having ranged upon this heap all the +women and children, and piled them round with wood and other combustible +matter to take sudden fire, and left fifty of their young men for the +execution of that whereon they had resolved, they made a desperate sally, +where for want of power to overcome, they caused themselves to be every +man slain. The fifty, after having massacred every living soul +throughout the whole city, and put fire to this pile, threw themselves +lastly into it, finishing their generous liberty, rather after an +insensible, than after a sorrowful and disgraceful manner, giving the +enemy to understand, that if fortune had been so pleased, they had as +well the courage to snatch from them victory as they had to frustrate and +render it dreadful, and even mortal to those who, allured by the +splendour of the gold melting in this flame, having approached it, +a great number were there suffocated and burned, being kept from retiring +by the crowd that followed after. + +The Abydeans, being pressed by King Philip, put on the same resolution; +but, not having time, they could not put it 'in effect. The king, who +was struck with horror at the rash precipitation of this execution (the +treasure and movables that they had condemned to the flames being first +seized), drawing off his soldiers, granted them three days' time to kill +themselves in, that they might do it with more order and at greater ease: +which time they filled with blood and slaughter beyond the utmost excess +of all hostile cruelty, so that not so much as any one soul was left +alive that had power to destroy itself. There are infinite examples of +like popular resolutions which seem the more fierce and cruel in +proportion as the effect is more universal, and yet are really less so +than when singly executed; what arguments and persuasion cannot do with +individual men, they can do with all, the ardour of society ravishing +particular judgments. + +The condemned who would live to be executed in the reign of Tiberius, +forfeited their goods and were denied the rites of sepulture; those who, +by killing themselves, anticipated it, were interred, and had liberty to +dispose of their estates by will. + +But men sometimes covet death out of hope of a greater good. "I desire," +says St. Paul, "to be with Christ," and "who shall rid me of these +bands?" Cleombrotus of Ambracia, having read Plato's Pheedo, entered +into so great a desire of the life to come that, without any other +occasion, he threw himself into the sea. By which it appears how +improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair, to which the +eagerness of hope often inclines us, and, often, a calm and temperate +desire proceeding from a mature and deliberate judgment. Jacques du +Chastel, bishop of Soissons, in St. Louis's foreign expedition, seeing +the king and whole army upon the point of returning into France, leaving +the affairs of religion imperfect, took a resolution rather to go into +Paradise; wherefore, having taken solemn leave of his friends, he charged +alone, in the sight of every one, into the enemy's army, where he was +presently cut to pieces. In a certain kingdom of the new discovered +world, upon a day of solemn procession, when the idol they adore is drawn +about in public upon a chariot of marvellous greatness; besides that many +are then seen cutting off pieces of their flesh to offer to him, there +are a number of others who prostrate themselves upon the place, causing +themselves to be crushed and broken to pieces under the weighty wheels, +to obtain the veneration of sanctity after death, which is accordingly +paid them. The death of the bishop, sword in hand, has more of +magnanimity in it, and less of sentiment, the ardour of combat taking +away part of the latter. + +There are some governments who have taken upon them to regulate the +justice and opportunity of voluntary death. In former times there was +kept in our city of Marseilles a poison prepared out of hemlock, at the +public charge, for those who had a mind to hasten their end, having +first, before the six hundred, who were their senate, given account of +the reasons and motives of their design, and it was not otherwise lawful, +than by leave from the magistrate and upon just occasion to do violence +to themselves.--[Valerius Maximus, ii. 6, 7.]--The same law was also +in use in other places. + +Sextus Pompeius, in his expedition into Asia, touched at the isle of Cea +in Negropont: it happened whilst he was there, as we have it from one +that was with him, that a woman of great quality, having given an account +to her citizens why she was resolved to put an end to her life, invited +Pompeius to her death, to render it the more honourable, an invitation +that he accepted; and having long tried in vain by the power of his +eloquence, which was very great, and persuasion, to divert her from that +design, he acquiesced in the end in her own will. She had passed the age +of four score and ten in a very happy state, both of body and mind; being +then laid upon her bed, better dressed than ordinary and leaning upon her +elbow, "The gods," said she, "O Sextus Pompeius, and rather those I leave +than those I go to seek, reward thee, for that thou hast not disdained to +be both the counsellor of my life and the witness of my death. For my +part, having always experienced the smiles of fortune, for fear lest the +desire of living too long may make me see a contrary face, I am going, by +a happy end, to dismiss the remains of my soul, leaving behind two +daughters of my body and a legion of nephews"; which having said, with +some exhortations to her family to live in peace, she divided amongst +them her goods, and recommending her domestic gods to her eldest +daughter, she boldly took the bowl that contained the poison, and having +made her vows and prayers to Mercury to conduct her to some happy abode +in the other world, she roundly swallowed the mortal poison. This being +done, she entertained the company with the progress of its operation, and +how the cold by degrees seized the several parts of her body one after +another, till having in the end told them it began to seize upon her +heart and bowels, she called her daughters to do the last office and +close her eyes. + +Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean nation where, by reason of the +sweet temperature of the air, lives rarely ended but by the voluntary +surrender of the inhabitants, who, being weary of and satiated with +living, had the custom, at a very old age, after having made good cheer, +to precipitate themselves into the sea from the top of a certain rock, +assigned for that service. Pain and the fear of a worse death seem to me +the most excusable incitements. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TO-MORROW'S A NEW DAY + +I give, as it seems to me, with good reason the palm to Jacques Amyot of +all our French writers, not only for the simplicity and purity of his +language, wherein he excels all others, nor for his constancy in going +through so long a work, nor for the depth of his knowledge, having been +able so successfully to smooth and unravel so knotty and intricate an +author (for let people tell me what they will, I understand nothing of +Greek; but I meet with sense so well united and maintained throughout his +whole translation, that certainly he either knew the true fancy of the +author, or having, by being long conversant with him, imprinted a vivid +and general idea of that of Plutarch in his soul, he has delivered us +nothing that either derogates from or contradicts him), but above all, I +am the most taken with him for having made so discreet a choice of a book +so worthy and of so great utility wherewith to present his country. We +ignorant fellows had been lost, had not this book raised us out of the +dirt; by this favour of his we dare now speak and write; the ladies are +able to read to schoolmasters; 'tis our breviary. If this good man be +yet living, I would recommend to him Xenophon, to do as much by that; +'tis a much more easy task than the other, and consequently more proper +for his age. And, besides, though I know not how, methinks he does +briskly--and clearly enough trip over steps another would have stumbled +at, yet nevertheless his style seems to be more his own where he does not +encounter those difficulties, and rolls away at his own ease. + +I was just now reading this passage where Plutarch says of himself, that +Rusticus being present at a declamation of his at Rome, there received a +packet from the emperor, and deferred to open it till all was done: for +which, says he, all the company highly applauded the gravity of this +person. 'Tis true, that being upon the subject of curiosity and of that +eager passion for news, which makes us with so much indiscretion and +impatience leave all to entertain a newcomer, and without any manner of +respect or outcry, tear open on a sudden, in what company soever, the +letters that are delivered to us, he had reason to applaud the gravity of +Rusticus upon this occasion; and might moreover have added to it the +commendation of his civility and courtesy, that would not interrupt the +current of his declamation. But I doubt whether any one can commend his +prudence; for receiving unexpected letters, and especially from an +emperor, it might have fallen out that the deferring to read them might +have been of great prejudice. The vice opposite to curiosity is +negligence, to which I naturally incline, and wherein I have seen some +men so extreme that one might have found letters sent them three or four +days before, still sealed up in their pockets. + +I never open any letters directed to another; not only those intrusted +with me, but even such as fortune has guided to my hand; and am angry +with myself if my eyes unawares steal any contents of letters of +importance he is reading when I stand near a great man. Never was man +less inquisitive or less prying into other men's affairs than I. + +In our fathers' days, Monsieur de Boutieres had like to have lost Turin +from having, while engaged in good company at supper, delayed to read +information that was sent him of the treason plotted against that city +where he commanded. And this very Plutarch has given me to understand, +that Julius Caesar had preserved himself, if, going to the Senate the day +he was assassinated by the conspirators, he had read a note which was +presented to him by, the way. He tells also the story of Archias, the +tyrant of Thebes, that the night before the execution of the design +Pelopidas had plotted to kill him to restore his country to liberty, he +had a full account sent him in writing by another Archias, an Athenian, +of the whole conspiracy, and that, this packet having been delivered to +him while he sat at supper, he deferred the opening of it, saying, which +afterwards turned to a proverb in Greece, "Business to-morrow." + +A wise man may, I think, out of respect to another, as not to disturb the +company, as Rusticus did, or not to break off another affair of +importance in hand, defer to read or hear any new thing that is brought +him; but for his own interest or particular pleasure, especially if he be +a public minister, that he will not interrupt his dinner or break his +sleep is inexcusable. And there was anciently at Rome, the consular +place, as they called it, which was the most honourable at the table, as +being a place of most liberty, and of more convenient access to those who +came in to speak to the person seated there; by which it appears, that +being at meat, they did not totally abandon the concern of other affairs +and incidents. But when all is said, it is very hard in human actions to +give so exact a rule upon moral reasons, that fortune will not therein +maintain her own right. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +OF CONSCIENCE + +The Sieur de la Brousse, my brother, and I, travelling one day together +during the time of our civil wars, met a gentleman of good sort. He was +of the contrary party, though I did not know so much, for he pretended +otherwise: and the mischief on't is, that in this sort of war the cards +are so shuffled, your enemy not being distinguished from yourself by any +apparent mark either of language or habit, and being nourished under the +same law, air, and manners, it is very hard to avoid disorder and +confusion. This made me afraid myself of meeting any of our troops in a +place where I was not known, that I might not be in fear to tell my name, +and peradventure of something worse; as it had befallen me before, where, +by such a mistake, I lost both men and horses, and amongst others an +Italian gentleman my page, whom I bred with the greatest care and +affection, was miserably slain, in whom a youth of great promise and +expectation was extinguished. But the gentleman my brother and I met +had so desperate, half-dead a fear upon him at meeting with any horse, +or passing by any of the towns that held for the King, that I at last +discovered it to be alarms of conscience. It seemed to the poor man as +if through his visor and the crosses upon his cassock, one would have +penetrated into his bosom and read the most secret intentions of his +heart; so wonderful is the power of conscience. It makes us betray, +accuse, and fight against ourselves, and for want of other witnesses, to +give evidence against ourselves: + + "Occultum quatiens animo tortore flagellum." + + ["The torturer of the soul brandishing a sharp scourge within." + --Juvenal, iii. 195.] + +This story is in every child's mouth: Bessus the Paeonian, being +reproached for wantonly pulling down a nest of young sparrows and killing +them, replied, that he had reason to do so, seeing that those little +birds never ceased falsely to accuse him of the murder of his father. +This parricide had till then been concealed and unknown, but the +revenging fury of conscience caused it to be discovered by him himself, +who was to suffer for it. Hesiod corrects the saying of Plato, that +punishment closely follows sin, it being, as he says, born at the same +time with it. Whoever expects punishment already suffers it, and whoever +has deserved it expects it. Wickedness contrives torments against +itself: + + "Malum consilium consultori pessimum." + + ["Ill designs are worst to the contriver." + --Apud Aul. Gellium, iv. 5.] + +as the wasp stings and hurts another, but most of all itself, for it +there loses its sting and its use for ever, + + "Vitasque in vulnere ponunt." + + ["And leave their own lives in the wound." + --Virgil, Geo., iv. 238.] + +Cantharides have somewhere about them, by a contrariety of nature, a +counterpoison against their poison. In like manner, at the same time +that men take delight in vice, there springs in the conscience a +displeasure that afflicts us sleeping and waking with various tormenting +imaginations: + + "Quippe ubi se multi, per somnia saepe loquentes, + Aut morbo delirantes, protraxe ferantur, + Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse." + + ["Surely where many, often talking in their sleep, or raving in + disease, are said to have betrayed themselves, and to have given + publicity to offences long concealed."--Lucretius, v. 1157.] + +Apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the Scythians and +afterwards boiled in a cauldron, and that his heart muttered these words +"I am the cause of all these mischiefs that have befallen thee." +Epicurus said that no hiding-hole could conceal the wicked, since they +could never assure themselves of being hid whilst their conscience +discovered them to themselves. + + "Prima est haec ultio, quod se + Judice nemo nocens absohitur." + + ["Tis the first punishment of sin that no man absolves himself." or: + "This is the highest revenge, that by its judgment no offender is + absolved."--Juvenal, xiii. 2.] + +As an ill conscience fills us with fear, so a good one gives us greater +confidence and assurance; and I can truly say that I have gone through +several hazards with a more steady pace in consideration of the secret +knowledge I had of my own will and the innocence of my intentions: + + "Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra + Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo." + + ["As a man's conscience is, so within hope or fear prevails, suiting + to his design."--Ovid, Fast., i. 485.] + +Of this are a thousand examples; but it will be enough to instance three +of one and the same person. Scipio, being one day accused before the +people of Rome of some crimes of a very high nature, instead of excusing +himself or flattering his judges: "It will become you well," said he, +"to sit in judgment upon a head, by whose means you have the power to +judge all the world." Another time, all the answer he gave to several +impeachments brought against him by a tribune of the people, instead of +making his defence: "Let us go, citizens," said he, "let us go render +thanks to the gods for the victory they gave me over the Carthaginians as +this day," and advancing himself before towards the Temple, he had +presently all the assembly and his very accuser himself following at his +heels. And Petilius, having been set on by Cato to demand an account of +the money that had passed through his hands in the province of Antioch, +Scipio being come into the senate to that purpose, produced a book from +under his robe, wherein he told them was an exact account of his receipts +and disbursements; but being required to deliver it to the prothonotary +to be examined, he refused, saying, he would not do himself so great a +disgrace; and in the presence of the whole senate tore the book with his +own hands to pieces. I do not believe that the most seared conscience +could have counterfeited so great an assurance. He had naturally too +high a spirit and was accustomed to too high a fortune, says Titius +Livius, to know how to be criminal, and to lower himself to the meanness +of defending his innocence. The putting men to the rack is a dangerous +invention, and seems to be rather a trial of patience than of truth. +Both he who has the fortitude to endure it conceals the truth, and he who +has not: for why should pain sooner make me confess what really is, than +force me to say what is not? And, on the contrary, if he who is not +guilty of that whereof he is accused, has the courage to undergo those +torments, why should not he who is guilty have the same, so fair a reward +as life being in his prospect? I believe the ground of this invention +proceeds from the consideration of the force of conscience: for, to the +guilty, it seems to assist the rack to make him confess his fault and to +shake his resolution; and, on the other side, that it fortifies the +innocent against the torture. But when all is done, 'tis, in plain +truth, a trial full of uncertainty and danger what would not a man say, +what would not a man do, to avoid so intolerable torments? + + "Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor." + + ["Pain will make even the innocent lie."--Publius Syrus, De Dolore.] + +Whence it comes to pass, that him whom the judge has racked that he may +not die innocent, he makes him die both innocent and racked. A thousand +and a thousand have charged their own heads by false confessions, amongst +whom I place Philotas, considering the circumstances of the trial +Alexander put upon him and the progress of his torture. But so it is +that some say it is the least evil human weakness could invent; very +inhumanly, notwithstanding, and to very little purpose, in my opinion. + +Many nations less barbarous in this than the Greeks and Romans who call +them so, repute it horrible and cruel to torment and pull a man to pieces +for a fault of which they are yet in doubt. How can he help your +ignorance? Are not you unjust, that, not to kill him without cause, do +worse than kill him? And that this is so, do but observe how often men +prefer to die without reason than undergo this examination, more painful +than execution itself; and that oft-times by its extremity anticipates +execution, and perform it. I know not where I had this story, but it +exactly matches the conscience of our justice in this particular. A +country-woman, to a general of a very severe discipline, accused one of +his soldiers that he had taken from her children the little soup meat she +had left to nourish them withal, the army having consumed all the rest; +but of this proof there was none. The general, after having cautioned +the woman to take good heed to what she said, for that she would make +herself guilty of a false accusation if she told a lie, and she +persisting, he presently caused the soldier's belly to be ripped up to +clear the truth of the fact, and the woman was found to be right. An +instructive sentence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +USE MAKES PERFECT + +'Tis not to be expected that argument and instruction, though we never so +voluntarily surrender our belief to what is read to us, should be of +force to lead us on so far as to action, if we do not, over and above, +exercise and form the soul by experience to the course for which we +design it; it will, otherwise, doubtless find itself at a loss when it +comes to the pinch of the business. This is the reason why those amongst +the philosophers who were ambitious to attain to a greater excellence, +were not contented to await the severities of fortune in the retirement +and repose of their own habitations, lest he should have surprised them +raw and inexpert in the combat, but sallied out to meet her, and +purposely threw themselves into the proof of difficulties. Some of them +abandoned riches to exercise themselves in a voluntary poverty; others +sought out labour and an austerity of life, to inure them to hardships +and inconveniences; others have deprived themselves of their dearest +members, as of sight, and of the instruments of generation, lest their +too delightful and effeminate service should soften and debauch the +stability of their souls. + +But in dying, which is the greatest work we have to do, practice can give +us no assistance at all. A man may by custom fortify himself against +pain, shame, necessity, and such-like accidents, but as to death, we can +experiment it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it. +There have, anciently, been men so excellent managers of their time that +they have tried even in death itself to relish and taste it, and who have +bent their utmost faculties of mind to discover what this passage is, but +they are none of them come back to tell us the news: + + "Nemo expergitus exstat, + Frigida quern semel est vitai pausa sequuta." + + ["No one wakes who has once fallen into the cold sleep of death." + --Lucretius, iii. 942] + +Julius Canus, a noble Roman, of singular constancy and virtue, having +been condemned to die by that worthless fellow Caligula, besides many +marvellous testimonies that he gave of his resolution, as he was just +going to receive the stroke of the executioner, was asked by a +philosopher, a friend of his: "Well, Canus, whereabout is your soul now? +what is she doing? What are you thinking of?"--"I was thinking," replied +the other, "to keep myself ready, and the faculties of my mind full +settled and fixed, to try if in this short and quick instant of death, I +could perceive the motion of the soul when she parts from the body, and +whether she has any sentiment at the separation, that I may after come +again if I can, to acquaint my friends with it." This man philosophises +not unto death only, but in death itself. What a strange assurance was +this, and what bravery of courage, to desire his death should be a lesson +to him, and to have leisure to think of other things in so great an +affair: + + "Jus hoc animi morientis habebat." + + ["This mighty power of mind he had dying."-Lucan, viii. 636.] + +And yet I fancy, there is a certain way of making it familiar to us, and +in some sort of making trial what it is. We may gain experience, if not +entire and perfect, yet such, at least, as shall not be totally useless +to us, and that may render us more confident and more assured. If we +cannot overtake it, we may approach it and view it, and if we do not +advance so far as the fort, we may at least discover and make ourselves +acquainted with the avenues. It is not without reason that we are taught +to consider sleep as a resemblance of death: with how great facility do +we pass from waking to sleeping, and with how little concern do we lose +the knowledge of light and of ourselves. Peradventure, the faculty of +sleeping would seem useless and contrary to nature, since it deprives us +of all action and sentiment, were it not that by it nature instructs us +that she has equally made us to die as to live; and in life presents to +us the eternal state she reserves for us after it, to accustom us to it +and to take from us the fear of it. But such as have by violent accident +fallen into a swoon, and in it have lost all sense, these, methinks, have +been very near seeing the true and natural face of death; for as to the +moment of the passage, it is not to be feared that it brings with it any +pain or displeasure, forasmuch as we can have no feeling without leisure; +our sufferings require time, which in death is so short, and so +precipitous, that it must necessarily be insensible. They are the +approaches that we are to fear, and these may fall within the limits of +experience. + +Many things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect; I have +passed a good part of my life in a perfect and entire health; I say, not +only entire, but, moreover, sprightly and wanton. This state, so full of +verdure, jollity, and vigour, made the consideration of sickness so +formidable to me, that when I came to experience it, I found the attacks +faint and easy in comparison with what I had apprehended. Of this I have +daily experience; if I am under the shelter of a warm room, in a stormy +and tempestuous night, I wonder how people can live abroad, and am +afflicted for those who are out in the fields: if I am there myself, I do +not wish to be anywhere else. This one thing of being always shut up in +a chamber I fancied insupportable: but I was presently inured to be so +imprisoned a week, nay a month together, in a very weak, disordered, and +sad condition; and I have found that, in the time of my health, I much +more pitied the sick, than I think myself to be pitied when I am so, and +that the force of my imagination enhances near one-half of the essence +and reality of the thing. I hope that when I come to die I shall find it +the same, and that, after all, it is not worth the pains I take, so much +preparation and so much assistance as I call in, to undergo the stroke. +But, at all events, we cannot give ourselves too much advantage. + +In the time of our third or second troubles (I do not well remember +which), going one day abroad to take the air, about a league from my own +house, which is seated in the very centre of all the bustle and mischief +of the late civil wars in France; thinking myself in all security and so +near to my retreat that I stood in need of no better equipage, I had +taken a horse that went very easy upon his pace, but was not very strong. +Being upon my return home, a sudden occasion falling out to make use of +this horse in a kind of service that he was not accustomed to, one of my +train, a lusty, tall fellow, mounted upon a strong German horse, that had +a very ill mouth, fresh and vigorous, to play the brave and set on ahead +of his fellows, comes thundering full speed in the very track where I +was, rushing like a Colossus upon the little man and the little horse, +with such a career of strength and weight, that he turned us both over +and over, topsy-turvy with our heels in the air: so that there lay the +horse overthrown and stunned with the fall, and I ten or twelve paces +from him stretched out at length, with my face all battered and broken, +my sword which I had had in my hand, above ten paces beyond that, and my +belt broken all to pieces, without motion or sense any more than a stock. +'Twas the only swoon I was ever in till that hour in my life. Those who +were with me, after having used all the means they could to bring me to +myself, concluding me dead, took me up in their arms, and carried me with +very much difficulty home to my house, which was about half a French +league from thence. On the way, having been for more than two hours +given over for a dead man, I began to move and to fetch my breath; for so +great abundance of blood was fallen into my stomach, that nature had need +to rouse her forces to discharge it. They then raised me upon my feet, +where I threw off a whole bucket of clots of blood, as this I did also +several times by the way. This gave me so much ease, that I began to +recover a little life, but so leisurely and by so small advances, that my +first sentiments were much nearer the approaches of death than life: + + "Perche, dubbiosa ancor del suo ritorno, + Non s'assicura attonita la mente." + + ["For the soul, doubtful as to its return, could not compose itself" + --Tasso, Gierus. Lib., xii. 74.] + +The remembrance of this accident, which is very well imprinted in my +memory, so naturally representing to me the image and idea of death, has +in some sort reconciled me to that untoward adventure. When I first +began to open my eyes, it was with so perplexed, so weak and dead a +sight, that I could yet distinguish nothing but only discern the light: + + "Come quel ch'or apre, or'chiude + Gli occhi, mezzo tra'l sonno e l'esser desto." + + ["As a man that now opens, now shuts his eyes, between sleep + and waking."--Tasso, Gierus. Lib., viii., 26.] + +As to the functions of the soul, they advanced with the same pace and +measure with those of the body. I saw myself all bloody, my doublet +being stained all over with the blood I had vomited. The first thought +that came into my mind was that I had a harquebuss shot in my head, and +indeed, at the time there were a great many fired round about us. +Methought my life but just hung upon my, lips: and I shut my eyes, to +help, methought, to thrust it out, and took a pleasure in languishing and +letting myself go. It was an imagination that only superficially floated +upon my soul, as tender and weak as all the rest, but really, not only +exempt from anything displeasing, but mixed with that sweetness that +people feel when they glide into a slumber. + +I believe it is the very same condition those people are in, whom we see +swoon with weakness in the agony of death we pity them without cause, +supposing them agitated with grievous dolours, or that their souls suffer +under painful thoughts. It has ever been my belief, contrary to the +opinion of many, and particularly of La Boetie, that those whom we see so +subdued and stupefied at the approaches of their end, or oppressed with +the length of the disease, or by accident of an apoplexy or falling +sickness, + + "Vi morbi saepe coactus + Ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu, + Concidit, et spumas agit; ingemit, et tremit artus; + Desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat, + Inconstanter, et in jactando membra fatigat;" + + ["Often, compelled by the force of disease, some one as + thunderstruck falls under our eyes, and foams, groans, and trembles, + stretches, twists, breathes irregularly, and in paroxysms wears out + his strength."--Lucretius, iii. 485.] + +or hurt in the head, whom we hear to mutter, and by fits to utter +grievous groans; though we gather from these signs by which it seems as +if they had some remains of consciousness, and that there are movements +of the body; I have always believed, I say, both the body and the soul +benumbed and asleep, + + "Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse suae," + + ["He lives, and does not know that he is alive." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 12.] + +and could not believe that in so great a stupefaction of the members and +so great a defection of the senses, the soul could maintain any force +within to take cognisance of herself, and that, therefore, they had no +tormenting reflections to make them consider and be sensible of the +misery of their condition, and consequently were not much to be pitied. + +I can, for my part, think of no state so insupportable and dreadful, as +to have the soul vivid and afflicted, without means to declare itself; as +one should say of such as are sent to execution with their tongues first +cut out (were it not that in this kind of dying, the most silent seems to +me the most graceful, if accompanied with a grave and constant +countenance); or if those miserable prisoners, who fall into the hands of +the base hangman soldiers of this age, by whom they are tormented with +all sorts of inhuman usage to compel them to some excessive and +impossible ransom; kept, in the meantime, in such condition and place, +where they have no means of expressing or signifying their thoughts and +their misery. The poets have feigned some gods who favour the +deliverance of such as suffer under a languishing death: + + "Hunc ego Diti + Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo." + + ["I bidden offer this sacred thing to Pluto, and from that body + dismiss thee."--AEneid, iv. 782.] + +both the interrupted words, and the short and irregular answers one gets +from them sometimes, by bawling and keeping a clutter about them; or the +motions which seem to yield some consent to what we would have them do, +are no testimony, nevertheless, that they live, an entire life at least. +So it happens to us in the yawning of sleep, before it has fully +possessed us, to perceive, as in a dream, what is done about us, and to +follow the last things that are said with a perplexed and uncertain +hearing which seems but to touch upon the borders of the soul; and to +make answers to the last words that have been spoken to us, which have +more in them of chance than sense. + +Now seeing I have in effect tried it, I have no doubt but I have hitherto +made a right judgment; for first, being in a swoon, I laboured to rip +open the buttons of my doublet with my nails, for my sword was gone; and +yet I felt nothing in my imagination that hurt me; for we have many +motions in us that do not proceed from our direction; + + "Semianimesque micant digiti, ferrumque retractant;" + + ["Half-dead fingers grope about, and grasp again the sword." + --AEneid, x. 396.] + +so falling people extend their arms before them by a natural impulse, +which prompts our limbs to offices and motions without any commission +from our reason. + + "Falciferos memorant currus abscindere membra . . . + Ut tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod + Decidit abscissum; cum mens tamen atque hominis vis + Mobilitate mali, non quit sentire dolorem." + + ["They relate that scythe-bearing chariots mow off limbs, so that + they quiver on the ground; and yet the mind of him from whom the + limb is taken by the swiftness of the blow feels no pain." + --Lucretius, iii. 642.] + +My stomach was so oppressed with the coagulated blood, that my hands +moved to that part, of their own voluntary motion, as they frequently do +to the part that itches, without being directed by our will. There are +several animals, and even men, in whom one may perceive the muscles to +stir and tremble after they are dead. Every one experimentally knows +that there are some members which grow stiff and flag without his leave. +Now, those passions which only touch the outward bark of us, cannot be +said to be ours: to make them so, there must be a concurrence of the +whole man; and the pains which are felt by the hand or the foot while +we are sleeping, are none of ours. + +As I drew near my own house, where the alarm of my fall was already got +before me, and my family were come out to meet me, with the hubbub usual +in such cases, not only did I make some little answer to some questions +which were asked me; but they moreover tell me, that I was sufficiently +collected to order them to bring a horse to my wife whom on the road, +I saw struggling and tiring herself which is hilly and rugged. This +should seem to proceed from a soul its functions; but it was nothing so +with me. I knew not what I said or did, and they were nothing but idle +thoughts in the clouds, that were stirred up by the senses of the eyes +and ears, and proceeded not from me. I knew not for all that, whence I +came or whither I went, neither was I capable to weigh and consider what +was said to me: these were light effects, that the senses produced of +themselves as of custom; what the soul contributed was in a dream, +lightly touched, licked and bedewed by the soft impression of the senses. +Notwithstanding, my condition was, in truth, very easy and quiet; I had +no affliction upon me, either for others or myself; it was an extreme +languor and weakness, without any manner of pain. I saw my own house, +but knew it not. When they had put me to bed I found an inexpressible +sweetness in that repose; for I had been desperately tugged and lugged by +those poor people who had taken the pains to carry me upon their arms a +very great and a very rough way, and had in so doing all quite tired out +themselves, twice or thrice one after another. They offered me several +remedies, but I would take none, certainly believing that I was mortally +wounded in the head. And, in earnest, it had been a very happy death, +for the weakness of my understanding deprived me of the faculty of +discerning, and that of my body of the sense of feeling; I was suffering +myself to glide away so sweetly and after so soft and easy a manner, that +I scarce find any other action less troublesome than that was. But when +I came again to myself and to resume my faculties: + + "Ut tandem sensus convaluere mei," + + ["When at length my lost senses again returned." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 14.] + +which was two or three hours after, I felt myself on a sudden involved in +terrible pain, having my limbs battered and ground with my fall, and was. +so ill for two or three nights after, that I thought I was once more +dying again, but a more painful death, having concluded myself as good as +dead before, and to this hour am sensible of the bruises of that terrible +shock. I will not here omit, that the last thing I could make them beat +into my head, was the memory of this accident, and I had it over and over +again repeated to me, whither I was going, from whence I came, and at +what time of the day this mischance befell me, before I could comprehend +it. As to the manner of my fall, that was concealed from me in favour to +him who had been the occasion, and other flim-flams were invented. But a +long time after, and the very next day that my memory began to return and +to represent to me the state wherein I was, at the instant that I +perceived this horse coming full drive upon me (for I had seen him at my +heels, and gave myself for gone, but this thought had been so sudden, +that fear had had no leisure to introduce itself) it seemed to me like a +flash of lightning that had pierced my soul, and that I came from the +other world. + +This long story of so light an accident would appear vain enough, were it +not for the knowledge I have gained by it for my own use; for I do really +find, that to get acquainted with death, needs no more but nearly to +approach it. Every one, as Pliny says, is a good doctrine to himself, +provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand. Here, this +is not my doctrine, 'tis my study; and is not the lesson of another, but +my own; and if I communicate it, it ought not to be ill taken, for that +which is of use to me, may also, peradventure, be useful to another. As +to the rest, I spoil nothing, I make use of nothing but my own; and if I +play the fool, 'tis at my own expense, and nobody else is concerned in't; +for 'tis a folly that will die with me, and that no one is to inherit. +We hear but of two or three of the ancients, who have beaten this path, +and yet I cannot say if it was after this manner, knowing no more of them +but their names. No one since has followed the track: 'tis a rugged +road, more so than it seems, to follow a pace so rambling and uncertain, +as that of the soul; to penetrate the dark profundities of its intricate +internal windings; to choose and lay hold of so many little nimble +motions; 'tis a new and extraordinary undertaking, and that withdraws us +from the common and most recommended employments of the world. 'Tis now +many years since that my thoughts have had no other aim and level than +myself, and that I have only pried into and studied myself: or, if I +study any other thing, 'tis to apply it to or rather in myself. And yet +I do not think it a fault, if, as others do by other much less profitable +sciences, I communicate what I have learned in this, though I am not very +well pleased with my own progress. There is no description so difficult, +nor doubtless of so great utility, as that of a man's self: and withal, a +man must curl his hair and set out and adjust himself, to appear in +public: now I am perpetually tricking myself out, for I am eternally upon +my own description. Custom has made all speaking of a man's self +vicious, and positively interdicts it, in hatred to the boasting that +seems inseparable from the testimony men give of themselves: + + "In vitium ducit culpae fuga." + + ["The avoiding a mere fault often leads us into a greater." + Or: "The escape from a fault leads into a vice" + --Horace, De Arte Poetics, verse 31.] + +Instead of blowing the child's nose, this is to take his nose off +altogether. I think the remedy worse than the disease. But, allowing it +to be true that it must of necessity be presumption to entertain people +with discourses of one's self, I ought not, pursuing my general design, +to forbear an action that publishes this infirmity of mine, nor conceal +the fault which I not only practise but profess. Notwithstanding, to +speak my thought freely, I think that the custom of condemning wine, +because some people will be drunk, is itself to be condemned; a man +cannot abuse anything but what is good in itself; and I believe that this +rule has only regard to the popular vice. They are bits for calves, with +which neither the saints whom we hear speak so highly of themselves, nor +the philosophers, nor the divines will be curbed; neither will I, who am +as little the one as the other, If they do not write of it expressly, at +all events, when the occasions arise, they don't hesitate to put +themselves on the public highway. Of what does Socrates treat more +largely than of himself? To what does he more direct and address the +discourses of his disciples, than to speak of themselves, not of the +lesson in their book, but of the essence and motion of their souls? We +confess ourselves religiously to God and our confessor; as our +neighbours, do to all the people. But some will answer that we there +speak nothing but accusation against ourselves; why then, we say all; for +our very virtue itself is faulty and penetrable. My trade and art is to +live; he that forbids me to speak according to my own sense, experience, +and practice, may as well enjoin an architect not to speak of building +according to his own knowledge, but according to that of his neighbour; +according to the knowledge of another, and not according to his own. If +it be vainglory for a man to publish his own virtues, why does not Cicero +prefer the eloquence of Hortensius, and Hortensius that of Cicero? +Peradventure they mean that I should give testimony of myself by works +and effects, not barely by words. I chiefly paint my thoughts, a subject +void of form and incapable of operative production; 'tis all that I can +do to couch it in this airy body of the voice; the wisest and devoutest +men have lived in the greatest care to avoid all apparent effects. +Effects would more speak of fortune than of me; they manifest their own +office and not mine, but uncertainly and by conjecture; patterns of some +one particular virtue. I expose myself entire; 'tis a body where, at one +view, the veins, muscles, and tendons are apparent, every of them in its +proper place; here the effects of a cold; there of the heart beating, +very dubiously. I do not write my own acts, but myself and my essence. + +I am of opinion that a man must be very cautious how he values himself, +and equally conscientious to give a true report, be it better or worse, +impartially. If I thought myself perfectly good and wise, I would rattle +it out to some purpose. To speak less of one's self than what one really +is is folly, not modesty; and to take that for current pay which is under +a man's value is pusillanimity and cowardice, according to, Aristotle. +No virtue assists itself with falsehood; truth is never matter of error. +To speak more of one's self than is really true is not always mere +presumption; 'tis, moreover, very often folly; to, be immeasurably +pleased with what one is, and to fall into an indiscreet self-love, is in +my opinion the substance of this vice. The most sovereign remedy to cure +it, is to do quite contrary to what these people direct who, in +forbidding men to speak of themselves, consequently, at the same time, +interdict thinking of themselves too. Pride dwells in the thought; the +tongue can have but a very little share in it. + +They fancy that to think of one's self is to be delighted with one's +self; to frequent and converse with one's self, to be overindulgent; but +this excess springs only in those who take but a superficial view of +themselves, and dedicate their main inspection to their affairs; who call +it mere reverie and idleness to occupy one's self with one's self, and +the building one's self up a mere building of castles in the air; who +look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger. If any one be +in rapture with his own knowledge, looking only on those below him, let +him but turn his eye upward towards past ages, and his pride will be +abated, when he shall there find so many thousand wits that trample him +under foot. If he enter into a flattering presumption of his personal +valour, let him but recollect the lives of Scipio, Epaminondas; so many +armies, so many nations, that leave him so far behind them. No +particular quality can make any man proud, that will at the same time put +the many other weak and imperfect ones he has in the other scale, and the +nothingness of human condition to make up the weight. Because Socrates +had alone digested to purpose the precept of his god, "to know himself," +and by that study arrived at the perfection of setting himself at nought, +he only was reputed worthy the title of a sage. Whosoever shall so know +himself, let him boldly speak it out. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Addresses his voyage to no certain, port +All apprentices when we come to it (death) +Any one may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death +Business to-morrow +Condemning wine, because some people will be drunk +Conscience makes us betray, accuse, and fight against ourselves +Curiosity and of that eager passion for news +Delivered into our own custody the keys of life +Drunkeness a true and certain trial of every one's nature +I can more hardly believe a man's constancy than any virtue +"I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt +Improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair +It's madness to nourish infirmity +Let him be as wise as he will, after all he is but a man +Living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting. +Look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger +Lower himself to the meanness of defending his innocence +Much difference betwixt us and ourselves +No alcohol the night on which a man intends to get children +No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness +Not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity +One door into life, but a hundred thousand ways out +Ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age +Shame for me to serve, being so near the reach of liberty +Speak less of one's self than what one really is is folly +Taught to consider sleep as a resemblance of death +The action is commendable, not the man +The most voluntary death is the finest +The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence +Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect +Thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain +Tis evil counsel that will admit no change +Torture: rather a trial of patience than of truth +We do not go, we are driven +What can they suffer who do not fear to die? +Whoever expects punishment already suffers it +Wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V9 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 10. + +VII. Of recompenses of honour. +VIII. Of the affection of fathers to their children. +IX. Of the arms of the Parthians. +X. Of books. +XI. Of cruelty. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF RECOMPENSES OF HONOUR + +They who write the life of Augustus Caesar,--[Suetonius, Life of +Augustus, c. 25.]--observe this in his military discipline, that he was +wonderfully liberal of gifts to men of merit, but that as to the true +recompenses of honour he was as sparing; yet he himself had been +gratified by his uncle with all the military recompenses before he had +ever been in the field. It was a pretty invention, and received into +most governments of the world, to institute certain vain and in +themselves valueless distinctions to honour and recompense virtue, such +as the crowns of laurel, oak, and myrtle, the particular fashion of some +garment, the privilege to ride in a coach in the city, or at night with a +torch, some peculiar place assigned in public assemblies, the prerogative +of certain additional names and titles, certain distinctions in the +bearing of coats of arms, and the like, the use of which, according to +the several humours of nations, has been variously received, and yet +continues. + +We in France, as also several of our neighbours, have orders of +knighthood that are instituted only for this end. And 'tis, in earnest, +a very good and profitable custom to find out an acknowledgment for the +worth of rare and excellent men, and to satisfy them with rewards that +are not at all chargeable either to prince or people. And that which has +always been found by ancient experience, and which we have heretofore +observed among ourselves, that men of quality have ever been more jealous +of such recompenses than of those wherein there was gain and profit, is +not without very good ground and reason. If with the reward, which ought +to be simply a recompense of honour, they should mix other commodities +and add riches, this mixture, instead of procuring an increase of +estimation, would debase and abate it. The Order of St. Michael, which +has been so long in repute amongst us, had no greater commodity than that +it had no communication with any other commodity, which produced this +effect, that formerly there was no office or title whatever to which the +gentry pretended with so great desire and affection as they did to that; +no quality that carried with it more respect and grandeur, valour and +worth more willingly embracing and with greater ambition aspiring to a +recompense purely its own, and rather glorious than profitable. For, in +truth, other gifts have not so great a dignity of usage, by reason they +are laid out upon all sorts of occasions; with money a man pays the wages +of a servant, the diligence of a courier, dancing, vaulting, speaking, +and the meanest offices we receive; nay, and reward vice with it too, as +flattery, treachery, and pimping; and therefore 'tis no wonder if virtue +less desires and less willingly receives this common sort of payment, +than that which is proper and peculiar to her, throughout generous and +noble. Augustus had reason to be more sparing of this than the other, +insomuch that honour is a privilege which derives its principal essence +from rarity; and so virtue itself: + + "Cui malus est nemo, quis bonus esse potest?" + + ["To whom no one is ill who can be good?"-Martial, xii. 82.] + +We do not intend it for a commendation when we say that such a one is +careful in the education of his children, by reason it is a common act, +how just and well done soever; no more than we commend a great tree, +where the whole forest is the same. I do not think that any citizen of +Sparta glorified himself much upon his valour, it being the universal +virtue of the whole nation; and as little upon his fidelity and contempt +of riches. There is no recompense becomes virtue, how great soever, that +is once passed into a custom; and I know not withal whether we can ever +call it great, being common. + +Seeing, then, that these remunerations of honour have no other value and +estimation but only this, that few people enjoy them, 'tis but to be +liberal of them to bring them down to nothing. And though there should +be now more men found than in former times worthy of our order, the +estimation of it nevertheless should not be abated, nor the honour made +cheap; and it may easily happen that more may merit it; for there is no +virtue that so easily spreads as that of military valour. There is +another virtue, true, perfect, and philosophical, of which I do not +speak, and only make use of the word in our common acceptation, much +greater than this and more full, which is a force and assurance of the +soul, equally despising all sorts of adverse accidents, equable, uniform, +and constant, of which ours is no more than one little ray. Use, +education, example, and custom can do all in all to the establishment of +that whereof I am speaking, and with great facility render it common, as +by the experience of our civil wars is manifest enough; and whoever could +at this time unite us all, Catholic and Huguenot, into one body, and set +us upon some brave common enterprise, we should again make our ancient +military reputation flourish. It is most certain that in times past the +recompense of this order had not only a regard to valour, but had a +further prospect; it never was the reward of a valiant soldier but of a +great captain; the science of obeying was not reputed worthy of so +honourable a guerdon. There was therein a more universal military +expertness required, and that comprehended the most and the greatest +qualities of a military man: + + "Neque enim eaedem militares et imperatorix artes sunt," + + ["For the arts of soldiery and generalship are not the same." + --Livy, xxv. 19.] + +as also, besides, a condition suitable to such a dignity. But, I say, +though more men were worthy than formerly, yet ought it not to be more +liberally distributed, and it were better to fall short in not giving it +at all to whom it should be due, than for ever to lose, as we have lately +done, the fruit of so profitable an invention. No man of spirit will +deign to advantage himself with what is in common with many; and such of +the present time as have least merited this recompense themselves make +the greater show of disdaining it, in order thereby to be ranked with +those to whom so much wrong has been done by the unworthy conferring and +debasing the distinction which was their particular right. + +Now, to expect that in obliterating and abolishing this, suddenly to +create and bring into credit a like institution, is not a proper attempt +for so licentious and so sick a time as this wherein we now are; and it +will fall out that the last will from its birth incur the same +inconveniences that have ruined the other.--[Montaigne refers to the +Order of the Saint-Esprit, instituted by Henry III. in 1578.]--The +rules for dispensing this new order had need to be extremely clipt and +bound under great restrictions, to give it authority; and this tumultuous +season is incapable of such a curb: besides that, before this can be +brought into repute, 'tis necessary that the memory of the first, and of +the contempt into which it is fallen, be buried in oblivion. + +This place might naturally enough admit of some discourse upon the +consideration of valour, and the difference of this virtue from others; +but, Plutarch having so often handled this subject, I should give myself +an unnecessary trouble to repeat what he has said. But this is worth +considering: that our nation places valour, vaillance, in the highest +degree of virtue, as its very word evidences, being derived from valeur, +and that, according to our use, when we say a man of high worth a good +man, in our court style--'tis to say a valiant man, after the Roman way; +for the general appellation of virtue with them takes etymology from vis, +force. The proper, sole, and essential profession of, the French +noblesse is that of arms: and 'tis likely that the first virtue that +discovered itself amongst men and has given to some advantage over +others, was that by which the strongest and most valiant have mastered +the weaker, and acquired a particular authority and reputation, whence +came to it that dignified appellation; or else, that these nations, being +very warlike, gave the pre-eminence to that of the virtues which was most +familiar to them; just as our passion and the feverish solicitude we have +of the chastity of women occasions that to say, a good woman, a woman of +worth, a woman of honour and virtue, signifies merely a chaste woman as +if, to oblige them to that one duty, we were indifferent as to all the +rest, and gave them the reins in all other faults whatever to compound +for that one of incontinence. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OF THE AFFECTION OF FATHERS TO THEIR CHILDREN + +To Madame D'Estissac. + +MADAM, if the strangeness and novelty of my subject, which are wont to +give value to things, do not save me, I shall never come off with honour +from this foolish attempt: but 'tis so fantastic, and carries a face so +unlike the common use, that this, peradventure, may make it pass. 'Tis a +melancholic humour, and consequently a humour very much an enemy to my +natural complexion, engendered by the pensiveness of the solitude into +which for some years past I have retired myself, that first put into +my head this idle fancy of writing. Wherein, finding myself totally +unprovided and empty of other matter, I presented myself to myself for +argument and subject. 'Tis the only book in the world of its kind, and +of a wild and extravagant design. There is nothing worth remark in this +affair but that extravagancy: for in a subject so vain and frivolous, the +best workman in the world could not have given it a form fit to recommend +it to any manner of esteem. + +Now, madam, having to draw my own picture to the life, I had omitted one +important feature, had I not therein represented the honour I have ever +had for you and your merits; which I have purposely chosen to say in the +beginning of this chapter, by reason that amongst the many other +excellent qualities you are mistress of, that of the tender love you have +manifested to your children, is seated in one of the highest places. +Whoever knows at what age Monsieur D'Estissac, your husband, left you a +widow, the great and honourable matches that have since been offered to +you, as many as to any lady of your condition in France, the constancy +and steadiness wherewith, for so many years, you have sustained so many +sharp difficulties, the burden and conduct of affairs, which have +persecuted you in every corner of the kingdom, and are not yet weary of +tormenting you, and the happy direction you have given to all these, by +your sole prudence or good fortune, will easily conclude with me that we +have not so vivid an example as yours of maternal affection in our times. +I praise God, madam, that it has been so well employed; for the great +hopes Monsieur D'Estissac, your son, gives of himself, render sufficient +assurance that when he comes of age you will reap from him all the +obedience and gratitude of a very good man. But, forasmuch as by reason +of his tender years, he has not been capable of taking notice of those +offices of extremest value he has in so great number received from you, +I will, if these papers shall one day happen to fall into his hands, when +I shall neither have mouth nor speech left to deliver it to him, that he +shall receive from me a true account of those things, which shall be more +effectually manifested to him by their own effects, by which he will +understand that there is not a gentleman in France who stands more +indebted to a mother's care; and that he cannot, in the future, give a +better nor more certain testimony of his own worth and virtue than by +acknowledging you for that excellent mother you are. + +If there be any law truly natural, that is to say, any instinct that is +seen universally and perpetually imprinted in both beasts and men (which +is not without controversy), I can say, that in my opinion, next to the +care every animal has of its own preservation, and to avoid that which +may hurt him, the affection that the begetter bears to his offspring +holds the second place in this rank. And seeing that nature appears to +have recommended it to us, having regard to the extension and progression +of the successive pieces of this machine of hers, 'tis no wonder if, on +the contrary, that of children towards their parents is not so great. +To which we may add this other Aristotelian consideration, that he who +confers a benefit on any one, loves him better than he is beloved by him +again: that he to whom is owing, loves better than he who owes; and that +every artificer is fonder of his work, than, if that work had sense, it +would be of him; by reason that it is dear to us to be, and to be +consists in movement and action; therefore every one has in some sort a +being in his work. He who confers a benefit exercises a fine and honest +action; he who receives it exercises the useful only. Now the useful is +much less lovable than the honest; the honest is stable and permanent, +supplying him who has done it with a continual gratification. The useful +loses itself, easily slides away, and the memory of it is neither so +fresh nor so pleasing. Those things are dearest to us that have cost us +most, and giving is more chargeable than receiving. + +Since it has pleased God to endue us with some capacity of reason, to the +end we may not, like brutes, be servilely subject and enslaved to the +laws common to both, but that we should by judgment and a voluntary +liberty apply ourselves to them, we ought, indeed, something to yield to +the simple authority of nature, but not suffer ourselves to be +tyrannically hurried away and transported by her; reason alone should +have the conduct of our inclinations. I, for my part, have a strange +disgust for those propensions that are started in us without the +mediation and direction of the judgment, as, upon the subject I am +speaking of, I cannot entertain that passion of dandling and caressing +infants scarcely born, having as yet neither motion of soul nor shape of +body distinguishable, by which they can render themselves amiable, and +have not willingly suffered them to be nursed near me. A true and +regular affection ought to spring and increase with the knowledge they +give us of themselves, and then, if they are worthy of it, the natural +propension walking hand in hand with reason, to cherish them with a truly +paternal love; and so to judge, also, if they be otherwise, still +rendering ourselves to reason, notwithstanding the inclination of nature. +'Tis oft-times quite otherwise; and, most commonly, we find ourselves +more taken with the running up and down, the games, and puerile +simplicities of our children, than we do, afterwards, with their most +complete actions; as if we had loved them for our sport, like monkeys, +and not as men; and some there are, who are very liberal in buying them +balls to play withal, who are very close-handed for the least necessary +expense when they come to age. Nay, it looks as if the jealousy of +seeing them appear in and enjoy the world when we are about to leave it, +rendered us more niggardly and stingy towards them; it vexes us that they +tread upon our heels, as if to solicit us to go out; if this were to be +feared, since the order of things will have it so that they cannot, to +speak the truth, be nor live, but at the expense of our being and life, +we should never meddle with being fathers at all. + +For my part, I think it cruelty and injustice not to receive them into +the share and society of our goods, and not to make them partakers in the +intelligence of our domestic affairs when they are capable, and not to +lessen and contract our own expenses to make the more room for theirs, +seeing we beget them to that effect. 'Tis unjust that an old fellow, +broken and half dead, should alone, in a corner of the chimney, enjoy the +money that would suffice for the maintenance and advancement of many +children, and suffer them, in the meantime, to lose their' best years for +want of means to advance themselves in the public service and the +knowledge of men. A man by this course drives them to despair, and to +seek out by any means, how unjust or dishonourable soever, to provide for +their own support: as I have, in my time, seen several young men of good +extraction so addicted to stealing, that no correction could cure them of +it. I know one of a very good family, to whom, at the request of a +brother of his, a very honest and brave gentleman, I once spoke on this +account, who made answer, and confessed to me roundly, that he had been +put upon this paltry practice by the severity and avarice of his father; +but that he was now so accustomed to it he could not leave it off. And, +at that very time, he was trapped stealing a lady's rings, having come +into her chamber, as she was dressing with several others. He put me in +mind of a story I had heard of another gentleman, so perfect and +accomplished in this fine trade in his youth, that, after he came to his +estate and resolved to give it over, he could not hold his hands, +nevertheless, if he passed by a shop where he saw anything he liked, from +catching it up, though it put him to the shame of sending afterwards to +pay for it. And I have myself seen several so habituated to this quality +that even amongst their comrades they could not forbear filching, though +with intent to restore what they had taken. I am a Gascon, and yet there +is no vice I so little understand as that; I hate it something more by +disposition than I condemn it by reason; I do not so much as desire +anything of another man's. This province of ours is, in plain truth, a +little more decried than the other parts of the kingdom; and yet we have +several times seen, in our times, men of good families of other +provinces, in the hands of justice, convicted of abominable thefts. I +fear this vice is, in some sort, to be attributed to the fore-mentioned +vice of the fathers. + +And if a man should tell me, as a lord of very good understanding once +did, that "he hoarded up wealth, not to extract any other fruit and use +from his parsimony, but to make himself honoured and sought after by his +relations; and that age having deprived him of all other power, it was +the only remaining remedy to maintain his authority in his family, and to +keep him from being neglected and despised by all around," in truth, not +only old age, but all other imbecility, according to Aristotle, is the +promoter of avarice; that is something, but it is physic for a disease +that a man should prevent the birth of. A father is very miserable who +has no other hold on his children's affection than the need they have of +his assistance, if that can be called affection; he must render himself +worthy to be respected by his virtue and wisdom, and beloved by his +kindness and the sweetness of his manners; even the very ashes of a rich +matter have their value; and we are wont to have the bones and relics of +worthy men in regard and reverence. No old age can be so decrepid in a +man who has passed his life in honour, but it must be venerable, +especially to his children, whose soul he must have trained up to their +duty by reason, not by necessity and the need they have of him, nor by +harshness and compulsion: + + "Et errat longe mea quidem sententia + Qui imperium credat esse gravius, aut stabilius, + Vi quod fit, quam illud, quod amicitia adjungitur." + + ["He wanders far from the truth, in my opinion, who thinks that + government more absolute and durable which is acquired by force than + that which is attached to friendship."--Terence, Adelph., i. I, 40.] + +I condemn all violence in the education of a tender soul that is designed +for honour and liberty. There is I know not what of servile in rigour +and constraint; and I am of opinion that what is not to be done by +reason, prudence, and address, is never to be affected by force. I +myself was brought up after that manner; and they tell me that in all my +first age I never felt the rod but twice, and then very slightly. I +practised the same method with my children, who all of them died at +nurse, except Leonora, my only daughter, and who arrived to the age of +five years and upward without other correction for her childish faults +(her mother's indulgence easily concurring) than words only, and those +very gentle; in which kind of proceeding, though my end and expectation +should be both frustrated, there are other causes enough to lay the fault +on without blaming my discipline, which I know to be natural and just, +and I should, in this, have yet been more religious towards the males, as +less born to subjection and more free; and I should have made it my +business to fill their hearts with ingenuousness and freedom. I have +never observed other effects of whipping than to render boys more +cowardly, or more wilfully obstinate. + +Do we desire to be beloved of our children? Will we remove from them all +occasion of wishing our death though no occasion of so horrid a wish can +either be just or excusable? + + "Nullum scelus rationem habet." + + ["No wickedness has reason."--Livy, xxviii. 28] + +Let us reasonably accommodate their lives with what is in our power. In +order to this, we should not marry so young that our age shall in a +manner be confounded with theirs; for this inconvenience plunges us into +many very great difficulties, and especially the gentry of the nation, +who are of a condition wherein they have little to do, and who live upon +their rents only: for elsewhere, with people who live by their labour, +the plurality and company of children is an increase to the common stock; +they are so many new tools and instruments wherewith to grow rich. + +I married at three-and-thirty years of age, and concur in the opinion of +thirty-five, which is said to be that of Aristotle. Plato will have +nobody marry before thirty; but he has reason to laugh at those who +undertook the work of marriage after five-and-fifty, and condemns their +offspring as unworthy of aliment and life. Thales gave the truest +limits, who, young and being importuned by his mother to marry, answered, +"That it was too soon," and, being grown into years and urged again, +"That it was too late." A man must deny opportunity to every inopportune +action. The ancient Gauls' looked upon it as a very horrid thing for a +man to have society with a woman before he was twenty years of age, and +strictly recommended to the men who designed themselves for war the +keeping their virginity till well grown in years, forasmuch as courage is +abated and diverted by intercourse with women: + + "Ma, or congiunto a giovinetta sposa, + E lieto omai de' figli, era invilito + Negli affetti di padre et di marito." + + ["Now, married to a young wife and happy in children, he was + demoralised by his love as father and husband." + --Tasso, Gierus., x. 39.] + +Muley Hassam, king of Tunis, he whom the Emperor Charles V. restored to +his kingdom, reproached the memory of his father Mahomet with the +frequentation of women, styling him loose, effeminate, and a getter of +children.--[Of whom he had thirty-four.]--The Greek history observes of +Iccus the Tarentine, of Chryso, Astyllus, Diopompos, and others, that to +keep their bodies in order for the Olympic games and such like exercises, +they denied themselves during that preparation all commerce with Venus. +In a certain country of the Spanish Indies men were not permitted to +marry till after forty age, and yet the girls were allowed at ten. +'Tis not time for a gentleman of thirty years old to give place to his +son who is twenty; he is himself in a condition to serve both in the +expeditions of war and in the court of his prince; has need of all his +appurtenances; and yet, doubtless, he ought to surrender a share, but not +so great an one as to forget himself for others; and for such an one the +answer that fathers have ordinarily in their mouths, "I will not put off +my clothes, before I go to bed," serves well. + +But a father worn out with age and infirmities, and deprived by weakness +and want of health of the common society of men, wrongs himself and his +to amass a great heap of treasure. He has lived long enough, if he be +wise, to have a mind to strip himself to go to bed, not to his very +shirt, I confess, but to that and a good, warm dressing-gown; the +remaining pomps, of which he has no further use, he ought voluntarily to +surrender to those, to whom by the order of nature they belong. 'Tis +reason he should refer the use of those things to them, seeing that +nature has reduced him to such a state that he cannot enjoy them himself; +otherwise there is doubtless malice and envy in the case. The greatest +act of the Emperor Charles V. was that when, in imitation of some of the +ancients of his own quality, confessing it but reason to strip ourselves +when our clothes encumber and grow too heavy for us, and to lie down when +our legs begin to fail us, he resigned his possessions, grandeur, and +power to his son, when he found himself failing in vigour, and steadiness +for the conduct of his affairs suitable with the glory he had therein +acquired: + + "Solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne + Peccet ad extremum ridendus, et ilia ducat." + + ["Dismiss the old horse in good time, lest, failing in the lists, + the spectators laugh."--Horace, Epist., i., I, 8.] + +This fault of not perceiving betimes and of not being sensible of the +feebleness and extreme alteration that age naturally brings both upon +body and mind, which, in my opinion, is equal, if indeed the soul has not +more than half, has lost the reputation of most of the great men in the +world. I have known in my time, and been intimately acquainted with +persons of great authority, whom one might easily discern marvellously +lapsed from the sufficiency I knew they were once endued with, by the +reputation they had acquired in their former years, whom I could +heartily, for their own sakes, have wished at home at their ease, +discharged of their public or military employments, which were now grown +too heavy for their shoulders. I have formerly been very familiar in a +gentleman's house, a widower and very old, though healthy and cheerful +enough: this gentleman had several daughters to marry and a son already +of ripe age, which brought upon him many visitors, and a great expense, +neither of which well pleased him, not only out of consideration of +frugality, but yet more for having, by reason of his age, entered into a +course of life far differing from ours. I told him one day a little +boldly, as I used to do, that he would do better to give us younger folk +room, and to leave his principal house (for he had but that well placed +and furnished) to his son, and himself retire to an estate he had hard +by, where nobody would trouble his repose, seeing he could not otherwise +avoid being importuned by us, the condition of his children considered. +He took my advice afterwards, and found an advantage in so doing. + +I do not mean that a man should so instal them as not to reserve to +himself a liberty to retract; I, who am now arrived to the age wherein +such things are fit to be done, would resign to them the enjoyment of my +house and goods, but with a power of revocation if they should give me +cause to alter my mind; I would leave to them the use, that being no +longer convenient for me; and, of the general authority and power over +all, would reserve as much as--I thought good to myself; having always +held that it must needs be a great satisfaction to an aged father himself +to put his children into the way of governing his affairs, and to have +power during his own life to control their behaviour, supplying them with +instruction and advice from his own experience, and himself to transfer +the ancient honour and order of his house into the hands of those who are +to succeed him, and by that means to satisfy himself as to the hopes he +may conceive of their future conduct. And in order to this I would not +avoid their company; I would observe them near at hand, and partake, +according to the condition of my age, of their feasts and jollities. +If I did not live absolutely amongst them, which I could not do without +annoying them and their friends, by reason of the morosity of my age and +the restlessness of my infirmities, and without violating also the rules +and order of living I should then have set down to myself, I would, at +least, live near them in some retired part of my house, not the best in +show, but the most commodious. Nor as I saw some years ago, a dean of +St. Hilary of Poitiers given up to such a solitude, that at the time I +came into his chamber it had been two and twenty years that he had not +stepped one foot out of it, and yet had all his motions free and easy, +and was in good health, saving a cold that fell upon his lungs; he would, +hardly once in a week, suffer any one to come in to see him; he always +kept himself shut up in his chamber alone, except that a servant brought +him, once a day, something to eat, and did then but just come in and go +out again. His employment was to walk up and down, and read some book, +for he was a bit of a scholar; but, as to the rest, obstinately bent to +die in this retirement, as he soon after did. I would endeavour by +pleasant conversation to create in my children a warm and unfeigned +friendship and good-will towards me, which in well-descended natures is +not hard to do; for if they be furious brutes, of which this age of ours +produces thousands, we are then to hate and avoid them as such. + +I am angry at the custom of forbidding children to call their father by +the name of father, and to enjoin them another, as more full of respect +and reverence, as if nature had not sufficiently provided for our +authority. We call Almighty God Father, and disdain to have our children +call us so; I have reformed this error in my family.--[As did Henry IV. +of France]--And 'tis also folly and injustice to deprive children, when +grown up, of familiarity with their father, and to carry a scornful and +austere countenance toward them, thinking by that to keep them in awe and +obedience; for it is a very idle farce that, instead of producing the +effect designed, renders fathers distasteful, and, which is worse, +ridiculous to their own children. They have youth and vigour in +possession, and consequently the breath and favour of the world; and +therefore receive these fierce and tyrannical looks--mere scarecrows-- +of a man without blood, either in his heart or veins, with mockery and +contempt. Though I could make myself feared, I had yet much rather make +myself beloved: there are so many sorts of defects in old age, so much +imbecility, and it is so liable to contempt, that the best acquisition a +man can make is the kindness and affection of his own family; command and +fear are no longer his weapons. Such an one I have known who, having +been very imperious in his youth, when he came to be old, though he might +have lived at his full ease, would ever strike, rant, swear, and curse: +the most violent householder in France: fretting himself with unnecessary +suspicion and vigilance. And all this rumble and clutter but to make his +family cheat him the more; of his barn, his kitchen, cellar, nay, and his +very purse too, others had the greatest use and share, whilst he keeps +his keys in his pocket much more carefully than his eyes. Whilst he hugs +himself with the pitiful frugality of a niggard table, everything goes to +rack and ruin in every corner of his house, in play, drink, all sorts of +profusion, making sport in their junkets with his vain anger and +fruitless parsimony. Every one is a sentinel against him, and if, by +accident, any wretched fellow that serves him is of another humour, and +will not join with the rest, he is presently rendered suspected to him, +a bait that old age very easily bites at of itself. How often has this +gentleman boasted to me in how great awe he kept his family, and how +exact an obedience and reverence they paid him! How clearly he saw into +his own affairs! + + "Ille solos nescit omnia." + + ["He alone is ignorant of all that is passing." + --Terence, Adelph., iv. 2, 9.] + +I do not know any one that can muster more parts, both natural and +acquired, proper to maintain dominion, than he; yet he is fallen from it +like a child. For this reason it is that I have picked out him, amongst +several others that I know of the same humour, for the greatest example. +It were matter for a question in the schools, whether he is better thus +or otherwise. In his presence, all submit to and bow to him, and give so +much way to his vanity that nobody ever resists him; he has his fill of +assents, of seeming fear, submission, and respect. Does he turn away a +servant? he packs up his bundle, and is gone; but 'tis no further than +just out of his sight: the steps of old age are so slow, the senses so +troubled, that he will live and do his old office in the same house a +year together without being perceived. + +And after a fit interval of time, letters are pretended to come from a +great way off; very humble, suppliant; and full of promises of amendment, +by virtue of which he is again received into favour. Does Monsieur make +any bargain, or prepare any despatch that does not please? 'tis +suppressed, and causes afterwards forged to excuse the want of execution +in the one or answer in the other. No letters being first brought to +him, he never sees any but those that shall seem fit for his knowledge. +If by accident they fall first into his own hand, being used to trust +somebody to read them to him; he reads extempore what he thinks fit, and +often makes such a one ask him pardon who abuses and rails at him in his +letter. In short, he sees nothing, but by an image prepared and designed +beforehand and the most satisfactory they can invent, not to rouse and +awaken his ill humour and choler. I have seen, under various aspects, +enough of these modes of domestic government, long-enduring, constant, to +the like effect. + +Women are evermore addicted to cross their husbands: they lay hold with +both hands on all occasions to contradict and oppose them; the first +excuse serves for a plenary justification. I have seen one who robbed +her husband wholesale, that, as she told her confessor, she might +distribute the more liberal alms. Let who will trust to that religious +dispensation. No management of affairs seems to them of sufficient +dignity, if proceeding from the husband's assent; they must usurp it +either by insolence or cunning, and always injuriously, or else it has +not the grace and authority they desire. When, as in the case I am +speaking of, 'tis against a poor old man and for the children, then they +make use of this title to serve their passion with glory; and, as for a +common service, easily cabal, and combine against his government and +dominion. If they be males grown up in full and flourishing health, they +presently corrupt, either by force or favour, steward, receivers, and all +the rout. Such as have neither wife nor son do not so easily fall into +this misfortune; but withal more cruelly and unworthily. Cato the elder +in his time said: So many servants, so many enemies; consider, then, +whether according to the vast difference between the purity of the age he +lived in and the corruption of this of ours, he does not seem to shew us +that wife, son, and servant, are so many enemies to us? 'Tis well for +old age that it is always accompanied by want of observation, ignorance, +and a proneness to being deceived. For should we see how we are used and +would not acquiesce, what would become of us? especially in such an age +as this, where the very judges who are to determine our controversies are +usually partisans to the young, and interested in the cause. In case the +discovery of this cheating escape me, I cannot at least fail to discern +that I am very fit to be cheated. And can a man ever enough exalt the +value of a friend, in comparison with these civil ties? The very image +of it which I see in beasts, so pure and uncorrupted, how religiously do +I respect it! If others deceive me, yet do I not, at least, deceive +myself in thinking I am able to defend myself from them, or in cudgelling +my brains to make myself so. I protect myself from such treasons in my +own bosom, not by an unquiet and tumultuous curiosity, but rather by +diversion and resolution. When I hear talk of any one's condition, I +never trouble myself to think of him; I presently turn my eyes upon +myself to see in what condition I am; whatever concerns another relates +to me; the accident that has befallen him gives me caution, and rouses me +to turn my defence that way. We every day and every hour say things of +another that we might properly say of ourselves, could we but apply our +observation to our own concerns, as well as extend it to others. And +several authors have in this manner prejudiced their own cause by running +headlong upon those they attack, and darting those shafts against their +enemies, that are more properly, and with greater advantage, to be turned +upon themselves. + +The late Mareschal de Montluc having lost his son, who died in the island +of Madeira, in truth a very worthy gentleman and of great expectation, +did to me, amongst his other regrets, very much insist upon what a sorrow +and heart-breaking it was that he had never made himself familiar with +him; and by that humour of paternal gravity and grimace to have lost the +opportunity of having an insight into and of well knowing, his son, as +also of letting him know the extreme affection he had for him, and the +worthy opinion he had of his virtue. "That poor boy," said he, "never +saw in me other than a stern and disdainful countenance, and is gone in a +belief that I neither knew how to love him nor esteem him according to +his desert. For whom did I reserve the discovery of that singular +affection I had for him in my soul? Was it not he himself, who ought to +have had all the pleasure of it, and all the obligation? I constrained +and racked myself to put on, and maintain this vain disguise, and have by +that means deprived myself of the pleasure of his conversation, and, I +doubt, in some measure, his affection, which could not but be very cold +to me, having never other from me than austerity, nor felt other than a +tyrannical manner of proceeding." + + [Madame de Sevigne tells us that she never read this passage without + tears in her eyes. "My God!" she exclaims, "how full is this book + of good sense!" Ed.] + +I find this complaint to be rational and rightly apprehended: for, as I +myself know by too certain experience, there is no so sweet consolation +in the loss of friends as the conscience of having had no reserve or +secret for them, and to have had with them a perfect and entire +communication. Oh my friend,--[La Boetie.] am I the better for being +sensible of this; or am I the worse? I am, doubtless, much the better. +I am consoled and honoured, in the sorrow for his death. Is it not a +pious and a pleasing office of my life to be always upon my friend's +obsequies? Can there be any joy equal to this privation? + +I open myself to my family, as much as I can, and very willingly let them +know the state of my opinion and good will towards them, as I do to +everybody else: I make haste to bring out and present myself to them; for +I will not have them mistaken in me, in anything. Amongst other +particular customs of our ancient Gauls, this, as Caesar reports,--[De +Bello Gall., vi. r8.]--was one, that the sons never presented +themselves before their fathers, nor durst ever appear in their company +in public, till they began to bear arms; as if they would intimate by +this, that it was also time for their fathers to receive them into their +familiarity and acquaintance. + +I have observed yet another sort of indiscretion in fathers of my time, +that, not contented with having deprived their children, during their own +long lives, of the share they naturally ought to have had in their +fortunes, they afterwards leave to their wives the same authority over +their estates, and liberty to dispose of them according to their own +fancy. And I have known a certain lord, one of the principal officers of +the crown, who, having in reversion above fifty thousand crowns yearly +revenue, died necessitous and overwhelmed with debt at above fifty years +of age; his mother in her extremest decrepitude being yet in possession +of all his property by the will of his father, who had, for his part, +lived till near fourscore years old. This appears to me by no means +reasonable. And therefore I think it of very little advantage to a man, +whose affairs are well enough, to seek a wife who encumbers his estate +with a very great fortune; there is no sort of foreign debt that brings +more ruin to families than this: my predecessors have ever been aware of +that danger and provided against it, and so have I. But those who +dissuade us from rich wives, for fear they should be less tractable and +kind, are out in their advice to make a man lose a real commodity for so +frivolous a conjecture. It costs an unreasonable woman no more to pass +over one reason than another; they cherish themselves most where they are +most wrong. Injustice allures them, as the honour of their virtuous +actions does the good; and the more riches they bring with them, they are +so much the more good-natured, as women, who are handsome, are all the +more inclined and proud to be chaste. + +'Tis reasonable to leave the administration of affairs to the mothers, +till the children are old enough, according to law, to manage them; but +the father has brought them, up very ill, if he cannot hope that, when +they come to maturity, they will have more wisdom and ability in the +management of affairs than his wife, considering the ordinary weakness of +the sex. It were, notwithstanding, to say the truth, more against nature +to make the mothers depend upon the discretion of their children; they +ought to be plentifully provided for, to maintain themselves according to +their quality and age, by reason that necessity and indigence are much +more unbecoming and insupportable to them than to men; the son should +rather be cut short than the mother. + +In general, the most judicious distribution of our goods, when we come to +die, is, in my opinion, to let them be distributed according to the +custom of the country; the laws have considered the matter better than we +know how to do, and 'tis wiser to let them fail in their appointment, +than rashly to run the hazard of miscarrying in ours. Nor are the goods +properly ours, since, by civil prescription and without us, they are all +destined to certain successors. And although we have some liberty beyond +that, yet I think we ought not, without great and manifest cause, to take +away that from one which his fortune has allotted him, and to which the +public equity gives him title; and that it is against reason to abuse +this liberty, in making it serve our own frivolous and private fancies. +My destiny has been kind to me in not presenting me with occasions to +tempt me and divert my affection from the common and legitimate +institution. I see many with whom 'tis time lost to employ a long +exercise of good offices: a word ill taken obliterates ten years' merit; +he is happy who is in a position to oil their goodwill at this last +passage. The last action carries it, not the best and most frequent +offices, but the most recent and present do the work. These are people +that play with their wills as with apples or rods, to gratify or chastise +every action of those who pretend to an interest in their care. 'Tis a +thing of too great weight and consequence to be so tumbled and tossed and +altered every moment, and wherein the wise determine once for all, having +above all things regard to reason and the public observance. We lay +these masculine substitutions too much to heart, proposing a ridiculous +eternity to our names. We are, moreover, too superstitious in vain +conjectures as to the future, that we derive from the words and actions +of children. Peradventure they might have done me an injustice, in +dispossessing me of my right, for having been the most dull and heavy, +the most slow and unwilling at my book, not of all my brothers only, but +of all the boys in the whole province: whether about learning my lesson, +or about any bodily exercise. 'Tis a folly to make an election out of +the ordinary course upon the credit of these divinations wherein we are +so often deceived. If the ordinary rule of descent were to be violated, +and the destinies corrected in the choice they have made of our heirs, +one might more plausibly do it upon the account of some remarkable and +enormous personal deformity, a permanent and incorrigible defect, and in +the opinion of us French, who are great admirers of beauty, an important +prejudice. + +The pleasant dialogue betwixt Plato's legislator and his citizens will be +an ornament to this place, "What," said they, feeling themselves about to +die, "may we not dispose of our own to whom we please? God! what +cruelty that it shall not be lawful for us, according as we have been +served and attended in our sickness, in our old age, in our affairs, to +give more or less to those whom we have found most diligent about us, at +our own fancy and discretion!" To which the legislator answers thus: + +"My friends, who are now, without question, very soon to die, it is hard +for you in the condition you are, either to know yourselves, or what is +yours, according to the delphic inscription. I, who make the laws, am of +opinion, that you neither are yourselves your own, nor is that yours of +which you are possessed. Both your goods and you belong to your +families, as well those past as those to come; but, further, both your +family and goods much more appertain to the public. Wherefore, lest any +flatterer in your old age or in your sickness, or any passion of your +own, should unseasonably prevail with you to make an unjust will, I shall +take care to prevent that inconvenience; but, having respect both to the +universal interests of the city and that of your particular family, I +shall establish laws, and make it by good reasons appear, that private +convenience ought to give place to the common benefit. Go then +cheerfully where human necessity calls you. It is for me, who regard no +more the one thing than the other, and who, as much as in me lies, am +provident of the public interest, to have a care as to what you leave +behind you." + +To return to my subject: it appears to me that women are very rarely +born, to whom the prerogative over men, the maternal and natural +excepted, is in any sort due, unless it be for the punishment of such, +as in some amorous fever have voluntarily submitted themselves to them: +but that in no way concerns the old ones, of whom we are now speaking. +This consideration it is which has made us so willingly to enact and give +force to that law, which was never yet seen by any one, by which women +are excluded the succession to our crown: and there is hardly a +government in the world where it is not pleaded, as it is here, by the +probability of reason that authorises it, though fortune has given it +more credit in some places than in others. 'Tis dangerous to leave the +disposal of our succession to their judgment, according to the choice +they shall make of children, which is often fantastic and unjust; for the +irregular appetites and depraved tastes they have during the time of +their being with child, they have at all other times in the mind. We +commonly see them fond of the most weak, ricketty, and deformed children; +or of those, if they have such, as are still hanging at the breast. For, +not having sufficient force of reason to choose and embrace that which is +most worthy, they the more willingly suffer themselves to be carried +away, where the impressions of nature are most alone; like animals that +know their young no longer than they give them suck. As to the rest, it +is easy by experience to be discerned that this natural affection to +which we give so great authority has but very weak roots. For a very +little profit, we every day tear their own children out of the mothers' +arms, and make them take ours in their room: we make them abandon their +own to some pitiful nurse, to whom we disdain to commit ours, or to some +she-goat, forbidding them, not only to give them suck, what danger soever +they run thereby, but, moreover, to take any manner of care of them, that +they may wholly be occupied with the care of and attendance upon ours; +and we see in most of them an adulterate affection, more vehement than +the natural, begotten by custom toward the foster children, and a greater +solicitude for the preservation of those they have taken charge of, than +of their own. And that which I was saying of goats was upon this +account; that it is ordinary all about where I live, to see the +countrywomen, when they want milk of their own for their children, to +call goats to their assistance; and I have at this hour two men-servants +that never sucked women's milk more than eight days after they were born. +These goats are immediately taught to come to suckle the little children, +know their voices when they cry, and come running to them. If any other +than this foster-child be presented to them, they refuse to let it suck; +and the child in like manner will refuse to suck another goat. I saw one +the other day from whom they had taken away the goat that used to nourish +it, by reason the father had only borrowed it of a neighbour; the child +would not touch any other they could bring, and died, doubtless of +hunger. Beasts as easily alter and corrupt their natural affection as +we: I believe that in what Herodotus relates of a certain district of +Lybia, there are many mistakes; he says that the women are there in +common; but that the child, so soon as it can go, finds him out in the +crowd for his father, to whom he is first led by his natural inclination. + +Now, to consider this simple reason for loving our children, that we have +begot them, therefore calling them our second selves, it appears, +methinks, that there is another kind of production proceeding from us, +that is of no less recommendation: for that which we engender by the +soul, the issue of our understanding, courage, and abilities, springs +from nobler parts than those of the body, and that are much more our own: +we are both father and mother in this generation. These cost us a great +deal more and bring us more honour, if they have anything of good in +them. For the value of our other children is much more theirs than ours; +the share we have in them is very little; but of these all the beauty, +all the grace and value, are ours; and also they more vividly represent +us than the others. Plato adds, that these are immortal children that +immortalise and deify their fathers, as Lycurgus, Solon, Minos. Now, +histories being full of examples of the common affection of fathers to +their children, it seems not altogether improper to introduce some few of +this other kind. Heliodorus, that good bishop of Trikka, rather chose to +lose the dignity, profit, and devotion of so venerable a prelacy, than to +lose his daughter; a daughter that continues to this day very graceful +and comely; but, peradventure, a little too curiously and wantonly +tricked, and too amorous for an ecclesiastical and sacerdotal daughter. +There was one Labienus at Rome, a man of great worth and authority, and +amongst other qualities excellent in all sorts of literature, who was, as +I take it, the son of that great Labienus, the chief of Caesar's captains +in the wars of Gaul; and who, afterwards, siding with Pompey the great, +so valiantly maintained his cause, till he was by Caesar defeated in +Spain. This Labienus, of whom I am now speaking, had several enemies, +envious of his good qualities, and, tis likely, the courtiers and minions +of the emperors of his time who were very angry at his freedom and the +paternal humour which he yet retained against tyranny, with which it is +to be supposed he had tinctured his books and writings. His adversaries +prosecuted several pieces he had published before the magistrates at +Rome, and prevailed so far against him, as to have them condemned to the +fire. It was in him that this new example of punishment was begun, which +was afterwards continued against others at Rome, to punish even writing +and studies with death. There would not be means and matter enough of +cruelty, did we not mix with them things that nature has exempted from +all sense and suffering, as reputation and the products of the mind, and +did we not communicate corporal punishments to the teachings and +monuments of the Muses. Now, Labienus could not suffer this loss, nor +survive these his so dear issue, and therefore caused himself to be +conveyed and shut up alive in the monument of his ancestors, where he +made shift to kill and bury himself at once. 'Tis hard to shew a more +vehement paternal affection than this. Cassius Severus, a man of great +eloquence and his very intimate friend, seeing his books burned, cried +out that by the same sentence they should as well condemn him to the fire +too, seeing that he carried in his memory all that they contained. The +like accident befel Cremutius Cordus, who being accused of having in his +books commended Brutus and Cassius, that dirty, servile, and corrupt +Senate, worthy a worse master than Tiberius, condemned his writings to +the flame. He was willing to bear them company, and killed himself with +fasting. The good Lucan, being condemned by that rascal Nero, at the +last gasp of his life, when the greater part of his blood was already +spent through the veins of his arms, which he had caused his physician to +open to make him die, and when the cold had seized upon all his +extremities, and began to approach his vital parts, the last thing he had +in his memory was some of the verses of his Battle of Phaysalia, which he +recited, dying with them in his mouth. What was this, but taking a +tender and paternal leave of his children, in imitation of the +valedictions and embraces, wherewith we part from ours, when we come to +die, and an effect of that natural inclination, that suggests to our +remembrance in this extremity those things which were dearest to us +during the time of our life? + +Can we believe that Epicurus who, as he says himself, dying of the +intolerable pain of the stone, had all his consolation in the beauty of +the doctrine he left behind him, could have received the same +satisfaction from many children, though never so well-conditioned and +brought up, had he had them, as he did from the production of so many +rich writings? Or that, had it been in his choice to have left behind +him a deformed and untoward child or a foolish and ridiculous book, he, +or any other man of his understanding, would not rather have chosen to +have run the first misfortune than the other? It had been, for example, +peradventure, an impiety in St. Augustin, if, on the one hand, it had +been proposed to him to bury his writings, from which religion has +received so great fruit, or on the other to bury his children, had he had +them, had he not rather chosen to bury his children. And I know not +whether I had not much rather have begot a very beautiful one, through +society with the Muses, than by lying with my wife. To this, such as it +is, what I give it I give absolutely and irrevocably, as men do to their +bodily children. That little I have done for it, is no more at my own +disposal; it may know many things that are gone from me, and from me hold +that which I have not retained; and which, as well as a stranger, I +should borrow thence, should I stand in need. If I am wiser than my +book, it is richer than I. There are few men addicted to poetry, who +would not be much prouder to be the father to the AEneid than to the +handsomest youth of Rome; and who would not much better bear the loss of +the one than of the other. For according to Aristotle, the poet, of all +artificers, is the fondest of his work. 'Tis hard to believe that +Epaminondas, who boasted that in lieu of all posterity he left two +daughters behind him that would one day do their father honour (meaning +the two victories he obtained over the Lacedaemonians), would willingly +have consented to exchange these for the most beautiful creatures of all +Greece; or that Alexander or Caesar ever wished to be deprived of the +grandeur of their glorious exploits in war, for the convenience of +children and heirs, how perfect and accomplished soever. Nay, I make a +great question, whether Phidias or any other excellent sculptor would be +so solicitous of the preservation and continuance of his natural +children, as he would be of a rare statue, which with long labour and +study he had perfected according to art. And to those furious and +irregular passions that have sometimes inflamed fathers towards their own +daughters, and mothers towards their own sons, the like is also found in +this other sort of parentage: witness what is related of Pygmalion who, +having made the statue of a woman of singular beauty, fell so +passionately in love with this work of his, that the gods in favour of +his passion inspired it with life. + + "Tentatum mollescit ebur, positoque rigore, + Subsidit digitis." + + ["The ivory grows soft under his touch and yields to his fingers." + --Ovid, Metam., x. 283.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OF THE ARMS OF THE PARTHIANS + +'Tis an ill custom and unmanly that the gentlemen of our time have got, +not to put on arms but just upon the point of the most extreme necessity, +and to lay them by again, so soon as ever there is any show of the danger +being over; hence many disorders arise; for every one bustling and +running to his arms just when he should go to charge, has his cuirass to +buckle on when his companions are already put to rout. Our ancestors +were wont to give their head-piece, lance and gauntlets to be carried, +but never put off the other pieces so long as there was any work to be +done. Our troops are now cumbered and rendered unsightly with the +clutter of baggage and servants who cannot be from their masters, by +reason they carry their arms. Titus Livius speaking of our nation: + + "Intolerantissima laboris corpora vix arma humeris gerebant." + + ["Bodies most impatient of labour could scarce endure to wear + their arms on their shoulders."--Livy, x. 28.] + +Many nations do yet, and did anciently, go to war without defensive arms, +or with such, at least, as were of very little proof: + + "Tegmina queis capitum, raptus de subere cortex." + + ["To whom the coverings of the heads were the bark of the + cork-tree."--AEneid, vii. 742.] + +Alexander, the most adventurous captain that ever was, very seldom wore +armour, and such amongst us as slight it, do not by that much harm to the +main concern; for if we see some killed for want of it, there are few +less whom the lumber of arms helps to destroy, either by being +overburthened, crushed, and cramped with their weight, by a rude shock, +or otherwise. For, in plain truth, to observe the weight and thickness +of the armour we have now in use, it seems as if we only sought to defend +ourselves, and are rather loaded than secured by it. We have enough to +do to support its weight, being so manacled and immured, as if we were +only to contend with our own arms, and as if we had not the same +obligation to defend them, that they have to defend us. Tacitus gives a +pleasant description of the men-at-arms among our ancient Gauls, who were +so armed as only to be able to stand, without power to harm or to be +harmed, or to rise again if once struck down. Lucullus, seeing certain +soldiers of the Medes, who formed the van of Tigranes' army, heavily +armed and very uneasy, as if in prisons of iron, thence conceived hopes +with great ease to defeat them, and by them began his charge and victory. +And now that our musketeers are in credit, I believe some invention will +be found out to immure us for our safety, and to draw us to the war in +castles, such as those the ancients loaded their elephants withal. + +This humour is far differing from that of the younger Scipio, who sharply +reprehended his soldiers for having planted caltrops under water, in a +ditch by which those of the town he held besieged might sally out upon +him; saying, that those who assaulted should think of attacking, and not +to fear; suspecting, with good reason, that this stop they had put to the +enemies, would make themselves less vigilant upon their guard. He said +also to a young man, who showed him a fine buckler he had, that he was +very proud of, "It is a very fine buckler indeed, but a Roman soldier +ought to repose greater confidence in his right hand than in his left." + +Now 'tis nothing but the not being used to wear it that makes the weight +of our armour so intolerable: + + "L'usbergo in dosso haveano, et l'elmo in testa, + Due di questi guerrier, de' quali io canto; + Ne notte o di, d' appoi ch' entraro in questa + Stanza, gl'haveano mai messi da canto; + Che facile a portar come la vesta + Era lor, perche in uso l'havean tanto:" + + ["Two of the warriors, of whom I sing, had on their backs their + cuirass and on their heads their casque, and never had night or day + once laid them by, whilst here they were; those arms, by long + practice, were grown as light to bear as a garment" + --Ariosto, Cant., MI. 30.] + +the Emperor Caracalla was wont to march on foot, completely armed, at the +head of his army. The Roman infantry always carried not only a morion, a +sword, and a shield (for as to arms, says Cicero, they were so accustomed +to have them always on, that they were no more trouble to them than their +own limbs): + + "Arma enim membra militis esse dicunt." + +but, moreover, fifteen days' provision, together with a certain number of +stakes, wherewith to fortify their camp, sixty pounds in weight. And +Marius' soldiers, laden at the same rate, were inured to march in order +of battle five leagues in five hours, and sometimes, upon any urgent +occasion, six. + +Their military discipline was much ruder than ours, and accordingly +produced much greater effects. The younger Scipio, reforming his army in +Spain, ordered his soldiers to eat standing, and nothing that was drest. +The jeer that was given a Lacedaemonian soldier is marvellously pat to +this purpose, who, in an expedition of war, was reproached for having +been seen under the roof of a house: they were so inured to hardship +that, let the weather be what it would, it was a shame to be seen under +any other cover than the roof of heaven. We should not march our people +very far at that rate. + +As to what remains, Marcellinus, a man bred up in the Roman wars, +curiously observes the manner of the Parthians arming themselves, and the +rather, for being so different from that of the Romans. "They had," says +he, "armour so woven as to have all the scales fall over one another like +so many little feathers; which did nothing hinder the motion of the body, +and yet were of such resistance, that our darts hitting upon them, would +rebound" (these were the coats of mail our forefathers were so constantly +wont to use). And in another place: "they had," says he, "strong and +able horses, covered with thick tanned hides of leather, and were +themselves armed 'cap-a-pie' with great plates of iron, so artificially +ordered, that in all parts of the limbs, which required bending, they +lent themselves to the motion. One would have said, that they had been +men of iron; having armour for the head so neatly fitted, and so +naturally representing the form of a face, that they were nowhere +vulnerable, save at two little round holes, that gave them a little +light, corresponding with their eyes, and certain small chinks about +their nostrils, through which they, with great difficulty, breathed," + + "Flexilis inductis animatur lamina membris, + Horribilis visu; credas simulacra moveri + Ferrea, cognatoque viros spirare metallo. + Par vestitus equis: ferrata fronte minantur, + Ferratosque movent, securi vulneris, armos." + + ["Plates of steel are placed over the body, so flexible that, + dreadful to be seen, you would think these not living men, but + moving images. The horses are similarly armed, and, secured from + wounds, move their iron shoulders."--Claud, In Ruf., ii. 358.] + +'Tis a description drawing very near resembling the equipage of the men- +at-arms in France, with their barded horses. Plutarch says, that +Demetrius caused two complete suits of armour to be made for himself and +for Alcimus, a captain of the greatest note and authority about him, of +six score pounds weight each, whereas the ordinary suits weighed but half +as much. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OF BOOKS + +I make no doubt but that I often happen to speak of things that are much +better and more truly handled by those who are masters of the trade. You +have here purely an essay of my natural parts, and not of those acquired: +and whoever shall catch me tripping in ignorance, will not in any sort +get the better of me; for I should be very unwilling to become +responsible to another for my writings, who am not so to myself, nor +satisfied with them. Whoever goes in quest of knowledge, let him fish +for it where it is to be found; there is nothing I so little profess. +These are fancies of my own, by which I do not pretend to discover things +but to lay open myself; they may, peradventure, one day be known to me, +or have formerly been, according as fortune has been able to bring me in +place where they have been explained; but I have utterly forgotten it; +and if I am a man of some reading, I am a man of no retention; so that I +can promise no certainty, more than to make known to what point the +knowledge I now have has risen. Therefore, let none lay stress upon the +matter I write, but upon my method in writing it. Let them observe, in +what I borrow, if I have known how to choose what is proper to raise or +help the invention, which is always my own. For I make others say for +me, not before but after me, what, either for want of language or want of +sense, I cannot myself so well express. I do not number my borrowings, +I weigh them; and had I designed to raise their value by number, I had +made them twice as many; they are all, or within a very few, so famed and +ancient authors, that they seem, methinks, themselves sufficiently to +tell who they are, without giving me the trouble. In reasons, +comparisons, and arguments, if I transplant any into my own soil, and +confound them amongst my own, I purposely conceal the author, to awe the +temerity of those precipitate censors who fall upon all sorts of +writings, particularly the late ones, of men yet living; and in the +vulgar tongue which puts every one into a capacity of criticising and +which seem to convict the conception and design as vulgar also. I will +have them give Plutarch a fillip on my nose, and rail against Seneca when +they think they rail at me. I must shelter my own weakness under these +great reputations. I shall love any one that can unplume me, that is, +by clearness of understanding and judgment, and by the sole distinction +of the force and beauty of the discourse. For I who, for want of memory, +am at every turn at a loss to, pick them out of their national livery, am +yet wise enough to know, by the measure of my own abilities, that my soil +is incapable of producing any of those rich flowers that I there find +growing; and that all the fruits of my own growth are not worth any one +of them. For this, indeed, I hold myself responsible; if I get in my own +way; if there be any vanity and defect in my writings which I do not of +myself perceive nor can discern, when pointed out to me by another; for +many faults escape our eye, but the infirmity of judgment consists in not +being able to discern them, when by another laid open to us. Knowledge +and truth may be in us without judgment, and judgment also without them; +but the confession of ignorance is one of the finest and surest +testimonies of judgment that I know. I have no other officer to put my +writings in rank and file, but only fortune. As things come into my +head, I heap them one upon another; sometimes they advance in whole +bodies, sometimes in single file. I would that every one should see my +natural and ordinary pace, irregular as it is; I suffer myself to jog on +at my own rate. Neither are these subjects which a man is not permitted +to be ignorant in, or casually and at a venture, to discourse of. I +could wish to have a more perfect knowledge of things, but I will not buy +it so dear as it costs. My design is to pass over easily, and not +laboriously, the remainder of my life; there is nothing that I will +cudgel my brains about; no, not even knowledge, of what value soever. + +I seek, in the reading of books, only to please myself by an honest +diversion; or, if I study, 'tis for no other science than what treats of +the knowledge of myself, and instructs me how to die and how to live +well. + + "Has meus ad metas sudet oportet equus." + + ["My horse must work according to my step." + --Propertius, iv.] + +I do not bite my nails about the difficulties I meet with in my reading; +after a charge or two, I give them over. Should I insist upon them, I +should both lose myself and time; for I have an impatient understanding, +that must be satisfied at first: what I do not discern at once is by +persistence rendered more obscure. I do nothing without gaiety; +continuation and a too obstinate endeavour, darkens, stupefies, and tires +my judgment. My sight is confounded and dissipated with poring; I must +withdraw it, and refer my discovery to new attempts; just as, to judge +rightly of the lustre of scarlet, we are taught to pass the eye lightly +over it, and again to run it over at several sudden and reiterated +glances. If one book do not please me, I take another; and I never +meddle with any, but at such times as I am weary of doing nothing. +I care not much for new ones, because the old seem fuller and stronger; +neither do I converse much with Greek authors, because my judgment cannot +do its work with imperfect intelligence of the material. + +Amongst books that are simply pleasant, of the moderns, Boccaccio's +Decameron, Rabelais, and the Basia of Johannes Secundus (if those may be +ranged under the title) are worth reading for amusement. As to the +Amadis, and such kind of stuff, they had not the credit of arresting even +my childhood. And I will, moreover, say, whether boldly or rashly, that +this old, heavy soul of mine is now no longer tickled with Ariosto, no, +nor with the worthy Ovid; his facility and inventions, with which I was +formerly so ravished, are now of no more relish, and I can hardly have +the patience to read them. I speak my opinion freely of all things, even +of those that, perhaps, exceed my capacity, and that I do not conceive to +be, in any wise, under my jurisdiction. And, accordingly, the judgment I +deliver, is to show the measure of my own sight, and not of the things I +make so bold to criticise. When I find myself disgusted with Plato's +'Axiochus', as with a work, with due respect to such an author be it +spoken, without force, my judgment does not believe itself: it is not so +arrogant as to oppose the authority of so many other famous judgments of +antiquity, which it considers as its tutors and masters, and with whom it +is rather content to err; in such a case, it condemns itself either to +stop at the outward bark, not being able to penetrate to the heart, or to +consider it by sortie false light. It is content with only securing +itself from trouble and disorder; as to its own weakness, it frankly +acknowledges and confesses it. It thinks it gives a just interpretation +to the appearances by its conceptions presented to it; but they are weak +and imperfect. Most of the fables of AEsop have diverse senses and +meanings, of which the mythologists chose some one that quadrates well to +the fable; but, for the most part, 'tis but the first face that presents +itself and is superficial only; there yet remain others more vivid, +essential, and profound, into which they have not been able to penetrate; +and just so 'tis with me. + +But, to pursue the business of this essay, I have always thought that, in +poesy, Virgil, Lucretius, Catullus, and Horace by many degrees excel the +rest; and signally, Virgil in his Georgics, which I look upon as the most +accomplished piece in poetry; and in comparison of which a man may easily +discern that there are some places in his AEneids, to which the author +would have given a little more of the file, had he had leisure: and the +fifth book of his AEneids seems to me the most perfect. I also love +Lucan, and willingly read him, not so much for his style, as for his own +worth, and the truth and solidity of his opinions and judgments. As for +good Terence, the refined elegance and grace of the Latin tongue, I find +him admirable in his vivid representation of our manners and the +movements of the soul; our actions throw me at every turn upon him; and +I cannot read him so often that I do not still discover some new grace +and beauty. Such as lived near Virgil's time complained that some should +compare Lucretius to him. I am of opinion that the comparison is, in +truth, very unequal: a belief that, nevertheless, I have much ado to +assure myself in, when I come upon some excellent passage in Lucretius. +But if they were so angry at this comparison, what would they say to the +brutish and barbarous stupidity of those who, nowadays, compare him with +Ariosto? Would not Ariosto himself say? + + "O seclum insipiens et inficetum!" + + ["O stupid and tasteless age."--Catullus, xliii. 8.] + +I think the ancients had more reason to be angry with those who compared +Plautus with Terence, though much nearer the mark, than Lucretius with +Virgil. It makes much for the estimation and preference of Terence, that +the father of Roman eloquence has him so often, and alone of his class, +in his mouth; and the opinion that the best judge of Roman poets +--[Horace, De Art. Poetica, 279.]--has passed upon his companion. I +have often observed that those of our times, who take upon them to write +comedies (in imitation of the Italians, who are happy enough in that way +of writing), take three or four plots of those of Plautus or Terence to +make one of their own, and , crowd five or six of Boccaccio's novels into +one single comedy. That which makes them so load themselves with matter +is the diffidence they have of being able to support themselves with +their own strength. They must find out something to lean to; and not +having of their own stuff wherewith to entertain us, they bring in the +story to supply the defect of language. It is quite otherwise with my +author; the elegance and perfection of his way of speaking makes us lose +the appetite of his plot; his refined grace and elegance of diction +everywhere occupy us: he is so pleasant throughout, + + "Liquidus, puroque simillimus amni," + + ["Liquid, and likest the pure river." + --Horace, Ep., ii. s, 120.] + +and so possesses the soul with his graces that we forget those of his +fable. This same consideration carries me further: I observe that the +best of the ancient poets have avoided affectation and the hunting after, +not only fantastic Spanish and Petrarchic elevations, but even the softer +and more gentle touches, which are the ornament of all succeeding poesy. +And yet there is no good judgment that will condemn this in the ancients, +and that does not incomparably more admire the equal polish, and that +perpetual sweetness and flourishing beauty of Catullus's epigrams, than +all the stings with which Martial arms the tails of his. This is by the +same reason that I gave before, and as Martial says of himself: + + "Minus illi ingenio laborandum fuit, + in cujus locum materia successerat:" + + ["He had the less for his wit to do that the subject itself + supplied what was necessary."--Martial, praef. ad lib. viii.] + +The first, without being moved, or without getting angry, make themselves +sufficiently felt; they have matter enough of laughter throughout, they +need not tickle themselves; the others have need of foreign assistance; +as they have the less wit they must have the more body; they mount on +horseback, because they are not able to stand on their own legs. As in +our balls, those mean fellows who teach to dance, not being able to +represent the presence and dignity of our noblesse, are fain to put +themselves forward with dangerous jumping, and other strange motions and +tumblers tricks; and the ladies are less put to it in dance; where there +are various coupees, changes, and quick motions of body, than in some +other of a more sedate kind, where they are only to move a natural pace, +and to represent their ordinary grace and presence. And so I have seen +good drolls, when in their own everyday clothes, and with the same face +they always wear, give us all the pleasure of their art, when their +apprentices, not yet arrived at such a pitch of perfection, are fain to +meal their faces, put themselves into ridiculous disguises, and make a +hundred grotesque faces to give us whereat to laugh. This conception of +mine is nowhere more demonstrable than in comparing the AEneid with +Orlando Furioso; of which we see the first, by dint of wing, flying in a +brave and lofty place, and always following his point: the latter, +fluttering and hopping from tale to tale, as from branch to branch, not +daring to trust his wings but in very short flights, and perching at +every turn, lest his breath and strength should fail. + + "Excursusque breves tentat." + + ["And he attempts short excursions." + --Virgil, Georgics, iv. 194.] + +These, then, as to this sort of subjects, are the authors that best +please me. + +As to what concerns my other reading, that mixes a little more profit +with the pleasure, and whence I learn how to marshal my opinions and +conditions, the books that serve me to this purpose are Plutarch, since +he has been translated into French, and Seneca. Both of these have this +notable convenience suited to my humour, that the knowledge I there seek +is discoursed in loose pieces, that do not require from me any trouble of +reading long, of which I am incapable. Such are the minor works of the +first and the epistles of the latter, which are the best and most +profiting of all their writings. 'Tis no great attempt to take one of +them in hand, and I give over at pleasure; for they have no sequence or +dependence upon one another. These authors, for the most part, concur in +useful and true opinions; and there is this parallel betwixt them, that +fortune brought them into the world about the same century: they were +both tutors to two Roman emperors: both sought out from foreign +countries: both rich and both great men. Their instruction is the cream +of philosophy, and delivered after a plain and pertinent manner. +Plutarch is more uniform and constant; Seneca more various and waving: +the last toiled and bent his whole strength to fortify virtue against +weakness, fear, and vicious appetites; the other seems more to slight +their power, and to disdain to alter his pace and to stand upon his +guard. Plutarch's opinions are Platonic, gentle, and accommodated to +civil society; those of the other are Stoical and Epicurean, more remote +from the common use, but, in my opinion, more individually commodious and +more firm. Seneca seems to lean a little to the tyranny of the emperors +of his time, and only seems; for I take it for certain that he speaks +against his judgment when he condemns the action of the generous +murderers of Caesar. Plutarch is frank throughout: Seneca abounds with +brisk touches and sallies; Plutarch with things that warm and move you +more; this contents and pays you better: he guides us, the other pushes +us on. + +As to Cicero, his works that are most useful to my design are they that +treat of manners and rules of our life. But boldly to confess the truth +(for since one has passed the barriers of impudence, there is no bridle), +his way of writing appears to me negligent and uninviting: for his +prefaces, definitions, divisions, and etymologies take up the greatest +part of his work: whatever there is of life and marrow is smothered and +lost in the long preparation. When I have spent an hour in reading him, +which is a great deal for me, and try to recollect what I have thence +extracted of juice and substance, for the most part I find nothing but +wind; for he is not yet come to the arguments that serve to his purpose, +and to the reasons that properly help to form the knot I seek. For me, +who only desire to become more wise, not more learned or eloquent, these +logical and Aristotelian dispositions of parts are of no use. I would +have a man begin with the main proposition. I know well enough what +death and pleasure are; let no man give himself the trouble to anatomise +them to me. I look for good and solid reasons, at the first dash, to +instruct me how to stand their shock, for which purpose neither +grammatical subtleties nor the quaint contexture of words and +argumentations are of any use at all. I am for discourses that give the +first charge into the heart of the redoubt; his languish about the +subject; they are proper for the schools, for the bar, and for the +pulpit, where we have leisure to nod, and may awake, a quarter of an hour +after, time enough to find again the thread of the discourse. It is +necessary to speak after this manner to judges, whom a man has a design +to gain over, right or wrong, to children and common people, to whom a +man must say all, and see what will come of it. I would not have an +author make it his business to render me attentive: or that he should cry +out fifty times Oyez! as the heralds do. The Romans, in their religious +exercises, began with 'Hoc age' as we in ours do with 'Sursum corda'; +these are so many words lost to me: I come already fully prepared from my +chamber. I need no allurement, no invitation, no sauce; I eat the meat +raw, so that, instead of whetting my appetite by these preparatives, they +tire and pall it. Will the licence of the time excuse my sacrilegious +boldness if I censure the dialogism of Plato himself as also dull and +heavy, too much stifling the matter, and lament so much time lost by a +man, who had so many better things to say, in so many long and needless +preliminary interlocutions? My ignorance will better excuse me in that +I understand not Greek so well as to discern the beauty of his language. +I generally choose books that use sciences, not such as only lead to +them. The two first, and Pliny, and their like, have nothing of this Hoc +age; they will have to do with men already instructed; or if they have, +'tis a substantial Hoc age; and that has a body by itself. I also +delight in reading the Epistles to Atticus, not only because they contain +a great deal of the history and affairs of his time, but much more +because I therein discover much of his own private humours; for I have a +singular curiosity, as I have said elsewhere, to pry into the souls and +the natural and true opinions of the authors, with whom I converse. A +man may indeed judge of their parts, but not of their manners nor of +themselves, by the writings they exhibit upon the theatre of the world. +I have a thousand times lamented the loss of the treatise Brutus wrote +upon Virtue, for it is well to learn the theory from those who best know +the practice. + +But seeing the matter preached and the preacher are different things, +I would as willingly see Brutus in Plutarch, as in a book of his own. +I would rather choose to be certainly informed of the conference he had +in his tent with some particular friends of his the night before a +battle, than of the harangue he made the next day to his army; and of +what he did in his closet and his chamber, than what he did in the public +square and in the senate. As to Cicero, I am of the common opinion that, +learning excepted, he had no great natural excellence. He was a good +citizen, of an affable nature, as all fat, heavy men, such as he was, +usually are; but given to ease, and had, in truth, a mighty share of +vanity and ambition. Neither do I know how to excuse him for thinking +his poetry fit to be published; 'tis no great imperfection to make ill +verses, but it is an imperfection not to be able to judge how unworthy +his verses were of the glory of his name. For what concerns his +eloquence, that is totally out of all comparison, and I believe it will +never be equalled. The younger Cicero, who resembled his father in +nothing but in name, whilst commanding in Asia, had several strangers one +day at his table, and, amongst the rest, Cestius seated at the lower end, +as men often intrude to the open tables of the great. Cicero asked one +of his people who that man was, who presently told him his name; but he, +as one who had his thoughts taken up with something else, and who had +forgotten the answer made him, asking three or four times, over and over +again; the same question, the fellow, to deliver himself from so many +answers and to make him know him by some particular circumstance; "'tis +that Cestius," said he, "of whom it was told you, that he makes no great +account of your father's eloquence in comparison of his own." At which +Cicero, being suddenly nettled, commanded poor Cestius presently to be +seized, and caused him to be very well whipped in his own presence; a +very discourteous entertainer! Yet even amongst those, who, all things +considered, have reputed his, eloquence incomparable, there have been +some, who have not stuck to observe some faults in it: as that great +Brutus his friend, for example, who said 'twas a broken and feeble +eloquence, 'fyactam et elumbem'. The orators also, nearest to the age +wherein he lived, reprehended in him the care he had of a certain long +cadence in his periods, and particularly took notice of these words, +'esse videatur', which he there so often makes use of. For my part, I +more approve of a shorter style, and that comes more roundly off. He +does, though, sometimes shuffle his parts more briskly together, but 'tis +very seldom. I have myself taken notice of this one passage: + + "Ego vero me minus diu senem mallem, + quam esse senem, antequam essem." + + ["I had rather be old a brief time, than be old before old age. + --"Cicero, De Senect., c. 10.] + +The historians are my right ball, for they are pleasant and easy, and +where man, in general, the knowledge of whom I hunt after, appears more +vividly and entire than anywhere else: + + [The easiest of my amusements, the right ball at tennis being that + which coming to the player from the right hand, is much easier + played with.--Coste.] + +the variety and truth of his internal qualities, in gross and piecemeal, +the diversity of means by which he is united and knit, and the accidents +that threaten him. Now those that write lives, by reason they insist +more upon counsels than events, more upon what sallies from within, than +upon what happens without, are the most proper for my reading; and, +therefore, above all others, Plutarch is the man for me. I am very sorry +we have not a dozen Laertii,--[Diogenes Laertius, who wrote the Lives of +the Philosophers]--or that he was not further extended; for I am equally +curious to know the lives and fortunes of these great instructors of the +world, as to know the diversities of their doctrines and opinions. In +this kind of study of histories, a man must tumble over, without +distinction, all sorts of authors, old and new, French or foreign, there +to know the things of which they variously treat. But Caesar, in my +opinion, particularly deserves to be studied, not for the knowledge of +the history only, but for himself, so great an excellence and perfection +he has above all the rest, though Sallust be one of the number. In +earnest, I read this author with more reverence and respect than is +usually allowed to human writings; one while considering him in his +person, by his actions and miraculous greatness, and another in the +purity and inimitable polish of his language, wherein he not only excels +all other historians, as Cicero confesses, but, peradventure, even +Cicero himself; speaking of his enemies with so much sincerity in his +judgment, that, the false colours with which he strives to palliate his +evil cause, and the ordure of his pestilent ambition excepted, I think +there is no fault to be objected against him, saving this, that he speaks +too sparingly of himself, seeing so many great things could not have been +performed under his conduct, but that his own personal acts must +necessarily have had a greater share in them than he attributes to them. + +I love historians, whether of the simple sort, or of the higher order. +The simple, who have nothing of their own to mix with it, and who only +make it their business to collect all that comes to their knowledge, and +faithfully to record all things, without choice or discrimination, leave +to us the entire judgment of discerning the truth. Such, for example, +amongst others, is honest Froissart, who has proceeded in his undertaking +with so frank a plainness that, having committed an error, he is not +ashamed to confess and correct it in the place where the finger has been +laid, and who represents to us even the variety of rumours that were then +spread abroad, and the different reports that were made to him; 'tis the +naked and inform matter of history, and of which every one may make his +profit, according to his understanding. The more excellent sort of +historians have judgment to pick out what is most worthy to be known; +and, of two reports, to examine which is the most likely to be true: from +the condition of princes and their humours, they conclude their counsels, +and attribute to them words proper for the occasion; such have title to +assume the authority of regulating our belief to what they themselves +believe; but certainly, this privilege belongs to very few. For the +middle sort of historians, of which the most part are, they spoil all; +they will chew our meat for us; they take upon them to judge of, and +consequently, to incline the history to their own fancy; for if the +judgment lean to one side, a man cannot avoid wresting and writhing his +narrative to that bias; they undertake to select things worthy to be +known, and yet often conceal from us such a word, such a private action, +as would much better instruct us; omit, as incredible, such things as +they do not understand, and peradventure some, because they cannot +express good French or Latin. Let them display their eloquence and +intelligence, and judge according to their own fancy: but let them, +withal, leave us something to judge of after them, and neither alter nor +disguise, by their abridgments and at their own choice, anything of the +substance of the matter, but deliver it to us pure and entire in all its +dimensions. + +For the most part, and especially in these latter ages, persons are +culled out for this work from amongst the common people, upon the sole +consideration of well-speaking, as if we were to learn grammar from them; +and the men so chosen have fair reason, being hired for no other end and +pretending to nothing but babble, not to be very solicitous of any part +but that, and so, with a fine jingle of words, prepare us a pretty +contexture of reports they pick up in the streets. The only good +histories are those that have been written themselves who held command in +the affairs whereof they write, or who participated in the conduct of +them, or, at least, who have had the conduct of others of the same +nature. Such are almost all the Greek and Roman histories: for, several +eye-witnesses having written of the same subject, in the time when +grandeur and learning commonly met in the same person, if there happen to +be an error, it must of necessity be a very slight one, and upon a very +doubtful incident. What can a man expect from a physician who writes of +war, or from a mere scholar, treating of the designs of princes? If we +could take notice how scrupulous the Romans were in this, there would +need but this example: Asinius Pollio found in the histories of Caesar +himself something misreported, a mistake occasioned; either by reason he +could not have his eye in all parts of his army at once and had given +credit to some individual persons who had not delivered him a very true +account; or else, for not having had too perfect notice given him by his +lieutenants of what they had done in his absence.--[Suetonius, Life of +Caesar, c. 56.]--By which we may see, whether the inquisition after +truth be not very delicate, when a man cannot believe the report of a +battle from the knowledge of him who there commanded, nor from the +soldiers who were engaged in it, unless, after the method of a judicial +inquiry, the witnesses be confronted and objections considered upon the +proof of the least detail of every incident. In good earnest the +knowledge we have of our own affairs, is much more obscure: but that has +been sufficiently handled by Bodin, and according to my own sentiment-- +[In the work by jean Bodin, entitled "Methodus ad facilem historiarum +cognitionem." 1566.]--A little to aid the weakness of my memory (so +extreme that it has happened to me more than once, to take books again +into my hand as new and unseen, that I had carefully read over a few +years before, and scribbled with my notes) I have adopted a custom of +late, to note at the end of every book (that is, of those I never intend +to read again) the time when I made an end on't, and the judgment I had +made of it, to the end that this might, at least, represent to me the +character and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it; +and I will here transcribe some of those annotations. + +I wrote this, some ten years ago, in my Guicciardini (of what language +soever my books speak to me in, I always speak to them in my own): "He is +a diligent historiographer, from whom, in my opinion, a man may learn the +truth of the affairs of his time, as exactly as from any other; in the +most of which he was himself also a personal actor, and in honourable +command. There is no appearance that he disguised anything, either upon +the account of hatred, favour, or vanity; of which the free censures he +passes upon the great ones, and particularly those by whom he was +advanced and employed in commands of great trust and honour, as Pope +Clement VII., give ample testimony. As to that part which he thinks +himself the best at, namely, his digressions and discourses, he has +indeed some very good, and enriched with fine features; but he is too +fond of them: for, to leave nothing unsaid, having a subject so full, +ample, almost infinite, he degenerates into pedantry and smacks a little +of scholastic prattle. I have also observed this in him, that of so many +souls and so many effects, so many motives and so many counsels as he +judges, he never attributes any one to virtue, religion, or conscience, +as if all these were utterly extinct in the world: and of all the +actions, how brave soever in outward show they appear in themselves, he +always refers the cause and motive to some vicious occasion or some +prospect of profit. It is impossible to imagine but that, amongst such +an infinite number of actions as he makes mention of, there must be some +one produced by the way of honest reason. No corruption could so +universally have infected men that some one would not escape the +contagion which makes me suspect that his own taste was vicious, whence +it might happen that he judged other men by himself." + +In my Philip de Commines there is this written: "You will here find the +language sweet and delightful, of a natural simplicity, the narration +pure, with the good faith of the author conspicuous therein; free from +vanity, when speaking of himself, and from affection or envy, when +speaking of others: his discourses and exhortations rather accompanied +with zeal and truth, than with any exquisite sufficiency; and, +throughout, authority and gravity, which bespeak him a man of good +extraction, and brought up in great affairs." + +Upon the Memoirs of Monsieur du Bellay I find this: "'Tis always pleasant +to read things written by those that have experienced how they ought to +be carried on; but withal, it cannot be denied but there is a manifest +decadence in these two lords--[Martin du Bellay and Guillaume de Langey, +brothers, who jointly wrote the Memoirs.]--from the freedom and liberty +of writing that shine in the elder historians, such as the Sire de +Joinville, the familiar companion of St. Louis; Eginhard, chancellor to +Charlemagne; and of later date, Philip de Commines. What we have here is +rather an apology for King Francis, against the Emperor Charles V., than +history. I will not believe that they have falsified anything, as to +matter of fact; but they make a common practice of twisting the judgment +of events, very often contrary to reason, to our advantage, and of +omitting whatsoever is ticklish to be handled in the life of their +master; witness the proceedings of Messieurs de Montmorency and de Biron, +which are here omitted: nay, so much as the very name of Madame +d'Estampes is not here to be found. Secret actions an historian may +conceal; but to pass over in silence what all the world knows and things +that have drawn after them public and such high consequences, is an +inexcusable defect. In fine, whoever has a mind to have a perfect +knowledge of King Francis and the events of his reign, let him seek it +elsewhere, if my advice may prevail. The only profit a man can reap from +these Memoirs is in the special narrative of battles and other exploits +of war wherein these gentlemen were personally engaged; in some words and +private actions of the princes of their time, and in the treaties and +negotiations carried on by the Seigneur de Langey, where there are +everywhere things worthy to be known, and discourses above the vulgar +strain." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OF CRUELTY + +I fancy virtue to be something else, and something more noble, than good +nature, and the mere propension to goodness, that we are born into the +world withal. Well-disposed and well-descended souls pursue, indeed, the +same methods, and represent in their actions the same face that virtue +itself does: but the word virtue imports, I know not what, more great and +active than merely for a man to suffer himself, by a happy disposition, +to be gently and quietly drawn to the rule of reason. He who, by a +natural sweetness and facility, should despise injuries received, would +doubtless do a very fine and laudable thing; but he who, provoked and +nettled to the quick by an offence, should fortify himself with the arms +of reason against the furious appetite of revenge, and after a great +conflict, master his own passion, would certainly do a great deal more. +The first would do well; the latter virtuously: one action might be +called goodness, and the other virtue; for methinks, the very name of +virtue presupposes difficulty and contention, and cannot be exercised +without an opponent. 'Tis for this reason, perhaps, that we call God +good, mighty, liberal and just; but we do not call Him virtuous, being +that all His operations are natural and without endeavour.--[Rousseau, +in his Emile, book v., adopts this passage almost in the same words.]-- +It has been the opinion of many philosophers, not only Stoics, but +Epicureans--(and this addition---- + + ["Montaigne stops here to make his excuse for thus naming the + Epicureans with the Stoics, in conformity to the general opinion + that the Epicureans were not so rigid in their morals as the Stoics, + which is not true in the main, as he demonstrates at one view. This + involved Montaigne in a tedious parenthesis, during which it is + proper that the reader be attentive, that he may not entirely lose + the thread of the argument. In some later editions of this author, + it has been attempted to remedy this inconvenience, but without + observing that Montaigne's argument is rendered more feeble and + obscure by such vain repetitions: it is a licence that ought not to + be taken, because he who publishes the work of another, ought to + give it as the other composed ft. But, in Mr Cotton's translation, + be was so puzzled with this enormous parenthesis that he has quite + left it out"--Coste.] + +I borrow from the vulgar opinion, which is false, notwithstanding the +witty conceit of Arcesilaus in answer to one, who, being reproached that +many scholars went from his school to the Epicurean, but never any from +thence to his school, said in answer, "I believe it indeed; numbers of +capons being made out of cocks, but never any cocks out of capons."-- +[Diogenes Laertius, Life of Archesilaus, lib. iv., 43.]--For, in truth, +the Epicurean sect is not at all inferior to the Stoic in steadiness, and +the rigour of opinions and precepts. And a certain Stoic, showing more +honesty than those disputants, who, in order to quarrel with Epicurus, +and to throw the game into their hands, make him say what he never +thought, putting a wrong construction upon his words, clothing his +sentences, by the strict rules of grammar, with another meaning, and a +different opinion from that which they knew he entertained in his mind +and in his morals, the Stoic, I say, declared that he abandoned the +Epicurean sect, upon this among other considerations, that he thought +their road too lofty and inaccessible; + + ["And those are called lovers of pleasure, being in effect + lovers of honour and justice, who cultivate and observe all + the virtues."--Cicero, Ep. Fam., xv. i, 19.] + +These philosophers say that it is not enough to have the soul seated in +a good place, of a good temper, and well disposed to virtue; it is not +enough to have our resolutions and our reasoning fixed above all the +power of fortune, but that we are, moreover, to seek occasions wherein to +put them to the proof: they would seek pain, necessity, and contempt to +contend with them and to keep the soul in breath: + + "Multum sibi adjicit virtus lacessita." + + ["Virtue is much strengthened by combats." + or: "Virtue attacked adds to its own force." + --Seneca, Ep., 13.] + +'Tis one of the reasons why Epaminondas, who was yet of a third sect, +--[The Pythagorean.]--refused the riches fortune presented to him by +very lawful means; because, said he, I am to contend with poverty, in +which extreme he maintained himself to the last. Socrates put himself, +methinks, upon a ruder trial, keeping for his exercise a confounded +scolding wife, which was fighting at sharps. Metellus having, of all the +Roman senators, alone attempted, by the power of virtue, to withstand the +violence of Saturninus, tribune of the people at Rome, who would, by all +means, cause an unjust law to pass in favour of the commons, and, by so +doing, having incurred the capital penalties that Saturninus had +established against the dissentient, entertained those who, in this +extremity, led him to execution with words to this effect: That it was a +thing too easy and too base to do ill; and that to do well where there +was no danger was a common thing; but that to do well where there was +danger was the proper office of a man of virtue. These words of Metellus +very clearly represent to us what I would make out, viz., that virtue +refuses facility for a companion; and that the easy, smooth, and +descending way by which the regular steps of a sweet disposition of +nature are conducted is not that of a true virtue; she requires a rough +and stormy passage; she will have either exotic difficulties to wrestle +with, like that of Metellus, by means whereof fortune delights to +interrupt the speed of her career, or internal difficulties, that the +inordinate appetites and imperfections of our condition introduce to +disturb her. + +I am come thus far at my ease; but here it comes into my head that the +soul of Socrates, the most perfect that ever came to my knowledge, should +by this rule be of very little recommendation; for I cannot conceive in +that person any the least motion of a vicious inclination: I cannot +imagine there could be any difficulty or constraint in the course of his +virtue: I know his reason to be so powerful and sovereign over him that +she would never have suffered a vicious appetite so much as to spring in +him. To a virtue so elevated as his, I have nothing to oppose. Methinks +I see him march, with a victorious and triumphant pace, in pomp and at +his ease, without opposition or disturbance. If virtue cannot shine +bright, but by the conflict of contrary appetites, shall we then say that +she cannot subsist without the assistance of vice, and that it is from +her that she derives her reputation and honour? What then, also, would +become of that brave and generous Epicurean pleasure, which makes account +that it nourishes virtue tenderly in her lap, and there makes it play and +wanton, giving it for toys to play withal, shame, fevers, poverty, death, +and torments? If I presuppose that a perfect virtue manifests itself in +contending, in patient enduring of pain, and undergoing the uttermost +extremity of the gout; without being moved in her seat; if I give her +troubles and difficulty for her necessary objects: what will become of a +virtue elevated to such a degree, as not only to despise pain, but, +moreover, to rejoice in it, and to be tickled with the throes of a sharp +colic, such as the Epicureans have established, and of which many of +them, by their actions, have given most manifest proofs? As have several +others, who I find to have surpassed in effects even the very rules of +their discipline. Witness the younger Cato: When I see him die, and +tearing out his own bowels, I am not satisfied simply to believe that he +had then his soul totally exempt from all trouble and horror: I cannot +think that he only maintained himself in the steadiness that the Stoical +rules prescribed him; temperate, without emotion, and imperturbed. There +was, methinks, something in the virtue of this man too sprightly and +fresh to stop there; I believe that, without doubt, he felt a pleasure +and delight in so noble an action, and was more pleased in it than in any +other of his life: + + "Sic abiit a vita, ut causam moriendi nactum se esse gauderet." + + ["He quitted life rejoicing that a reason for dying had arisen." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., i. 30.] + +I believe it so thoroughly that I question whether he would have been +content to have been deprived of the occasion of so brave an exploit; and +if the goodness that made him embrace the public concern more than his +own, withheld me not, I should easily fall into an opinion that he +thought himself obliged to fortune for having put his virtue upon so +brave a trial, and for having favoured that theif--[Caesar]--in treading +underfoot the ancient liberty of his country. Methinks I read in this +action I know not what exaltation in his soul, and an extraordinary and +manly emotion of pleasure, when he looked upon the generosity and height +of his enterprise: + + "Deliberate morte ferocior," + + ["The more courageous from the deliberation to die." + --Horace, Od., i. 37, 29.] + +not stimulated with any hope of glory, as the popular and effeminate +judgments of some have concluded (for that consideration was too mean and +low to possess so generous, so haughty, and so determined a heart as +his), but for the very beauty of the thing in itself, which he who had +the handling of the springs discerned more clearly and in its perfection +than we are able to do. Philosophy has obliged me in determining that so +brave an action had been indecently placed in any other life than that of +Cato; and that it only appertained to his to end so; notwithstanding, and +according to reason, he commanded his son and the senators who +accompanied him to take another course in their affairs: + + "Catoni, quum incredibilem natura tribuisset gravitatem, + eamque ipse perpetue constantia roboravisset, semperque + in proposito consilio permansisset, moriendum potius, + quam tyranni vultus aspiciendus, erat." + + ["Cato, whom nature had given incredible dignity, which he had + fortified by perpetual constancy, ever remaining of his + predetermined opinion, preferred to die rather than to look + on the countenance of a tyrant."--Cicero, De Ofc., i. 31.] + +Every death ought to hold proportion with the life before it; we do not +become others for dying. I always interpret the death by the life +preceding; and if any one tell me of a death strong and constant in +appearance, annexed to a feeble life, I conclude it produced by some +feeble cause, and suitable to the life before. The easiness then of his +death and the facility of dying he had acquired by the vigour of his +soul; shall we say that it ought to abate anything of the lustre of his +virtue? And who, that has his brain never so little tinctured with the +true philosophy, can be content to imagine Socrates only free from fear +and passion in the accident of his prison, fetters, and condemnation? +and that will not discover in him not only firmness and constancy (which +was his ordinary condition), but, moreover, I know not what new +satisfaction, and a frolic cheerfulness in his last words and actions? +In the start he gave with the pleasure of scratching his leg when his +irons were taken off, does he not discover an equal serenity and joy in +his soul for being freed from past inconveniences, and at the same time +to enter into the knowledge of the things to come? Cato shall pardon me, +if he please; his death indeed is more tragical and more lingering; but +yet this is, I know not how, methinks, finer. Aristippus, to one that +was lamenting this death: "The gods grant me such an one," said he. +A man discerns in the soul of these two great men and their imitators +(for I very much doubt whether there were ever their equals) so perfect a +habitude to virtue, that it was turned to a complexion. It is no longer +a laborious virtue, nor the precepts of reason, to maintain which the +soul is so racked, but the very essence of their soul, its natural and +ordinary habit; they have rendered it such by a long practice of +philosophical precepts having lit upon a rich and fine nature; the +vicious passions that spring in us can find no entrance into them; the +force and vigour of their soul stifle and extinguish irregular desires, +so soon as they begin to move. + +Now, that it is not more noble, by a high and divine resolution, to +hinder the birth of temptations, and to be so formed to virtue, that the +very seeds of vice are rooted out, than to hinder by main force their +progress; and, having suffered ourselves to be surprised with the first +motions of the passions, to arm ourselves and to stand firm to oppose +their progress, and overcome them; and that this second effect is not +also much more generous than to be simply endowed with a facile and +affable nature, of itself disaffected to debauchery and vice, I do not +think can be doubted; for this third and last sort of virtue seems to +render a man innocent, but not virtuous; free from doing ill, but not apt +enough to do well: considering also, that this condition is so near +neighbour to imperfection and cowardice, that I know not very well how to +separate the confines and distinguish them: the very names of goodness +and innocence are, for this reason, in some sort grown into contempt. +I very well know that several virtues, as chastity, sobriety, and +temperance, may come to a man through personal defects. Constancy in +danger, if it must be so called, the contempt of death, and patience in +misfortunes, may ofttimes be found in men for want of well judging of +such accidents, and not apprehending them for such as they are. Want of +apprehension and stupidity sometimes counterfeit virtuous effects as I +have often seen it happen, that men have been commended for what really +merited blame. An Italian lord once said this, in my presence, to the +disadvantage of his own nation: that the subtlety of the Italians, and +the vivacity of their conceptions were so great, and they foresaw the +dangers and accidents that might befall them so far off, that it was not +to be thought strange, if they were often, in war, observed to provide +for their safety, even before they had discovered the peril; that we +French and the Spaniards, who were not so cunning, went on further, and +that we must be made to see and feel the danger before we would take the +alarm; but that even then we could not stick to it. But the Germans and +Swiss, more gross and heavy, had not the sense to look about them, even +when the blows were falling about their ears. Peradventure, he only +talked so for mirth's sake; and yet it is most certain that in war raw +soldiers rush into dangers with more precipitancy than after they have +been cudgelled*--(The original has eschauldex--scalded) + + "Haud ignarus . . . . quantum nova gloria in armis, + Et praedulce decus, primo certamine possit." + + ["Not ignorant how much power the fresh glory of arms and sweetest + honour possess in the first contest."--AEneid, xi. 154] + +For this reason it is that, when we judge of a particular action, we are +to consider the circumstances, and the whole man by whom it is performed, +before we give it a name. + +To instance in myself: I have sometimes known my friends call that +prudence in me, which was merely fortune; and repute that courage and +patience, which was judgment and opinion; and attribute to me one title +for another, sometimes to my advantage and sometimes otherwise. As to +the rest, I am so far from being arrived at the first and most perfect +degree of excellence, where virtue is turned into habit, that even of the +second I have made no great proofs. I have not been very solicitous to +curb the desires by which I have been importuned. My virtue is a virtue, +or rather an innocence, casual and accidental. If I had been born of a +more irregular complexion, I am afraid I should have made scurvy work; +for I never observed any great stability in my soul to resist passions, +if they were never so little vehement: I know not how to nourish quarrels +and debates in my own bosom, and, consequently, owe myself no great +thanks that I am free from several vices: + + "Si vitiis mediocribus et mea paucis + Mendosa est natura, alioqui recta, velut si + Egregio inspersos reprehendas corpore naevos:" + + ["If my nature be disfigured only with slight and few vices, and is + otherwise just, it is as if you should blame moles on a fair body." + --Horatius, Sat., i. 6, 65.] + +I owe it rather to my fortune than my reason. She has caused me to be +descended of a race famous for integrity and of a very good father; I +know not whether or no he has infused into me part of his humours, or +whether domestic examples and the good education of my infancy have +insensibly assisted in the work, or, if I was otherwise born so: + + "Seu Libra, seu me Scorpius adspicit + Formidolosus, pars violentior + Natalis hors, seu tyrannus + Hesperive Capricornus undae:" + + ["Whether the Balance or dread Scorpio, more potent over my natal + hour, aspects me, or Capricorn, supreme over the Hesperian sea." + --Horace, Od., ii. 117.] + +but so it is, that I have naturally a horror for most vices. The answer +of Antisthenes to him who asked him, which was the best apprenticeship +"to unlearn evil," seems to point at this. I have them in horror, I say, +with a detestation so natural, and so much my own, that the same instinct +and impression I brought of them with me from my nurse, I yet retain, and +no temptation whatever has had the power to make me alter it. Not so +much as my own discourses, which in some things lashing out of the common +road might seem easily to license me to actions that my natural +inclination makes me hate. I will say a prodigious thing, but I will say +it, however: I find myself in many things more under reputation by my +manners than by my opinion, and my concupiscence less debauched than my +reason. Aristippus instituted opinions so bold in favour of pleasure and +riches as set all the philosophers against him: but as to his manners, +Dionysius the tyrant, having presented three beautiful women before him, +to take his choice; he made answer, that he would choose them all, and +that Paris got himself into trouble for having preferred one before the +other two: but, having taken them home to his house, he sent them back +untouched. His servant finding himself overladen upon the way, with the +money he carried after him, he ordered him to pour out and throw away +that which troubled him. And Epicurus, whose doctrines were so +irreligious and effeminate, was in his life very laborious and devout; +he wrote to a friend of his that he lived only upon biscuit and water, +entreating him to send him a little cheese, to lie by him against he had +a mind to make a feast. Must it be true, that to be a perfect good man, +we must be so by an occult, natural, and universal propriety, without +law, reason, or example? The debauches wherein I have been engaged, have +not been, I thank God, of the worst sort, and I have condemned them in +myself, for my judgment was never infected by them; on the contrary, +I accuse them more severely in myself than in any other; but that is all, +for, as to the rest. I oppose too little resistance and suffer myself to +incline too much to the other side of the balance, excepting that I +moderate them, and prevent them from mixing with other vices, which for +the most part will cling together, if a man have not a care. I have +contracted and curtailed mine, to make them as single and as simple as I +can: + + "Nec ultra + Errorem foveo." + + ["Nor do I cherish error further." + or: "Nor carry wrong further." + --Juvenal, viii. 164.] + +For as to the opinion of the Stoics, who say, "That the wise man when he +works, works by all the virtues together, though one be most apparent, +according to the nature of the action"; and herein the similitude of a +human body might serve them somewhat, for the action of anger cannot +work, unless all the humours assist it, though choler predominate; +--if they will thence draw a like consequence, that when the wicked man +does wickedly, he does it by all the vices together, I do not believe it +to be so, or else I understand them not, for I by effect find the +contrary. These are sharp, unsubstantial subleties, with which +philosophy sometimes amuses itself. I follow some vices, but I fly +others as much as a saint would do. The Peripatetics also disown this +indissoluble connection; and Aristotle is of opinion that a prudent and +just man may be intemperate and inconsistent. Socrates confessed to some +who had discovered a certain inclination to vice in his physiognomy, that +it was, in truth, his natural propension, but that he had by discipline +corrected it. And such as were familiar with the philosopher Stilpo +said, that being born with addiction to wine and women, he had by study +rendered himself very abstinent both from the one and the other. + +What I have in me of good, I have, quite contrary, by the chance of my +birth; and hold it not either by law, precept, or any other instruction; +the innocence that is in me is a simple one; little vigour and no art. +Amongst other vices, I mortally hate cruelty, both by nature and +judgment, as the very extreme of all vices: nay, with so much tenderness +that I cannot see a chicken's neck pulled off without trouble, and cannot +without impatience endure the cry of a hare in my dog's teeth, though the +chase be a violent pleasure. Such as have sensuality to encounter, +freely make use of this argument, to shew that it is altogether "vicious +and unreasonable; that when it is at the height, it masters us to that +degree that a man's reason can have no access," and instance our own +experience in the act of love, + + "Quum jam praesagit gaudia corpus, + Atque in eo est Venus, + ut muliebria conserat arva." + + [None of the translators of the old editions used for this etext + have been willing to translate this passage from Lucretius, iv. + 1099; they take a cop out by bashfully saying: "The sense is in the + preceding passage of the text." D.W.] + +wherein they conceive that the pleasure so transports us, that our reason +cannot perform its office, whilst we are in such ecstasy and rapture. I +know very well it may be otherwise, and that a man may sometimes, if he +will, gain this point over himself to sway his soul, even in the critical +moment, to think of something else; but then he must ply it to that bent. +I know that a man may triumph over the utmost effort of this pleasure: I +have experienced it in myself, and have not found Venus so imperious a +goddess, as many, and much more virtuous men than I, declare. I do not +consider it a miracle, as the Queen of Navarre does in one of the Tales +of her Heptameron--["Vu gentil liure pour son estoffe."]--(which is a +very pretty book of its kind), nor for a thing of extreme difficulty, to +pass whole nights, where a man has all the convenience and liberty he can +desire, with a long-coveted mistress, and yet be true to the pledge first +given to satisfy himself with kisses and suchlike endearments, without +pressing any further. I conceive that the example of the pleasure of the +chase would be more proper; wherein though the pleasure be less, there is +the higher excitement of unexpected joy, giving no time for the reason, +taken by surprise, to prepare itself for the encounter, when after a long +quest the beast starts up on a sudden in a place where, peradventure, we +least expected it; the shock and the ardour of the shouts and cries of +the hunters so strike us, that it would be hard for those who love this +lesser chase, to turn their thoughts upon the instant another way; and +the poets make Diana triumph over the torch and shafts of Cupid: + + "Quis non malarum, quas amor curas habet, + Haec inter obliviscitur?" + + ["Who, amongst such delights would not remove out of his thoughts + the anxious cares of love."--Horace, Epod., ii. 37.] + +To return to what I was saying before, I am tenderly compassionate of +others' afflictions, and should readily cry for company, if, upon any +occasion whatever, I could cry at all. Nothing tempts my tears but +tears, and not only those that are real and true, but whatever they are, +feigned or painted. I do not much lament the dead, and should envy them +rather; but I very much lament the dying. The savages do not so much +offend me, in roasting and eating the bodies of the dead, as they do who +torment and persecute the living. Nay, I cannot look so much as upon the +ordinary executions of justice, how reasonable soever, with a steady eye. +Some one having to give testimony of Julius Caesar's clemency; "he was," +says he, "mild in his revenges. Having compelled the pirates to yield by +whom he had before been taken prisoner and put to ransom; forasmuch as he +had threatened them with the cross, he indeed condemned them to it, but +it was after they had been first strangled. He punished his secretary +Philemon, who had attempted to poison him, with no greater severity than +mere death." Without naming that Latin author,--[Suetonius, Life of +Casay, c. 74.]--who thus dares to allege as a testimony of mercy the +killing only of those by whom we have been offended; it is easy to guess +that he was struck with the horrid and inhuman examples of cruelty +practised by the Roman tyrants. + +For my part, even in justice itself, all that exceeds a simple death +appears to me pure cruelty; especially in us who ought, having regard to +their souls, to dismiss them in a good and calm condition; which cannot +be, when we have agitated them by insufferable torments. Not long since, +a soldier who was a prisoner, perceiving from a tower where he was shut +up, that the people began to assemble to the place of execution, and that +the carpenters were busy erecting a scaffold, he presently concluded +that the preparation was for him, and therefore entered into a resolution +to kill himself, but could find no instrument to assist him in his design +except an old rusty cart-nail that fortune presented to him; with this he +first gave himself two great wounds about his throat, but finding these +would not do, he presently afterwards gave himself a third in the belly, +where he left the nail sticking up to the head. The first of his keepers +who came in found him in this condition: yet alive, but sunk down and +exhausted by his wounds. To make use of time, therefore, before he +should die, they made haste to read his sentence; which having done, and +he hearing that he was only condemned to be beheaded, he seemed to take +new courage, accepted wine which he had before refused, and thanked his +judges for the unhoped-for mildness of their sentence; saying, that he +had taken a resolution to despatch himself for fear of a more severe and +insupportable death, having entertained an opinion, by the preparations +he had seen in the place, that they were resolved to torment him with +some horrible execution, and seemed to be delivered from death in having +it changed from what he apprehended. + +I should advise that those examples of severity by which 'tis designed to +retain the people in their duty, might be exercised upon the dead bodies +of criminals; for to see them deprived of sepulture, to see them boiled +and divided into quarters, would almost work as much upon the vulgar, as +the pain they make the living endure; though that in effect be little or +nothing, as God himself says, "Who kill the body, and after that have no +more that they can do;"--[Luke, xii. 4.]--and the poets singularly +dwell upon the horrors of this picture, as something worse than death: + + "Heu! reliquias semiustas regis, denudatis ossibus, + Per terram sanie delibutas foede divexarier." + + ["Alas! that the half-burnt remains of the king, exposing his bones, + should be foully dragged along the ground besmeared with gore." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., i. 44.] + +I happened to come by one day accidentally at Rome, just as they were +upon executing Catena, a notorious robber: he was strangled without any +emotion of the spectators, but when they came to cut him in quarters, the +hangman gave not a blow that the people did not follow with a doleful cry +and exclamation, as if every one had lent his sense of feeling to the +miserable carcase. Those inhuman excesses ought to be exercised upon the +bark, and not upon the quick. Artaxerxes, in almost a like case, +moderated the severity of the ancient laws of Persia, ordaining that the +nobility who had committed a fault, instead of being whipped, as they +were used to be, should be stripped only and their clothes whipped for +them; and that whereas they were wont to tear off their hair, they should +only take off their high-crowned tiara.'--[Plutarch, Notable Sayings of +the Ancient King.]--The so devout Egyptians thought they sufficiently +satisfied the divine justice by sacrificing hogs in effigy and +representation; a bold invention to pay God so essential a substance in +picture only and in show. + +I live in a time wherein we abound in incredible examples of this vice, +through the licence of our civil wars; and we see nothing in ancient +histories more extreme than what we have proof of every day, but I +cannot, any the more, get used to it. I could hardly persuade myself, +before I saw it with my eyes, that there could be found souls so cruel +and fell, who, for the sole pleasure of murder, would commit it; would +hack and lop off the limbs of others; sharpen their wits to invent +unusual torments and new kinds of death, without hatred, without profit, +and for no other end but only to enjoy the pleasant spectacle of the +gestures and motions, the lamentable groans and cries of a man dying in +anguish. For this is the utmost point to which cruelty can arrive: + + "Ut homo hominem, non iratus, non timens, + tantum spectaturus, occidat." + + ["That a man should kill a man, not being angry, not in fear, only + for the sake of the spectacle."--Seneca, Ep., 90.] + +For my own part, I cannot without grief see so much as an innocent beast +pursued and killed that has no defence, and from which we have received +no offence at all; and that which frequently happens, that the stag we +hunt, finding himself weak and out of breath, and seeing no other remedy, +surrenders himself to us who pursue him, imploring mercy by his tears: + + "Questuque cruentus, + Atque imploranti similis," + + ["Who, bleeding, by his tears seems to crave mercy." + --AEnead, vii. 501.] + +has ever been to me a very unpleasing sight; and I hardly ever take a +beast alive that I do not presently turn out again. Pythagoras bought +them of fishermen and fowlers to do the same: + + "Primoque a caede ferarum, + Incaluisse puto maculatum sanguine ferrum." + + + ["I think 'twas slaughter of wild beasts that first stained the + steel of man with blood."--Ovid, Met., xv. 106.] + +Those natures that are sanguinary towards beasts discover a natural +proneness to cruelty. After they had accustomed themselves at Rome to +spectacles of the slaughter of animals, they proceeded to those of the +slaughter of men, of gladiators. Nature has herself, I fear, imprinted +in man a kind of instinct to inhumanity; nobody takes pleasure in seeing +beasts play with and caress one another, but every one is delighted with +seeing them dismember, and tear one another to pieces. And that I may +not be laughed at for the sympathy I have with them, theology itself +enjoins us some favour in their behalf; and considering that one and the +same master has lodged us together in this palace for his service, and +that they, as well as we, are of his family, it has reason to enjoin us +some affection and regard to them. Pythagoras borrowed the +metempsychosis from the Egyptians; but it has since been received by +several nations, and particularly by our Druids: + + "Morte carent animae; semperque, priore relicts + Sede, novis domibus vivunt, habitantque receptae." + + ["Souls never die, but, having left their former seat, live + and are received into new homes."--Ovid, Met., xv. 158.] + +The religion of our ancient Gauls maintained that souls, being eternal, +never ceased to remove and shift their places from one body to another; +mixing moreover with this fancy some consideration of divine justice; for +according to the deportments of the soul, whilst it had been in +Alexander, they said that God assigned it another body to inhabit, more +or less painful, and proper for its condition: + + "Muta ferarum + Cogit vincla pati; truculentos ingerit ursis, + Praedonesque lupis; fallaces vulpibus addit: + Atque ubi per varios annos, per mille figuras + + Egit, Lethaeo purgatos flumine, tandem + Rursus ad humanae revocat primordia formae:" + + ["He makes them wear the silent chains of brutes, the bloodthirsty + souls he encloses in bears, the thieves in wolves, the deceivers in + foxes; where, after successive years and a thousand forms, man had + spent his life, and after purgation in Lethe's flood, at last he + restores them to the primordial human shapes." + --Claudian, In Ruf., ii. 482.] + +If it had been valiant, he lodged it in the body of a lion; if +voluptuous, in that of a hog; if timorous, in that of a hart or hare; if +malicious, in that of a fox, and so of the rest, till having purified it +by this chastisement, it again entered into the body of some other man: + + "Ipse ego nam memini, Trojani, tempore belli + Panthoides Euphorbus eram." + + ["For I myself remember that, in the days of the Trojan war, I was + Euphorbus, son of Pantheus."--Ovid, Met., xv. 160; and see Diogenes + Laertius, Life of Pythagoras.] + +As to the relationship betwixt us and beasts, I do not much admit of it; +nor of that which several nations, and those among the most ancient and +most noble, have practised, who have not only received brutes into their +society and companionship, but have given them a rank infinitely above +themselves, esteeming them one while familiars and favourites of the +gods, and having them in more than human reverence and respect; others +acknowledged no other god or divinity than they: + + "Bellux a barbaris propter beneficium consecratae." + + ["Beasts, out of opinion of some benefit received by them, were + consecrated by barbarians"--Cicero, De Natura Deor., i. 36.] + + + "Crocodilon adorat + Pars haec; illa pavet saturam serpentibus ibin: + Effigies sacri hic nitet aurea cercopitheci; + Hic piscem flumints, illic + Oppida tota canem venerantur." + + ["This place adores the crocodile; another dreads the ibis, feeder + on serpents; here shines the golden image of the sacred ape; here + men venerate the fish of the river; there whole towns worship a + dog."--Juvenal, xv. 2.] + +And the very interpretation that Plutarch, gives to this error, which is +very well conceived, is advantageous to them: for he says that it was not +the cat or the ox, for example, that the Egyptians adored: but that they, +in those beasts, adored some image of the divine faculties; in this, +patience and utility: in that, vivacity, or, as with our neighbours the +Burgundians and all the Germans, impatience to see themselves shut up; by +which they represented liberty, which they loved and adored above all +other godlike attributes, and so of the rest. But when, amongst the more +moderate opinions, I meet with arguments that endeavour to demonstrate +the near resemblance betwixt us and animals, how large a share they have +in our greatest privileges, and with how much probability they compare us +together, truly I abate a great deal of our presumption, and willingly +resign that imaginary sovereignty that is attributed to us over other +creatures. + +But supposing all this were not true, there is nevertheless a certain +respect, a general duty of humanity, not only to beasts that have life +and sense, but even to trees, and plants. We owe justice to men, and +graciousness and benignity to other creatures that are capable of it; +there is a certain commerce and mutual obligation betwixt them and us. +Nor shall I be afraid to confess the tenderness of my nature so childish, +that I cannot well refuse to play with my dog, when he the most +unseasonably importunes me to do so. The Turks have alms and hospitals +for beasts. The Romans had public care to the nourishment of geese, by +whose vigilance their Capitol had been preserved. The Athenians made a +decree that the mules and moyls which had served at the building of the +temple called Hecatompedon should be free and suffered to pasture at +their own choice, without hindrance. The Agrigentines had a common use +solemnly to inter the beasts they had a kindness for, as horses of some +rare quality, dogs, and useful birds, and even those that had only been +kept to divert their children; and the magnificence that was ordinary +with them in all other things, also particularly appeared in the +sumptuosity and numbers of monuments erected to this end, and which +remained in their beauty several ages after. The Egyptians buried +wolves, bears, crocodiles, dogs, and cats in sacred places, embalmed +their bodies, and put on mourning at their death. Cimon gave an +honourable sepulture to the mares with which he had three times gained +the prize of the course at the Olympic Games. The ancient Xantippus +caused his dog to be interred on an eminence near the sea, which has ever +since retained the name, and Plutarch says, that he had a scruple about +selling for a small profit to the slaughterer an ox that had been long in +his service. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A little cheese when a mind to make a feast +A word ill taken obliterates ten years' merit +Cato said: So many servants, so many enemies +Cherish themselves most where they are most wrong +Condemn all violence in the education of a tender soul +Cruelty is the very extreme of all vices +Disguise, by their abridgments and at their own choice +Epicurus +Flatterer in your old age or in your sickness +He felt a pleasure and delight in so noble an action +He judged other men by himself +I cannot well refuse to play with my dog +I do not much lament the dead, and should envy them rather +I had rather be old a brief time, than be old before old age +I owe it rather to my fortune than my reason +Incline the history to their own fancy +It (my books) may know many things that are gone from me +Knowledge and truth may be in us without judgment +Learn the theory from those who best know the practice +Loved them for our sport, like monkeys, and not as men +Motive to some vicious occasion or some prospect of profit +My books: from me hold that which I have not retained +My dog unseasonably importunes me to play +My innocence is a simple one; little vigour and no art. +Never observed any great stability in my soul to resist passions +Nothing tempts my tears but tears +Omit, as incredible, such things as they do not understand +On all occasions to contradict and oppose +Only desire to become more wise, not more learned or eloquent +Passion of dandling and caressing infants scarcely born +Perfection: but I will not buy it so dear as it costs +Plato will have nobody marry before thirty +Prudent and just man may be intemperate and inconsistent +Puerile simplicities of our children +Shelter my own weakness under these great reputations +Socrates kept a confounded scolding wife +The authors, with whom I converse +There is no recompense becomes virtue +To do well where there was danger was the proper office +To whom no one is ill who can be good? +Turks have alms and hospitals for beasts +Vices will cling together, if a man have not a care +Virtue is much strengthened by combats +Virtue refuses facility for a companion + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V10 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 11. + +XIII. Of judging of the death of another. +XIV. That the mind hinders itself. +XV. That our desires are augmented by difficulty. +XVI. Of glory. +XVII. Of presumption. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +OF JUDGING OF THE DEATH OF ANOTHER + +When we judge of another's assurance in death, which, without doubt, is +the most remarkable action of human life, we are to take heed of one +thing, which is that men very hardly believe themselves to have arrived +to that period. Few men come to die in the opinion that it is their +latest hour; and there is nothing wherein the flattery of hope more +deludes us; It never ceases to whisper in our ears, "Others have been +much sicker without dying; your condition is not so desperate as 'tis +thought; and, at the worst, God has done other miracles." Which happens +by reason that we set too much value upon ourselves; it seems as if the +universality of things were in some measure to suffer by our dissolution, +and that it commiserates our condition, forasmuch as our disturbed sight +represents things to itself erroneously, and that we are of opinion they +stand in as much need of us as we do of them, like people at sea, to whom +mountains, fields, cities, heaven and earth are tossed at the same rate +as they are: + + "Provehimur portu, terraeque urbesque recedunt:" + + ["We sail out of port, and cities and lands recede." + --AEneid, iii. 72.] + +Whoever saw old age that did not applaud the past and condemn the present +time, laying the fault of his misery and discontent upon the world and +the manners of men? + + "Jamque caput quassans, grandis suspirat arator. + Et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert + Praeteritis, laudat fortunas saepe parentis, + Et crepat antiquum genus ut pietate repletum." + + ["Now the old ploughman, shaking his head, sighs, and compares + present times with past, often praises his parents' happiness, and + talks of the old race as full of piety."--Lucretius, ii. 1165.] + +We will make all things go along with us; whence it follows that we +consider our death as a very great thing, and that does not so easily +pass, nor without the solemn consultation of the stars: + + "Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes dens," + + ["All the gods to agitation about one man." + --Seneca, Suasor, i. 4.] + +and so much the more think it as we more value ourselves. "What, shall +so much knowledge be lost, with so much damage to the world, without a +particular concern of the destinies? Does so rare and exemplary a soul +cost no more the killing than one that is common and of no use to the +public? This life, that protects so many others, upon which so many +other lives depend, that employs so vast a number of men in his service, +that fills so many places, shall it drop off like one that hangs but by +its own simple thread? None of us lays it enough to heart that he is +but one: thence proceeded those words of Caesar to his pilot, more tumid +than the sea that threatened him: + + "Italiam si coelo auctore recusas, + Me pete: sola tibi causa est haec justa timoris, + Vectorem non nosce tuum; perrumpe procellas, + Tutela secure mea." + + ["If you decline to sail to Italy under the God's protection, trust + to mine; the only just cause you have to fear is, that you do not + know your passenger; sail on, secure in my guardianship." + --Lucan, V. 579.] + +And these: + + "Credit jam digna pericula Caesar + Fatis esse suis; tantusne evertere, dixit, + Me superis labor est, parva quern puppe sedentem, + Tam magno petiere mari;" + + ["Caesar now deemed these dangers worthy of his destiny: 'What!' + said he, 'is it for the gods so great a task to overthrow me, that + they must be fain to assail me with great seas in a poor little + bark.'"--Lucan, v. 653.] + +and that idle fancy of the public, that the sun bore on his face mourning +for his death a whole year: + + "Ille etiam extincto miseratus Caesare Romam, + Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit:" + + ["Caesar being dead, the sun in mourning clouds, pitying Rome, + clothed himself."--Virgil, Georg., i. 466.] + +and a thousand of the like, wherewith the world suffers itself to be so +easily imposed upon, believing that our interests affect the heavens, and +that their infinity is concerned at our ordinary actions: + + "Non tanta caelo societas nobiscum est, ut nostro + fato mortalis sit ille quoque siderum fulgor." + + ["There is no such alliance betwixt us and heaven, that the + brightness of the stars should be made also mortal by our death." + --Pliny, Nat. Hist., ii. 8.] + +Now, to judge of constancy and resolution in a man who does not yet +believe himself to be certainly in danger, though he really is, is not +reason; and 'tis not enough that he die in this posture, unless he +purposely put himself into it for this effect. It commonly falls out in +most men that they set a good face upon the matter and speak with great +indifference, to acquire reputation, which they hope afterwards, living, +to enjoy. Of all whom I have seen die, fortune has disposed their +countenances and no design of theirs; and even of those who in ancient +times have made away with themselves, there is much to be considered +whether it were a sudden or a lingering death. That cruel Roman Emperor +would say of his prisoners, that he would make them feel death, and if +any one killed himself in prison, "That fellow has made an escape from +me"; he would prolong death and make it felt by torments: + + "Vidimus et toto quamvis in corpore caeso + Nil anima lethale datum, moremque nefandae, + Durum saevitix, pereuntis parcere morti." + + ["We have seen in tortured bodies, amongst the wounds, none that + have been mortal, inhuman mode of dire cruelty, that means to kill, + but will not let men die."--Lucan, iv. i. 78.] + +In plain truth, it is no such great matter for a man in health and in a +temperate state of mind to resolve to kill himself; it is very easy to +play the villain before one comes to the point, insomuch that +Heliogabalus, the most effeminate man in the world, amongst his lowest +sensualities, could forecast to make himself die delicately, when he +should be forced thereto; and that his death might not give the lie to +the rest of his life, had purposely built a sumptuous tower, the front +and base of which were covered with planks enriched with gold and +precious stones, thence to precipitate himself; and also caused cords +twisted with gold and crimson silk to be made, wherewith to strangle +himself; and a sword with the blade of gold to be hammered out to fall +upon; and kept poison in vessels of emerald and topaz wherewith to poison +himself according as he should like to choose one of these ways of dying: + + "Impiger. . . ad letum et fortis virtute coacta." + + ["Resolute and brave in the face of death by a forced courage. + --"Lucan, iv. 798.] + +Yet in respect of this person, the effeminacy of his preparations makes +it more likely that he would have thought better on't, had he been put to +the test. But in those who with greater resolution have determined to +despatch themselves, we must examine whether it were with one blow which +took away the leisure of feeling the effect for it is to be questioned +whether, perceiving life, by little and little, to steal away the +sentiment of the body mixing itself with that of the soul, and the means +of repenting being offered, whether, I say, constancy and obstinacy in so +dangerous an intention would have been found. + +In the civil wars of Caesar, Lucius Domitius, being taken in the Abruzzi, +and thereupon poisoning himself, afterwards repented. It has happened in +our time that a certain person, being resolved to die and not having gone +deep enough at the first thrust, the sensibility of the flesh opposing +his arm, gave himself two or three wounds more, but could never prevail +upon himself to thrust home. Whilst Plautius Silvanus was upon his +trial, Urgulania, his grandmother, sent him a poniard with which, not +being able to kill himself, he made his servants cut his veins. Albucilla +in Tiberius time having, to kill himself, struck with too much +tenderness, gave his adversaries opportunity to imprison and put him to +death their own way.' And that great leader, Demosthenes, after his rout +in Sicily, did the same; and C. Fimbria, having struck himself too +weakly, entreated his servant to despatch him. On the contrary, +Ostorius, who could not make use of his own arm, disdained to employ that +of his servant to any other use but only to hold the poniard straight and +firm; and bringing his throat to it, thrust himself through. 'Tis, in +truth, a morsel that is to be swallowed without chewing, unless a man be +thoroughly resolved; and yet Adrian the emperor made his physician mark +and encircle on his pap the mortal place wherein he was to stab to whom +he had given orders to kill him. For this reason it was that Caesar, +being asked what death he thought to be the most desired, made answer, +"The least premeditated and the shortest."--[Tacitus, Annals, xvi. 15]-- +If Caesar dared to say it, it is no cowardice in me to believe it." +A short death," says Pliny, "is the sovereign good hap of human life. +"People do not much care to recognise it. No one can say that he is +resolute for death who fears to deal with it and cannot undergo it with +his eyes open: they whom we see in criminal punishments run to their +death and hasten and press their execution, do it not out of resolution, +but because they will not give them selves leisure to consider it; it +does not trouble them to be dead, but to die: + + "Emodi nolo, sed me esse mortem nihil astigmia:" + + ["I have no mind to die, but I have no objection to be dead." + --Epicharmus, apud Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., i. 8.] + +'tis a degree of constancy to which I have experimented, that I can +arrive, like those who plunge into dangers, as into the sea, with their +eyes shut. + +There is nothing, in my opinion, more illustrious in the life of +Socrates, than that he had thirty whole days wherein to ruminate upon the +sentence of his death, to have digested it all that time with a most +assured hope, without care, and without alteration, and with a series of +words and actions rather careless and indifferent than any way stirred or +discomposed by the weight of such a thought. + +That Pomponius Atticus, to whom Cicero writes so often, being sick, +caused Agrippa, his son-in-law, and two or three more of his friends, to +be called to him, and told them, that having found all means practised +upon him for his recovery to be in vain, and that all he did to prolong +his life also prolonged and augmented his pain, he was resolved to put an +end both to the one and the other, desiring them to approve of his +determination, or at least not to lose their labour in endeavouring to +dissuade him. Now, having chosen to destroy himself by abstinence, his +disease was thereby cured: the remedy that he had made use of to kill +himself restored him to health. His physicians and friends, rejoicing at +so happy an event, and coming to congratulate him, found themselves very +much deceived, it being impossible for them to make him alter his +purpose, he telling them, that as he must one day die, and was now so far +on his way, he would save himself the labour of beginning another time. +This man, having surveyed death at leisure, was not only not discouraged +at its approach, but eagerly sought it; for being content that he had +engaged in the combat, he made it a point of bravery to see the end; 'tis +far beyond not fearing death to taste and relish it. + +The story of the philosopher Cleanthes is very like this: he had his gums +swollen and rotten; his physicians advised him to great abstinence: +having fasted two days, he was so much better that they pronounced him +cured, and permitted him to return to his ordinary course of diet; he, on +the contrary, already tasting some sweetness in this faintness of his, +would not be persuaded to go back, but resolved to proceed, and to finish +what he had so far advanced. + +Tullius Marcellinus, a young man of Rome, having a mind to anticipate the +hour of his destiny, to be rid of a disease that was more trouble to him +than he was willing to endure, though his physicians assured him of a +certain, though not sudden, cure, called a council of his friends to +deliberate about it; of whom some, says Seneca, gave him the counsel that +out of unmanliness they would have taken themselves; others, out of +flattery, such as they thought he would best like; but a Stoic said this +to him: "Do not concern thyself, Marcellinus, as if thou didst deliberate +of a thing of importance; 'tis no great matter to live; thy servants and +beasts live; but it is a great thing to die handsomely, wisely, and +firmly. Do but think how long thou hast done the same things, eat, +drink, and sleep, drink, sleep, and eat: we incessantly wheel in the same +circle. Not only ill and insupportable accidents, but even the satiety +of living, inclines a man to desire to die." Marcellinus did not stand +in need of a man to advise, but of a man to assist him; his servants were +afraid to meddle in the business, but this philosopher gave them to under +stand that domestics are suspected even when it is in doubt whether the +death of the master were voluntary or no; otherwise, that it would be of +as ill example to hinder him as to kill him, forasmuch as: + + "Invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti." + + ["He who makes a man live against his will, 'tis as cruel + as to kill him."--Horat., De Arte Poet., 467] + +He then told Marcellinus that it would not be unbecoming, as what is left +on the tables when we have eaten is given to the attendants, so, life +being ended, to distribute something to those who have been our servants. +Now Marcellinus was of a free and liberal spirit; he, therefore, divided +a certain sum of money amongst his servants, and consoled them. As to +the rest, he had no need of steel nor of blood: he resolved to go out of +this life and not to run out of it; not to escape from death, but to +essay it. And to give himself leisure to deal with it, having forsaken +all manner of nourishment, the third day following, after having caused +himself to be sprinkled with warm water, he fainted by degrees, and not +without some kind of pleasure, as he himself declared. + +In fact, such as have been acquainted with these faintings, proceeding +from weakness, say that they are therein sensible of no manner of pain, +but rather feel a kind of delight, as in the passage to sleep and best. +These are studied and digested deaths. + +But to the end that Cato only may furnish out the whole example of +virtue, it seems as if his good with which the leisure to confront and +struggle with death, reinforcing his destiny had put his ill one into the +hand he gave himself the blow, seeing he had courage in the danger, +instead of letting it go less. And if I had had to represent him in his +supreme station, I should have done it in the posture of tearing out his +bloody bowels, rather than with his sword in his hand, as did the +statuaries of his time, for this second murder was much more furious than +the first. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THAT OUR MIND HINDERS ITSELF + +'Tis a pleasant imagination to fancy a mind exactly balanced betwixt two +equal desires: for, doubtless, it can never pitch upon either, forasmuch +as the choice and application would manifest an inequality of esteem; +and were we set betwixt the bottle and the ham, with an equal appetite to +drink and eat, there would doubtless be no remedy, but we must die of +thirst and hunger. To provide against this inconvenience, the Stoics, +when they are asked whence the election in the soul of two indifferent +things proceeds, and that makes us, out of a great number of crowns, +rather take one than another, they being all alike, and there being no +reason to incline us to such a preference, make answer, that this +movement of the soul is extraordinary and irregular, entering into us +by a foreign, accidental, and fortuitous impulse. It might rather, +methinks, he said, that nothing presents itself to us wherein there is +not some difference, how little soever; and that, either by the sight or +touch, there is always some choice that, though it be imperceptibly, +tempts and attracts us; so, whoever shall presuppose a packthread equally +strong throughout, it is utterly impossible it should break; for, where +will you have the breaking to begin? and that it should break altogether +is not in nature. Whoever, also, should hereunto join the geometrical +propositions that, by the certainty of their demonstrations, conclude the +contained to be greater than the containing, the centre to be as great as +its circumference, and that find out two lines incessantly approaching +each other, which yet can never meet, and the philosopher's stone, and +the quadrature of the circle, where the reason and the effect are so +opposite, might, peradventure, find some argument to second this bold +saying of Pliny: + + "Solum certum nihil esse certi, + et homine nihil miserius ant superbius." + + ["It is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing + is more miserable or more proud than man."--Nat. Hist., ii. 7.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THAT OUR DESIRES ARE AUGMENTED BY DIFFICULTY + +There is no reason that has not its contrary, say the wisest of the +philosophers. I was just now ruminating on the excellent saying one of +the ancients alleges for the contempt of life: "No good can bring +pleasure, unless it be that for the loss of which we are beforehand +prepared." + + "In aequo est dolor amissae rei, et timor amittendae," + + ["The grief of losing a thing, and the fear of losing it, + are equal."--Seneca, Ep., 98.] + +meaning by this that the fruition of life cannot be truly pleasant to us +if we are in fear of losing it. It might, however, be said, on the +contrary, that we hug and embrace this good so much the more earnestly, +and with so much greater affection, by how much we see it the less +assured and fear to have it taken from us: for it is evident, as fire +burns with greater fury when cold comes to mix with it, that our will is +more obstinate by being opposed: + + "Si nunquam Danaen habuisset ahenea turris, + Non esses, Danae, de Jove facta parens;" + + ["If a brazen tower had not held Danae, you would not, Danae, have + been made a mother by Jove."--Ovid, Amoy., ii. 19, 27.] + +and that there is nothing naturally so contrary to our taste as satiety +which proceeds from facility; nor anything that so much whets it as +rarity and difficulty: + + "Omnium rerum voluptas ipso, quo debet fugare, periculo crescit." + + ["The pleasure of all things increases by the same danger that + should deter it."--Seneca, De Benef., vii. 9.] + + "Galla, nega; satiatur amor, nisi gaudia torquent." + + ["Galla, refuse me; love is glutted with joys that are not attended + with trouble."--Martial, iv. 37.] + +To keep love in breath, Lycurgus made a decree that the married people of +Lacedaemon should never enjoy one another but by stealth; and that it +should be as great a shame to take them in bed together as committing +with others. The difficulty of assignations, the danger of surprise, the +shame of the morning, + + "Et languor, et silentium, + Et latere petitus imo Spiritus:" + + ["And languor, and silence, and sighs, coming from the innermost + heart."--Hor., Epod., xi. 9.] + +these are what give the piquancy to the sauce. How many very wantonly +pleasant sports spring from the most decent and modest language of the +works on love? Pleasure itself seeks to be heightened with pain; it is +much sweeter when it smarts and has the skin rippled. The courtesan +Flora said she never lay with Pompey but that she made him wear the +prints of her teeth.--[Plutarch, Life of Pompey, c. i.] + + "Quod petiere, premunt arcte, faciuntque dolorem + Corporis, et dentes inlidunt saepe labellis . . . + Et stimuli subsunt, qui instigant laedere ad ipsum, + Quodcunque est, rabies unde illae germina surgunt." + + ["What they have sought they dress closely, and cause pain; on the + lips fix the teeth, and every kiss indents: urged by latent stimulus + the part to wound"--Lucretius, i. 4.] + +And so it is in everything: difficulty gives all things their estimation; +the people of the march of Ancona more readily make their vows to St. +James, and those of Galicia to Our Lady of Loreto; they make wonderful +to-do at Liege about the baths of Lucca, and in Tuscany about those of +Aspa: there are few Romans seen in the fencing school of Rome, which is +full of French. That great Cato also, as much as us, nauseated his wife +whilst she was his, and longed for her when in the possession of another. +I was fain to turn out into the paddock an old horse, as he was not to be +governed when he smelt a mare: the facility presently sated him as +towards his own, but towards strange mares, and the first that passed by +the pale of his pasture, he would again fall to his importunate neighings +and his furious heats as before. Our appetite contemns and passes by +what it has in possession, to run after that it has not: + + "Transvolat in medio posita, et fugientia captat." + + [" He slights her who is close at hand, and runs after her + who flees from him."--Horace, Sat., i. 2, 108.] + +To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind to't: + + "Nisi to servare puellam + Incipis, incipiet desinere esse mea:" + + ["Unless you begin to guard your mistress, she will soon begin + to be no longer mine."--Ovid, Amoy., ii. 19, 47.] + +to give it wholly up to us is to beget in us contempt. Want and +abundance fall into the same inconvenience: + + "Tibi quod superest, mihi quod desit, dolet." + + ["Your superfluities trouble you, and what I want + troubles me.--"Terence, Phoym., i. 3, 9.] + +Desire and fruition equally afflict us. The rigors of mistresses are +troublesome, but facility, to say truth, still more so; forasmuch as +discontent and anger spring from the esteem we have of the thing desired, +heat and actuate love, but satiety begets disgust; 'tis a blunt, dull, +stupid, tired, and slothful passion: + + "Si qua volet regnare diu, contemnat amantem." + + ["She who. would long retain her power must use her lover ill." + --Ovid, Amor., ii. 19, 33] + + "Contemnite, amantes: + Sic hodie veniet, si qua negavit heri." + + ["Slight your mistress; she will to-day come who denied you + yesterday.--"Propertius, ii. 14, 19.] + +Why did Poppea invent the use of a mask to hide the beauties of her face, +but to enhance it to her lovers? Why have they veiled, even below the +heels, those beauties that every one desires to show, and that every one +desires to see? Why do they cover with so many hindrances, one over +another, the parts where our desires and their own have their principal +seat? And to what serve those great bastion farthingales, with which our +ladies fortify their haunches, but to allure our appetite and to draw us +on by removing them farther from us? + + "Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri." + + ["She flies to the osiers, and desires beforehand to be seen going." + --Virgil, Eclog., iii. 65.] + + "Interdum tunica duxit operta moram." + + ["The hidden robe has sometimes checked love." + --Propertius, ii. 15, 6.] + +To what use serves the artifice of this virgin modesty, this grave +coldness, this severe countenance, this professing to be ignorant of +things that they know better than we who instruct them in them, but to +increase in us the desire to overcome, control, and trample underfoot at +pleasure all this ceremony and all these obstacles? For there is not +only pleasure, but, moreover, glory, in conquering and debauching that +soft sweetness and that childish modesty, and to reduce a cold and +matronlike gravity to the mercy of our ardent desires: 'tis a glory, +say they, to triumph over modesty, chastity, and temperance; and whoever +dissuades ladies from those qualities, betrays both them and himself. +We are to believe that their hearts tremble with affright, that the very +sound of our words offends the purity of their ears, that they hate us +for talking so, and only yield to our importunity by a compulsive force. +Beauty, all powerful as it is, has not wherewithal to make itself +relished without the mediation of these little arts. Look into Italy, +where there is the most and the finest beauty to be sold, how it is +necessitated to have recourse to extrinsic means and other artifices to +render itself charming, and yet, in truth, whatever it may do, being +venal and public, it remains feeble and languishing. Even so in virtue +itself, of two like effects, we notwithstanding look upon that as the +fairest and most worthy, wherein the most trouble and hazard are set +before us. + +'Tis an effect of the divine Providence to suffer the holy Church to be +afflicted, as we see it, with so many storms and troubles, by this +opposition to rouse pious souls, and to awaken them from that drowsy +lethargy wherein, by so long tranquillity, they had been immerged. +If we should lay the loss we have sustained in the number of those who +have gone astray, in the balance against the benefit we have had by being +again put in breath, and by having our zeal and strength revived by +reason of this opposition, I know not whether the utility would not +surmount the damage. + +We have thought to tie the nuptial knot of our marriages more fast and +firm by having taken away all means of dissolving it, but the knot of the +will and affection is so much the more slackened and made loose, by how +much that of constraint is drawn closer; and, on the contrary, that which +kept the marriages at Rome so long in honour and inviolate, was the +liberty every one who so desired had to break them; they kept their wives +the better, because they might part with them, if they would; and, in the +full liberty of divorce, five hundred years and more passed away before +any one made use on't. + + "Quod licet, ingratum est; quod non licet, acrius urit." + + ["What you may, is displeasing; what is forbidden, whets the + appetite.--"Ovid, Amor., ii. 19.] + +We might here introduce the opinion of an ancient upon this occasion, +"that executions rather whet than dull the edge of vices: that they do +not beget the care of doing well, that being the work of reason and +discipline, but only a care not to be taken in doing ill:" + + "Latius excisae pestis contagia serpunt." + + ["The plague-sore being lanced, the infection spreads all the more." + --Rutilius, Itinerar. 1, 397.] + +I do not know that this is true; but I experimentally know, that never +civil government was by that means reformed; the order and regimen of +manners depend upon some other expedient. + +The Greek histories make mention of the Argippians, neighbours to +Scythia, who live without either rod or stick for offence; where not only +no one attempts to attack them, but whoever can fly thither is safe, by +reason of their virtue and sanctity of life, and no one is so bold as to +lay hands upon them; and they have applications made to them to determine +the controversies that arise betwixt men of other countries. There is a +certain nation, where the enclosures of gardens and fields they would +preserve, are made only of a string of cotton; and, so fenced, is more +firm and secure than by our hedges and ditches. + + "Furem signata sollicitant . . . + aperta effractarius praeterit." + + ["Things sealed, up invite a thief: the housebreaker + passes by open doors."--Seneca, Epist., 68.] + +Peradventure, the facility of entering my house, amongst other things, +has been a means to preserve it from the violence of our civil wars: +defence allures attempt, and defiance provokes an enemy. I enervated the +soldiers' design by depriving the exploit of danger and all manner of +military glory, which is wont to serve them for pretence and excuse: +whatever is bravely, is ever honourably, done, at a time when justice is +dead. I render them the conquest of my house cowardly and base; it is +never shut to any one that knocks; my gate has no other guard than a +porter, and he of ancient custom and ceremony; who does not so much serve +to defend it as to offer it with more decorum and grace; I have no other +guard nor sentinel than the stars. A gentleman would play the fool to +make a show of defence, if he be not really in a condition to defend +himself. He who lies open on one side, is everywhere so; our ancestors +did not think of building frontier garrisons. The means of assaulting, +I mean without battery or army, and of surprising our houses, increases +every day more and more beyond the means to guard them; men's wits are +generally bent that way; in invasion every one is concerned: none but the +rich in defence. Mine was strong for the time when it was built; I have +added nothing to it of that kind, and should fear that its strength might +turn against myself; to which we are to consider that a peaceable time +would require it should be dismantled. There is danger never to be able +to regain it, and it would be very hard to keep; for in intestine +dissensions, your man may be of the party you fear; and where religion is +the pretext, even a man's nearest relations become unreliable, with some +colour of justice. The public exchequer will not maintain our domestic +garrisons; they would exhaust it: we ourselves have not the means to do +it without ruin, or, which is more inconvenient and injurious, without +ruining the people. The condition of my loss would be scarcely worse. +As to the rest, you there lose all; and even your friends will be more +ready to accuse your want of vigilance and your improvidence, and your +ignorance of and indifference to your own business, than to pity you. +That so many garrisoned houses have been undone whereas this of mine +remains, makes me apt to believe that they were only lost by being +guarded; this gives an enemy both an invitation and colour of reason; all +defence shows a face of war. Let who will come to me in God's name; but +I shall not invite them; 'tis the retirement I have chosen for my repose +from war. I endeavour to withdraw this corner from the public tempest, +as I also do another corner in my soul. Our war may put on what forms it +will, multiply and diversify itself into new parties; for my part, I stir +not. Amongst so many garrisoned houses, myself alone amongst those of my +rank, so far as I know, in France, have trusted purely to Heaven for the +protection of mine, and have never removed plate, deeds, or hangings. +I will neither fear nor save myself by halves. If a full acknowledgment +acquires the Divine favour, it will stay with me to the end: if not, I +have still continued long enough to render my continuance remarkable and +fit to be recorded. How? Why, there are thirty years that I have thus +lived. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OF GLORY + +There is the name and the thing: the name is a voice which denotes and +signifies the thing; the name is no part of the thing, nor of the +substance; 'tis a foreign piece joined to the thing, and outside it. +God, who is all fulness in Himself and the height of all perfection, +cannot augment or add anything to Himself within; but His name may be +augmented and increased by the blessing and praise we attribute to His +exterior works: which praise, seeing we cannot incorporate it in Him, +forasmuch as He can have no accession of good, we attribute to His name, +which is the part out of Him that is nearest to us. Thus is it that to +God alone glory and honour appertain; and there is nothing so remote from +reason as that we should go in quest of it for ourselves; for, being +indigent and necessitous within, our essence being imperfect, and having +continual need of amelioration, 'tis to that we ought to employ all our +endeavour. We are all hollow and empty; 'tis not with wind and voice +that we are to fill ourselves; we want a more solid substance to repair +us: a man starving with hunger would be very simple to seek rather to +provide himself with a gay garment than with a good meal: we are to look +after that whereof we have most need. As we have it in our ordinary +prayers: + + "Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus." + +We are in want of beauty, health, wisdom, virtue, and such like essential +qualities: exterior ornaments should, be looked after when we have made +provision for necessary things. Divinity treats amply and more +pertinently of this subject, but I am not much versed in it. + +Chrysippus and Diogenes were the earliest and firmest advocates of the +contempt of glory; and maintained that, amongst all pleasures, there was +none more dangerous nor more to be avoided than that which proceeds from +the approbation of others. And, in truth, experience makes us sensible of +many very hurtful treasons in it. There is nothing that so poisons +princes as flattery, nor anything whereby wicked men more easily obtain +credit and favour with them; nor panderism so apt and so usually made use +of to corrupt the chastity of women as to wheedle and entertain them with +their own praises. The first charm the Syrens made use of to allure +Ulysses is of this nature: + + "Deca vers nous, deca, o tres-louable Ulysse, + Et le plus grand honneur don't la Grece fleurisse." + + ["Come hither to us, O admirable Ulysses, come hither, thou greatest + ornament and pride of Greece."--Homer, Odysseus, xii. 184.] + +These philosophers said, that all the glory of the world was not worth an +understanding man's holding out his finger to obtain it: + + "Gloria quantalibet quid erit, si gloria tantum est?" + + ["What is glory, be it as glorious as it may be, if it be no more + than glory?"--Juvenal, Sat., vii. 81.] + +I say for it alone; for it often brings several commodities along with +it, for which it may justly be desired: it acquires us good-will, and +renders us less subject and exposed to insult and offence from others, +and the like. It was also one of the principal doctrines of Epicurus; +for this precept of his sect, Conceal thy life, that forbids men to +encumber themselves with public negotiations and offices, also +necessarily presupposes a contempt of glory, which is the world's +approbation of those actions we produce in public.--[Plutarch, Whether +the saying, Conceal thy life, is well said.]--He that bids us conceal +ourselves, and to have no other concern but for ourselves, and who will +not have us known to others, would much less have us honoured and +glorified; and so advises Idomeneus not in any sort to regulate his +actions by the common reputation or opinion, except so as to avoid the +other accidental inconveniences that the contempt of men might bring upon +him. + +These discourses are, in my opinion, very true and rational; but we are, +I know not how, double in ourselves, which is the cause that what we +believe we do not believe, and cannot disengage ourselves from what we +condemn. Let us see the last and dying words of Epicurus; they are +grand, and worthy of such a philosopher, and yet they carry some touches +of the recommendation of his name and of that humour he had decried by +his precepts. Here is a letter that he dictated a little before his last +gasp: + + "EPICUYUS TO HEYMACHUS, health. + + "Whilst I was passing over the happy and last day of my life, I + write this, but, at the same time, afflicted with such pain in my + bladder and bowels that nothing can be greater, but it was + recompensed with the pleasure the remembrance of my inventions and + doctrines brought to my soul. Now, as the affection thou hast ever + from thy infancy borne towards me and philosophy requires, take upon + thee the protection of Metrodorus' children." + +This is the letter. And that which makes me interpret that the pleasure +he says he had in his soul concerning his inventions, has some reference +to the reputation he hoped for thence after his death, is the manner of +his will, in which he gives order that Amynomachus and Timocrates, his +heirs, should, every January, defray the expense of the celebration of +his birthday as Hermachus should appoint; and also the expense that +should be made the twentieth of every moon in entertaining the +philosophers, his friends, who should assemble in honour of the memory of +him and of Metrodorus.--[Cicero, De Finibus, ii. 30.] + +Carneades was head of the contrary opinion, and maintained that glory was +to be desired for itself, even as we embrace our posthumous issue for +themselves, having no knowledge nor enjoyment of them. This opinion has +not failed to be the more universally followed, as those commonly are +that are most suitable to our inclinations. Aristotle gives it the first +place amongst external goods; and avoids, as too extreme vices, the +immoderate either seeking or evading it. I believe that, if we had the +books Cicero wrote upon this subject, we should there find pretty +stories; for he was so possessed with this passion, that, if he had +dared, I think he could willingly have fallen into the excess that others +did, that virtue itself was not to be coveted, but upon the account of +the honour that always attends it: + + "Paulum sepultae distat inertiae + Celata virtus:" + + ["Virtue concealed little differs from dead sloth." + --Horace, Od., iv. 9, 29.] + +which is an opinion so false, that I am vexed it could ever enter into +the understanding of a man that was honoured with the name of +philosopher. + +If this were true, men need not be virtuous but in public; and we should +be no further concerned to keep the operations of the soul, which is the +true seat of virtue, regular and in order, than as they are to arrive at +the knowledge of others. Is there no more in it, then, but only slily +and with circumspection to do ill? "If thou knowest," says Carneades, +"of a serpent lurking in a place where, without suspicion, a person is +going to sit down, by whose death thou expectest an advantage, thou dost +ill if thou dost not give him caution of his danger; and so much the more +because the action is to be known by none but thyself." If we do not +take up of ourselves the rule of well-doing, if impunity pass with us for +justice, to how many sorts of wickedness shall we every day abandon +ourselves? I do not find what Sextus Peduceus did, in faithfully +restoring the treasure that C. Plotius had committed to his sole secrecy +and trust, a thing that I have often done myself, so commendable, as I +should think it an execrable baseness, had we done otherwise; and I think +it of good use in our days to recall the example of P. Sextilius Rufus, +whom Cicero accuses to have entered upon an inheritance contrary to his +conscience, not only not against law, but even by the determination of +the laws themselves; and M. Crassus and Hortensius, who, by reason of +their authority and power, having been called in by a stranger to share +in the succession of a forged will, that so he might secure his own part, +satisfied themselves with having no hand in the forgery, and refused not +to make their advantage and to come in for a share: secure enough, if +they could shroud themselves from accusations, witnesses, and the +cognisance of the laws: + + "Meminerint Deum se habere testem, id est (ut ego arbitror) + mentem suam." + + ["Let them consider they have God to witness, that is (as I + interpret it), their own consciences."--Cicero, De Offic., iii. 10.] + +Virtue is a very vain and frivolous thing if it derive its recommendation +from glory; and 'tis to no purpose that we endeavour to give it a station +by itself, and separate it from fortune; for what is more accidental than +reputation? + + "Profecto fortuna in omni re dominatur: ea res cunctas ex + libidine magis, quhm ex vero, celebrat, obscuratque." + + ["Fortune rules in all things; it advances and depresses things + more out of its own will than of right and justice." + --Sallust, Catilina, c. 8.] + +So to order it that actions may be known and seen is purely the work of +fortune; 'tis chance that helps us to glory, according to its own +temerity. I have often seen her go before merit, and often very much +outstrip it. He who first likened glory to a shadow did better than he +was aware of; they are both of them things pre-eminently vain glory also, +like a shadow, goes sometimes before the body, and sometimes in length +infinitely exceeds it. They who instruct gentlemen only to employ their +valour for the obtaining of honour: + + "Quasi non sit honestum, quod nobilitatum non sit;" + + ["As though it were not a virtue, unless celebrated" + --Cicero De Offic. iii. 10.] + +what do they intend by that but to instruct them never to hazard +themselves if they are not seen, and to observe well if there be +witnesses present who may carry news of their valour, whereas a thousand +occasions of well-doing present themselves which cannot be taken notice +of? How many brave individual actions are buried in the crowd of a +battle? Whoever shall take upon him to watch another's behaviour in such +a confusion is not very busy himself, and the testimony he shall give of +his companions' deportment will be evidence against himself: + + "Vera et sapiens animi magnitudo, honestum illud, + quod maxime naturam sequitur, in factis positum, + non in gloria, judicat." + + ["The true and wise magnanimity judges that the bravery which most + follows nature more consists in act than glory." + --Cicero, De Offic. i. 19.] + +All the glory that I pretend to derive from my life is that I have lived +it in quiet; in quiet, not according to Metrodorus, or Arcesilaus, or +Aristippus, but according to myself. For seeing philosophy has not been +able to find out any way to tranquillity that is good in common, let +every one seek it in particular. + +To what do Caesar and Alexander owe the infinite grandeur of their renown +but to fortune? How many men has she extinguished in the beginning of +their progress, of whom we have no knowledge, who brought as much courage +to the work as they, if their adverse hap had not cut them off in the +first sally of their arms? Amongst so many and so great dangers I do not +remember I have anywhere read that Caesar was ever wounded; a thousand +have fallen in less dangers than the least of those he went through. An +infinite number of brave actions must be performed without witness and +lost, before one turns to account. A man is not always on the top of a +breach, or at the head of an army, in the sight of his general, as upon a +scaffold; a man is often surprised betwixt the hedge and the ditch; he +must run the hazard of his life against a henroost; he must dislodge four +rascally musketeers out of a barn; he must prick out single from his +party, and alone make some attempts, according as necessity will have it. +And whoever will observe will, I believe, find it experimentally true, +that occasions of the least lustre are ever the most dangerous; and that +in the wars of our own times there have more brave men been lost in +occasions of little moment, and in the dispute about some little paltry +fort, than in places of greatest importance, and where their valour might +have been more honourably employed. + +Who thinks his death achieved to ill purpose if he do not fall on some +signal occasion, instead of illustrating his death, wilfully obscures his +life, suffering in the meantime many very just occasions of hazarding +himself to slip out of his hands; and every just one is illustrious +enough, every man's conscience being a sufficient trumpet to him. + + "Gloria nostra est testimonium conscientiae nostrae." + + ["For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience." + --Corinthians, i. I.] + +He who is only a good man that men may know it, and that he may be the +better esteemed when 'tis known; who will not do well but upon condition +that his virtue may be known to men: is one from whom much service is not +to be expected: + + "Credo ch 'el reste di quel verno, cose + Facesse degne di tener ne conto; + Ma fur fin' a quel tempo si nascose, + Che non a colpa mia s' hor 'non le conto + Perche Orlando a far l'opre virtuose + Piu ch'a narrar le poi sempre era pronto; + Ne mai fu alcun' de'suoi fatti espresso, + Se non quando ebbe i testimonii appresso." + + ["The rest of the winter, I believe, was spent in actions worthy of + narration, but they were done so secretly that if I do not tell them + I am not to blame, for Orlando was more bent to do great acts than + to boast of them, so that no deeds of his were ever known but those + that had witnesses."--Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, xi. 81.] + +A man must go to the war upon the account of duty, and expect the +recompense that never fails brave and worthy actions, how private soever, +or even virtuous thoughts-the satisfaction that a well-disposed +conscience receives in itself in doing well. A man must be valiant for +himself, and upon account of the advantage it is to him to have his +courage seated in a firm and secure place against the assaults of +fortune: + + "Virtus, repulsaa nescia sordidx + Intaminatis fulget honoribus + Nec sumit, aut ponit secures + Arbitrio popularis aura." + + ["Virtue, repudiating all base repulse, shines in taintless + honours, nor takes nor leaves dignity at the mere will of the + vulgar."--Horace, Od., iii. 2, 17.] + +It is not for outward show that the soul is to play its part, but for +ourselves within, where no eyes can pierce but our own; there she defends +us from the fear of death, of pain, of shame itself: there she arms us +against the loss of our children, friends, and fortunes: and when +opportunity presents itself, she leads us on to the hazards of war: + + "Non emolumento aliquo, sed ipsius honestatis decore." + + ["Not for any profit, but for the honour of honesty itself." + --Cicero, De Finib., i. 10.] + +This profit is of much greater advantage, and more worthy to be coveted +and hoped for, than, honour and glory, which are no other than a +favourable judgment given of us. + +A dozen men must be called out of a whole nation to judge about an acre +of land; and the judgment of our inclinations and actions, the most +difficult and most important matter that is, we refer to the voice and +determination of the rabble, the mother of ignorance, injustice, and +inconstancy. Is it reasonable that the life of a wise man should +depend upon the judgment of fools? + + "An quidquam stultius, quam, quos singulos contemnas, + eos aliquid putare esse universes?" + + ["Can anything be more foolish than to think that those you despise + singly, can be anything else in general." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 36.] + +He that makes it his business to please them, will have enough to do and +never have done; 'tis a mark that can never be aimed at or hit: + + "Nil tam inaestimabile est, quam animi multitudinis." + + ["Nothing is to be so little understood as the minds of the + multitude."--Livy, xxxi. 34.] + +Demetrius pleasantly said of the voice of the people, that he made no +more account of that which came from above than of that which came from +below. He [Cicero] says more: + + "Ego hoc judico, si quando turpe non sit, tamen non + esse non turpe, quum id a multitudine laudatur." + + ["I am of opinion, that though a thing be not foul in itself, + yet it cannot but become so when commended by the multitude." + --Cicero, De Finib., ii. 15.] + +No art, no activity of wit, could conduct our steps so as to follow so +wandering and so irregular a guide; in this windy confusion of the noise +of vulgar reports and opinions that drive us on, no way worth anything +can be chosen. Let us not propose to ourselves so floating and wavering +an end; let us follow constantly after reason; let the public approbation +follow us there, if it will; and as it wholly depends upon fortune, we +have no reason sooner to expect it by any other way than that. Even +though I would not follow the right way because it is right, I should, +however, follow it as having experimentally found that, at the end of +the reckoning, 'tis commonly the most happy and of greatest utility + + "Dedit hoc providentia hominibus munus, + ut honesta magis juvarent." + + ["This gift Providence has given to men, that honest things should + be the most agreeable."--Quintilian, Inst. Orat., i. 12.] + +The mariner of old said thus to Neptune, in a great tempest: "O God, thou +wilt save me if thou wilt, and if thou choosest, thou wilt destroy me; +but, however, I will hold my rudder straight."--[Seneca, Ep., 85.]-- +I have seen in my time a thousand men supple, halfbred, ambiguous, whom +no one doubted to be more worldly-wise than I, lose themselves, where I +have saved myself: + + "Risi successus posse carere dolos." + + ["I have laughed to see cunning fail of success." + --Ovid, Heroid, i. 18.] + +Paulus AEmilius, going on the glorious expedition of Macedonia, above all +things charged the people of Rome not to speak of his actions during his +absence. Oh, the license of judgments is a great disturbance to great +affairs! forasmuch as every one has not the firmness of Fabius against +common, adverse, and injurious tongues, who rather suffered his authority +to be dissected by the vain fancies of men, than to do less well in his +charge with a favourable reputation and the popular applause. + +There is I know not what natural sweetness in hearing one's self +commended; but we are a great deal too fond of it: + + "Laudari metuam, neque enim mihi cornea fibra est + Sed recti finemque extremumque esse recuso + Euge tuum, et belle." + + ["I should fear to be praised, for my heart is not made of horn; + but I deny that 'excellent--admirably done,' are the terms and + final aim of virtue."--Persius, i. 47.] + +I care not so much what I am in the opinions of others, as what I am in +my own; I would be rich of myself, and not by borrowing. Strangers see +nothing but events and outward appearances; everybody can set a good face +on the matter, when they have trembling and terror within: they do not +see my heart, they see but my countenance. One is right in decrying the +hypocrisy that is in war; for what is more easy to an old soldier than to +shift in a time of danger, and to counterfeit the brave when he has no +more heart than a chicken? There are so many ways to avoid hazarding a +man's own person, that we have deceived the world a thousand times before +we come to be engaged in a real danger: and even then, finding ourselves +in an inevitable necessity of doing something, we can make shift for that +time to conceal our apprehensions by setting a good face on the business, +though the heart beats within; and whoever had the use of the Platonic +ring, which renders those invisible that wear it, if turned inward +towards the palm of the hand, a great many would very often hide +themselves when they ought most to appear, and would repent being placed +in so honourable a post, where necessity must make them bold. + + "Falsus honor juvat, et mendax infamia terret + Quem nisi mendosum et mendacem?" + + ["False honour pleases, and calumny affrights, the guilty + and the sick."--Horace, Ep., i. 16, 89.] + +Thus we see how all the judgments that are founded upon external +appearances, are marvellously uncertain and doubtful; and that there is +no so certain testimony as every one is to himself. In these, how many +soldiers' boys are companions of our glory? he who stands firm in an +open trench, what does he in that more than fifty poor pioneers who open +to him the way and cover it with their own bodies for fivepence a day +pay, do before him? + + "Non quicquid turbida Roma + Elevet, accedas; examenque improbum in illa + Castiges trutina: nec to quaesiveris extra." + + ["Do not, if turbulent Rome disparage anything, accede; nor correct + a false balance by that scale; nor seek anything beyond thyself." + --Persius, Sat., i. 5.] + +The dispersing and scattering our names into many mouths, we call making +them more great; we will have them there well received, and that this +increase turn to their advantage, which is all that can be excusable in +this design. But the excess of this disease proceeds so far that many +covet to have a name, be it what it will. Trogus Pompeius says of +Herostratus, and Titus Livius of Manlius Capitolinus, that they were more +ambitious of a great reputation than of a good one. This is very common; +we are more solicitous that men speak of us, than how they speak; and it +is enough for us that our names are often mentioned, be it after what +manner it will. It should seem that to be known, is in some sort to have +a man's life and its duration in others' keeping. I, for my part, hold +that I am not, but in myself; and of that other life of mine which lies +in the knowledge of my friends, to consider it naked and simply in +itself, I know very well that I am sensible of no fruit nor enjoyment +from it but by the vanity of a fantastic opinion; and when I shall be +dead, I shall be still and much less sensible of it; and shall, withal, +absolutely lose the use of those real advantages that sometimes +accidentally follow it. + +I shall have no more handle whereby to take hold of reputation, neither +shall it have any whereby to take hold of or to cleave to me; for to +expect that my name should be advanced by it, in the first place, I have +no name that is enough my own; of two that I have, one is common to all +my race, and indeed to others also; there are two families at Paris and +Montpellier, whose surname is Montaigne, another in Brittany, and one in +Xaintonge, De La Montaigne. The transposition of one syllable only would +suffice so to ravel our affairs, that I shall share in their glory, and +they peradventure will partake of my discredit; and, moreover, my +ancestors have formerly been surnamed, Eyquem,--[Eyquem was the +patronymic.]--a name wherein a family well known in England is at this +day concerned. As to my other name, every one may take it that will, and +so, perhaps, I may honour a porter in my own stead. And besides, though +I had a particular distinction by myself, what can it distinguish, when I +am no more? Can it point out and favour inanity? + + "Non levior cippus nunc imprimit ossa? + Laudat posteritas! Nunc non e manibus illis, + Nunc non a tumulo fortunataque favilla, + Nascentur violae?" + + ["Does the tomb press with less weight upon my bones? Do comrades + praise? Not from my manes, not from the tomb, not from the ashes + will violets grow."--Persius, Sat., i. 37.] + +but of this I have spoken elsewhere. As to what remains, in a great +battle where ten thousand men are maimed or killed, there are not fifteen +who are taken notice of; it must be some very eminent greatness, or some +consequence of great importance that fortune has added to it, that +signalises a private action, not of a harquebuser only, but of a great +captain; for to kill a man, or two, or ten: to expose a man's self +bravely to the utmost peril of death, is indeed something in every one of +us, because we there hazard all; but for the world's concern, they are +things so ordinary, and so many of them are every day seen, and there +must of necessity be so many of the same kind to produce any notable +effect, that we cannot expect any particular renown from it: + + "Casus multis hic cognitus, ac jam + Tritus, et a medio fortunae ductus acervo." + + ["The accident is known to many, and now trite; and drawn from the + midst of Fortune's heap."--Juvenal, Sat., xiii. 9.] + +Of so many thousands of valiant men who have died within these fifteen +hundred years in France with their swords in their hands, not a hundred +have come to our knowledge. The memory, not of the commanders only, but +of battles and victories, is buried and gone; the fortunes of above half +of the world, for want of a record, stir not from their place, and vanish +without duration. If I had unknown events in my possession, I should +think with great ease to out-do those that are recorded, in all sorts of +examples. Is it not strange that even of the Greeks and Romans, with so +many writers and witnesses, and so many rare and noble exploits, so few +are arrived at our knowledge: + + "Ad nos vix tenuis famx perlabitur aura." + + ["An obscure rumour scarce is hither come."--AEneid, vii. 646.] + +It will be much if, a hundred years hence, it be remembered in general +that in our times there were civil wars in France. The Lacedaemonians, +entering into battle, sacrificed to the Muses, to the end that their +actions might be well and worthily written, looking upon it as a divine +and no common favour, that brave acts should find witnesses that could +give them life and memory. Do we expect that at every musket-shot we +receive, and at every hazard we run, there must be a register ready to +record it? and, besides, a hundred registers may enrol them whose +commentaries will not last above three days, and will never come to the +sight of any one. We have not the thousandth part of ancient writings; +'tis fortune that gives them a shorter or longer life, according to her +favour; and 'tis permissible to doubt whether those we have be not the +worst, not having seen the rest. Men do not write histories of things of +so little moment: a man must have been general in the conquest of an +empire or a kingdom; he must have won two-and-fifty set battles, and +always the weaker in number, as Caesar did: ten thousand brave fellows +and many great captains lost their lives valiantly in his service, whose +names lasted no longer than their wives and children lived: + + "Quos fama obscura recondit." + + ["Whom an obscure reputation conceals."--AEneid, v. 302.] + +Even those whom we see behave themselves well, three months or three +years after they have departed hence, are no more mentioned than if they +had never been. Whoever will justly consider, and with due proportion, +of what kind of men and of what sort of actions the glory sustains itself +in the records of history, will find that there are very few actions and +very few persons of our times who can there pretend any right. How many +worthy men have we known to survive their own reputation, who have seen +and suffered the honour and glory most justly acquired in their youth, +extinguished in their own presence? And for three years of this +fantastic and imaginary life we must go and throw away our true and +essential life, and engage ourselves in a perpetual death! The sages +propose to themselves a nobler and more just end in so important an +enterprise: + + "Recte facti, fecisse merces est: officii fructus, + ipsum officium est." + + ["The reward of a thing well done is to have done it; the fruit + of a good service is the service itself."--Seneca, Ep., 8.] + +It were, peradventure, excusable in a painter or other artisan, or in a +rhetorician or a grammarian, to endeavour to raise himself a name by his +works; but the actions of virtue are too noble in themselves to seek any +other reward than from their own value, and especially to seek it in the +vanity of human judgments. + +If this false opinion, nevertheless, be of such use to the public as to +keep men in their duty; if the people are thereby stirred up to virtue; +if princes are touched to see the world bless the memory of Trajan, and +abominate that of Nero; if it moves them to see the name of that great +beast, once so terrible and feared, so freely cursed and reviled by every +schoolboy, let it by all means increase, and be as much as possible +nursed up and cherished amongst us; and Plato, bending his whole +endeavour to make his citizens virtuous, also advises them not to despise +the good repute and esteem of the people; and says it falls out, by a +certain Divine inspiration, that even the wicked themselves oft-times, as +well by word as opinion, can rightly distinguish the virtuous from the +wicked. This person and his tutor are both marvellous and bold +artificers everywhere to add divine operations and revelations where +human force is wanting: + + "Ut tragici poetae confugiunt ad deum, + cum explicare argumenti exitum non possunt:" + + ["As tragic poets fly to some god when they cannot explain + the issue of their argument."--Cicero, De Nat. Deor., i. 20.] + +and peradventure, for this reason it was that Timon, railing at him, +called him the great forger of miracles. Seeing that men, by their +insufficiency, cannot pay themselves well enough with current money, let +the counterfeit be superadded. 'Tis a way that has been practised by all +the legislators: and there is no government that has not some mixture +either of ceremonial vanity or of false opinion, that serves for a curb +to keep the people in their duty. 'Tis for this that most of them have +their originals and beginnings fabulous, and enriched with supernatural +mysteries; 'tis this that has given credit to bastard religions, and +caused them to be countenanced by men of understanding; and for this, +that Numa and Sertorius, to possess their men with a better opinion of +them, fed them with this foppery; one, that the nymph Egeria, the other +that his white hind, brought them all their counsels from the gods. +And the authority that Numa gave to his laws, under the title of the +patronage of this goddess, Zoroaster, legislator of the Bactrians and +Persians, gave to his under the name of the God Oromazis: Trismegistus, +legislator of the Egyptians, under that of Mercury; Xamolxis, legislator +of the Scythians, under that of Vesta; Charondas, legislator of the +Chalcidians, under that of Saturn; Minos, legislator of the Candiots, +under that of Jupiter; Lycurgus, legislator of the Lacedaemonians, under +that of Apollo; and Draco and Solon, legislators of the Athenians, under +that of Minerva. And every government has a god at the head of it; +the others falsely, that truly, which Moses set over the Jews at their +departure out of Egypt. The religion of the Bedouins, as the Sire de +Joinville reports, amongst other things, enjoined a belief that the soul +of him amongst them who died for his prince, went into another body more +happy, more beautiful, and more robust than the former; by which means +they much more willingly ventured their lives: + + "In ferrum mens prona viris, animaeque capaces + Mortis, et ignavum est rediturae parcere vitae." + + ["Men's minds are prone to the sword, and their souls able to bear + death; and it is base to spare a life that will be renewed." + --Lucan, i. 461.] + +This is a very comfortable belief, however erroneous. Every nation has +many such examples of its own; but this subject would require a treatise +by itself. + +To add one word more to my former discourse, I would advise the ladies no +longer to call that honour which is but their duty: + + "Ut enim consuetudo loquitur, id solum dicitur + honestum, quod est populari fama gloriosum;" + + ["As custom puts it, that only is called honest which is + glorious by the public voice."--Cicero, De Finibus, ii. 15.] + +their duty is the mark, their honour but the outward rind. Neither would +I advise them to give this excuse for payment of their denial: for I +presuppose that their intentions, their desire, and will, which are +things wherein their honour is not at all concerned, forasmuch as nothing +thereof appears without, are much better regulated than the effects: + + "Qux quia non liceat, non facit, illa facit:" + + ["She who only refuses, because 'tis forbidden, consents." + --Ovid, Amor., ii. 4, 4.] + +The offence, both towards God and in the conscience, would be as great to +desire as to do it; and, besides, they are actions so private and secret +of themselves, as would be easily enough kept from the knowledge of +others, wherein the honour consists, if they had not another respect to +their duty, and the affection they bear to chastity, for itself. Every +woman of honour will much rather choose to lose her honour than to hurt +her conscience. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OF PRESUMPTION + +There is another sort of glory, which is the having too good an opinion +of our own worth. 'Tis an inconsiderate affection with which we flatter +ourselves, and that represents us to ourselves other than we truly are: +like the passion of love, that lends beauties and graces to the object, +and makes those who are caught by it, with a depraved and corrupt +judgment, consider the thing which they love other and more perfect than +it is. + +I would not, nevertheless, for fear of failing on this side, that a man +should not know himself aright, or think himself less than he is; the +judgment ought in all things to maintain its rights; 'tis all the reason +in the world he should discern in himself, as well as in others, what +truth sets before him; if it be Caesar, let him boldly think himself the +greatest captain in the world. We are nothing but ceremony: ceremony +carries us away, and we leave the substance of things: we hold by the +branches, and quit the trunk and the body; we have taught the ladies to +blush when they hear that but named which they are not at all afraid to +do: we dare not call our members by their right names, yet are not afraid +to employ them in all sorts of debauchery: ceremony forbids us to express +by words things that are lawful and natural, and we obey it: reason +forbids us to do things unlawful and ill, and nobody obeys it. I find +myself here fettered by the laws of ceremony; for it neither permits a +man to speak well of himself, nor ill: we will leave her there for this +time. + +They whom fortune (call it good or ill) has made to, pass their lives in +some eminent degree, may by their public actions manifest what they are; +but they whom she has only employed in the crowd, and of whom nobody will +say a word unless they speak themselves, are to be excused if they take +the boldness to speak of themselves to such as are interested to know +them; by the example of Lucilius: + + "Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim + Credebat libris, neque si male cesserat, usquam + Decurrens alio, neque si bene: quo fit, ut omnis, + Votiva pateat veluri descripta tabella + Vita senis;" + + ["He formerly confided his secret thoughts to his books, as to tried + friends, and for good and evil, resorted not elsewhere: hence it + came to pass, that the old man's life is there all seen as on a + votive tablet."--Horace, Sat., ii. I, 30.] + +he always committed to paper his actions and thoughts, and there +portrayed himself such as he found himself to be: + + "Nec id Rutilio et Scauro citra fidem; aut obtrectationi fuit." + + ["Nor was this considered a breach of good faith or a disparagement + to Rutilius or Scaurus."--Tacitus, Agricola, c. I.] + +I remember, then, that from my infancy there was observed in me I know +not what kind of carriage and behaviour, that seemed to relish of pride +and arrogance. I will say this, by the way, that it is not unreasonable +to suppose that we have qualities and inclinations so much our own, and +so incorporate in us, that we have not the means to feel and recognise +them: and of such natural inclinations the body will retain a certain +bent, without our knowledge or consent. It was an affectation +conformable with his beauty that made Alexander carry his head on one +side, and caused Alcibiades to lisp; Julius Caesar scratched his head +with one finger, which is the fashion of a man full of troublesome +thoughts; and Cicero, as I remember, was wont to pucker up his nose, a +sign of a man given to scoffing; such motions as these may imperceptibly +happen in us. There are other artificial ones which I meddle not with, +as salutations and congees, by which men acquire, for the most part +unjustly, the reputation of being humble and courteous: one may be humble +out of pride. I am prodigal enough of my hat, especially in summer, and +never am so saluted but that I pay it again from persons of what quality +soever, unless they be in my own service. I should make it my request to +some princes whom I know, that they would be more sparing of that +ceremony, and bestow that courtesy where it is more due; for being so +indiscreetly and indifferently conferred on all, it is thrown away to no +purpose; if it be without respect of persons, it loses its effect. +Amongst irregular deportment, let us not forget that haughty one of the +Emperor Constantius, who always in public held his head upright and +stiff, without bending or turning on either side, not so much as to look +upon those who saluted him on one side, planting his body in a rigid +immovable posture, without suffering it to yield to the motion of his +coach, not daring so much as to spit, blow his nose, or wipe his face +before people. I know not whether the gestures that were observed in me +were of this first quality, and whether I had really any occult proneness +to this vice, as it might well be; and I cannot be responsible for the +motions of the body; but as to the motions of the soul, I must here +confess what I think of the matter. + +This glory consists of two parts; the one in setting too great a value +upon ourselves, and the other in setting too little a value upon others. +As to the one, methinks these considerations ought, in the first place, +to be of some force: I feel myself importuned by an error of the soul +that displeases me, both as it is unjust, and still more as it is +troublesome; I attempt to correct it, but I cannot root it out; and this +is, that I lessen the just value of things that I possess, and overvalue +things, because they are foreign, absent, and none of mine; this humour +spreads very far. As the prerogative of the authority makes husbands +look upon their own wives with a vicious disdain, and many fathers their +children; so I, betwixt two equal merits, should always be swayed against +my own; not so much that the jealousy of my advancement and bettering +troubles my judgment, and hinders me from satisfying myself, as that of +itself possession begets a contempt of what it holds and rules. Foreign +governments, manners, and languages insinuate themselves into my esteem; +and I am sensible that Latin allures me by the favour of its dignity to +value it above its due, as it does with children, and the common sort of +people: the domestic government, house, horse, of my neighbour, though no +better than my own, I prize above my own, because they are not mine. +Besides that I am very ignorant in my own affairs, I am struck by the +assurance that every one has of himself: whereas there is scarcely +anything that I am sure I know, or that I dare be responsible to myself +that I can do: I have not my means of doing anything in condition and +ready, and am only instructed therein after the effect; as doubtful of my +own force as I am of another's. Whence it comes to pass that if I happen +to do anything commendable, I attribute it more to my fortune than +industry, forasmuch as I design everything by chance and in fear. I have +this, also, in general, that of all the opinions antiquity has held of +men in gross, I most willingly embrace and adhere to those that most +contemn and undervalue us, and most push us to naught; methinks, +philosophy has never so fair a game to play as when it falls upon our +vanity and presumption; when it most lays open our irresolution, +weakness, and ignorance. I look upon the too good opinion that man has +of himself to be the nursing mother of all the most false opinions, both +public and private. Those people who ride astride upon the epicycle of +Mercury, who see so far into the heavens, are worse to me than a tooth- +drawer that comes to draw my teeth; for in my study, the subject of which +is man, finding so great a variety of judgments, so profound a labyrinth +of difficulties, one upon another, so great diversity and uncertainty, +even in the school of wisdom itself, you may judge, seeing these people +could not resolve upon the knowledge of themselves and their own +condition, which is continually before their eyes, and within them, +seeing they do not know how that moves which they themselves move, nor +how to give us a description of the springs they themselves govern and +make use of, how can I believe them about the ebbing and flowing of the +Nile? The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a +scourge, says the Holy Scripture. + +But to return to what concerns myself; I think it would be very difficult +for any other man to have a meaner opinion of himself; nay, for any other +to have a meaner opinion of me than of myself: I look upon myself as one +of the common sort, saving in this, that I have no better an opinion of +myself; guilty of the meanest and most popular defects, but not disowning +or excusing them; and I do not value myself upon any other account than +because I know my own value. If there be any vanity in the case, 'tis +superficially infused into me by the treachery of my complexion, and has +no body that my judgment can discern: I am sprinkled, but not dyed. For +in truth, as to the effects of the mind, there is no part of me, be it +what it will, with which I am satisfied; and the approbation of others +makes me not think the better of myself. My judgment is tender and nice, +especially in things that concern myself. + +I ever repudiate myself, and feel myself float and waver by reason of my +weakness. I have nothing of my own that satisfies my judgment. My sight +is clear and regular enough, but, at working, it is apt to dazzle; as I +most manifestly find in poetry: I love it infinitely, and am able to give +a tolerable judgment of other men's works; but, in good earnest, when I +apply myself to it, I play the child, and am not able to endure myself. +A man may play the fool in everything else, but not in poetry; + + "Mediocribus esse poetis + Non dii, non homines, non concessere columnae." + + ["Neither men, nor gods, nor the pillars (on which the poets + offered their writings) permit mediocrity in poets." + --Horace, De Arte Poet., 372.] + +I would to God this sentence was written over the doors of all our +printers, to forbid the entrance of so many rhymesters! + + "Verum + Nihil securius est malo poetae." + + ["The truth is, that nothing is more confident than a bad poet." + --Martial, xii. 63, 13.] + +Why have not we such people?--[As those about to be mentioned.]-- +Dionysius the father valued himself upon nothing so much as his poetry; +at the Olympic games, with chariots surpassing all the others in +magnificence, he sent also poets and musicians to present his verses, +with tent and pavilions royally gilt and hung with tapestry. When his +verses came to be recited, the excellence of the delivery at first +attracted the attention of the people; but when they afterwards came to +poise the meanness of the composition, they first entered into disdain, +and continuing to nettle their judgments, presently proceeded to fury, +and ran to pull down and tear to pieces all his pavilions: and, that his +chariots neither performed anything to purpose in the race, and that the +ship which brought back his people failed of making Sicily, and was by +the tempest driven and wrecked upon the coast of Tarentum, they certainly +believed was through the anger of the gods, incensed, as they themselves +were, against the paltry Poem; and even the mariners who escaped from the +wreck seconded this opinion of the people: to which also the oracle that +foretold his death seemed to subscribe; which was, "that Dionysius should +be near his end, when he should have overcome those who were better than +himself," which he interpreted of the Carthaginians, who surpassed him in +power; and having war with them, often declined the victory, not to incur +the sense of this prediction; but he understood it ill; for the god +indicated the time of the advantage, that by favour and injustice he +obtained at Athens over the tragic poets, better than himself, having +caused his own play called the Leneians to be acted in emulation; +presently after which victory he died, and partly of the excessive joy he +conceived at the success. + + [Diodorus Siculus, xv. 7.--The play, however, was called the + "Ransom of Hector." It was the games at which it was acted that + were called Leneian; they were one of the four Dionysiac festivals.] + +What I find tolerable of mine, is not so really and in itself, but in +comparison of other worse things, that I see well enough received. I +envy the happiness of those who can please and hug themselves in what +they do; for 'tis an easy thing to be so pleased, because a man extracts +that pleasure from himself, especially if he be constant in his self- +conceit. I know a poet, against whom the intelligent and the ignorant, +abroad and at home, both heaven and earth exclaim that he has but very +little notion of it; and yet, for all that, he has never a whit the worse +opinion of himself; but is always falling upon some new piece, always +contriving some new invention, and still persists in his opinion, by so +much the more obstinately, as it only concerns him to maintain it. + +My works are so far from pleasing me, that as often as I review them, +they disgust me: + + "Cum relego, scripsisse pudet; quia plurima cerno, + Me quoque, qui feci, judice, digna lini." + + ["When I reperuse, I blush at what I have written; I ever see one + passage after another that I, the author, being the judge, consider + should be erased."--Ovid, De Ponto, i. 5, 15.] + +I have always an idea in my soul, and a sort of disturbed image which +presents me as in a dream with a better form than that I have made use +of; but I cannot catch it nor fit it to my purpose; and even that idea is +but of the meaner sort. Hence I conclude that the productions of those +great and rich souls of former times are very much beyond the utmost +stretch of my imagination or my wish; their writings do not only satisfy +and fill me, but they astound me, and ravish me with admiration; I judge +of their beauty; I see it, if not to the utmost, yet so far at least as +'tis possible for me to aspire. Whatever I undertake, I owe a sacrifice +to the Graces, as Plutarch says of some one, to conciliate their favour: + + "Si quid enim placet, + Si quid dulce horninum sensibus influit, + Debentur lepidis omnia Gratiis." + + ["If anything please that I write, if it infuse delight into men's + minds, all is due to the charming Graces." The verses are probably + by some modern poet.] + +They abandon me throughout; all I write is rude; polish and beauty are +wanting: I cannot set things off to any advantage; my handling adds +nothing to the matter; for which reason I must have it forcible, very +full, and that has lustre of its own. If I pitch upon subjects that are +popular and gay, 'tis to follow my own inclination, who do not affect a +grave and ceremonious wisdom, as the world does; and to make myself more +sprightly, but not my style more wanton, which would rather have them +grave and severe; at least if I may call that a style which is an inform +and irregular way of speaking, a popular jargon, a proceeding without +definition, division, conclusion, perplexed like that Amafanius and +Rabirius.--[Cicero, Acad., i. 2.]--I can neither please nor delight, +nor even tickle my readers: the best story in the world is spoiled by my +handling, and becomes flat; I cannot speak but in rough earnest, and am +totally unprovided of that facility which I observe in many of my +acquaintance, of entertaining the first comers and keeping a whole +company in breath, or taking up the ear of a prince with all sorts of +discourse without wearying themselves: they never want matter by reason +of the faculty and grace they have in taking hold of the first thing that +starts up, and accommodating it to the humour and capacity of those with +whom they have to do. Princes do not much affect solid discourses, nor I +to tell stories. The first and easiest reasons, which are commonly the +best taken, I know not how to employ: I am an ill orator to the common +sort. I am apt of everything to say the extremest that I know. Cicero +is of opinion that in treatises of philosophy the exordium is the hardest +part; if this be true, I am wise in sticking to the conclusion. And yet +we are to know how to wind the string to all notes, and the sharpest is +that which is the most seldom touched. There is at least as much +perfection in elevating an empty as in supporting a weighty thing. A man +must sometimes superficially handle things, and sometimes push them home. +I know very well that most men keep themselves in this lower form from +not conceiving things otherwise than by this outward bark; but I likewise +know that the greatest masters, and Xenophon and Plato are often seen to +stoop to this low and popular manner of speaking and treating of things, +but supporting it with graces which never fail them. + +Farther, my language has nothing in it that is facile and polished; 'tis +rough, free, and irregular, and as such pleases, if not my judgment, at +all events my inclination, but I very well perceive that I sometimes give +myself too much rein, and that by endeavouring to avoid art and +affectation I fall into the other inconvenience: + + "Brevis esse laboro, + Obscurus fio." + + [ Endeavouring to be brief, I become obscure." + --Hor., Art. Poet., 25.] + +Plato says, that the long or the short are not properties, that either +take away or give value to language. Should I attempt to follow the +other more moderate, united, and regular style, I should never attain to +it; and though the short round periods of Sallust best suit with my +humour, yet I find Caesar much grander and harder to imitate; and though +my inclination would rather prompt me to imitate Seneca's way of writing, +yet I do nevertheless more esteem that of Plutarch. Both in doing and +speaking I simply follow my own natural way; whence, peradventure, it +falls out that I am better at speaking than writing. Motion and action +animate words, especially in those who lay about them briskly, as I do, +and grow hot. The comportment, the countenance; the voice, the robe, the +place, will set off some things that of themselves would appear no better +than prating. Messalla complains in Tacitus of the straitness of some +garments in his time, and of the fashion of the benches where the orators +were to declaim, that were a disadvantage to their eloquence. + +My French tongue is corrupted, both in the pronunciation and otherwise, +by the barbarism of my country. I never saw a man who was a native of +any of the provinces on this side of the kingdom who had not a twang of +his place of birth, and that was not offensive to ears that were purely +French. And yet it is not that I am so perfect in my Perigordin: for I +can no more speak it than High Dutch, nor do I much care. 'Tis a +language (as the rest about me on every side, of Poitou, Xaintonge, +Angoumousin, Limousin, Auvergne), a poor, drawling, scurvy language. +There is, indeed, above us towards the mountains a sort of Gascon spoken, +that I am mightily taken with: blunt, brief, significant, and in truth a +more manly and military language than any other I am acquainted with, as +sinewy, powerful, and pertinent as the French is graceful, neat, and +luxuriant. + +As to the Latin, which was given me for my mother tongue, I have by +discontinuance lost the use of speaking it, and, indeed, of writing it +too, wherein I formerly had a particular reputation, by which you may see +how inconsiderable I am on that side. + +Beauty is a thing of great recommendation in the correspondence amongst +men; 'tis the first means of acquiring the favour and good liking of one +another, and no man is so barbarous and morose as not to perceive himself +in some sort struck with its attraction. The body has a great share in +our being, has an eminent place there, and therefore its structure and +composition are of very just consideration. They who go about to +disunite and separate our two principal parts from one another are to +blame; we must, on the contrary, reunite and rejoin them. We must +command the soul not to withdraw and entertain itself apart, not to +despise and abandon the body (neither can she do it but by some apish +counterfeit), but to unite herself close to it, to embrace, cherish, +assist, govern, and advise it, and to bring it back and set it into the +true way when it wanders; in sum, to espouse and be a husband to it, so +that their effects may not appear to be diverse and contrary, but uniform +and concurring. Christians have a particular instruction concerning this +connection, for they know that the Divine justice embraces this society +and juncture of body and soul, even to the making the body capable of +eternal rewards; and that God has an eye to the whole man's ways, and +wills that he receive entire chastisement or reward according to his +demerits or merits. The sect of the Peripatetics, of all sects the most +sociable, attribute to wisdom this sole care equally to provide for the +good of these two associate parts: and the other sects, in not +sufficiently applying themselves to the consideration of this mixture, +show themselves to be divided, one for the body and the other for the +soul, with equal error, and to have lost sight of their subject, which is +Man, and their guide, which they generally confess to be Nature. The +first distinction that ever was amongst men, and the first consideration +that gave some pre-eminence over others, 'tis likely was the advantage of +beauty: + + "Agros divisere atque dedere + Pro facie cujusque, et viribus ingenioque; + Nam facies multum valuit, viresque vigebant." + + ["They distributed and conferred the lands to every man according + to his beauty and strength and understanding, for beauty was much + esteemed and strength was in favour."--Lucretius, V. 1109.] + +Now I am of something lower than the middle stature, a defect that not +only borders upon deformity, but carries withal a great deal of +inconvenience along with it, especially for those who are in office and +command; for the authority which a graceful presence and a majestic mien +beget is wanting. C. Marius did not willingly enlist any soldiers who +were not six feet high. The Courtier has, indeed, reason to desire a +moderate stature in the gentlemen he is setting forth, rather than any +other, and to reject all strangeness that should make him be pointed at. +But if I were to choose whether this medium must be rather below than +above the common standard, I would not have it so in a soldier. Little +men, says Aristotle, are pretty, but not handsome; and greatness of soul +is discovered in a great body, as beauty is in a conspicuous stature: the +Ethiopians and Indians, says he, in choosing their kings and magistrates, +had regard to the beauty and stature of their persons. They had reason; +for it creates respect in those who follow them, and is a terror to the +enemy, to see a leader of a brave and goodly stature march at the head of +a battalion: + + "Ipse inter primos praestanti corpore Turnus + Vertitur arma, tenens, et toto vertice supra est." + + ["In the first rank marches Turnus, brandishing his weapon, + taller by a head than all the rest."--Virgil, AEneid, vii. 783.] + +Our holy and heavenly king, of whom every circumstance is most carefully +and with the greatest religion and reverence to be observed, has not +himself rejected bodily recommendation, + + + "Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum." + + ["He is fairer than the children of men."--Psalm xiv. 3.] + +And Plato, together with temperance and fortitude, requires beauty in the +conservators of his republic. It would vex you that a man should apply +himself to you amongst your servants to inquire where Monsieur is, and +that you should only have the remainder of the compliment of the hat that +is made to your barber or your secretary; as it happened to poor +Philopoemen, who arriving the first of all his company at an inn where he +was expected, the hostess, who knew him not, and saw him an unsightly +fellow, employed him to go help her maids a little to draw water, and +make a fire against Philopoemen's coming; the gentlemen of his train +arriving presently after, and surprised to see him busy in this fine +employment, for he failed not to obey his landlady's command, asked him +what he was doing there: "I am," said he, "paying the penalty of my +ugliness." The other beauties belong to women; the beauty of stature is +the only beauty of men. Where there is a contemptible stature, neither +the largeness and roundness of the forehead, nor the whiteness and +sweetness of the eyes, nor the moderate proportion of the nose, nor the +littleness of the ears and mouth, nor the evenness and whiteness of the +teeth, nor the thickness of a well-set brown beard, shining like the husk +of a chestnut, nor curled hair, nor the just proportion of the head, nor +a fresh complexion, nor a pleasing air of a face, nor a body without any +offensive scent, nor the just proportion of limbs, can make a handsome +man. I am, as to the rest, strong and well knit; my face is not puffed, +but full, and my complexion betwixt jovial and melancholic, moderately +sanguine and hot, + + "Unde rigent setis mihi crura, et pectora villis;" + + ["Whence 'tis my legs and breast bristle with hair." + --Martial, ii. 36, 5.] + +my health vigorous and sprightly, even to a well advanced age, and rarely +troubled with sickness. Such I was, for I do not now make any account of +myself, now that I am engaged in the avenues of old age, being already +past forty: + + "Minutatim vires et robur adultum + Frangit, et in partem pejorem liquitur aetas:" + + ["Time by degrees breaks our strength and makes us grow feeble. + --"Lucretius, ii. 1131.] + +what shall be from this time forward, will be but a half-being, and no +more me: I every day escape and steal away from myself: + + "Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes." + + ["Of the fleeting years each steals something from me." + --Horace, Ep., ii. 2.] + +Agility and address I never had, and yet am the son of a very active and +sprightly father, who continued to be so to an extreme old age. I have +scarce known any man of his condition, his equal in all bodily exercises, +as I have seldom met with any who have not excelled me, except in +running, at which I was pretty good. In music or singing, for which I +have a very unfit voice, or to play on any sort of instrument, they could +never teach me anything. In dancing, tennis, or wrestling, I could never +arrive to more than an ordinary pitch; in swimming, fencing, vaulting, +and leaping, to none at all. My hands are so clumsy that I cannot even +write so as to read it myself, so that I had rather do what I have +scribbled over again, than take upon me the trouble to make it out. I do +not read much better than I write, and feel that I weary my auditors +otherwise (I am) not a bad clerk. I cannot decently fold up a letter, +nor could ever make a pen, or carve at table worth a pin, nor saddle a +horse, nor carry a hawk and fly her, nor hunt the dogs, nor lure a hawk, +nor speak to a horse. In fine, my bodily qualities are very well suited +to those of my soul; there is nothing sprightly, only a full and firm +vigour: I am patient enough of labour and pains, but it is only when I go +voluntary to work, and only so long as my own desire prompts me to it: + + "Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem." + + ["Study softly beguiling severe labour." + --Horace, Sat., ii. 2, 12.] + +otherwise, if I am not allured with some pleasure, or have other guide +than my own pure and free inclination, I am good for nothing: for I am of +a humour that, life and health excepted, there is nothing for which I +will bite my nails, and that I will purchase at the price of torment of +mind and constraint: + + "Tanti mihi non sit opaci + Omnis arena Tagi, quodque in mare volvitur aurum." + + ["I would not buy rich Tagus sands so dear, nor all the gold that + lies in the sea."--Juvenal, Sat., iii. 54.] + +Extremely idle, extremely given up to my own inclination both by nature +and art, I would as willingly lend a man my blood as my pains. I have a +soul free and entirely its own, and accustomed to guide itself after its +own fashion; having hitherto never had either master or governor imposed +upon me: I have walked as far as I would, and at the pace that best +pleased myself; this is it that has rendered me unfit for the service of +others, and has made me of no use to any one but myself. + +Nor was there any need of forcing my heavy and lazy disposition; for +being born to such a fortune as I had reason to be contented with (a +reason, nevertheless, that a thousand others of my acquaintance would +have rather made use of for a plank upon which to pass over in search of +higher fortune, to tumult and disquiet), and with as much intelligence as +I required, I sought for no more, and also got no more: + + "Non agimur tumidis velis Aquilone secundo, + Non tamen adversis aetatem ducimus Austris + Viribus, ingenio, specie, virtute, loco, re, + Extremi primorum, extremis usque priores." + + ["The northern wind does not agitate our sails; nor Auster trouble + our course with storms. In strength, talent, figure, virtue, + honour, wealth, we are short of the foremost, but before the last."- + -Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 201.] + +I had only need of what was sufficient to content me: which nevertheless +is a government of soul, to take it right, equally difficult in all sorts +of conditions, and that, of custom, we see more easily found in want than +in abundance: forasmuch, peradventure, as according to the course of our +other passions, the desire of riches is more sharpened by their use than +by the need of them: and the virtue of moderation more rare than that of +patience; and I never had anything to desire, but happily to enjoy the +estate that God by His bounty had put into my hands. I have never known +anything of trouble, and have had little to do in anything but the +management of my own affairs: or, if I have, it has been upon condition +to do it at my own leisure and after my own method; committed to my trust +by such as had a confidence in me, who did not importune me, and who knew +my humour; for good horsemen will make shift to get service out of a +rusty and broken-winded jade. + +Even my infancy was trained up after a gentle and free manner, and exempt +from any rigorous subjection. All this has helped me to a complexion +delicate and incapable of solicitude, even to that degree that I love to +have my losses and the disorders wherein I am concerned, concealed from +me. In the account of my expenses, I put down what my negligence costs +me in feeding and maintaining it; + + "Haec nempe supersunt, + Quae dominum fallunt, quae prosunt furibus." + + ["That overplus, which the owner knows not of, + but which benefits the thieves"--Horace, Ep., i. 645] + +I love not to know what I have, that I may be less sensible of my loss; +I entreat those who serve me, where affection and integrity are absent, +to deceive me with something like a decent appearance. For want of +constancy enough to support the shock of adverse accidents to which we +are subject, and of patience seriously to apply myself to the management +of my affairs, I nourish as much as I can this in myself, wholly leaving +all to fortune "to take all things at the worst, and to resolve to bear +that worst with temper and patience"; that is the only thing I aim at, +and to which I apply my whole meditation. In a danger, I do not so much +consider how I shall escape it, as of how little importance it is, +whether I escape it or no: should I be left dead upon the place, what +matter? Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply +myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me. I have no great +art to evade, escape from or force fortune, and by prudence to guide and +incline things to my own bias. I have still less patience to undergo the +troublesome and painful care therein required; and the most uneasy +condition for me is to be suspended on urgent occasions, and to be +agitated betwixt hope and fear. + +Deliberation, even in things of lightest moment, is very troublesome to +me; and I find my mind more put to it to undergo the various tumblings +and tossings of doubt and consultation, than to set up its rest and to +acquiesce in whatever shall happen after the die is thrown. Few passions +break my sleep, but of deliberations, the least will do it. As in roads, +I preferably avoid those that are sloping and slippery, and put myself +into the beaten track how dirty or deep soever, where I can fall no +lower, and there seek my safety: so I love misfortunes that are purely +so, that do not torment and tease me with the uncertainty of their +growing better; but that at the first push plunge me directly into the +worst that can be expected + + "Dubia plus torquent mala." + + ["Doubtful ills plague us worst." + --Seneca, Agamemnon, iii. 1, 29.] + + +In events I carry myself like a man; in conduct, like a child. The fear +of the fall more fevers me than the fall itself. The game is not worth +the candle. The covetous man fares worse with his passion than the poor, +and the jealous man than the cuckold; and a man ofttimes loses more by +defending his vineyard than if he gave it up. The lowest walk is the +safest; 'tis the seat of constancy; you have there need of no one but +yourself; 'tis there founded and wholly stands upon its own basis. Has +not this example of a gentleman very well known, some air of philosophy +in it? He married, being well advanced in years, having spent his youth +in good fellowship, a great talker and a great jeerer, calling to mind +how much the subject of cuckoldry had given him occasion to talk and +scoff at others. To prevent them from paying him in his own coin, he +married a wife from a place where any one finds what he wants for his +money: "Good morrow, strumpet"; "Good morrow, cuckold"; and there was not +anything wherewith he more commonly and openly entertained those who came +to see him than with this design of his, by which he stopped the private +chattering of mockers, and blunted all the point from this reproach. + +As to ambition, which is neighbour, or rather daughter, to presumption, +fortune, to advance me, must have come and taken me by the hand; for to +trouble myself for an uncertain hope, and to have submitted myself to all +the difficulties that accompany those who endeavour to bring themselves +into credit in the beginning of their progress, I could never have done +it: + + "Spem pretio non emo." + + ["I will not purchase hope with ready money," (or), + "I do not purchase hope at a price." + --Terence, Adelphi, ii. 3, 11.] + +I apply myself to what I see and to what I have in my hand, and go not +very far from the shore, + + "Alter remus aquas, alter tibi radat arenas:" + + ["One oar plunging into the sea, the other raking the sands." + --Propertius, iii. 3, 23.] + +and besides, a man rarely arrives at these advancements but in first +hazarding what he has of his own; and I am of opinion that if a man have +sufficient to maintain him in the condition wherein he was born and +brought up, 'tis a great folly to hazard that upon the uncertainty of +augmenting it. He to whom fortune has denied whereon to set his foot, +and to settle a quiet and composed way of living, is to be excused if he +venture what he has, because, happen what will, necessity puts him upon +shifting for himself: + + "Capienda rebus in malis praeceps via est:" + + ["A course is to be taken in bad cases." (or), + "A desperate case must have a desperate course." + ---Seneca, Agamemnon, ii. 1, 47.] + +and I rather excuse a younger brother for exposing what his friends have +left him to the courtesy of fortune, than him with whom the honour of his +family is entrusted, who cannot be necessitous but by his own fault. +I have found a much shorter and more easy way, by the advice of the good +friends I had in my younger days, to free myself from any such ambition, +and to sit still: + + "Cui sit conditio dulcis sine pulvere palmae:" + + ["What condition can compare with that where one has gained the + palm without the dust of the course."--Horace, Ep., i. I, 51.] + +judging rightly enough of my own strength, that it was not capable of any +great matters; and calling to mind the saying of the late Chancellor +Olivier, that the French were like monkeys that swarm up a tree from +branch to branch, and never stop till they come to the highest, and there +shew their breech. + + "Turpe est, quod nequeas, capiti committere pondus, + Et pressum inflexo mox dare terga genu." + + ["It is a shame to load the head so that it cannot bear the + burthen, and the knees give way."--Propertius, iii. 9, 5.] + +I should find the best qualities I have useless in this age; the facility +of my manners would have been called weakness and negligence; my faith +and conscience, scrupulosity and superstition; my liberty and freedom +would have been reputed troublesome, inconsiderate, and rash. Ill luck +is good for something. It is good to be born in a very depraved age; for +so, in comparison of others, you shall be reputed virtuous good cheap; he +who in our days is but a parricide and a sacrilegious person is an honest +man and a man of honour: + + "Nunc, si depositum non inficiatur amicus, + Si reddat veterem cum tota aerugine follem, + Prodigiosa fides, et Tuscis digna libellis, + Quaeque coronata lustrari debeat agna:" + + ["Now, if a friend does not deny his trust, but restores the old + purse with all its rust; 'tis a prodigious faith, worthy to be + enrolled in amongst the Tuscan annals, and a crowned lamb should be + sacrificed to such exemplary integrity."--Juvenal, Sat., xiii. 611.] + +and never was time or place wherein princes might propose to themselves +more assured or greater rewards for virtue and justice. The first who +shall make it his business to get himself into favour and esteem by those +ways, I am much deceived if he do not and by the best title outstrip his +competitors: force and violence can do something, but not always all. +We see merchants, country justices, and artisans go cheek by jowl with +the best gentry in valour and military knowledge: they perform honourable +actions, both in public engagements and private quarrels; they fight +duels, they defend towns in our present wars; a prince stifles his +special recommendation, renown, in this crowd; let him shine bright in +humanity, truth, loyalty, temperance, and especially injustice; marks +rare, unknown, and exiled; 'tis by no other means but by the sole +goodwill of the people that he can do his business; and no other +qualities can attract their goodwill like those, as being of the greatest +utility to them: + + "Nil est tam populare, quam bonitas." + + ["Nothing is so popular as an agreeable manner (goodness)." + --Cicero, Pro Ligar., c. 12.] + +By this standard I had been great and rare, just as I find myself now +pigmy and vulgar by the standard of some past ages, wherein, if no other +better qualities concurred, it was ordinary and common to see a man +moderate in his revenges, gentle in resenting injuries, religious of his +word, neither double nor supple, nor accommodating his faith to the will +of others, or the turns of the times: I would rather see all affairs go +to wreck and ruin than falsify my faith to secure them. For as to this +new virtue of feigning and dissimulation, which is now in so great +credit, I mortally hate it; and of all vices find none that evidences so +much baseness and meanness of spirit. 'Tis a cowardly and servile humour +to hide and disguise a man's self under a visor, and not to dare to show +himself what he is; 'tis by this our servants are trained up to +treachery; being brought up to speak what is not true, they make no +conscience of a lie. A generous heart ought not to belie its own +thoughts; it will make itself seen within; all there is good, or at least +human. Aristotle reputes it the office of magnanimity openly and +professedly to love and hate; to judge and speak with all freedom; and +not to value the approbation or dislike of others in comparison of truth. +Apollonius said it was for slaves to lie, and for freemen to speak truth: +'tis the chief and fundamental part of virtue; we must love it for +itself. He who speaks truth because he is obliged so to do, and because +it serves him, and who is not afraid to lie when it signifies nothing to +anybody, is not sufficiently true. My soul naturally abominates lying, +and hates the very thought of it. I have an inward shame and a sharp +remorse, if sometimes a lie escapes me: as sometimes it does, being +surprised by occasions that allow me no premeditation. A man must not +always tell all, for that were folly: but what a man says should be what +he thinks, otherwise 'tis knavery. I do not know what advantage men +pretend to by eternally counterfeiting and dissembling, if not never to +be believed when they speak the truth; it may once or twice pass with +men; but to profess the concealing their thought, and to brag, as some of +our princes have done, that they would burn their shirts if they knew +their true intentions, which was a saying of the ancient Metellius of +Macedon; and that they who know not how to dissemble know not how to +rule, is to give warning to all who have anything to do with them, that +all they say is nothing but lying and deceit: + + "Quo quis versutior et callidior est, hoc invisior et + suspectior, detracto opinione probitatis:" + + ["By how much any one is more subtle and cunning, by so much is he + hated and suspected, the opinion of his integrity being withdrawn." + --Cicero, De Off., ii. 9.] + +it were a great simplicity in any one to lay any stress either on the +countenance or word of a man who has put on a resolution to be always +another thing without than he is within, as Tiberius did; and I cannot +conceive what part such persons can have in conversation with men, seeing +they produce nothing that is received as true: whoever is disloyal to +truth is the same to falsehood also. + +Those of our time who have considered in the establishment of the duty of +a prince the good of his affairs only, and have preferred that to the +care of his faith and conscience, might have something to say to a prince +whose affairs fortune had put into such a posture that he might for ever +establish them by only once breaking his word: but it will not go so; +they often buy in the same market; they make more than one peace and +enter into more than one treaty in their lives. Gain tempts to the first +breach of faith, and almost always presents itself, as in all other ill +acts, sacrileges, murders, rebellions, treasons, as being undertaken for +some kind of advantage; but this first gain has infinite mischievous +consequences, throwing this prince out of all correspondence and +negotiation, by this example of infidelity. Soliman, of the Ottoman +race, a race not very solicitous of keeping their words or compacts, +when, in my infancy, he made his army land at Otranto, being informed +that Mercurino de' Gratinare and the inhabitants of Castro were detained +prisoners, after having surrendered the place, contrary to the articles +of their capitulation, sent orders to have them set at liberty, saying, +that having other great enterprises in hand in those parts, the +disloyalty, though it carried a show of present utility, would for the +future bring on him a disrepute and distrust of infinite prejudice. + +Now, for my part, I had rather be troublesome and indiscreet than a +flatterer and a dissembler. I confess that there may be some mixture of +pride and obstinacy in keeping myself so upright and open as I do, +without any consideration of others; and methinks I am a little too free, +where I ought least to be so, and that I grow hot by the opposition of +respect; and it may be also, that I suffer myself to follow the +propension of my own nature for want of art; using the same liberty, +speech, and countenance towards great persons, that I bring with me from +my own house: I am sensible how much it declines towards incivility and +indiscretion but, besides that I am so bred, I have not a wit supple +enough to evade a sudden question, and to escape by some evasion, nor to +feign a truth, nor memory enough to retain it so feigned; nor, truly, +assurance enough to maintain it, and so play the brave out of weakness. +And therefore it is that I abandon myself to candour, always to speak as +I think, both by complexion and design, leaving the event to fortune. +Aristippus was wont to say, that the principal benefit he had extracted +from philosophy was that he spoke freely and openly to all. + +Memory is a faculty of wonderful use, and without which the judgment can +very hardly perform its office: for my part I have none at all. What any +one will propound to me, he must do it piecemeal, for to answer a speech +consisting of several heads I am not able. I could not receive a +commission by word of mouth without a note-book. And when I have a +speech of consequence to make, if it be long, I am reduced to the +miserable necessity of getting by heart word for word, what I am to say; +I should otherwise have neither method nor assurance, being in fear that +my memory would play me a slippery trick. But this way is no less +difficult to me than the other; I must have three hours to learn three +verses. And besides, in a work of a man's own, the liberty and authority +of altering the order, of changing a word, incessantly varying the +matter, makes it harder to stick in the memory of the author. The more +I mistrust it the worse it is; it serves me best by chance; I must +solicit it negligently; for if I press it, 'tis confused, and after it +once begins to stagger, the more I sound it, the more it is perplexed; +it serves me at its own hour, not at mine. + +And the same defect I find in my memory, I find also in several other +parts. I fly command, obligation, and constraint; that which I can +otherwise naturally and easily do, if I impose it upon myself by an +express and strict injunction, I cannot do it. Even the members of my +body, which have a more particular jurisdiction of their own, sometimes +refuse to obey me, if I enjoin them a necessary service at a certain +hour. This tyrannical and compulsive appointment baffles them; they +shrink up either through fear or spite, and fall into a trance. Being +once in a place where it is looked upon as barbarous discourtesy not to +pledge those who drink to you, though I had there all liberty allowed me, +I tried to play the good fellow, out of respect to the ladies who were +there, according to the custom of the country; but there was sport enough +for this pressure and preparation, to force myself contrary to my custom +and inclination, so stopped my throat that I could not swallow one drop, +and was deprived of drinking so much as with my meat; I found myself +gorged, and my, thirst quenched by the quantity of drink that my +imagination had swallowed. This effect is most manifest in such as have +the most vehement and powerful imagination: but it is natural, +notwithstanding, and there is no one who does not in some measure feel +it. They offered an excellent archer, condemned to die, to save his +life, if he would show some notable proof of his art, but he refused to +try, fearing lest the too great contention of his will should make him +shoot wide, and that instead of saving his life, he should also lose the +reputation he had got of being a good marksman. A man who thinks of +something else, will not fail to take over and over again the same number +and measure of steps, even to an inch, in the place where he walks; but +if he made it his business to measure and count them, he will find that +what he did by nature and accident, he cannot so exactly do by design. + +My library, which is a fine one among those of the village type, is +situated in a corner of my house; if anything comes into my head that I +have a mind to search or to write, lest I should forget it in but going +across the court, I am fain to commit it to the memory of some other. +If I venture in speaking to digress never so little from my subject, I am +infallibly lost, which is the reason that I keep myself, in discourse, +strictly close. I am forced to call the men who serve me either by the +names of their offices or their country; for names are very hard for me +to remember. I can tell indeed that there are three syllables, that it +has a harsh sound, and that it begins or ends with such a letter; but +that's all; and if I should live long, I do not doubt but I should forget +my own name, as some others have done. Messala Corvinus was two years +without any trace of memory, which is also said of Georgius Trapezuntius. +For my own interest, I often meditate what a kind of life theirs was, and +if, without this faculty, I should have enough left to support me with +any manner of ease; and prying narrowly into it, I fear that this +privation, if absolute, destroys all the other functions of the soul: + + "Plenus rimarum sum, hac atque iliac perfluo." + + ["I'm full of chinks, and leak out every way." + --Ter., Eunuchus, ii. 2, 23.] + +It has befallen me more than once to forget the watchword I had three +hours before given or received, and to forget where I had hidden my +purse; whatever Cicero is pleased to say, I help myself to lose what I +have a particular care to lock safe up: + + "Memoria certe non modo Philosophiam sed omnis + vitae usum, omnesque artes, una maxime continet." + + ["It is certain that memory contains not only philosophy, + but all the arts and all that appertain to the use of life." + --Cicero, Acad., ii. 7.] + +Memory is the receptacle and case of science: and therefore mine being so +treacherous, if I know little, I cannot much complain. I know, in +general, the names of the arts, and of what they treat, but nothing more. +I turn over books; I do not study them. What I retain I no longer +recognise as another's; 'tis only what my judgment has made its advantage +of, the discourses and imaginations in which it has been instructed: the +author, place, words, and other circumstances, I immediately forget; and +I am so excellent at forgetting, that I no less forget my own writings +and compositions than the rest. I am very often quoted to myself, and am +not aware of it. Whoever should inquire of me where I had the verses and +examples, that I have here huddled together, would puzzle me to tell him, +and yet I have not borrowed them but from famous and known authors, not +contenting myself that they were rich, if I, moreover, had them not from +rich and honourable hands, where there is a concurrence of authority with +reason. It is no great wonder if my book run the same fortune that other +books do, if my memory lose what I have written as well as what I have +read, and what I give, as well as what I receive. + +Besides the defect of memory, I have others which very much contribute to +my ignorance; I have a slow and heavy wit, the least cloud stops its +progress, so that, for example, I never propose to it any never so easy a +riddle that it could find out; there is not the least idle subtlety that +will not gravel me; in games, where wit is required, as chess, draughts, +and the like, I understand no more than the common movements. I have a +slow and perplexed apprehension, but what it once apprehends, it +apprehends well, for the time it retains it. My sight is perfect, +entire, and discovers at a very great distance, but is soon weary and +heavy at work, which occasions that I cannot read long, but am forced to +have one to read to me. The younger Pliny can inform such as have not +experimented it themselves, how important an impediment this is to those +who devote themselves to this employment. + +There is no so wretched and coarse a soul, wherein some particular +faculty is not seen to shine; no soul so buried in sloth and ignorance, +but it will sally at one end or another; and how it comes to pass that a +man blind and asleep to everything else, shall be found sprightly, clear, +and excellent in some one particular effect, we are to inquire of our +masters: but the beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and +ready for all things; if not instructed, at least capable of being so; +which I say to accuse my own; for whether it be through infirmity or +negligence (and to neglect that which lies at our feet, which we have in +our hands, and what nearest concerns the use of life, is far from my +doctrine) there is not a soul in the world so awkward as mine, and so +ignorant of many common things, and such as a man cannot without shame +fail to know. I must give some examples. + +I was born and bred up in the country, and amongst husbandmen; I have had +business and husbandry in my own hands ever since my predecessors, who +were lords of the estate I now enjoy, left me to succeed them; and yet I +can neither cast accounts, nor reckon my counters: most of our current +money I do not know, nor the difference betwixt one grain and another, +either growing or in the barn, if it be not too apparent, and scarcely +can distinguish between the cabbage and lettuce in my garden. I do not +so much as understand the names of the chief instruments of husbandry, +nor the most ordinary elements of agriculture, which the very children +know: much less the mechanic arts, traffic, merchandise, the variety and +nature of fruits, wines, and viands, nor how to make a hawk fly, nor to +physic a horse or a dog. And, since I must publish my whole shame, 'tis +not above a month ago, that I was trapped in my ignorance of the use of +leaven to make bread, or to what end it was to keep wine in the vat. +They conjectured of old at Athens, an aptitude for the mathematics in +him they saw ingeniously bavin up a burthen of brushwood. In earnest, +they would draw a quite contrary conclusion from me, for give me the +whole provision and necessaries of a kitchen, I should starve. By these +features of my confession men may imagine others to my prejudice: but +whatever I deliver myself to be, provided it be such as I really am, +I have my end; neither will I make any excuse for committing to paper +such mean and frivolous things as these: the meanness of the subject +compells me to it. They may, if they please, accuse my project, but not +my progress: so it is, that without anybody's needing to tell me, I +sufficiently see of how little weight and value all this is, and the +folly of my design: 'tis enough that my judgment does not contradict +itself, of which these are the essays. + + "Nasutus sis usque licet, sis denique nasus, + Quantum noluerit ferre rogatus Atlas; + Et possis ipsum to deridere Latinum, + Non potes in nugas dicere plura mess, + Ipse ego quam dixi: quid dentem dente juvabit + Rodere? carne opus est, si satur esse velis. + Ne perdas operam; qui se mirantur, in illos + Virus habe; nos haec novimus esse nihil." + + ["Let your nose be as keen as it will, be all nose, and even a nose + so great that Atlas will refuse to bear it: if asked, Could you even + excel Latinus in scoffing; against my trifles you could say no more + than I myself have said: then to what end contend tooth against + tooth? You must have flesh, if you want to be full; lose not your + labour then; cast your venom upon those that admire themselves; I + know already that these things are worthless."--Mart., xiii. 2.] + +I am not obliged not to utter absurdities, provided I am not deceived in +them and know them to be such: and to trip knowingly, is so ordinary with +me, that I seldom do it otherwise, and rarely trip by chance. 'Tis no +great matter to add ridiculous actions to the temerity of my humour, +since I cannot ordinarily help supplying it with those that are vicious. + +I was present one day at Barleduc, when King Francis II., for a memorial +of Rene, king of Sicily, was presented with a portrait he had drawn of +himself: why is it not in like manner lawful for every one to draw +himself with a pen, as he did with a crayon? I will not, therefore, omit +this blemish though very unfit to be published, which is irresolution; a +very great effect and very incommodious in the negotiations of the +affairs of the world; in doubtful enterprises, I know not which to +choose: + + "Ne si, ne no, nel cor mi suona intero." + + ["My heart does not tell me either yes or no."--Petrarch.] + +I can maintain an opinion, but I cannot choose one. By reason that in +human things, to what sect soever we incline, many appearances present +themselves that confirm us in it; and the philosopher Chrysippus said, +that he would of Zeno and Cleanthes, his masters, learn their doctrines +only; for, as to proofs and reasons, he should find enough of his own. +Which way soever I turn, I still furnish myself with causes, and +likelihood enough to fix me there; which makes me detain doubt and the +liberty of choosing, till occasion presses; and then, to confess the +truth, I, for the most part, throw the feather into the wind, as the +saying is, and commit myself to the mercy of fortune; a very light +inclination and circumstance carries me along with it. + + "Dum in dubio est animus, paulo momento huc atque + Illuc impellitur." + + ["While the mind is in doubt, in a short time it is impelled this + way and that."--Terence, Andr., i. 6, 32.] + +The uncertainty of my judgment is so equally balanced in most +occurrences, that I could willingly refer it to be decided by the chance +of a die: and I observe, with great consideration of our human infirmity, +the examples that the divine history itself has left us of this custom of +referring to fortune and chance the determination of election in doubtful +things: + + "Sors cecidit super Matthiam." + + ["The lot fell upon Matthew."--Acts i. 26.] + +Human reason is a two-edged and dangerous sword: observe in the hands of +Socrates, her most intimate and familiar friend, how many several points +it has. I am thus good for nothing but to follow and suffer myself to be +easily carried away with the crowd; I have not confidence enough in my +own strength to take upon me to command and lead; I am very glad to find +the way beaten before me by others. If I must run the hazard of an +uncertain choice, I am rather willing to have it under such a one as is +more confident in his opinions than I am in mine, whose ground and +foundation I find to be very slippery and unsure. + +Yet I do not easily change, by reason that I discern the same weakness in +contrary opinions: + + "Ipsa consuetudo assentiendi periculosa + esse videtur, et lubrica;" + + ["The very custom of assenting seems to be dangerous + and slippery."--Cicero, Acad., ii. 21.] + +especially in political affairs, there is a large field open for changes +and contestation: + + "Justa pari premitur veluti cum pondere libra, + Prona, nec hac plus pane sedet, nec surgit ab illa." + + ["As a just balance, pressed with equal weight, neither dips + nor rises on either side."--Tibullus, iv. 41.] + +Machiavelli's writings, for example, were solid enough for the subject, +yet were they easy enough to be controverted; and they who have done so, +have left as great a facility of controverting theirs; there was never +wanting in that kind of argument replies and replies upon replies, and as +infinite a contexture of debates as our wrangling lawyers have extended +in favour of long suits: + + "Caedimur et totidem plagis consumimus hostem;" + + ["We are slain, and with as many blows kill the enemy" (or), + "It is a fight wherein we exhaust each other by mutual wounds." + --Horace, Epist., ii. 2, 97.] + +the reasons have little other foundation than experience, and the variety +of human events presenting us with infinite examples of all sorts of +forms. An understanding person of our times says: That whoever would, in +contradiction to our almanacs, write cold where they say hot, and wet +where they say dry, and always put the contrary to what they foretell; if +he were to lay a wager, he would not care which side he took, excepting +where no uncertainty could fall out, as to promise excessive heats at +Christmas, or extremity of cold at Midsummer. I have the same opinion of +these political controversies; be on which side you will, you have as +fair a game to play as your adversary, provided you do not proceed so far +as to shock principles that are broad and manifest. And yet, in my +conceit, in public affairs, there is no government so ill, provided it be +ancient and has been constant, that is not better than change and +alteration. + +Our manners are infinitely corrupt, and wonderfully incline to the worse; +of our laws and customs there are many that are barbarous and monstrous +nevertheless, by reason of the difficulty of reformation, and the danger +of stirring things, if I could put something under to stop the wheel, and +keep it where it is, I would do it with all my heart: + + "Numquam adeo foedis, adeoque pudendis + Utimur exemplis, ut non pejora supersint." + + ["The examples we use are not so shameful and foul + but that worse remain behind."--Juvenal, viii. 183.] + +The worst thing I find in our state is instability, and that our laws, +no more than our clothes, cannot settle in any certain form. It is very +easy to accuse a government of imperfection, for all mortal things are +full of it: it is very easy to beget in a people a contempt of ancient +observances; never any man undertook it but he did it; but to establish a +better regimen in the stead of that which a man has overthrown, many who +have attempted it have foundered. I very little consult my prudence in +my conduct; I am willing to let it be guided by the public rule. Happy +the people who do what they are commanded, better than they who command, +without tormenting themselves as to the causes; who suffer themselves +gently to roll after the celestial revolution! Obedience is never pure +nor calm in him who reasons and disputes. + +In fine, to return to myself: the only thing by which I something esteem +myself, is that wherein never any man thought himself to be defective; my +recommendation is vulgar, common, and popular; for who ever thought he +wanted sense? It would be a proposition that would imply a contradiction +in itself; 'tis a disease that never is where it is discerned; 'tis +tenacious and strong, but what the first ray of the patient's sight +nevertheless pierces through and disperses, as the beams of the sun do +thick and obscure mists; to accuse one's self would be to excuse in this +case, and to condemn, to absolve. There never was porter or the silliest +girl, that did not think they had sense enough to do their business. +We easily enough confess in others an advantage of courage, strength, +experience, activity, and beauty, but an advantage in judgment we yield +to none; and the reasons that proceed simply from the natural conclusions +of others, we think, if we had but turned our thoughts that way, we +should ourselves have found out as well as they. Knowledge, style, and +such parts as we see in others' works, we are soon aware of, if they +excel our own: but for the simple products of the understanding, every +one thinks he could have found out the like in himself, and is hardly +sensible of the weight and difficulty, if not (and then with much ado) in +an extreme and incomparable distance. And whoever should be able clearly +to discern the height of another's judgment, would be also able to raise +his own to the same pitch. So that it is a sort of exercise, from which +a man is to expect very little praise; a kind of composition of small +repute. And, besides, for whom do you write? The learned, to whom the +authority appertains of judging books, know no other value but that of +learning, and allow of no other proceeding of wit but that of erudition +and art: if you have mistaken one of the Scipios for another, what is all +the rest you have to say worth? Whoever is ignorant of Aristotle, +according to their rule, is in some sort ignorant of himself; vulgar +souls cannot discern the grace and force of a lofty and delicate style. +Now these two sorts of men take up the world. The third sort into whose +hands you fall, of souls that are regular and strong of themselves, is so +rare, that it justly has neither name nor place amongst us; and 'tis so +much time lost to aspire unto it, or to endeavour to please it. + +'Tis commonly said that the justest portion Nature has given us of her +favours is that of sense; for there is no one who is not contented with +his share: is it not reason? whoever should see beyond that, would see +beyond his sight. I think my opinions are good and sound, but who does +not think the same of his own? One of the best proofs I have that mine +are so is the small esteem I have of myself; for had they not been very +well assured, they would easily have suffered themselves to have been +deceived by the peculiar affection I have to myself, as one that places +it almost wholly in myself, and do not let much run out. All that others +distribute amongst an infinite number of friends and acquaintance, to +their glory and grandeur, I dedicate to the repose of my own mind and to +myself; that which escapes thence is not properly by my direction: + + "Mihi nempe valere et vivere doctus." + + ["To live and to do well for myself." + --Lucretius, v. 959.] + +Now I find my opinions very bold and constant in condemning my own +imperfection. And, to say the truth, 'tis a subject upon which I +exercise my judgment as much as upon any other. The world looks always +opposite; I turn my sight inwards, and there fix and employ it. I have +no other business but myself, I am eternally meditating upon myself, +considering and tasting myself. Other men's thoughts are ever wandering +abroad, if they will but see it; they are still going forward: + + "Nemo in sese tentat descendere;" + + ["No one thinks of descending into himself." + --Persius, iv. 23.] + +for my part, I circulate in myself. This capacity of trying the truth, +whatever it be, in myself, and this free humour of not over easily +subjecting my belief, I owe principally to myself; for the strongest and +most general imaginations I have are those that, as a man may say, were +born with me; they are natural and entirely my own. I produced them +crude and simple, with a strong and bold production, but a little +troubled and imperfect; I have since established and fortified them with +the authority of others and the sound examples of the ancients, whom I +have found of the same judgment: they have given me faster hold, and a +more manifest fruition and possession of that I had before embraced. The +reputation that every one pretends to of vivacity and promptness of wit, +I seek in regularity; the glory they pretend to from a striking and +signal action, or some particular excellence, I claim from order, +correspondence, and tranquillity of opinions and manners: + + "Omnino si quidquam est decorum, nihil est profecto magis, quam + aequabilitas universae vitae, tum singularum actionum, quam + conservare non possis, si, aliorum naturam imitans, omittas tuam." + + ["If anything be entirely decorous, nothing certainly can be more so + than an equability alike in the whole life and in every particular + action; which thou canst not possibly observe if, imitating other + men's natures, thou layest aside thy own."--Cicero, De Of., i. 31.] + +Here, then, you see to what degree I find myself guilty of this first +part, that I said was the vice of presumption. As to the second, which +consists in not having a sufficient esteem for others, I know not whether +or no I can so well excuse myself; but whatever comes on't I am resolved +to speak the truth. And whether, peradventure, it be that the continual +frequentation I have had with the humours of the ancients, and the idea +of those great souls of past ages, put me out of taste both with others +and myself, or that, in truth, the age we live in produces but very +indifferent things, yet so it is that I see nothing worthy of any great +admiration. Neither, indeed, have I so great an intimacy with many men +as is requisite to make a right judgment of them; and those with whom my +condition makes me the most frequent, are, for the most part, men who +have little care of the culture of the soul, but that look upon honour as +the sum of all blessings, and valour as the height of all perfection. + +What I see that is fine in others I very readily commend and esteem: nay, +I often say more in their commendation than I think they really deserve, +and give myself so far leave to lie, for I cannot invent a false subject: +my testimony is never wanting to my friends in what I conceive deserves +praise, and where a foot is due I am willing to give them a foot and a +half; but to attribute to them qualities that they have not, I cannot do +it, nor openly defend their imperfections. Nay, I frankly give my very +enemies their due testimony of honour; my affection alters, my judgment +does not, and I never confound my animosity with other circumstances that +are foreign to it; and I am so jealous of the liberty of my judgment that +I can very hardly part with it for any passion whatever. I do myself a +greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie. This +commendable and generous custom is observed of the Persian nation, that +they spoke of their mortal enemies and with whom they were at deadly war, +as honourably and justly as their virtues deserved. + +I know men enough that have several fine parts; one wit, another courage, +another address, another conscience, another language: one science, +another, another; but a generally great man, and who has all these brave +parts together, or any one of them to such a degree of excellence that we +should admire him or compare him with those we honour of times past, my +fortune never brought me acquainted with; and the greatest I ever knew, I +mean for the natural parts of the soul, was Etienne De la Boetie; his was +a full soul indeed, and that had every way a beautiful aspect: a soul of +the old stamp, and that had produced great effects had his fortune been +so pleased, having added much to those great natural parts by learning +and study. + +But how it comes to pass I know not, and yet it is certainly so, there is +as much vanity and weakness of judgment in those who profess the greatest +abilities, who take upon them learned callings and bookish employments as +in any other sort of men whatever; either because more is required and +expected from them, and that common defects are excusable in them, or +because the opinion they have of their own learning makes them more bold +to expose and lay themselves too open, by which they lose and betray +themselves. As an artificer more manifests his want of skill in a rich +matter he has in hand, if he disgrace the work by ill handling and +contrary to the rules required, than in a matter of less value; and men +are more displeased at a disproportion in a statue of gold than in one of +plaster; so do these when they advance things that in themselves and in +their place would be good; for they make use of them without discretion, +honouring their memories at the expense of their understandings, and +making themselves ridiculous by honouring Cicero, Galen, Ulpian, and St. +Jerome alike. + +I willingly fall again into the discourse of the vanity of our education, +the end of which is not to render us good and wise, but learned, and she +has obtained it. She has not taught us to follow and embrace virtue and +prudence, but she has imprinted in us their derivation and etymology; we +know how to decline Virtue, if we know not how to love it; if we do not +know what prudence is really and in effect, and by experience, we have it +however by jargon and heart: we are not content to know the extraction, +kindred, and alliances of our neighbours; we desire, moreover, to have +them our friends and to establish a correspondence and intelligence with +them; but this education of ours has taught us definitions, divisions, +and partitions of virtue, as so many surnames and branches of a +genealogy, without any further care of establishing any familiarity or +intimacy betwixt her and us. It has culled out for our initiatory +instruction not such books as contain the soundest and truest opinions, +but those that speak the best Greek and Latin, and by their fine words +has instilled into our fancy the vainest humours of antiquity. + +A good education alters the judgment and manners; as it happened to +Polemon, a lewd and debauched young Greek, who going by chance to hear +one of Xenocrates' lectures, did not only observe the eloquence and +learning of the reader, and not only brought away, the knowledge of some +fine matter, but a more manifest and more solid profit, which was the +sudden change and reformation of his former life. Whoever found such an +effect of our discipline? + + "Faciasne, quod olim + Mutatus Polemon? ponas insignia morbi + Fasciolas, cubital, focalia; potus ut ille + Dicitur ex collo furtim carpsisse coronas, + Postquam est impransi correptus voce magistri?" + + ["Will you do what reformed Polemon did of old? will you lay aside + the joys of your disease, your garters, capuchin, muffler, as he in + his cups is said to have secretly torn off his garlands from his + neck when he heard what that temperate teacher said?" + --Horace, Sat., ii. 3, 253] + +That seems to me to be the least contemptible condition of men, which by +its plainness and simplicity is seated in the lowest degree, and invites +us to a more regular course. I find the rude manners and language of +country people commonly better suited to the rule and prescription of +true philosophy, than those of our philosophers themselves: + + "Plus sapit vulgus, quia tantum, quantum opus est, sapit." + + ["The vulgar are so much the wiser, because they only know what + is needful for them to know."--Lactantms, Instit. Div., iii. 5.] + +The most remarkable men, as I have judged by outward appearance (for to +judge of them according to my own method, I must penetrate a great deal +deeper), for soldiers and military conduct, were the Duc de Guise, who +died at Orleans, and the late Marshal Strozzi; and for men of great +ability and no common virtue, Olivier and De l'Hospital, Chancellors of +France. Poetry, too, in my opinion, has flourished in this age of ours; +we have abundance of very good artificers in the trade: D'Aurat, Beza, +Buchanan, L'Hospital, Montdore, Turnebus; as to the French poets, I +believe they raised their art to the highest pitch to which it can ever +arrive; and in those parts of it wherein Ronsard and Du Bellay excel, I +find them little inferior to the ancient perfection. Adrian Turnebus +knew more, and what he did know, better than any man of his time, or long +before him. The lives of the last Duke of Alva, and of our Constable de +Montmorency, were both of them great and noble, and that had many rare +resemblances of fortune; but the beauty and glory of the death of the +last, in the sight of Paris and of his king, in their service, against +his nearest relations, at the head of an army through his conduct +victorious, and by a sudden stroke, in so extreme old age, merits +methinks to be recorded amongst the most remarkable events of our times. +As also the constant goodness, sweetness of manners, and conscientious +facility of Monsieur de la Noue, in so great an injustice of armed +parties (the true school of treason, inhumanity, and robbery), wherein he +always kept up the reputation of a great and experienced captain. + +I have taken a delight to publish in several places the hopes I have of +Marie de Gournay le Jars, + + [She was adopted by him in 1588. See Leon Feugere's Mademoiselle + de Gournay: 'Etude sur sa Vie et ses Ouvrages'.] + +my adopted daughter; and certainly beloved by me more than paternally, +and enveloped in my retirement and solitude as one of the best parts of +my own being: I have no longer regard to anything in this world but her. +And if a man may presage from her youth, her soul will one day be capable +of very great things; and amongst others, of the perfection of that +sacred friendship, to which we do not read that any of her sex could ever +yet arrive; the sincerity and solidity of her manners are already +sufficient for it, and her affection towards me more than superabundant, +and such, in short, as that there is nothing more to be wished, if not +that the apprehension she has of my end, being now five-and-fifty years +old, might not so much afflict her. The judgment she made of my first +Essays, being a woman, so young, and in this age, and alone in her own +country; and the famous vehemence wherewith she loved me, and desired my +acquaintance solely from the esteem she had thence of me, before she ever +saw my face, is an incident very worthy of consideration. + +Other virtues have had little or no credit in this age; but valour is +become popular by our civil wars; and in this, we have souls brave even +to perfection, and in so great number that the choice is impossible to +make. + +This is all of extraordinary and uncommon grandeur that has hitherto +arrived at my knowledge. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A generous heart ought not to belie its own thoughts +A man may play the fool in everything else, but not in poetry +Against my trifles you could say no more than I myself have said +Agitated betwixt hope and fear +All defence shows a face of war +Almanacs +An advantage in judgment we yield to none +Any old government better than change and alteration +Anything becomes foul when commended by the multitude +Appetite runs after that it has not +Armed parties (the true school of treason, inhumanity, robbery) +Authority to be dissected by the vain fancies of men +Authority which a graceful presence and a majestic mien beget +Be on which side you will, you have as fair a game to play +Beauty of stature is the only beauty of men +Believing Heaven concerned at our ordinary actions +Better at speaking than writing. Motion and action animate word +Caesar's choice of death: "the shortest" +Ceremony forbids us to express by words things that are lawful +Content: more easily found in want than in abundance +Curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a scourge +Defence allures attempt, and defiance provokes an enemy +Desire of riches is more sharpened by their use than by the need +Difficulty gives all things their estimation +Doubt whether those (old writings) we have be not the worst +Doubtful ills plague us worst +Endeavouring to be brief, I become obscure +Engaged in the avenues of old age, being already past forty +Every government has a god at the head of it +Executions rather whet than dull the edge of vices +Fear of the fall more fevers me than the fall itself +Folly to hazard that upon the uncertainty of augmenting it. +For who ever thought he wanted sense? +Fortune rules in all things +Gentleman would play the fool to make a show of defence +Happen to do anything commendable, I attribute it to fortune +Having too good an opinion of our own worth +He should discern in himself, as well as in others +He who is only a good man that men may know it +How many worthy men have we known to survive their reputation +Humble out of pride +I am very glad to find the way beaten before me by others +I find myself here fettered by the laws of ceremony +I have no mind to die, but I have no objection to be dead +I have not a wit supple enough to evade a sudden question +I have nothing of my own that satisfies my judgment +I would be rich of myself, and not by borrowing +Ill luck is good for something +Imitating other men's natures, thou layest aside thy own +Immoderate either seeking or evading glory or reputation +Impunity pass with us for justice +It is not for outward show that the soul is to play its part +Knowledge of others, wherein the honour consists +Lessen the just value of things that I possess +License of judgments is a great disturbance to great affairs +Lose what I have a particular care to lock safe up +Loses more by defending his vineyard than if he gave it up. +More brave men been lost in occasions of little moment +More solicitous that men speak of us, than how they speak +My affection alters, my judgment does not +No way found to tranquillity that is good in common +Not being able to govern events, I govern myself +Not conceiving things otherwise than by this outward bark +Not for any profit, but for the honour of honesty itself +Nothing is more confident than a bad poet +Nothing that so poisons as flattery +Obedience is never pure nor calm in him who reasons and disputes +Occasions of the least lustre are ever the most dangerous +Of the fleeting years each steals something from me +Office of magnanimity openly and professedly to love and hate +Old age: applaud the past and condemn the present +One may be humble out of pride +Our will is more obstinate by being opposed +Overvalue things, because they are foreign, absent +Philopoemen: paying the penalty of my ugliness. +Pleasing all: a mark that can never be aimed at or hit +Poets +Possession begets a contempt of what it holds and rules +Prolong his life also prolonged and augmented his pain +Regret so honourable a post, where necessity must make them bold +Sense: no one who is not contented with his share +Setting too great a value upon ourselves +Setting too little a value upon others +She who only refuses, because 'tis forbidden, consents +Short of the foremost, but before the last +Souls that are regular and strong of themselves are rare +Suicide: a morsel that is to be swallowed without chewing +Take all things at the worst, and to resolve to bear that worst +The age we live in produces but very indifferent things +The reward of a thing well done is to have done it +The satiety of living, inclines a man to desire to die +There is no reason that has not its contrary +They do not see my heart, they see but my countenance +Those who can please and hug themselves in what they do +Tis far beyond not fearing death to taste and relish it +To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind to't +Voice and determination of the rabble, the mother of ignorance +Vulgar reports and opinions that drive us on +We believe we do not believe +We consider our death as a very great thing +We have not the thousandth part of ancient writings +We have taught the ladies to blush +We set too much value upon ourselves +Were more ambitious of a great reputation than of a good one +What a man says should be what he thinks +What he did by nature and accident, he cannot do by design +What is more accidental than reputation? +What, shall so much knowledge be lost +Wiser who only know what is needful for them to know + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V11 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 12. + +XVIII. Of giving the lie. +XIX. Of liberty of conscience. +XX. That we taste nothing pure. +XXI. Against idleness. +XXII. Of Posting. +XXIII. Of ill means employed to a good end. +XXIV. Of the Roman grandeur. +XXV. Not to counterfeit being sick. +XXVI. Of thumbs. +XXVII. Cowardice the mother of cruelty. +XXVIII. All things have their season. +XXIX. Of virtue. +XXX. Of a monstrous child. +XXXI. Of anger. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +OF GIVING THE LIE + +Well, but some one will say to me, this design of making a man's self the +subject of his writing, were indeed excusable in rare and famous men, who +by their reputation had given others a curiosity to be fully informed of +them. It is most true, I confess and know very well, that a mechanic +will scarce lift his eyes from his work to look at an ordinary man, +whereas a man will forsake his business and his shop to stare at an +eminent person when he comes into a town. It misbecomes any other to +give his own character, but him who has qualities worthy of imitation, +and whose life and opinions may serve for example: Caesar and Xenophon +had a just and solid foundation whereon to found their narrations, the +greatness of their own performances; and were to be wished that we had +the journals of Alexander the Great, the commentaries that Augustus, +Cato, Sylla, Brutus, and others left of their actions; of such persons +men love and contemplate the very statues even in copper and marble. +This remonstrance is very true; but it very little concerns me: + + "Non recito cuiquam, nisi amicis, idque coactus; + Non ubivis, coramve quibuslibet, in medio qui + Scripta foro recitant, sunt multi, quique lavantes." + + ["I repeat my poems only to my friends, and when bound to do so; + not before every one and everywhere; there are plenty of reciters + in the open market-place and at the baths."--Horace, sat. i. 4, 73.] + +I do not here form a statue to erect in the great square of a city, in a +church, or any public place: + + "Non equidem hoc studeo, bullatis ut mihi nugis, + Pagina turgescat...... + Secreti loquimur:" + + ["I study not to make my pages swell with empty trifles; + you and I are talking in private."--Persius, Sat., v. 19.] + +'tis for some corner of a library, or to entertain a neighbour, +a kinsman, a friend, who has a mind to renew his acquaintance and +familiarity with me in this image of myself. Others have been encouraged +to speak of themselves, because they found the subject worthy and rich; +I, on the contrary, am the bolder, by reason the subject is so poor and +sterile that I cannot be suspected of ostentation. I judge freely of the +actions of others; I give little of my own to judge of, because they are +nothing: I do not find so much good in myself, that I cannot tell it +without blushing. + +What contentment would it not be to me to hear any one thus relate to me +the manners, faces, countenances, the ordinary words and fortunes of my +ancestors? how attentively should I listen to it! In earnest, it would +be evil nature to despise so much as the pictures of our friends and +predecessors, the fashion of their clothes and arms. I preserve their +writing, seal, and a particular sword they wore, and have not thrown the +long staves my father used to carry in his hand, out of my closet + + "Paterna vestis, et annulus, tanto charior est + posteris, quanto erga parentes major affectus." + + ["A father's garment and ring is by so much dearer to his posterity, + as there is the greater affection towards parents." + --St. Aug., De Civat. Dei, i. 13.] + +If my posterity, nevertheless, shall be of another mind, I shall be +avenged on them; for they cannot care less for me than I shall then do +for them. All the traffic that I have in this with the public is, that I +borrow their utensils of writing, which are more easy and most at hand; +and in recompense shall, peradventure, keep a pound of butter in the +market from melting in the sun:--[Montaigne semi-seriously speculates on +the possibility of his MS. being used to wrap up butter.] + + "Ne toga cordyllis, ne penula desit olivis; + Et laxas scombris saepe dabo tunicas;" + + ["Let not wrappers be wanting to tunny-fish, nor olives; + and I shall supply loose coverings to mackerel." + --Martial, xiii. I, I.] + +And though nobody should read me, have I wasted time in entertaining +myself so many idle hours in so pleasing and useful thoughts? In +moulding this figure upon myself, I have been so often constrained to +temper and compose myself in a right posture, that the copy is truly +taken, and has in some sort formed itself; painting myself for others, +I represent myself in a better colouring than my own natural complexion. +I have no more made my book than my book has made me: 'tis a book +consubstantial with the author, of a peculiar design, a parcel of my +life, and whose business is not designed for others, as that of all other +books is. In giving myself so continual and so exact an account of +myself, have I lost my time? For they who sometimes cursorily survey +themselves only, do not so strictly examine themselves, nor penetrate so +deep, as he who makes it his business, his study, and his employment, who +intends a lasting record, with all his fidelity, and with all his force: +The most delicious pleasures digested within, avoid leaving any trace of +themselves, and avoid the sight not only of the people, but of any other +person. How often has this work diverted me from troublesome thoughts? +and all that are frivolous should be reputed so. Nature has presented us +with a large faculty of entertaining ourselves alone; and often calls us +to it, to teach us that we owe ourselves in part to society, but chiefly +and mostly to ourselves. That I may habituate my fancy even to meditate +in some method and to some end, and to keep it from losing itself and +roving at random, 'tis but to give to body and to record all the little +thoughts that present themselves to it. I give ear to my whimsies, +because I am to record them. It often falls out, that being displeased +at some action that civility and reason will not permit me openly to +reprove, I here disgorge myself, not without design of public +instruction: and also these poetical lashes, + + "Zon zur l'oeil, ion sur le groin, + Zon zur le dos du Sagoin," + + ["A slap on his eye, a slap on his snout, a slap on Sagoin's + back."--Marot. Fripelippes, Valet de Marot a Sagoin.] + + +imprint themselves better upon paper than upon the flesh. What if I +listen to books a little more attentively than ordinary, since I watch if +I can purloin anything that may adorn or support my own? I have not at +all studied to make a book; but I have in some sort studied because I had +made it; if it be studying to scratch and pinch now one author, and then +another, either by the head or foot, not with any design to form opinions +from them, but to assist, second, and fortify those I already have +embraced. But whom shall we believe in the report he makes of himself in +so corrupt an age? considering there are so few, if, any at all, whom we +can believe when speaking of others, where there is less interest to lie. +The first thing done in the corruption of manners is banishing truth; +for, as Pindar says, to be true is the beginning of a great virtue, and +the first article that Plato requires in the governor of his Republic. +The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man +persuades another man to believe; as we generally give the name of money +not only to pieces of the dust alloy, but even to the false also, if they +will pass. Our nation has long been reproached with this vice; for +Salvianus of Marseilles, who lived in the time of the Emperor +Valentinian, says that lying and forswearing themselves is with the +French not a vice, but a way of speaking. He who would enhance this +testimony, might say that it is now a virtue in them; men form and +fashion themselves to it as to an exercise of honour; for dissimulation +is one of the most notable qualities of this age. + +I have often considered whence this custom that we so religiously observe +should spring, of being more highly offended with the reproach of a vice +so familiar to us than with any other, and that it should be the highest +insult that can in words be done us to reproach us with a lie. Upon +examination, I find that it is natural most to defend the defects with +which we are most tainted. It seems as if by resenting and being moved +at the accusation, we in some sort acquit ourselves of the fault; though +we have it in effect, we condemn it in outward appearance. May it not +also be that this reproach seems to imply cowardice and feebleness of +heart? of which can there be a more manifest sign than to eat a man's own +words--nay, to lie against a man's own knowledge? Lying is a base vice; +a vice that one of the ancients portrays in the most odious colours when +he says, "that it is to manifest a contempt of God, and withal a fear of +men." It is not possible more fully to represent the horror, baseness, +and irregularity of it; for what can a man imagine more hateful and +contemptible than to be a coward towards men, and valiant against his +Maker? Our intelligence being by no other way communicable to one +another but by a particular word, he who falsifies that betrays public +society. 'Tis the only way by which we communicate our thoughts and +wills; 'tis the interpreter of the soul, and if it deceive us, we no +longer know nor have further tie upon one another; if that deceive us, it +breaks all our correspondence, and dissolves all the ties of government. +Certain nations of the newly discovered Indies (I need not give them +names, seeing they are no more; for, by wonderful and unheardof example, +the desolation of that conquest has extended to the utter abolition of +names and the ancient knowledge of places) offered to their gods human +blood, but only such as was drawn from the tongue and ears, to expiate +for the sin of lying, as well heard as pronounced. That good fellow of +Greece--[Plutarch, Life of Lysander, c. 4.]--said that children are +amused with toys and men with words. + +As to our diverse usages of giving the lie, and the laws of honour in +that case, and the alteration they have received, I defer saying what I +know of them to another time, and shall learn, if I can, in the +meanwhile, at what time the custom took beginning of so exactly weighing +and measuring words, and of making our honour interested in them; for it +is easy to judge that it was not anciently amongst the Romans and Greeks. +And it has often seemed to me strange to see them rail at and give one +another the lie without any quarrel. Their laws of duty steered some +other course than ours. Caesar is sometimes called thief, and sometimes +drunkard, to his teeth. We see the liberty of invective they practised +upon one another, I mean the greatest chiefs of war of both nations, +where words are only revenged with words, and do not proceed any farther. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +OF LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE + +'Tis usual to see good intentions, if carried on without moderation, push +men on to very vicious effects. In this dispute which has at this time +engaged France in a civil war, the better and the soundest cause no doubt +is that which maintains the ancient religion and government of the +kingdom. Nevertheless, amongst the good men of that party (for I do not +speak of those who only make a pretence of it, either to execute their +own particular revenges or to gratify their avarice, or to conciliate the +favour of princes, but of those who engage in the quarrel out of true +zeal to religion and a holy desire to maintain the peace and government +of their country), of these, I say, we see many whom passion transports +beyond the bounds of reason, and sometimes inspires with counsels that +are unjust and violent, and, moreover, rash. + +It is certain that in those first times, when our religion began to gain +authority with the laws, zeal armed many against all sorts of pagan +books, by which the learned suffered an exceeding great loss, a disorder +that I conceive to have done more prejudice to letters than all the +flames of the barbarians. Of this Cornelius Tacitus is a very good +testimony; for though the Emperor Tacitus, his kinsman, had, by express +order, furnished all the libraries in the world with it, nevertheless one +entire copy could not escape the curious examination of those who desired +to abolish it for only five or six idle clauses that were contrary to our +belief. + +They had also the trick easily to lend undue praises to all the emperors +who made for us, and universally to condemn all the actions of those who +were adversaries, as is evidently manifest in the Emperor Julian, +surnamed the Apostate, + + [The character of the Emperor Julian was censured, when Montaigne + was at Rome in 1581, by the Master of the Sacred Palace, who, + however, as Montaigne tells us in his journal (ii. 35), referred it + to his conscience to alter what he should think in bad taste. This + Montaigne did not do, and this chapter supplied Voltaire with the + greater part of the praises he bestowed upon the Emperor.--Leclerc.] + +who was, in truth, a very great and rare man, a man in whose soul +philosophy was imprinted in the best characters, by which he professed to +govern all his actions; and, in truth, there is no sort of virtue of +which he has not left behind him very notable examples: in chastity (of +which the whole of his life gave manifest proof) we read the same of him +that was said of Alexander and Scipio, that being in the flower of his +age, for he was slain by the Parthians at one-and-thirty, of a great many +very beautiful captives, he would not so much as look upon one. As to +his justice, he took himself the pains to hear the parties, and although +he would out of curiosity inquire what religion they were of, +nevertheless, the antipathy he had to ours never gave any counterpoise to +the balance. He made himself several good laws, and repealed a great +part of the subsidies and taxes levied by his predecessors. + +We have two good historians who were eyewitnesses of his actions: one of +whom, Marcellinus, in several places of his history sharply reproves an +edict of his whereby he interdicted all Christian rhetoricians and +grammarians to keep school or to teach, and says he could wish that act +of his had been buried in silence: it is probable that had he done any +more severe thing against us, he, so affectionate as he was to our party, +would not have passed it over in silence. He was indeed sharp against +us, but yet no cruel enemy; for our own people tell this story of him, +that one day, walking about the city of Chalcedon, Maris, bishop of the +place; was so bold as to tell him that he was impious, and an enemy to +Christ, at which, they say, he was no further moved than to reply, +"Go, poor wretch, and lament the loss of thy eyes," to which the bishop +replied again, "I thank Jesus Christ for taking away my sight, that I may +not see thy impudent visage," affecting in that, they say, a +philosophical patience. But this action of his bears no comparison to +the cruelty that he is said to have exercised against us. "He was," says +Eutropius, my other witness, "an enemy to Christianity, but without +putting his hand to blood." And, to return to his justice, there is +nothing in that whereof he can be accused, the severity excepted he +practised in the beginning of his reign against those who had followed +the party of Constantius, his predecessor. As to his sobriety, he lived +always a soldier-like life; and observed a diet and routine, like one +that prepared and inured himself to the austerities of war. His +vigilance was such, that he divided the night into three or four parts, +of which the least was dedicated to sleep; the rest was spent either in +visiting the state of his army and guards in person, or in study; for +amongst other rare qualities, he was very excellent in all sorts of +learning. 'Tis said of Alexander the Great, that being in bed, for fear +lest sleep should divert him from his thoughts and studies, he had always +a basin set by his bedside, and held one of his hands out with a ball of +copper in it, to the end, that, beginning to fall asleep, and his fingers +leaving their hold, the ball by falling into the basin, might awake him. +But the other had his soul so bent upon what he had a mind to do, and so +little disturbed with fumes by reason of his singular abstinence, that he +had no need of any such invention. As to his military experience, he was +excellent in all the qualities of a great captain, as it was likely he +should, being almost all his life in a continual exercise of war, and +most of that time with us in France, against the Germans and Franks: we +hardly read of any man who ever saw more dangers, or who made more +frequent proofs of his personal valour. + +His death has something in it parallel with that of Epaminondas, for he +was wounded with an arrow, and tried to pull it out, and had done so, but +that, being edged, it cut and disabled his hand. He incessantly called +out that they should carry him again into the heat of the battle, to +encourage his soldiers, who very bravely disputed the fight without him, +till night parted the armies. He stood obliged to his philosophy for the +singular contempt he had for his life and all human things. He had a +firm belief of the immortality of souls. + +In matter of religion he was wrong throughout, and was surnamed the +Apostate for having relinquished ours: nevertheless, the opinion seems to +me more probable, that he had never thoroughly embraced it, but had +dissembled out of obedience to the laws, till he came to the empire. +He was in his own so superstitious, that he was laughed at for it by +those of his own time, of the same opinion, who jeeringly said, that had +he got the victory over the Parthians, he had destroyed the breed of oxen +in the world to supply his sacrifices. He was, moreover, besotted with +the art of divination, and gave authority to all sorts of predictions. +He said, amongst other things at his death, that he was obliged to the +gods, and thanked them, in that they would not cut him off by surprise, +having long before advertised him of the place and hour of his death, nor +by a mean and unmanly death, more becoming lazy and delicate people; nor +by a death that was languishing, long, and painful; and that they had +thought him worthy to die after that noble manner, in the progress of his +victories, in the flower of his glory. He had a vision like that of +Marcus Brutus, that first threatened him in Gaul, and afterward appeared +to him in Persia just before his death. These words that some make him +say when he felt himself wounded: "Thou hast overcome, Nazarene"; or as +others, "Content thyself, Nazarene"; would hardly have been omitted, had +they been believed, by my witnesses, who, being present in the army, have +set down to the least motions and words of his end; no more than certain +other miracles that are reported about it. + +And to return to my subject, he long nourished, says Marcellinus, +paganism in his heart; but all his army being Christians, he durst not +own it. But in the end, seeing himself strong enough to dare to discover +himself, he caused the temples of the gods to be thrown open, and did his +uttermost to set on foot and to encourage idolatry. Which the better to +effect, having at Constantinople found the people disunited, and also the +prelates of the church divided amongst themselves, having convened them +all before him, he earnestly admonished them to calm those civil +dissensions, and that every one might freely, and without fear, follow +his own religion. Which he the more sedulously solicited, in hope that +this licence would augment the schisms and factions of their division, +and hinder the people from reuniting, and consequently fortifying +themselves against him by their unanimous intelligence and concord; +having experienced by the cruelty of some Christians, that there is no +beast in the world so much to be feared by man as man; these are very +nearly his words. + +Wherein this is very worthy of consideration, that the Emperor Julian +made use of the same receipt of liberty of conscience to inflame the +civil dissensions that our kings do to extinguish them. So that a man +may say on one side, that to give the people the reins to entertain every +man his own opinion, is to scatter and sow division, and, as it were, to +lend a hand to augment it, there being no legal impediment or restraint +to stop or hinder their career; but, on the other side, a man may also +say, that to give the people the reins to entertain every man his own +opinion, is to mollify and appease them by facility and toleration, and +to dull the point which is whetted and made sharper by singularity, +novelty, and difficulty: and I think it is better for the honour of the +devotion of our kings, that not having been able to do what they would, +they have made a show of being willing to do what they could. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THAT WE TASTE NOTHING PURE + +The feebleness of our condition is such that things cannot, in their +natural simplicity and purity, fall into our use; the elements that we +enjoy are changed, and so 'tis with metals; and gold must be debased with +some other matter to fit it for our service. Neither has virtue, so +simple as that which Aristo, Pyrrho, and also the Stoics, made the end of +life; nor the Cyrenaic and Aristippic pleasure, been without mixture +useful to it. Of the pleasure and goods that we enjoy, there is not one +exempt from some mixture of ill and inconvenience: + + "Medio de fonte leporum, + Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipsis fioribus angat." + + ["From the very fountain of our pleasure, something rises that is + bitter, which even in flowers destroys."--Lucretius, iv. 1130.] + +Our extremest pleasure has some sort of groaning and complaining in it; +would you not say that it is dying of pain? Nay, when we frame the image +of it in its full excellence, we stuff it with sickly and painful +epithets and qualities, languor, softness, feebleness, faintness, +'morbidezza': a great testimony of their consanguinity and +consubstantiality. The most profound joy has more of severity than +gaiety, in it. The highest and fullest contentment offers more of the +grave than of the merry: + + "Ipsa felicitas, se nisi temperat, premit." + + ["Even felicity, unless it moderate itself, oppresses? + --Seneca, Ep. 74.] + +Pleasure chews and grinds us; according to the old Greek verse, which +says that the gods sell us all the goods they give us; that is to say, +that they give us nothing pure and perfect, and that we do not purchase +but at the price of some evil. + +Labour and pleasure, very unlike in nature, associate, nevertheless, +by I know not what natural conjunction. Socrates says, that some god +tried to mix in one mass and to confound pain and pleasure, but not being +able to do it; he bethought him at least to couple them by the tail. +Metrodorus said, that in sorrow there is some mixture of pleasure. I +know not whether or no he intended anything else by that saying; but for +my part, I am of opinion that there is design, consent, and complacency +in giving a man's self up to melancholy. I say, that besides ambition, +which may also have a stroke in the business, there is some shadow of +delight and delicacy which smiles upon and flatters us even in the very +lap of melancholy. Are there not some constitutions that feed upon it? + + "Est quaedam flere voluptas;" + + ["'Tis a certain kind of pleasure to weep." + --Ovid, Trist., iv. 3, 27.] + +and one Attalus in Seneca says, that the memory of our lost friends is as +grateful to us, as bitterness in wine, when too old, is to the palate: + + "Minister vetuli, puer, Falerni + Inger' mi calices amariores"-- + + ["Boy, when you pour out old Falernian wine, the bitterest put + into my bowl."--Catullus, xxvii. I.] + +and as apples that have a sweet tartness. + +Nature discovers this confusion to us; painters hold that the same +motions and grimaces of the face that serve for weeping; serve for +laughter too; and indeed, before the one or the other be finished, do but +observe the painter's manner of handling, and you will be in doubt to +which of the two the design tends; and the extreme of laughter does at +last bring tears: + + "Nullum sine auctoramento malum est." + + ["No evil is without its compensation."--Seneca, Ep., 69.] + +When I imagine man abounding with all the conveniences that are to be +desired (let us put the case that all his members were always seized with +a pleasure like that of generation, in its most excessive height) I feel +him melting under the weight of his delight, and see him utterly unable +to support so pure, so continual, and so universal a pleasure. Indeed, +he is running away whilst he is there, and naturally makes haste to +escape, as from a place where he cannot stand firm, and where he is +afraid of sinking. + +When I religiously confess myself to myself, I find that the best virtue +I have has in it some tincture of vice; and I am afraid that Plato, in +his purest virtue (I, who am as sincere and loyal a lover of virtue of +that stamp as any other whatever), if he had listened and laid his ear +close to himself and he did so no doubt--would have heard some jarring +note of human mixture, but faint and only perceptible to himself. Man is +wholly and throughout but patch and motley. Even the laws of justice +themselves cannot subsist without mixture of injustice; insomuch that +Plato says, they undertake to cut off the hydra's head, who pretend to +clear the law of all inconveniences: + + "Omne magnum exemplum habet aliquid ex iniquo, + quod contra singulos utilitate publics rependitur," + + ["Every great example has in it some mixture of injustice, which + recompenses the wrong done to particular men by the public utility." + --Annals, xiv. 44.] + +says Tacitus. + +It is likewise true, that for the use of life and the service of public +commerce, there may be some excesses in the purity and perspicacity of +our minds; that penetrating light has in it too much of subtlety and +curiosity: we must a little stupefy and blunt them to render them more +obedient to example and practice, and a little veil and obscure them, the +better to proportion them to this dark and earthly life. And therefore +common and less speculative souls are found to be more proper for and +more successful in the management of affairs, and the elevated and +exquisite opinions of philosophy unfit for business. This sharp vivacity +of soul, and the supple and restless volubility attending it, disturb our +negotiations. We are to manage human enterprises more superficially and +roughly, and leave a great part to fortune; it is not necessary to +examine affairs with so much subtlety and so deep: a man loses himself in +the consideration of many contrary lustres, and so many various forms: + + "Volutantibus res inter se pugnantes, obtorpuerunt.... animi." + + ["Whilst they considered of things so indifferent in themselves, + they were astonished, and knew not what to do."--Livy, xxxii. 20.] + +'Tis what the ancients say of Simonides, that by reason his imagination +suggested to him, upon the question King Hiero had put to him--[What God +was.--Cicero, De Nat. Deor., i. 22.]--(to answer which he had had many +days for thought), several sharp and subtle considerations, whilst he +doubted which was the most likely, he totally despaired of the truth. + +He who dives into and in his inquisition comprehends all circumstances +and consequences, hinders his election: a little engine well handled is +sufficient for executions, whether of less or greater weight. The best +managers are those who can worst give account how they are so; while the +greatest talkers, for the most part, do nothing to purpose; I know one of +this sort of men, and a most excellent discourser upon all sorts of good +husbandry, who has miserably let a hundred thousand livres yearly revenue +slip through his hands; I know another who talks, who better advises than +any man of his counsel, and there is not in the world a fairer show of +soul and understanding than he has; nevertheless, when he comes to the +test, his servants find him quite another thing; not to make any mention +of his misfortunes. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +AGAINST IDLENESS + +The Emperor Vespasian, being sick of the disease whereof he died, did not +for all that neglect to inquire after the state of the empire, and even +in bed continually despatched very many affairs of great consequence; for +which, being reproved by his physician, as a thing prejudicial to his +health, "An emperor," said he, "must die standing." A fine saying, in my +opinion, and worthy a great prince. The Emperor Adrian since made use of +the same words, and kings should be often put in mind of them, to make +them know that the great office conferred upon them of the command of so +many men, is not an employment of ease; and that there is nothing can so +justly disgust a subject, and make him unwilling to expose himself to +labour and danger for the service of his prince, than to see him, in the +meantime, devoted to his ease and frivolous amusement, and to be +solicitous of his preservation who so much neglects that of his people. + +Whoever will take upon him to maintain that 'tis better for a prince to +carry on his wars by others, than in his own person, fortune will furnish +him with examples enough of those whose lieutenants have brought great +enterprises to a happy issue, and of those also whose presence has done +more hurt than good: but no virtuous and valiant prince can with patience +endure so dishonourable councils. Under colour of saving his head, like +the statue of a saint, for the happiness of his kingdom, they degrade him +from and declare him incapable of his office, which is military +throughout: I know one--[Probably Henry IV.]--who had much rather be +beaten, than to sleep whilst another fights for him; and who never +without jealousy heard of any brave thing done even by his own officers +in his absence. And Soliman I. said, with very good reason, in my +opinion, that victories obtained without the master were never complete. +Much more would he have said that that master ought to blush for shame, +to pretend to any share in the honour, having contributed nothing to the +work, but his voice and thought; nor even so much as these, considering +that in such work as that, the direction and command that deserve honour +are only such as are given upon the spot, and in the heat of the +business. No pilot performs his office by standing still. The princes +of the Ottoman family, the chiefest in the world in military fortune, +have warmly embraced this opinion, and Bajazet II., with his son, who +swerved from it, spending their time in science and other retired +employments, gave great blows to their empire; and Amurath III., now +reigning, following their example, begins to find the same. Was it not +Edward III., King of England, who said this of our Charles V.: "There +never was king who so seldom put on his armour, and yet never king who +gave me so much to do." He had reason to think it strange, as an effect +of chance more than of reason. And let those seek out some other to join +with them than me, who will reckon the Kings of Castile and Portugal +amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors, because at the distance +of twelve hundred leagues from their lazy abode, by the conduct of their +captains, they made themselves masters of both Indies; of which it has to +be known if they would have had even the courage to go and in person +enjoy them. + +The Emperor Julian said yet further, that a philosopher and a brave man +ought not so much as to breathe; that is to say, not to allow any more to +bodily necessities than what we cannot refuse; keeping the soul and body +still intent and busy about honourable, great, and virtuous things. He +was ashamed if any one in public saw him spit, or sweat (which is said by +some, also, of the Lacedaemonian young men, and which Xenophon says of +the Persian), forasmuch as he conceived that exercise, continual labour, +and sobriety, ought to have dried up all those superfluities. What +Seneca says will not be unfit for this place; which is, that the ancient +Romans kept their youth always standing, and taught them nothing that +they were to learn sitting. + +'Tis a generous desire to wish to die usefully and like a man, but the +effect lies not so much in our resolution as in our good fortune; a +thousand have proposed to themselves in battle, either to overcome or to +die, who have failed both in the one and the other, wounds and +imprisonment crossing their design and compelling them to live against +their will. There are diseases that overthrow even our desires, and our +knowledge. Fortune ought not to second the vanity of the Roman legions, +who bound themselves by oath, either to overcome or die: + + "Victor, Marce Fabi, revertar ex acie: si fallo, Jovem patrem, + Gradivumque Martem aliosque iratos invoco deos." + + ["I will return, Marcus Fabius, a conqueror, from the fight: + and if I fail, I invoke Father Jove, Mars Gradivus, and the + other angry gods."--Livy, ii. 45.] + +The Portuguese say that in a certain place of their conquest of the +Indies, they met with soldiers who had condemned themselves, with +horrible execrations, to enter into no other composition but either to +cause themselves to be slain, or to remain victorious; and had their +heads and beards shaved in token of this vow. 'Tis to much purpose for +us to hazard ourselves and to be obstinate: it seems as if blows avoided +those who present themselves too briskly to them, and do not willingly +fall upon those who too willingly seek them, and so defeat them of their +design. Such there have been, who, after having tried all ways, not +having been able with all their endeavour to obtain the favour of dying +by the hand of the enemy, have been constrained, to make good their +resolution of bringing home the honour of victory or of losing their +lives, to kill themselves even in the heat of battle. Of which there are +other examples, but this is one: Philistus, general of the naval army of +Dionysius the younger against the Syracusans, presented them battle which +was sharply disputed, their forces being equal: in this engagement, he +had the better at the first, through his own valour: but the Syracusans +drawing about his gally to environ him, after having done great things in +his own person to disengage himself and hoping for no relief, with his +own hand he took away the life he had so liberally, and in vain, exposed +to the enemy. + +Mule Moloch, king of Fez, who lately won against Sebastian, king of +Portugal, the battle so famous for the death of three kings, and for the +transmission of that great kingdom to the crown of Castile, was extremely +sick when the Portuguese entered in an hostile manner into his dominions; +and from that day forward grew worse and worse, still drawing nearer to +and foreseeing his end; yet never did man better employ his own +sufficiency more vigorously and bravely than he did upon this occasion. +He found himself too weak to undergo the pomp and ceremony of entering. +into his camp, which after their manner is very magnificent, and +therefore resigned that honour to his brother; but this was all of the +office of a general that he resigned; all the rest of greatest utility +and necessity he most, exactly and gloriously performed in his own +person; his body lying upon a couch, but his judgment and courage upright +and firm to his last gasp, and in some sort beyond it. He might have +wasted his enemy, indiscreetly advanced into his dominions, without +striking a blow; and it was a very unhappy occurrence, that for want of a +little life or somebody to substitute in the conduct of this war and the +affairs of a troubled state, he was compelled to seek a doubtful and +bloody victory, having another by a better and surer way already in his +hands. Notwithstanding, he wonderfully managed the continuance of his +sickness in consuming the enemy, and in drawing them far from the +assistance of the navy and the ports they had on the coast of Africa, +even till the last day of his life, which he designedly reserved for this +great battle. He arranged his battalions in a circular form, environing +the Portuguese army on every side, which round circle coming to close in +and to draw up close together, not only hindered them in the conflict +(which was very sharp through the valour of the young invading king), +considering that they had every way to present a front, but prevented +their flight after the defeat, so that finding all passages possessed and +shut up by the enemy, they were constrained to close up together again: + + "Coacerventurque non solum caede, sed etiam fuga," + + ["Piled up not only in slaughter but in flight."] + +and there they were slain in heaps upon one another, leaving to the +conqueror a very bloody and entire victory. Dying, he caused himself to +be carried and hurried from place to place where most need was, and +passing along the files, encouraged the captains and soldiers one after +another; but a corner of his main battalions being broken, he was not to +be held from mounting on horseback with his sword in his hand; he did his +utmost to break from those about him, and to rush into the thickest of +the battle, they all the while withholding him, some by the bridle, some +by his robe, and others by his stirrups. This last effort totally +overwhelmed the little life he had left; they again laid him upon his +bed; but coming to himself, and starting as it were out of his swoon, all +other faculties failing, to give his people notice that they were to +conceal his death the most necessary command he had then to give, that +his soldiers might not be discouraged (with the news) he expired with his +finger upon his mouth, the ordinary sign of keeping silence. Who ever +lived so long and so far into death? whoever died so erect, or more like +a man? + +The most extreme degree of courageously treating death, and the most +natural, is to look upon it not only without astonishment but without +care, continuing the wonted course of life even into it, as Cato did, +who entertained himself in study, and went to sleep, having a violent and +bloody death in his heart, and the weapon in his hand with which he was +resolved to despatch himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +OF POSTING + +I have been none of the least able in this exercise, which is proper for +men of my pitch, well-knit and short; but I give it over; it shakes us +too much to continue it long. I was at this moment reading, that King +Cyrus, the better to have news brought him from all parts of the empire, +which was of a vast extent, caused it to be tried how far a horse could +go in a day without baiting, and at that distance appointed men, whose +business it was to have horses always in readiness, to mount those who +were despatched to him; and some say, that this swift way of posting is +equal to that of the flight of cranes. + +Caesar says, that Lucius Vibullius Rufus, being in great haste to carry +intelligence to Pompey, rode night and day, still taking fresh horses for +the greater diligence and speed; and he himself, as Suetonius reports, +travelled a hundred miles a day in a hired coach; but he was a furious +courier, for where the rivers stopped his way he passed them by swimming, +without turning out of his way to look for either bridge or ford. +Tiberius Nero, going to see his brother Drusus, who was sick in Germany, +travelled two hundred miles in four-and-twenty hours, having three +coaches. In the war of the Romans against King Antiochus, T. Sempronius +Gracchus, says Livy: + + "Per dispositos equos prope incredibili celeritate + ab Amphissa tertio die Pellam pervenit." + + ["By pre-arranged relays of horses, he, with an almost incredible + speed, rode in three days from Amphissa to Pella." + --Livy, xxxvii. 7.] + +And it appears that they were established posts, and not horses purposely +laid in upon this occasion. + +Cecina's invention to send back news to his family was much more quick, +for he took swallows along with him from home, and turned them out +towards their nests when he would send back any news; setting a mark of +some colour upon them to signify his meaning, according to what he and +his people had before agreed upon. + +At the theatre at Rome masters of families carried pigeons in their +bosoms to which they tied letters when they had a mind to send any orders +to their people at home; and the pigeons were trained up to bring back an +answer. D. Brutus made use of the same device when besieged in Modena, +and others elsewhere have done the same. + +In Peru they rode post upon men, who took them upon their shoulders in a +certain kind of litters made for that purpose, and ran with such agility +that, in their full speed, the first couriers transferred their load to +the second without making any stop. + +I understand that the Wallachians, the grand Signior's couriers, perform +wonderful journeys, by reason they have liberty to dismount the first +person they meet upon the road, giving him their own tired horses; and +that to preserve themselves from being weary, they gird themselves +straight about the middle with a broad girdle; but I could never find +any benefit from this. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +OF ILL MEANS EMPLOYED TO A GOOD END + +There is wonderful relation and correspondence in this universal +government of the works of nature, which very well makes it appear that +it is neither accidental nor carried on by divers masters. The diseases +and conditions of our bodies are, in like manner, manifest in states and +governments; kingdoms and republics are founded, flourish, and decay with +age as we do. We are subject to a repletion of humours, useless and +dangerous: whether of those that are good (for even those the physicians +are afraid of; and seeing we have nothing in us that is stable, they say +that a too brisk and vigorous perfection of health must be abated by art, +lest our nature, unable to rest in any certain condition, and not having +whither to rise to mend itself, make too sudden and too disorderly a +retreat; and therefore prescribe wrestlers to purge and bleed, to qualify +that superabundant health), or else a repletion of evil humours, which is +the ordinary cause of sickness. States are very often sick of the like +repletion, and various sorts of purgations have commonly been applied. +Some times a great multitude of families are turned out to clear the +country, who seek out new abodes elsewhere and encroach upon others. +After this manner our ancient Franks came from the remotest part of +Germany to seize upon Gaul, and to drive thence the first inhabitants; +so was that infinite deluge of men made up who came into Italy under the +conduct of Brennus and others; so the Goths and Vandals, and also the +people who now possess Greece, left their native country to go settle +elsewhere, where they might have more room; and there are scarce two or +three little corners in the world that have not felt the effect of such +removals. The Romans by this means erected their colonies; for, +perceiving their city to grow immeasurably populous, they eased it of the +most unnecessary people, and sent them to inhabit and cultivate the lands +conquered by them; sometimes also they purposely maintained wars with +some of their enemies, not only to keep their own men in action, for fear +lest idleness, the mother of corruption, should bring upon them some +worse inconvenience: + + "Et patimur longae pacis mala; saevior armis + Luxuria incumbit." + + ["And we suffer the ills of a long peace; luxury is more pernicious + than war."--Juvenal, vi. 291.] + +but also to serve for a blood-letting to their Republic, and a little to +evaporate the too vehement heat of their youth, to prune and clear the +branches from the stock too luxuriant in wood; and to this end it was +that they maintained so long a war with Carthage. + +In the treaty of Bretigny, Edward III., king of England, would not, in +the general peace he then made with our king, comprehend the controversy +about the Duchy of Brittany, that he might have a place wherein to +discharge himself of his soldiers, and that the vast number of English he +had brought over to serve him in his expedition here might not return +back into England. And this also was one reason why our King Philip +consented to send his son John upon a foreign expedition, that he might +take along with him a great number of hot young men who were then in his +pay. + +There--are many in our times who talk at this rate, wishing that this hot +emotion that is now amongst us might discharge itself in some +neighbouring war, for fear lest all the peccant humours that now reign in +this politic body of ours may diffuse themselves farther, keep the fever +still in the height, and at last cause our total ruin; and, in truth, a +foreign is much more supportable than a civil war. but I do not believe +that God will favour so unjust a design as to offend and quarrel with +others for our own advantage: + + "Nil mihi tam valde placeat, Rhamnusia virgo, + Quod temere invitis suscipiatur heris." + + ["Rhamnusian virgin, let nothing ever so greatly please me which is + taken without justice from the unwilling owners" + --Catullus, lxviii. 77.] + +And yet the weakness of our condition often pushes us upon the necessity +of making use of ill means to a good end. Lycurgus, the most perfect +legislator that ever was, virtuous and invented this very unjust practice +of making the helots, who were their slaves, drunk by force, to the end +that the Spartans, seeing them so lost and buried in wine, might abhor +the excess of this vice. And yet those were still more to blame who of +old gave leave that criminals, to what sort of death soever condemned, +should be cut up alive by the physicians, that they might make a true +discovery of our inward parts, and build their art upon greater +certainty; for, if we must run into excesses, it is more excusable to do +it for the health of the soul than that of the body; as the Romans +trained up the people to valour and the contempt of dangers and death by +those furious spectacles of gladiators and fencers, who, having to fight +it out to the last, cut, mangled, and killed one another in their +presence: + + "Quid vesani aliud sibi vult ars impia ludi, + Quid mortes juvenum, quid sanguine pasta voluptas?" + + ["What other end does the impious art of the gladiators propose to + itself, what the slaughter of young men, what pleasure fed with + blood."--Prudentius, Contra Symmachum, ii. 643.] + +and this custom continued till the Emperor Theodosius' time: + + "Arripe dilatam tua, dux, in tempora famam, + Quodque patris superest, successor laudis habeto + Nullus in urbe cadat, cujus sit poena voluptas.... + Jam solis contenta feris, infamis arena + Nulla cruentatis homicidia ludat in armis." + + ["Prince, take the honours delayed for thy reign, and be successor + to thy fathers; henceforth let none at Rome be slain for sport. Let + beasts' blood stain the infamous arena, and no more homicides be + there acted."--Prudentius, Contra Symmachum, ii. 643.] + +It was, in truth, a wonderful example, and of great advantage for the +training up the people, to see every day before their eyes a hundred; two +hundred, nay, a thousand couples of men armed against one another, cut +one another to pieces with so great a constancy of courage, that they +were never heard to utter so much as one syllable of weakness or +commiseration; never seen to turn their backs, nor so much as to make one +cowardly step to evade a blow, but rather exposed their necks to the +adversary's sword and presented themselves to receive the stroke; and +many of them, when wounded to death, have sent to ask the spectators if +they were satisfied with their behaviour, before they lay down to die +upon the place. It was not enough for them to fight and to die bravely, +but cheerfully too; insomuch that they were hissed and cursed if they +made any hesitation about receiving their death. The very girls +themselves set them on: + + "Consurgit ad ictus, + Et, quoties victor ferrum jugulo inserit, illa + Delicias ait esse suas, pectusque jacentis + Virgo modesta jubet converso pollice rumpi." + + ["The modest virgin is so delighted with the sport, that she + applauds the blow, and when the victor bathes his sword in his + fellow's throat, she says it is her pleasure, and with turned thumb + orders him to rip up the bosom of the prostrate victim." + --Prudentius, Contra Symmachum, ii. 617.] + +The first Romans only condemned criminals to this example: but they +afterwards employed innocent slaves in the work, and even freemen too, +who sold themselves to this purpose, nay, moreover, senators and knights +of Rome, and also women: + + "Nunc caput in mortem vendunt, et funus arena, + Atque hostem sibi quisque parat, cum bella quiescunt." + + ["They sell themselves to death and the circus, and, since the wars + are ceased, each for himself a foe prepares." + --Manilius, Astron., iv. 225.] + + "Hos inter fremitus novosque lusus.... + Stat sexus rudis insciusque ferri, + Et pugnas capit improbus viriles;" + + + ["Amidst these tumults and new sports, the tender sex, unskilled in + arms, immodestly engaged in manly fights." + --Statius, Sylv., i. 6, 51.] + +which I should think strange and incredible, if we were not accustomed +every day to see in our own wars many thousands of men of other nations, +for money to stake their blood and their lives in quarrels wherein they +have no manner of concern. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +OF THE ROMAN GRANDEUR + +I will only say a word or two of this infinite argument, to show the +simplicity of those who compare the pitiful greatness of these times with +that of Rome. In the seventh book of Cicero's Familiar Epistles (and let +the grammarians put out that surname of familiar if they please, for in +truth it is not very suitable; and they who, instead of familiar, have +substituted "ad Familiares," may gather something to justify them for so +doing out of what Suetonius says in the Life of Caesar, that there was a +volume of letters of his "ad Familiares ") there is one directed to +Caesar, then in Gaul, wherein Cicero repeats these words, which were in +the end of another letter that Caesar had written to him: "As to what +concerns Marcus Furius, whom you have recommended to me, I will make him +king of Gaul, and if you would have me advance any other friend of yours +send him to me." It was no new thing for a simple citizen of Rome, as +Caesar then was, to dispose of kingdoms, for he took away that of King +Deiotarus from him to give it to a gentleman of the city of Pergamus, +called Mithridates; and they who wrote his Life record several cities +sold by him; and Suetonius says, that he had once from King Ptolemy three +millions and six hundred thousand crowns, which was very like selling him +his own kingdom: + + "Tot Galatae, tot Pontus, tot Lydia, nummis." + + ["So much for Galatia, so much for Pontus, + so much for Lydia."--Claudius in Eutrop., i. 203.] + +Marcus Antonius said, that the greatness of the people of Rome was not +so much seen in what they took, as in what they gave; and, indeed, some +ages before Antonius, they had dethroned one amongst the rest with so +wonderful authority, that in all the Roman history I have not observed +anything that more denotes the height of their power. Antiochus +possessed all Egypt, and was, moreover, ready to conquer Cyprus and other +appendages of that empire: when being upon the progress of his victories, +C. Popilius came to him from the Senate, and at their first meeting +refused to take him by the hand, till he had first read his letters, +which after the king had read, and told him he would consider of them, +Popilius made a circle about him with his cane, saying:--"Return me an +answer, that I may carry it back to the Senate, before thou stirrest out +of this circle." Antiochus, astonished at the roughness of so positive +a command, after a little pause, replied, "I will obey the Senate's +command." Then Popilius saluted him as friend of the Roman people. +To have renounced claim to so great a monarchy, and a course of such +successful fortune, from the effects of three lines in writing! Truly +he had reason, as he afterwards did, to send the Senate word by his +ambassadors, that he had received their order with the same respect as if +it had come from the immortal gods. + +All the kingdoms that Augustus gained by the right of war, he either +restored to those who had lost them or presented them to strangers. And +Tacitus, in reference to this, speaking of Cogidunus, king of England, +gives us, by a marvellous touch, an instance of that infinite power: the +Romans, says he, were from all antiquity accustomed to leave the kings +they had subdued in possession of their kingdoms under their authority + + "Ut haberent instruments servitutis et reges." + + ["That they might have even kings to be their slaves." + --Livy, xlv. 13.] + +'Tis probable that Solyman, whom we have seen make a gift of Hungary and +other principalities, had therein more respect to this consideration than +to that he was wont to allege, viz., that he was glutted and overcharged +with so many monarchies and so much dominion, as his own valour and that +of his ancestors had acquired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +NOT TO COUNTERFEIT BEING SICK + +There is an epigram in Martial, and one of the very good ones--for he has +of all sorts--where he pleasantly tells the story of Caelius, who, to +avoid making his court to some great men of Rome, to wait their rising, +and to attend them abroad, pretended to have the gout; and the better to +colour this anointed his legs, and had them lapped up in a great many +swathings, and perfectly counterfeited both the gesture and countenance +of a gouty person; till in the end, Fortune did him the kindness to make +him one indeed: + + "Quantum curs potest et ars doloris + Desiit fingere Caelius podagram." + + ["How great is the power of counterfeiting pain: Caelius has ceased + to feign the gout; he has got it."--Martial, Ep., vii. 39, 8.] + +I think I have read somewhere in Appian a story like this, of one who to +escape the proscriptions of the triumvirs of Rome, and the better to be +concealed from the discovery of those who pursued him, having hidden +himself in a disguise, would yet add this invention, to counterfeit +having but one eye; but when he came to have a little more liberty, and +went to take off the plaster he had a great while worn over his eye, he +found he had totally lost the sight of it indeed, and that it was +absolutely gone. 'Tis possible that the action of sight was dulled from +having been so long without exercise, and that the optic power was wholly +retired into the other eye: for we evidently perceive that the eye we +keep shut sends some part of its virtue to its fellow, so that it will +swell and grow bigger; and so inaction, with the heat of ligatures and, +plasters, might very well have brought some gouty humour upon the +counterfeiter in Martial. + +Reading in Froissart the vow of a troop of young English gentlemen, to +keep their left eyes bound up till they had arrived in France and +performed some notable exploit upon us, I have often been tickled with +this thought, that it might have befallen them as it did those others, +and they might have returned with but an eye a-piece to their mistresses, +for whose sakes they had made this ridiculous vow. + +Mothers have reason to rebuke their children when they counterfeit having +but one eye, squinting, lameness, or any other personal defect; for, +besides that their bodies being then so tender, may be subject to take an +ill bent, fortune, I know not how, sometimes seems to delight in taking +us at our word; and I have heard several examples related of people who +have become really sick, by only feigning to be so. I have always used, +whether on horseback or on foot, to carry a stick in my hand, and even to +affect doing it with an elegant air; many have threatened that this fancy +would one day be turned into necessity: if so, I should be the first of +my family to have the gout. + +But let us a little lengthen this chapter, and add another anecdote +concerning blindness. Pliny reports of one who, dreaming he was blind, +found himself so indeed in the morning without any preceding infirmity in +his eyes. The force of imagination might assist in this case, as I have +said elsewhere, and Pliny seems to be of the same opinion; but it is more +likely that the motions which the body felt within, of which physicians, +if they please, may find out the cause, taking away his sight, were the +occasion of his dream. + +Let us add another story, not very improper for this subject, which +Seneca relates in one of his epistles: "You know," says he, writing to +Lucilius, "that Harpaste, my wife's fool, is thrown upon me as an +hereditary charge, for I have naturally an aversion to those monsters; +and if I have a mind to laugh at a fool, I need not seek him far; I can +laugh at myself. This fool has suddenly lost her sight: I tell you a +strange, but a very true thing she is not sensible that she is blind, but +eternally importunes her keeper to take her abroad, because she says the +house is dark. That what we laugh at in her, I pray you to believe, +happens to every one of us: no one knows himself to be avaricious or +grasping; and, again, the blind call for a guide, while we stray of our +own accord. I am not ambitious, we say; but a man cannot live otherwise +at Rome; I am not wasteful, but the city requires a great outlay; 'tis +not my fault if I am choleric--if I have not yet established any certain +course of life: 'tis the fault of youth. Let us not seek our disease out +of ourselves; 'tis in us, and planted in our bowels; and the mere fact +that we do not perceive ourselves to be sick, renders us more hard to be +cured. If we do not betimes begin to see to ourselves, when shall we +have provided for so many wounds and evils wherewith we abound? And yet +we have a most sweet and charming medicine in philosophy; for of all the +rest we are sensible of no pleasure till after the cure: this pleases and +heals at once." This is what Seneca says, that has carried me from my +subject, but there is advantage in the change. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +OF THUMBS + +Tacitus reports, that amongst certain barbarian kings their manner was, +when they would make a firm obligation, to join their right hands close +to one another, and intertwist their thumbs; and when, by force of +straining the blood, it appeared in the ends, they lightly pricked them +with some sharp instrument, and mutually sucked them. + +Physicians say that the thumbs are the master fingers of the hand, and +that their Latin etymology is derived from "pollere." The Greeks called +them 'Avtixeip', as who should say, another hand. And it seems that the +Latins also sometimes take it in this sense for the whole hand: + + "Sed nec vocibus excitata blandis, + Molli pollici nec rogata, surgit." + + ["Neither to be excited by soft words or by the thumb." + --Mart., xii. 98, 8.] + +It was at Rome a signification of favour to depress and turn in the +thumbs: + + "Fautor utroque tuum laudabit pollice ludum:" + + ["Thy patron will applaud thy sport with both thumbs" + --Horace.] + +and of disfavour to elevate and thrust them outward: + + "Converso pollice vulgi, + Quemlibet occidunt populariter." + + ["The populace, with inverted thumbs, kill all that + come before them."--Juvenal, iii. 36] + +The Romans exempted from war all such as were maimed in the thumbs, as +having no more sufficient strength to hold their weapons. Augustus +confiscated the estate of a Roman knight who had maliciously cut off the +thumbs of two young children he had, to excuse them from going into the +armies; and, before him, the Senate, in the time of the Italic war, had +condemned Caius Vatienus to perpetual imprisonment, and confiscated all +his goods, for having purposely cut off the thumb of his left hand, to +exempt himself from that expedition. Some one, I have forgotten who, +having won a naval battle, cut off the thumbs of all his vanquished +enemies, to render them incapable of fighting and of handling the oar. +The Athenians also caused the thumbs of the AEginatans to be cut off, +to deprive them of the superiority in the art of navigation. + +In Lacedaemon, pedagogues chastised their scholars by biting their +thumbs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +COWARDICE THE MOTHER OF CRUELTY + +I have often heard it said that cowardice is the mother of cruelty; and I +have found by experience that malicious and inhuman animosity and +fierceness are usually accompanied with feminine weakness. I have seen +the most cruel people, and upon frivolous occasions, apt to cry. +Alexander, the tyrant of Pheres, durst not be a spectator of tragedies in +the theatre, for fear lest his citizens should see him weep at the +misfortunes of Hecuba and Andromache, who himself without pity caused so +many people every day to be murdered. Is it not meanness of spirit that +renders them so pliable to all extremities? Valour, whose effect is only +to be exercised against resistance-- + + "Nec nisi bellantis gaudet cervice juvenci"-- + + ["Nor delights in killing a bull unless he resists." + --Claudius, Ep. ad Hadrianum, v. 39.] + +stops when it sees the enemy at its mercy; but pusillanimity, to say that +it was also in the game, not having dared to meddle in the first act of +danger, takes as its part the second, of blood and massacre. The murders +in victories are commonly performed by the rascality and hangers-on of an +army, and that which causes so many unheard of cruelties in domestic wars +is, that this canaille makes war in imbruing itself up to the elbows in +blood, and ripping up a body that lies prostrate at its feet, having no +sense of any other valour: + + "Et lupus, et turpes instant morientibus ursi, + Et quaecunque minor nobilitate fera est:" + + ["Wolves and the filthy bears, and all the baser beasts, + fall upon the dying."--Ovid, Trist., iii. 5, 35.] + +like cowardly dogs, that in the house worry and tear the skins of wild +beasts, they durst not come near in the field. What is it in these times +of ours that makes our quarrels mortal; and that, whereas our fathers had +some degrees of revenge, we now begin with the last in ours, and at the +first meeting nothing is to be said but, kill? What is this but +cowardice? + +Every one is sensible that there is more bravery and disdain in subduing +an enemy, than in cutting, his throat; and in making him yield, than in +putting him to the sword: besides that the appetite of revenge is better +satisfied and pleased because its only aim is to make itself felt: And +this is the reason why we do not fall upon a beast or a stone when they +hurt us, because they are not capable of being sensible of our revenge; +and to kill a man is to save him from the injury and offence we intend +him. And as Bias cried out to a wicked fellow, "I know that sooner or +later thou wilt have thy reward, but I am afraid I shall not see it"; +--[Plutarch, on the Delay in Divine Justice, c. 2.]--and pitied the +Orchomenians that the penitence of Lyciscus for the treason committed +against them, came at a season when there was no one remaining alive of +those who had been interested in the offence, and whom the pleasure of +this penitence should affect: so revenge is to be pitied, when the person +on whom it is executed is deprived of means of suffering under it: for as +the avenger will look on to enjoy the pleasure of his revenge, so the +person on whom he takes revenge should be a spectator too, to be +afflicted and to repent. "He will repent it," we say, and because we +have given him a pistol-shot through the head, do we imagine he will +repent? On the contrary, if we but observe, we shall find, that he makes +mouths at us in falling, and is so far from penitency, that he does not +so much as repine at us; and we do him the kindest office of life, which +is to make him die insensibly, and soon: we are afterwards to hide +ourselves, and to shift and fly from the officers of justice, who pursue +us, whilst he is at rest. Killing is good to frustrate an offence to +come, not to revenge one that is already past; and more an act of fear +than of bravery; of precaution than of courage; of defence than of +enterprise. It is manifest that by it we lose both the true end of +revenge and the care of our reputation; we are afraid, if he lives he +will do us another injury as great as the first; 'tis not out of +animosity to him, but care of thyself, that thou gettest rid of him. + +In the kingdom of Narsingah this expedient would be useless to us, where +not only soldiers, but tradesmen also, end their differences by the +sword. The king never denies the field to any who wish to fight; and +when they are persons of quality; he looks on, rewarding the victor with +a chain of gold,--for which any one who pleases may fight with him again, +so that, by having come off from one combat, he has engaged himself in +many. + +If we thought by virtue to be always masters of our enemies, and to +triumph over them at pleasure, we should be sorry they should escape from +us as they do, by dying: but we have a mind to conquer, more with safety +than honour, and, in our quarrel, more pursue the end than the glory. + +Asnius Pollio, who, as being a worthy man, was the less to be excused, +committed a like, error, when, having written a libel against Plancus, he +forbore to publish it till he was dead; which is to bite one's thumb at a +blind man, to rail at one who is deaf, to wound a man who has no feeling, +rather than to run the hazard of his resentment. And it was also said of +him that it was only for hobgoblins to wrestle with the dead. + +He who stays to see the author die, whose writings he intends to +question, what does he say but that he is weak in his aggressiveness? +It was told to Aristotle that some one had spoken ill of him: "Let him +do more," said he; "let him whip me too, provided I am not there." + +Our fathers contented themselves with revenging an insult with the lie, +the lie with a box of the ear, and so forward; they were valiant enough +not to fear their adversaries, living and provoked we tremble for fear so +soon as we see them on foot. And that this is so, does not our noble +practice of these days, equally to prosecute to death both him that has +offended us and him we have offended, make it out? 'Tis also a kind +of cowardice that has introduced the custom of having seconds, thirds, +and fourths in our duels; they were formerly duels; they are now +skirmishes, rencontres, and battles. Solitude was, doubtless, terrible +to those who were the first inventors of this practice: + + "Quum in se cuique minimum fiduciae esset," + +for naturally any company whatever is consolatory in danger. Third +persons were formerly called in to prevent disorder and foul play only, +and to be witness of the fortune of the combat; but now they have brought +it to this pass that the witnesses themselves engage; whoever is invited +cannot handsomely stand by as an idle spectator, for fear of being +suspected either of want of affection or of courage. Besides the +injustice and unworthiness of such an action, of engaging other strength +and valour in the protection of your honour than your own, I conceive it +a disadvantage to a brave man, and who wholly relies upon himself, to +shuffle his fortune with that of a second; every one runs hazard enough +himself without hazarding for another, and has enough to do to assure +himself in his own valour for the defence of his life, without intrusting +a thing so dear in a third man's hand. For, if it be not expressly +agreed upon before to the contrary, 'tis a combined party of all four, +and if your second be killed, you have two to deal withal, with good +reason; and to say that it is foul play, it is so indeed, as it is, well +armed, to attack a man who has but the hilt of a broken sword in his +hand, or, clear and untouched, a man who is desperately wounded: but if +these be advantages you have got by fighting, you may make use of them +without reproach. The disparity and inequality are only weighed and +considered from the condition of the combatants when they began; as to +the rest, you must take your chance: and though you had, alone, three +enemies upon you at once, your two companions being killed, you have no +more wrong done you, than I should do in a battle, by running a man +through whom I should see engaged with one of our own men, with the like +advantage. The nature of society will have it so that where there is +troop against troop, as where our Duke of Orleans challenged Henry, king +of England, a hundred against a hundred; three hundred against as many, +as the Argians against the Lacedaemonians; three to three, as the Horatii +against the Curiatii, the multitude on either side is considered but as +one single man: the hazard, wherever there is company, being confused and +mixed. + +I have a domestic interest in this discourse; for my brother, the Sieur +de Mattecoulom, was at Rome asked by a gentleman with whom he had no +great acquaintance, and who was a defendant challenged by another, to be +his second; in this duel he found himself matched with a gentleman much +better known to him. (I would fain have an explanation of these rules of +honour, which so often shock and confound those of reason.) After having +despatched his man, seeing the two principals still on foot and sound, he +ran in to disengage his friend. What could he do less? should he have +stood still, and if chance would have ordered it so, have seen him he was +come thither to defend killed before his face? what he had hitherto done +helped not the business; the quarrel was yet undecided. The courtesy +that you can, and certainly ought to shew to your enemy, when you have +reduced him to an ill condition and have a great advantage over him, I do +not see how you can do it, where the interest of another is concerned, +where you are only called in as an assistant, and the quarrel is none of +yours: he could neither be just nor courteous, at the hazard of him he +was there to serve. And he was therefore enlarged from the prisons of +Italy at the speedy and solemn request of our king. Indiscreet nation! +we are not content to make our vices and follies known to the world by +report only, but we must go into foreign countries, there to show them +what fools we are. Put three Frenchmen into the deserts of Libya, they +will not live a month together without fighting; so that you would say +this peregrination were a thing purposely designed to give foreigners the +pleasure of our tragedies, and, for the most part, to such as rejoice and +laugh at our miseries. We go into Italy to learn to fence, and exercise +the art at the expense of our lives before we have learned it; and yet, +by the rule of discipline, we should put the theory before the practice. +We discover ourselves to be but learners: + + "Primitae juvenum miserae, bellique futuri + Dura rudimenta." + + ["Wretched the elementary trials of youth, and hard the + rudiments of approaching war."--Virgil, AEneid, xi. 156.] + +I know that fencing is an art very useful to its end (in a duel betwixt +two princes, cousin-germans, in Spain, the elder, says Livy, by his skill +and dexterity in arms, easily overcoming the greater and more awkward +strength of the younger), and of which the knowledge, as I experimentally +know, has inspired some with courage above their natural measure; but +this is not properly valour, because it supports itself upon address, and +is founded upon something besides itself. The honour of combat consists +in the jealousy of courage, and not of skill; and therefore I have known +a friend of mine, famed as a great master in this exercise, in his +quarrels make choice of such arms as might deprive him of this advantage +and that wholly depended upon fortune and assurance, that they might not +attribute his victory rather to his skill in fencing than his valour. +When I was young, gentlemen avoided the reputation of good fencers as +injurious to them, and learned to fence with all imaginable privacy as a +trade of subtlety, derogating from true and natural valour: + + "Non schivar non parar, non ritirarsi, + Voglion costor, ne qui destrezza ha parte; + Non danno i colpi or finti, or pieni, or scarsi! + Toglie l'ira a il furor l'uso de l'arte. + Odi le spade orribilmente utarsi + A mezzo il ferro; il pie d'orma non parte, + Sempre a il pie fermo, a la man sempre in moto; + Ne scende taglio in van, ne punta a voto." + + ["They neither shrank, nor vantage sought of ground, + They travers'd not, nor skipt from part to part, + Their blows were neither false, nor feigned found: + In fight, their rage would let them use no art. + Their swords together clash with dreadful sound, + Their feet stand fast, and neither stir nor start, + They move their hands, steadfast their feet remain. + Nor blow nor foin they strook, or thrust in vain." + --Tasso, Gierus. Lib., c. 12, st. 55, Fairfax's translation.] + +Butts, tilting, and barriers, the feint of warlike fights, were the +exercises of our forefathers: this other exercise is so much the less +noble, as it only respects a private end; that teaches us to destroy one +another against law and justice, and that every way always produces very +ill effects. It is much more worthy and more becoming to exercise +ourselves in things that strengthen than that weaken our government and +that tend to the public safety and common glory. The consul, Publius +Rutilius, was the first who taught the soldiers to handle their arms +with skill, and joined art with valour, not for the rise of private +quarrel, but for war and the quarrels of the people of Rome; a popular +and civil defence. And besides the example of Caesar, who commanded his +men to shoot chiefly at the face of Pompey's soldiers in the battle of +Pharsalia, a thousand other commanders have also bethought them to invent +new forms of weapons and new ways of striking and defending, according as +occasion should require. + +But as Philopoemen condemned wrestling, wherein he excelled, because the +preparatives that were therein employed were differing from those that +appertain to military discipline, to which alone he conceived men of +honour ought wholly to apply themselves; so it seems to me that this +address to which we form our limbs, those writhings and motions young men +are taught in this new school, are not only of no use, but rather +contrary and hurtful to the practice of fight in battle; and also our +people commonly make use of particular weapons, and peculiarly designed +for duel; and I have seen, when it has been disapproved, that a gentleman +challenged to fight with rapier and poignard appeared in the array of a +man-at-arms, and that another should take his cloak instead of his +poignard. It is worthy of consideration that Laches in Plato, speaking +of learning to fence after our manner, says that he never knew any great +soldier come out of that school, especially the masters of it: and, +indeed, as to them, our experience tells as much. As to the rest, we may +at least conclude that they are qualities of no relation or +correspondence; and in the education of the children of his government, +Plato interdicts the art of boxing, introduced by Amycus and Epeius, and +that of wrestling, by Antaeus and Cercyo, because they have another end +than to render youth fit for the service of war and contribute nothing to +it. But I see that I have somewhat strayed from my theme. + +The Emperor Mauricius, being advertised by dreams and several +prognostics, that one Phocas, an obscure soldier, should kill him, +questioned his son-in-law, Philip, who this Phocas was, and what were his +nature, qualities, and manners; and so soon as Philip, amongst other +things, had told him that he was cowardly and timorous, the emperor +immediately concluded then that he was a murderer and cruel. What is it +that makes tyrants so sanguinary? 'Tis only the solicitude for their own +safety, and that their faint hearts can furnish them with no other means +of securing themselves than in exterminating those who may hurt them, +even so much as women, for fear of a scratch: + + "Cuncta ferit, dum cuncta timer." + + ["He strikes at all who fears all." + --Claudius, in Eutrop., i. 182.] + +The first cruelties are exercised for themselves thence springs the fear +of a just revenge, which afterwards produces a series of new cruelties, +to obliterate one another. Philip, king of Macedon, who had so much to +do with the people of Rome, agitated with the horror of so many murders +committed by his order, and doubting of being able to keep himself secure +from so many families, at divers times mortally injured and offended by +him, resolved to seize all the children of those he had caused to be +slain, to despatch them daily one after another, and so to establish his +own repose. + +Fine matter is never impertinent, however placed; and therefore I, who +more consider the weight and utility of what I deliver than its order and +connection, need not fear in this place to bring in an excellent story, +though it be a little by-the-by; for when they are rich in their own +native beauty, and are able to justify themselves, the least end of a +hair will serve to draw them into my discourse. + +Amongst others condemned by Philip, had been one Herodicus, prince of +Thessaly; he had, moreover, after him caused his two sons-in-law to be +put to death, each leaving a son very young behind him. Theoxena and +Archo were their two widows. Theoxena, though highly courted to it, +could not be persuaded to marry again: Archo married Poris, the greatest +man among the AEnians, and by him had a great many children, whom she, +dying, left at a very tender age. Theoxena, moved with a maternal +charity towards her nephews, that she might have them under her own eyes +and in her own protection, married Poris: when presently comes a +proclamation of the king's edict. This brave-spirited mother, suspecting +the cruelty of Philip, and afraid of the insolence of the soldiers +towards these charming and tender children was so bold as to declare hat +she would rather kill them with her own hands than deliver them. Poris, +startled at this protestation, promised her to steal them away, and to +transport them to Athens, and there commit them to the custody of some +faithful friends of his. They took, therefore, the opportunity of an +annual feast which was celebrated at AEnia in honour of AEneas, and +thither they went. Having appeared by day at the public ceremonies and +banquet, they stole the night following into a vessel laid ready for the +purpose, to escape away by sea. The wind proved contrary, and finding +themselves in the morning within sight of the land whence they had +launched overnight, and being pursued by the guards of the port, Poris +perceiving this, laboured all he could to make the mariners do their +utmost to escape from the pursuers. But Theoxena, frantic with affection +and revenge, in pursuance of her former resolution, prepared both weapons +and poison, and exposing them before them; "Go to, my children," said +she, "death is now the only means of your defence and liberty, and shall +administer occasion to the gods to exercise their sacred justice: these +sharp swords, and these full cups, will open you the way into it; +courage, fear nothing! And thou, my son, who art the eldest, take this +steel into thy hand, that thou mayest the more bravely die." The +children having on one side so powerful a counsellor, and the enemy at +their throats on the other, run all of them eagerly upon what was next to +hand; and, half dead, were thrown into the sea. Theoxena, proud of +having so gloriously provided for the safety of her children, clasping +her arms with great affection about her husband's neck. "Let us, my +friend," said she, "follow these boys, and enjoy the same sepulchre they +do"; and so, having embraced, they threw themselves headlong into the +sea; so that the ship was carried--back without the owners into the +harbour. + +Tyrants, at once both to kill and to make their anger felt, have employed +their capacity to invent the most lingering deaths. They will have their +enemies despatched, but not so fast that they may not have leisure to +taste their vengeance. And therein they are mightily perplexed; for if +the torments they inflict are violent, they are short; if long, they are +not then so painful as they desire; and thus plague themselves in choice +of the greatest cruelty. Of this we have a thousand examples in +antiquity, and I know not whether we, unawares, do not retain some traces +of this barbarity. + +All that exceeds a simple death appears to me absolute cruelty. Our +justice cannot expect that he, whom the fear of dying by being beheaded +or hanged will not restrain, should be any more awed by the imagination +of a languishing fire, pincers, or the wheel. And I know not, in the +meantime, whether we do not throw them into despair; for in what +condition can be the soul of a man, expecting four-and-twenty hours +together to be broken upon a wheel, or after the old way, nailed to a +cross? Josephus relates that in the time of the war the Romans made in +Judaea, happening to pass by where they had three days before crucified +certain Jews, he amongst them knew three of his own friends, and obtained +the favour of having them taken down, of whom two, he says, died; the +third lived a great while after. + +Chalcondylas, a writer of good credit, in the records he has left behind +him of things that happened in his time, and near him, tells us, as of +the most excessive torment, of that the Emperor Mohammed very often +practised, of cutting off men in the middle by the diaphragm with one +blow of a scimitar, whence it followed that they died as it were two +deaths at once; and both the one part, says he, and the other, were seen +to stir and strive a great while after in very great torment. I do not +think there was any great suffering in this motion the torments that are +the most dreadful to look on are not always the greatest to endure; and I +find those that other historians relate to have been practised by him +upon the Epirot lords, are more horrid and cruel, where they were +condemned to be flayed alive piecemeal, after so malicious a manner that +they continued fifteen days in that misery. + +And these other two: Croesus, having caused a gentleman, the favourite of +his brother Pantaleon, to be seized, carried him into a fuller's shop, +where he caused him to be scratched and carded with the cards and combs +belonging to that trade, till he died. George Sechel, chief commander of +the peasants of Poland, who committed so many mischiefs under the title +of the Crusade, being defeated in battle and taken bu the Vayvode of +Transylvania, was three days bound naked upon the rack exposed to all +sorts of torments that any one could contrive against him: during which +time many other prisoners were kept fasting; in the end, he living and +looking on, they made his beloved brother Lucat, for whom alone he +entreated, taking on himself the blame of all their evil actions drink +his blood, and caused twenty of his most favoured captains to feed upon +him, tearing his flesh in pieces with their teeth, and swallowing the +morsels. The remainder of his body and his bowels, so soon as he was +dead, were boiled, and others of his followers compelled to eat them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR SEASON + +Such as compare Cato the Censor with the younger Cato, who killed +himself, compare two beautiful natures, much resembling one another. +The first acquired his reputation several ways, and excels in military +exploits and the utility of his public employments; but the virtue of the +younger, besides that it were blasphemy to compare any to it in vigour, +was much more pure and unblemished. For who could absolve that of the +Censor from envy and ambition, having dared to attack the honour of +Scipio, a man in goodness and all other excellent qualities infinitely +beyond him or any other of his time? + +That which they, report of him, amongst other things, that in his extreme +old age he put himself upon learning the Greek tongue with so greedy an +appetite, as if to quench a long thirst, does not seem to me to make much +for his honour; it being properly what we call falling into second +childhood. All things have their seasons, even good ones, and I may say +my Paternoster out of time; as they accused T. Quintus Flaminius, that +being general of an army, he was seen praying apart in the time of a +battle that he won. + + "Imponit finem sapiens et rebus honestis." + + ["The wise man limits even honest things."--Juvenal, vi. 444] + +Eudemonidas, seeing Xenocrates when very old, still very intent upon his +school lectures: "When will this man be wise," said he, "if he is yet +learning?" And Philopaemen, to those who extolled King Ptolemy for every +day inuring his person to the exercise of arms: "It is not," said he, +"commendable in a king of his age to exercise himself in these things; he +ought now really to employ them." The young are to make their +preparations, the old to enjoy them, say the sages: and the greatest vice +they observe in us is that our desires incessantly grow young again; we +are always re-beginning to live. + +Our studies and desires should sometime be sensible of age; yet we have +one foot in the grave and still our appetites and pursuits spring every +day anew within us: + + "Tu secanda marmora + Locas sub ipsum funus, et, sepulcri + Immemor, struis domos." + + ["You against the time of death have marble cut for use, and, + forgetful of the tomb, build houses."--Horace, Od., ii. 18, 17.] + +The longest of my designs is not of above a year's extent; I think of +nothing now but ending; rid myself of all new hopes and enterprises; take +my last leave of every place I depart from, and every day dispossess +myself of what I have. + + "Olim jam nec perit quicquam mihi, nec acquiritur.... + plus superest viatici quam viae." + + ["Henceforward I will neither lose, nor expect to get: I have more + wherewith to defray my journey, than I have way to go." (Or): + "Hitherto nothing of me has been lost or gained; more remains to pay + the way than there is way."--Seneca, Ep., 77. (The sense seems to + be that so far he had met his expenses, but that for the future he + was likely to have more than he required.)] + + "Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi." + + ["I have lived and finished the career Fortune placed before me." + --AEneid, iv. 653.] + +'Tis indeed the only comfort I find in my old age, that it mortifies in +me several cares and desires wherewith my life has been disturbed; the +care how the world goes, the care of riches, of grandeur, of knowledge, +of health, of myself. There are men who are learning to speak at a time +when they should learn to be silent for ever. A man may always study, +but he must not always go to school what a contemptible thing is an old +Abecedarian!--[Seneca, Ep. 36] + + "Diversos diversa juvant; non omnibus annis + Omnia conveniunt." + + ["Various things delight various men; all things are not + for all ages."--Gall., Eleg., i. 104.] + +If we must study, let us study what is suitable to our present condition, +that we may answer as he did, who being asked to what end he studied in +his decrepit age, "that I may go out better," said he, "and at greater +ease." Such a study was that of the younger Cato, feeling his end +approach, and which he met with in Plato's Discourse of the Eternity of +the Soul: not, as we are to believe, that he was not long before +furnished with all sorts of provision for such a departure; for of +assurance, an established will and instruction, he had more than Plato +had in all his writings; his knowledge and courage were in this respect +above philosophy; he applied himself to this study, not for the service +of his death; but, as a man whose sleeps were never disturbed in the +importance of such a deliberation, he also, without choice or change, +continued his studies with the other accustomary actions of his life. +The night that he was denied the praetorship he spent in play; that +wherein he was to die he spent in reading. The loss either of life +or of office was all one to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +OF VIRTUE + +I find by experience, that there is a good deal to be said betwixt the +flights and emotions of the soul or a resolute and constant habit; and +very well perceive that there is nothing we may not do, nay, even to the +surpassing the Divinity itself, says a certain person, forasmuch as it is +more to render a man's self impassible by his own study and industry, +than to be so by his natural condition; and even to be able to conjoin to +man's imbecility and frailty a God-like resolution and assurance; but it +is by fits and starts; and in the lives of those heroes of times past +there are sometimes miraculous impulses, and that seem infinitely to +exceed our natural force; but they are indeed only impulses: and 'tis +hard to believe, that these so elevated qualities in a man can so +thoroughly tinct and imbue the soul that they should become ordinary, +and, as it were, natural in him. It accidentally happens even to us, +who are but abortive births of men, sometimes to launch our souls, when +roused by the discourses or examples of others, much beyond their +ordinary stretch; but 'tis a kind of passion which pushes and agitates +them, and in some sort ravishes them from themselves: but, this +perturbation once overcome, we see that they insensibly flag and slacken +of themselves, if not to the lowest degree, at least so as to be no more +the same; insomuch as that upon every trivial occasion, the losing of a +bird, or the breaking, of a glass, we suffer ourselves to be moved little +less than one of the common people. I am of opinion, that order, +moderation, and constancy excepted, all things are to be done by a man +that is very imperfect and defective in general. Therefore it is, say +the Sages, that to make a right judgment of a man, you are chiefly to pry +into his common actions, and surprise him in his everyday habit. + +Pyrrho, he who erected so pleasant a knowledge upon ignorance, +endeavoured, as all the rest who were really philosophers did, to make +his life correspond with his doctrine. And because he maintained the +imbecility of human judgment to be so extreme as to be incapable of any +choice or inclination, and would have it perpetually wavering and +suspended, considering and receiving all things as indifferent, 'tis +said, that he always comforted himself after the same manner and +countenance: if he had begun a discourse, he would always end what he had +to say, though the person he was speaking to had gone away: if he walked, +he never stopped for any impediment that stood in his way, being +preserved from precipices, collision with carts, and other like +accidents, by the care of his friends: for, to fear or to avoid anything, +had been to shock his own propositions, which deprived the senses +themselves of all election and certainty. Sometimes he suffered incision +and cauteries with so great constancy as never to be seen so much as to +wince. 'Tis something to bring the soul to these imaginations; 'tis more +to join the effects, and yet not impossible; but to conjoin them with +such perseverance and constancy as to make them habitual, is certainly, +in attempts so remote from the common usage, almost incredible to be +done. Therefore it was, that being sometime taken in his house sharply +scolding with his sister, and being reproached that he therein +transgressed his own rules of indifference: "What!" said he, "must this +bit of a woman also serve for a testimony to my rules?" Another time, +being seen to defend himself against a dog: "It is," said he, "very hard +totally to put off man; and we must endeavour and force ourselves to +resist and encounter things, first by effects, but at least by reason and +argument." + +About seven or eight years since, a husbandman yet living, but two +leagues from my house, having long been tormented with his wife's +jealousy, coming one day home from his work, and she welcoming him with +her accustomed railing, entered into so great fury that with a sickle he +had yet in his hand, he totally cut off all those parts that she was +jealous of and threw them in her face. And, 'tis said that a young +gentleman of our nation, brisk and amorous, having by his perseverance at +last mollified the heart of a fair mistress, enraged, that upon the point +of fruition he found himself unable to perform, and that, + + "Nec viriliter + Iners senile penis extulit caput." + + [(The 19th or 20th century translators leave this phrase + untranslated and with no explanation. D.W.) + --Tibullus, Priap. Carm., 84.] + +as soon as ever he came home he deprived himself of the rebellious +member, and sent it to his mistress, a cruel and bloody victim for the +expiation of his offence. If this had been done upon mature +consideration, and upon the account of religion, as the priests of Cybele +did, what should we say of so high an action? + +A few days since, at Bergerac, five leagues from my house, up the river +Dordogne, a woman having overnight been beaten and abused by her husband, +a choleric ill-conditioned fellow, resolved to escape from his ill-usage +at the price of her life; and going so soon as she was up the next +morning to visit her neighbours, as she was wont to do, and having let +some words fall in recommendation of her affairs, she took a sister of +hers by the hand, and led her to the bridge; whither being come, and +having taken leave of her, in jest as it were, without any manner of +alteration in her countenance, she threw herself headlong from the top +into the river, and was there drowned. That which is the most remarkable +in this is, that this resolution was a whole night forming in her head. + +It is quite another thing with the Indian women for it being the custom +there for the men to have many wives, and the best beloved of them to +kill herself at her husband's decease, every one of them makes it the +business of her whole life to obtain this privilege and gain this +advantage over her companions; and the good offices they do their +husbands aim at no other recompense but to be preferred in accompanying +him in death: + + "Ubi mortifero jacta est fax ultima lecto, + Uxorum fusis stat pia turba comis + Et certamen habent lethi, quae viva sequatur + Conjugium: pudor est non licuisse mori. + Ardent victrices, et flammae pectora praebent, + Imponuntque suis ora perusta viris." + + ["For when they threw the torch on the funeral bed, the pious wives + with hair dishevelled, stand around striving, which, living, shall + accompany her spouse; and are ashamed that they may not die; they + who are preferred expose their breasts to the flame, and they lay + their scorched lips on those of their husbands." + --Propertius, iii. 13, 17.] + +A certain author of our times reports that he has seen in those Oriental +nations this custom in practice, that not only the wives bury themselves +with their husbands, but even the slaves he has enjoyed also; which is +done after this manner: The husband being dead, the widow may if she will +(but few will) demand two or three months' respite wherein to order her +affairs. The day being come, she mounts on horseback, dressed as fine as +at her wedding, and with a cheerful countenance says she is going to +sleep with her spouse, holding a looking-glass in her left hand and an +arrow in the other. Being thus conducted in pomp, accompanied with her +kindred and friends and a great concourse of people in great joy, she is +at last brought to the public place appointed for such spectacles: this +is a great space, in the midst of which is a pit full of wood, and +adjoining to it a mount raised four or five steps, upon which she is +brought and served with a magnificent repast; which being done, she falls +to dancing and singing, and gives order, when she thinks fit, to kindle +the fire. This being done, she descends, and taking the nearest of her +husband's relations by the hand, they walk to the river close by, where +she strips herself stark naked, and having distributed her clothes and +jewels to her friends, plunges herself into the water, as if there to +cleanse herself from her sins; coming out thence, she wraps herself in a +yellow linen of five-and-twenty ells long, and again giving her hand to +this kinsman of her husband's, they return back to the mount, where she +makes a speech to the people, and recommends her children to them, if she +have any. Betwixt the pit and the mount there is commonly a curtain +drawn to screen the burning furnace from their sight, which some of them, +to manifest the greater courage, forbid. Having ended what she has to +say, a woman presents her with a vessel of oil, wherewith to anoint her +head and her whole body, which when done with she throws into the fire, +and in an instant precipitates herself after. Immediately, the people +throw a good many billets and logs upon her that she may not be long in +dying, and convert all their joy into sorrow and mourning. If they are +persons of meaner condition, the body of the defunct is carried to the +place of sepulture, and there placed sitting, the widow kneeling before +him, embracing the dead body; and they continue in this posture whilst +the people build a wall about them, which so soon as it is raised to the +height of the woman's shoulders, one of her relations comes behind her, +and taking hold of her head, twists her neck; so soon as she is dead, the +wall is presently raised up, and closed, and there they remain entombed. + +There was, in this same country, something like this in their +gymnosophists; for not by constraint of others nor by the impetuosity of +a sudden humour, but by the express profession of their order, their +custom was, as soon as they arrived at a certain age, or that they saw +themselves threatened by any disease, to cause a funeral pile to be +erected for them, and on the top a stately bed, where, after having +joyfully feasted their friends and acquaintance, they laid them down with +so great resolution, that fire being applied to it, they were never seen +to stir either hand or foot; and after this manner, one of them, Calanus +by name; expired in the presence of the whole army of Alexander the +Great. And he was neither reputed holy nor happy amongst them who did +not thus destroy himself, dismissing his soul purged and purified by the +fire, after having consumed all that was earthly and mortal. This +constant premeditation of the whole life is that which makes the wonder. + +Amongst our other controversies, that of 'Fatum' has also crept in; and +to tie things to come, and even our own wills, to a certain and +inevitable necessity, we are yet upon this argument of time past: +"Since God foresees that all things shall so fall out, as doubtless He +does, it must then necessarily follow, that they must so fall out": to +which our masters reply: "that the seeing anything come to pass, as we +do, and as God Himself also does (for all things being present with him, +He rather sees, than foresees), is not to compel an event: that is, we +see because things do fall out, but things do not fall out because we +see: events cause knowledge, but knowledge does not cause events. That +which we see happen, does happen; but it might have happened otherwise: +and God, in the catalogue of the causes of events which He has in His +prescience, has also those which we call accidental and voluntary, +depending upon the liberty. He has given our free will, and knows that +we do amiss because we would do so." + +I have seen a great many commanders encourage their soldiers with this +fatal necessity; for if our time be limited to a certain hour, neither +the enemies' shot nor our own boldness, nor our flight and cowardice, +can either shorten or prolong our lives. This is easily said, but see +who will be so easily persuaded; and if it be so that a strong and lively +faith draws along with it actions of the same kind, certainly this faith +we so much brag of, is very light in this age of ours, unless the +contempt it has of works makes it disdain their company. So it is, that +to this very purpose the Sire de Joinville, as credible a witness as any +other whatever, tells us of the Bedouins, a nation amongst the Saracens, +with whom the king St. Louis had to do in the Holy Land, that they, in +their religion, so firmly believed the number of every man's days to be +from all eternity prefixed and set down by an inevitable decree, that +they went naked to the wars, excepting a Turkish sword, and their bodies +only covered with a white linen cloth: and for the greatest curse they +could invent when they were angry, this was always in their mouths: +"Accursed be thou, as he that arms himself for fear of death." This is a +testimony of faith very much beyond ours. And of this sort is that also +that two friars of Florence gave in our fathers' days. Being engaged in +some controversy of learning, they agreed to go both of them into the +fire in the sight of all the people, each for the verification of his +argument, and all things were already prepared, and the thing just upon +the point of execution, when it was interrupted by an unexpected +accident.--[7th April 1498. Savonarola issued the challenge. After many +delays from demands and counter-demands by each side as to the details of +the fire, both parties found that they had important business to transact +in another county--both just barely escaped assassination at the hands of +the disappointed spectators. D.W.] + +A young Turkish lord, having performed a notable exploit in his own +person in the sight of both armies, that of Amurath and that of Huniades, +ready to join battle, being asked by Amurath, what in such tender and +inexperienced years (for it was his first sally into arms) had inspired +him with so brave a courage, replied, that his chief tutor for valour was +a hare. "For being," said he, "one day a hunting, I found a hare +sitting, and though I had a brace of excellent greyhounds with me, yet +methought it would be best for sureness to make use of my bow; for she +sat very fair. I then fell to letting fly my arrows, and shot forty that +I had in my quiver, not only without hurting, but without starting her +from her form. At last I slipped my dogs after her, but to no more +purpose than I had shot: by which I understood that she had been secured +by her destiny; and, that neither darts nor swords can wound without the +permission of fate, which we can neither hasten nor defer." This story +may serve, by the way, to let us see how flexible our reason is to all +sorts of images. + +A person of great years, name, dignity, and learning boasted to me that +he had been induced to a certain very important change in his faith by a +strange and whimsical incitation, and one otherwise so inadequate, that I +thought it much stronger, taken the contrary way: he called it a miracle, +and so I look upon it, but in a different sense. The Turkish historians +say, that the persuasion those of their nation have imprinted in them of +the fatal and unalterable prescription of their days, manifestly conduces +to the giving them great assurance in dangers. And I know a great prince +who makes very fortunate use of it, whether it be that he really believes +it, or that he makes it his excuse for so wonderfully hazarding himself: +let us hope Fortune may not be too soon weary of her favour to him. + +There has not happened in our memory a more admirable effect of +resolution than in those two who conspired the death of the Prince of +Orange. + + [The first of these was Jehan de Jaureguy, who wounded the Prince + 18th March 1582; the second, by whom the Prince was killed 10th July + 1584., was Balthazar Gerard.] + +'Tis marvellous how the second who executed it, could ever be persuaded +into an attempt, wherein his companion, who had done his utmost, had had +so ill success; and after the same method, and with the same arms, to go +attack a lord, armed with so recent a late lesson of distrust, powerful +in followers and bodily strength, in his own hall, amidst his guards, and +in a city wholly at his devotion. Assuredly, he employed a very resolute +arm and a courage enflamed with furious passion. A poignard is surer for +striking home; but by reason that more motion and force of hand is +required than with a pistol, the blow is more subject to be put by or +hindered. That this man did not run to a certain death, I make no great +doubt; for the hopes any one could flatter him withal, could not find +place in any sober understanding, and the conduct of his exploit +sufficiently manifests that he had no want of that, no more than of +courage. The motives of so powerful a persuasion may be diverse, for our +fancy does what it will, both with itself and us. The execution that was +done near Orleans--[The murder of the Duke of Guise by Poltrot.]--was +nothing like this; there was in this more of chance than vigour; the +wound was not mortal, if fortune had not made it so, and to attempt to +shoot on horseback, and at a great distance, by one whose body was in +motion from the motion of his horse, was the attempt of a man who had +rather miss his blow than fail of saving himself. This was apparent from +what followed; for he was so astonished and stupefied with the thought of +so high an execution, that he totally lost his judgment both to find his +way to flight and to govern his tongue. What needed he to have done more +than to fly back to his friends across the river? 'Tis what I have done +in less dangers, and that I think of very little hazard, how broad soever +the river may be, provided your horse have easy going in, and that you +see on the other side easy landing according to the stream. The other, +--[Balthazar Gerard.]--when they pronounced his dreadful sentence, +"I was prepared for this," said he, "beforehand, and I will make you +wonder at my patience." + +The Assassins, a nation bordering upon Phoenicia, + + [Or in Egypt, Syria, and Persia. Derivation of 'assassin' is from + Hassan-ben-Saba, one of their early leaders, and they had an + existence for some centuries. They are classed among the secret + societies of the Middle Ages. D.W.] + +are reputed amongst the Mohammedans a people of very great devotion and +purity of manners. They hold that the nearest way to gain Paradise is to +kill some one of a contrary religion; which is the reason they have often +been seen, being but one or two, and without armour, to attempt against +powerful enemies, at the price of a certain death and without any +consideration of their own danger. So was our Raymond, Count of Tripoli, +assassinated (which word is derived from their name) in the heart of his +city,--[in 1151]--during our enterprises of the Holy War: and likewise +Conrad, Marquis of Monteferrat, the murderers at their execution bearing +themselves with great pride and glory that they had performed so brave an +exploit. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +OF A MONSTROUS CHILD + +This story shall go by itself; for I will leave it to physicians to +discourse of. Two days ago I saw a child that two men and a nurse, who +said they were the father, the uncle, and the aunt of it, carried about +to get money by showing it, by reason it was so strange a creature. It +was, as to all the rest, of a common form, and could stand upon its feet; +could go and gabble much like other children of the same age; it had +never as yet taken any other nourishment but from the nurse's breasts, +and what, in my presence, they tried to put into the mouth of it, it only +chewed a little and spat it out again without swallowing; the cry of it +seemed indeed a little odd and particular, and it was just fourteen +months old. Under the breast it was joined to another child, but without +a head, and which had the spine of the back without motion, the rest +entire; for though it had one arm shorter than the other, it had been +broken by accident at their birth; they were joined breast to breast, and +as if a lesser child sought to throw its arms about the neck of one +something bigger. The juncture and thickness of the place where they +were conjoined was not above four fingers, or thereabouts, so that if you +thrust up the imperfect child you might see the navel of the other below +it, and the joining was betwixt the paps and the navel. The navel of the +imperfect child could not be seen, but all the rest of the belly, so that +all that was not joined of the imperfect one, as arms, buttocks, thighs, +and legs, hung dangling upon the other, and might reach to the mid-leg. +The nurse, moreover, told us that it urined at both bodies, and that the +members of the other were nourished, sensible, and in the same plight +with that she gave suck to, excepting that they were shorter and less. +This double body and several limbs relating to one head might be +interpreted a favourable prognostic to the king,--[Henry III.]--of +maintaining these various parts of our state under the union of his laws; +but lest the event should prove otherwise, 'tis better to let it alone, +for in things already past there needs no divination, + + "Ut quum facts sunt, tum ad conjecturam + aliqui interpretatione revocentur;" + + ["So as when they are come to pass, they may then by some + interpretation be recalled to conjecture" + --Cicero, De Divin., ii. 31.] + +as 'tis said of Epimenides, that he always prophesied backward. + +I have just seen a herdsman in Medoc, of about thirty years of age, who +has no sign of any genital parts; he has three holes by which he +incessantly voids his water; he is bearded, has desire, and seeks contact +with women. + +Those that we call monsters are not so to God, who sees in the immensity +of His work the infinite forms that He has comprehended therein; and it +is to be believed that this figure which astonishes us has relation to +some other figure of the same kind unknown to man. From His all wisdom +nothing but good, common; and regular proceeds; but we do not discern the +disposition and relation: + + "Quod crebro videt, non miratur, etiamsi, + cur fiat, nescit. Quod ante non vidit, id, + si evenerit, ostentum esse censet." + + ["What he often sees he does not admire, though he be ignorant how + it comes to pass. When a thing happens he never saw before, he + thinks that it is a portent."--Cicero, De Divin., ii. 22.] + +Whatever falls out contrary to custom we say is contrary to nature, but +nothing, whatever it be, is contrary to her. Let, therefore, this +universal and natural reason expel the error and astonishment that +novelty brings along with it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +OF ANGER + +Plutarch is admirable throughout, but especially where he judges of human +actions. What fine things does he say in the comparison of Lycurgus and +Numa upon the subject of our great folly in abandoning children to the +care and government of their fathers? The most of our civil governments, +as Aristotle says, "leave, after the manner of the Cyclopes, to every one +the ordering of their wives and children, according to their own foolish +and indiscreet fancy; and the Lacedaemonian and Cretan are almost the +only governments that have committed the education of children to the +laws. Who does not see that in a state all depends upon their nurture +and bringing up? and yet they are left to the mercy of parents, let them +be as foolish and ill-conditioned as they may, without any manner of +discretion." + +Amongst other things, how often have I, as I have passed along our +streets, had a good mind to get up a farce, to revenge the poor boys whom +I have seen hided, knocked down, and miserably beaten by some father or +mother, when in their fury and mad with rage? You shall see them come +out with fire and fury sparkling in their eyes: + + "Rabie jecur incendente, feruntur, + Praecipites; ut saxa jugis abrupta, quibus mons + Subtrahitur, clivoque latus pendente recedit," + + ["They are headlong borne with burning fury as great stones torn + from the mountains, by which the steep sides are left naked and + bare."--Juvenal, Sat., vi. 647.] + +(and according to Hippocrates, the most dangerous maladies are they that +disfigure the countenance), with a roaring and terrible voice, very often +against those that are but newly come from nurse, and there they are +lamed and spoiled with blows, whilst our justice takes no cognisance of +it, as if these maims and dislocations were not executed upon members of +our commonwealth: + + "Gratum est, quod patria; civem populoque dedisti, + Si facis, ut patrix sit idoneus, utilis agris, + Utilis et bellorum et pacis rebus agendis." + + ["It is well when to thy country and the people thou hast given a + citizen, provided thou make fit for his country's service; useful to + till the earth, useful in affairs of war and peace" + --Juvenal, Sat., xiv. 70.] + +There is no passion that so much transports men from their right judgment +as anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death who +should condemn a criminal on the account of his own choler; why, then, +should fathers and pedagogues be any more allowed to whip and chastise +children in their anger? 'Tis then no longer correction, but revenge. +Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and would we endure a +physician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient? + +We ourselves, to do well, should never lay a hand upon our servants +whilst our anger lasts. When the pulse beats, and we feel emotion in +ourselves, let us defer the business; things will indeed appear otherwise +to us when we are calm and cool. 'Tis passion that then commands, 'tis +passion that speaks, and not we. Faults seen through passion appear much +greater to us than they really are, as bodies do when seen through a +mist. He who is hungry uses meat; but he who will make use of +chastisement should have neither hunger nor thirst to it. And, moreover, +chastisements that are inflicted with weight and discretion are much +better received and with greater benefit by him who suffers; otherwise, +he will not think himself justly condemned by a man transported with +anger and fury, and will allege his master's excessive passion, his +inflamed countenance, his unwonted oaths, his emotion and precipitous +rashness, for his own justification: + + "Ora tument ira, nigrescunt sanguine venae, + Lumina Gorgoneo saevius igne micant." + + ["Their faces swell, their veins grow black with rage, and their + eyes sparkle with Gorgonian fire."--Ovid, De Art. Amandi, iii. 503.] + +Suetonius reports that Caius Rabirius having been condemned by Caesar, +the thing that most prevailed upon the people (to whom he had appealed) +to determine the cause in his favour, was the animosity and vehemence +that Caesar had manifested in that sentence. + +Saying is a different thing from doing; we are to consider the sermon +apart and the preacher apart. These men lent themselves to a pretty +business who in our times have attempted to shake the truth of our Church +by the vices of her ministers; she extracts her testimony elsewhere; 'tis +a foolish way of arguing and that would throw all things into confusion. +A man whose morals are good may have false opinions, and a wicked man may +preach truth, even though he believe it not himself. 'Tis doubtless a +fine harmony when doing and saying go together; and I will not deny but +that saying, when the actions follow, is not of greater authority and +efficacy, as Eudamidas said, hearing a philosopher talk of military +affairs: "These things are finely said, but he who speaks them is not to +be believed for his ears have never been used to the sound of the +trumpet." And Cleomenes, hearing an orator declaiming upon valour, burst +out into laughter, at which the other being angry; "I should," said he to +him, "do the same if it were a swallow that spoke of this subject; but if +it were an eagle I should willingly hear him." I perceive, methinks, in +the writings of the ancients, that he who speaks what he thinks, strikes +much more home than he who only feigns. Hear Cicero speak of the love of +liberty: hear Brutus speak of it, the mere written words of this man +sound as if he would purchase it at the price of his life. Let Cicero, +the father of eloquence, treat of the contempt of death; let Seneca do +the same: the first languishingly drawls it out so you perceive he would +make you resolve upon a thing on which he is not resolved himself; he +inspires you not with courage, for he himself has none; the other +animates and inflames you. I never read an author, even of those who +treat of virtue and of actions, that I do not curiously inquire what kind +of a man he was himself; for the Ephori at Sparta, seeing a dissolute +fellow propose a wholesome advice to the people, commanded him to hold +his peace, and entreated a virtuous man to attribute to himself the +invention, and to propose it. Plutarch's writings, if well understood, +sufficiently bespeak their author, and so that I think I know him even +into his soul; and yet I could wish that we had some fuller account of +his life. And I am thus far wandered from my subject, upon the account +of the obligation I have to Aulus Gellius, for having left us in writing +this story of his manners, that brings me back to my subject of anger. +A slave of his, a vicious, ill-conditioned fellow, but who had the +precepts of philosophy often ringing in his ears, having for some offence +of his been stript by Plutarch's command, whilst he was being whipped, +muttered at first, that it was without cause and that he had done nothing +to deserve it; but at last falling in good earnest to exclaim against and +rail at his master, he reproached him that he was no philosopher, as he +had boasted himself to be: that he had often heard him say it was +indecent to be angry, nay, had written a book to that purpose; and that +the causing him to be so cruelly beaten, in the height of his rage, +totally gave the lie to all his writings; to which Plutarch calmly and +coldly answered, "How, ruffian," said he, "by what dost thou judge that +I am now angry? Does either my face, my colour, or my voice give any +manifestation of my being moved? I do not think my eyes look fierce, +that my countenance appears troubled, or that my voice is dreadful: am I +red, do I foam, does any word escape my lips I ought to repent? Do I +start? Do I tremble with fury? For those, I tell thee, are the true +signs of anger." And so, turning to the fellow that was whipping him, +"Ply on thy work," said he, "whilst this gentleman and I dispute." This +is his story. + +Archytas Tarentinus, returning from a war wherein he had been captain- +general, found all things in his house in very great disorder, and his +lands quite out of tillage, through the ill husbandry of his receiver, +and having caused him to be called to him; "Go," said he, "if I were not +in anger I would soundly drub your sides." Plato likewise, being highly +offended with one of his slaves, gave Speusippus order to chastise him, +excusing himself from doing it because he was in anger. And Carillus, a +Lacedaemonian, to a Helot, who carried himself insolently towards him: +"By the gods," said he, "if I was not angry, I would immediately cause +thee to be put to death." + +'Tis a passion that is pleased with and flatters itself. How often, +being moved under a false cause, if the person offending makes a good +defence and presents us with a just excuse, are we angry against truth +and innocence itself? In proof of which, I remember a marvellous example +of antiquity. + +Piso, otherwise a man of very eminent virtue, being moved against a +soldier of his, for that returning alone from forage he could give him no +account where he had left a companion of his, took it for granted that he +had killed him, and presently condemned him to death. He was no sooner +mounted upon the gibbet, but, behold, his wandering companion arrives, at +which all the army were exceedingly glad, and after many embraces of the +two comrades, the hangman carried both the one and the other into Piso's +presence, all those present believing it would be a great pleasure even +to himself; but it proved quite contrary; for through shame and spite, +his fury, which was not yet cool, redoubled; and by a subtlety which his +passion suddenly suggested to him, he made three criminals for having +found one innocent, and caused them all to be despatched: the first +soldier, because sentence had passed upon him; the second, who had lost +his way, because he was the cause of his companion's death; and the +hangman, for not having obeyed the order which had been given him. +Such as have had to do with testy and obstinate women, may have +experimented into what a rage it puts them to oppose silence and coldness +to their fury, and that a man disdains to nourish their anger. The +orator Celius was wonderfully choleric by nature; and to one who supped +in his company, a man of a gentle and sweet conversation, and who, that +he might not move him, approved and consented to all he said; he, +impatient that his ill-humour should thus spend itself without aliment: +"For the love of the gods deny me something," said he, "that we may be +two." Women, in like manner, are only angry that others may be angry +again, in imitation of the laws of love. Phocion, to one who interrupted +his speaking by injurious and very opprobrious words, made no other +return than silence, and to give him full liberty and leisure to vent his +spleen; which he having accordingly done, and the storm blown over, +without any mention of this disturbance, he proceeded in his discourse +where he had left off before. No answer can nettle a man like such a +contempt. + +Of the most choleric man in France (anger is always an imperfection, but +more excusable in, a soldier, for in that trade it cannot sometimes be +avoided) I often say, that he is the most patient man that I know, and +the most discreet in bridling his passions; which rise in him with so +great violence and fury, + + "Magno veluti cum flamma sonore + Virgea suggeritur costis undantis ahem, + Exsultantque aatu latices, furit intus aquae vis. + Fumidus atque alte spumis exuberat amnis, + Nec jam se capit unda; volat vapor ater ad auras;" + + ["When with loud crackling noise, a fire of sticks is applied to the + boiling caldron's side, by the heat in frisky bells the liquor + dances; within the water rages, and high the smoky fluid in foam + overflows. Nor can the wave now contain itself; the black steam + flies all abroad."--AEneid, vii. 462.] + + +that he must of necessity cruelly constrain himself to moderate it. And +for my part, I know no passion which I could with so much violence to +myself attempt to cover and conceal; I would not set wisdom at so high a +price; and do not so much consider what a man does, as how much it costs +him to do no worse. + +Another boasted himself to me of the regularity and gentleness of his +manners, which are to truth very singular; to whom I replied, that it was +indeed something, especially m persons of so eminent a quality as +himself, upon whom every one had their eyes, to present himself always +well-tempered to the world; but that the principal thing was to make +provision for within and for himself; and that it was not in my opinion +very well to order his business outwardly well, and to grate himself +within, which I was afraid he did, in putting on and maintaining this +mask and external appearance. + +A man incorporates anger by concealing it, as Diogenes told Demosthenes, +who, for fear of being seen in a tavern, withdrew himself the more +retiredly into it: "The more you retire backward, the farther you enter +in." I would rather advise that a man should give his servant a box of +the ear a little unseasonably, than rack his fancy to present this grave +and composed countenance; and had rather discover my passions than brood +over them at my own expense; they grow less inventing and manifesting +themselves; and 'tis much better their point should wound others without, +than be turned towards ourselves within: + + "Omnia vitia in aperto leviora sunt: et tunc perniciosissima, + quum simulata sanitate subsident." + + ["All vices are less dangerous when open to be seen, and then most + pernicious when they lurk under a dissembled good nature." + --Seneca, Ep. 56] + +I admonish all those who have authority to be angry in my family, in the +first place to manage their anger and not to lavish it upon every +occasion, for that both lessens the value and hinders the effect: rash +and incessant scolding runs into custom, and renders itself despised; and +what you lay out upon a servant for a theft is not felt, because it is +the same he has seen you a hundred times employ against him for having +ill washed a glass, or set a stool out of place. Secondly, that they be +not angry to no purpose, but make sure that their reprehension reach him +with whom they are offended; for, ordinarily, they rail and bawl before +he comes into their presence, and continue scolding an age after he is +gone: + + "Et secum petulans amentia certat:" + + ["And petulant madness contends with itself." + --Claudian in Eutrop., i. 237.] + +they attack his shadow, and drive the storm in a place where no one is +either chastised or concerned, but in the clamour of their voice. +I likewise in quarrels condemn those who huff and vapour without an +enemy: those rhodomontades should be reserved to discharge upon the +offending party: + + "Mugitus veluti cum prima in praelia taurus + Terrificos ciet, atque irasci in cornua tentat, + Arboris obnixus trunco, ventospue lacessit + Ictibus, et sparsa ad pugnum proludit arena." + + ["As when a bull to usher in the fight, makes dreadful bellowings, + and whets his horns against the trunk of a tree; with blows he beats + the air, and rehearses the fight by scattering the sand." + --AEneid, xii. 103.] + +When I am angry, my anger is very sharp but withal very short, and as +private as I can; I lose myself indeed in promptness and violence, but +not in trouble; so that I throw out all sorts of injurious words at +random, and without choice, and never consider pertinently to dart my +language where I think it will deepest wound, for I commonly make use of +no other weapon than my tongue. + +My servants have a better bargain of me in great occasions than in +little; the little ones surprise me; and the misfortune is, that when you +are once upon the precipice, 'tis no matter who gave you the push, you +always go to the bottom; the fall urges, moves, and makes haste of +itself. In great occasions this satisfies me, that they are so just +every one expects a reasonable indignation, and then I glorify myself in +deceiving their expectation; against these, I fortify and prepare myself; +they disturb my head, and threaten to transport me very far, should I +follow them. I can easily contain myself from entering into one of these +passions, and am strong enough, when I expect them, to repel their +violence, be the cause never so great; but if a passion once prepossess +and seize me, it carries me away, be the cause never so small. I bargain +thus with those who may contend with me when you see me moved first, let +me alone, right or wrong; I'll do the same for you. The storm is only +begot by a concurrence of angers, which easily spring from one another, +and are not born together. Let every one have his own way, and we shall +be always at peace. A profitable advice, but hard to execute. Sometimes +also it falls out that I put on a seeming anger, for the better governing +of my house, without any real emotion. As age renders my humours more +sharp, I study to oppose them, and will, if I can, order it so, that for +the future I may be so much the less peevish and hard to please, as I +have more excuse and inclination to be so, although I have heretofore +been reckoned amongst those who have the greatest patience. + +A word more to conclude this argument. Aristotle says, that anger +sometimes serves for arms to virtue and valour. That is probable; +nevertheless, they who contradict him pleasantly answer, that 'tis a +weapon of novel use, for we move all other arms, this moves us; our hand +guides it not, 'tis it that guides our hand; it holds us, we hold not it. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man may always study, but he must not always go to school +Accursed be thou, as he that arms himself for fear of death +All things have their seasons, even good ones +All those who have authority to be angry in my family +An emperor," said he, "must die standing +Ancient Romans kept their youth always standing at school +And we suffer the ills of a long peace +Be not angry to no purpose +Best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice +By resenting the lie we acquit ourselves of the fault +"By the gods," said he, "if I was not angry, I would execute you" +Children are amused with toys and men with words +Consent, and complacency in giving a man's self up to melancholy +Defend most the defects with which we are most tainted +Emperor Julian, surnamed the Apostate +Fortune sometimes seems to delight in taking us at our word +Greatest talkers, for the most part, do nothing to purpose +Have more wherewith to defray my journey, than I have way to go +Hearing a philosopher talk of military affairs +How much it costs him to do no worse +I need not seek a fool from afar; I can laugh at myself +Idleness, the mother of corruption +If a passion once prepossess and seize me, it carries me away +In sorrow there is some mixture of pleasure +Killing is good to frustrate an offence to come, not to revenge +Laws cannot subsist without mixture of injustice +Least end of a hair will serve to draw them into my discourse +Let us not seek our disease out of ourselves; 'tis in us +Look on death not only without astonishment but without care +Melancholy: Are there not some constitutions that feed upon it? +Most cruel people, and upon frivolous occasions, apt to cry. +No beast in the world so much to be feared by man as man +Our extremest pleasure has some sort of groaning +Our fancy does what it will, both with itself and us +Owe ourselves chiefly and mostly to ourselves +Petulant madness contends with itself +Rage it puts them to oppose silence and coldness to their fury +Rash and incessant scolding runs into custom +Revenge, which afterwards produces a series of new cruelties +See how flexible our reason is +Seeming anger, for the better governing of my house +Shake the truth of our Church by the vices of her ministers +Take my last leave of every place I depart from +The gods sell us all the goods they give us +The storm is only begot by a concurrence of angers +Though nobody should read me, have I wasted time +Tis said of Epimenides, that he always prophesied backward +Tis then no longer correction, but revenge +Upon the precipice, 'tis no matter who gave you the push +"When will this man be wise," said he, "if he is yet learning?" +When you see me moved first, let me alone, right or wrong +Young are to make their preparations, the old to enjoy them + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V12 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +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 this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V13 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 14. + +I. Of Profit and Honesty. +II. Of Repentance. +III. Of Three Commerces. +IV. Of Diversion. + + + +ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE + +BOOK THE THIRD + + + +CHAPTER I + +OF PROFIT AND HONESTY + +No man is free from speaking foolish things; but the worst on't is, when +a man labours to play the fool: + + "Nae iste magno conatu magnas nugas dixerit." + + ["Truly he, with a great effort will shortly say a mighty trifle." + ---Terence, Heaut., act iii., s. 4.] + +This does not concern me; mine slip from me with as little care as they +are of little value, and 'tis the better for them. I would presently +part with them for what they are worth, and neither buy nor sell them, +but as they weigh. I speak on paper, as I do to the first person I meet; +and that this is true, observe what follows. + +To whom ought not treachery to be hateful, when Tiberius refused it in a +thing of so great importance to him? He had word sent him from Germany +that if he thought fit, they would rid him of Arminius by poison: this +was the most potent enemy the Romans had, who had defeated them so +ignominiously under Varus, and who alone prevented their aggrandisement +in those parts. + +He returned answer, "that the people of Rome were wont to revenge +themselves of their enemies by open ways, and with their swords in their +hands, and not clandestinely and by fraud": wherein he quitted the +profitable for the honest. You will tell me that he was a braggadocio; I +believe so too: and 'tis no great miracle in men of his profession. But +the acknowledgment of virtue is not less valid in the mouth of him who +hates it, forasmuch as truth forces it from him, and if he will not +inwardly receive it, he at least puts it on for a decoration. + +Our outward and inward structure is full of imperfection; but there is +nothing useless in nature, not even inutility itself; nothing has +insinuated itself into this universe that has not therein some fit and +proper place. Our being is cemented with sickly qualities: ambition, +jealousy, envy, revenge, superstition, and despair have so natural a +possession in us, that its image is discerned in beasts; nay, and +cruelty, so unnatural a vice; for even in the midst of compassion we feel +within, I know not what tart-sweet titillation of ill-natured pleasure in +seeing others suffer; and the children feel it: + + "Suave mari magno, turbantibus aequora ventis, + E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem:" + + ["It is sweet, when the winds disturb the waters of the vast sea, to + witness from land the peril of other persons."--Lucretius, ii. I.] + +of the seeds of which qualities, whoever should divest man, would destroy +the fundamental conditions of human life. Likewise, in all governments +there are necessary offices, not only abject, but vicious also. Vices +there help to make up the seam in our piecing, as poisons are useful for +the conservation of health. If they become excusable because they are of +use to us, and that the common necessity covers their true qualities, we +are to resign this part to the strongest and boldest citizens, who +sacrifice their honour and conscience, as others of old sacrificed their +lives, for the good of their country: we, who are weaker, take upon us +parts both that are more easy and less hazardous. The public weal +requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre; let us leave this +commission to men who are more obedient and more supple. + +In earnest, I have often been troubled to see judges, by fraud and false +hopes of favour or pardon, allure a criminal to confess his fact, and +therein to make use of cozenage and impudence. It would become justice, +and Plato himself, who countenances this manner of proceeding, to furnish +me with other means more suitable to my own liking: this is a malicious +kind of justice, and I look upon it as no less wounded by itself than by +others. I said not long since to some company in discourse, that I +should hardly be drawn to betray my prince for a particular man, who +should be much ashamed to betray any particular man for my prince; and I +do not only hate deceiving myself, but that any one should deceive +through me; I will neither afford matter nor occasion to any such thing. + +In the little I have had to mediate betwixt our princes--[Between the +King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV., and the Duc de Guise. See De +Thou, De Vita Sua, iii. 9.]--in the divisions and subdivisions by which +we are at this time torn to pieces, I have been very careful that they +should neither be deceived in me nor deceive others by me. People of +that kind of trading are very reserved, and pretend to be the most +moderate imaginable and nearest to the opinions of those with whom they +have to do; I expose myself in my stiff opinion, and after a method the +most my own; a tender negotiator, a novice, who had rather fail in the +affair than be wanting to myself. And yet it has been hitherto with so +good luck (for fortune has doubtless the best share in it), that few +things have passed from hand to hand with less suspicion or more favour +and privacy. I have a free and open way that easily insinuates itself +and obtains belief with those with whom I am to deal at the first +meeting. Sincerity and pure truth, in what age soever, pass for current; +and besides, the liberty and freedom of a man who treats without any +interest of his own is never hateful or suspected, and he may very well +make use of the answer of Hyperides to the Athenians, who complained of +his blunt way of speaking: "Messieurs, do not consider whether or no I am +free, but whether I am so without a bribe, or without any advantage to my +own affairs." My liberty of speaking has also easily cleared me from all +suspicion of dissembling by its vehemency, leaving nothing unsaid, how +home and bitter soever (so that I could have said no worse behind their +backs), and in that it carried along with it a manifest show of +simplicity and indifference. I pretend to no other fruit by acting than +to act, and add to it no long arguments or propositions; every action +plays its own game, win if it can. + +As to the rest, I am not swayed by any passion, either of love or hatred, +towards the great, nor has my will captivated either by particular injury +or obligation. I look upon our kings with an affection simply loyal and +respectful, neither prompted nor restrained by any private interest, and +I love myself for it. Nor does the general and just cause attract me +otherwise than with moderation, and without heat. I am not subject to +those penetrating and close compacts and engagements. Anger and hatred +are beyond the duty of justice; and are passions only useful to those who +do not keep themselves strictly to their duty by simple reason: + + "Utatur motu animi, qui uti ratione non potest." + + ["He may employ his passion, who can make no use of his reason." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iv. 25.] + +All legitimate intentions are temperate and equable of themselves; if +otherwise, they degenerate into seditious and unlawful. This is it which +makes me walk everywhere with my head erect, my face and my heart open. +In truth, and I am not afraid to confess it, I should easily, in case of +need, hold up one candle to St. Michael and another to his dragon, like +the old woman; I will follow the right side even to the fire, but +exclusively, if I can. Let Montaigne be overwhelmed in the public ruin +if need be; but if there be no need, I should think myself obliged to +fortune to save me, and I will make use of all the length of line my duty +allows for his preservation. Was it not Atticus who, being of the just +but losing side, preserved himself by his moderation in that universal +shipwreck of the world, amongst so many mutations and diversities? For +private man, as he was, it is more easy; and in such kind of work, I +think a man may justly not be ambitious to offer and insinuate himself. +For a man, indeed, to be wavering and irresolute, to keep his affection +unmoved and without inclination in the troubles of his country and public +divisions, I neither think it handsome nor honest: + + "Ea non media, sed nulla via est, velut eventum + exspectantium, quo fortunae consilia sua applicent." + + ["That is not a middle way, but no way, to await events, by which + they refer their resolutions to fortune."--Livy, xxxii. 21.] + +This may be allowed in our neighbours' affairs; and thus Gelo, the tyrant +of Syracuse, suspended his inclination in the war betwixt the Greeks and +barbarians, keeping a resident ambassador with presents at Delphos, to +watch and see which way fortune would incline, and then take fit occasion +to fall in with the victors. It would be a kind of treason to proceed +after this manner in our own domestic affairs, wherein a man must of +necessity be of the one side or the other; though for a man who has no +office or express command to call him out, to sit still I hold it more +excusable (and yet I do not excuse myself upon these terms) than in +foreign expeditions, to which, however, according to our laws, no man is +pressed against his will. And yet even those who wholly engage +themselves in such a war may behave themselves with such temper and +moderation, that the storm may fly over their heads without doing them +any harm. Had we not reason to hope such an issue in the person of the +late Bishop of Orleans, the Sieur de Morvilliers? + + [An able negotiator, who, though protected by the Guises, and + strongly supporting them, was yet very far from persecuting the + Reformists. He died 1577.] + +And I know, amongst those who behave themselves most bravely in the +present war, some whose manners are so gentle, obliging, and just, that +they will certainly stand firm, whatever event Heaven is preparing for +us. I am of opinion that it properly belongs to kings only to quarrel +with kings; and I laugh at those spirits who, out of lightness of heart, +lend themselves to so disproportioned disputes; for a man has never the +more particular quarrel with a prince, by marching openly and boldly +against him for his own honour and according to his duty; if he does not +love such a person, he does better, he esteems him. And notably the +cause of the laws and of the ancient government of a kingdom, has this +always annexed to it, that even those who, for their own private +interest, invade them, excuse, if they do not honour, the defenders. + +But we are not, as we nowadays do, to call peevishness and inward +discontent, that spring from private interest and passion, duty, nor a +treacherous and malicious conduct, courage; they call their proneness to +mischief and violence zeal; 'tis not the cause, but their interest, that +inflames them; they kindle and begin a war, not because it is just, but +because it is war. + +A man may very well behave himself commodiously and loyally too amongst +those of the adverse party; carry yourself, if not with the same equal +affection (for that is capable of different measure), at least with an +affection moderate, well tempered, and such as shall not so engage you to +one party, that it may demand all you are able to do for that side, +content yourself with a moderate proportion of their, favour and +goodwill; and to swim in troubled waters without fishing in them. + +The other way, of offering a man's self and the utmost service he is able +to do, both to one party and the other, has still less of prudence in it +than conscience. Does not he to whom you betray another, to whom you +were as welcome as to himself, know that you will at another time do as +much for him? He holds you for a villain; and in the meantime hears what +you will say, gathers intelligence from you, and works his own ends out +of your disloyalty; double-dealing men are useful for bringing in, but we +must have a care they carry out as little as is possible. + +I say nothing to one party that I may not, upon occasion, say to the +other, with a little alteration of accent; and report nothing but things +either indifferent or known, or what is of common consequence. I cannot +permit myself, for any consideration, to tell them a lie. What is +intrusted to my secrecy, I religiously conceal; but I take as few trusts +of that nature upon me as I can. The secrets of princes are a +troublesome burthen to such as are not interested in them. I very +willingly bargain that they trust me with little, but confidently rely +upon what I tell them. I have ever known more than I desired. One open +way of speaking introduces another open way of speaking, and draws out +discoveries, like wine and love. Philippides, in my opinion, answered +King Lysimachus very discreetly, who, asking him what of his estate he +should bestow upon him? "What you will," said he, "provided it be none +of your secrets." I see every one is displeased if the bottom of the +affair be concealed from him wherein he is employed, or that there be any +reservation in the thing; for my part, I am content to know no more of +the business than what they would have me employ myself in, nor desire +that my knowledge should exceed or restrict what I have to say. If I +must serve for an instrument of deceit, let it be at least with a safe +conscience: I will not be reputed a servant either so affectionate or so +loyal as to be fit to betray any one: he who is unfaithful to himself, is +excusably so to his master. But they are princes who do not accept men +by halves, and despise limited and conditional services: I cannot help +it: I frankly tell them how far I can go; for a slave I should not be, +but to reason, and I can hardly submit even to that. And they also are +to blame to exact from a freeman the same subjection and obligation to +their service that they do from him they have made and bought, or whose +fortune particularly and expressly depends upon theirs. The laws have +delivered me from a great anxiety; they have chosen a side for me, and +given me a master; all other superiority and obligation ought to be +relative to that, and cut, off from all other. Yet this is not to say, +that if my affection should otherwise incline me, my hand should +presently obey it; the will and desire are a law to themselves; but +actions must receive commission from the public appointment. + +All this proceeding of mine is a little dissonant from the ordinary +forms; it would produce no great effects, nor be of any long duration; +innocence itself could not, in this age of ours, either negotiate without +dissimulation, or traffic without lying; and, indeed, public employments +are by no means for my palate: what my profession requires, I perform +after the most private manner that I can. Being young, I was engaged up +to the ears in business, and it succeeded well; but I disengaged myself +in good time. I have often since avoided meddling in it, rarely +accepted, and never asked it; keeping my back still turned to ambition; +but if not like rowers who so advance backward, yet so, at the same time, +that I am less obliged to my resolution than to my good fortune, that I +was not wholly embarked in it. For there are ways less displeasing to my +taste, and more suitable to my ability, by which, if she had formerly +called me to the public service, and my own advancement towards the +world's opinion, I know I should, in spite of all my own arguments to the +contrary, have pursued them. Such as commonly say, in opposition to what +I profess, that what I call freedom, simplicity, and plainness in my +manners, is art and subtlety, and rather prudence than goodness, industry +than nature, good sense than good luck, do me more honour than disgrace: +but, certainly, they make my subtlety too subtle; and whoever has +followed me close, and pryed narrowly into me, I will give him the +victory, if he does not confess that there is no rule in their school +that could match this natural motion, and maintain an appearance of +liberty and licence, so equal and inflexible, through so many various and +crooked paths, and that all their wit and endeavour could never have led +them through. The way of truth is one and simple; that of particular +profit, and the commodity of affairs a man is entrusted with, is double, +unequal, and casual. I have often seen these counterfeit and artificial +liberties practised, but, for the most part, without success; they relish +of AEsop's ass who, in emulation of the dog, obligingly clapped his two +fore-feet upon his master's shoulders; but as many caresses as the dog +had for such an expression of kindness, twice so many blows with a cudgel +had the poor ass for his compliment: + + "Id maxime quemque decet, quod est cujusque suum maxime." + + ["That best becomes every man which belongs most to him;" + --Cicero, De Offic., i. 31.] + +I will not deprive deceit of its due; that were but ill to understand the +world: I know it has often been of great use, and that it maintains and +supplies most men's employment. There are vices that are lawful, as +there are many actions, either good or excusable, that are not lawful in +themselves. + +The justice which in itself is natural and universal is otherwise and +more nobly ordered than that other justice which is special, national, +and constrained to the ends of government, + + "Veri juris germanaeque justitiae solidam et expressam + effigiem nullam tenemus; umbra et imaginibus utimur;" + + ["We retain no solid and express portraiture of true right and + germane justice; we have only the shadow and image of it." + --Cicero, De Offic., iii. 17.] + +insomuch that the sage Dandamis, hearing the lives of Socrates, +Pythagoras, and Diogenes read, judged them to be great men every way, +excepting that they were too much subjected to the reverence of the laws, +which, to second and authorise, true virtue must abate very much of its +original vigour; many vicious actions are introduced, not only by their +permission, but by their advice: + + "Ex senatus consultis plebisquescitis scelera exercentur." + + ["Crimes are committed by the decrees of the Senate and the + popular assembly."--Seneca, Ep., 95.] + +I follow the common phrase that distinguishes betwixt profitable and +honest things, so as to call some natural actions, that are not only +profitable but necessary, dishonest and foul. + +But let us proceed in our examples of treachery two pretenders to the +kingdom of Thrace--[Rhescuporis and Cotys. Tacitus, Annal., ii. 65]-- +were fallen into dispute about their title; the emperor hindered them +from proceeding to blows: but one of them, under colour of bringing +things to a friendly issue by an interview, having invited his competitor +to an entertainment in his own house, imprisoned and killed him. Justice +required that the Romans should have satisfaction for this offence; but +there was a difficulty in obtaining it by ordinary ways; what, therefore, +they could not do legitimately, without war and without danger, they +resolved to do by treachery; and what they could not honestly do, they +did profitably. For which end, one Pomponius Flaccus was found to be a +fit instrument. This man, by dissembled words and assurances, having +drawn the other into his toils, instead of the honour and favour he had +promised him, sent him bound hand and foot to Rome. Here one traitor +betrayed another, contrary to common custom: for they are full of +mistrust, and 'tis hard to overreach them in their own art: witness the +sad experience we have lately had.--[Montaigne here probably refers to +the feigned reconciliation between Catherine de Medici and Henri, Duc de +Guise, in 1588.] + +Let who will be Pomponius Flaccus, and there are enough who would: for my +part, both my word and my faith are, like all the rest, parts of this +common body: their best effect is the public service; this I take for +presupposed. But should one command me to take charge of the courts of +law and lawsuits, I should make answer, that I understood it not; or the +place of a leader of pioneers, I would say, that I was called to a more +honourable employment; so likewise, he that would employ me to lie, +betray, and forswear myself, though not to assassinate or to poison, for +some notable service, I should say, "If I have robbed or stolen anything +from any man, send me rather to the galleys." For it is permissible in a +man of honour to say, as the Lacedaemonians did,--[Plutarch, Difference +between a Flatterer and a Friend, c. 21.]--having been defeated by +Antipater, when just upon concluding an agreement: "You may impose as +heavy and ruinous taxes upon us as you please, but to command us to do +shameful and dishonest things, you will lose your time, for it is to no +purpose." Every one ought to make the same vow to himself that the kings +of Egypt made their judges solemnly swear, that they would not do +anything contrary to their consciences, though never so much commanded to +it by themselves. In such commissions there is evident mark of ignominy +and condemnation; and he who gives it at the same time accuses you, and +gives it, if you understand it right, for a burden and a punishment. +As much as the public affairs are bettered by your exploit, so much are +your own the worse, and the better you behave yourself in it, 'tis so +much the worse for yourself; and it will be no new thing, nor, +peradventure, without some colour of justice, if the same person ruin +you who set you on work. + +If treachery can be in any case excusable, it must be only so when it is +practised to chastise and betray treachery. There are examples enough of +treacheries, not only rejected, but chastised and punished by those in +favour of whom they were undertaken. Who is ignorant of Fabricius +sentence against the physician of Pyrrhus? + +But this we also find recorded, that some persons have commanded a thing, +who afterward have severely avenged the execution of it upon him they had +employed, rejecting the reputation of so unbridled an authority, and +disowning so abandoned and base a servitude and obedience. Jaropelk, +Duke of Russia, tampered with a gentleman of Hungary to betray Boleslaus, +king of Poland, either by killing him, or by giving the Russians +opportunity to do him some notable mischief. This worthy went ably to +work: he was more assiduous than before in the service of that king, so +that he obtained the honour to be of his council, and one of the chiefest +in his trust. With these advantages, and taking an opportune occasion of +his master's absence, he betrayed Vislicza, a great and rich city, to the +Russians, which was entirely sacked and burned, and not only all the +inhabitants of both sexes, young and old, put to the sword, but moreover +a great number of neighbouring gentry, whom he had drawn thither to that +end. Jaropelk, his revenge being thus satisfied and his anger appeased, +which was not, indeed, without pretence (for Boleslaus had highly +offended him, and after the same manner), and sated with the fruit of +this treachery, coming to consider the fulness of it, with a sound +judgment and clear from passion, looked upon what had been done with so +much horror and remorse that he caused the eyes to be bored out and the +tongue and shameful parts to be cut off of him who had performed it. + +Antigonus persuaded the Argyraspides to betray Eumenes, their general, +his adversary, into his hands; but after he had caused him, so delivered, +to be slain, he would himself be the commissioner of the divine justice +for the punishment of so detestable a crime, and committed them into the +hands of the governor of the province, with express command, by whatever +means, to destroy and bring them all to an evil end, so that of that +great number of men, not so much as one ever returned again into +Macedonia: the better he had been served, the more wickedly he judged it +to be, and meriting greater punishment. + +The slave who betrayed the place where his master, P. Sulpicius, lay +concealed, was, according to the promise of Sylla's proscription, +manumitted for his pains; but according to the promise of the public +justice, which was free from any such engagement, he was thrown headlong +from the Tarpeian rock. + +Our King Clovis, instead of the arms of gold he had promised them, caused +three of Cararie's servants to be hanged after they had betrayed their +master to him, though he had debauched them to it: he hanged them with +the purse of their reward about their necks; after having satisfied his +second and special faith, he satisfied the general and first. + +Mohammed II. having resolved to rid himself of his brother, out of +jealousy of state, according to the practice of the Ottoman family, he +employed one of his officers in the execution, who, pouring a quantity of +water too fast into him, choked him. This being done, to expiate the +murder, he delivered the murderer into the hands of the mother of him he +had so caused to be put to death, for they were only brothers by the +father's side; she, in his presence, ripped up the murderer's bosom, and +with her own hands rifled his breast for his heart, tore it out, and +threw it to the dogs. And even to the worst people it is the sweetest +thing imaginable, having once gained their end by a vicious action, to +foist, in all security, into it some show of virtue and justice, as by +way of compensation and conscientious correction; to which may be added, +that they look upon the ministers of such horrid crimes as upon men who +reproach them with them, and think by their deaths to erase the memory +and testimony of such proceedings. + +Or if, perhaps, you are rewarded, not to frustrate the public necessity +for that extreme and desperate remedy, he who does it cannot for all +that, if he be not such himself, but look upon you as an accursed and +execrable fellow, and conclude you a greater traitor than he does, +against whom you are so: for he tries the malignity of your disposition +by your own hands, where he cannot possibly be deceived, you having no +object of preceding hatred to move you to such an act; but he employs you +as they do condemned malefactors in executions of justice, an office as +necessary as dishonourable. Besides the baseness of such commissions, +there is, moreover, a prostitution of conscience. Seeing that the +daughter of Sejanus could not be put to death by the law of Rome, because +she was a virgin, she was, to make it lawful, first ravished by the +hangman and then strangled: not only his hand but his soul is slave to +the public convenience. + +When Amurath I., more grievously to punish his subjects who had taken +part in the parricide rebellion of his son, ordained that their nearest +kindred should assist in the execution, I find it very handsome in some +of them to have rather chosen to be unjustly thought guilty of the +parricide of another than to serve justice by a parricide of their own. +And where I have seen, at the taking of some little fort by assault in my +time, some rascals who, to save their own lives, would consent to hang +their friends and companions, I have looked upon them to be of worse +condition than those who were hanged. 'Tis said, that Witold, Prince of +Lithuania, introduced into the nation the practice that the criminal +condemned to death should with his own hand execute the sentence, +thinking it strange that a third person, innocent of the fault, should be +made guilty of homicide. + +A prince, when by some urgent circumstance or some impetuous and +unforeseen accident that very much concerns his state, compelled to +forfeit his word and break his faith, or otherwise forced from his +ordinary duty, ought to attribute this necessity to a lash of the divine +rod: vice it is not, for he has given up his own reason to a more +universal and more powerful reason; but certainly 'tis a misfortune: so +that if any one should ask me what remedy? "None," say I, "if he were +really racked between these two extremes: 'sed videat, ne quoeratur +latebya perjurio', he must do it: but if he did it without regret, if it +did not weigh on him to do it, 'tis a sign his conscience is in a sorry +condition." If there be a person to be found of so tender a conscience +as to think no cure whatever worth so important a remedy, I shall like +him never the worse; he could not more excusably or more decently perish. +We cannot do all we would, so that we must often, as the last anchorage, +commit the protection of our vessels to the simple conduct of heaven. +To what more just necessity does he reserve himself? What is less +possible for him to do than what he cannot do but at the expense of his +faith and honour, things that, perhaps, ought to be dearer to him than +his own safety, or even the safety of his people. Though he should, with +folded arms, only call God to his assistance, has he not reason to hope +that the divine goodness will not refuse the favour of an extraordinary +arm to just and pure hands? These are dangerous examples, rare and +sickly exceptions to our natural rules: we must yield to them, but with +great moderation and circumspection: no private utility is of such +importance that we should upon that account strain our consciences to +such a degree: the public may be, when very manifest and of very great +concern. + +Timoleon made a timely expiation for his strange exploit by the tears he +shed, calling to mind that it was with a fraternal hand that he had slain +the tyrant; and it justly pricked his conscience that he had been +necessitated to purchase the public utility at so great a price as the +violation of his private morality. Even the Senate itself, by his means +delivered from slavery, durst not positively determine of so high a fact, +and divided into two so important and contrary aspects; but the +Syracusans, sending at the same time to the Corinthians to solicit their +protection, and to require of them a captain fit to re-establish their +city in its former dignity and to clear Sicily of several little tyrants +by whom it was oppressed, they deputed Timoleon for that service, with +this cunning declaration; "that according as he should behave himself +well or ill in his employment, their sentence should incline either to +favour the deliverer of his country, or to disfavour the murderer of his +brother." This fantastic conclusion carries along with it some excuse, +by reason of the danger of the example, and the importance of so strange +an action: and they did well to discharge their own judgment of it, and +to refer it to others who were not so much concerned. But Timoleon's +comportment in this expedition soon made his cause more clear, so +worthily and virtuously he demeaned himself upon all occasions; and the +good fortune that accompanied him in the difficulties he had to overcome +in this noble employment, seemed to be strewed in his way by the gods, +favourably conspiring for his justification. + +The end of this matter is excusable, if any can be so; but the profit of +the augmentation of the public revenue, that served the Roman Senate for +a pretence to the foul conclusion I am going to relate, is not sufficient +to warrant any such injustice. + +Certain cities had redeemed themselves and their liberty by money, by the +order and consent of the Senate, out of the hands of L. Sylla: the +business coming again in question, the Senate condemned them to be +taxable as they were before, and that the money they had disbursed for +their redemption should be lost to them. Civil war often produces such +villainous examples; that we punish private men for confiding in us when +we were public ministers: and the self-same magistrate makes another man +pay the penalty of his change that has nothing to do with it; the +pedagogue whips his scholar for his docility; and the guide beats the +blind man whom he leads by the hand; a horrid image of justice. + +There are rules in philosophy that are both false and weak. The example +that is proposed to us for preferring private utility before faith given, +has not weight enough by the circumstances they put to it; robbers have +seized you, and after having made you swear to pay them a certain sum of +money, dismiss you. 'Tis not well done to say, that an honest man can be +quit of his oath without payment, being out of their hands. 'Tis no such +thing: what fear has once made me willing to do, I am obliged to do it +when I am no longer in fear; and though that fear only prevailed with my +tongue without forcing my will, yet am I bound to keep my word. For my +part, when my tongue has sometimes inconsiderately said something that I +did not think, I have made a conscience of disowning it: otherwise, by +degrees, we shall abolish all the right another derives from our promises +and oaths: + + "Quasi vero forti viro vis possit adhiberi." + + ["As though a man of true courage could be compelled." + --Cicero, De Offic., iii. 30.] + +And 'tis only lawful, upon the account of private interest, to excuse +breach of promise, when we have promised something that is unlawful and +wicked in itself; for the right of virtue ought to take place of the +right of any obligation of ours. + +I have formerly placed Epaminondas in the first rank of excellent men, +and do not repent it. How high did he stretch the consideration of his +own particular duty? he who never killed a man whom he had overcome; who, +for the inestimable benefit of restoring the liberty of his country, made +conscience of killing a tyrant or his accomplices without due form of +justice: and who concluded him to be a wicked man, how good a citizen +soever otherwise, who amongst his enemies in battle spared not his friend +and his guest. This was a soul of a rich composition: he married +goodness and humanity, nay, even the tenderest and most delicate in the +whole school of philosophy, to the roughest and most violent human +actions. Was it nature or art that had intenerated that great courage of +his, so full, so obstinate against pain and death and poverty, to such an +extreme degree of sweetness and compassion? Dreadful in arms and blood, +he overran and subdued a nation invincible by all others but by him +alone; and yet in the heat of an encounter, could turn aside from his +friend and guest. Certainly he was fit to command in war who could so +rein himself with the curb of good nature, in the height and heat of his +fury, a fury inflamed and foaming with blood and slaughter. 'Tis a +miracle to be able to mix any image of justice with such violent actions: +and it was only possible for such a steadfastness of mind as that of +Epaminondas therein to mix sweetness and the facility of the gentlest +manners and purest innocence. And whereas one told the Mamertini that +statutes were of no efficacy against armed men; and another told the +tribune of the people that the time of justice and of war were distinct +things; and a third said that the noise of arms deafened the voice of +laws, this man was not precluded from listening to the laws of civility +and pure courtesy. Had he not borrowed from his enemies the custom of +sacrificing to the Muses when he went to war, that they might by their +sweetness and gaiety soften his martial and rigorous fury? Let us not +fear, by the example of so great a master, to believe that there is +something unlawful, even against an enemy, and that the common concern +ought not to require all things of all men, against private interest: + + "Manente memoria, etiam in dissidio publicorum + foederum, privati juris:" + + ["The memory of private right remaining even amid + public dissensions."--Livy, xxv. 18.] + + "Et nulla potentia vires + Praestandi, ne quid peccet amicus, habet;" + + ["No power on earth can sanction treachery against a friend." + --Ovid, De Ponto, i. 7, 37.] + +and that all things are not lawful to an honest man for the service of +his prince, the laws, or the general quarrel: + + "Non enim patria praestat omnibus officiis.... + et ipsi conducit pios habere cives in parentes." + + ["The duty to one's country does not supersede all other duties. + The country itself requires that its citizens should act piously + toward their parents."--Cicero, De Offic., iii. 23.] + +Tis an instruction proper for the time wherein we live: we need not +harden our courage with these arms of steel; 'tis enough that our +shoulders are inured to them: 'tis enough to dip our pens in ink without +dipping them in blood. If it be grandeur of courage, and the effect of a +rare and singular virtue, to contemn friendship, private obligations, a +man's word and relationship, for the common good and obedience to the +magistrate, 'tis certainly sufficient to excuse us, that 'tis a grandeur +that can have no place in the grandeur of Epaminondas' courage. + +I abominate those mad exhortations of this other discomposed soul, + + "Dum tela micant, non vos pietatis imago + Ulla, nec adversa conspecti fronte parentes + Commoveant; vultus gladio turbate verendos." + + ["While swords glitter, let no idea of piety, nor the face even of a + father presented to you, move you: mutilate with your sword those + venerable features "--Lucan, vii. 320.] + +Let us deprive wicked, bloody, and treacherous natures of such a pretence +of reason: let us set aside this guilty and extravagant justice, and +stick to more human imitations. How great things can time and example +do! In an encounter of the civil war against Cinna, one of Pompey's +soldiers having unawares killed his brother, who was of the contrary +party, he immediately for shame and sorrow killed himself: and some years +after, in another civil war of the same people, a soldier demanded a +reward of his officer for having killed his brother. + +A man but ill proves the honour and beauty of an action by its utility: +and very erroneously concludes that every one is obliged to it, and that +it becomes every one to do it, if it be of utility: + + "Omnia non pariter rerum sunt omnibus apta." + + + ["All things are not equally fit for all men." + --Propertius, iii. 9, 7.] + +Let us take that which is most necessary and profitable for human +society; it will be marriage; and yet the council of the saints find the +contrary much better, excluding from it the most venerable vocation of +man: as we design those horses for stallions of which we have the least +esteem. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF REPENTANCE + +Others form man; I only report him: and represent a particular one, ill +fashioned enough, and whom, if I had to model him anew, I should +certainly make something else than what he is but that's past recalling. +Now, though the features of my picture alter and change, 'tis not, +however, unlike: the world eternally turns round; all things therein are +incessantly moving, the earth, the rocks of Caucasus, and the pyramids of +Egypt, both by the public motion and their own. Even constancy itself is +no other but a slower and more languishing motion. I cannot fix my +object; 'tis always tottering and reeling by a natural giddiness; I take +it as it is at the instant I consider it; I do not paint its being, I +paint its passage; not a passing from one age to another, or, as the +people say, from seven to seven years, but from day to day, from minute +to minute, I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently +change, not only by fortune, but also by intention. 'Tis a counterpart +of various and changeable accidents, and of irresolute imaginations, and, +as it falls out, sometimes contrary: whether it be that I am then another +self, or that I take subjects by other circumstances and considerations: +so it is that I may peradventure contradict myself, but, as Demades said, +I never contradict the truth. Could my soul once take footing, I would +not essay but resolve: but it is always learning and making trial. + +I propose a life ordinary and without lustre: 'tis all one; all moral +philosophy may as well be applied to a common and private life, as to one +of richer composition: every man carries the entire form of human +condition. Authors communicate themselves to the people by some especial +and extrinsic mark; I, the first of any, by my universal being; as Michel +de Montaigne, not as a grammarian, a poet, or a lawyer. If the world +find fault that I speak too much of myself, I find fault that they do not +so much as think of themselves. But is it reason that, being so +particular in my way of living, I should pretend to recommend myself to +the public knowledge? And is it also reason that I should produce to the +world, where art and handling have so much credit and authority, crude +and simple effects of nature, and of a weak nature to boot? Is it not to +build a wall without stone or brick, or some such thing, to write books +without learning and without art? The fancies of music are carried on by +art; mine by chance. I have this, at least, according to discipline, +that never any man treated of a subject he better understood and knew +than I what I have undertaken, and that in this I am the most +understanding man alive: secondly, that never any man penetrated farther +into his matter, nor better and more distinctly sifted the parts and +sequences of it, nor ever more exactly and fully arrived at the end he +proposed to himself. To perfect it, I need bring nothing but fidelity to +the work; and that is there, and the most pure and sincere that is +anywhere to be found. I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much +as I dare; and I dare a little the more, as I grow older; for, methinks, +custom allows to age more liberty of prating, and more indiscretion of +talking of a man's self. That cannot fall out here, which I often see +elsewhere, that the work and the artificer contradict one another: +"Can a man of such sober conversation have written so foolish a book?" +Or "Do so learned writings proceed from a man of so weak conversation?" +He who talks at a very ordinary rate, and writes rare matter, 'tis to say +that his capacity is borrowed and not his own. A learned man is not +learned in all things: but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout, +even to ignorance itself; here my book and I go hand in hand together. +Elsewhere men may commend or censure the work, without reference to the +workman; here they cannot: who touches the one, touches the other. He +who shall judge of it without knowing him, will more wrong himself than +me; he who does know him, gives me all the satisfaction I desire. I +shall be happy beyond my desert, if I can obtain only thus much from the +public approbation, as to make men of understanding perceive that I was +capable of profiting by knowledge, had I had it; and that I deserved to +have been assisted by a better memory. + +Be pleased here to excuse what I often repeat, that I very rarely repent, +and that my conscience is satisfied with itself, not as the conscience of +an angel, or that of a horse, but as the conscience of a man; always +adding this clause, not one of ceremony, but a true and real submission, +that I speak inquiring and doubting, purely and simply referring myself +to the common and accepted beliefs for the resolution. I do not teach; I +only relate. + +There is no vice that is absolutely a vice which does not offend, and +that a sound judgment does not accuse; for there is in it so manifest a +deformity and inconvenience, that peradventure they are in the right who +say that it is chiefly begotten by stupidity and ignorance: so hard is it +to imagine that a man can know without abhorring it. Malice sucks up the +greatest part of its own venom, and poisons itself. Vice leaves +repentance in the soul, like an ulcer in the flesh, which is always +scratching and lacerating itself: for reason effaces all other grief and +sorrows, but it begets that of repentance, which is so much the more +grievous, by reason it springs within, as the cold and heat of fevers are +more sharp than those that only strike upon the outward skin. I hold for +vices (but every one according to its proportion), not only those which +reason and nature condemn, but those also which the opinion of men, +though false and erroneous, have made such, if authorised by law and +custom. + +There is likewise no virtue which does not rejoice a well-descended +nature: there is a kind of, I know not what, congratulation in well-doing +that gives us an inward satisfaction, and a generous boldness that +accompanies a good conscience: a soul daringly vicious may, peradventure, +arm itself with security, but it cannot supply itself with this +complacency and satisfaction. 'Tis no little satisfaction to feel a +man's self preserved from the contagion of so depraved an age, and to say +to himself: "Whoever could penetrate into my soul would not there find me +guilty either of the affliction or ruin of any one, or of revenge or +envy, or any offence against the public laws, or of innovation or +disturbance, or failure of my word; and though the licence of the time +permits and teaches every one so to do, yet have I not plundered any +Frenchman's goods, or taken his money, and have lived upon what is my +own, in war as well as in peace; neither have I set any man to work +without paying him his hire." These testimonies of a good conscience +please, and this natural rejoicing is very beneficial to us, and the only +reward that we can never fail of. + +To ground the recompense of virtuous actions upon the approbation of +others is too uncertain and unsafe a foundation, especially in so corrupt +and ignorant an age as this, wherein the good opinion of the vulgar is +injurious: upon whom do you rely to show you what is recommendable? God +defend me from being an honest man, according to the descriptions of +honour I daily see every one make of himself: + + "Quae fuerant vitia, mores sunt." + + ["What before had been vices are now manners."--Seneca, Ep., 39.] + +Some of my friends have at times schooled and scolded me with great +sincerity and plainness, either of their own voluntary motion, or by me +entreated to it as to an office, which to a well-composed soul surpasses +not only in utility, but in kindness, all other offices of friendship: I +have always received them with the most open arms, both of courtesy and +acknowledgment; but to say the truth, I have often found so much false +measure, both in their reproaches and praises, that I had not done much +amiss, rather to have done ill, than to have done well according to their +notions. We, who live private lives, not exposed to any other view than +our own, ought chiefly to have settled a pattern within ourselves by +which to try our actions: and according to that, sometimes to encourage +and sometimes to correct ourselves. I have my laws and my judicature to +judge of myself, and apply myself more to these than to any other rules: +I do, indeed, restrain my actions according to others; but extend them +not by any other rule than my own. You yourself only know if you are +cowardly and cruel, loyal and devout: others see you not, and only guess +at you by uncertain conjectures, and do not so much see your nature as +your art; rely not therefore upon their opinions, but stick to your own: + + "Tuo tibi judicio est utendum.... Virtutis et vitiorum grave ipsius + conscientiae pondus est: qua sublata, jacent omnia." + + ["Thou must employ thy own judgment upon thyself; great is the + weight of thy own conscience in the discovery of virtues and vices: + which taken away, all things are lost." + --Cicero, De Nat. Dei, iii. 35; Tusc. Quaes., i. 25.] + +But the saying that repentance immediately follows the sin seems not to +have respect to sin in its high estate, which is lodged in us as in its +own proper habitation. One may disown and retract the vices that +surprise us, and to which we are hurried by passions; but those which by +a long habit are rooted in a strong and vigorous will are not subject to +contradiction. Repentance is no other but a recanting of the will and an +opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please. It makes +this person disown his former virtue and continency: + + "Quae mens est hodie, cur eadem non puero fait? + Vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae?" + + ["What my mind is, why was it not the same, when I was a boy? or + why do not the cheeks return to these feelings?" + --Horace, Od., v. 10, 7.] + +'Tis an exact life that maintains itself in due order in private. Every +one may juggle his part, and represent an honest man upon the stage: but +within, and in his own bosom, where all may do as they list, where all is +concealed, to be regular, there's the point. The next degree is to be so +in his house, and in his ordinary actions, for which we are accountable +to none, and where there is no study nor artifice. And therefore Bias, +setting forth the excellent state of a private family, says: "of which a +the master is the same within, by his own virtue and temper, that he is +abroad, for fear of the laws and report of men." And it was a worthy +saying of Julius Drusus, to the masons who offered him, for three +thousand crowns, to put his house in such a posture that his neighbours +should no longer have the same inspection into it as before; "I will give +you," said he, "six thousand to make it so that everybody may see into +every room." 'Tis honourably recorded of Agesilaus, that he used in his +journeys always to take up his lodgings in temples, to the end that the +people and the gods themselves might pry into his most private actions. +Such a one has been a miracle to the world, in whom neither his wife nor +servant has ever seen anything so much as remarkable; few men have been +admired by their own domestics; no one was ever a prophet, not merely in +his own house, but in his own country, says the experience of histories: +--[No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre, said Marshal Catinat]--'tis +the same in things of nought, and in this low example the image of a +greater is to be seen. In my country of Gascony, they look upon it as a +drollery to see me in print; the further off I am read from my own home, +the better I am esteemed. I purchase printers in Guienne; elsewhere they +purchase me. Upon this it is that they lay their foundation who conceal +themselves present and living, to obtain a name when they are dead and +absent. I had rather have a great deal less in hand, and do not expose +myself to the world upon any other account than my present share; when I +leave it I quit the rest. See this functionary whom the people escort in +state, with wonder and applause, to his very door; he puts off the +pageant with his robe, and falls so much the lower by how much he was +higher exalted: in himself within, all is tumult and degraded. And +though all should be regular there, it will require a vivid and well- +chosen judgment to perceive it in these low and private actions; to which +may be added, that order is a dull, sombre virtue. To enter a breach, +conduct an embassy, govern a people, are actions of renown; to reprehend, +laugh, sell, pay, love, hate, and gently and justly converse with a man's +own family and with himself; not to relax, not to give a man's self the +lie, is more rare and hard, and less remarkable. By which means, retired +lives, whatever is said to the contrary, undergo duties of as great or +greater difficulty than the others do; and private men, says Aristotle,' +serve virtue more painfully and highly than those in authority do: +we prepare ourselves for eminent occasions, more out of glory than +conscience. The shortest way to arrive at glory, would be to do that for +conscience which we do for glory: and the virtue of Alexander appears to +me of much less vigour in his great theatre, than that of Socrates in his +mean and obscure employment. I can easily conceive Socrates in the place +of Alexander, but Alexander in that of Socrates, I cannot. Who shall ask +the one what he can do, he will answer, "Subdue the world": and who shall +put the same question to the other, he will say, "Carry on human life +conformably with its natural condition"; a much more general, weighty, +and legitimate science than the other.--[Montaigne added here, "To do for +the world that for which he came into the world," but he afterwards +erased these words from the manuscript.--Naigeon.] + +The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking +orderly; its grandeur does not exercise itself in grandeur, but in +mediocrity. As they who judge and try us within, make no great account +of the lustre of our public actions, and see they are only streaks and +rays of clear water springing from a slimy and muddy bottom so, likewise, +they who judge of us by this gallant outward appearance, in like manner +conclude of our internal constitution; and cannot couple common +faculties, and like their own, with the other faculties that astonish +them, and are so far out of their sight. Therefore it is that we give +such savage forms to demons: and who does not give Tamerlane great +eyebrows, wide nostrils, a dreadful visage, and a prodigious stature, +according to the imagination he has conceived by the report of his name? +Had any one formerly brought me to Erasmus, I should hardly have believed +but that all was adage and apothegm he spoke to his man or his hostess. +We much more aptly imagine an artisan upon his close-stool, or upon his +wife, than a great president venerable by his port and sufficiency: we +fancy that they, from their high tribunals, will not abase themselves so +much as to live. As vicious souls are often incited by some foreign +impulse to do well, so are virtuous souls to do ill; they are therefore +to be judged by their settled state, when they are at home, whenever that +may be; and, at all events, when they are nearer repose, and in their +native station. + +Natural inclinations are much assisted and fortified by education; but +they seldom alter and overcome their institution: a thousand natures of +my time have escaped towards virtue or vice, through a quite contrary +discipline: + + "Sic ubi, desuetae silvis, in carcere clausae + Mansuevere ferx, et vultus posuere minaces, + Atque hominem didicere pati, si torrida parvus + Venit in ora cruor, redeunt rabiesque fororque, + Admonitaeque tument gustato sanguine fauces + Fervet, et a trepido vix abstinet ira magistro;" + + ["So savage beasts, when shut up in cages and grown unaccustomed to + the woods, have become tame, and have laid aside their fierce looks, + and submit to the rule of man; if again a slight taste of blood + comes into their mouths, their rage and fury return, their jaws are + erected by thirst of blood, and their anger scarcely abstains from + their trembling masters."--Lucan, iv. 237.] + +these original qualities are not to be rooted out; they may be covered +and concealed. The Latin tongue is as it were natural to me; I +understand it better than French; but I have not been used to speak it, +nor hardly to write it, these forty years. Unless upon extreme and +sudden emotions which I have fallen into twice or thrice in my life, and +once seeing my father in perfect health fall upon me in a swoon, I have +always uttered from the bottom of my heart my first words in Latin; +nature deafened, and forcibly expressing itself, in spite of so long a +discontinuation; and this example is said of many others. + +They who in my time have attempted to correct the manners of the world by +new opinions, reform seeming vices; but the essential vices they leave as +they were, if indeed they do not augment them, and augmentation is +therein to be feared; we defer all other well doing upon the account of +these external reformations, of less cost and greater show, and thereby +expiate good cheap, for the other natural, consubstantial, and intestine +vices. Look a little into our experience: there is no man, if he listen +to himself, who does not in himself discover a particular and governing +form of his own, that jostles his education, and wrestles with the +tempest of passions that are contrary to it. For my part, I seldom find +myself agitated with surprises; I always find myself in my place, as +heavy and unwieldy bodies do; if I am not at home, I am always near at +hand; my dissipations do not transport me very far; there is nothing +strange or extreme in the case; and yet I have sound and vigorous turns. + +The true condemnation, and which touches the common practice of men, is +that their very retirement itself is full of filth and corruption; the +idea of their reformation composed, their repentance sick and faulty, +very nearly as much as their sin. Some, either from having been linked +to vice by a natural propension or long practice, cannot see its +deformity. Others (of which constitution I am) do indeed feel the weight +of vice, but they counterbalance it with pleasure, or some other +occasion; and suffer and lend themselves to it for a certain price, but +viciously and basely. Yet there might, haply, be imagined so vast a +disproportion of measure, where with justice the pleasure might excuse +the sin, as we say of utility; not only if accidental and out of sin, as +in thefts, but in the very exercise of sin, or in the enjoyment of women, +where the temptation is violent, and, 'tis said, sometimes not to be +overcome. + +Being the other day at Armaignac, on the estate of a kinsman of mine, I +there saw a peasant who was by every one nicknamed the thief. He thus +related the story of his life: that, being born a beggar, and finding +that he should not be able, so as to be clear of indigence, to get his +living by the sweat of his brow, he resolved to turn thief, and by means +of his strength of body had exercised this trade all the time of his +youth in great security; for he ever made his harvest and vintage in +other men's grounds, but a great way off, and in so great quantities, +that it was not to be imagined one man could have carried away so much in +one night upon his shoulders; and, moreover, he was careful equally to +divide and distribute the mischief he did, that the loss was of less +importance to every particular man. He is now grown old, and rich for a +man of his condition, thanks to his trade, which he openly confesses to +every one. And to make his peace with God, he says, that he is daily +ready by good offices to make satisfaction to the successors of those he +has robbed, and if he do not finish (for to do it all at once he is not +able), he will then leave it in charge to his heirs to perform the rest, +proportionably to the wrong he himself only knows he has done to each. +By this description, true or false, this man looks upon theft as a +dishonest action, and hates it, but less than poverty, and simply +repents; but to the extent he has thus recompensed he repents not. This +is not that habit which incorporates us into vice, and conforms even our +understanding itself to it; nor is it that impetuous whirlwind that by +gusts troubles and blinds our souls, and for the time precipitates us, +judgment and all, into the power of vice. + +I customarily do what I do thoroughly and make but one step on't; I have +rarely any movement that hides itself and steals away from my reason, and +that does not proceed in the matter by the consent of all my faculties, +without division or intestine sedition; my judgment is to have all the +blame or all the praise; and the blame it once has, it has always; for +almost from my infancy it has ever been one: the same inclination, the +same turn, the same force; and as to universal opinions, I fixed myself +from my childhood in the place where I resolved to stick. There are some +sins that are impetuous, prompt, and sudden; let us set them aside: but +in these other sins so often repeated, deliberated, and contrived, +whether sins of complexion or sins of profession and vocation, I cannot +conceive that they should have so long been settled in the same +resolution, unless the reason and conscience of him who has them, be +constant to have them; and the repentance he boasts to be inspired with +on a sudden, is very hard for me to imagine or form. I follow not the +opinion of the Pythagorean sect, "that men take up a new soul when they +repair to the images of the gods to receive their oracles," unless he +mean that it must needs be extrinsic, new, and lent for the time; our own +showing so little sign of purification and cleanness, fit for such an +office. + +They act quite contrary to the stoical precepts, who do indeed command us +to correct the imperfections and vices we know ourselves guilty of, but +forbid us therefore to disturb the repose of our souls: these make us +believe that they have great grief and remorse within: but of amendment, +correction, or interruption, they make nothing appear. It cannot be a +cure if the malady be not wholly discharged; if repentance were laid upon +the scale of the balance, it would weigh down sin. I find no quality so +easy to counterfeit as devotion, if men do not conform their manners and +life to the profession; its essence is abstruse and occult; the +appearance easy and ostentatious. + +For my own part, I may desire in general to be other than I am; I may +condemn and dislike my whole form, and beg of Almighty God for an entire +reformation, and that He will please to pardon my natural infirmity: but +I ought not to call this repentance, methinks, no more than the being +dissatisfied that I am not an angel or Cato. My actions are regular, +and conformable to what I am and to my condition; I can do no better; +and repentance does not properly touch things that are not in our power; +sorrow does.. I imagine an infinite number of natures more elevated and +regular than mine; and yet I do not for all that improve my faculties, no +more than my arm or will grow more strong and vigorous for conceiving +those of another to be so. If to conceive and wish a nobler way of +acting than that we have should produce a repentance of our own, we must +then repent us of our most innocent actions, forasmuch as we may well +suppose that in a more excellent nature they would have been carried on +with greater dignity and perfection; and we would that ours were so. +When I reflect upon the deportment of my youth, with that of my old age, +I find that I have commonly behaved myself with equal order in both +according to what I understand: this is all that my resistance can do. +I do not flatter myself; in the same circumstances I should do the same +things. It is not a patch, but rather an universal tincture, with which +I am stained. I know no repentance, superficial, half-way, and +ceremonious; it must sting me all over before I can call it so, and must +prick my bowels as deeply and universally as God sees into me. + +As to business, many excellent opportunities have escaped me for want of +good management; and yet my deliberations were sound enough, according to +the occurrences presented to me: 'tis their way to choose always the +easiest and safest course. I find that, in my former resolves, I have +proceeded with discretion, according to my own rule, and according to the +state of the subject proposed, and should do the same a thousand years +hence in like occasions; I do not consider what it is now, but what it +was then, when I deliberated on it: the force of all counsel consists in +the time; occasions and things eternally shift and change. I have in my +life committed some important errors, not for want of good understanding, +but for want of good luck. There are secret, and not to be foreseen, +parts in matters we have in hand, especially in the nature of men; mute +conditions, that make no show, unknown sometimes even to the possessors +themselves, that spring and start up by incidental occasions; if my +prudence could not penetrate into nor foresee them, I blame it not: 'tis +commissioned no further than its own limits; if the event be too hard for +me, and take the side I have refused, there is no remedy; I do not blame +myself, I accuse my fortune, and not my work; this cannot be called +repentance. + +Phocion, having given the Athenians an advice that was not followed, and +the affair nevertheless succeeding contrary to his opinion, some one said +to him, "Well, Phocion, art thou content that matters go so well?"--"I am +very well content," replied he, "that this has happened so well, but I do +not repent that I counselled the other." When any of my friends address +themselves to me for advice, I give it candidly and clearly, without +sticking, as almost all other men do, at the hazard of the thing's +falling out contrary to my opinion, and that I may be reproached for my +counsel; I am very indifferent as to that, for the fault will be theirs +for having consulted me, and I could not refuse them that office. +--[We may give advice to others, says Rochefoucauld, but we cannot +supply them with the wit to profit by it.] + +I, for my own part, can rarely blame any one but myself for my oversights +and misfortunes, for indeed I seldom solicit the advice of another, +if not by honour of ceremony, or excepting where I stand in need of +information, special science, or as to matter of fact. But in things +wherein I stand in need of nothing but judgment, other men's reasons may +serve to fortify my own, but have little power to dissuade me; I hear +them all with civility and patience; but, to my recollection, I never +made use of any but my own. With me, they are but flies and atoms, that +confound and distract my will; I lay no great stress upon my opinions; +but I lay as little upon those of others, and fortune rewards me +accordingly: if I receive but little advice, I also give but little. I +am seldom consulted, and still more seldom believed, and know no concern, +either public or private, that has been mended or bettered by my advice. +Even they whom fortune had in some sort tied to my direction, have more +willingly suffered themselves to be governed by any other counsels than +mine. And as a man who am as jealous of my repose as of my authority, +I am better pleased that it should be so; in leaving me there, they +humour what I profess, which is to settle and wholly contain myself +within myself. I take a pleasure in being uninterested in other men's +affairs, and disengaged from being their warranty, and responsible for +what they do. + +In all affairs that are past, be it how it will, I have very little +regret; for this imagination puts me out of my pain, that they were so to +fall out they are in the great revolution of the world, and in the chain +of stoical 'causes: your fancy cannot, by wish and imagination, move one +tittle, but that the great current of things will not reverse both the +past and the future. + +As to the rest, I abominate that incidental repentance which old age +brings along with it. He, who said of old, that he was obliged to his +age for having weaned him from pleasure, was of another opinion than I +am; I can never think myself beholden to impotency for any good it can do +to me: + + "Nec tam aversa unquam videbitur ab opere suo providentia, + ut debilitas inter optima inventa sit." + + ["Nor can Providence ever seem so averse to her own work, that + debility should be found to be amongst the best things." + --Quintilian, Instit. Orat., v. 12.] + +Our appetites are rare in old age; a profound satiety seizes us after the +act; in this I see nothing of conscience; chagrin and weakness imprint in +us a drowsy and rheumatic virtue. We must not suffer ourselves to be so +wholly carried away by natural alterations as to suffer our judgments to +be imposed upon by them. Youth and pleasure have not formerly so far +prevailed with me, that I did not well enough discern the face of vice in +pleasure; neither does the distaste that years have brought me, so far +prevail with me now, that I cannot discern pleasure in vice. Now that I +am no more in my flourishing age, I judge as well of these things as if I +were. + + ["Old though I am, for ladies' love unfit, + The power of beauty I remember yet."--Chaucer.] + +I, who narrowly and strictly examine it, find my reason the very same it +was in my most licentious age, except, perhaps, that 'tis weaker and more +decayed by being grown older; and I find that the pleasure it refuses me +upon the account of my bodily health, it would no more refuse now, in +consideration of the health of my soul, than at any time heretofore. +I do not repute it the more valiant for not being able to combat; my +temptations are so broken and mortified, that they are not worth its +opposition; holding but out my hands, I repel them. Should one present +the old concupiscence before it, I fear it would have less power to +resist it than heretofore; I do not discern that in itself it judges +anything otherwise now than it formerly did, nor that it has acquired any +new light: wherefore, if there be convalescence, 'tis an enchanted one. +Miserable kind of remedy, to owe one's health to one's disease! Tis not +that our misfortune should perform this office, but the good fortune of +our judgment. I am not to be made to do anything by persecutions and +afflictions, but to curse them: that is, for people who cannot be roused +but by a whip. My reason is much more free in prosperity, and much more +distracted, and put to't to digest pains than pleasures: I see best in a +clear sky; health admonishes me more cheerfully, and to better purpose, +than sickness. I did all that in me lay to reform and regulate myself +from pleasures, at a time when I had health and vigour to enjoy them; +I should be ashamed and envious that the misery and misfortune of my old +age should have credit over my good healthful, sprightly, and vigorous +years, and that men should estimate me, not by what I have been, but by +what I have ceased to be. + +In my opinion, 'tis the happy living, and not (as Antisthenes' said) the +happy dying, in which human felicity consists. I have not made it my +business to make a monstrous addition of a philosopher's tail to the head +and body of a libertine; nor would I have this wretched remainder give +the lie to the pleasant, sound, and long part of my life: I would present +myself uniformly throughout. Were I to live my life over again, I should +live it just as I have lived it; I neither complain of the past, nor do I +fear the future; and if I am not much deceived, I am the same within that +I am without. 'Tis one main obligation I have to my fortune, that the +succession of my bodily estate has been carried on according to the +natural seasons; I have seen the grass, the blossom, and the fruit, and +now see the withering; happily, however, because naturally. I bear the +infirmities I have the better, because they came not till I had reason to +expect them, and because also they make me with greater pleasure remember +that long felicity of my past life. My wisdom may have been just the +same in both ages, but it was more active, and of better grace whilst +young and sprightly, than now it is when broken, peevish, and uneasy. +I repudiate, then, these casual and painful reformations. God must touch +our hearts; our consciences must amend of themselves, by the aid of our +reason, and not by the decay of our appetites; pleasure is, in itself, +neither pale nor discoloured, to be discerned by dim and decayed eyes. + +We ought to love temperance for itself, and because God has commanded +that and chastity; but that which we are reduced to by catarrhs, and for +which I am indebted to the stone, is neither chastity nor temperance; a +man cannot boast that he despises and resists pleasure if he cannot see +it, if he knows not what it is, and cannot discern its graces, its force, +and most alluring beauties; I know both the one and the other, and may +therefore the better say it. But; methinks, our souls in old age are +subject to more troublesome maladies and imperfections than in youth; +I said the same when young and when I was reproached with the want of a +beard; and I say so now that my grey hairs give me some authority. We +call the difficulty of our humours and the disrelish of present things +wisdom; but, in truth, we do not so much forsake vices as we change them, +and in my opinion, for worse. Besides a foolish and feeble pride, an +impertinent prating, froward and insociable humours, superstition, and a +ridiculous desire of riches when we have lost the use of them, I find +there more envy, injustice, and malice. Age imprints more wrinkles in +the mind than it does on the face; and souls are never, or very rarely +seen, that, in growing old, do not smell sour and musty. Man moves all +together, both towards his perfection and decay. In observing the wisdom +of Socrates, and many circumstances of his condemnation, I should dare to +believe that he in some sort himself purposely, by collusion, contributed +to it, seeing that, at the age of seventy years, he might fear to suffer +the lofty motions of his mind to be cramped and his wonted lustre +obscured. What strange metamorphoses do I see age every day make in many +of my acquaintance! 'Tis a potent malady, and that naturally and +imperceptibly steals into us; a vast provision of study and great +precaution are required to evade the imperfections it loads us with, or +at least to weaken their progress. I find that, notwithstanding all my +entrenchments, it gets foot by foot upon me: I make the best resistance I +can, but I do not know to what at last it will reduce me. But fall out +what will, I am content the world may know, when I am fallen, from what I +fell. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +OF THREE COMMERCES + +We must not rivet ourselves so fast to our humours and complexions: our +chiefest sufficiency is to know how to apply ourselves to divers +employments. 'Tis to be, but not to live, to keep a man's self tied and +bound by necessity to one only course; those are the bravest souls that +have in them the most variety and pliancy. Of this here is an honourable +testimony of the elder Cato: + + "Huic versatile ingenium sic pariter ad omnia fuit, + ut natum ad id unum diceres, quodcumque ageret." + + ["His parts were so pliable to all uses, that one would say he had + been born only to that which he was doing."--Livy, xxxix. 49.] + +Had I liberty to set myself forth after my own mode, there is no so +graceful fashion to which I would be so fixed as not to be able to +disengage myself from it; life is an unequal, irregular and multiform +motion. 'Tis not to be a friend to one's self, much less a master 'tis +to be a slave, incessantly to be led by the nose by one's self, and to be +so fixed in one's previous inclinations, that one cannot turn aside nor +writhe one's neck out of the collar. I say this now in this part of my +life, wherein I find I cannot easily disengage myself from the +importunity of my soul, which cannot ordinarily amuse itself but in +things of limited range, nor employ itself otherwise than entirely and +with all its force; upon the lightest subject offered it expands and +stretches it to that degree as therein to employ its utmost power; +wherefore it is that idleness is to me a very painful labour, and very +prejudicial to my health. Most men's minds require foreign matter to +exercise and enliven them; mine has rather need of it to sit still and +repose itself, + + "Vitia otii negotio discutienda sunt," + + ["The vices of sloth are to be shaken off by business." + --Seneca, Ep. 56.] + +for its chiefest and hardest study is to study itself. Books are to it +a sort of employment that debauch it from its study. Upon the first +thoughts that possess it, it begins to bustle and make trial of its +vigour in all directions, exercises its power of handling, now making +trial of force, now fortifying, moderating, and ranging itself by the way +of grace and order. It has of its own wherewith to rouse its faculties: +nature has given to it, as to all others, matter enough of its own to +make advantage of, and subjects proper enough where it may either invent +or judge. + +Meditation is a powerful and full study to such as can effectually taste +and employ themselves; I had rather fashion my soul than furnish it. +There is no employment, either more weak or more strong, than that of +entertaining a man's own thoughts, according as the soul is; the greatest +men make it their whole business, + + "Quibus vivere est cogitare;" + + ["To whom to live is to think."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 28.] + +nature has therefore favoured it with this privilege, that there is +nothing we can do so long, nor any action to which we more frequently and +with greater facility addict ourselves. 'Tis the business of the gods, +says Aristotle,' and from which both their beatitude and ours proceed. + +The principal use of reading to me is, that by various objects it rouses +my reason, and employs my judgment, not my memory. Few conversations +detain me without force and effort; it is true that beauty and elegance +of speech take as much or more with me than the weight and depth of the +subject; and forasmuch as I am apt to be sleepy in all other +communication, and give but the rind of my attention, it often falls out +that in such poor and pitiful discourses, mere chatter, I either make +drowsy, unmeaning answers, unbecoming a child, and ridiculous, or more +foolishly and rudely still, maintain an obstinate silence. I have a +pensive way that withdraws me into myself, and, with that, a heavy and +childish ignorance of many very ordinary things, by which two qualities I +have earned this, that men may truly relate five or six as ridiculous +tales of me as of any other man whatever. + +But, to proceed in my subject, this difficult complexion of mine renders +me very nice in my conversation with men, whom I must cull and pick out +for my purpose; and unfits me for common society. We live and negotiate +with the people; if their conversation be troublesome to us, if we +disdain to apply ourselves to mean and vulgar souls (and the mean and +vulgar are often as regular as those of the finest thread, and all wisdom +is folly that does not accommodate itself to the common ignorance), +we must no more intermeddle either with other men's affairs or our own; +for business, both public and private, has to do with these people. The +least forced and most natural motions of the soul are the most beautiful; +the best employments, those that are least strained. My God! how good +an office does wisdom to those whose desires it limits to their power! +that is the most useful knowledge: "according to what a man can," was the +favourite sentence and motto of Socrates. A motto of great solidity. + +We must moderate and adapt our desires to the nearest and easiest to be +acquired things. Is it not a foolish humour of mine to separate myself +from a thousand to whom my fortune has conjoined me, and without whom I +cannot live, and cleave to one or two who are out of my intercourse; or +rather a fantastic desire of a thing I cannot obtain? My gentle and easy +manners, enemies of all sourness and harshness, may easily enough have +secured me from envy and animosities; to be beloved, I do not say, but +never any man gave less occasion of being hated; but the coldness of my +conversation has, reasonably enough, deprived me of the goodwill of many, +who are to be excused if they interpret it in another and worse sense. + +I am very capable of contracting and maintaining rare and exquisite +friendships; for by reason that I so greedily seize upon such +acquaintance as fit my liking, I throw myself with such violence upon +them that I hardly fail to stick, and to make an impression where I hit; +as I have often made happy proof. In ordinary friendships I am somewhat +cold and shy, for my motion is not natural, if not with full sail: +besides which, my fortune having in my youth given me a relish for one +sole and perfect friendship, has, in truth, created in me a kind of +distaste to others, and too much imprinted in my fancy that it is a beast +of company, as the ancient said, but not of the herd.--[Plutarch, On the +Plurality of Friends, c. 2.]--And also I have a natural difficulty of +communicating myself by halves, with the modifications and the servile +and jealous prudence required in the conversation of numerous and +imperfect friendships: and we are principally enjoined to these in this +age of ours, when we cannot talk of the world but either with danger or +falsehood. + +Yet do I very well discern that he who has the conveniences (I mean the +essential conveniences) of life for his end, as I have, ought to fly +these difficulties and delicacy of humour, as much as the plague. I +should commend a soul of several stages, that knows both how to stretch +and to slacken itself; that finds itself at ease in all conditions +whither fortune leads it; that can discourse with a neighbour, of his +building, his hunting, his quarrels; that can chat with a carpenter or a +gardener with pleasure. I envy those who can render themselves familiar +with the meanest of their followers, and talk with them in their own way; +and dislike the advice of Plato, that men should always speak in a +magisterial tone to their servants, whether men or women, without being +sometimes facetious and familiar; for besides the reasons I have given, +'tis inhuman and unjust to set so great a value upon this pitiful +prerogative of fortune, and the polities wherein less disparity is +permitted betwixt masters and servants seem to me the most equitable. +Others study how to raise and elevate their minds; I, how to humble mine +and to bring it low; 'tis only vicious in extension: + + "Narras et genus AEaci, + Et pugnata sacro bella sub Ilio + Quo Chium pretio cadum + Mercemur, quis aquam temperet ignibus, + Quo praebente domum, et quota, + Pelignis caream frigoribus, taces." + + ["You tell us long stories about the race of AEacus, and the battles + fought under sacred Ilium; but what to give for a cask of Chian + wine, who shall prepare the warm bath, and in whose house, and when + I may escape from the Pelignian cold, you do not tell us." + --Horace, Od., iii. 19, 3.] + +Thus, as the Lacedaemonian valour stood in need of moderation, and of the +sweet and harmonious sound of flutes to soften it in battle, lest they +should precipitate themselves into temerity and fury, whereas all other +nations commonly make use of harsh and shrill sounds, and of loud and +imperious cries, to incite and heat the soldier's courage to the last +degree; so, methinks, contrary to the usual method, in the practice of +our minds, we have for the most part more need of lead than of wings; of +temperance and composedness than of ardour and agitation. But, above all +things, 'tis in my opinion egregiously to play the fool, to put on the +grave airs of a man of lofty mind amongst those who are nothing of the +sort: ever to speak in print (by the book), + + "Favellare in puma di forchetta." + + ["To talk with the point of a fork," (affectedly)] + +You must let yourself down to those with whom you converse; and sometimes +affect ignorance: lay aside power and subtilty in common conversation; to +preserve decorum and order 'tis enough-nay, crawl on the earth, if they +so desire it. + +The learned often stumble at this stone; they will always be parading +their pedantic science, and strew their books everywhere; they have, in +these days, so filled the cabinets and ears of the ladies with them, that +if they have lost the substance, they at least retain the words; so as in +all discourse upon all sorts of subjects, how mean and common soever, +they speak and write after a new and learned way, + + "Hoc sermone pavent, hoc iram, gaudia, curas, + Hoc cuncta effundunt animi secreta; quid ultra? + Concumbunt docte;" + + ["In this language do they express their fears, their anger, their + joys, their cares; in this pour out all their secrets; what more? + they lie with their lovers learnedly."--Juvenal, vi. 189.] + +and quote Plato and Aquinas in things the first man they meet could +determine as well; the learning that cannot penetrate their souls hangs +still upon the tongue. If people of quality will be persuaded by me, they +shall content themselves with setting out their proper and natural +treasures; they conceal and cover their beauties under others that are +none of theirs: 'tis a great folly to put out their own light and shine +by a borrowed lustre: they are interred and buried under 'de capsula +totae"--[Painted and perfumed from head to foot." (Or:) "as if they were +things carefully deposited in a band-box."--Seneca, Ep. 115]--It is +because they do not sufficiently know themselves or do themselves +justice: the world has nothing fairer than they; 'tis for them to honour +the arts, and to paint painting. What need have they of anything but to +live beloved and honoured? They have and know but too much for this: +they need do no more but rouse and heat a little the faculties they have +of their own. When I see them tampering with rhetoric, law, logic, and +other drugs, so improper and unnecessary for their business, I begin to +suspect that the men who inspire them with such fancies, do it that they +may govern them upon that account; for what other excuse can I contrive? +It is enough that they can, without our instruction, compose the graces +of their eyes to gaiety, severity, sweetness, and season a denial with +asperity, suspense, or favour: they need not another to interpret what +we speak for their service; with this knowledge, they command with a +switch, and rule both the tutors and the schools. But if, nevertheless, +it angers them to give place to us in anything whatever, and will, out of +curiosity, have their share in books, poetry is a diversion proper for +them; 'tis a wanton, subtle, dissembling, and prating art, all pleasure +and all show, like themselves. They may also abstract several +commodities from history. In philosophy, out of the moral part of it, +they may select such instructions as will teach them to judge of our +humours and conditions, to defend themselves from our treacheries, to +regulate the ardour of their own desires, to manage their liberty, to +lengthen the pleasures of life, and gently to bear the inconstancy of a +lover, the rudeness of a husband; and the importunity of years, wrinkles, +and the like. This is the utmost of what I would allow them in the +sciences. + +There are some particular natures that are private and retired: my +natural way is proper for communication, and apt to lay me open; I am all +without and in sight, born for society and friendship. The solitude that +I love myself and recommend to others, is chiefly no other than to +withdraw my thoughts and affections into myself; to restrain and check, +not my steps, but my own cares and desires, resigning all foreign +solicitude, and mortally avoiding servitude and obligation, and not so +much the crowd of men as the crowd of business. Local solitude, to say +the truth, rather gives me more room and sets me more at large; I more +readily throw myself upon affairs of state and the world when I am alone. +At the Louvre and in the bustle of the court, I fold myself within my own +skin; the crowd thrusts me upon myself; and I never entertain myself so +wantonly, with so much licence, or so especially, as in places of respect +and ceremonious prudence: our follies do not make me laugh, it is our +wisdom which does. I am naturally no enemy to a court, life; I have +therein passed a part of my own, and am of a humour cheerfully to +frequent great company, provided it be by intervals and at my own time: +but this softness of judgment whereof I speak ties me perforce to +solitude. Even at home, amidst a numerous family, and in a house +sufficiently frequented, I see people enough, but rarely such with whom I +delight to converse; and I there reserve both for myself and others an +unusual liberty: there is in my house no such thing as ceremony, +ushering, or waiting upon people down to the coach, and such other +troublesome ceremonies as our courtesy enjoins (O the servile and +importunate custom!). Every one there governs himself according to his +own method; let who will speak his thoughts, I sit mute, meditating and +shut up in my closet, without any offence to my guests. + +The men whose society and familiarity I covet are those they call sincere +and able men; and the image of these makes me disrelish the rest. It is, +if rightly taken, the rarest of our forms, and a form that we chiefly owe +to nature. The end of this commerce is simply privacy, frequentation and +conference, the exercise of souls, without other fruit. In our +discourse, all subjects are alike to me; let there be neither weight, nor +depth, 'tis all one: there is yet grace and pertinency; all there is +tinted with a mature and constant judgment, and mixed with goodness, +freedom, gaiety, and friendship. 'Tis not only in talking of the affairs +of kings and state that our wits discover their force and beauty, but +every whit as much in private conferences. I understand my men even by +their silence and smiles; and better discover them, perhaps, at table +than in the council. Hippomachus said, very well, "that he could know +the good wrestlers by only seeing them walk in the street." If learning +please to step into our talk, it shall not be rejected, not magisterial, +imperious, and importunate, as-it commonly is, but suffragan and docile +itself; we there only seek to pass away our time; when we have a mind to +be instructed and preached to, we will go seek this in its throne; please +let it humble itself to us for the nonce; for, useful and profitable as +it is, I imagine that, at need, we may manage well enough without it, and +do our business without its assistance. A well-descended soul, and +practised in the conversation of men, will of herself render herself +sufficiently agreeable; art is nothing but the counterpart and register +of what such souls produce. + +The conversation also of beautiful and honourable women is for me a sweet +commerce: + + "Nam nos quoque oculos eruditos habemus." + + ["For we also have eyes that are versed in the matter." + --Cicero, Paradox, v. 2.] + +If the soul has not therein so much to enjoy, as in the first the bodily +senses, which participate more of this, bring it to a proportion next to, +though, in my opinion, not equal to the other. But 'tis a commerce +wherein a man must stand a little upon his guard, especially those, where +the body can do much, as in me. I there scalded myself in my youth, and +suffered all the torments that poets say befall those who precipitate +themselves into love without order and judgment. It is true that that +whipping has made me wiser since: + + "Quicumque Argolica de classe Capharea fugit, + Semper ab Euboicis vela retorquet aquis." + + ["Whoever of the Grecian fleet has escaped the Capharean rocks, ever + takes care to steer from the Euboean sea."--Ovid, Trist., i. i, 83.] + +'Tis folly to fix all a man's thoughts upon it, and to engage in it with +a furious and indiscreet affection; but, on the other hand, to engage +there without love and without inclination, like comedians, to play a +common part, without putting anything to it of his own but words, is +indeed to provide for his safety, but, withal, after as cowardly a manner +as he who should abandon his honour, profit, or pleasure for fear of +danger. For it is certain that from such a practice, they who set it on +foot can expect no fruit that can please or satisfy a noble soul. A man +must have, in good earnest, desired that which he, in good earnest, +expects to have a pleasure in enjoying; I say, though fortune should +unjustly favour their dissimulation; which often falls out, because there +is none of the sex, let her be as ugly as the devil, who does not think +herself well worthy to be beloved, and who does not prefer herself before +other women, either for her youth, the colour of her hair, or her +graceful motion (for there are no more women universally ugly, than there +are women universally beautiful, and such of the Brahmin virgins as have +nothing else to recommend them, the people being assembled by the common +crier to that effect, come out into the market-place to expose their +matrimonial parts to public view, to try if these at least are not of +temptation sufficient to get them a husband). Consequently, there is not +one who does not easily suffer herself to be overcome by the first vow +that they make to serve her. Now from this common and ordinary treachery +of the men of the present day, that must fall out which we already +experimentally see, either that they rally together, and separate +themselves by themselves to evade us, or else form their discipline by +the example we give them, play their parts of the farce as we do ours, +and give themselves up to the sport, without passion, care, or love; + + "Neque afl'ectui suo, aut alieno, obnoxiae;" + + ["Neither amenable to their own affections, nor those of others." + --Tacitus, Annal., xiii. 45.] + +believing, according to the persuasion of Lysias in Plato, that they may +with more utility and convenience surrender themselves up to us the less +we love them; where it will fall out, as in comedies, that the people +will have as much pleasure or more than the comedians. For my part, +I no more acknowledge a Venus without a Cupid than, a mother without +issue: they are things that mutully lend and owe their essence to one +another. Thus this cheat recoils upon him who is guilty of it; it does +not cost him much, indeed, but he also gets little or nothing by it. +They who have made Venus a goddess have taken notice that her principal +beauty was incorporeal and spiritual; but the Venus whom these people +hunt after is not so much as human, nor indeed brutal; the very beasts +will not accept it so gross and so earthly; we see that imagination and +desire often heat and incite them before the body does; we see in both +the one sex and the other, they have in the herd choice and particular +election in their affections, and that they have amongst themselves a +long commerce of good will. Even those to whom old age denies the +practice of their desire, still tremble, neigh, and twitter for love; we +see them, before the act, full of hope and ardour, and when the body has +played its game, yet please themselves with the sweet remembrance of the +past delight; some that swell with pride after they have performed, and +others who, tired and sated, still by vociferation express a triumphing +joy. He who has nothing to do but only to discharge his body of a +natural necessity, need not trouble others with so curious preparations: +it is not meat for a gross, coarse appetite. + +As one who does not desire that men should think me better than I am, +I will here say this as to the errors of my youth. Not only from the +danger of impairing my health (and yet I could not be so careful but that +I had two light mischances), but moreover upon the account of contempt, +I have seldom given myself up to common and mercenary embraces: I would +heighten the pleasure by the difficulty, by desire, and a certain kind of +glory, and was of Tiberius's mind, who in his amours was as much taken +with modesty and birth as any other quality, and of the courtesan Flora's +humour, who never lent herself to less than a dictator, a consul, or a +censor, and took pleasure in the dignity of her lovers. Doubtless pearls +and gold tissue, titles and train, add something to it. + +As to the rest, I had a great esteem for wit, provided the person was not +exceptionable; for, to confess the truth, if the one or the other of +these two attractions must of necessity be wanting, I should rather have +quitted that of the understanding, that has its use in better things; +but in the subject of love, a subject principally relating to the senses +of seeing and touching, something may be done without the graces of the +mind: without the graces of the body, nothing. Beauty is the true +prerogative of women, and so peculiarly their own, that ours, though +naturally requiring another sort of feature, is never in its lustre but +when youthful and beardless, a sort of confused image of theirs. 'Tis +said that such as serve the Grand Signior upon the account of beauty, who +are an infinite number, are, at the latest, dismissed at two-and-twenty +years of age. Reason, prudence, and the offices of friendship are better +found amongst men, and therefore it is that they govern the affairs of +the world. + +These two engagements are fortuitous, and depending upon others; the one +is troublesome by its rarity, the other withers with age, so that they +could never have been sufficient for the business of my life. That of +books, which is the third, is much more certain, and much more our own. +It yields all other advantages to the two first, but has the constancy +and facility of its service for its own share. It goes side by side with +me in my whole course, and everywhere is assisting me: it comforts me in +old age and solitude; it eases me of a troublesome weight of idleness, +and delivers me at all hours from company that I dislike: it blunts the +point of griefs, if they are not extreme, and have not got an entire +possession of my soul. To divert myself from a troublesome fancy, 'tis +but to run to my books; they presently fix me to them and drive the other +out of my thoughts, and do not mutiny at seeing that I have only recourse +to them for want of other more real, natural, and lively commodities; +they always receive me with the same kindness. He may well go a foot, +they say, who leads his horse in his hand; and our James, King of Naples +and Sicily, who, handsome, young and healthful, caused himself to be +carried about on a barrow, extended upon a pitiful mattress in a poor +robe of grey cloth, and a cap of the same, yet attended withal by a royal +train, litters, led horses of all sorts, gentlemen and officers, did yet +herein represent a tender and unsteady authority: "The sick man has not +to complain who has his cure in his sleeve." In the experience and +practice of this maxim, which is a very true one, consists all the +benefit I reap from books. As a matter of fact, I make no more use of +them, as it were, than those who know them not. I enjoy them as misers +do their money, in knowing that I may enjoy them when I please: my mind +is satisfied with this right of possession. I never travel without +books, either in peace or war; and yet sometimes I pass over several +days, and sometimes months, without looking on them. I will read by-and- +by, say I to myself, or to-morrow, or when I please; and in the interim, +time steals away without any inconvenience. For it is not to be imagined +to what degree I please myself and rest content in this consideration, +that I have them by me to divert myself with them when I am so disposed, +and to call to mind what a refreshment they are to my life. 'Tis the +best viaticum I have yet found out for this human journey, and I very +much pity those men of understanding who are unprovided of it. I the +rather accept of any other sort of diversion, how light soever, because +this can never fail me. + +When at home, I a little more frequent my library, whence I overlook at +once all the concerns of my family. 'Tis situated at the entrance into +my house, and I thence see under me my garden, court, and base-court, and +almost all parts of the building. There I turn over now one book, and +then another, on various subjects, without method or design. One while +I meditate, another I record and dictate, as I walk to and fro, such +whimsies as these I present to you here. 'Tis in the third storey of a +tower, of which the ground-room is my chapel, the second storey a chamber +with a withdrawing-room and closet, where I often lie, to be more +retired; and above is a great wardrobe. This formerly was the most +useless part of the house. I there pass away both most of the days of my +life and most of the hours of those days. In the night I am never there. +There is by the side of it a cabinet handsome enough, with a fireplace +very commodiously contrived, and plenty of light; and were I not more +afraid of the trouble than the expense--the trouble that frights me from +all business--I could very easily adjoin on either side, and on the same +floor, a gallery of an hundred paces long and twelve broad, having found +walls already raised for some other design to the requisite height. +Every place of retirement requires a walk: my thoughts sleep if I sit +still: my fancy does not go by itself, as when my legs move it: and all +those who study without a book are in the same condition. The figure of +my study is round, and there is no more open wall than what is taken up +by my table and my chair, so that the remaining parts of the circle +present me a view of all my books at once, ranged upon five rows of +shelves round about me. It has three noble and free prospects, and is +sixteen paces in diameter. I am not so continually there in winter; for +my house is built upon an eminence, as its name imports, and no part of +it is so much exposed to the wind and weather as this, which pleases me +the better, as being of more difficult access and a little remote, as +well upon the account of exercise, as also being there more retired from +the crowd. 'Tis there that I am in my kingdom, and there I endeavour to +make myself an absolute monarch, and to sequester this one corner from +all society, conjugal, filial, and civil; elsewhere I have but verbal +authority only, and of a confused essence. That man, in my opinion, is +very miserable, who has not at home where to be by himself, where to +entertain himself alone, or to conceal himself from others. Ambition +sufficiently plagues her proselytes, by keeping them always in show, like +the statue of a public, square: + + "Magna servitus est magna fortuna." + + ["A great fortune is a great slavery." + --Seneca, De Consol. ad. Polyb., c. 26.] + +They cannot so much as be private in the watercloset. I have thought +nothing so severe in the austerity of life that our monks affect, as what +I have observed in some of their communities; namely, by rule, to have a +perpetual society of place, and numerous persons present in every action +whatever; and think it much more supportable to be always alone than +never to be so. + +If any one shall tell me that it is to undervalue the Muses to make use +of them only for sport and to pass away the time, I shall tell him, that +he does not know so well as I the value of the sport, the pleasure, and +the pastime; I can hardly forbear to add that all other end is +ridiculous. I live from day to day, and, with reverence be it spoken, I +only live for myself; there all my designs terminate. I studied, when +young, for ostentation; since, to make myself a little wiser; and now for +my diversion, but never for any profit. A vain and prodigal humour I had +after this sort of furniture, not only for the supplying my own need, +but, moreover, for ornament and outward show, I have since quite cured +myself of. + +Books have many charming qualities to such as know how to choose them; +but every good has its ill; 'tis a pleasure that is not pure and clean, +no more than others: it has its inconveniences, and great ones too. The +soul indeed is exercised therein; but the body, the care of which I must +withal never neglect, remains in the meantime without action, and grows +heavy and sombre. I know no excess more prejudicial to me, nor more to +be avoided in this my declining age. + +These have been my three favourite and particular occupations; I speak +not of those I owe to the world by civil obligation. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +OF DIVERSION + +I was once employed in consoling a lady truly afflicted. Most of their +mournings are artificial and ceremonious: + + "Uberibus semper lacrymis, semperque paratis, + In statione subatque expectantibus illam, + Quo jubeat manare modo." + + ["A woman has ever a fountain of tears ready to gush up whenever + she requires to make use of them."--Juvenal, vi. 272.] + +A man goes the wrong way to work when he opposes this passion; for +opposition does but irritate and make them more obstinate in sorrow; the +evil is exasperated by discussion. We see, in common discourse, that +what I have indifferently let fall from me, if any one takes it up to +controvert it, I justify it with the best arguments I have; and much more +a thing wherein I had a real interest. And besides, in so doing you +enter roughly upon your operation; whereas the first addresses of a +physician to his patient should be gracious, gay, and pleasing; never did +any ill-looking, morose physician do anything to purpose. On the +contrary, then, a man should, at the first approaches, favour their grief +and express some approbation of their sorrow. By this intelligence you +obtain credit to proceed further, and by a facile and insensible +gradation fall into discourses more solid and proper for their cure. +I, whose aim it was principally to gull the company who had their eyes +fixed upon me, took it into my head only to palliate the disease. And +indeed I have found by experience that I have an unlucky hand in +persuading. My arguments are either too sharp and dry, or pressed too +roughly, or not home enough. After I had some time applied myself to her +grief, I did not attempt to cure her by strong and lively reasons, either +because I had them not at hand, or because I thought to do my business +better another way; neither did I make choice of any of those methods of +consolation which philosophy prescribes: that what we complain of is no +evil, according to Cleanthes; that it is a light evil, according to the +Peripatetics; that to bemoan one's self is an action neither commendable +nor just, according to Chrysippus; nor this of Epicurus, more suitable to +my way, of shifting the thoughts from afflicting things to those that are +pleasing; nor making a bundle of all these together, to make use of upon +occasion, according to Cicero; but, gently bending my discourse, and by +little and little digressing, sometimes to subjects nearer, and sometimes +more remote from the purpose, according as she was more intent on what I +said, I imperceptibly led her from that sorrowful thought, and kept her +calm and in good-humour whilst I continued there. I herein made use of +diversion. They who succeeded me in the same service did not, for all +that, find any amendment in her, for I had not gone to the root. + +I, peradventure, may elsewhere have glanced upon some sort of public +diversions; and the practice of military ones, which Pericles made use of +in the Peloponnesian war, and a thousand others in other places, to +withdraw the adverse forces from their own countries, is too frequent in +history. It was an ingenious evasion whereby Monseigneur d'Hempricourt +saved both himself and others in the city of Liege, into which the Duke +of Burgundy, who kept it besieged, had made him enter to execute the +articles of their promised surrender; the people, being assembled by +night to consider of it, began to mutiny against the agreement, and +several of them resolved to fall upon the commissioners, whom they had in +their power; he, feeling the gusts of this first popular storm, who were +coming to rush into his lodgings, suddenly sent out to them two of the +inhabitants of the city (of whom he had some with him) with new and +milder terms to be proposed in their council, which he had then and there +contrived for his need: These two diverted the first tempest, carrying +back the enraged rabble to the town-hall to hear and consider of what +they had to say. The deliberation was short; a second storm arose as +violent as the other, whereupon he despatched four new mediators of the +same quality to meet them, protesting that he had now better conditions +to present them with, and such as would give them absolute satisfaction, +by which means the tumult was once more appeased, and the people again +turned back to the conclave. In fine, by this dispensation of +amusements, one after another, diverting their fury and dissipating it in +frivolous consultations, he laid it at last asleep till the day appeared, +which was his principal end. + +This other story that follows is also of the same category. Atalanta, a +virgin of excelling beauty and of wonderful disposition of body, to +disengage herself from the crowd of a thousand suitors who sought her in +marriage, made this proposition, that she would accept of him for her +husband who should equal her in running, upon condition that they who +failed should lose their lives. There were enough who thought the prize +very well worth the hazard, and who suffered the cruel penalty of the +contract. Hippomenes, about to make trial after the rest, made his +address to the goddess of love, imploring her assistance; and she, +granting his request, gave him three golden apples, and instructed him +how to use them. The race beginning, as Hippomenes perceived his +mistress to press hard up to him; he, as it were by chance, let fall one +of these apples; the maid, taken with the beauty of it, failed not to +step out of her way to pick it up: + + "Obstupuit Virgo, nitidique cupidine pomi + Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit." + + ["The virgin, astonished and attracted by the glittering apple, + stops her career, and seizes the rolling gold." + --Ovid, Metam., x. 666.] + +He did the same, when he saw his time, by the second and the third, till +by so diverting her, and making her lose so much ground, he won the race. +When physicians cannot stop a catarrh, they divert and turn it into some +other less dangerous part. And I find also that this is the most +ordinary practice for the diseases of the mind: + + "Abducendus etiam nonnunquam animus est ad alia studia, + sollicitudines, curas, negotia: loci denique mutatione, + tanquam aegroti non convalescentes, saepe curandus est." + + ["The mind is sometimes to be diverted to other studies, thoughts, + cares, business: in fine, by change of place, as where sick persons + do not become convalescent."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iv. 35.] + +'Tis to little effect directly to jostle a man's infirmities; we neither +make him sustain nor repel the attack; we only make him decline and evade +it. + +This other lesson is too high and too difficult: 'tis for men of the +first form of knowledge purely to insist upon the thing, to consider and +judge it; it appertains to one sole Socrates to meet death with an +ordinary countenance, to grow acquainted with it, and to sport with it; +he seeks no consolation out of the thing itself; dying appears to him a +natural and indifferent accident; 'tis there that he fixes his sight and +resolution, without looking elsewhere. The disciples of Hegesias, who +starved themselves to death, animated thereunto by his fine lectures, and +in such numbers that King Ptolemy ordered he should be forbidden to +entertain his followers with such homicidal doctrines, did not consider +death in itself, neither did they judge of it; it was not there they +fixed their thoughts; they ran towards and aimed at a new being. + +The poor wretches whom we see brought upon the scaffold, full of ardent +devotion, and therein, as much as in them lies, employing all their +senses, their ears in hearing the instructions given them, their eyes and +hands lifted up towards heaven, their voices in loud prayers, with a +vehement and continual emotion, do doubtless things very commendable and +proper for such a necessity: we ought to commend them for their devotion, +but not properly for their constancy; they shun the encounter, they +divert their thoughts from the consideration of death, as children are +amused with some toy or other when the surgeon is going to give them a +prick with his lancet. I have seen some, who, casting their eyes upon +the dreadful instruments of death round about, have fainted, and +furiously turned their thoughts another way; such as are to pass a +formidable precipice are advised either to shut their eyes or to look +another way. + +Subrius Flavius, being by Nero's command to be put to death, and by the +hand of Niger, both of them great captains, when they lead him to the +place appointed for his execution, seeing the grave that Niger had caused +to be hollowed to put him into ill-made: "Neither is this," said he, +turning to the soldiers who guarded him, "according to military +discipline." And to Niger, who exhorted him to keep his head firm: "Do +but thou strike as firmly," said he. And he very well foresaw what would +follow when he said so; for Niger's arm so trembled that he had several +blows at his head before he could cut it off. This man seems to have had +his thoughts rightly fixed upon the subject. + +He who dies in a battle, with his sword in his hand, does not then think +of death; he feels or considers it not; the ardour of the fight diverts +his thought another way. A worthy man of my acquaintance, falling as he +was fighting a duel, and feeling himself nailed to the earth by nine or +ten thrusts of his enemy, every one present called to him to think of his +conscience; but he has since told me, that though he very well heard what +they said, it nothing moved him, and that he never thought of anything +but how to disengage and revenge himself. He afterwards killed his man +in that very duel. He who brought to L. Silanus the sentence of death, +did him a very great kindness, in that, having received his answer, that +he was well prepared to die, but not by base hands, he ran upon him with +his soldiers to force him, and as he, unarmed as he was, obstinately +defended himself with his fists and feet, he made him lose his life in +the contest, by that means dissipating and diverting in a sudden and +furious rage the painful apprehension of the lingering death to which he +was designed. + +We always think of something else; either the hope of a better life +comforts and supports us, or the hope of our children's worth, or the +future glory of our name, or the leaving behind the evils of this life, +or the vengeance that threatens those who are the causes of our death, +administers consolation to us: + + "Spero equidem mediis, si quid pia numina possunt, + Supplicia hausurum scopulis, et nomine Dido + Saepe vocaturum . . . . + Audiam; et haec Manes veniet mihi fama sub imos." + + ["I hope, however, if the pious gods have any power, thou wilt feel + thy punishment amid the rocks, and will call on the name of Dido; + I shall hear, and this report will come to me below."--AEneid, iv. + 382, 387.] + +Xenophon was sacrificing with a crown upon his head when one came to +bring him news of the death of his son Gryllus, slain in the battle of +Mantinea: at the first surprise of the news, he threw his crown to the +ground; but understanding by the sequel of the narrative the manner of a +most brave and valiant death, he took it up and replaced it upon his +head. Epicurus himself, at his death, consoles himself upon the utility +and eternity of his writings: + + "Omnes clari et nobilitati labores fiunt tolerabiles;" + + ["All labours that are illustrious and famous become supportable." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 26.] + +and the same wound, the same fatigue, is not, says Xenophon, so +intolerable to a general of an army as to a common soldier. Epaminondas +took his death much more cheerfully, having been informed that the +victory remained to him: + + "Haec sunt solatia, haec fomenta summorum dolorum;" + + ["These are sedatives and alleviations to the greatest pains." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 23.] + +and such like circumstances amuse, divert, and turn our thoughts from the +consideration of the thing in itself. Even the arguments of philosophy +are always edging and glancing on the matter, so as scarce to rub its +crust; the greatest man of the first philosophical school, and +superintendent over all the rest, the great Zeno, forms this syllogism +against death: "No evil is honourable; but death is honourable; therefore +death is no evil"; against drunkenness this: " No one commits his secrets +to a drunkard; but every one commits his secrets to a wise man: therefore +a wise man is no drunkard." Is this to hit the white? I love to see +that these great and leading souls cannot rid themselves of our company: +perfect men as they are, they are yet simply men. + +Revenge is a sweet passion, of great and natural impression; I discern it +well enough, though I have no manner of experience of it. From this not +long ago to divert a young prince, I did not tell him that he must, to +him that had struck him upon the one cheek, turn the other, upon account +of charity; nor go about to represent to him the tragical events that +poetry attributes to this passion. I left that behind; and I busied +myself to make him relish the beauty of a contrary image: and, by +representing to him what honour, esteem, and goodwill he would acquire by +clemency and good nature, diverted him to ambition. Thus a man is to +deal in such cases. + +If your passion of love be too violent, disperse it, say they, and they +say true; for I have often tried it with advantage: break it into several +desires, of which let one be regent, if you will, over the rest; but, +lest it should tyrannise and domineer over you, weaken and protract, by +dividing and diverting it: + + "Cum morosa vago singultiet inguine vena," + + ["When you are tormented with fierce desire, satisfy it with the + first person that presents herself."--Persius, Sat., vi. 73.] + + "Conjicito humorem collectum in corpora quaeque," + + [Lucretius, vi. 1062, to the like effect.] + +and provide for it in time, lest it prove troublesome to deal with, when +it has once seized you: + + "Si non prima novis conturbes vulnera plagis, + Volgivagaque vagus venere ante recentia cures." + + ["Unless you cure old wounds by new."-Lucretius, iv. 1064.] + +I was once wounded with a vehement displeasure, and withal, more just +than vehement; I might peradventure have lost myself in it, if I had +merely trusted to my own strength. Having need of a powerful diversion +to disengage me, by art and study I became amorous, wherein I was +assisted by my youth: love relieved and rescued me from the evil wherein +friendship had engaged me. 'Tis in everything else the same; a violent +imagination hath seized me: I find it a nearer way to change than to +subdue it: I depute, if not one contrary, yet another at least, in its +place. Variation ever relieves, dissolves, and dissipates. + +If I am not able to contend with it, I escape from it; and in avoiding +it, slip out of the way, and make, my doubles; shifting place, business, +and company, I secure myself in the crowd of other thoughts and fancies, +where it loses my trace, and I escape. + +After the same manner does nature proceed, by the benefit of inconstancy; +for time, which she has given us for the sovereign physician of our +passions, chiefly works by this, that supplying our imaginations with +other and new affairs, it loosens and dissolves the first apprehension, +how strong soever. A wise man little less sees his friend dying at the +end of five-and-twenty years than on the first year; and according to +Epicurus, no less at all; for he did not attribute any alleviation of +afflictions, either to their foresight or their antiquity; but so many +other thoughts traverse this, that it languishes and tires at last. + +Alcibiades, to divert the inclination of common rumours, cut off the ears +and tail of his beautiful dog, and turned him out into the public place, +to the end that, giving the people this occasion to prate, they might let +his other actions alone. I have also seen, for this same end of +diverting the opinions and conjectures of the people and to stop their +mouths, some women conceal their real affections by those that were only +counterfeit; but I have also seen some of them, who in counterfeiting +have suffered themselves to be caught indeed, and who have quitted the +true and original affection for the feigned: and so have learned that +they who find their affections well placed are fools to consent to this +disguise: the public and favourable reception being only reserved for +this pretended lover, one may conclude him a fellow of very little +address and less wit, if he does not in the end put himself into your +place, and you into his; this is precisely to cut out and make up a shoe +for another to draw on. + +A little thing will turn and divert us, because a little thing holds us. +We do not much consider subjects in gross and singly; they are little and +superficial circumstances, or images that touch us, and the outward +useless rinds that peel off from the subjects themselves: + + "Folliculos ut nunc teretes aestate cicadae + Linquunt." + + ["As husks we find grasshoppers leave behind them in summer." + --Lucretius, v. 801.] + +Even Plutarch himself laments his daughter for the little apish tricks of +her infancy.--[Consolation to his Wife on the Death of their Daughter, +c. I.]--The remembrance of a farewell, of the particular grace of an +action, of a last recommendation, afflict us. The sight of Caesar's robe +troubled all Rome, which was more than his death had done. Even the +sound of names ringing in our ears, as "my poor master,"--"my faithful +friend,"--"alas, my dear father," or, "my sweet daughter," afflict us. +When these repetitions annoy me, and that I examine it a little nearer, +I find 'tis no other but a grammatical and word complaint; I am only +wounded with the word and tone, as the exclamations of preachers very +often work more upon their auditory than their reasons, and as the +pitiful eyes of a beast killed for our service; without my weighing or +penetrating meanwhile into the true and solid essence of my subject: + + "His se stimulis dolor ipse lacessit." + + ["With these incitements grief provokes itself." + --Lucretius, ii. 42.] + +These are the foundations of our mourning. + +The obstinacy of my stone to all remedies especially those in my bladder, +has sometimes thrown me into so long suppressions of urine for three or +four days together, and so near death, that it had been folly to have +hoped to evade it, and it was much rather to have been desired, +considering the miseries I endure in those cruel fits. Oh, that good +emperor, who caused criminals to be tied that they might die for want of +urination, was a great master in the hangman's' science! Finding myself +in this condition, I considered by how many light causes and objects +imagination nourished in me the regret of life; of what atoms the weight +and difficulty of this dislodging was composed in my soul; to how many +idle and frivolous thoughts we give way in so great an affair; a dog, a +horse, a book, a glass, and what not, were considered in my loss; to +others their ambitious hopes, their money, their knowledge, not less +foolish considerations in my opinion than mine. I look upon death +carelessly when I look upon it universally as the end of life. I insult +over it in gross, but in detail it domineers over me: the tears of a +footman, the disposing of my clothes, the touch of a friendly hand, a +common consolation, discourages and softens me. So do the complaints in +tragedies agitate our souls with grief; and the regrets of Dido and +Ariadne, impassionate even those who believe them not in Virgil and +Catullus. 'Tis a symptom of an obstinate and obdurate nature to be +sensible of no emotion, as 'tis reported for a miracle of Polemon; but +then he did not so much as alter his countenance at the biting of a mad +dog that tore away the calf of his leg; and no wisdom proceeds so far as +to conceive so vivid and entire a cause of sorrow, by judgment that it +does not suffer increase by its presence, when the eyes and ears have +their share; parts that are not to be moved but by vain accidents. + +Is it reason that even the arts themselves should make an advantage of +our natural stupidity and weakness? An orator, says rhetoric in the +farce of his pleading, shall be moved with the sound of his own voice and +feigned emotions, and suffer himself to be imposed upon by the passion he +represents; he will imprint in himself a true and real grief, by means of +the part he plays, to transmit it to the judges, who are yet less +concerned than he: as they do who are hired at funerals to assist in the +ceremony of sorrow, who sell their tears and mourning by weight and +measure; for although they act in a borrowed form, nevertheless, by +habituating and settling their countenances to the occasion, 'tis most +certain they often are really affected with an actual sorrow. I was one, +amongst several others of his friends, who conveyed the body of Monsieur +de Grammont to Spissons from the siege of La Fere, where he was slain; +I observed that in all places we passed through we filled the people we +met with lamentations and tears by the mere solemn pomp of our convoy, +for the name of the defunct was not there so much as known. Quintilian +reports as to have seen comedians so deeply engaged in a mourning part, +that they still wept in the retiring room, and who, having taken upon +them to stir up passion in another, have themselves espoused it to that +degree as to find themselves infected with it, not only to tears, but, +moreover, with pallor and the comportment of men really overwhelmed with +grief. + +In a country near our mountains the women play Priest Martin, for as they +augment the regret of the deceased husband by the remembrance of the good +and agreeable qualities he possessed, they also at the same time make a +register of and publish his imperfections; as if of themselves to enter +into some composition, and divert themselves from compassion to disdain. +Yet with much better grace than we, who, when we lose an acquaintance, +strive to give him new and false praises, and to make him quite another +thing when we have lost sight of him than he appeared to us when we did +see him; as if regret were an instructive thing, or as if tears, by +washing our understandings, cleared them. For my part, I henceforth +renounce all favourable testimonies men would give of me, not because I +shall be worthy of them, but because I shall be dead. + +Whoever shall ask a man, "What interest have you in this siege?"-- +"The interest of example," he will say, "and of the common obedience to +my prince: I pretend to no profit by it; and for glory, I know how small +a part can affect a private man such as I: I have here neither passion +nor quarrel." And yet you shall see him the next day quite another man, +chafing and red with fury, ranged in battle for the assault; 'tis the +glittering of so much steel, the fire and noise of our cannon and drums, +that have infused this new rigidity and fury into his veins. A frivolous +cause, you will say. How a cause? There needs none to agitate the mind; +a mere whimsy without body and without subject will rule and agitate it. +Let me thing of building castles in Spain, my imagination suggests to me +conveniences and pleasures with which my soul is really tickled and +pleased. How often do we torment our mind with anger or sorrow by such +shadows, and engage ourselves in fantastic passions that impair both soul +and body? What astonished, fleeting, confused grimaces does this raving +put our faces into! what sallies and agitations both of members and +voices does it inspire us with! Does it not seem that this individual +man has false visions amid the crowd of others with whom he has to do, +or that he is possessed with some internal demon that persecutes him? +Inquire of yourself where is the object of this mutation? is there +anything but us in nature which inanity sustains, over which it has +power? Cambyses, from having dreamt that his brother should be one day +king of Persia, put him to death: a beloved brother, and one in whom he +had always confided. Aristodemus, king of the Messenians, killed himself +out of a fancy of ill omen, from I know not what howling of his dogs; +and King Midas did as much upon the account of some foolish dream he had +dreamed. 'Tis to prize life at its just value, to abandon it for a +dream. And yet hear the soul triumph over the miseries and weakness of +the body, and that it is exposed to all attacks and alterations; truly, +it has reason so to speak! + + "O prima infelix finger ti terra Prometheo! + Ille parum cauti pectoris egit opus + Corpora disponens, mentem non vidit in arte; + Recta animi primum debuit esse via." + + ["O wretched clay, first formed by Prometheus. In his attempt, + what little wisdom did he shew! In framing bodies, he did not + apply his art to form the mind, which should have been his first + care."--Propertius, iii. 5, 7.] + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A little thing will turn and divert us +Abominate that incidental repentance which old age brings +Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face +Always be parading their pedantic science +Am as jealous of my repose as of my authority +Anger and hatred are beyond the duty of justice +Beast of company, as the ancient said, but not of the herd +Books go side by side with me in my whole course +Books have many charming qualities to such as know how to choose +But ill proves the honour and beauty of an action by its utility +Childish ignorance of many very ordinary things +Common consolation, discourages and softens me +Consoles himself upon the utility and eternity of his writings +Deceit maintains and supplies most men's employment +Diverting the opinions and conjectures of the people +Dying appears to him a natural and indifferent accident +Every place of retirement requires a walk +Fault will be theirs for having consulted me +Few men have been admired by their own domestics +Follies do not make me laugh, it is our wisdom which does +Folly to put out their own light and shine by a borrowed lustre +For fear of the laws and report of men +Gently to bear the inconstancy of a lover +Give but the rind of my attention +Grief provokes itself +He may employ his passion, who can make no use of his reason +He may well go a foot, they say, who leads his horse in his hand +I do not consider what it is now, but what it was then +I find no quality so easy to counterfeit as devotion +I lay no great stress upon my opinions; or of others +I look upon death carelessly when I look upon it universally +I receive but little advice, I also give but little +I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare +I understand my men even by their silence and smiles +Idleness is to me a very painful labour +Imagne the mighty will not abase themselves so much as to live +In ordinary friendships I am somewhat cold and shy +Leaving nothing unsaid, how home and bitter soever +Library: Tis there that I am in my kingdom +Malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom +Malicious kind of justice +Miserable kind of remedy, to owe one's health to one's disease! +Miserable, who has not at home where to be by himself +More supportable to be always alone than never to be so. +My fancy does not go by itself, as when my legs move it +My thoughts sleep if I sit still +Nearest to the opinions of those with whom they have to do +No evil is honourable; but death is honourable +No man is free from speaking foolish things +Noise of arms deafened the voice of laws +None of the sex, let her be as ugly as the devil thinks lovable +Obliged to his age for having weaned him from pleasure +Open speaking draws out discoveries, like wine and love +Perfect men as they are, they are yet simply men. +Preachers very often work more upon their auditory than reasons +Public weal requires that men should betray, and lie +Ridiculous desire of riches when we have lost the use of them +Rowers who so advance backward +Season a denial with asperity, suspense, or favour +So that I could have said no worse behind their backs +Socrates: According to what a man can +Studied, when young, for ostentation, now for diversion +Swim in troubled waters without fishing in them +Take a pleasure in being uninterested in other men's affairs +The good opinion of the vulgar is injurious +The sick man has not to complain who has his cure in his sleeve +The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high +Tis an exact life that maintains itself in due order in private +Tis not the cause, but their interest, that inflames them +Titillation of ill-natured pleasure in seeing others suffer +To be a slave, incessantly to be led by the nose by one's self +Truly he, with a great effort will shortly say a mighty trifle +We do not so much forsake vices as we change them +We much more aptly imagine an artisan upon his close-stool +What more? they lie with their lovers learnedly +What need have they of anything but to live beloved and honoured +Wisdom is folly that does not accommodate itself to the common +You must let yourself down to those with whom you converse + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V14 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 15. + +V. Upon Some verses of Virgil. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +UPON SOME VERSES OF VIRGIL + + + +CHAPTER V. + +By how much profitable thoughts are more full and solid, by so much are +they also more cumbersome and heavy: vice, death, poverty, diseases, are +grave and grievous subjects. A man should have his soul instructed in +the means to sustain and to contend with evils, and in the rules of +living and believing well: and often rouse it up, and exercise it in this +noble study; but in an ordinary soul it must be by intervals and with +moderation; it will otherwise grow besotted if continually intent upon +it. I found it necessary, when I was young, to put myself in mind and +solicit myself to keep me to my duty; gaiety and health do not, they say, +so well agree with those grave and serious meditations: I am at present +in another state: the conditions of age but too much put me in mind, urge +me to wisdom, and preach to me. From the excess of sprightliness I am +fallen into that of severity, which is much more troublesome; and for +that reason I now and then suffer myself purposely a little to run into +disorder, and occupy my mind in wanton and youthful thoughts, wherewith +it diverts itself. I am of late but too reserved, too heavy, and too +ripe; years every day read to me lectures of coldness and temperance. +This body of mine avoids disorder and dreads it; 'tis now my body's turn +to guide my mind towards reformation; it governs, in turn, and more +rudely and imperiously than the other; it lets me not an hour alone, +sleeping or waking, but is always preaching to me death, patience, and +repentance. I now defend myself from temperance, as I have formerly done +from pleasure; it draws me too much back, and even to stupidity. Now I +will be master of myself, to all intents and purposes; wisdom has its +excesses, and has no less need of moderation than folly. Therefore, lest +I should wither, dry up, and overcharge myself with prudence, in the +intervals and truces my infirmities allow me: + + "Mens intenta suis ne seit usque malis." + + ["That my mind may not eternally be intent upon my ills." + --Ovid., Trist., iv. i, 4.] + +I gently turn aside, and avert my eyes from the stormy and cloudy sky I +have before me, which, thanks be to God, I regard without fear, but not +without meditation and study, and amuse myself in the remembrance of my +better years: + + "Animus quo perdidit, optat, + Atque in praeterita se totus imagine versat." + + ["The mind wishes to have what it has lost, and throws itself + wholly into memories of the past."--Petronius, c. 128.] + +Let childhood look forward and age backward; was not this the +signification of Janus' double face? Let years draw me along if they +will, but it shall be backward; as long as my eyes can discern the +pleasant season expired, I shall now and then turn them that way; though +it escape from my blood and veins, I shall not, however, root the image +of it out of my memory: + + "Hoc est + Vivere bis, vita posse priore frui." + + ["'Tis to live twice to be able to enjoy one's former life again." + --Martial, x. 23, 7.] + +Plato ordains that old men should be present at the exercises, dances, +and sports of young people, that they may rejoice in others for the +activity and beauty of body which is no more in themselves, and call to +mind the grace and comeliness of that flourishing age; and wills that in +these recreations the honour of the prize should be given to that young +man who has most diverted the company. I was formerly wont to mark +cloudy and gloomy days as extraordinary; these are now my ordinary days; +the extraordinary are the clear and bright; I am ready to leap for joy, +as for an unwonted favour, when nothing happens me. Let me tickle +myself, I cannot force a poor smile from this wretched body of mine; +I am only merry in conceit and in dreaming, by artifice to divert the +melancholy of age; but, in faith, it requires another remedy than a +dream. A weak contest of art against nature. 'Tis great folly to +lengthen and anticipate human incommodities, as every one does; I had +rather be a less while old than be old before I am really so.' I seize on +even the least occasions of pleasure I can meet. I know very well, by +hearsay, several sorts of prudent pleasures, effectually so, and glorious +to boot; but opinion has not power enough over me to give me an appetite +to them. I covet not so much to have them magnanimous, magnificent, and +pompous, as I do to have them sweet, facile, and ready: + + "A natura discedimus; populo nos damus, + nullius rei bono auctori." + + ["We depart from nature and give ourselves to the people, who + understand nothing."--Seneca, Ep., 99.] + +My philosophy is in action, in natural and present practice, very little +in fancy: what if I should take pleasure in playing at cob-nut or to whip +a top! + + "Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem." + + ["He did not sacrifice his health even to rumours." Ennius, apud + Cicero, De Offic., i. 24] + +Pleasure is a quality of very little ambition; it thinks itself rich +enough of itself without any addition of repute; and is best pleased +where most retired. A young man should be whipped who pretends to a +taste in wine and sauces; there was nothing which, at that age, I less +valued or knew: now I begin to learn; I am very much ashamed on't; but +what should I do? I am more ashamed and vexed at the occasions that put +me upon't. 'Tis for us to dote and trifle away the time, and for young +men to stand upon their reputation and nice punctilios; they are going +towards the world and the world's opinion; we are retiring from it: + + "Sibi arma, sibi equos, sibi hastas, sibi clavam, sibi pilam, + sibi natationes, et cursus habeant: nobis senibus, ex lusionibus + multis, talos relinquant et tesseras;" + + ["Let them reserve to themselves arms, horses, spears, clubs, + tennis, swimming, and races; and of all the sports leave to us old + men cards and dice."--Cicero, De Senec., c. 16.] + +the laws themselves send us home. I can do no less in favour of this +wretched condition into which my age has thrown me than furnish it with +toys to play withal, as they do children; and, in truth, we become such. +Both wisdom and folly will have enough to do to support and relieve me by +alternate services in this calamity of age: + + "Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem." + + ["Mingle with counsels a brief interval of folly." + --Horace, Od., iv. 12, 27.] + +I accordingly avoid the lightest punctures; and those that formerly would +not have rippled the skin, now pierce me through and through: my habit of +body is now so naturally declining to ill: + + "In fragili corpore odiosa omnis offensio est;" + + ["In a fragile body every shock is obnoxious." + --Cicero, De Senec., c. 18.] + + "Mensque pati durum sustinet aegra nihil." + + ["And the infirm mind can bear no difficult exertion." + --Ovid, De Ponto., i. 5, 18.] + +I have ever been very susceptibly tender as to offences: I am much more +tender now, and open throughout. + + "Et minimae vires frangere quassa valent." + + ["And little force suffices to break what was cracked before." + --Ovid, De Tris., iii. 11, 22.] + +My judgment restrains me from kicking against and murmuring at the +inconveniences that nature orders me to endure, but it does not take away +my feeling them: I, who have no other thing in my aim but to live and be +merry, would run from one end of the world to the other to seek out one +good year of pleasant and jocund tranquillity. A melancholic and dull +tranquillity may be enough for me, but it benumbs and stupefies me; I am +not contented with it. If there be any person, any knot of good company +in country or city, in France or elsewhere, resident or in motion, who +can like my humour, and whose humours I can like, let them but whistle +and I will run and furnish them with essays in flesh and bone: + +Seeing it is the privilege of the mind to rescue itself from old age, I +advise mine to it with all the power I have; let it meanwhile continue +green, and flourish if it can, like mistletoe upon a dead tree. But I +fear 'tis a traitor; it has contracted so strict a fraternity with the +body that it leaves me at every turn, to follow that in its need. I +wheedle and deal with it apart in vain; I try in vain to wean it from +this correspondence, to no effect; quote to it Seneca and Catullus, and +ladies and royal masques; if its companion have the stone, it seems to +have it too; even the faculties that are most peculiarly and properly its +own cannot then perform their functions, but manifestly appear stupefied +and asleep; there is no sprightliness in its productions, if there be not +at the same time an equal proportion in the body too. + +Our masters are to blame, that in searching out the causes of the +extraordinary emotions of the soul, besides attributing it to a divine +ecstasy, love, martial fierceness, poesy, wine, they have not also +attributed a part to health: a boiling, vigorous, full, and lazy health, +such as formerly the verdure of youth and security, by fits, supplied me +withal; that fire of sprightliness and gaiety darts into the mind flashes +that are lively and bright beyond our natural light, and of all +enthusiasms the most jovial, if not the most extravagant. + +It is, then, no wonder if a contrary state stupefy and clog my spirit, +and produce a contrary effect: + + "Ad nullum consurgit opus, cum corpore languet;" + + ["When the mind is languishing, the body is good for nothing." + (Or:) "It rises to no effort; it languishes with the body." + --Pseudo Gallus, i. 125.] + +and yet would have me obliged to it for giving, as it wants to make out, +much less consent to this stupidity than is the ordinary case with men of +my age. Let us, at least, whilst we have truce, drive away incommodities +and difficulties from our commerce: + + "Dum licet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus:" + + ["Whilst we can, let us banish old age from the brow." + --Herod., Ep., xiii. 7.] + + "Tetrica sunt amcenanda jocularibus." + + ["Sour things are to be sweetened with those that are pleasant." + --Sidonius Apollin., Ep., i. 9.] + +I love a gay and civil wisdom, and fly from all sourness and austerity of +manners, all repellent, mien being suspected by me: + + "Tristemque vultus tetrici arrogantiam:" + + ["The arrogant sadness of a crabbed face."--Auctor Incert.] + + "Et habet tristis quoque turba cinaedos." + + ["And the dull crowd also has its voluptuaries." (Or:) + "An austere countenance sometimes covers a debauched mind." + --Idem.] + +I am very much of Plato's opinion, who says that facile or harsh humours +are great indications of the good or ill disposition of the mind. +Socrates had a constant countenance, but serene and smiling, not sourly +austere, like the elder Crassus, whom no one ever saw laugh. Virtue is a +pleasant and gay quality. + +I know very well that few will quarrel with the licence of my writings, +who have not more to quarrel with in the licence of their own thoughts: +I conform myself well enough to their inclinations, but I offend their +eyes. 'Tis a fine humour to strain the writings of Plato, to wrest his +pretended intercourses with Phaedo, Dion, Stella, and Archeanassa: + + "Non pudeat dicere, quod non pudet sentire." + + ["Let us not be ashamed to speak what we are not ashamed to think."] + +I hate a froward and dismal spirit, that slips over all the pleasures of +life and seizes and feeds upon misfortunes; like flies, that cannot stick +to a smooth and polished body, but fix and repose themselves upon craggy +and rough places, and like cupping-glasses, that only suck and attract +bad blood. + +As to the rest, I have enjoined myself to dare to say all that I dare to +do; even thoughts that are not to be published, displease me; the worst +of my actions and qualities do not appear to me so evil as I find it evil +and base not to dare to own them. Every one is wary and discreet in +confession, but men ought to be so in action; the boldness of doing ill +is in some sort compensated and restrained by the boldness of confessing +it. Whoever will oblige himself to tell all, should oblige himself to do +nothing that he must be forced to conceal. I wish that this excessive +licence of mine may draw men to freedom, above these timorous and mincing +virtues sprung from our imperfections, and that at the expense of my +immoderation I may reduce them to reason. A man must see and study his +vice to correct it; they who conceal it from others, commonly conceal it +from themselves; and do not think it close enough, if they themselves see +it: they withdraw and disguise it from their own consciences: + + "Quare vitia sua nemo confitetur? Quia etiam nunc in + illia est; somnium narrare vigilantis est." + + ["Why does no man confess his vices? because he is yet in them; + 'tis for a waking man to tell his dream."--Seneca, Ep., 53.] + +The diseases of the body explain themselves by their increase; we find +that to be the gout which we called a rheum or a strain; the diseases of +the soul, the greater they are, keep, themselves the most obscure; +the most sick are the least sensible; therefore it is that with an +unrelenting hand they most often, in full day, be taken to task, opened, +and torn from the hollow of the heart. As in doing well, so in doing +ill, the mere confession is sometimes satisfaction. Is there any +deformity in doing amiss, that can excuse us from confessing ourselves? +It is so great a pain to me to dissemble, that I evade the trust of +another's secrets, wanting the courage to disavow my knowledge. I can +keep silent, but deny I cannot without the greatest trouble and violence +to myself imaginable to be very secret, a man must be so by nature, not +by obligation. 'Tis little worth, in the service of a prince, to be +secret, if a man be not a liar to boot. If he who asked Thales the +Milesian whether he ought solemnly to deny that he had committed +adultery, had applied himself to me, I should have told him that he ought +not to do it; for I look upon lying as a worse fault than the other. +Thales advised him quite contrary, bidding him swear to shield the +greater fault by the less; + + [Montaigne's memory here serves him ill, for the question being put + to Thales, his answer was: "But is not perjury worse than + adultery?"--Diogenes Laertius, in vita, i. 36.] + +nevertheless, this counsel was not so much an election as a +multiplication of vice. Upon which let us say this in passing, that we +deal liberally with a man of conscience when we propose to him some +difficulty in counterpoise of vice; but when we shut him up betwixt two +vices, he is put to a hard choice as Origen was either to idolatrise or +to suffer himself to be carnally abused by a great Ethiopian slave they +brought to him. He submitted to the first condition, and wrongly, people +say. Yet those women of our times are not much out, according to their +error, who protest they had rather burden their consciences with ten men +than one mass. + +If it be indiscretion so to publish one's errors, yet there is no great +danger that it pass into example and custom; for Ariston said, that the +winds men most fear are those that lay them open. We must tuck up this +ridiculous rag that hides our manners: they send their consciences to the +stews, and keep a starched countenance: even traitors and assassins +espouse the laws of ceremony, and there fix their duty. So that neither +can injustice complain of incivility, nor malice of indiscretion. 'Tis +pity but a bad man should be a fool to boot, and that outward decency +should palliate his vice: this rough-cast only appertains to a good and +sound wall, that deserves to be preserved and whited. + +In favour of the Huguenots, who condemn our auricular and private +confession, I confess myself in public, religiously and purely: St. +Augustin, Origeti, and Hippocrates have published the errors of their +opinions; I, moreover, of my manners. I am greedy of making myself +known, and I care not to how many, provided it be truly; or to say +better, I hunger for nothing; but I mortally hate to be mistaken by those +who happen to learn my name. He who does all things for honour and +glory, what can he think to gain by shewing himself to the world in a +vizor, and by concealing his true being from the people? Praise a +humpback for his stature, he has reason to take it for an affront: +if you are a coward, and men commend you for your valour, is it of you +they speak? They take you for another. I should like him as well who +glorifies himself in the compliments and congees that are made him as if +he were master of the company, when he is one of the least of the train. +Archelaus, king of Macedon, walking along the street, somebody threw +water on his head, which they who were with him said he ought to punish: +"Aye, but," said he, "whoever it was, he did not throw the water upon me, +but upon him whom he took me to be." Socrates being told that people +spoke ill of him, "Not at all," said he, "there is nothing, in me of what +they say." + +For my part, if any one should recommend me as a good pilot, as being +very modest or very chaste, I should owe him no thanks; and so, whoever +should call me traitor, robber, or drunkard, I should be as little +concerned. They who do not rightly know themselves, may feed themselves +with false approbations; not I, who see myself, and who examine myself +even to my very bowels, and who very well know what is my due. I am +content to be less commended, provided I am better known. I may be +reputed a wise man in such a sort of wisdom as I take to be folly. +I am vexed that my Essays only serve the ladies for a common piece of +furniture, and a piece for the hall; this chapter will make me part of +the water-closet. I love to traffic with them a little in private; +public conversation is without favour and without savour. In farewells, +we oftener than not heat our affections towards the things we take leave +of; I take my last leave of the pleasures of this world: these are our +last embraces. + +But let us come to my subject: what has the act of generation, so +natural, so necessary, and so just, done to men, to be a thing not to +be spoken of without blushing, and to be excluded from all serious and +moderate discourse? We boldly pronounce kill, rob, betray, and that we +dare only to do betwixt the teeth. Is it to say, the less we expend in +words, we may pay so much the more in thinking? For it is certain that +the words least in use, most seldom written, and best kept in, are the +best and most generally known: no age, no manners, are ignorant of them, +no more than the word bread they imprint themselves in every one without +being, expressed, without voice, and without figure; and the sex that +most practises it is bound to say least of it. 'Tis an act that we have +placed in the franchise of silence, from which to take it is a crime even +to accuse and judge it; neither dare we reprehend it but by periphrasis +and picture. A great favour to a criminal to be so execrable that +justice thinks it unjust to touch and see him; free, and safe by the +benefit of the severity of his condemnation. Is it not here as in matter +of books, that sell better and become more public for being suppressed? +For my part, I will take Aristotle at his word, who says, that +"bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age." These +verses are preached in the ancient school, a school that I much more +adhere to than the modern: its virtues appear to me to be greater, and +the vices less: + + "Ceux qui par trop fuyant Venus estrivent, + Faillent autant que ceulx qui trop la suyvent." + + ["They err as much who too much forbear Venus, as they who are too + frequent in her rites."--A translation by Amyot from Plutarch, A + philosopher should converse with princes.] + + "Tu, dea, rerum naturam sola gubernas, + Nec sine to quicquam dias in luminis oras + Exoritur, neque fit laetum, nec amabile quidquam." + + ["Goddess, still thou alone governest nature, nor without thee + anything comes into light; nothing is pleasant, nothing joyful." + --Lucretius, i. 22.] + +I know not who could set Pallas and the Muses at variance with Venus, and +make them cold towards Love; but I see no deities so well met, or that +are more indebted to one another. Who will deprive the Muses of amorous +imaginations, will rob them of the best entertainment they have, and of +the noblest matter of their work: and who will make Love lose the +communication and service of poesy, will disarm him of his best weapons: +by this means they charge the god of familiarity and good will, and the +protecting goddesses of humanity and justice, with the vice of +ingratitude and unthankfulness. I have not been so long cashiered from +the state and service of this god, that my memory is not still perfect in +his force and value: + + "Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae;" + + ["I recognise vestiges of my old flame."--AEneid., iv. 23.] + +There are yet some remains of heat and emotion after the fever: + + "Nec mihi deficiat calor hic, hiemantibus annis!" + + ["Nor let this heat of youth fail me in my winter years."] + +Withered and drooping as I am, I feel yet some remains of the past +ardour: + + "Qual l'alto Egeo, per the Aquilone o Noto + Cessi, the tutto prima il volse et scosse, + Non 's accheta ei pero; ma'l suono e'l moto + Ritien del l'onde anco agitate e grosse:" + + ["As Aegean seas, when storms be calmed again, + That rolled their tumbling waves with troublous blasts, + Do yet of tempests passed some show retain, + And here and there their swelling billows cast."--Fairfax.] + +but from what I understand of it, the force and power of this god are +more lively and animated in the picture of poesy than in their own +essence: + + "Et versus digitos habet:" + + ["Verse has fingers."--Altered from Juvenal, iv. 196.] + +it has I know not what kind of air, more amorous than love itself. Venus +is not so beautiful, naked, alive, and panting, as she is here in Virgil: + + "Dixerat; et niveis hinc atque hinc Diva lacertis + Cunctantem amplexu molli fovet. Ille repente + Accepit solitam flammam; notusque medullas + Intravit calor, et labefacta per ossa cucurrit + Non secus atque olim tonitru, cum rupta corusco + Ignea rima micans percurrit lumine nimbos. + . . . . . . Ea verba loquutus, + Optatos dedit amplexus; placidumque petivit + Conjugis infusus gremio per membra soporem." + + ["The goddess spoke, and throwing round him her snowy arms in soft + embraces, caresses him hesitating. Suddenly he caught the wonted + flame, and the well-known warmth pierced his marrow, and ran + thrilling through his shaken bones: just as when at times, with + thunder, a stream of fire in lightning flashes shoots across the + skies. Having spoken these words, he gave her the wished embrace, + and in the bosom of his spouse sought placid sleep." + --AEneid, viii. 387 and 392.] + +All that I find fault with in considering it is, that he has represented +her a little too passionate for a married Venus; in this discreet kind of +coupling, the appetite is not usually so wanton, but more grave and dull. +Love hates that people should hold of any but itself, and goes but +faintly to work in familiarities derived from any other title, as +marriage is: alliance, dowry, therein sway by reason, as much or more +than grace and beauty. Men do not marry for themselves, let them say +what they will; they marry as much or more for their posterity and +family; the custom and interest of marriage concern our race much more +than us; and therefore it is, that I like to have a match carried on by a +third hand rather than a man's own, and by another man's liking than that +of the party himself; and how much is all this opposite to the +conventions of love? And also it is a kind of incest to employ in this +venerable and sacred alliance the heat and extravagance of amorous +licence, as I think I have said elsewhere. A man, says Aristotle, must +approach his wife with prudence and temperance, lest in dealing too +lasciviously with her, the extreme pleasure make her exceed the bounds of +reason. What he says upon the account of conscience, the physicians say +upon the account of health: "that a pleasure excessively lascivious, +voluptuous, and frequent, makes the seed too hot, and hinders +conception": 'tis said, elsewhere, that to a languishing intercourse, as +this naturally is, to supply it with a due and fruitful heat, a man must +do it but seldom and at appreciable intervals: + + "Quo rapiat sitiens Venerem, interiusque recondat." + + ["But let him thirstily snatch the joys of love and enclose them in + his bosom."--Virg., Georg., iii. 137.] + +I see no marriages where the conjugal compatibility sooner fails than +those that we contract upon the account of beauty and amorous desires; +there should be more solid and constant foundation, and they should +proceed with greater circumspection; this furious ardour is worth +nothing. + +They who think they honour marriage by joining love to it, do, methinks, +like those who, to favour virtue, hold that nobility is nothing else but +virtue. They are indeed things that have some relation to one another, +but there is a great deal of difference; we should not so mix their names +and titles; 'tis a wrong to them both so to confound them. Nobility is a +brave quality, and with good reason introduced; but forasmuch as 'tis a +quality depending upon others, and may happen in a vicious person, in +himself nothing, 'tis in estimate infinitely below virtue'; + + ["If nobility be virtue, it loses its quality in all things wherein + not virtuous: and if it be not virtue, 'tis a small matter." + --La Byuyere.] + +'tis a virtue, if it be one, that is artificial and apparent, depending +upon time and fortune: various in form, according to the country; living +and mortal; without birth, as the river Nile; genealogical and common; +of succession and similitude; drawn by consequence, and a very weak one. +Knowledge, strength, goodness, beauty, riches, and all other qualities, +fall into communication and commerce, but this is consummated in itself, +and of no use to the service of others. There was proposed to one of our +kings the choice of two candidates for the same command, of whom one was +a gentleman, the other not; he ordered that, without respect to quality, +they should choose him who had the most merit; but where the worth of the +competitors should appear to be entirely equal, they should have respect +to birth: this was justly to give it its rank. A young man unknown, +coming to Antigonus to make suit for his father's command, a valiant man +lately dead: "Friend," said he," in such preferments as these, I have not +so much regard to the nobility of my soldiers as to their prowess." +And, indeed, it ought not to go as it did with the officers of the kings +of Sparta, trumpeters, fiddlers, cooks, the children of whom always +succeeded to their places, how ignorant soever, and were preferred before +the most experienced in the trade. They of Calicut make of nobles a sort +of superhuman persons: they are interdicted marriage and all but warlike +employments: they may have of concubines their fill, and the women as +many lovers, without being jealous of one another; but 'tis a capital and +irremissible crime to couple with a person of meaner conditions than +themselves; and they think themselves polluted, if they have but touched +one in walking along; and supposing their nobility to be marvellously +interested and injured in it, kill such as only approach a little too +near them: insomuch that the ignoble are obliged to cry out as they walk, +like the gondoliers of Venice, at the turnings of streets for fear of +jostling; and the nobles command them to step aside to what part they +please: by that means these avoid what they repute a perpetual ignominy, +those certain death. No time, no favour of the prince, no office, or +virtue, or riches, can ever prevail to make a plebeian become noble: to +which this custom contributes, that marriages are interdicted betwixt +different trades; the daughter of one of the cordwainers' gild is not +permitted to marry a carpenter; and parents are obliged to train up their +children precisely in their own callings, and not put them to any other +trade; by which means the distinction and continuance of their fortunes +are maintained. + +A good marriage, if there be any such, rejects the company and conditions +of love, and tries to represent those of friendship. 'Tis a sweet +society of life, full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of +useful and solid services and mutual obligations; which any woman who has +a right taste: + + "Optato quam junxit lumine taeda"-- + + ["Whom the marriage torch has joined with the desired light." + --Catullus, lxiv. 79.] + +would be loth to serve her husband in quality of a mistress. If she be +lodged in his affection as a wife, she is more honourably and securely +placed. When he purports to be in love with another, and works all he +can to obtain his desire, let any one but ask him, on which he had rather +a disgrace should fall, his wife or his mistress, which of their +misfortunes would most afflict him, and to which of them he wishes the +most grandeur, the answer to these questions is out of dispute in a sound +marriage. + +And that so few are observed to be happy, is a token of its price and +value. If well formed and rightly taken, 'tis the best of all human +societies; we cannot live without it, and yet we do nothing but decry it. +It happens, as with cages, the birds without despair to get in, and those +within despair of getting out. Socrates being asked, whether it was more +commodious to take a wife or not, "Let a man take which course he will," +said he; "he will repent." 'Tis a contract to which the common +saying: + + "Homo homini aut deus aut lupus," + + ["Man to man is either a god or a wolf."--Erasmus, Adag.] + +may very fitly be applied; there must be a concurrence of many qualities +in the construction. It is found nowadays more convenient for simple and +plebeian souls, where delights, curiosity, and idleness do not so much +disturb it; but extravagant humours, such as mine, that hate all sorts of +obligation and restraint, are not so proper for it: + + "Et mihi dulce magis resoluto vivere collo." + + ["And it is sweet to me to live with a loosened neck." + --Pseudo Gallus, i. 61.] + +Might I have had my own will, I would not have married Wisdom herself, if +she would have had me. But 'tis to much purpose to evade it; the common +custom and usance of life will have it so. The most of my actions are +guided by example, not by choice, and yet I did not go to it of my own +voluntary motion; I was led and drawn to it by extrinsic occasions; for +not only things that are incommodious in themselves, but also things +however ugly, vicious, and to be avoided, may be rendered acceptable by +some condition or accident; so unsteady and vain is all human resolution! +and I was persuaded to it, when worse prepared and less tractable than I +am at present, that I have tried what it is: and as great a libertine as +I am taken to be, I have in truth more strictly observed the laws of +marriage, than I either promised or expected. 'Tis in vain to kick, when +a man has once put on his fetters: a man must prudently manage his +liberty; but having once submitted to obligation, he must confine himself +within the laws of common duty, at least, do what he can towards it. +They who engage in this contract, with a design to carry themselves in it +with hatred and contempt, do an unjust and inconvenient thing; and the +fine rule that I hear pass from hand to hand amongst the women, as a +sacred oracle: + + ["Serve thy husband as thy master, but guard thyself against him as + from a traitor."] + +which is to say, comport thyself towards him with a dissembled, inimical, +and distrustful reverence (a cry of war and defiance), is equally +injurious and hard. I am too mild for such rugged designs: to say the +truth, I am not arrived to that perfection of ability and refinement of +wit, to confound reason with injustice, and to laugh at all rule and +order that does not please my palate; because I hate superstition, I do +not presently run into the contrary extreme of irreligion. + + (If a man hate superstition he cannot love religion. D.W.) + +If a man does not always perform his duty, he ought at least to love and +acknowledge it; 'tis treachery to marry without espousing. + +Let us proceed. + +Our poet represents a marriage happy in a good accord wherein +nevertheless there is not much loyalty. Does he mean, that it is not +impossible but a woman may give the reins to her own passion, and yield +to the importunities of love, and yet reserve some duty toward marriage, +and that it may be hurt, without being totally broken? A serving man may +cheat his master, whom nevertheless he does not hate. Beauty, +opportunity, and destiny (for destiny has also a hand in't), + + "Fatum est in partibus illis + Quas sinus abscondit; nam, si tibi sidera cessent, + Nil faciet longi mensura incognita nervi;" + + ["There is a fatality about the hidden parts: let nature have + endowed you however liberally, 'tis of no use, if your good star + fails you in the nick of time."--Juvenal, ix. 32.] + +have attached her to a stranger; though not so wholly, peradventure, but +that she may have some remains of kindness for her husband. They are two +designs, that have several paths leading to them, without being +confounded with one another; a woman may yield to a man she would by no +means have married, not only for the condition of his fortune, but for +those also of his person. Few men have made a wife of a mistress, who +have not repented it. And even in the other world, what an unhappy life +does Jupiter lead with his, whom he had first enjoyed as a mistress! +'Tis, as the proverb runs, to befoul a basket and then put it upon one's +head. I have in my time, in a good family, seen love shamefully and +dishonestly cured by marriage: the considerations are widely different. +We love at once, without any tie, two things contrary in themselves. + +Socrates was wont to say, that the city of Athens pleased, as ladies do +whom men court for love; every one loved to come thither to take a turn, +and pass away his time; but no one liked it so well as to espouse it, +that is, to inhabit there, and to make it his constant residence. I have +been vexed to see husbands hate their wives only because they themselves +do them wrong; we should not, at all events, methinks, love them the less +for our own faults; they should at least, upon the account of repentance +and compassion, be dearer to us. + +They are different ends, he says, and yet in some sort compatible; +marriage has utility, justice, honour, and constancy for its share; +a flat, but more universal pleasure: love founds itself wholly upon +pleasure, and, indeed, has it more full, lively, and sharp; a pleasure +inflamed by difficulty; there must be in it sting and smart: 'tis no +longer love, if without darts and fire. The bounty of ladies is too +profuse in marriage, and dulls the point of affection and desire: to +evade which inconvenience, do but observe what pains Lycurgus and Plato +take in their laws. + +Women are not to blame at all, when they refuse the rules of life that +are introduced into the world, forasmuch as the men make them without +their help. There is naturally contention and brawling betwixt them and +us; and the strictest friendship we have with them is yet mixed with +tumult and tempest. In the opinion of our author, we deal +inconsiderately with them in this: after we have discovered that they +are, without comparison, more able and ardent in the practice of love +than we, and that the old priest testified as much, who had been one +while a man, and then a woman: + + "Venus huic erat utraque nota:" + + ["Both aspects of love were known to him," + --Tiresias. Ovid. Metam., iii. 323.] + +and moreover, that we have learned from their own mouths the proof that, +in several ages, was made by an Emperor and Empress of Rome,--[Proclus.] +--both famous for ability in that affair! for he in one night deflowered +ten Sarmatian virgins who were his captives: but she had five-and-twenty +bouts in one night, changing her man according to her need and liking; + + "Adhuc ardens rigidae tentigine vulvae + Et lassata viris, nondum satiata, recessit:" + + ["Ardent still, she retired, fatigued, but not satisfied." + --Juvenal, vi. 128.] + +and that upon the dispute which happened in Cataluna, wherein a wife +complaining of her husband's too frequent addresses to her, not so much, +as I conceive, that she was incommodated by it (for I believe no miracles +out of religion) as under this pretence, to curtail and curb in this, +which is the fundamental act of marriage, the authority of husbands over +their wives, and to shew that their frowardness and malignity go beyond +the nuptial bed, and spurn under foot even the graces and sweets of +Venus; the husband, a man truly brutish and unnatural, replied, that even +on fasting days he could not subsist with less than ten courses: +whereupon came out that notable sentence of the Queen of Arragon, by +which, after mature deliberation of her council, this good queen, to give +a rule and example to all succeeding ages of the moderation required in +a just marriage, set down six times a day as a legitimate and necessary +stint; surrendering and quitting a great deal of the needs and desires of +her sex, that she might, she said, establish an easy, and consequently, a +permanent and immutable rule. Hereupon the doctors cry out: what must +the female appetite and concupiscence be, when their reason, their +reformation and virtue, are taxed at such a rate, considering the divers +judgments of our appetites? for Solon, master of the law school, taxes +us but at three a month,--that men may not fail in point of conjugal +frequentation: after having, I say, believed and preached all this, we go +and enjoin them continency for their particular share, and upon the last +and extreme penalties. + +There is no passion so hard to contend with as this, which we would have +them only resist, not simply as an ordinary vice, but as an execrable +abomination, worse than irreligion and parricide; whilst we, at the same +time, go to't without offence or reproach. Even those amongst us who +have tried the experiment have sufficiently confessed what difficulty, or +rather impossibility, they have found by material remedies to subdue, +weaken, and cool the body. We, on the contrary, would have them at once +sound, vigorous plump, high-fed, and chaste; that is to say, both hot and +cold; for the marriage, which we tell them is to keep them from burning, +is but small refreshment to them, as we order the matter. If they take +one whose vigorous age is yet boiling, he will be proud to make it known +elsewhere; + + "Sit tandem pudor; aut eamus in jus; + Multis mentula millibus redempta, + Non est haec tua, Basse; vendidisti;" + + ["Let there be some shame, or we shall go to law: your vigour, + bought by your wife with many thousands, is no longer yours: thou + hast sold it.--"Martial, xii. 90.] + +Polemon the philosopher was justly by his wife brought before the judge +for sowing in a barren field the seed that was due to one that was +fruitful: if, on the other hand, they take a decayed fellow, they are in +a worse condition in marriage than either maids or widows. We think them +well provided for, because they have a man to lie with, as the Romans +concluded Clodia Laeta, a vestal nun, violated, because Caligula had +approached her, though it was declared he did no more but approach her: +but, on the contrary, we by that increase their necessity, forasmuch as +the touch and company of any man whatever rouses their desires, that in +solitude would be more quiet. And to the end, 'tis likely, that they +might render their chastity more meritorious by this circumstance and +consideration, Boleslas and Kinge his wife, kings of Poland, vowed it by +mutual consent, being in bed together, on their very wedding day, and +kept their vow in spite of all matrimonial conveniences. + +We train them up from their infancy to the traffic of love; their grace, +dressing, knowledge, language, and whole instruction tend that way: their +governesses imprint nothing in them but the idea of love, if for nothing +else but by continually representing it to them, to give them a distaste +for it. My daughter, the only child I have, is now of an age that +forward young women are allowed to be married at; she is of a slow, thin, +and tender complexion, and has accordingly been brought up by her mother +after a retired and particular manner, so that she but now begins to be +weaned from her childish simplicity. She was reading before me in a +French book where the word 'fouteau', the name of a tree very well known, +occurred;--[The beech-tree; the name resembles in sound an obscene +French word.]--the woman, to whose conduct she is committed, stopped her +short a little roughly, and made her skip over that dangerous step. I +let her alone, not to trouble their rules, for I never concern myself in +that sort of government; feminine polity has a mysterious procedure; we +must leave it to them; but if I am not mistaken the commerce of twenty +lacquies could not, in six months' time, have so imprinted in her memory +the meaning, usage, and all the consequence of the sound of these wicked +syllables, as this good old woman did by reprimand and interdiction. + + "Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos + Matura virgo, et frangitur artibus; + Jam nunc et incestos amores + De tenero, meditatur ungui." + + ["The maid ripe for marriage delights to learn Ionic dances, and to + imitate those lascivious movements. Nay, already from her infancy + she meditates criminal amours."--Horace, Od., iii. 6, 21., the text + has 'fingitur'.] + +Let them but give themselves the rein a little, let them but enter into +liberty of discourse, we are but children to them in this science. Hear +them but describe our pursuits and conversation, they will very well make +you understand that we bring them nothing they have not known before, and +digested without our help. + + [This sentence refers to a conversation between some young women in + his immediate neighbourhood, which the Essayist just below informs + us that he overheard, and which was too shocking for him to repeat. + It must have been tolerably bad.--Remark by the editor of a later + edition.] + +Is it, perhaps, as Plato says, that they have formerly been debauched +young fellows? I happened one day to be in a place where I could hear +some of their talk without suspicion; I am sorry I cannot repeat it. +By'rlady, said I, we had need go study the phrases of Amadis, and the +tales of Boccaccio and Aretin, to be able to discourse with them: we +employ our time to much purpose indeed. There is neither word, example, +nor step they are not more perfect in than our books; 'tis a discipline +that springs with their blood, + + "Et mentem ipsa Venus dedit," + + [" Venus herself made them what they are," + --Virg., Georg., iii. 267.] + +which these good instructors, nature, youth, and health, are continually +inspiring them with; they need not learn, they breed it: + + "Nec tantum niveo gavisa est ulla columbo, + Compar, vel si quid dicitur improbius, + Oscula mordenti semper decerpere rostro, + Quantum praecipue multivola est mulier." + + ["No milk-white dove, or if there be a thing more lascivious, + takes so much delight in kissing as woman, wishful for every man + she sees."--Catullus, lxvi. 125.] + +So that if the natural violence of their desire were not a little +restrained by fear and honour, which were wisely contrived for them, we +should be all shamed. All the motions in the world resolve into and tend +to this conjunction; 'tis a matter infused throughout: 'tis a centre to +which all things are directed. We yet see the edicts of the old and wise +Rome made for the service of love, and the precepts of Socrates for the +instruction of courtezans: + + "Noncon libelli Stoici inter sericos + Jacere pulvillos amant:" + + ["There are writings of the Stoics which we find lying upon + silken cushions."--Horace, Epod., viii. 15.] + +Zeno, amongst his laws, also regulated the motions to be observed in +getting a maidenhead. What was the philosopher Strato's book Of Carnal +Conjunction?--[ Diogenes Laertius, v. 59.]--And what did Theophrastus +treat of in those he intituled, the one 'The Lover', and the other 'Of +Love?' Of what Aristippus in his 'Of Former Delights'? What do the so +long and lively descriptions in Plato of the loves of his time pretend +to? and the book called 'The Lover', of Demetrius Phalereus? and +'Clinias', or the 'Ravished Lover', of Heraclides; and that of +Antisthenes, 'Of Getting Children', or, 'Of Weddings', and the other, +'Of the Master or the Lover'? And that of Aristo: 'Of Amorous Exercises' +What those of Cleanthes: one, 'Of Love', the other, 'Of the Art of +Loving'? The amorous dialogues of Sphaereus? and the fable of Jupiter +and Juno, of Chrysippus, impudent beyond all toleration? And his fifty +so lascivious epistles? I will let alone the writings of the +philosophers of the Epicurean sect, protectress of voluptuousness. Fifty +deities were, in time past, assigned to this office; and there have been +nations where, to assuage the lust of those who came to their devotion, +they kept men and women in their temples for the worshippers to lie with; +and it was an act of ceremony to do this before they went to prayers: + + "Nimirum propter continentiam incontinentia necessaria est; + incendium ignibus extinguitur." + + ["Forsooth incontinency is necessary for continency's sake; a + conflagration is extinguished by fire."] + +In the greatest part of the world, that member of our body was deified; +in the same province, some flayed off the skin to offer and consecrate a +piece; others offered and consecrated their seed. In another, the young +men publicly cut through betwixt the skin and the flesh of that part in +several places, and thrust pieces of wood into the openings as long and +thick as they would receive, and of these pieces of wood afterwards made +a fire as an offering to their gods; and were reputed neither vigorous +nor chaste, if by the force of that cruel pain they seemed to be at all +dismayed. Elsewhere the most sacred magistrate was reverenced and +acknowledged by that member and in several ceremonies the effigy of it +was carried in pomp to the honour of various divinities. The Egyptian +ladies, in their Bacchanalia, each carried one finely-carved of wood +about their necks, as large and heavy as she could so carry it; besides +which, the statue of their god presented one, which in greatness +surpassed all the rest of his body.--[Herodotus, ii. 48, says "nearly +as large as the body itself."]--The married women, near the place where +I live, make of their kerchiefs the figure of one upon their foreheads, +to glorify themselves in the enjoyment they have of it; and coming to be +widows, they throw it behind, and cover it with their headcloths. The +most modest matrons of Rome thought it an honour to offer flowers and +garlands to the god Priapus; and they made the virgins, at the time of +their espousals, sit upon his shameful parts. And I know not whether I +have not in my time seen some air of like devotion. What was the meaning +of that ridiculous piece of the chaussuye of our forefathers, and that is +still worn by our Swiss? ["Cod-pieces worn"--Cotton]--To what end do we +make a show of our implements in figure under our breeches, and often, +which is worse, above their natural size, by falsehood and imposture? +I have half a mind to believe that this sort of vestment was invented in +the better and more conscientious ages, that the world might not be +deceived, and that every one should give a public account of his +proportions: the simple nations wear them yet, and near about the real +size. In those days, the tailor took measure of it, as the shoemaker +does now of a man's foot. That good man, who, when I was young, gelded +so many noble and ancient statues in his great city, that they might not +corrupt the sight of the ladies, according to the advice of this other +ancient worthy: + + "Flagitii principium est, nudare inter gives corpora," + + ["'Tis the beginning of wickedness to expose their persons among the + citizens"--Ennius, ap. Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iv. 33.] + +should have called to mind, that, as in the mysteries of the Bona Dea, +all masculine appearance was excluded, he did nothing, if he did not geld +horses and asses, in short, all nature: + + "Omne adeo genus in terris, hominumque, ferarumque, + Et genus aequoreum, pecudes, pictaeque volucres, + In furias ignemque ruunt." + + ["So that all living things, men and animals, wild or tame, + and fish and gaudy fowl, rush to this flame of love." + --Virgil, Georg., iii. 244.] + +The gods, says Plato, have given us one disobedient and unruly member +that, like a furious animal, attempts, by the violence of its appetite, +to subject all things to it; and so they have given to women one like a +greedy and ravenous animal, which, if it be refused food in season, grows +wild, impatient of delay, and infusing its rage into their bodies, stops +the passages, and hinders respiration, causing a thousand ills, till, +having imbibed the fruit of the common thirst, it has plentifully bedewed +the bottom of their matrix. Now my legislator--[The Pope who, as +Montaigne has told us, took it into his head to geld the statues.]-- +should also have considered that, peradventure, it were a chaster and +more fruitful usage to let them know the fact as it is betimes, than +permit them to guess according to the liberty and heat of their own +fancy; instead of the real parts they substitute, through hope and +desire, others that are three times more extravagant; and a certain +friend of mine lost himself by producing his in place and time when the +opportunity was not present to put them to their more serious use. What +mischief do not those pictures of prodigious dimension do that the boys +make upon the staircases and galleries of the royal houses? they give the +ladies a cruel contempt of our natural furniture. And what do we know +but that Plato, after other well-instituted republics, ordered that the +men and women, old and young, should expose themselves naked to the view +of one another, in his gymnastic exercises, upon that very account? The +Indian women who see the men in their natural state, have at least cooled +the sense of seeing. And let the women of the kingdom of Pegu say what +they will, who below the waist have nothing to cover them but a cloth +slit before, and so strait, that what decency and modesty soever they +pretend by it, at every step all is to be seen, that it is an invention +to allure the men to them, and to divert them from boys, to whom that +nation is generally inclined; yet, peradventure they lose more by it than +they get, and one may venture to say, that an entire appetite is more +sharp than one already half-glutted by the eyes. Livia was wont to say, +that to a virtuous woman a naked man was but a statue. The Lacedaemonian +women, more virgins when wives than our daughters are, saw every day the +young men of their city stripped naked in their exercises, themselves +little heeding to cover their thighs in walking, believing themselves, +says Plato, sufficiently covered by their virtue without any other robe. +But those, of whom St. Augustin speaks, have given nudity a wonderful +power of temptation, who have made it a doubt, whether women at the day +of judgment shall rise again in their own sex, and not rather in ours, +for fear of tempting us again in that holy state. In brief, we allure +and flesh them by all sorts of ways: we incessantly heat and stir up +their imagination, and then we find fault. Let us confess the truth; +there is scarce one of us who does not more apprehend the shame that +accrues to him by the vices of his wife than by his own, and that is not +more solicitous (a wonderful charity) of the conscience of his virtuous +wife than of his own; who had not rather commit theft and sacrilege, and +that his wife was a murderess and a heretic, than that she should not be +more chaste than her husband: an unjust estimate of vices. Both we and +they are capable of a thousand corruptions more prejudicial and unnatural +than lust: but we weigh vices, not according to nature, but according to +our interest; by which means they take so many unequal forms. + +The austerity of our decrees renders the application of women to this +vice more violent and vicious than its own condition needs, and engages +it in consequences worse than their cause: they will readily offer to go +to the law courts to seek for gain, and to the wars to get reputation, +rather than in the midst of ease and delights, to have to keep so +difficult a guard. Do not they very well see that there is neither +merchant nor soldier who will not leave his business to run after this +sport, or the porter or cobbler, toiled and tired out as they are with +labour and hunger? + + "Num tu, qux tenuit dives Achaemenes, + Aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes, + Permutare velis crine Licymnim? + Plenas aut Arabum domos, + Dum fragrantia detorquet ad oscula + Cervicem, aut facili sxvitia negat, + Quae poscente magis gaudeat eripi, + Interdum rapere occupet?" + + ["Wouldst thou not exchange all that the wealthy Arhaemenes had, + or the Mygdonian riches of fertile Phrygia, for one ringlet of + Licymnia's hair? or the treasures of the Arabians, when she turns + her head to you for fragrant kisses, or with easily assuaged anger + denies them, which she would rather by far you took by force, and + sometimes herself snatches one!"--Horace, Od., ii. 12, 21.] + +I do not know whether the exploits of Alexander and Caesar really surpass +the resolution of a beautiful young woman, bred up after our fashion, in +the light and commerce of the world, assailed by so many contrary +examples, and yet keeping herself entire in the midst of a thousand +continual and powerful solicitations. There is no doing more difficult +than that not doing, nor more active: + +I hold it more easy to carry a suit of armour all the days of one's life +than a maidenhead; and the vow of virginity of all others is the most +noble, as being the hardest to keep: + + "Diaboli virtus in lumbis est," + +says St. Jerome. We have, doubtless, resigned to the ladies the most +difficult and most vigorous of all human endeavours, and let us resign to +them the glory too. This ought to encourage them to be obstinate in it; +'tis a brave thing for them to defy us, and to spurn under foot that vain +pre-eminence of valour and virtue that we pretend to have over them; they +will find if they do but observe it, that they will not only be much more +esteemed for it, but also much more beloved. A gallant man does not give +over his pursuit for being refused, provided it be a refusal of chastity, +and not of choice; we may swear, threaten, and complain to much purpose; +we therein do but lie, for we love them all the better: there is no +allurement like modesty, if it be not rude and crabbed. 'Tis stupidity +and meanness to be obstinate against hatred and disdain; but against a +virtuous and constant resolution, mixed with goodwill, 'tis the exercise +of a noble and generous soul. They may acknowledge our service to a +certain degree, and give us civilly to understand that they disdain us +not; for the law that enjoins them to abominate us because we adore them, +and to hate us because we love them, is certainly very cruel, if but for +the difficulty of it. Why should they not give ear to our offers and +requests, so long as they are kept within the bounds of modesty? +wherefore should we fancy them to have other thoughts within, and to be +worse than they seem? A queen of our time said with spirit, "that to +refuse these courtesies is a testimony of weakness in women and a self- +accusation of facility, and that a lady could not boast of her chastity +who was never tempted." + +The limits of honour are not cut so short; they may give themselves a +little rein, and relax a little without being faulty: there lies on the +frontier some space free, indifferent, and neuter. He that has beaten +and pursued her into her fort is a strange fellow if he be not satisfied +with his fortune: the price of the conquest is considered by the +difficulty. Would you know what impression your service and merit have +made in her heart? Judge of it by her behaviour. Such an one may grant +more, who does not grant so much. The obligation of a benefit wholly +relates to the good will of those who confer it: the other coincident +circumstances are dumb, dead, and casual; it costs her dearer to grant +you that little, than it would do her companion to grant all. If in +anything rarity give estimation, it ought especially in this: do not +consider how little it is that is given, but how few have it to give; +the value of money alters according to the coinage and stamp of the +place. Whatever the spite and indiscretion of some may make them say in +the excess of their discontent, virtue and truth will in time recover all +the advantage. I have known some whose reputation has for a great while +suffered under slander, who have afterwards been restored to the world's +universal approbation by their mere constancy without care or artifice; +every one repents, and gives himself the lie for what he has believed and +said; and from girls a little suspected they have been afterward advanced +to the first rank amongst the ladies of honour. Somebody told Plato that +all the world spoke ill of him. "Let them talk," said he; "I will live +so as to make them change their note." Besides the fear of God, and the +value of so rare a glory, which ought to make them look to themselves, +the corruption of the age we live in compels them to it; and if I were +they, there is nothing I would not rather do than intrust my reputation +in so dangerous hands. In my time the pleasure of telling (a pleasure +little inferior to that of doing) was not permitted but to those who had +some faithful and only friend; but now the ordinary discourse and common +table-talk is nothing but boasts of favours received and the secret +liberality of ladies. In earnest, 'tis too abject, too much meanness of +spirit, in men to suffer such ungrateful, indiscreet, and giddy-headed +people so to persecute, forage, and rifle those tender and charming +favours. + +This our immoderate and illegitimate exasperation against this vice +springs from the most vain and turbulent disease that afflicts human +minds, which is jealousy: + + "Quis vetat apposito lumen de lumine sumi? + Dent licet assidue, nil tamen inde perit;" + + ["Who says that one light should not be lighted from another light? + Let them give ever so much, as much ever remains to lose."--Ovid, De + Arte Amandi, iii. 93. The measure of the last line is not good; + but the words are taken from the epigram in the Catalecta entitled + Priapus.] + +she, and envy, her sister, seem to me to be the most foolish of the whole +troop. As to the last, I can say little about it; 'tis a passion that, +though said to be so mighty and powerful, had never to do with me. As to +the other, I know it by sight, and that's all. Beasts feel it; the +shepherd Cratis, having fallen in love with a she-goat, the he-goat, out +of jealousy, came, as he lay asleep, to butt the head of the female, and +crushed it. We have raised this fever to a greater excess by the +examples of some barbarous nations; the best disciplined have been +touched with it, and 'tis reason, but not transported: + + "Ense maritali nemo confossus adulter + Purpureo Stygias sanguine tinxit aquas." + + ["Never did adulterer slain by a husband + stain with purple blood the Stygian waters."] + +Lucullus, Caesar, Pompey, Antony, Cato, and other brave men were +cuckolds, and knew it, without making any bustle about it; there was in +those days but one coxcomb, Lepidus, that died for grief that his wife +had used him so. + + "Ah! tum te miserum malique fati, + Quem attractis pedibus, patente porta, + Percurrent raphanique mugilesque:" + + ["Wretched man! when, taken in the fact, thou wilt be + dragged out of doors by the heels, and suffer the punishment + of thy adultery."--Catullus, xv. 17.] + +and the god of our poet, when he surprised one of his companions with his +wife, satisfied himself by putting them to shame only, + + "Atque aliquis de dis non tristibus optat + Sic fieri turpis:" + + ["And one of the merry gods wishes that he should himself + like to be so disgraced."--Ovid, Metam., iv. 187.] + +and nevertheless took anger at the lukewarm embraces she gave him; +complaining that upon that account she was grown jealous of his +affection: + + "Quid causas petis ex alto? fiducia cessit + Quo tibi, diva, mei?" + + ["Dost thou seek causes from above? Why, goddess, has your + confidence in me ceased?"--Virgil, AEneid, viii. 395.] + +nay, she entreats arms for a bastard of hers, + + "Arena rogo genitrix nato." + + ["I, a mother, ask armour for a son."--Idem, ibid., 383.] + +which are freely granted; and Vulcan speaks honourably of AEneas, + + "Arma acri facienda viro," + + ["Arms are to be made for a valiant hero."--AEneid, viii. 441.] + +with, in truth, a more than human humanity. And I am willing to leave +this excess of kindness to the gods: + + "Nec divis homines componier aequum est." + + ["Nor is it fit to compare men with gods." + --Catullus, lxviii. 141.] + +As to the confusion of children, besides that the gravest legislators +ordain and affect it in their republics, it touches not the women, where +this passion is, I know not how, much better seated: + + "Saepe etiam Juno, maxima coelicolam, + Conjugis in culpa flagravit quotidiana." + + ["Often was Juno, greatest of the heaven-dwellers, enraged by her + husband's daily infidelities."--Idem, ibid.] + +When jealousy seizes these poor souls, weak and incapable of resistance, +'tis pity to see how miserably it torments and tyrannises over them; it +insinuates itself into them under the title of friendship, but after it +has once possessed them, the same causes that served for a foundation of +good-will serve them for a foundation of mortal hatred. 'Tis, of all the +diseases of the mind, that which the most things serve for aliment and +the fewest for remedy: the virtue, health, merit, reputation of the +husband are incendiaries of their fury and ill-will: + + "Nullae sunt inimicitiae, nisi amoris, acerbae." + + ["No enmities are bitter, save that of love." + (Or:) "No hate is implacable except the hatred of love" + --Propertius, ii. 8, 3.] + +This fever defaces and corrupts all they have of beautiful and good +besides; and there is no action of a jealous woman, let her be how chaste +and how good a housewife soever, that does not relish of anger and +wrangling; 'tis a furious agitation, that rebounds them to an extremity +quite contrary to its cause. This held good with one Octavius at Rome. +Having lain with Pontia Posthumia, he augmented love with fruition, and +solicited with all importunity to marry her: unable to persuade her, this +excessive affection precipitated him to the effects of the most cruel and +mortal hatred: he killed her. In like manner, the ordinary symptoms of +this other amorous disease are intestine hatreds, private conspiracies, +and cabals: + + "Notumque furens quid faemina possit," + + ["And it is known what an angry woman is capable of doing." + --AEneid, V. 21.] + +and a rage which so much the more frets itself, as it is compelled to +excuse itself by a pretence of good-will. + +Now, the duty of chastity is of a vast extent; is it the will that we +would have them restrain? This is a very supple and active thing; a +thing very nimble, to be stayed. How? if dreams sometimes engage them so +far that they cannot deny them: it is not in them, nor, peradventure, in +chastity itself, seeing that is a female, to defend itself from lust and +desire. If we are only to trust to their will, what a case are we in, +then? Do but imagine what crowding there would be amongst men in +pursuance of the privilege to run full speed, without tongue or eyes, +into every woman's arms who would accept them. The Scythian women put +out the eyes of all their slaves and prisoners of war, that they might +have their pleasure of them, and they never the wiser. O, the furious +advantage of opportunity! Should any one ask me, what was the first +thing to be considered in love matters, I should answer that it was how +to take a fitting time; and so the second; and so the third--'tis a point +that can do everything. I have sometimes wanted fortune, but I have also +sometimes been wanting to myself in matters of attempt. God help him, +who yet makes light of this! There is greater temerity required in this +age of ours, which our young men excuse under the name of heat; but +should women examine it more strictly, they would find that it rather +proceeds from contempt. I was always superstitiously afraid of giving +offence, and have ever had a great respect for her I loved: besides, he +who in this traffic takes away the reverence, defaces at the same time +the lustre. I would in this affair have a man a little play the child, +the timorous, and the servant. If not this, I have in other bashfulness +whereof altogether in things some air of the foolish Plutarch makes +mention; and the course of my life has been divers ways hurt and +blemished with it; a quality very ill suiting my universal form: and, +indeed, what are we but sedition and discrepancy? I am as much out of +countenance to be denied as I am to deny; and it so much troubles me to +be troublesome to others that on occasion when duty compels me to try the +good-will of any one in a thing that is doubtful and that will be +chargeable to him, I do it very faintly, and very much against my will: +but if it be for my own particular (whatever Homer truly says, that +modesty is a foolish virtue in an indigent person), I commonly commit it +to a third person to blush for me, and deny those who employ me with the +same difficulty: so that it has sometimes befallen me to have had a mind +to deny, when I had not the power to do it. + +'Tis folly, then, to attempt to bridle in women a desire that is so +powerful in them, and so natural to them. And when I hear them brag of +having so maidenly and so temperate a will, I laugh at them: they retire +too far back. If it be an old toothless trot, or a young dry consumptive +thing, though it be not altogether to be believed, at least they say it +with more similitude of truth. But they who still move and breathe, talk +at that ridiculous rate to their own prejudice, by reason that +inconsiderate excuses are a kind of self-accusation; like a gentleman, a +neighbour of mine, suspected to be insufficient: + + "Languidior tenera cui pendens sicula beta, + Numquam se mediam sustulit ad tunicam," + + [Catullus, lxvii. 2, i.--The sense is in the context.] + +who three or four days after he was married, to justify himself, went +about boldly swearing that he had ridden twenty stages the night before: +an oath that was afterwards made use of to convict him of his ignorance +in that affair, and to divorce him from his wife. Besides, it signifies +nothing, for there is neither continency nor virtue where there are no +opposing desires. It is true, they may say, but we will not yield; +saints themselves speak after that manner. I mean those who boast in +good gravity of their coldness and insensibility, and who expect to be +believed with a serious countenance; for when 'tis spoken with an +affected look, when their eyes give the lie to their tongue, and when +they talk in the cant of their profession, which always goes against the +hair, 'tis good sport. I am a great servant of liberty and plainness; +but there is no remedy; if it be not wholly simple or childish, 'tis +silly, and unbecoming ladies in this commerce, and presently runs into +impudence. Their disguises and figures only serve to cosen fools; lying +is there in its seat of honour; 'tis a by-way, that by a back-door leads +us to truth. If we cannot curb their imagination, what would we have +from them. Effects? There are enough of them that evade all foreign +communication, by which chastity may be corrupted: + + "Illud saepe facit, quod sine teste facit;" + + ["He often does that which he does without a witness." + --Martial, vii. 62, 6.] + +and those which we fear the least are, peradventure, most to be feared; +their sins that make the least noise are the worst: + + "Offendor maecha simpliciore minus." + + ["I am less offended with a more professed strumpet." + --Idem, vi. 7,6.] + +There are ways by which they may lose their virginity without +prostitution, and, which is more, without their knowledge: + + "Obsterix, virginis cujusdam integritatem manu velut explorans, sive + malevolentia, sive inscitia, sive casu, dum inspicit, perdidit." + + ["By malevolence, or unskilfulness, or accident, the midwife, + seeking with the hand to test some maiden's virginity, has sometimes + destroyed it."--St. Augustine, De Civit. Dei, i. 18.] + +Such a one, by seeking her maidenhead, has lost it; another by playing +with it has destroyed it. We cannot precisely circumscribe the actions, +we interdict them; they must guess at our meaning under general and +doubtful terms; the very idea we invent for their chastity is ridiculous: +for, amongst the greatest patterns that I have is Fatua, the wife of +Faunus: who never, after her marriage, suffered herself to be seen by any +man whatever; and the wife of Hiero, who never perceived her husband's +stinking breath, imagining that it was common to all men. They must +become insensible and invisible to satisfy us. + +Now let us confess that the knot of this judgment of duty principally +lies in the will; there have been husbands who have suffered cuckoldom, +not only without reproach or taking offence at their wives, but with +singular obligation to them and great commendation of their virtue. +Such a woman has been, who prized her honour above her life, and yet has +prostituted it to the furious lust of a mortal enemy, to save her +husband's life, and who, in so doing, did that for him she would not have +done for herself! This is not the place wherein we are to multiply these +examples; they are too high and rich to be set off with so poor a foil as +I can give them here; let us reserve them for a nobler place; but for +examples of ordinary lustre, do we not every day see women amongst us who +surrender themselves for their husbands sole benefit, and by their +express order and mediation? and, of old, Phaulius the Argian, who +offered his to King Philip out of ambition; as Galba did it out of +civility, who, having entertained Maecenas at supper, and observing that +his wife and he began to cast glances at one another and to make eyes and +signs, let himself sink down upon his cushion, like one in a profound +sleep, to give opportunity to their desires: which he handsomely +confessed, for thereupon a servant having made bold to lay hands on the +plate upon the table, he frankly cried, "What, you rogue? do you not see +that I only sleep for Maecenas?" Such there may be, whose manners may be +lewd enough, whose will may be more reformed than another, who outwardly +carries herself after a more regular manner. As we see some who complain +of having vowed chastity before they knew what they did; and I have also +known others really, complain of having been given up to debauchery +before they were of the years of discretion. The vice of the parents or +the impulse of nature, which is a rough counsellor, may be the cause. + +In the East Indies, though chastity is of singular reputation, yet custom +permitted a married woman to prostitute herself to any one who presented +her with an elephant, and that with glory, to have been valued at so high +a rate. Phaedo the philosopher, a man of birth, after the taking of his +country Elis, made it his trade to prostitute the beauty of his youth, so +long as it lasted, to any one that would, for money thereby to gain his +living: and Solon was the first in Greece, 'tis said, who by his laws +gave liberty to women, at the expense of their chastity, to provide for +the necessities of life; a custom that Herodotus says had been received +in many governments before his time. And besides, what fruit is there of +this painful solicitude? For what justice soever there is in this +passion, we are yet to consider whether it turns to account or no: does +any one think to curb them, with all his industry? + + "Pone seram; cohibe: sed quis custodiet ipsos + Custodes? cauta est, et ab illis incipit uxor." + + ["Put on a lock; shut them up under a guard; but who shall guard + the guard? she knows what she is about, and begins with them." + --Juvenal, vi. 346.] + +What commodity will not serve their turn, in so knowing an age? + +Curiosity is vicious throughout; but 'tis pernicious here. 'Tis folly to +examine into a disease for which there is no physic that does not inflame +and make it worse; of which the shame grows still greater and more public +by jealousy, and of which the revenge more wounds our children than it +heals us. You wither and die in the search of so obscure a proof. How +miserably have they of my time arrived at that knowledge who have been so +unhappy as to have found it out? If the informer does not at the same +time apply a remedy and bring relief, 'tis an injurious information, and +that better deserves a stab than the lie. We no less laugh at him who +takes pains to prevent it, than at him who is a cuckold and knows it not. +The character of cuckold is indelible: who once has it carries it to his +grave; the punishment proclaims it more than the fault. It is to much +purpose to drag out of obscurity and doubt our private misfortunes, +thence to expose them on tragic scaffolds; and misfortunes that only hurt +us by being known; for we say a good wife or a happy marriage, not that +they are really so, but because no one says to the contrary. Men should +be so discreet as to evade this tormenting and unprofitable knowledge: +and the Romans had a custom, when returning from any expedition, to send +home before to acquaint their wives with their coming, that they might +not surprise them; and to this purpose it is that a certain nation has +introduced a custom, that the priest shall on the wedding-day open the +way to the bride, to free the husband from the doubt and curiosity of +examining in the first assault, whether she comes a virgin to his bed, or +has been at the trade before. + +But the world will be talking. I know, a hundred honest men cuckolds, +honestly and not unbeseemingly; a worthy man is pitied, not disesteemed +for it. Order it so that your virtue may conquer your misfortune; that +good men may curse the occasion, and that he who wrongs you may tremble +but to think on't. And, moreover, who escapes being talked of at the +same rate, from the least even to the greatest? + + "Tot qui legionibus imperitivit + Et melior quam to multis fuit, improbe, rebus." + + ["Many who have commanded legions, many a man much better far than + you, you rascal."--Lucretius, iii. 1039, 1041.] + +Seest thou how many honest men are reproached with this in thy presence; +believe that thou art no more spared elsewhere. But, the very ladies +will be laughing too; and what are they so apt to laugh at in this +virtuous age of ours as at a peaceable and well-composed marriage? Each +amongst you has made somebody cuckold; and nature runs much in parallel, +in compensation, and turn for turn. The frequency of this accident ought +long since to have made it more easy; 'tis now passed into custom. + +Miserable passion! which has this also, that it is incommunicable, + + "Fors etiam nostris invidit questibus aures;" + + ["Fortune also refuses ear to our complaints." + --Catullus, lxvii.] + +for to what friend dare you intrust your griefs, who, if he does not +laugh at them, will not make use of the occasion to get a share of the +quarry? The sharps, as well as the sweets of marriage, are kept secret +by the wise; and amongst its other troublesome conditions this to a +prating fellow, as I am, is one of the chief, that custom has rendered it +indecent and prejudicial to communicate to any one all that a man knows +and all that a man feels. To give women the same counsel against +jealousy would be so much time lost; their very being is so made up of +suspicion, vanity, and curiosity, that to cure them by any legitimate way +is not to be hoped. They often recover of this infirmity by a form of +health much more to be feared than the disease itself; for as there are +enchantments that cannot take away the evil but by throwing it upon +another, they also willingly transfer this ever to their husbands, when +they shake it off themselves. And yet I know not, to speak truth, +whether a man can suffer worse from them than their jealousy; 'tis the +most dangerous of all their conditions, as the head is of all their +members. Pittacus used to say,--[Plutarch, On Contentment, c. II.]-- +that every one had his trouble, and that his was the jealous head of his +wife; but for which he should think himself perfectly happy. A mighty +inconvenience, sure, which could poison the whole life of so just, so +wise, and so valiant a man; what must we other little fellows do? The +senate of Marseilles had reason to grant him his request who begged leave +to kill himself that he might be delivered from the clamour of his wife; +for 'tis a mischief that is never removed but by removing the whole +piece; and that has no remedy but flight or patience, though both of them +very hard. He was, methinks, an understanding fellow who said, 'twas a +happy marriage betwixt a blind wife and a deaf husband. + +Let us also consider whether the great and violent severity of obligation +we enjoin them does not produce two effects contrary to our design +namely, whether it does not render the pursuants more eager to attack, +and the women more easy to yield. For as to the first, by raising the +value of the place, we raise the value and the desire of the conquest. +Might it not be Venus herself, who so cunningly enhanced the price of her +merchandise, by making the laws her bawds; knowing how insipid a delight +it would be that was not heightened by fancy and hardness to achieve? +In short, 'tis all swine's flesh, varied by sauces, as Flaminius' host +said. Cupid is a roguish god, who makes it his sport to contend with +devotion and justice: 'tis his glory that his power mates all powers, and +that all other rules give place to his: + + "Materiam culpae prosequiturque suae." + + ["And seeks out a matter (motive) for his crimes." + --Ovid, Trist., iv. I. 34.] + +As to the second point; should we not be less cuckolds, if we less feared +to be so? according to the humour of women whom interdiction incites, and +who are more eager, being forbidden: + + "Ubi velis, nolunt; ubi nolis, volunt ultro; + Concessa pudet ire via." + + ["Where thou wilt, they won't; where thou wilt not, they + spontaneously agree; they are ashamed to go in the permitted path." + --Terence, Eunuchus, act iv., sc. 8, v 43] + +What better interpretation can we make of Messalina's behaviour? She, +at first, made her husband a cuckold in private, as is the common use; +but, bringing her business about with too much ease, by reason of her +husband's stupidity, she soon scorned that way, and presently fell to +making open love, to own her lovers, and to favour and entertain them in +the sight of all: she would make him know and see how she used him. This +animal, not to be roused with all this, and rendering her pleasures dull +and flat by his too stupid facility, by which he seemed to authorise and +make them lawful; what does she? Being the wife of a living and +healthful emperor, and at Rome, the theatre of the world, in the face of +the sun, and with solemn ceremony, and to Silius, who had long before +enjoyed her, she publicly marries herself one day that her husband was +gone out of the city. Does it not seem as if she was going to become +chaste by her husband's negligence? or that she sought another husband +who might sharpen her appetite by his jealousy, and who by watching +should incite her? But the first difficulty she met with was also the +last: this beast suddenly roused these sleepy, sluggish sort of men are +often the most dangerous: I have found by experience that this extreme +toleration, when it comes to dissolve, produces the most severe revenge; +for taking fire on a sudden, anger and fury being combined in one, +discharge their utmost force at the first onset, + + "Irarumque omnes effundit habenas:" + + ["He let loose his whole fury."--AEneid, xii. 499.] + +he put her to death, and with her a great number of those with whom she +had intelligence, and even one of them who could not help it, and whom +she had caused to be forced to her bed with scourges. + +What Virgil says of Venus and Vulcan, Lucretius had better expressed of a +stolen enjoyment betwixt her and Mars: + + "Belli fera moenera Mavors + Armipotens regit, ingremium qui saepe tuum se + Rejictt, aeterno devinctus vulnere amoris + ............................ + Pascit amore avidos inhians in te, Dea, visus, + Eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore + Hunc tu, Diva, tuo recubantem corpore sancto + Circumfusa super, suaveis ex ore loquelas + Funde." + + ["Mars, the god of wars, who controls the cruel tasks of war, often + reclines on thy bosom, and greedily drinks love at both his eyes, + vanquished by the eternal wound of love: and his breath, as he + reclines, hangs on thy lips; bending thy head over him as he lies + upon thy sacred person, pour forth sweet and persuasive words." + --Lucretius, i. 23.] + +When I consider this rejicit, fiascit, inhians, ynolli, fovet, medullas, +labefacta, pendet, percurrit, and that noble circumfusa, mother of the +pretty infuses; I disdain those little quibbles and verbal allusions that +have since sprung up. Those worthy people stood in need of no subtlety +to disguise their meaning; their language is downright, and full of +natural and continued vigour; they are all epigram; not only the tail, +but the head, body, and feet. There is nothing forced, nothing +languishing, but everything keeps the same pace: + + "Contextus totes virilis est; non sunt circa flosculos occupati." + + ["The whole contexture is manly; they don't occupy themselves with + little flowers of rhetoric."--Seneca, Ep., 33.] + +'Tis not a soft eloquence, and without offence only; 'tis nervous and +solid, that does not so much please, as it fills and ravishes the +greatest minds. When I see these brave forms of expression, so lively, +so profound, I do not say that 'tis well said, but well thought. 'Tis +the sprightliness of the imagination that swells and elevates the words: + + "Pectus est quod disertum Tacit." + + ["The heart makes the man eloquent."--Quintilian, x. 7.] + +Our people call language, judgment, and fine words, full conceptions. +This painting is not so much carried on by dexterity of hand as by having +the object more vividly imprinted in the soul. Gallus speaks simply +because he conceives simply: Horace does not content himself with a +superficial expression; that would betray him; he sees farther and more +clearly into things; his mind breaks into and rummages all the magazine +of words and figures wherewith to express himself, and he must have them +more than ordinary, because his conception is so. Plutarch says' that he +sees the Latin tongue by the things: 'tis here the same: the sense +illuminates and produces the words, no more words of air, but of flesh +and bone; they signify more than they say. Moreover, those who are not +well skilled in a language present some image of this; for in Italy I +said whatever I had a mind to in common discourse, but in more serious +talk, I durst not have trusted myself with an idiom that I could not wind +and turn out of its ordinary pace; I would have a power of introducing +something of my own. + +The handling and utterance of fine wits is that which sets off language; +not so much by innovating it, as by putting it to more vigorous and +various services, and by straining, bending, and adapting it to them. +They do not create words, but they enrich their own, and give them weight +and signification by the uses they put them to, and teach them unwonted +motions, but withal ingeniously and discreetly. And how little this +talent is given to all is manifest by the many French scribblers of this +age: they are bold and proud enough not to follow the common road, but +want of invention and discretion ruins them; there is nothing seen in +their writings but a wretched affectation of a strange new style, with +cold and absurd disguises, which, instead of elevating, depress the +matter: provided they can but trick themselves out with new words, they +care not what they signify; and to bring in a new word by the head and +shoulders, they leave the old one, very often more sinewy and significant +than the other. + +There is stuff enough in our language, but there is a defect in cutting +out: for there is nothing that might not be made out of our terms of +hunting and war, which is a fruitful soil to borrow from; and forms of +speaking, like herbs, improve and grow stronger by being transplanted. +I find it sufficiently abundant, but not sufficiently pliable and +vigorous; it commonly quails under a powerful conception; if you would +maintain the dignity of your style, you will often perceive it to flag +and languish under you, and there Latin steps in to its relief, as Greek +does to others. Of some of these words I have just picked out we do not +so easily discern the energy, by reason that the frequent use of them has +in some sort abased their beauty, and rendered it common; as in our +ordinary language there are many excellent phrases and metaphors to be +met with, of which the beauty is withered by age, and the colour is +sullied by too common handling; but that nothing lessens the relish to an +understanding man, nor does it derogate from the glory of those ancient +authors who, 'tis likely, first brought those words into that lustre. + +The sciences treat of things too refinedly, after an artificial, very +different from the common and natural, way. My page makes love, and +understands it; but read to him Leo Hebraeus--[Leo the Jew, Ficinus, +Cardinal Bembo, and Mario Equicola all wrote Treatises on Love.]-- +and Ficinus, where they speak of love, its thoughts and actions, he +understands it not. I do not find in Aristotle most of my ordinary +motions; they are there covered and disguised in another robe for the use +of the schools. Good speed them! were I of the trade, I would as much +naturalise art as they artificialise nature. Let us let Bembo and +Equicola alone. + +When I write, I can very well spare both the company and the remembrance +of books, lest they should interrupt my progress; and also, in truth, the +best authors too much humble and discourage me: I am very much of the +painter's mind, who, having represented cocks most wretchedly ill, +charged all his boys not to suffer any natural cock to come into his +shop; and had rather need to give myself a little lustre, of the +invention of Antigenides the musician, who, when he was asked to sing or +play, took care beforehand that the auditory should, either before or +after, be satiated with some other ill musicians. But I can hardly be +without Plutarch; he is so universal and so full, that upon all +occasions, and what extravagant subject soever you take in hand, he will +still be at your elbow, and hold out to you a liberal and not to be +exhausted hand of riches and embellishments. It vexes me that he is so +exposed to be the spoil of those who are conversant with him: I can +scarce cast an eye upon him but I purloin either a leg or a wing. + +And also for this design of mine 'tis convenient for me for me to write +at home, in a wild country, where I have nobody to assist or relieve me; +where I hardly see a man who understands the Latin of his Paternoster, +and of French a little less. I might have made it better elsewhere, but +then the work would have been less my own; and its principal end and +perfection is to be exactly mine. I readily correct an accidental error, +of which I am full, as I run carelessly on; but for my ordinary and +constant imperfections, it were a kind of treason to put them out. When +another tells me, or that I say to myself, "Thou art too thick of +figures: this is a word of rough Gascon: that is a dangerous phrase (I do +not reject any of those that are used in the common streets of France; +they who would fight custom with grammar are triflers): this is an +ignorant discourse: this is a paradoxical discourse: that is going too +far: thou makest thyself too merry at times: men will think thou sayest a +thing in good earnest which thou only speakest in jest."--"Yes, I know, +but I correct the faults of inadvertence, not those of custom. Do I not +talk at the same rate throughout? Do I not represent myself to the life? +'Tis enough that I have done what I designed; all the world knows me in +my book, and my book in me." + +Now I have an apish, imitative quality: when I used to write verses (and +I never made any but Latin), they evidently discovered the poet I had +last read, and some of my first essays have a little exotic taste: I +speak something another kind of language at Paris than I do at Montaigne. +Whoever I steadfastly look upon easily leaves some impression of his upon +me; whatever I consider I usurp, whether a foolish countenance, a +disagreeable look, or a ridiculous way of speaking; and vices most of +all, because they seize and stick to me, and will not leave hold without +shaking. I swear more by imitation than by complexion: a murderous +imitation, like that of the apes so terrible both in stature and +strength, that Alexander met with in a certain country of the Indies, and +which he would have had much ado any other way to have subdued; but they +afforded him the means by that inclination of theirs to imitate whatever +they saw done; for by that the hunters were taught to put on shoes in +their sight, and to tie them fast with many knots, and to muffle up their +heads in caps all composed of running nooses, and to seem to anoint their +eyes with glue; so did those poor beasts employ their imitation to their +own ruin they glued up their own eyes, haltered and bound themselves. +The other faculty of playing the mimic, and ingeniously acting the words +and gestures of another, purposely to make people merry and to raise +their admiration, is no more in me than in a stock. When I swear my own +oath, 'tis only, by God! of all oaths the most direct. They say that +Socrates swore by the dog; Zeno had for his oath the same interjection at +this time in use amongst the Italians, Cappari! Pythagoras swore By +water and air. I am so apt, without thinking of it, to receive these +superficial impressions, that if I have Majesty or Highness in my mouth +three days together, they come out instead of Excellency and Lordship +eight days after; and what I say to-day in sport and fooling I shall say +the same to-morrow seriously. Wherefore, in writing, I more unwillingly +undertake beaten arguments, lest I should handle them at another's +expense. Every subject is equally fertile to me: a fly will serve the +purpose, and 'tis well if this I have in hand has not been undertaken at +the recommendation of as flighty a will. I may begin, with that which +pleases me best, for the subjects are all linked to one another. + +But my soul displeases me, in that it ordinarily produces its deepest and +most airy conceits and which please me best, when I least expect or study +for them, and which suddenly vanish, having at the instant, nothing to +apply them to; on horseback, at table, and in bed: but most on horseback, +where I am most given to think. My speaking is a little nicely jealous +of silence and attention: if I am talking my best, whoever interrupts me, +stops me. In travelling, the necessity of the way will often put a stop +to discourse; besides which I, for the most part, travel without company +fit for regular discourses, by which means I have all the leisure I would +to entertain myself. It falls out as it does in my dreams; whilst +dreaming I recommend them to my memory (for I am apt to dream that I +dream), but, the next morning, I may represent to myself of what +complexion they were, whether gay, or sad, or strange, but what they +were, as to the rest, the more I endeavour to retrieve them, the deeper I +plunge them in oblivion. So of thoughts that come accidentally into my +head, I have no more but a vain image remaining in my memory; only enough +to make me torment myself in their quest to no purpose. + +Well, then, laying books aside, and more simply and materially speaking, +I find, after all, that Love is nothing else but the thirst of enjoying +the object desired, or Venus any other thing than the pleasure of +discharging one's vessels, just as the pleasure nature gives in +discharging other parts, that either by immoderation or indiscretion +become vicious. According to Socrates, love is the appetite of +generation by the mediation of beauty. And when I consider the +ridiculous titillation of this pleasure, the absurd, crack-brained, wild +motions with which it inspires Zeno and Cratippus, the indiscreet rage, +the countenance inflamed with fury and cruelty in the sweetest effects of +love, and then that austere air, so grave, severe, ecstatic, in so wanton +an action; that our delights and our excrements are promiscuously +shuffled together; and that the supreme pleasure brings along with it, as +in pain, fainting and complaining; I believe it to be true, as Plato +says, that the gods made man for their sport: + + "Quaenam ista jocandi + Saevitia!" + + ["With a sportive cruelty" (Or:) "What an unkindness there is in + jesting!"--Claudian in Eutrop. i. 24.] + +and that it was in mockery that nature has ordered the most agitative of +actions and the most common, to make us equal, and to put fools and wise +men, beasts and us, on a level. Even the most contemplative and prudent +man, when I imagine him in this posture, I hold him an impudent fellow to +pretend to be prudent and contemplative; they are the peacocks' feet that +abate his pride: + + "Ridentem dicere verum + Quid vetat?" + + ["What prevents us from speaking truth with a smile?" + --Horace, Sat., i. I, 24.] + +They who banish serious imaginations from their sports, do, says one, +like him who dares not adore the statue of a saint, if not covered with a +veil. We eat and drink, indeed, as beasts do; but these are not actions +that obstruct the functions of the soul, in these we maintain our +advantage over them; this other action subjects all other thought, +and by its imperious authority makes an ass of all Plato's divinity and +philosophy; and yet there is no complaint of it. In everything else a +man may keep some decorum, all other operations submit to the rules of +decency; this cannot so much as in imagination appear other than vicious +or ridiculous: find out, if you can, therein any serious and discreet +procedure. Alexander said, that he chiefly knew himself to be mortal by +this act and sleeping; sleep suffocates and suppresses the faculties of +the soul; the familiarity with women likewise dissipates and exhausts +them: doubtless 'tis a mark, not only of our original corruption, but +also of our vanity and deformity. + +On the one side, nature pushes us on to it, having fixed the most noble, +useful, and pleasant of all her functions to this desire: and, on the +other side, leaves us to accuse and avoid it, as insolent and indecent, +to blush at it, and to recommend abstinence. Are we not brutes to call +that work brutish which begets us? People of so many differing religions +have concurred in several proprieties, as sacrifices, lamps, burning +incense, fasts, and offerings; and amongst others, in the condemning this +act: all opinions tend that way, besides the widespread custom of +circumcision, which may be regarded as a punishment. We have, +peradventure, reason to blame ourselves for being guilty of so foolish +a production as man, and to call the act, and the parts that are employed +in the act, shameful (mine, truly, are now shameful and pitiful). The +Essenians, of whom Pliny speaks, kept up their country for several ages +without either nurse or baby-clouts, by the arrival of strangers who, +following this pretty humour, came continually to them: a whole nation +being resolute, rather to hazard a total extermination, than to engage +themselves in female embraces, and rather to lose the succession of men, +than to beget one. 'Tis said, that Zeno never had to do with a woman but +once in his life, and then out of civility, that he might not seem too +obstinately to disdain the sex. + + [Diogenes Laertius, vii. 13.--What is there said, however, is that + Zeno seldom had commerce with boys, lest he should be deemed a very + misogynist.] + +Every one avoids seeing a man born, every one runs to see him die; to +destroy him a spacious field is sought out in the face of the sun, but, +to make him, we creep into as dark and private a corner as we can: 'tis a +man's duty to withdraw himself bashfully from the light to create; but +'tis glory and the fountain of many virtues to know how to destroy what +we have made: the one is injury, the other favour: for Aristotle says +that to do any one a kindness, in a certain phrase of his country, is to +kill him. The Athenians, to couple the disgrace of these two actions, +having to purge the Isle of Delos, and to justify themselves to Apollo, +interdicted at once all births and burials in the precincts thereof: + + "Nostri nosmet paenitet." + + ["We are ashamed of ourselves."--Terence, Phoymio, i. 3, 20.] + +There are some nations that will not be seen to eat. I know a lady, and +of the best quality, who has the same opinion, that chewing disfigures +the face, and takes away much from the ladies' grace and beauty; and +therefore unwillingly appears at a public table with an appetite; and I +know a man also, who cannot endure to see another eat, nor himself to be +seen eating, and who is more shy of company when putting in than when +putting out. In the Turkish empire, there are a great number of men who, +to excel others, never suffer themselves to be seen when they make their +repast: who never have any more than one a week; who cut and mangle their +faces and limbs; who never speak to any one: fanatic people who think to +honour their nature by disnaturing themselves; who value themselves upon +their contempt of themselves, and purport to grow better by being worse. +What monstrous animal is this, that is a horror to himself, to whom his +delights are grievous, and who weds himself to misfortune? There are +people who conceal their life: + + "Exilioque domos et dulcia limina mutant," + + ["And change for exile their homes and pleasant abodes." + --Virgil, Georg., ii. 511.] + +and withdraw them from the sight of other men; who avoid health and +cheerfulness, as dangerous and prejudicial qualities. Not only many +sects, but many peoples, curse their birth, and bless their death; and +there is a place where the sun is abominated and darkness adored. We are +only ingenious in using ourselves ill: 'tis the real quarry our +intellects fly at; and intellect, when misapplied, is a dangerous tool! + + "O miseri! quorum gaudia crimen habent!" + + ["O wretched men, whose pleasures are a crime!" + --Pseudo Gallus, i. 180.] + +Alas, poor man! thou hast enough inconveniences that are inevitable, +without increasing them by throe own invention; and art miserable enough +by nature, without being so by art; thou hast real and essential +deformities enough, without forging those that are imaginary. Dost thou +think thou art too much at ease unless half thy ease is uneasy? dost +thou find that thou hast not performed all the necessary offices that +nature has enjoined thee, and that she is idle in thee, if thou dost not +oblige thyself to other and new offices? Thou dost not stick to infringe +her universal and undoubted laws; but stickest to thy own special and +fantastic rules, and by how much more particular, uncertain, and +contradictory they are, by so much thou employest thy whole endeavour in +them: the laws of thy parish occupy and bind thee: those of God and the +world concern thee not. Run but a little over the examples of this kind; +thy life is full of them. + +Whilst the verses of these two poets, treat so reservedly and discreetly +of wantonness as they do, methinks they discover it much more openly. +Ladies cover their necks with network, priests cover several sacred +things, and painters shadow their pictures to give them greater lustre: +and 'tis said that the sun and wind strike more violently by reflection +than in a direct line. The Egyptian wisely answered him who asked him +what he had under his cloak, "It is hid under my cloak," said he, "that +thou mayest not know what it is:" but there are certain other things that +people hide only to show them. Hear that one, who speaks plainer, + + "Et nudum pressi corpus ad usque meum:" + + ["And pressed her naked body to mine" (Or:) "My body + I applied even to her naked side"--Ovid, Amor., i. 5, 24.] + +methinks that he emasculates me. Let Martial turn up Venus as high as he +may, he cannot shew her so naked: he who says all that is to be said +gluts and disgusts us. He who is afraid to express himself, draws us on +to guess at more than is meant; there is treachery in this sort of +modesty, and specially when they half open, as these do, so fair a path +to imagination. Both the action and description should relish of theft. + +The more respectful, more timorous, more coy, and secret love of the +Spaniards and Italians pleases me. I know not who of old wished his +throat as long as that of a crane, that he might the longer taste what he +swallowed; it had been better wished as to this quick and precipitous +pleasure, especially in such natures as mine that have the fault of being +too prompt. To stay its flight and delay it with preambles: all things-- +a glance, a bow, a word, a sign, stand for favour and recompense betwixt +them. Were it not an excellent piece of thrift in him who could dine on +the steam of the roast? 'Tis a passion that mixes with very little solid +essence, far more vanity and feverish raving; and we should serve and pay +it accordingly. Let us teach the ladies to set a better value and esteem +upon themselves, to amuse and fool us: we give the last charge at the +first onset; the French impetuosity will still show itself; by spinning +out their favours, and exposing them in small parcels, even miserable old +age itself will find some little share of reward, according to its worth +and merit. He who has no fruition but in fruition, who wins nothing +unless he sweeps the stakes, who takes no pleasure in the chase but in +the quarry, ought not to introduce himself in our school: the more steps +and degrees there are, so much higher and more honourable is the +uppermost seat: we should take a pleasure in being conducted to it, as in +magnificent palaces, by various porticoes and passages, long and pleasant +galleries, and many windings. This disposition of things would turn to +our advantage; we should there longer stay and longer love; without hope +and without desire we proceed not worth a pin. Our conquest and entire +possession is what they ought infinitely to dread: when they wholly +surrender themselves up to the mercy of our fidelity and constancy they +run a mighty hazard; they are virtues very rare and hard to be found; the +ladies are no sooner ours, than we are no more theirs: + + "Postquam cupidae mentis satiata libido est, + Verba nihil metuere, nihil perjuria curant;" + + ["When our desires are once satisfied, we care little + for oaths and promises."--Catullus, lxiv. 147.] + +And Thrasonides, a young man of Greece, was so in love with his passion +that, having, gained a mistress's consent, he refused to enjoy her, that +he might not by fruition quench and stupefy the unquiet ardour of which +he was so proud, and with which he so fed himself. Dearness is a good +sauce to meat: do but observe how much the manner of salutation, +particular to our nation, has, by its facilities, made kisses, which +Socrates says are so powerful and dangerous for the stealing of hearts, +of no esteem. It is a displeasing custom and injurious for the ladies, +that they must be obliged to lend their lips to every fellow who has +three footmen at his heels, however ill-favoured he may be in himself: + + "Cujus livida naribus caninis + Dependet glacies, rigetque barba . . . + Centum occurrere malo culilingis:" + Martial, vii. 94. + +and we ourselves barely gain by it; for as the world is divided, for +three beautiful women we must kiss fifty ugly ones; and to a tender +stomach, like those of my age, an ill kiss overpays a good one. + +In Italy they passionately court even their common women who sell +themselves for money, and justify the doing so by saying, "that there are +degrees of fruition, and that by such service they would procure for +themselves that which is most entire; the women sell nothing but their +bodies; the will is too free and too much of its own to be exposed to +sale." So that these say, 'tis the will they undertake and they have +reason. 'Tis indeed the will that we are to serve and gain by wooing. +I abhor to imagine mine, a body without affection: and this madness is, +methinks, cousin-german to that of the boy who would needs pollute the +beautiful statue of Venus made by Praxiteles; or that of the furious +Egyptian, who violated the dead carcase of a woman he was embalming: +which was the occasion of the law then made in Egypt, that the corpses of +beautiful young women, of those of good quality, should be kept three +days before they should be delivered to those whose office it was to take +care for the interment. Periander did more wonderfully, who extended his +conjugal affection (more regular and legitimate) to the enjoyment of his +wife Melissa after she was dead. Does it not seem a lunatic humour in +the Moon, seeing she could no otherwise enjoy her darling Endymion, to +lay-him for several months asleep, and to please herself with the +fruition of a boy who stirred not but in his sleep? I likewise say that +we love a body without a soul or sentiment when we love a body without +its consent and desire. All enjoyments are not alike: there are some +that are hectic and languishing: a thousand other causes besides good- +will may procure us this favour from the ladies; this is not a sufficient +testimony of affection: treachery may lurk there, as well as elsewhere: +they sometimes go to't by halves: + + "Tanquam thura merumque parent + Absentem marmoreamve putes:" + + ["As if they are preparing frankincense and wine . . . you might + think her absent or marble."--Martial, xi. 103, 12, and 59, 8.] + +I know some who had rather lend that than their coach, and who only +impart themselves that way. You are to examine whether your company +pleases them upon any other account, or, as some strong-chined groom, +for that only; in what degree of favour and esteem you are with them: + + "Tibi si datur uni, + Quem lapide illa diem candidiore notat." + + ["Wherefore that is enough, if that day alone is given us which she + marks with a whiter stone."--Catullus, lxviii. 147.] + +What if they eat your bread with the sauce of a more pleasing +imagination. + + "Te tenet, absentes alios suspirat amores." + + ["She has you in her arms; her thoughts are with + other absent lovers."--Tibullus, i. 6, 35.] + +What? have we not seen one in these days of ours who made use of this act +for the purpose of a most horrid revenge, by that means to kill and +poison, as he did, a worthy lady? + +Such as know Italy will not think it strange if, for this subject, I seek +not elsewhere for examples; for that nation may be called the regent of +the world in this. They have more generally handsome and fewer ugly +women than we; but for rare and excellent beauties we have as many as +they. I think the same of their intellects: of those of the common sort, +they have evidently far more brutishness is immeasurably rarer there; +but in individual characters of the highest form, we are nothing indebted +to them. If I should carry on the comparison, I might say, as touching +valour, that, on the contrary, it is, to what it is with them, common and +natural with us; but sometimes we see them possessed of it to such a +degree as surpasses the greatest examples we can produce: The marriages +of that country are defective in this; their custom commonly imposes so +rude and so slavish a law upon the women, that the most distant +acquaintance with a stranger is as capital an offence as the most +intimate; so that all approaches being rendered necessarily substantial, +and seeing that all comes to one account, they have no hard choice to +make; and when they have broken down the fence, we may safely presume +they get on fire: + + "Luxuria ipsis vinculis, sicut fera bestia, + irritata, deinde emissa." + + ["Lust, like a wild beast, being more excited by being bound, + breaks from his chains with greater wildness."--Livy, xxxiv. 4.] + +They must give them a little more rein: + + "Vidi ego nuper equum, contra sua frena tenacem, + Ore reluctanti fulminis ire modo": + + ["I saw, the other day, a horse struggling against his bit, + rush like a thunderbolt."--Ovid, Amor., iii. 4, 13.] + +the desire of company is allayed by giving it a little liberty. We are +pretty much in the same case they are extreme in constraint, we in +licence. 'Tis a good custom we have in France that our sons are received +into the best families, there to be entertained and bred up pages, as in +a school of nobility; and 'tis looked upon as a discourtesy and an +affront to refuse this to a gentleman. I have taken notice (for, so many +families, so many differing forms) that the ladies who have been +strictest with their maids have had no better luck than those who allowed +them a greater liberty. There should be moderation in these things; one +must leave a great deal of their conduct to their own discretion; for, +when all comes to all, no discipline can curb them throughout. But it is +true withal that she who comes off with flying colours from a school of +liberty, brings with her whereon to repose more confidence than she who +comes away sound from a severe and strict school. + +Our fathers dressed up their daughters' looks in bashfulness and fear +(their courage and desires being the same); we ours in confidence and +assurance; we understand nothing of the matter; we must leave it to the +Sarmatian women, who may not lie with a man till with their own hands +they have first killed another in battle. For me, who have no other +title left me to these things but by the ears, 'tis sufficient if, +according to the privilege of my age, they retain me for one of their +counsel. I advise them then, and us men too, to abstinence; but if the +age we live in will not endure it, at least modesty and discretion. For, +as in the story of Aristippus, who, speaking to some young men who +blushed to see him go into a scandalous house, said "the vice is in not +coming out, not in going in," let her who has no care of her conscience +have yet some regard to her reputation; and though she be rotten within, +let her carry a fair outside at least. + +I commend a gradation and delay in bestowing their favours: Plato +'declares that, in all sorts of love, facility and promptness are +forbidden to the defendant. 'Tis a sign of eagerness which they ought to +disguise with all the art they have, so rashly, wholly, and hand-over- +hand to surrender themselves. In carrying themselves orderly and +measuredly in the granting their last favours, they much more allure our +desires and hide their own. Let them still fly before us, even those who +have most mind to be overtaken: they better conquer us by flying, as the +Scythians did. To say the truth, according to the law that nature has +imposed upon them, it is not properly for them either to will or desire; +their part is to suffer, obey, and consent and for this it is that nature +has given them a perpetual capacity, which in us is but at times and +uncertain; they are always fit for the encounter, that they may be always +ready when we are so "Pati natee."-["Born to suffer."-Seneca, Ep., 95.]-- +And whereas she has ordered that our appetites shall be manifest by a +prominent demonstration, she would have theirs to be hidden and concealed +within, and has furnished them with parts improper for ostentation, and +simply defensive. Such proceedings as this that follows must be left to +the Amazonian licence: Alexander marching his army through Hyrcania, +Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons, came with three hundred light horse of +her own-sex, well mounted, and armed, having left the remainder of a very +great, army that followed her behind the neighbouring mountains to give +him a visit; where she publicly and in plain terms told him that the fame +of his valour and victories had brought her thither to see him, and to +make him an offer of her forces to assist him in the pursuit of his +enterprises; and that, finding him so handsome, young, and vigorous, she, +who was also perfect in all those qualities, advised that they might lie +together, to the end that from the most valiant woman of the world and +the bravest man then living, there might spring some great and wonderful +issue for the time to come. Alexander returned her thanks for all the +rest; but, to give leisure for the accomplishment of her last demand, +he detained her thirteen days in that place, which were spent in royal +feasting and jollity, for the welcome of so courageous a princess. + +We are, almost throughout, unjust judges of their actions, as they are of +ours. I confess the truth when it makes against me, as well as when 'tis +on my side. 'Tis an abominable intemperance that pushes them on so often +to change, and that will not let them limit their affection to any one +person whatever; as is evident in that goddess to whom are attributed so +many changes and so many lovers. But 'tis true withal that 'tis contrary +to the nature of love if it be, not violent; and contrary to the nature +of violence if it be constant. And they who wonder, exclaim, and keep +such a clutter to find out the causes of this frailty of theirs, as +unnatural and not to be believed, how comes it to pass they do not +discern how often they are themselves guilty of the same, without any +astonishment or miracle at all? It would, peradventure, be more strange +to see the passion fixed; 'tis not a simply corporeal passion. If there +be no end to avarice and ambition, there is doubtless no more in desire; +it still lives after satiety; and 'tis impossible to prescribe either +constant satisfaction or end; it ever goes beyond its possession. And by +that means inconstancy, peradventure, is in some sort more pardonable in +them than in us: they may plead, as well as we, the inclination to +variety and novelty common to us both; and secondly, without us, that +they buy a cat in a sack: Joanna, queen of Naples, caused her first +husband, Andrews, to be hanged at the bars of her window in a halter of +gold and silk woven with her own hand, because in matrimonial +performances she neither found his parts nor abilities answer the +expectation she had conceived from his stature, beauty, youth, and +activity, by which she had been caught and deceived. They may say there +is more pains required in doing than in suffering; and so they are on +their part always at least provided for necessity, whereas on our part it +may fall out otherwise. For this reason it was, that Plato wisely made a +law that before marriage, to determine of the fitness of persons, the +judges should see the young men who pretended to it stripped stark naked, +and the women but to the girdle only. When they come to try us they do +not, perhaps, find us worthy of their choice: + + "Experta latus, madidoque simillima loro + Inguina, nec lassa stare coacta manu, + Deserit imbelles thalamos." + + ["After using every endeavour to arouse him to action, + she quits the barren couch."--Martial, vii. 58.] + +'Tis not enough that a man's will be good; weakness and insufficiency +lawfully break a marriage, + + "Et quaerendum aliunde foret nervosius illud, + Quod posset zonam solvere virgineam:" + + ["And seeks a more vigorous lover to undo her virgin zone." + --Catullus, lxvii. 27.] + +why not? and according to her own standard, an amorous intelligence, +more licentious and active, + + "Si blando nequeat superesse labori." + + ["If his strength be unequal to the pleasant task." + --Virgil, Georg., iii. 127.] + +But is it not great impudence to offer our imperfections and +imbecilities, where we desire to please and leave a good opinion and +esteem of ourselves? For the little that I am able to do now: + + "Ad unum + Mollis opus." + + ["Fit but for once."--Horace, Epod., xii. 15.] + +I would not trouble a woman, that I am to reverence and fear: + + "Fuge suspicari, + Cujus undenum trepidavit aetas + Claudere lustrum." + + ["Fear not him whose eleventh lustrum is closed." + --Horace, Od., ii. 4, 12, limits it to the eighth.] + +Nature should satisfy herself in having rendered this age miserable, +without rendering it ridiculous too. I hate to see it, for one poor inch +of pitiful vigour which comes upon it but thrice a week, to strut and set +itself out with as much eagerness as if it could do mighty feats; a true +flame of flax; and laugh to see it so boil and bubble and then in a +moment so congealed and extinguished. This appetite ought to appertain +only to the flower of beautiful youth: trust not to its seconding that +indefatigable, full, constant, magnanimous ardour you think in you, for +it will certainly leave you in a pretty corner; but rather transfer it to +some tender, bashful, and ignorant boy, who yet trembles at the rod, and +blushes: + + "Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro + Si quis ebur, vel mista rubent ubi lilia multa + Alba rosa." + + ["As Indian ivory streaked with crimson, or white lilies mixed + with the damask rose."--AEneid, xii. 67.] + +Who can stay till the morning without dying for shame to behold the +disdain of the fair eyes of her who knows so well his fumbling +impertinence, + + "Et taciti fecere tamen convicia vultus," + + ["Though she nothing say, her looks betray her anger." + --Ovid, Amor., i. 7, 21.] + +has never had the satisfaction and the glory of having cudgelled them +till they were weary, with the vigorous performance of one heroic night. +When I have observed any one to be vexed with me, I have not presently +accused her levity, but have been in doubt, if I had not reason rather to +complain of nature; she has doubtless used me very uncivilly and +unkindly: + + "Si non longa satis, si non bene mentula crassa + Nimirum sapiunt, videntque parvam + Matronae quoque mentulam illibenter:" + + [The first of these verses is the commencement of an epigram of the + Veterum Poetayurra Catalecta, and the two others are from an epigram + in the same collection (Ad Matrones). They describe untranslatably + Montaigne's charge against nature, indicated in the previous + passage.] + +and done me a most enormous injury. Every member I have, as much one as +another, is equally my own, and no other more properly makes me a man +than this. + +I universally owe my entire picture to the public. The wisdom of my +instruction consists in liberty, in truth, in essence: disdaining to +introduce those little, feigned, common, and provincial rules into the +catalogue of its real duties; all natural, general, and constant, +of which civility and ceremony are daughters indeed, but illegitimate. +We are sure to have the vices of appearance, when we shall have had those +of essence: when we have done with these, we run full drive upon the +others, if we find it must be so; for there is danger that we shall fancy +new offices, to excuse our negligence towards the natural ones, and to +confound them: and to manifest this, is it not seen that in places where +faults are crimes, crimes are but faults; that in nations where the laws +of decency are most rare and most remiss, the primitive laws of common +reason are better observed: the innumerable multitude of so many duties +stifling and dissipating our care. The application of ourselves to light +and trivial things diverts us from those that are necessary and just. +Oh, how these superficial men take an easy and plausible way in +comparison of ours! These are shadows wherewith we palliate and pay one +another; but we do not pay, but inflame the reckoning towards that great +judge, who tucks up our rags and tatters above our shameful parts, and +suckles not to view us all over, even to our inmost and most secret +ordures: it were a useful decency of our maidenly modesty, could it keep +him from this discovery. In fine, whoever could reclaim man from so +scrupulous a verbal superstition, would do the world no great disservice. +Our life is divided betwixt folly and prudence: whoever will write of it +but what is reverend and canonical, will leave above the one-half behind. +I do not excuse myself to myself; and if I did, it should rather be for +my excuses that I would excuse myself than for any other fault; I excuse +myself of certain humours, which I think more strong in number than those +that are on my side. In consideration of which, I will further say this +(for I desire to please every one, though it will be hard to do): + + "Esse unum hominem accommodatum ad tantam morum + ac sermonum et voluntatum varietatem," + + ["For a man to conform to such a variety of manners, + discourses, and will."--Q. Cicero, De Pet. Consul, c. 14.] + +that they ought not to condemn me for what I make authorities, received +and approved by so many ages, to utter: and that there is no reason that +for want of rhyme they should refuse me the liberty they allow even to +churchmen of our nation and time, and these amongst the most notable, of +which here are two of their brisk verses: + + "Rimula, dispeream, ni monogramma tua est." + + "Un vit d'amy la contente et bien traicte:" + + [St. Gelais, (Euvres Poetiques), p. 99, ed. of Lyons, 1574.] + +besides how many others. I love modesty; and 'tis not out of judgment +that I have chosen this scandalous way of speaking; 'tis nature that has +chosen it for me. I commend it not, no more than other forms that are +contrary to common use: but I excuse it, and by circumstances both +general and particular, alleviate its accusation. + +But to proceed. Whence, too, can proceed that usurpation of sovereign +authority you take upon you over the women, who favour you at their own +expense, + + "Si furtiva dedit mira munuscula nocte," + + ["If, in the stealthy night, she has made strange gifts." + --Catullus, lxviii. 145.] + +so that you presently assume the interest, coldness, and authority of a +husband? 'Tis a free contract why do you not then keep to it, as you +would have them do? there is no prescription upon voluntary things. +'Tis against the form, but it is true withal, that I in my time have +conducted this bargain as much as the nature of it would permit, as +conscientiously and with as much colour of justice, as any other +contract; and that I never pretended other affection than what I really +had, and have truly acquainted them with its birth, vigour, and +declination, its fits and intermissions: a man does not always hold on +at the same rate. I have been so sparing of my promises, that I think +I have been better than my word. They have found me faithful even to +service of their inconstancy, a confessed and sometimes multiplied +inconstancy. I never broke with them, whilst I had any hold at all, and +what occasion soever they have given me, never broke with them to hatred +or contempt; for such privacies, though obtained upon never so scandalous +terms, do yet oblige to some good will: I have sometimes, upon their +tricks and evasions, discovered a little indiscreet anger and impatience; +for I am naturally subject to rash emotions, which, though light and +short, often spoil my market. At any time they have consulted my +judgment, I never stuck to give them sharp and paternal counsels, and to +pinch them to the quick. If I have left them any cause to complain of +me, 'tis rather to have found in me, in comparison of the modern use, a +love foolishly conscientious than anything else. I have kept my, word in +things wherein I might easily have been dispensed; they sometimes +surrendered themselves with reputation, and upon articles that they were +willing enough should be broken by the conqueror: I have, more than once, +made pleasure in its greatest effort strike to the interest of their +honour; and where reason importuned me, have armed them against myself; +so that they ordered themselves more decorously and securely by my rules, +when they frankly referred themselves to them, than they would have done +by their own. I have ever, as much as I could, wholly taken upon myself +alone the hazard of our assignations, to acquit them; and have always +contrived our meetings after the hardest and most unusual manner, as less +suspected, and, moreover, in my opinion, more accessible. They are +chiefly more open, where they think they are most securely shut; things +least feared are least interdicted and observed; one may more boldly dare +what nobody thinks you dare, which by its difficulty becomes easy. Never +had any man his approaches more impertinently generative; this way of +loving is more according to discipline but how ridiculous it is to our +people, and how ineffectual, who better knows than I? yet I shall not +repent me of it; I have nothing there more to lose: + + "Me tabula sacer + Votiva paries, indicat uvida + Suspendisse potenti + Vestimenta maris deo:" + + [" The holy wall, by my votive table, shows that I have hanged up my + wet clothes in honour of the powerful god of the sea." + --Horace, Od., i. 5, 13.] + +'tis now time to speak out. But as I might, per adventure, say to +another, " Thou talkest idly, my friend; the love of thy time has little +commerce with faith and integrity;" + + "Haec si tu postules + Ratione certa facere, nihilo plus agas, + Quam si des operam, ut cum ratione insanias:" + + ["If you seek to make these things certain by reason, you will do no + more than if you should seek to be mad in your senses." + --Terence, Eun., act i., sc. i, v. 16.] + +on the contrary, also, if it were for me to begin again, certainly it +should be by the same method and the same progress, how fruitless soever +it might be to me; folly and insufficiency are commendable in an +incommendable action: the farther I go from their humour in this, I +approach so much nearer to my own. As to the rest, in this traffic, I +did not suffer myself to be totally carried away; I pleased myself in it, +but did not forget myself. I retained the little sense and discretion +that nature has given me, entire for their service and my own: a little +emotion, but no dotage. My conscience, also, was engaged in it, even to +debauch and licentiousness; but, as to ingratitude, treachery, malice, +and cruelty, never. I would not purchase the pleasure of this vice at +any price, but content myself with its proper and simple cost: + + "Nullum intra se vitium est." + + ["Nothing is a vice in itself."--Seneca, Ep., 95.] + +I almost equally hate a stupid and slothful laziness, as I do a toilsome +and painful employment; this pinches, the other lays me asleep. I like +wounds as well as bruises, and cuts as well as dry blows. I found in +this commerce, when I was the most able for it, a just moderation betwixt +these extremes. Love is a sprightly, lively, and gay agitation; I was +neither troubled nor afflicted with it, but heated, and moreover, +disordered; a man must stop there; it hurts nobody but fools. A young +man asked the philosopher Panetius if it were becoming a wise man to be +in love? "Let the wise man look to that," answered he, "but let not thou +and I, who are not so, engage ourselves in so stirring and violent an +affair, that enslaves us to others, and renders us contemptible to +ourselves." He said true that we are not to intrust a thing so +precipitous in itself to a soul that has not wherewithal to withstand its +assaults and disprove practically the saying of Agesilaus, that prudence +and love cannot live together. 'Tis a vain employment, 'tis true, +unbecoming, shameful, and illegitimate; but carried on after this manner, +I look upon it as wholesome, and proper to enliven a drowsy soul and to +rouse up a heavy body; and, as an experienced physician, I would +prescribe it to a man of my form and condition, as soon as any other +recipe whatever, to rouse and keep him in vigour till well advanced in +years, and to defer the approaches of age. Whilst we are but in the +suburbs, and that the pulse yet beats: + + "Dum nova canities, dum prima et recta senectus, + Dum superest lachesi quod torqueat, et pedibus me + Porto meis, nullo dextram subeunte bacillo," + + ["Whilst the white hair is new, whilst old age is still straight + shouldered, whilst there still remains something for Lachesis to + spin, whilst I walk on my own legs, and need no staff to lean upon." + --Juvenal, iii. 26.] + +we have need to be solicited and tickled by some such nipping incitation +as this. Do but observe what youth, vigour, and gaiety it inspired the +good Anacreon withal: and Socrates, who was then older than I, speaking +of an amorous object: + +"Leaning," said he, "my shoulder to her shoulder, and my head to hers, as +we were reading together in a book, I felt, without dissembling, a sudden +sting in my shoulder like the biting of an insect, which I still felt +above five days after, and a continual itching crept into my heart." So +that merely the accidental touch, and of a shoulder, heated and altered a +soul cooled and enerved by age, and the strictest liver of all mankind. +And, pray, why not? Socrates was a man, and would neither be, nor seem, +any other thing. Philosophy does not contend against natural pleasures, +provided they be moderate, and only preaches moderation, not a total +abstinence; the power of its resistance is employed against those that +are adulterate and strange. Philosophy says that the appetites of the +body ought not to be augmented by the mind, and ingeniously warns us not +to stir up hunger by saturity; not to stuff, instead of merely filling, +the belly; to avoid all enjoyments that may bring us to want; and all +meats and drinks that bring thirst and hunger: as, in the service of +love, she prescribes us to take such an object as may simply satisfy the +body's need, and does not stir the soul, which ought only barely to +follow and assist the body, without mixing in the affair. But have I not +reason to hold that these precepts, which, indeed, in my opinion, are +somewhat over strict, only concern a body in its best plight; and that in +a body broken with age, as in a weak stomach, 'tis excusable to warm and +support it by art, and by the mediation of the fancy to restore the +appetite and cheerfulness it has lost of itself. + +May we not say that there is nothing in us, during this earthly prison, +that is purely either corporeal or spiritual; and that we injuriously +break up a man alive; and that it seems but reasonable that we should +carry ourselves as favourably, at least, towards the use of pleasure as +we do towards that of pain! Pain was (for example) vehement even to +perfection in the souls of the saints by penitence: the body had there +naturally a sham by the right of union, and yet might have but little +part in the cause; and yet are they not contented that it should barely +follow and assist the afflicted soul: they have afflicted itself with +grievous and special torments, to the end that by emulation of one +another the soul and body might plunge man into misery by so much more +salutiferous as it is more severe. In like manner, is it not injustice, +in bodily pleasures, to subdue and keep under the soul, and say that it +must therein be dragged along as to some enforced and servile obligation +and necessity? 'Tis rather her part to hatch and cherish them, there to +present herself, and to invite them, the authority of ruling belonging to +her; as it is also her part, in my opinion, in pleasures that are proper +to her, to inspire and infuse into the body all the sentiment it is +capable of, and to study how to make them sweet and useful to it. For it +is good reason, as they say, that the body should not pursue its +appetites to the prejudice of the mind; but why is it not also the reason +that the mind should not pursue hers to the prejudice of the body? + +I have no other passion to keep me in breath. What avarice, ambition, +quarrels, lawsuits do for others who, like me, have no particular +vocation, love would much more commodiously do; it would restore to me +vigilance, sobriety, grace, and the care of my person; it would reassure +my countenance, so that the grimaces of old age, those deformed and +dismal looks, might not come to disgrace it; would again put me upon +sound and wise studies, by which I might render myself more loved and +esteemed, clearing my mind of the despair of itself and of its use, and +redintegrating it to itself; would divert me from a thousand troublesome +thoughts, a thousand melancholic humours that idleness and the ill +posture of our health loads us withal at such an age; would warm again, +in dreams at least, the blood that nature is abandoning; would hold up +the chin, and a little stretch out the nerves, the vigour and gaiety of +life of that poor man who is going full drive towards his ruin. But I +very well understand that it is a commodity hard to recover: by weakness +and long experience our taste is become more delicate and nice; we ask +most when we bring least, and are harder to choose when we least deserve +to be accepted: and knowing ourselves for what we are, we are less +confident and more distrustful; nothing can assure us of being beloved, +considering our condition and theirs. I am out of countenance to see +myself in company with those young wanton creatures: + + "Cujus in indomito constantior inguine nervus, + Quam nova collibus arbor inhaeret." + + ["In whose unbridled reins the vigour is more inherent than in the + young tree on the hills."--Horace, Epod., xii. 19.] + +To what end should we go insinuate our misery amid their gay and +sprightly humour? + + "Possint ut juvenes visere fervidi. + Multo non sine risu, + Dilapsam in cineres facem." + + ["As the fervid youths may behold, not without laughter, a burning + torch worn to ashes."--Horace, Od., iv. 13, 21.] + +They have strength and reason on their side; let us give way; we have +nothing to do there: and these blossoms of springing beauty suffer not +themselves to be handled by such benumbed hands nor dealt with by mere +material means, for, as the old philosopher answered one who jeered him +because he could not gain the favour of a young girl he made love to: +"Friend, the hook will not stick in such soft cheese." It is a commerce +that requires relation and correspondence: the other pleasures we receive +may be acknowledged by recompenses of another nature, but this is not to +be paid but with the same kind of coin. In earnest, in this sport, the +pleasure I give more tickles my imagination than that they give me; now, +he has nothing of generosity in him who can receive pleasure where he +confers none--it must needs be a mean soul that will owe all, and can be +content to maintain relations with persons to whom he is a continual +charge; there is no beauty, grace, nor privacy so exquisite that a +gentleman ought to desire at this rate. If they can only be kind to us +out of pity, I had much rather die than live upon charity. I would have +right to ask, in the style wherein I heard them beg in Italy: "Fate ben +per voi,"--["Do good for yourself."]--or after the manner that Cyrus +exhorted his soldiers, "Who loves himself let him follow me."--"Consort +yourself," some one will say to me, "with women of your own condition, +whom like fortune will render more easy to your desire." O ridiculous +and insipid composition! + + "Nolo + Barbam vellere mortuo leoni." + + ["I would not pluck the beard from a dead lion."--Martial] + +Xenophon lays it for an objection and an accusation against Menon, that +he never made love to any but old women. For my part, I take more +pleasure in but seeing the just and sweet mixture of two young beauties, +or only in meditating on it in my fancy, than myself in acting second in +a pitiful and imperfect conjunction; + + [Which Cotton renders, "Than to be myself an actor in the second + with a deformed creature."] + +I leave that fantastic appetite to the Emperor Galba, who was only for +old curried flesh: and to this poor wretch: + + "O ego Di faciant talem to cernere possim, + Caraque mutatis oscula ferre comis, + Amplectique meis corpus non pingue lacertis!" + + [Ovid, who (Ex. Ponto, i. 4, 49) writes to his wife, "O would the + gods arrange that such I might see thee, and bring dear kisses to + thy changed locks, and embrace thy withered body with my arms"] + +Amongst chief deformities I reckon forced and artificial beauties: Hemon, +a young boy of Chios, thinking by fine dressing to acquire the beauty +that nature had denied him, came to the philosopher Arcesilaus and asked +him if it was possible for a wise man to be in love--"Yes," replied he, +"provided it be not with a farded and adulterated beauty like thine." + + [Diogenes Laertius, iv. 36. The question was whether a wise man + could love him. Cotton has "Emonez, a young courtezan of Chios."] + +Ugliness of a confessed antiquity is to me less old and less ugly than +another that is polished and plastered up. Shall I speak it, without the +danger of having my throat cut? love, in my opinion, is not properly and +naturally in its season, but in the age next to childhood, + + "Quem si puellarum insereres choro, + Mille sagaces falleret hospites, + Discrimen obscurum, solutis + Crinibus ambiguoque vultu:" + + ["Whom if thou shouldst place in a company of girls, it would + require a thousand experts to distinguish him, with his loose locks + and ambiguous countenance."--Horace, Od., ii. 5, 21.] + +nor beauty neither; for whereas Homer extends it so far as to the budding +of the beard, Plato himself has remarked this as rare: and the reason why +the sophist Bion so pleasantly called the first appearing hairs of +adolescence 'Aristogitons' and 'Harmodiuses'-[Plutarch, On Love, c.34.]-- +is sufficiently known. I find it in virility already in some sort a +little out of date, though not so much as in old age; + + "Importunus enim transvolat aridas + Quercus." + + ["For it uncivilly passes over withered oaks." + --Horace, Od., iv. 13, 9.] + +and Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, like a woman, very far extends the +advantage of women, ordaining that it is time, at thirty years old, to +convert the title of fair into that of good. The shorter authority we +give to love over our lives, 'tis so much the better for us. Do but +observe his port; 'tis a beardless boy. Who knows not how, in his school +they proceed contrary to all order; study, exercise, and usage are their +ways for insufficiency there novices rule: + + "Amor ordinem nescit." + + ["Love ignores rules." (Or:) "Love knows no rule." + --St. Jerome, Letter to Chyomatius.] + +Doubtless his conduct is much more graceful when mixed with inadvertency +and trouble; miscarriages and ill successes give him point and grace; +provided it be sharp and eager, 'tis no great matter whether it be +prudent or no: do but observe how he goes reeling, tripping, and playing: +you put him in the stocks when you guide him by art and wisdom; and he is +restrained of his divine liberty when put into those hairy and callous +clutches. + +As to the rest, I often hear the women set out this intelligence as +entirely spiritual, and disdain to put the interest the senses there have +into consideration; everything there serves; but I can say that I have +often seen that we have excused the weakness of their understandings in +favour of their outward beauty, but have never yet seen that in favour of +mind, how mature and full soever, any of them would hold out a hand to a +body that was never so little in decadence. Why does not some one of +them take it into her head to make that noble Socratical bargain between +body and soul, purchasing a philosophical and spiritual intelligence and +generation at the price of her thighs, which is the highest price she can +get for them? Plato ordains in his Laws that he who has performed any +signal and advantageous exploit in war may not be refused during the +whole expedition, his age or ugliness notwithstanding, a kiss or any +other amorous favour from any woman whatever. What he thinks to be so +just in recommendation of military valour, why may it not be the same in +recommendation of any other good quality? and why does not some woman +take a fancy to possess over her companions the glory of this chaste +love? I may well say chaste; + + "Nam si quando ad praelia ventum est, + Ut quondam in stipulis magnus sine viribus ignis, + Incassum furit:" + + ["For when they sometimes engage in love's battle, + his sterile ardour lights up but as the flame of a straw." + --Virgil, Georg., iii. 98.] + +the vices that are stifled in the thought are not the worst. + +To conclude this notable commentary, which has escaped from me in a +torrent of babble, a torrent sometimes impetuous and hurtful, + + "Ut missum sponsi furtivo munere malum + Procurrit casto virginis a gremio, + Quod miserae oblitae molli sub veste locatuat, + Dum adventu matris prosilit, excutitur, + Atque illud prono praeceps agitur decursu + Huic manat tristi conscius ore rubor." + + ["As when an apple, sent by a lover secretly to his mistress, falls + from the chaste virgin's bosom, where she had quite forgotten it; + when, starting at her mother's coming in, it is shaken out and rolls + over the floor before her eyes, a conscious blush covers her face." + --Catullus, lxv. 19.] + +I say that males and females are cast in the same mould, and that, +education and usage excepted, the difference is not great. Plato +indifferently invites both the one and the other to the society of all +studies, exercises, and vocations, both military and civil, in his +Commonwealth; and the philosopher Antisthenes rejected all distinction +betwixt their virtue and ours. It is much more easy to accuse one sex +than to excuse the other; 'tis according to the saying, + + "Le fourgon se moque de la paele." + ["The Pot and the Kettle."] + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A gallant man does not give over his pursuit for being refused +A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted +Appetite is more sharp than one already half-glutted by the eyes +Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age +Certain other things that people hide only to show them +Chiefly knew himself to be mortal by this act +Dearness is a good sauce to meat +Each amongst you has made somebody cuckold +Eat your bread with the sauce of a more pleasing imagination +Evade this tormenting and unprofitable knowledge +Feminine polity has a mysterious procedure +Few men have made a wife of a mistress, who have not repented it +First thing to be considered in love matters: a fitting time +Friend, the hook will not stick in such soft cheese. +Give the ladies a cruel contempt of our natural furniture +Guess at our meaning under general and doubtful terms +Hate all sorts of obligation and restraint +Have ever had a great respect for her I loved +Have no other title left me to these things but by the ears +Heat and stir up their imagination, and then we find fault +Husbands hate their wives only because they themselves do wrong +I am apt to dream that I dream +I do not say that 'tis well said, but well thought +I had much rather die than live upon charity. +I was always superstitiously afraid of giving offence +If I am talking my best, whoever interrupts me, stops me +If they can only be kind to us out of pity +In everything else a man may keep some decorum +In those days, the tailor took measure of it +Inclination to variety and novelty common to us both +Inconsiderate excuses are a kind of self-accusation +Interdiction incites, and who are more eager, being forbidden +It happens, as with cages, the birds without despair to get in +Jealousy: no remedy but flight or patience +Judgment of duty principally lies in the will +Ladies are no sooner ours, than we are no more theirs +"Let a man take which course he will," said he; "he will repent." +Let us not be ashamed to speak what we are not ashamed to think +Love is the appetite of generation by the mediation of beauty +Love shamefully and dishonestly cured by marriage +Love them the less for our own faults +Love, full, lively, and sharp; a pleasure inflamed by difficulty +Man must approach his wife with prudence and temperance +Marriage rejects the company and conditions of love +Men make them (the rules) without their (women's) help +Misfortunes that only hurt us by being known +Modesty is a foolish virtue in an indigent person (Homer) +Most of my actions are guided by example, not by choice +Neither continency nor virtue where there are no opposing desire +No doing more difficult than that not doing, nor more active +O wretched men, whose pleasures are a crime +O, the furious advantage of opportunity! +Observed the laws of marriage, than I either promised or expect +One may more boldly dare what nobody thinks you dare +Order it so that your virtue may conquer your misfortune +Plato says, that the gods made man for their sport +Pleasure of telling (a pleasure little inferior to that of doing) +Priest shall on the wedding-day open the way to the bride +Prudent man, when I imagine him in this posture +Rage compelled to excuse itself by a pretence of good-will +Rather be a less while old than be old before I am really so +Represented her a little too passionate for a married Venus +Revenge more wounds our children than it heals us +Sex: To put fools and wise men, beasts and us, on a level +Sharps and sweets of marriage, are kept secret by the wise +Sins that make the least noise are the worst +Sleep suffocates and suppresses the faculties of the soul +Sufficiently covered by their virtue without any other robe +The best authors too much humble and discourage me +The impulse of nature, which is a rough counsellor +The privilege of the mind to rescue itself from old age +Their disguises and figures only serve to cosen fools +There is no allurement like modesty, if it be not rude +These sleepy, sluggish sort of men are often the most dangerous +They better conquer us by flying +They buy a cat in a sack +They err as much who too much forbear Venus +They must become insensible and invisible to satisfy us +They who would fight custom with grammar are triflers +Those which we fear the least are, peradventure, most to be fear +Those within (marriage) despair of getting out +Tis all swine's flesh, varied by sauces +To what friend dare you intrust your griefs +Twas a happy marriage betwixt a blind wife and a deaf husband +Unjust judges of their actions, as they are of ours +Very idea we invent for their chastity is ridiculous +Virtue is a pleasant and gay quality +We ask most when we bring least +We say a good marriage because no one says to the contrary. +When jealousy seizes these poor souls +When their eyes give the lie to their tongue +Who escapes being talked of at the same rate +Wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of moderation +Would in this affair have a man a little play the servant + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V15 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 16. + +VI. Of Coaches. +VII. Of the Inconvenience of Greatness. +VIII. Of the Art of Conference. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OF COACHES + +It is very easy to verify, that great authors, when they write of causes, +not only make use of those they think to be the true causes, but also of +those they believe not to be so, provided they have in them some beauty +and invention: they speak true and usefully enough, if it be ingeniously. +We cannot make ourselves sure of the supreme cause, and therefore crowd a +great many together, to see if it may not accidentally be amongst them: + + "Namque unam dicere causam + Non satis est, verum plures, unde una tamen sit." + + [Lucretius, vi. 704.--The sense is in the preceding passage.] + +Do you ask me, whence comes the custom of blessing those who sneeze? +We break wind three several ways; that which sallies from below is too +filthy; that which breaks out from the mouth carries with it some +reproach of gluttony; the third is sneezing, which, because it proceeds +from the head and is without offence, we give it this civil reception: do +not laugh at this distinction; they say 'tis Aristotle's. + +I think I have seen in Plutarch' (who of all the authors I know, is he +who has best mixed art with nature, and judgment with knowledge), his +giving as a reason for the, rising of the stomach in those who are at +sea, that it is occasioned by fear; having first found out some reason by +which he proves that fear may produce such an effect. I, who am very +subject to it, know well that this cause concerns not me; and I know it, +not by argument, but by necessary experience. Without instancing what +has been told me, that the same thing often happens in beasts, especially +hogs, who are out of all apprehension of danger; and what an acquaintance +of mine told me of himself, that though very subject to it, the +disposition to vomit has three or four times gone off him, being very +afraid in a violent storm, as it happened to that ancient: + + "Pejus vexabar, quam ut periculum mihi succurreret;" + + ["I was too ill to think of danger." (Or the reverse:) + "I was too frightened to be ill."--Seneca, Ep., 53. 2] + +I was never afraid upon the water, nor indeed in any other peril (and I +have had enough before my eyes that would have sufficed, if death be +one), so as to be astounded to lose my judgment. Fear springs sometimes +as much from want of judgment as from want of courage. All the dangers I +have been in I have looked upon without winking, with an open, sound, and +entire sight; and, indeed, a man must have courage to fear. It formerly +served me better than other help, so to order and regulate my retreat, +that it was, if not without fear, nevertheless without affright and +astonishment; it was agitated, indeed, but not amazed or stupefied. +Great souls go yet much farther, and present to us flights, not only +steady and temperate, but moreover lofty. Let us make a relation of that +which Alcibiades reports of Socrates, his fellow in arms: "I found him," +says he, "after the rout of our army, him and Lachez, last among those +who fled, and considered him at my leisure and in security, for I was +mounted on a good horse, and he on foot, as he had fought. I took +notice, in the first place, how much judgment and resolution he showed, +in comparison of Lachez, and then the bravery of his march, nothing +different from his ordinary gait; his sight firm and regular, considering +and judging what passed about him, looking one while upon those, and then +upon others, friends and enemies, after such a manner as encouraged +those, and signified to the others that he would sell his life dear to +any one who should attempt to take it from him, and so they came off; for +people are not willing to attack such kind of men, but pursue those they +see are in a fright." That is the testimony of this great captain, which +teaches us, what we every day experience, that nothing so much throws us +into dangers as an inconsiderate eagerness of getting ourselves clear of +them: + + "Quo timoris minus est, eo minus ferme periculi est." + + ["When there is least fear, there is for the most part least + danger."--Livy, xxii. 5.] + +Our people are to blame who say that such an one is afraid of death, when +they would express that he thinks of it and foresees it: foresight is +equally convenient in what concerns us, whether good or ill. To consider +and judge of danger is, in some sort, the reverse to being astounded. +I do not find myself strong enough to sustain the force and impetuosity +of this passion of fear, nor of any other vehement passion whatever: if I +was once conquered and beaten down by it, I should never rise again very +sound. Whoever should once make my soul lose her footing, would never +set her upright again: she retastes and researches herself too +profoundly, and too much to the quick, and therefore would never let the +wound she had received heal and cicatrise. It has been well for me that +no sickness has yet discomposed her: at every charge made upon me, I +preserve my utmost opposition and defence; by which means the first that +should rout me would keep me from ever rallying again. I have no after- +game to play: on which side soever the inundation breaks my banks, I lie +open, and am drowned without remedy. Epicurus says, that a wise man can +never become a fool; I have an opinion reverse to this sentence, which +is, that he who has once been a very fool, will never after be very wise. +God grants me cold according to my cloth, and passions proportionable to +the means I have to withstand them: nature having laid me open on the one +side, has covered me on the other; having disarmed me of strength, she +has armed me with insensibility and an apprehension that is regular, or, +if you will, dull. + +I cannot now long endure (and when I was young could much less) either +coach, litter, or boat, and hate all other riding but on horseback, both +in town and country. But I can bear a litter worse than a coach; and, by +the same reason, a rough agitation upon the water, whence fear is +produced, better than the motions of a calm. At the little jerks of +oars, stealing the vessel from under us, I find, I know not how, both my +head and my stomach disordered; neither-can I endure to sit upon a +tottering chair. When the sail or the current carries us equally, or +that we are towed, the equal agitation does not disturb me at all; 'tis +an interrupted motion that offends me, and most of all when most slow: I +cannot otherwise express it. The physicians have ordered me to squeeze +and gird myself about the bottom of the belly with a napkin to remedy +this evil; which however I have not tried, being accustomed to wrestle +with my own defects, and overcome them myself. + +Would my memory serve me, I should not think my time ill spent in setting +down here the infinite variety that history presents us of the use of +chariots in the service of war: various, according to the nations and +according to the age; in my opinion, of great necessity and effect; so +that it is a wonder that we have lost all knowledge of them. I will only +say this, that very lately, in our fathers' time, the Hungarians made +very advantageous use of them against the Turks; having in every one of +them a targetter and a musketeer, and a number of harquebuses piled ready +and loaded, and all covered with a pavesade like a galliot--[Canvas +spread along the side of a ship of war, in action to screen the movements +of those on board.]--They formed the front of their battle with three +thousand such coaches, and after the cannon had played, made them all +pour in their shot upon the enemy, who had to swallow that volley before +they tasted of the rest, which was no little advance; and that done, +these chariots charged into their squadrons to break them and open a way +for the rest; besides the use they might make of them to flank the +soldiers in a place of danger when marching to the field, or to cover a +post, and fortify it in haste. In my time, a gentleman on one of our +frontiers, unwieldy of body, and finding no horse able to carry his +weight, having a quarrel, rode through the country in a chariot of this +fashion, and found great convenience in it. But let us leave these +chariots of war. + +As if their effeminacy--[Which Cotton translates: "as if the +insignificancy of coaches." ]--had not been sufficiently known by better +proofs, the last kings of our first race travelled in a chariot drawn by +four oxen. Marc Antony was the first at Rome who caused himself to be +drawn in a coach by lions, and a singing wench with him. + + [Cytheris, the Roman courtezan.--Plutarch's Life of Antony, c. 3. + This, was the same person who is introduced by Gallus under the name + of Lycoris. Gallus doubtless knew her personally.] + +Heliogabalus did since as much, calling himself Cybele, the mother of the +gods; and also drawn by tigers, taking upon him the person of the god +Bacchus; he also sometimes harnessed two stags to his coach, another time +four dogs, and another four naked wenches, causing himself to be drawn by +them in pomp, stark naked too. The Emperor Firmus caused his chariot to +be drawn by ostriches of a prodigious size, so that it seemed rather to +fly than roll. + +The strangeness of these inventions puts this other fancy in my head: +that it is a kind of pusillanimity in monarchs, and a testimony that they +do not sufficiently understand themselves what they are, when they study +to make themselves honoured and to appear great by excessive expense: it +were indeed excusable in a foreign country, but amongst their own +subjects, where they are in sovereign command, and may do what they +please, it derogates from their dignity the most supreme degree of honour +to which they can arrive: just as, methinks, it is superfluous in a +private gentleman to go finely dressed at home; his house, his +attendants, and his kitchen sufficiently answer for him. The advice that +Isocrates gives his king seems to be grounded upon reason: that he should +be splendid in plate and furniture; forasmuch as it is an expense of +duration that devolves on his successors; and that he should avoid all +magnificences that will in a short time be forgotten. I loved to go fine +when I was a younger brother, for want of other ornament; and it became +me well: there are some upon whom their rich clothes weep: We have +strange stories of the frugality of our kings about their own persons and +in their gifts: kings who were great in reputation, valour, and fortune. +Demosthenes vehemently opposes the law of his city that assigned the +public money for the pomp of their public plays and festivals: he would +that their greatness should be seen in numbers of ships well equipped, +and good armies well provided for; and there is good reason to condemn +Theophrastus, who, in his Book on Riches, establishes a contrary opinion, +and maintains that sort of expense to be the true fruit of abundance. +They are delights, says Aristotle, that a only please the baser sort of +the people, and that vanish from the memory as soon as the people are +sated with them, and for which no serious and judicious man can have any +esteem. This money would, in my opinion, be much more royally, as more +profitably, justly, and durably, laid out in ports, havens, walls, and +fortifications; in sumptuous buildings, churches, hospitals, colleges, +the reforming of streets and highways: wherein Pope Gregory XIII. will +leave a laudable memory to future times: and wherein our Queen Catherine +would to long posterity manifest her natural liberality and munificence, +did her means supply her affection. Fortune has done me a great despite +in interrupting the noble structure of the Pont-Neuf of our great city, +and depriving me of the hope of seeing it finished before I die. + +Moreover, it seems to subjects, who are spectators of these triumphs, +that their own riches are exposed before them, and that they are +entertained at their own expense: for the people are apt to presume of +kings, as we do of our servants, that they are to take care to provide us +all things necessary in abundance, but not touch it themselves; and +therefore the Emperor Galba, being pleased with a musician who played to +him at supper, called for his money-box, and gave him a handful of crowns +that he took out of it, with these words: "This is not the public money, +but my own." Yet it so falls out that the people, for the most part, +have reason on their side, and that the princes feed their eyes with what +they have need of to fill their bellies. + +Liberality itself is not in its true lustre in a sovereign hand: private +men have therein the most right; for, to take it exactly, a king has +nothing properly his own; he owes himself to others: authority is not +given in favour of the magistrate, but of the people; a superior is never +made so for his own profit, but for the profit of the inferior, and a +physician for the sick person, and not for himself: all magistracy, as +well as all art, has its end out of itself wherefore the tutors of young +princes, who make it their business to imprint in them this virtue of +liberality, and preach to them to deny nothing and to think nothing so +well spent as what they give (a doctrine that I have known in great +credit in my time), either have more particular regard to their own +profit than to that of their master, or ill understand to whom they +speak. It is too easy a thing to inculcate liberality on him who has as +much as he will to practise it with at the expense of others; and, the +estimate not being proportioned to the measure of the gift but to the +measure of the means of him who gives it, it comes to nothing in so +mighty hands; they find themselves prodigal before they can be reputed +liberal. And it is but a little recommendation, in comparison with other +royal virtues: and the only one, as the tyrant Dionysius said, that suits +well with tyranny itself. I should rather teach him this verse of the +ancient labourer: + + ["That whoever will have a good crop must sow with his hand, and not + pour out of the sack."--Plutarch, Apothegms, Whether the Ancients + were more excellent in Arms than in Learning.] + +he must scatter it abroad, and not lay it on a heap in one place: and +that, seeing he is to give, or, to say better, to pay and restore to so +many people according as they have deserved, he ought to be a loyal and +discreet disposer. If the liberality of a prince be without measure or +discretion, I had rather he were covetous. + +Royal virtue seems most to consist in justice; and of all the parts of +justice that best denotes a king which accompanies liberality, for this +they have particularly reserved to be performed by themselves, whereas +all other sorts of justice they remit to the administration of others. +An immoderate bounty is a very weak means to acquire for them good will; +it checks more people than it allures: + + "Quo in plures usus sis, minus in multos uti possis.... + Quid autem est stultius, quam, quod libenter facias, + curare ut id diutius facere non possis;" + + ["By how much more you use it to many, by so much less will you be + in a capacity to use it to many more. And what greater folly can + there be than to order it so that what you would willingly do, you + cannot do longer."--Cicero, De Offic., ii. 15.] + +and if it be conferred without due respect of merit, it puts him out of +countenance who receives it, and is received ungraciously. Tyrants have +been sacrificed to the hatred of the people by the hands of those very +men they have unjustly advanced; such kind of men as buffoons, panders, +fiddlers, and such ragamuffins, thinking to assure to themselves the +possession of benefits unduly received, if they manifest to have him in +hatred and disdain of whom they hold them, and in this associate +themselves to the common judgment and opinion. + +The subjects of a prince excessive in gifts grow excessive in asking, +and regulate their demands, not by reason, but by example. We have, +seriously, very often reason to blush at our own impudence: we are over- +paid, according to justice, when the recompense equals our service; for +do we owe nothing of natural obligation to our princes? If he bear our +charges, he does too much; 'tis enough that he contribute to them: the +overplus is called benefit, which cannot be exacted: for the very name +Liberality sounds of Liberty. + +In our fashion it is never done; we never reckon what we have received; +we are only for the future liberality; wherefore, the more a prince +exhausts himself in giving, the poorer he grows in friends. How should +he satisfy immoderate desires, that still increase as they are fulfilled? +He who has his thoughts upon taking, never thinks of what he has taken; +covetousness has nothing so properly and so much its own as ingratitude. + +The example of Cyrus will not do amiss in this place, to serve the kings +of these times for a touchstone to know whether their gifts are well or +ill bestowed, and to see how much better that emperor conferred them than +they do, by which means they are reduced to borrow of unknown subjects, +and rather of them whom they have wronged than of them on whom they have +conferred their benefits, and so receive aids wherein there is nothing of +gratuitous but the name. Croesus reproached him with his bounty, and +cast up to how much his treasure would amount if he had been a little +closer-handed. He had a mind to justify his liberality, and therefore +sent despatches into all parts to the grandees of his dominions whom he +had particularly advanced, entreating every one of them to supply him +with as much money as they could, for a pressing occasion, and to send +him particulars of what each could advance. When all these answers were +brought to him, every one of his friends, not thinking it enough barely +to offer him so much as he had received from his bounty, and adding to it +a great deal of his own, it appeared that the sum amounted to a great +deal more than Croesus' reckoning. Whereupon Cyrus: "I am not," said he, +"less in love with riches than other princes, but rather a better +husband; you see with how small a venture I have acquired the inestimable +treasure of so many friends, and how much more faithful treasurers they +are to me than mercenary men without obligation, without affection; and +my money better laid up than in chests, bringing upon me the hatred, +envy, and contempt of other princes." + +The emperors excused the superfluity of their plays and public spectacles +by reason that their authority in some sort (at least in outward +appearance) depended upon the will of the people of Rome, who, time out +of mind, had been accustomed to be entertained and caressed with such +shows and excesses. But they were private citizens, who had nourished +this custom to gratify their fellow-citizens and companions (and chiefly +out of their own purses) by such profusion and magnificence it had quite +another taste when the masters came to imitate it: + + "Pecuniarum translatio a justis dominis ad alienos + non debet liberalis videri." + + ["The transferring of money from the right owners to strangers + ought not to have the title of liberality." + --Cicero, De Offic., i. 14.] + +Philip, seeing that his son went about by presents to gain the affection +of the Macedonians, reprimanded him in a letter after this manner: "What! +hast thou a mind that thy subjects shall look upon thee as their cash- +keeper and not as their king? Wilt thou tamper with them to win their +affections? Do it, then, by the benefits of thy virtue, and not by those +of thy chest." And yet it was, doubtless, a fine thing to bring and +plant within the amphitheatre a great number of vast trees, with all +their branches in their full verdure, representing a great shady forest, +disposed in excellent order; and, the first day, to throw into it a +thousand ostriches and a thousand stags, a thousand boars, and a thousand +fallow-deer, to be killed and disposed of by the people: the next day, +to cause a hundred great lions, a hundred leopards, and three hundred +bears to be killed in his presence; and for the third day, to make three +hundred pair of gladiators fight it out to the last, as the Emperor +Probus did. It was also very fine to see those vast amphitheatres, all +faced with marble without, curiously wrought with figures and statues, +and within glittering with rare enrichments: + + "Baltheus en! gemmis, en illita porticus auro:" + + ["A belt glittering with jewels, and a portico overlaid with gold." + --Calpurnius, Eclog., vii. 47. A baltheus was a shoulder-belt or + baldric.] + +all the sides of this vast space filled and environed, from the bottom to +the top, with three or four score rows of seats, all of marble also, and +covered with cushions: + + "Exeat, inquit, + Si pudor est, et de pulvino surgat equestri, + Cujus res legi non sufficit;" + + ["Let him go out, he said, if he has any sense of shame, and rise + from the equestrian cushion, whose estate does not satisfy the law." + --Juvenal, iii. 153. The Equites were required to possess a fortune + of 400 sestertia, and they sat on the first fourteen rows behind the + orchestra.] + +where a hundred thousand men might sit at their ease: and, the place +below, where the games were played, to make it, by art, first open and +cleave in chasms, representing caves that vomited out the beasts designed +for the spectacle; and then, secondly, to be overflowed by a deep sea, +full of sea monsters, and laden with ships of war, to represent a naval +battle; and, thirdly, to make it dry and even again for the combat of the +gladiators; and, for the fourth scene, to have it strown with vermilion +grain and storax,--[A resinous gum.]--instead of sand, there to make a +solemn feast for all that infinite number of people: the last act of one +only day: + + "Quoties nos descendentis arenae + Vidimus in partes, ruptaque voragine terrae + Emersisse feras, et eisdem saepe latebris + Aurea cum croceo creverunt arbuta libro!.... + Nec solum nobis silvestria cernere monstra + Contigit; aequoreos ego cum certantibus ursis + Spectavi vitulos, et equorum nomine dignum, + Sen deforme pecus, quod in illo nascitur amni...." + + ["How often have we seen the stage of the theatre descend and part + asunder, and from a chasm in the earth wild beasts emerge, and then + presently give birth to a grove of gilded trees, that put forth + blossoms of enamelled flowers. Nor yet of sylvan marvels alone had + we sight: I saw sea-calves fight with bears, and a deformed sort of + cattle, we might call sea-horses."--Calpurnius, Eclog., vii. 64.] + +Sometimes they made a high mountain advance itself, covered with fruit- +trees and other leafy trees, sending down rivulets of water from the top, +as from the mouth of a fountain: otherwhiles, a great ship was seen to +come rolling in, which opened and divided of itself, and after having +disgorged from the hold four or five hundred beasts for fight, closed +again, and vanished without help. At other times, from the floor of this +place, they made spouts of perfumed water dart their streams upward, and +so high as to sprinkle all that infinite multitude. To defend themselves +from the injuries of the weather, they had that vast place one while +covered over with purple curtains of needlework, and by-and-by with silk +of one or another colour, which they drew off or on in a moment, as they +had a mind: + + "Quamvis non modico caleant spectacula sole, + Vela reducuntur, cum venit Hermogenes." + + ["The curtains, though the sun should scorch the spectators, are + drawn in, when Hermogenes appears."-Martial, xii. 29, 15. M. + Tigellius Hermogenes, whom Horace and others have satirised. One + editor calls him "a noted thief," another: "He was a literary + amateur of no ability, who expressed his critical opinions with too + great a freedom to please the poets of his day." D.W.] + +The network also that was set before the people to defend them from the +violence of these turned-out beasts was woven of gold: + + "Auro quoque torts refulgent + Retia." + + ["The woven nets are refulgent with gold." + --Calpurnius, ubi supra.] + +If there be anything excusable in such excesses as these, it is where the +novelty and invention create more wonder than the expense; even in these +vanities we discover how fertile those ages were in other kind of wits +than these of ours. It is with this sort of fertility, as with all other +products of nature: not that she there and then employed her utmost +force: we do not go; we rather run up and down, and whirl this way and +that; we turn back the way we came. I am afraid our knowledge is weak in +all senses; we neither see far forward nor far backward; our +understanding comprehends little, and lives but a little while; 'tis +short both in extent of time and extent of matter: + + "Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona + Mufti, sed omnes illacrymabiles + Urgentur, ignotique longs + Nocte." + + [ Many brave men lived before Agamemnon, but all are pressed by the + long night unmourned and unknown."--Horace, Od., iv. 9, 25.] + + "Et supra bellum Thebanum et funera Trojae + Non alias alii quoque res cecinere poetae?" + + ["Why before the Theban war and the destruction of Troy, have not + other poets sung other events?"--Lucretius, v. 327. Montaigne here + diverts himself m giving Lucretius' words a construction directly + contrary to what they bear in the poem. Lucretius puts the + question, Why if the earth had existed from all eternity, there had + not been poets, before the Theban war, to sing men's exploits. + --Coste.] + +And the narrative of Solon, of what he had learned from the Egyptian +priests, touching the long life of their state, and their manner of +learning and preserving foreign histories, is not, methinks, a testimony +to be refused in this consideration: + + "Si interminatam in omnes partes magnitudinem regionum videremus et + temporum, in quam se injiciens animus et intendens, ita late + longeque peregrinatur, ut nullam oram ultimi videat, in qua possit + insistere: in haec immensitate . . . infinita vis innumerabilium + appareret fomorum." + + ["Could we see on all parts the unlimited magnitude of regions and + of times, upon which the mind being intent, could wander so far and + wide, that no limit is to be seen, in which it can bound its eye, we + should, in that infinite immensity, discover an infinite force of + innumerable atoms." Here also Montaigne puts a sense quite + different from what the words bear in the original; but the + application he makes of them is so happy that one would declare they + were actually put together only to express his own sentiments. "Et + temporum" is an addition by Montaigne.--Coste.] + +Though all that has arrived, by report, of our knowledge of times past +should be true, and known by some one person, it would be less than +nothing in comparison of what is unknown. And of this same image of the +world, which glides away whilst we live upon it, how wretched and limited +is the knowledge of the most curious; not only of particular events, +which fortune often renders exemplary and of great concern, but of the +state of great governments and nations, a hundred more escape us than +ever come to our knowledge. We make a mighty business of the invention +of artillery and printing, which other men at the other end of the world, +in China, had a thousand years ago. Did we but see as much of the world +as we do not see, we should perceive, we may well believe, a perpetual +multiplication and vicissitude of forms. There is nothing single and +rare in respect of nature, but in respect of our knowledge, which is a +wretched foundation whereon to ground our rules, and that represents to +us a very false image of things. As we nowadays vainly conclude the +declension and decrepitude of the world, by the arguments we extract from +our own weakness and decay: + + "Jamque adeo est affecta aetas effoet aque tellus;" + + ["Our age is feeble, and the earth less fertile." + --Lucretius, ii. 1151.] + +so did he vainly conclude as to its birth and youth, by the vigour he +observed in the wits of his time, abounding in novelties and the +invention of divers arts: + + "Verum, ut opinor, habet novitatem summa, recensque + Natura est mundi, neque pridem exordia coepit + Quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur, + Nunc etiam augescunt; nunc addita navigiis sunt + Multa." + + ["But, as I am of opinion, the whole of the world is of recent + origin, nor had its commencement in remote times; wherefore it is + that some arts are still being refined, and some just on the + increase; at present many additions are being made to shipping." + --Lucretius, v. 331.] + +Our world has lately discovered another (and who will assure us that it +is the last of its brothers, since the Daemons, the Sybils, and we +ourselves have been ignorant of this till now?), as large, well-peopled, +and fruitful as this whereon we live and yet so raw and childish, that we +are still teaching it it's a B C: 'tis not above fifty years since it +knew neither letters, weights, measures, vestments, corn, nor vines: it +was then quite naked in the mother's lap, and only lived upon what she +gave it. If we rightly conclude of our end, and this poet of the +youthfulness of that age of his, that other world will only enter into +the light when this of ours shall make its exit; the universe will fall +into paralysis; one member will be useless, the other in vigour. I am +very much afraid that we have greatly precipitated its declension and +ruin by our contagion; and that we have sold it opinions and our arts at +a very dear rate. It was an infant world, and yet we have not whipped +and subjected it to our discipline by the advantage of our natural worth +and force, neither have we won it by our justice and goodness, nor +subdued it by our magnanimity. Most of their answers, and the +negotiations we have had with them, witness that they were nothing behind +us in pertinency and clearness of natural understanding. The astonishing +magnificence of the cities of Cusco and Mexico, and, amongst many other +things, the garden of the king, where all the trees, fruits, and plants, +according to the order and stature they have in a garden, were +excellently formed in gold; as, in his cabinet, were all the animals bred +upon his territory and in its seas; and the beauty of their manufactures, +in jewels, feathers, cotton, and painting, gave ample proof that they +were as little inferior to us in industry. But as to what concerns +devotion, observance of the laws, goodness, liberality, loyalty, and +plain dealing, it was of use to us that we had not so much as they; for +they have lost, sold, and betrayed themselves by this advantage over us. + +As to boldness and courage, stability, constancy against pain, hunger, +and death, I should not fear to oppose the examples I find amongst them +to the most famous examples of elder times that we find in our records on +this side of the world. Far as to those who subdued them, take but away +the tricks and artifices they practised to gull them, and the just +astonishment it was to those nations to see so sudden and unexpected an +arrival of men with beards, differing in language, religion, shape, and +countenance, from so remote a part of the world, and where they had never +heard there was any habitation, mounted upon great unknown monsters, +against those who had not only never seen a horse, but had never seen any +other beast trained up to carry a man or any other loading; shelled in a +hard and shining skin, with a cutting and glittering weapon in his hand, +against them, who, out of wonder at the brightness of a looking glass or +a knife, would exchange great treasures of gold and pearl; and who had +neither knowledge, nor matter with which, at leisure, they could +penetrate our steel: to which may be added the lightning and thunder of +our cannon and harquebuses, enough to frighten Caesar himself, if +surprised, with so little experience, against people naked, except where +the invention of a little quilted cotton was in use, without other arms, +at the most, than bows, stones, staves, and bucklers of wood; people +surprised under colour of friendship and good faith, by the curiosity of +seeing strange and unknown things; take but away, I say, this disparity +from the conquerors, and you take away all the occasion of so many +victories. When I look upon that in vincible ardour wherewith so many +thousands of men, women, and children so often presented and threw +themselves into inevitable dangers for the defence of their gods and +liberties; that generous obstinacy to suffer all extremities and +difficulties, and death itself, rather than submit to the dominion of +those by whom they had been so shamefully abused; and some of them +choosing to die of hunger and fasting, being prisoners, rather than to +accept of nourishment from the hands of their so basely victorious +enemies: I see, that whoever would have attacked them upon equal terms of +arms, experience, and number, would have had a hard, and, peradventure, +a harder game to play than in any other war we have seen. + +Why did not so noble a conquest fall under Alexander, or the ancient +Greeks and Romans; and so great a revolution and mutation of so many +empires and nations, fall into hands that would have gently levelled, +rooted up, and made plain and smooth whatever was rough and savage +amongst them, and that would have cherished and propagated the good seeds +that nature had there produced; mixing not only with the culture of land +and the ornament of cities, the arts of this part of the world, in what +was necessary, but also the Greek and Roman virtues, with those that were +original of the country? What a reparation had it been to them, and what +a general good to the whole world, had our first examples and deportments +in those parts allured those people to the admiration and imitation of +virtue, and had begotten betwixt them and us a fraternal society and +intelligence? How easy had it been to have made advantage of souls so +innocent, and so eager to learn, leaving, for the most part, naturally so +good inclinations before? Whereas, on the contrary, we have taken +advantage of their ignorance and inexperience, with greater ease to +incline them to treachery, luxury, avarice, and towards all sorts of +inhumanity and cruelty, by the pattern and example of our manners. Who +ever enhanced the price of merchandise at such a rate? So many cities +levelled with the ground, so many nations exterminated, so many millions +of people fallen by the edge of the sword, and the richest and most +beautiful part of the world turned upside down, for the traffic of pearl +and pepper? Mechanic victories! Never did ambition, never did public +animosities, engage men against one another in such miserable +hostilities, in such miserable calamities. + +Certain Spaniards, coasting the sea in quest of their mines, landed in a +fruitful and pleasant and very well peopled country, and there made to +the inhabitants their accustomed professions: "that they were peaceable +men, who were come from a very remote country, and sent on the behalf of +the King of Castile, the greatest prince of the habitable world, to whom +the Pope, God's vicegerent upon earth, had given the principality of all +the Indies; that if they would become tributaries to him, they should be +very gently and courteously used"; at the same time requiring of them +victuals for their nourishment, and gold whereof to make some pretended +medicine; setting forth, moreover, the belief in one only God, and the +truth of our religion, which they advised them to embrace, whereunto they +also added some threats. To which they received this answer: "That as to +their being peaceable, they did not seem to be such, if they were so. +As to their king, since he was fain to beg, he must be necessitous and +poor; and he who had made him this gift, must be a man who loved +dissension, to give that to another which was none of his own, to bring +it into dispute against the ancient possessors. As to victuals, they +would supply them; that of gold they had little; it being a thing they +had in very small esteem, as of no use to the service of life, whereas +their only care was to pass it over happily and pleasantly: but that what +they could find excepting what was employed in the service of their gods, +they might freely take. As to one only God, the proposition had pleased +them well; but that they would not change their religion, both because +they had so long and happily lived in it, and that they were not wont to +take advice of any but their friends, and those they knew: as to their +menaces, it was a sign of want of judgment to threaten those whose nature +and power were to them unknown; that, therefore, they were to make haste +to quit their coast, for they were not used to take the civilities and +professions of armed men and strangers in good part; otherwise they +should do by them as they had done by those others," showing them the +heads of several executed men round the walls of their city. A fair +example of the babble of these children. But so it is, that the +Spaniards did not, either in this or in several other places, where they +did not find the merchandise they sought, make any stay or attempt, +whatever other conveniences were there to be had; witness my CANNIBALS.-- +[Chapter XXX. of Book I.] + +Of the two most puissant monarchs of that world, and, peradventure, of +this, kings of so many kings, and the last they turned out, he of Peru, +having been taken in a battle, and put to so excessive a ransom as +exceeds all belief, and it being faithfully paid, and he having, by his +conversation, given manifest signs of a frank, liberal, and constant +spirit, and of a clear and settled understanding, the conquerors had a +mind, after having exacted one million three hundred and twenty-five +thousand and five hundred weight of gold, besides silver, and other +things which amounted to no less (so that their horses were shod with +massy gold), still to see, at the price of what disloyalty and injustice +whatever, what the remainder of the treasures of this king might be, and +to possess themselves of that also. To this end a false accusation was +preferred against him, and false witnesses brought to prove that he went +about to raise an insurrection in his provinces, to procure his own +liberty; whereupon, by the virtuous sentence of those very men who had by +this treachery conspired his ruin, he was condemned to be publicly hanged +and strangled, after having made him buy off the torment of being burnt +alive, by the baptism they gave him immediately before execution; a +horrid and unheard of barbarity, which, nevertheless, he underwent +without giving way either in word or look, with a truly grave and royal +behaviour. After which, to calm and appease the people, aroused and +astounded at so strange a thing, they counterfeited great sorrow for his +death, and appointed most sumptuous funerals. + +The other king of Mexico,--[Guatimosin]--having for a long time defended +his beleaguered city, and having in this siege manifested the utmost of +what suffering and perseverance can do, if ever prince and people did, +and his misfortune having delivered him alive into his enemies' hands, +upon articles of being treated like a king, neither did he in his +captivity discover anything unworthy of that title. His enemies, after +their victory, not finding so much gold as they expected, when they had +searched and rifled with their utmost diligence, they went about to +procure discoveries by the most cruel torments they could invent upon the +prisoners they had taken: but having profited nothing by these, their +courage being greater than their torments, they arrived at last to such a +degree of fury, as, contrary to their faith and the law of nations, to +condemn the king himself, and one of the principal noblemen of his court, +to the rack, in the presence of one another. This lord, finding himself +overcome with pain, being environed with burning coals, pitifully turned +his dying eyes towards his master, as it were to ask him pardon that he +was able to endure no more; whereupon the king, darting at him a fierce +and severe look, as reproaching his cowardice and pusillanimity, with a +harsh and constant voice said to him thus only: "And what dost thou think +I suffer? am I in a bath? am I more at ease than thou?" Whereupon the +other immediately quailed under the torment and died upon the spot. The +king, half roasted, was carried thence; not so much out of pity (for what +compassion ever touched so barbarous souls, who, upon the doubtful +information of some vessel of gold to be made a prey of, caused not only +a man, but a king, so great in fortune and desert, to be broiled before +their eyes), but because his constancy rendered their cruelty still more +shameful. They afterwards hanged him for having nobly attempted to +deliver himself by arms from so long a captivity and subjection, and he +died with a courage becoming so magnanimous a prince. + +Another time, they burnt in the same fire four hundred and sixty men +alive at once, the four hundred of the common people, the sixty the +principal lords of a province, simply prisoners of war. We have these +narratives from themselves for they not only own it, but boast of it and +publish it. Could it be for a testimony of their justice or their zeal +to religion? Doubtless these are ways too differing and contrary to so +holy an end. Had they proposed to themselves to extend our faith, they +would have considered that it does not amplify in the possession of +territories, but in the gaining of men; and would have more than +satisfied themselves with the slaughters occasioned by the necessity of +war, without indifferently mixing a massacre, as upon wild beasts, as +universal as fire and sword could make it; having only, by intention, +saved so many as they meant to make miserable slaves of, for the work and +service of their mines; so that many of the captains were put to death +upon the place of conquest, by order of the kings of Castile, justly +offended with the horror of their deportment, and almost all of them +hated and disesteemed. God meritoriously permitted that all this great +plunder should be swallowed up by the sea in transportation, or in the +civil wars wherewith they devoured one another; and most of the men +themselves were buried in a foreign land without any fruit of their +victory. + +That the revenue from these countries, though in the hands of so +parsimonious and so prudent a prince,--[Phillip II.]--so little answers +the expectation given of it to his predecessors, and to that original +abundance of riches which was found at the first landing in those new +discovered countries (for though a great deal be fetched thence, yet we +see 'tis nothing in comparison of that which might be expected), is that +the use of coin was there utterly unknown, and that consequently their +gold was found all hoarded together, being of no other use but for +ornament and show, as a furniture reserved from father to son by many +puissant kings, who were ever draining their mines to make this vast heap +of vessels and statues for the decoration of their palaces and temples; +whereas our gold is always in motion and traffic; we cut it into a +thousand small pieces, and cast it into a thousand forms, and scatter and +disperse it in a thousand ways. But suppose our kings should thus hoard +up all the gold they could get in several ages and let it lie idle by +them. + +Those of the kingdom of Mexico were in some sort more civilised and more +advanced in arts than the other nations about them. Therefore did they +judge, as we do, that the world was near its period, and looked upon the +desolation we brought amongst them as a certain sign of it. They +believed that the existence of the world was divided into five ages, and +in the life of five successive suns, of which four had already ended +their time, and that this which gave them light was the fifth. The first +perished, with all other creatures, by an universal inundation of water; +the second by the heavens falling upon us and suffocating every living +thing to which age they assigned the giants, and showed bones to the +Spaniards, according to the proportion of which the stature of men +amounted to twenty feet; the third by fire, which burned and consumed +all; the fourth by an emotion of the air and wind, which came with such +violence as to beat down even many mountains, wherein the men died not, +but were turned into baboons. What impressions will not the weakness of +human belief admit? After the death of this fourth sun, the world was +twenty-five years in perpetual darkness: in the fifteenth of which a man +and a woman were created, who restored the human race: ten years after, +upon a certain day, the sun appeared newly created, and since the account +of their year takes beginning from that day: the third day after its +creation the ancient gods died, and the new ones were since born daily. +After what manner they think this last sun shall perish, my author knows +not; but their number of this fourth change agrees with the great +conjunction of stars which eight hundred and odd years ago, as +astrologers suppose, produced great alterations and novelties in the +world. + +As to pomp and magnificence, upon the account of which I engaged in this +discourse, neither Greece, Rome, nor Egypt, whether for utility, +difficulty, or state, can compare any of their works with the highway to +be seen in Peru, made by the kings of the country, from the city of Quito +to that of Cusco (three hundred leagues), straight, even, five-and-twenty +paces wide, paved, and provided on both sides with high and beautiful +walls; and close by them, and all along on the inside, two perennial +streams, bordered with beautiful plants, which they call moly. In this +work, where they met with rocks and mountains, they cut them through, and +made them even, and filled up pits and valleys with lime and stone to +make them level. At the end of every day's journey are beautiful +palaces, furnished with provisions, vestments, and arms, as well for +travellers as for the armies that are to pass that way. In the estimate +of this work I have reckoned the difficulty which is especially +considerable in that place; they did not build with any stones less than +ten feet square, and had no other conveniency of carriage but by drawing +their load themselves by force of arm, and knew not so much as the art of +scaffolding, nor any other way of standing to their work, but by throwing +up earth against the building as it rose higher, taking it away again +when they had done. + +Let us here return to our coaches. Instead of these, and of all other +sorts of carriages, they caused themselves to be carried upon men's +shoulders. This last king of Peru, the day that he was taken, was thus +carried betwixt two upon staves of gold, and set in a chair of gold in +the middle of his army. As many of these sedan-men as were killed to +make him fall (for they would take him alive), so many others (and they +contended for it) took the place of those who were slain, so that they +could never beat him down, what slaughter soever they made of these +people, till a horseman, seizing upon him, brought him to the ground. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +OF THE INCONVENIENCE OF GREATNESS + +Since we cannot attain unto it, let us revenge our selves by railing at +it; and yet it is not absolutely railing against anything to proclaim its +defects, because they are in all things to be found, how beautiful or how +much to be coveted soever. Greatness has, in general, this manifest +advantage, that it can lower itself when it pleases, and has, very near, +the choice of both the one and the other condition; for a man does not +fall from all heights; there are several from which one may descend +without falling down. It does, indeed, appear to me that we value it at +too high a rate, and also overvalue the resolution of those whom we have +either seen or heard have contemned it, or displaced themselves of their +own accord: its essence is not so evidently commodious that a man may +not, with out a miracle, refuse it. I find it a very hard thing to +undergo misfortunes, but to be content with a moderate measure of +fortune, and to avoid greatness, I think a very easy matter. 'Tis, +methinks, a virtue to which I, who am no conjuror, could without any +great endeavour arrive. What, then, is to be expected from them that +would yet put into consideration the glory attending this refusal, +wherein there may lurk worse ambition than even in the desire itself, +and fruition of greatness? Forasmuch as ambition never comports itself +better, according to itself, than when it proceeds by obscure and +unfrequented ways. + +I incite my courage to patience, but I rein it as much as I can towards +desire. I have as much to wish for as another, and allow my wishes as +much liberty and indiscretion; but yet it never befell me to wish for +either empire or royalty, or the eminency of those high and commanding +fortunes: I do not aim that way; I love myself too well. When I think to +grow greater, 'tis but very moderately, and by a compelled and timorous +advancement, such as is proper for me in resolution, in prudence, in +health, in beauty, and even in riches too; but this supreme reputation, +this mighty authority, oppress my imagination; and, quite contrary to +that other,--[Julius Caesar.]--I should, peradventure, rather choose to +be the second or third in Perigord than the first at Paris at least, +without lying, rather the third at Paris than the first. I would neither +dispute with a porter, a miserable unknown, nor make crowds open in +adoration as I pass. I am trained up to a moderate condition, as well by +my choice as fortune; and have made it appear, in the whole conduct of my +life and enterprises, that I have rather avoided than otherwise the +climbing above the degree of fortune wherein God has placed me by my +birth; all natural constitution is equally just and easy. My soul is +such a poltroon, that I measure not good fortune by the height, but by +the facility. + +But if my heart be not great enough, 'tis open enough to make amends, at +any one's request, freely to lay open its weakness. Should any one put +me upon comparing the life of L. Thorius Balbus, a brave man, handsome, +learned, healthful, understanding, and abounding in all sorts of +conveniences and pleasures, leading a quiet life, and all his own, his +mind well prepared against death, superstition, pain, and other +incumbrances of human necessity, dying, at last, in battle, with his +sword in his hand, for the defence of his country, on the one part; and +on the other part, the life of M. Regulus, so great and high as is known +to every one, and his end admirable; the one without name and without +dignity, the other exemplary and glorious to a wonder. I should +doubtless say, as Cicero did, could I speak as well as he. + + [Cicero, De Finibus, ii. 20, gives the preference to Regulus, and + proclaims him the happier man.] + +But if I was to compare them with my own, I should then also say that the +first is as much according to my capacity, and from desire, which I +conform to my capacity, as the second is far beyond it; that I could not +approach the last but with veneration, the other I could readily attain +by use. + +Let us return to our temporal greatness, from which we are digressed. I +disrelish all dominion, whether active or passive. Otanes, one of the +seven who had right to pretend to the kingdom of Persia, did as I should +willingly have done, which was, that he gave up to his competitors his +right of being promoted to it, either by election or by lot, provided +that he and his might live in the empire out of all authority and +subjection, those of the ancient laws excepted, and might enjoy all +liberty that was not prejudicial to these, being as impatient of +commanding as of being commanded. + +The most painful and difficult employment in the world, in my opinion, is +worthily to discharge the office of a king. I excuse more of their +mistakes than men commonly do, in consideration of the intolerable weight +of their function, which astounds me. 'Tis hard to keep measure in so +immeasurable a power; yet so it is that it is, even to those who are not +of the best nature, a singular incitement to virtue to be seated in a +place where you cannot do the least good that shall not be put upon +record, and where the least benefit redounds to so many men, and where +your talent of administration, like that of preachers, principally +addresses itself to the people, no very exact judge, easy to deceive, and +easily content. There are few things wherein we can give a sincere +judgment, by reason that there are few wherein we have not, in some sort, +a private interest. Superiority and inferiority, dominion and subjection +are bound to a natural envy and contest, and must of necessity +perpetually intrench upon one another. I believe neither the one nor the +other touching the rights of the other party; let reason therefore, which +is inflexible and without passion, determine when we can avail ourselves +of it. 'Tis not above a month ago that I read over, two Scottish authors +contending upon this subject, of whom he who stands for the people makes +the king to be in a worse condition than a carter; he who writes for +monarchy places him some degrees above God in power and sovereignty. + +Now, the incommodity of greatness that I have taken to remark in this +place, upon some occasion that has lately put it into my head, is this: +there is not, peradventure, anything more pleasant in the commerce of +many than the trials that we make against one another, out of emulation +of honour and worth, whether in the exercises of the body or in those of +the mind, wherein sovereign greatness can have no true part. And, in +earnest, I have often thought that by force of respect itself men use +princes disdainfully and injuriously in that particular; for the thing I +was infinitely offended at in my childhood, that they who exercised with +me forbore to do their best because they found me unworthy of their +utmost endeavour, is what we see happen to them daily, every one finding +himself unworthy to contend with them. If we discover that they have the +least desire to get the better of us, there is no one who will not make +it his business to give it them, and who will not rather betray his own +glory than offend theirs; and will therein employ so much force only as +is necessary to save their honour. What share have they, then, in the +engagement, where every one is on their side? Methinks I see those +paladins of ancient times presenting themselves to jousts and battle with +enchanted arms and bodies. Brisson, + + [Plutarch, On Satisfaction or Tranquillity of the Mind. But in his + essay, How a Man may Distinguish a Flatterer from a Friend, he calls + him Chriso.] + +running against Alexander, purposely missed his blow, and made a fault in +his career; Alexander chid him for it, but he ought to have had him +whipped. Upon this consideration Carneades said, that "the sons of +princes learned nothing right but to manage horses; by reason that, in +all their other exercises, every one bends and yields to them; but a +horse, that is neither a flatterer nor a courtier, throws the son of a +king with no more ceremony than he would throw that of a porter." + +Homer was fain to consent that Venus, so sweet and delicate a goddess as +she was, should be wounded at the battle of Troy, thereby to ascribe +courage and boldness to her qualities that cannot possibly be in those +who are exempt from danger. The gods are made to be angry, to fear, to +run away, to be jealous, to grieve, to be transported with passions, to +honour them with the virtues that, amongst us, are built upon these +imperfections. Who does not participate in the hazard and difficulty, can +claim no interest in the honour and pleasure that are the consequents of +hazardous actions. 'Tis pity a man should be so potent that all things +must give way to him; fortune therein sets you too remote from society, +and places you in too great a solitude. This easiness and mean facility +of making all things bow under you, is an enemy to all sorts of pleasure: +'tis to slide, not to go; 'tis to sleep, and not to live. Conceive man +accompanied with omnipotence: you overwhelm him; he must beg disturbance +and opposition as an alms: his being and his good are in indigence. Evil +to man is in its turn good, and good evil. Neither is pain always to be +shunned, nor pleasure always to be pursued. + +Their good qualities are dead and lost; for they can only be perceived by +comparison, and we put them out of this: they have little knowledge of +true praise, having their ears deafened with so continual and uniform an +approbation. Have they to do with the stupidest of all their subjects? +they have no means to take any advantage of him; if he but say: "'Tis +because he is my king," he thinks he has said enough to express that he +therefore suffered himself to be overcome. This quality stifles and +consumes the other true and essential qualities: they are sunk in the +royalty, and leave them nothing to recommend themselves with but actions +that directly concern and serve the function of their place; 'tis so much +to be a king, that this alone remains to them. The outer glare that +environs him conceals and shrouds him from us; our sight is there +repelled and dissipated, being filled and stopped by this prevailing +light. The senate awarded the prize of eloquence to Tiberius; he refused +it, esteeming that though it had been just, he could derive no advantage +from a judgment so partial, and that was so little free to judge. + +As we give them all advantages of honour, so do we soothe and authorise +all their vices and defects, not only by approbation, but by imitation +also. Every one of Alexander's followers carried his head on one side, +as he did; and the flatterers of Dionysius ran against one another in his +presence, and stumbled at and overturned whatever was under foot, to shew +they were as purblind as he. Hernia itself has also served to recommend +a man to favour; I have seen deafness affected; and because the master +hated his wife, Plutarch--[who, however, only gives one instance; and in +this he tells us that the man visited his wife privately.]--has seen his +courtiers repudiate theirs, whom they loved; and, which is yet more, +uncleanliness and all manner of dissoluteness have so been in fashion; as +also disloyalty, blasphemy, cruelty, heresy, superstition, irreligion, +effeminacy, and worse, if worse there be; and by an example yet more +dangerous than that of Mithridates' flatterers, who, as their master +pretended to the honour of a good physician, came to him to have +incisions and cauteries made in their limbs; for these others suffered +the soul, a more delicate and noble part, to be cauterised. + +But to end where I began: the Emperor Adrian, disputing with the +philosopher Favorinus about the interpretation of some word, Favorinus +soon yielded him the victory; for which his friends rebuking him, "You +talk simply," said he; "would you not have him wiser than I, who commands +thirty legions?" Augustus wrote verses against Asinius Pollio, and "I," +said Pollio, "say nothing, for it is not prudence to write in contest +with him who has power to proscribe." And they were right. For +Dionysius, because he could not equal Philoxenus in poesy and Plato in +discourse, condemned the one to the quarries, and sent the other to be +sold for a slave into the island of AEgina. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +OF THE ART OF CONFERENCE + +'Tis a custom of our justice to condemn some for a warning to others. To +condemn them for having done amiss, were folly, as Plato says, + + [Diogenes Laertius, however, in his Life of Plato, iii. 181, says + that Plato's offence was the speaking too freely to the tyrant.] + +for what is done can never be undone; but 'tis to the end they may offend +no more, and that others may avoid the example of their offence: we do +not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him. I do the same; my +errors are sometimes natural, incorrigible, and irremediable: but the +good which virtuous men do to the public, in making themselves imitated, +I, peradventure, may do in making my manners avoided: + + "Nonne vides, Albi ut male vivat filius? utque + Barrus inops? magnum documentum, ne patriam rein + Perdere guis velit;" + + ["Dost thou not see how ill the son of Albus lives? and how the + indigent Barrus? a great warning lest any one should incline to + dissipate his patrimony."--Horace, Sat., i. 4, 109.] + +publishing and accusing my own imperfections, some one will learn to be +afraid of them. The parts that I most esteem in myself, derive more +honour from decrying, than for commending myself which is the reason why +I so often fall into, and so much insist upon that strain. But, when all +is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; a man's +accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never: There may, +peradventure, be some of my own complexion who better instruct myself by +contrariety than by similitude, and by avoiding than by imitation. The +elder Cato was regarding this sort of discipline, when he said, "that the +wise may learn more of fools, than fools can of the wise"; and Pausanias +tells us of an ancient player upon the harp, who was wont to make his +scholars go to hear one who played very ill, who lived over against him, +that they might learn to hate his discords and false measures. The +horror of cruelty more inclines me to clemency, than any example of +clemency could possibly do. A good rider does not so much mend my seat, +as an awkward attorney or a Venetian, on horseback; and a clownish way of +speaking more reforms mine than the most correct. The ridiculous and +simple look of another always warns and advises me; that which pricks, +rouses and incites much better than that which tickles. The time is now +proper for us to reform backward; more by dissenting than by agreeing; by +differing more than by consent. Profiting little by good examples, I +make use of those that are ill, which are everywhere to be found: I +endeavour to render myself as agreeable as I see others offensive; as +constant as I see others fickle; as affable as I see others rough; as +good as I see others evil: but I propose to myself impracticable +measures. + +The most fruitful and natural exercise of the mind, in my opinion, is +conversation; I find the use of it more sweet than of any other action of +life; and for that reason it is that, if I were now compelled to choose, +I should sooner, I think, consent to lose my sight, than my hearing and +speech. The Athenians, and also the Romans, kept this exercise in great +honour in their academies; the Italians retain some traces of it to this +day, to their great advantage, as is manifest by the comparison of our +understandings with theirs. The study of books is a languishing and +feeble motion that heats not, whereas conversation teaches and exercises +at once. If I converse with a strong mind and a rough disputant, he +presses upon my flanks, and pricks me right and left; his imaginations +stir up mine; jealousy, glory, and contention, stimulate and raise me up +to something above myself; and acquiescence is a quality altogether +tedious in discourse. But, as our mind fortifies itself by the +communication of vigorous and regular understandings, 'tis not to be +expressed how much it loses and degenerates by the continual commerce and +familiarity we have with mean and weak spirits; there is no contagion +that spreads like that; I know sufficiently by experience what 'tis worth +a yard. I love to discourse and dispute, but it is with but few men, and +for myself; for to do it as a spectacle and entertainment to great +persons, and to make of a man's wit and words competitive parade is, in +my opinion, very unbecoming a man of honour. + +Folly is a bad quality; but not to be able to endure it, to fret and vex +at it, as I do, is another sort of disease little less troublesome than +folly itself; and is the thing that I will now accuse in myself. I enter +into conference, and dispute with great liberty and facility, forasmuch +as opinion meets in me with a soil very unfit for penetration, and +wherein to take any deep root; no propositions astonish me, no belief +offends me, though never so contrary to my own; there is no so frivolous +and extravagant fancy that does not seem to me suitable to the production +of human wit. We, who deprive our judgment of the right of determining, +look indifferently upon the diverse opinions, and if we incline not our +judgment to them, yet we easily give them the hearing: Where one scale is +totally empty, I let the other waver under an old wife's dreams; and I +think myself excusable, if I prefer the odd number; Thursday rather than +Friday; if I had rather be the twelfth or fourteenth than the thirteenth +at table; if I had rather, on a journey, see a hare run by me than cross +my way, and rather give my man my left foot than my right, when he comes +to put on my stockings. All such reveries as are in credit around us, +deserve at least a hearing: for my part, they only with me import +inanity, but they import that. Moreover, vulgar and casual opinions are +something more than nothing in nature; and he who will not suffer himself +to proceed so far, falls, peradventure, into the vice of obstinacy, to +avoid that of superstition. + +The contradictions of judgments, then, neither offend nor alter, they +only rouse and exercise, me. We evade correction, whereas we ought to +offer and present ourselves to it, especially when it appears in the form +of conference, and not of authority. At every opposition, we do not +consider whether or no it be dust, but, right or wrong, how to disengage +ourselves: instead of extending the arms, we thrust out our claws. I +could suffer myself to be rudely handled by my friend, so much as to tell +me that I am a fool, and talk I know not of what. I love stout +expressions amongst gentle men, and to have them speak as they think; we +must fortify and harden our hearing against this tenderness of the +ceremonious sound of words. I love a strong and manly familiarity and +conversation: a friendship that pleases itself in the sharpness and +vigour of its communication, like love in biting and scratching: it is +not vigorous and generous enough, if it be not quarrelsome, if it be +civilised and artificial, if it treads nicely and fears the shock: + + "Neque enim disputari sine reprehensione potest." + + ["Neither can a man dispute, but he must contradict." + (Or:) "Nor can people dispute without reprehension." + --Cicero, De Finib., i. 8.] + +When any one contradicts me, he raises my attention, not my anger: I +advance towards him who controverts, who instructs me; the cause of truth +ought to be the common cause both of the one and the other. What will +the angry man answer? Passion has already confounded his judgment; +agitation has usurped the place of reason. It were not amiss that the +decision of our disputes should pass by wager: that there might be a +material mark of our losses, to the end we might the better remember +them; and that my man might tell me: "Your ignorance and obstinacy cost +you last year, at several times, a hundred crowns." I hail and caress +truth in what quarter soever I find it, and cheerfully surrender myself, +and open my conquered arms as far off as I can discover it; and, provided +it be not too imperiously, take a pleasure in being reproved, and +accommodate myself to my accusers, very often more by reason of civility +than amendment, loving to gratify and nourish the liberty of admonition +by my facility of submitting to it, and this even at my own expense. + +Nevertheless, it is hard to bring the men of my time to it: they have not +the courage to correct, because they have not the courage to suffer +themselves to be corrected; and speak always with dissimulation in the +presence of one another: I take so great a pleasure in being judged and +known, that it is almost indifferent to me in which of the two forms I am +so: my imagination so often contradicts and condemns itself, that 'tis +all one to me if another do it, especially considering that I give his +reprehension no greater authority than I choose; but I break with him, +who carries himself so high, as I know of one who repents his advice, +if not believed, and takes it for an affront if it be not immediately +followed. That Socrates always received smilingly the contradictions +offered to his arguments, a man may say arose from his strength of +reason; and that, the advantage being certain to fall on his side, he +accepted them as a matter of new victory. But we see, on the contrary, +that nothing in argument renders our sentiment so delicate, as the +opinion of pre-eminence, and disdain of the adversary; and that, in +reason, 'tis rather for the weaker to take in good part the oppositions +that correct him and set him right. In earnest, I rather choose the +company of those who ruffle me than of those who fear me; 'tis a dull and +hurtful pleasure to have to do with people who admire us and approve of +all we say. Antisthenes commanded his children never to take it kindly +or for a favour, when any man commended them. I find I am much prouder +of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardour of dispute, +I make myself submit to my adversary's force of reason, than I am pleased +with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness. In fine, I +receive and admit of all manner of attacks that are direct, how weak +soever; but I am too impatient of those that are made out of form. I +care not what the subject is, the opinions are to me all one, and I am +almost indifferent whether I get the better or the worse. I can +peaceably argue a whole day together, if the argument be carried on with +method; I do not so much require force and subtlety as order; I mean the +order which we every day observe in the wranglings of shepherds and shop- +boys, but never amongst us: if they start from their subject, 'tis out of +incivility, and so 'tis with us; but their tumult and impatience never +put them out of their theme; their argument still continues its course; +if they interrupt, and do not stay for one another, they at least +understand one another. Any one answers too well for me, if he answers +what I say: when the dispute is irregular and disordered, I leave the +thing itself, and insist upon the form with anger and indiscretion; +falling into wilful, malicious, and imperious way of disputation, of +which I am afterwards ashamed. 'Tis impossible to deal fairly with a +fool: my judgment is not only corrupted under the hand of so impetuous a +master, but my conscience also. + +Our disputes ought to be interdicted and punished as well as other verbal +crimes: what vice do they not raise and heap up, being always governed +and commanded by passion? We first quarrel with their reasons, and then +with the men. We only learn to dispute that we may contradict; and so, +every one contradicting and being contradicted, it falls out that the +fruit of disputation is to lose and annihilate truth. Therefore it is +that Plato in his Republic prohibits this exercise to fools and ill-bred +people. To what end do you go about to inquire of him, who knows nothing +to the purpose? A man does no injury to the subject, when he leaves it +to seek how he may treat it; I do not mean by an artificial and +scholastic way, but by a natural one, with a sound understanding. What +will it be in the end? One flies to the east, the other to the west; +they lose the principal, dispersing it in the crowd of incidents after an +hour of tempest, they know not what they seek: one is low, the other +high, and a third wide. One catches at a word and a simile; another is +no longer sensible of what is said in opposition to him, and thinks only +of going on at his own rate, not of answering you: another, finding +himself too weak to make good his rest, fears all, refuses all, at the +very beginning, confounds the subject; or, in the very height of the +dispute, stops short and is silent, by a peevish ignorance affecting a +proud contempt or a foolishly modest avoidance of further debate: +provided this man strikes, he cares not how much he lays himself open; +the other counts his words, and weighs them for reasons; another only +brawls, and uses the advantage of his lungs. Here's one who learnedly +concludes against himself, and another who deafens you with prefaces and +senseless digressions: an other falls into downright railing, and seeks a +quarrel after the German fashion, to disengage himself from a wit that +presses too hard upon him: and a last man sees nothing into the reason of +the thing, but draws a line of circumvallation about you of dialectic +clauses, and the formulas of his art. + +Now, who would not enter into distrust of sciences, and doubt whether he +can reap from them any solid fruit for the service of life, considering +the use we put them to? + + "Nihil sanantibus litteris." + + ["Letters which cure nothing."--Seneca, Ep., 59.] + +Who has got understanding by his logic? Where are all her fair promises? + + "Nec ad melius vivendum, nec ad commodius disserendum." + + ["It neither makes a man live better nor talk better." + --Cicero, De Fin., i. 19.] + +Is there more noise or confusion in the scolding of herring-wives than in +the public disputes of men of this profession? I had rather my son +should learn in a tap-house to speak, than in the schools to prate. Take +a master of arts, and confer with him: why does he not make us sensible +of this artificial excellence? and why does he not captivate women and +ignoramuses, as we are, with admiration at the steadiness of his reasons +and the beauty of his order? why does he not sway and persuade us to what +he will? why does a man, who has so much advantage in matter and +treatment, mix railing, indiscretion, and fury in his disputations? +Strip him of his gown, his hood, and his Latin, let him not batter our +ears with Aristotle, pure and simple, you will take him for one of us, +or worse. Whilst they torment us with this complication and confusion of +words, it fares with them, methinks, as with jugglers; their dexterity +imposes upon our senses, but does not at all work upon our belief this +legerdemain excepted, they perform nothing that is not very ordinary and +mean: for being the more learned, they are none the less fools. + + [So Hobbes said that if he had read as much as the academical + pedants he should have known as little.] + +I love and honour knowledge as much as they that have it, and in its true +use 'tis the most noble and the greatest acquisition of men; but in such +as I speak of (and the number of them is infinite), who build their +fundamental sufficiency and value upon it, who appeal from their +understanding to their memory: + + "Sub aliena umbra latentes," + + ["Sheltering under the shadow of others."--Seneca, Ep., 33.] + +and who can do nothing but by book, I hate it, if I dare to say so, worse +than stupidity. In my country, and in my time, learning improves +fortunes enough, but not minds; if it meet with those that are dull and +heavy, it overcharges and suffocates them, leaving them a crude and +undigested mass; if airy and fine, it purifies, clarifies, and subtilises +them, even to exinanition. 'Tis a thing of almost indifferent quality; +a very useful accession to a well-born soul, but hurtful and pernicious +to others; or rather a thing of very precious use, that will not suffer +itself to be purchased at an under rate; in the hand of some 'tis a +sceptre, in that of others a fool's bauble. + +But let us proceed. What greater victory do you expect than to make your +enemy see and know that he is not able to encounter you? When you get +the better of your argument; 'tis truth that wins; when you get the +advantage of form and method,'tis then you who win. I am of opinion that +in, Plato and Xenophon Socrates disputes more in favour of the disputants +than in favour of the dispute, and more to instruct Euthydemus and +Protagoras in the, knowledge of their impertinence, than in the +impertinence of their art. He takes hold of the first subject like one +who has a more profitable end than to explain it--namely, to clear the +understandings that he takes upon him to instruct and exercise. To hunt +after truth is properly our business, and we are inexcusable if we carry +on the chase impertinently and ill; to fail of seizing it is another +thing, for we are born to inquire after truth: it belongs to a greater +power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of +the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine +knowledge. The world is but a school of inquisition: it is not who shall +enter the ring, but who shall run the best courses. He may as well play +the fool who speaks true, as he who speaks false, for we are upon the +manner, not the matter, of speaking. 'Tis my humour as much to regard +the form as the substance, and the advocate as much as the cause, as +Alcibiades ordered we should: and every day pass away my time in reading +authors without any consideration of their learning; their manner is what +I look after, not their subject: And just so do I hunt after the +conversation of any eminent wit, not that he may teach me, but that I may +know him, and that knowing him, if I think him worthy of imitation, I may +imitate him. Every man may speak truly, but to speak methodically, +prudently, and fully, is a talent that few men have. The falsity that +proceeds from ignorance does not offend me, but the foppery of it. I +have broken off several treaties that would have been of advantage to +me, by reason of the impertinent contestations of those with whom I +treated. I am not moved once in a year at the faults of those over whom +I have authority, but upon the account of the ridiculous obstinacy of +their allegations, denials, excuses, we are every day going together by +the ears; they neither understand what is said, nor why, and answer +accordingly; 'tis enough to drive a man mad. I never feel any hurt upon +my head but when 'tis knocked against another, and more easily forgive +the vices of my servants than their boldness, importunity, and folly; let +them do less, provided they understand what they do: you live in hope to +warm their affection to your service, but there is nothing to be had or +to be expected from a stock. + +But what, if I take things otherwise than they are? Perhaps I do; and +therefore it is that I accuse my own impatience, and hold, in the first +place, that it is equally vicious both in him that is in the right, and +in him that is in the wrong; for 'tis always a tyrannic sourness not to +endure a form contrary to one's own: and, besides, there cannot, in +truth, be a greater, more constant, nor more irregular folly than to be +moved and angry at the follies of the world, for it principally makes us +quarrel with ourselves; and the old philosopher never wanted an occasion +for his tears whilst he considered himself. Miso, one of the seven +sages, of a Timonian and Democritic humour, being asked, "what he +laughed at, being alone?"--"That I do laugh alone," answered he. How +many ridiculous things, in my own opinion, do I say and answer every day +that comes over my head? and then how many more, according to the +opinion of others? If I bite my own lips, what ought others to do? In +fine, we must live amongst the living, and let the river run under the +bridge without our care, or, at least, without our interference. In +truth, why do we meet a man with a hunch-back, or any other deformity, +without being moved, and cannot endure the encounter of a deformed mind +without being angry? this vicious sourness sticks more to the judge than +to the crime. Let us always have this saying of Plato in our mouths: "Do +not I think things unsound, because I am not sound in myself? Am I not +myself in fault? may not my observations reflect upon myself?"--a wise +and divine saying, that lashes the most universal and common error of +mankind. Not only the reproaches that we throw in the face of one +another, but our reasons also, our arguments and controversies, are +reboundable upon us, and we wound ourselves with our own weapons: of +which antiquity. has left me enough grave examples. It was ingeniously +and home-said by him, who was the inventor of this sentence: + + "Stercus cuique suum bene olet." + + ["To every man his own excrements smell well."--Erasmus] + +We see nothing behind us; we mock ourselves an hundred times a day; when +we deride our neighbours; and we detest in others the defects which are +more manifest in us, and which we admire with marvellous inadvertency and +impudence. It was but yesterday that I heard a man of understanding and +of good rank, as pleasantly as justly scoffing at the folly of another, +who did nothing but torment everybody with the catalogue of his genealogy +and alliances, above half of them false (for they are most apt to fall +into such ridiculous discourses, whose qualities are most dubious and +least sure), and yet, would he have looked into himself, he would have +discerned himself to be no less intemperate arid wearisome in extolling +his wife's pedigree. O importunate presumption, with which the wife sees +herself armed by the hands of her own husband. Did he understand Latin, +we should say to him: + + "Age, si hic non insanit satis sua sponte, instiga." + + ["Come! if of himself he is not mad enough, urge him on." + --Terence, And., iv. 2, 9.] + +I do not say that no man should accuse another, who is not clean +himself,--for then no one would ever accuse,--clean from the same sort of +spot; but I mean that our judgment, falling upon another who is then in +question, should not, at the same time, spare ourselves, but sentence us +with an inward and severe authority. 'Tis an office of charity, that he +who cannot reclaim himself from a vice, should, nevertheless, endeavour +to remove it from another, in whom, peradventure, it may not have so deep +and so malignant a root; neither do him who reproves me for my fault that +he himself is guilty of the same. What of that? The reproof is, +notwithstanding, true and of very good use. Had we a good nose, our own +ordure would stink worse to us, forasmuch as it is our own: and Socrates +is of opinion that whoever should find himself, his son, and a stranger +guilty of any violence and wrong, ought to begin with himself, present +himself first to the sentence of justice, and implore, to purge himself, +the assistance of the hand of the executioner; in the next place, he +should proceed to his son, and lastly, to the stranger. If this precept +seem too severe, he ought at least to present himself the first, to the +punishment of his own conscience. + +The senses are our first and proper judges, which perceive not things but +by external accidents; and 'tis no wonder, if in all the parts of the +service of our society, there is so perpetual and universal a mixture of +ceremonies and superficial appearances; insomuch that the best and most +effectual part of our polities therein consist. 'Tis still man with whom +we have to do, of whom the condition is wonderfully corporal. Let those +who, of these late years, would erect for us such a contemplative and +immaterial an exercise of religion, not wonder if there be some who think +it had vanished and melted through their fingers had it not more upheld +itself among us as a mark, title, and instrument of division and faction, +than by itself. As in conference, the gravity, robe, and fortune of him +who speaks, ofttimes gives reputation to vain arguments and idle words, +it is not to be presumed but that a man, so attended and feared, has not +in him more than ordinary sufficiency; and that he to whom the king has +given so many offices and commissions and charges, he so supercilious and +proud, has not a great deal more in him, than another who salutes him at +so great a distance, and who has no employment at all. Not only the +words, but the grimaces also of these people, are considered and put into +the account; every one making it his business to give them some fine and +solid interpretation. If they stoop to the common conference, and that +you offer anything but approbation and reverence, they then knock you +down with the authority of their experience: they have heard, they have +seen, they have done so and so: you are crushed with examples. I should +willingly tell them, that the fruit of a surgeon's experience, is not the +history of his practice and his remembering that he has cured four people +of the plague and three of the gout, unless he knows how thence to +extract something whereon to form his judgment, and to make us sensible +that he has thence become more skillful in his art. As in a concert of +instruments, we do not hear a lute, a harpsichord, or a flute alone, but +one entire harmony, the result of all together. If travel and offices +have improved them, 'tis a product of their understanding to make it +appear. 'Tis not enough to reckon experiences, they must weigh, sort and +distil them, to extract the reasons and conclusions they carry along with +them. There were never so many historians: it is, indeed, good and of +use to read them, for they furnish us everywhere with excellent and +laudable instructions from the magazine of their memory, which, +doubtless, is of great concern to the help of life; but 'tis not that we +seek for now: we examine whether these relaters and collectors of things +are commendable themselves. + +I hate all sorts of tyranny, both in word and deed. I am very ready to +oppose myself against those vain circumstances that delude our judgments +by the senses; and keeping my eye close upon those extraordinary +greatnesses, I find that at best they are men, as others are: + + "Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa + Fortuna." + + ["For in those high fortunes, common sense is generally rare." + --Juvenal, viii. 73.] + +Peradventure, we esteem and look upon them for less than they are, by +reason they undertake more, and more expose themselves; they do not +answer to the charge they have undertaken. There must be more vigour and +strength in the bearer than in the burden; he who has not lifted as much +as he can, leaves you to guess that he has still a strength beyond that, +and that he has not been tried to the utmost of what he is able to do; he +who sinks under his load, makes a discovery of his best, and the weakness +of his shoulders. This is the reason that we see so many silly souls +amongst the learned, and more than those of the better sort: they would +have made good husbandmen, good merchants, and good artisans: their +natural vigour was cut out to that proportion. Knowledge is a thing of +great weight, they faint under it: their understanding has neither vigour +nor dexterity enough to set forth and distribute, to employ or make use +of this rich and powerful matter; it has no prevailing virtue but in a +strong nature; and such natures are very rare--and the weak ones, says +Socrates, corrupt the dignity of philosophy in the handling, it appears +useless and vicious, when lodged in an ill-contrived mind. They spoil +and make fools of themselves: + + "Humani qualis simulator simius oris, + Quern puer arridens pretioso stamine serum + Velavit, nudasque nates ac terga reliquit, + Ludibrium mensis." + + ["Just like an ape, simulator of the human face, whom a wanton boy + has dizened up in rich silks above, but left the lower parts bare, + for a laughing-stock for the tables." + --Claudian, in Eutrop., i 303.] + +Neither is it enough for those who govern and command us, and have all +the world in their hands, to have a common understanding, and to be able +to do the same that we can; they are very much below us, if they be not +infinitely above us: as they promise more, so they are to perform more. + +And yet silence is to them, not only a countenance of respect and +gravity, but very often of good advantage too: for Megabyzus, going 'to +see Apelles in his painting-room, stood a great while without speaking a +word, and at last began to talk of his paintings, for which he received +this rude reproof: "Whilst thou wast silent, thou seemedst to be some +great thing, by reason of thy chains and rich habit; but now that we have +heard thee speak, there is not the meanest boy in my workshop that does +not despise thee." Those princely ornaments, that mighty state, did not +permit him to be ignorant with a common ignorance, and to speak +impertinently of painting; he ought to have kept this external and +presumptive knowledge by silence. To how many foolish fellows of my time +has a sullen and silent mien procured the credit of prudence and +capacity! + +Dignities and offices are of necessity conferred more by fortune than +upon the account of merit; and we are often to blame, to condemn kings +when these are misplaced: on the contrary, 'tis a wonder they should have +so good luck, where there is so little skill: + + "Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos;" + + ["'Tis the chief virtue of a prince to know his people." + --Martial, viii. 15.] + +for nature has not given them a sight that can extend to so many people, +to discern which excels the rest, nor to penetrate into our bosoms, where +the knowledge of our wills and best value lies they must choose us by +conjecture and by groping; by the family, wealth, learning, and the voice +of the people, which are all very feeble arguments. Whoever could find +out a way by which they might judge by justice, and choose men by reason, +would, in this one thing, establish a perfect form of government. + +"Ay, but he brought that great affair to a very good pass." This is, +indeed, to say something, but not to say enough: for this sentence is +justly received, "That we are not to judge of counsels by events." +The Carthaginians punished the ill counsels of their captains, though +they were rectified by a successful issue; and the Roman people often +denied a triumph for great and very advantageous victories because the +conduct of their general was not answerable to his good fortune. +We ordinarily see, in the actions of the world, that Fortune, to shew +us her power in all things, and who takes a pride in abating our +presumption, seeing she could not make fools wise, has made them +fortunate in emulation of virtue; and most favours those operations the +web of which is most purely her own; whence it is that the simplest +amongst us bring to pass great business, both public and private; and, +as Seiramnes, the Persian, answered those who wondered that his affairs +succeeded so ill, considering that his deliberations were so wise, "that +he was sole master of his designs, but that success was wholly in the +power of fortune"; these may answer the same, but with a contrary turn. +Most worldly affairs are performed by themselves + + "Fata viam inveniunt;" + + ["The destinies find the way."--AEneid, iii. 395] + +the event often justifies a very foolish conduct; our interposition is +little more than as it were a running on by rote, and more commonly a +consideration of custom and example, than of reason. Being formerly +astonished at the greatness of some affair, I have been made acquainted +with their motives and address by those who had performed it, and have +found nothing in it but very ordinary counsels; and the most common and +usual are indeed, perhaps, the most sure and convenient for practice, if +not for show. What if the plainest reasons are the best seated? the +meanest, lowest, and most beaten more adapted to affairs? To maintain +the authority of the counsels of kings, it needs not that profane persons +should participate of them, or see further into them than the outmost +barrier; he who will husband its reputation must be reverenced upon +credit and taken altogether. My consultation somewhat rough-hews the +matter, and considers it lightly by the first face it presents: the +stress and main of the business I have been wont to refer to heaven; + + "Permitte divis caetera." + + ["Leave the rest to the gods."--Horace, Od., i. 9, 9.] + +Good and ill fortune are, in my opinion, two sovereign powers; 'tis folly +to think that human prudence can play the part of Fortune; and vain is +his attempt who presumes to comprehend both causes and consequences, and +by the hand to conduct the progress of his design; and most especially +vain in the deliberations of war. There was never greater circumspection +and military prudence than sometimes is seen amongst us: can it be that +men are afraid to lose themselves by the way, that they reserve +themselves to the end of the game? I moreover affirm that our wisdom +itself and consultation, for the most part commit themselves to the +conduct of chance; my will and my reason are sometimes moved by one +breath, and sometimes by another; and many of these movements there are +that govern themselves without me: my reason has uncertain and casual +agitations and impulsions: + + "Vertuntur species animorum, et pectora motus + Nunc alios, alios, dum nubila ventus agebat, + Concipiunt." + + ["The aspects of their minds change; and they conceive now such + ideas, now such, just so long as the wind agitated the clouds." + --Virgil, Georg., i. 42.] + +Let a man but observe who are of greatest authority in cities, and who +best do their own business; we shall find that they are commonly men of +the least parts: women, children, and madmen have had the fortune to +govern great kingdoms equally well with the wisest princes, and +Thucydides says, that the stupid more ordinarily do it than those of +better understandings; we attribute the effects of their good fortune to +their prudence: + + "Ut quisque Fortuna utitur, + Ita praecellet; atque exinde sapere illum omnes dicimus;" + + ["He makes his way who knows how to use Fortune, and thereupon we + all call him wise."--Plautus, Pseudol., ii. 3, 13.] + +wherefore I say unreservedly, events are a very poor testimony of our +worth and parts. + +Now, I was upon this point, that there needs no more but to see a man +promoted to dignity; though we knew him but three days before a man of +little regard, yet an image of grandeur of sufficiency insensibly steals +into our opinion, and we persuade ourselves that, being augmented in +reputation and train, he is also increased in merit; we judge of him, not +according to his worth, but as we do by counters, according to the +prerogative of his place. If it happen so that he fall again, and be +mixed with the common crowd, every one inquires with amazement into the +cause of his having been raised so high. "Is this he," say they, "was he +no wiser when he was there? Do princes satisfy themselves with so +little? Truly, we were in good hands." This is a thing that I have +often seen in my time. Nay, even the very disguise of grandeur +represented in our comedies in some sort moves and gulls us. That which +I myself adore in kings is the crowd of their adorers; all reverence and +submission are due to them, except that of the understanding: my reason +is not obliged to bow and bend; my knees are. Melanthius being asked +what he thought of the tragedy of Dionysius, "I could not see it," said +he, "it was so clouded with language"; so most of those who judge of the +discourses of great men ought to say, "I did not understand his words, +they were so clouded with gravity, grandeur, and majesty." Antisthenes +one day tried to persuade the Athenians to give order that their asses +might be employed in tilling the ground as well as the horses were; to +which it was answered that that animal was not destined for such a +service: "That's all one," replied he, "you have only to order it: for +the most ignorant and incapable men you employ in the commands of your +wars incontinently become worthy enough, because you employ them"; to +which the custom of so many people, who canonise the king they have +chosen out of their own body, and are not content only to honour, but +must adore them, comes very near. Those of Mexico, after the ceremonies +of their king's coronation are over, dare no more look him in the face; +but, as if they had deified him by his royalty. Amongst the oaths they +make him take to maintain their religion, their laws, and liberties, to +be valiant, just, and mild, he moreover swears to make the sun run his +course in his wonted light, to drain the clouds at fit seasons, to make +rivers run their course, and to cause the earth to bear all things +necessary for his people. + +I differ from this common fashion, and am more apt to suspect the +capacity when I see it accompanied with that grandeur of fortune and +public applause; we are to consider of what advantage it is to speak when +a man pleases, to choose his subject, to interrupt or change it, with a +magisterial authority; to protect himself from the oppositions of others +by a nod, a smile, or silence, in the presence of an assembly that +trembles with reverence and respect. A man of a prodigious fortune +coming to give his judgment upon some slight dispute that was foolishly +set on foot at his table, began in these words: "It can be no other but +a liar or a fool that will say otherwise than so and so." Pursue this +philosophical point with a dagger in your hand. + +There is another observation I have made, from which I draw great +advantage; which is, that in conferences and disputes, every word that +seems to be good, is not immediately to be accepted. Most men are rich +in borrowed sufficiency: a man may say a good thing, give a good answer, +cite a good sentence, without at all seeing the force of either the one +or the other. That a man may not understand all he borrows, may perhaps +be verified in myself. A man must not always presently yield, what truth +or beauty soever may seem to be in the opposite argument; either he must +stoutly meet it, or retire, under colour of not understanding it, to try, +on all parts, how it is lodged in the author. It may happen that we +entangle ourselves, and help to strengthen the point itself. I have +sometimes, in the necessity and heat of the combat, made answers that +have gone through and through, beyond my expectation or hope; I only gave +them in number, they were received in weight. As, when I contend with a +vigorous man, I please myself with anticipating his conclusions, I ease +him of the trouble of explaining himself, I strive to forestall his +imagination whilst it is yet springing and imperfect; the order and +pertinency of his understanding warn and threaten me afar off: I deal +quite contrary with the others; I must understand, and presuppose nothing +but by them. If they determine in general words, "this is good, that is +naught," and that they happen to be in the right, see if it be not +fortune that hits it off for them: let them a little circumscribe and +limit their judgment; why, or how, it is so. These universal judgments +that I see so common, signify nothing; these are men who salute a whole +people in a crowd together; they, who have a real acquaintance, take +notice of and salute them individually and by name. But 'tis a hazardous +attempt; and from which I have, more than every day, seen it fall out, +that weak understandings, having a mind to appear ingenious, in taking +notice, as they read a book, of what is best and most to be admired, fix +their admiration upon some thing so very ill chosen, that instead of +making us discern the excellence of the author; they make us very well +see their own ignorance. This exclamation is safe, "That is fine," after +having heard a whole page of Virgil; by that the cunning sort save +themselves; but to undertake to follow him line by line, and, with an +expert and tried judgment, to observe where a good author excels himself, +weighing the words, phrases, inventions, and his various excellences, one +after another; keep aloof from that: + + "Videndum est, non modo quid quisque loquatur, sed etiam quid + quisque sentiat, atque etiam qua de causa quisque sentiat." + + ["A man is not only to examine what every one says, but also what + every one thinks, and from what reason every one thinks." + --Cicero, De Offic:, i. 41.] + +I every day hear fools say things that are not foolish: they say a good +thing; let us examine how far they understand it, whence they have it, +and what they mean by it. We help them to make use of this fine +expression, of this fine sentence, which is none of theirs; they only +have it in keeping; they have bolted it out at a venture; we place it for +them in credit and esteem. You lend them your hand. To what purpose? +they do not think themselves obliged to you for it, and become more inept +still. Don't help them; let them alone; they will handle the matter like +people who are afraid of burning their fingers; they dare change neither +its seat nor light, nor break into it; shake it never so little, it slips +through their fingers; they give it up, be it never so strong or fair +they are fine weapons, but ill hafted: How many times have I seen the +experience of this? Now, if you come to explain anything to them, and to +confirm them, they catch at it, and presently rob you of the advantage of +your interpretation; "It was what I was about to say; it was just my +idea; if I did not express it so, it was for want of language." Mere +wind! Malice itself must be employed to correct this arrogant ignorance. +The dogma of Hegesias, "that we are neither to hate nor accuse, but +instruct," is correct elsewhere; but here 'tis injustice and inhumanity +to relieve and set him right who stands in no need on't, and is the worse +for't. I love to let them step deeper into the mire; and so deep, that, +if it be possible, they may at last discern their error. + +Folly and absurdity are not to be cured by bare admonition; and what +Cyrus answered to him, who importuned him to harangue his army, upon the +point of battle, "that men do not become valiant and warlike upon a +sudden, by a fine oration, no more than a man becomes a good musician by +hearing a fine song," may properly be said of such an admonition as this. +These are apprenticeships that are to be served beforehand, by a long and +continued education. We owe this care and this assiduity of correction +and instruction to our own people; but to go preach to the first passer- +by, and to become tutor to the ignorance and folly of the first we meet, +is a thing that I abhor. I rarely do it, even in private conversation, +and rather give up the whole thing than proceed to these initiatory and +school instructions; my humour is unfit either to speak or write for +beginners; but for things that are said in common discourse, or amongst +other things, I never oppose them either by word or sign, how false or +absurd soever. + +As to the rest, nothing vexes me so much in folly as that it is more +satisfied with itself than any reason can reasonably be. 'Tis +unfortunate that prudence forbids us to satisfy and trust ourselves, +and always dismisses us timorous and discontented; whereas obstinacy and +temerity fill those who are possessed with them with joy and assurance. +'Tis for the most ignorant to look at other men over the shoulder, always +returning from the combat full of joy and triumph. And moreover, for the +most part, this arrogance of speech and gaiety of countenance gives them +the better of it in the opinion of the audience, which is commonly weak +and incapable of well judging and discerning the real advantage. +Obstinacy of opinion and heat in argument are the surest proofs of folly; +is there anything so assured, resolute, disdainful, contemplative, +serious and grave as the ass? + +May we not include under the title of conference and communication the +quick and sharp repartees which mirth and familiarity introduce amongst +friends, pleasantly and wittily jesting and rallying with one another? +'Tis an exercise for which my natural gaiety renders me fit enough, and +which, if it be not so tense and serious as the other I spoke of but now, +is, as Lycurgus thought, no less smart and ingenious, nor of less +utility. For my part, I contribute to it more liberty than wit, and have +therein more of luck than invention; but I am perfect in suffering, for I +endure a retaliation that is not only tart, but indiscreet to boot, +without being moved at all; and whoever attacks me, if I have not a brisk +answer immediately ready, I do not study to pursue the point with a +tedious and impertinent contest, bordering upon obstinacy, but let it +pass, and hanging down cheerfully my ears, defer my revenge to another +and better time: there is no merchant that always gains: Most men change +their countenance and their voice where their wits fail, and by an +unseasonable anger, instead of revenging themselves, accuse at once their +own folly and impatience. In this jollity, we sometimes pinch the secret +strings of our imperfections which, at another and graver time, we cannot +touch without offence, and so profitably give one another a hint of our +defects. There are other jeux de main,--[practical jokes]--rude and +indiscreet, after the French manner, that I mortally hate; my skin is +very tender and sensible: I have in my time seen two princes of the blood +buried upon that very account. 'Tis unhandsome to fight in play. As to +the rest, when I have a mind to judge of any one, I ask him how far he is +contented with himself; to what degree his speaking or his work pleases +him. I will none of these fine excuses, "I did it only in sport: + + 'Ablatum mediis opus est incudibus istud.' + + ["That work was taken from the anvil half finished." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 6, 29.] + +I was not an hour about it: I have never looked at it since." Well, +then, say I, lay these aside, and give me a perfect one, such as you +would be measured by. And then, what do you think is the best thing in +your work? is it this part or that? is it grace or the matter, the +invention, the judgment, or the learning? For I find that men are, +commonly, as wide of the mark in judging of their own works, as of those +of others; not only by reason of the kindness they have for them, but for +want of capacity to know and distinguish them: the work, by its own force +and fortune, may second the workman, and sometimes outstrip him, beyond +his invention and knowledge. For my part, I judge of the value of other +men's works more obscurely than of my own; and place the Essays, now +high, or low, with great doubt and inconstancy. There are several books +that are useful upon the account of their subjects, from which the author +derives no praise; and good books, as well as good works, that shame the +workman. I may write the manner of our feasts, and the fashion of our +clothes, and may write them ill; I may publish the edicts of my time, and +the letters of princes that pass from hand to hand; I may make an +abridgment of a good book (and every abridgment of a good book is a +foolish abridgment), which book shall come to be lost; and so on: +posterity will derive a singular utility from such compositions: but what +honour shall I have unless by great good fortune? Most part of the +famous books are of this condition. + +When I read Philip de Commines, doubtless a very good author, several +years ago, I there took notice of this for no vulgar saying, "That a man +must have a care not to do his master so great service, that at last he +will not know how to give him his just reward"; but I ought to commend +the invention, not him, because I met with it in Tacitus, not long since: + + "Beneficia ea usque lxta sunt, dum videntur exsolvi posse; + ubi multum antevenere, pro gratis odium redditur;" + + ["Benefits are so far acceptable as they appear to be capable of + recompense; where they much exceed that point, hatred is returned + instead of thanks."--Tacitus, Annal., iv. 18.] + +and Seneca vigorously says: + + "Nam qui putat esse turpe non reddere, + non vult esse cui reddat:" + + ["For he who thinks it a shame not to requite, does not wish to + have the man live to whom he owes return."--Seneca, Ep., 81.] + +Q. Cicero says with less directness.: + + "Qui se non putat satisfacere, + amicus esse nullo modo potest." + + ["Who thinks himself behind in obligation, can by no + means be a friend."--Q. Cicero, De Petitione Consul, c. 9.] + +The subject, according to what it is, may make a man looked upon as +learned and of good memory; but to judge in him the parts that are most +his own and the most worthy, the vigour and beauty of his soul, one must +first know what is his own and what is not; and in that which is not his +own, how much we are obliged to him for the choice, disposition, +ornament, and language he has there presented us with. What if he has +borrowed the matter and spoiled the form, as it often falls out? We, who +are little read in books, are in this strait, that when we meet with a +high fancy in some new poet, or some strong argument in a preacher, we +dare not, nevertheless, commend it till we have first informed ourselves, +through some learned man, if it be the writer's wit or borrowed from some +other; until that I always stand upon my guard. + +I have lately been reading the history of Tacitus quite through, without +interrupting it with anything else (which but seldom happens with me, it +being twenty years since I have kept to any one book an hour together), +and I did it at the instance of a gentleman for whom France has a great +esteem, as well for his own particular worth, as upon the account of a +constant form of capacity and virtue which runs through a great many +brothers of them. I do not know any author in a public narrative who +mixes so much consideration of manners and particular inclinations: and I +am of a quite contrary opinion to him, holding that, having especially to +follow the lives of the emperors of his time, so various and extreme in +all sorts of forms, so many notable actions as their cruelty especially +produced in their subjects, he had a stronger and more attractive matter +to treat of than if he had had to describe battles and universal +commotions; so that I often find him sterile, running over those brave +deaths as if he feared to trouble us with their multitude and length. +This form of history is by much the most useful; public movements depend +most upon the conduct of fortune, private ones upon our own. 'Tis rather +a judgment than a narration of history; there are in it more precepts +than stories: it is not a book to read, 'tis a book to study and learn; +'tis full of sententious opinions, right or wrong; 'tis a nursery of +ethic and politic discourses, for the use and ornament of those who have +any place in the government of the world. He always argues by strong and +solid reasons, after a pointed and subtle manner, according to the +affected style of that age, which was so in love with an inflated manner, +that where point and subtlety were wanting in things it supplied these +with lofty and swelling words. 'Tis not much unlike the style of Seneca: +I look upon Tacitus as more sinewy, and Seneca as more sharp. His pen +seems most proper for a troubled and sick state, as ours at present is; +you would often say that he paints and pinches us. + +They who doubt his good faith sufficiently accuse themselves of being his +enemy upon some other account. His opinions are sound, and lean to the +right side in the Roman affairs. And yet I am angry at him for judging +more severely of Pompey than consists with the opinion of those worthy +men who lived in the same time, and had dealings with him; and to have +reputed him on a par with Marius and Sylla, excepting that he was more +close. Other writers have not acquitted his intention in the government +of affairs from ambition and revenge; and even his friends were afraid +that victory would have transported him beyond the bounds of reason, but +not to so immeasurable a degree as theirs; nothing in his life threatened +such express cruelty and tyranny. Neither ought we to set suspicion +against evidence; and therefore I do not believe Plutarch in this matter. +That his narrations were genuine and straightforward may, perhaps, be +argued from this very thing, that they do not always apply to the +conclusions of his judgments, which he follows according to the bias he +has taken, very often beyond the matter he presents us withal, which he +has not deigned to alter in the least degree. He needs no excuse for +having approved the religion of his time, according as the laws enjoined, +and to have been ignorant of the true; this was his misfortune, not his +fault. + +I have principally considered his judgment, and am not very well +satisfied therewith throughout; as these words in the letter that +Tiberius, old and sick, sent to the senate. "What shall I write to you, +sirs, or how should I write to you, or what should I not write to you at +this time? May the gods and goddesses lay a worse punishment upon me +than I am every day tormented with, if I know!" I do not see why he +should so positively apply them to a sharp remorse that tormented the +conscience of Tiberius; at least, when I was in the same condition, I +perceived no such thing. + +And this also seemed to me a little mean in him that, having to say that +he had borne an honourable office in Rome, he excuses himself that he +does not say it out of ostentation; this seems, I say, mean for such a +soul as his; for not to speak roundly of a man's self implies some want +of courage; a man of solid and lofty judgment, who judges soundly and +surely, makes use of his own example upon all occasions, as well as those +of others; and gives evidence as freely of himself as of a third person. +We are to pass by these common rules of civility, in favour of truth and +liberty. I dare not only speak of myself, but to speak only of myself: +when I write of anything else, I miss my way and wander from my subject. +I am not so indiscreetly enamoured of myself, so wholly mixed up with, +and bound to myself, that I cannot distinguish and consider myself apart, +as I do a neighbour or a tree: 'tis equally a fault not to discern how +far a man's worth extends, and to say more than a man discovers in +himself. We owe more love to God than to ourselves, and know Him less; +and yet speak of Him as much as we will. + +If the writings of Tacitus indicate anything true of his qualities, he +was a great personage, upright and bold, not of a superstitious but of a +philosophical and generous virtue. One may think him bold in his +relations; as where he tells us, that a soldier carrying a burden of +wood, his hands were so frozen and so stuck to the load that they there +remained closed and dead, being severed from his arms. I always in such +things bow to the authority of so great witnesses. + +What also he says, that Vespasian, by the favour of the god Serapis, +cured a blind woman at Alexandria by anointing her eyes with his spittle, +and I know not what other miracle," he says by the example and duty of +all his good historians. They record all events of importance; and +amongst public incidents are the popular rumours and opinions. 'Tis +their part to relate common beliefs, not to regulate them: that part +concerns divines and philosophers, directors of consciences; and +therefore it was that this companion of his, and a great man like +himself, very wisely said: + + "Equidem plura transcribo, quam credo: nam nec affirmare + sustineo, de quibus dubito, nec subducere quae accepi;" + + ["Truly, I set down more things than I believe, for I can neither + affirm things whereof I doubt, nor suppress what I have heard." + --Quintus Curtius, ix.] + +and this other: + + "Haec neque affirmare neque refellere operae + pretium est; famae rerum standum est." + + ["'Tis neither worth the while to affirm or to refute these things; + we must stand to report"--Livy, i., Praef., and viii. 6.] + +And writing in an age wherein the belief of prodigies began to decline, +he says he would not, nevertheless, forbear to insert in his Annals, and +to give a relation of things received by so many worthy men, and with so +great reverence of antiquity; 'tis very well said. Let them deliver to +us history, more as they receive it than as they believe it. I, who am +monarch of the matter whereof I treat, and who am accountable to none, do +not, nevertheless, always believe myself; I often hazard sallies of my +own wit, wherein I very much suspect myself, and certain verbal quibbles, +at which I shake my ears; but I let them go at a venture. I see that +others get reputation by such things: 'tis not for me alone to judge. I +present myself standing and lying, before and behind, my right side and +my left, and, in all my natural postures. Wits, though equal in force, +are not always equal in taste and application. + +This is what my memory presents to me in gross, and with uncertainty +enough; all judgments in gross are weak and imperfect. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A hundred more escape us than ever come to our knowledge +A man must have courage to fear +A man never speaks of himself without loss +A man's accusations of himself are always believed +Agitation has usurped the place of reason +All judgments in gross are weak and imperfect +Any argument if it be carried on with method +Apprenticeships that are to be served beforehand +Arrogant ignorance +Avoid all magnificences that will in a short time be forgotten +Being as impatient of commanding as of being commanded +Defer my revenge to another and better time +Desires, that still increase as they are fulfilled +Detest in others the defects which are more manifest in us +Disdainful, contemplative, serious and grave as the ass +Do not, nevertheless, always believe myself +Events are a very poor testimony of our worth and parts. +Every abridgment of a good book is a foolish abridgment +Fault not to discern how far a man's worth extends +Folly and absurdity are not to be cured by bare admonition +Folly satisfied with itself than any reason can reasonably be +Folly than to be moved and angry at the follies of the world +Give us history, more as they receive it than as they believe it +I every day hear fools say things that are not foolish +I hail and caress truth in what quarter soever I find it +I hate all sorts of tyranny, both in word and deed +I love stout expressions amongst gentle men +I was too frightened to be ill +If it be the writer's wit or borrowed from some other +Ignorance does not offend me, but the foppery of it. +It is not a book to read, 'tis a book to study and learn +"It was what I was about to say; it was just my idea," +Judge by justice, and choose men by reason +Knock you down with the authority of their experience +Learning improves fortunes enough, but not minds +Liberality at the expense of others +Malice must be employed to correct this arrogant ignorance +Man must have a care not to do his master so great service +Mix railing, indiscretion, and fury in his disputations +Most men are rich in borrowed sufficiency +My humour is unfit either to speak or write for beginners +My reason is not obliged to bow and bend; my knees are +Never oppose them either by word or sign, how false or absurd +New World: sold it opinions and our arts at a very dear rate +Obstinancy and heat in argument are the surest proofs of folly +One must first know what is his own and what is not +Our knowledge, which is a wretched foundation +Passion has already confounded his judgment +Pinch the secret strings of our imperfections +Practical Jokes: Tis unhandsome to fight in play +Presumptive knowledge by silence +Silent mien procured the credit of prudence and capacity +Spectators can claim no interest in the honour and pleasure +Study of books is a languishing and feeble motion +The cause of truth ought to be the common cause +The event often justifies a very foolish conduct +The ignorant return from the combat full of joy and triumph +The very name Liberality sounds of Liberty. +There are some upon whom their rich clothes weep +There is no merchant that always gains +There is nothing single and rare in respect of nature +They have heard, they have seen, they have done so and so +They have not the courage to suffer themselves to be corrected +Tis impossible to deal fairly with a fool +To fret and vex at folly, as I do, is folly itself +Transferring of money from the right owners to strangers +Tutor to the ignorance and folly of the first we meet +Tyrannic sourness not to endure a form contrary to one's own +Universal judgments that I see so common, signify nothing +"What he laughed at, being alone?"--"That I do laugh alone," +We are not to judge of counsels by events +We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him +We neither see far forward nor far backward +Whilst thou wast silent, thou seemedst to be some great thing +Who has once been a very fool, will never after be very wise +Wide of the mark in judging of their own works +Wise may learn more of fools, than fools can of the wise + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V16 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 17. + +IX. Of Vanity + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OF VANITY + +There is, peradventure, no more manifest vanity than to write of it so +vainly. That which divinity has so divinely expressed to us--["Vanity +of vanities: all is vanity."--Eccles., i. 2.]--ought to be carefully and +continually meditated by men of understanding. Who does not see that I +have taken a road, in which, incessantly and without labour, I shall +proceed so long as there shall be ink and paper in the world? I can give +no account of my life by my actions; fortune has placed them too low: I +must do it by my fancies. And yet I have seen a gentleman who only +communicated his life by the workings of his belly: you might see on his +premises a show of a row of basins of seven or eight days' standing; it +was his study, his discourse; all other talk stank in his nostrils. +Here, but not so nauseous, are the excrements of an old mind, sometimes +thick, sometimes thin, and always indigested. And when shall I have done +representing the continual agitation and mutation of my thoughts, as they +come into my head, seeing that Diomedes wrote six thousand books upon the +sole subject of grammar? + + [It was not Diomedes, but Didymus the grammarian, who, as Seneca + (Ep., 88) tells us, wrote four not six thousand books on questions + of vain literature, which was the principal study of the ancient + grammarian.--Coste. But the number is probably exaggerated, and for + books we should doubtless read pamphlets or essays.] + +What, then, ought prating to produce, since prattling and the first +beginning to speak, stuffed the world with such a horrible load of +volumes? So many words for words only. O Pythagoras, why didst not thou +allay this tempest? They accused one Galba of old for living idly; he +made answer, "That every one ought to give account of his actions, but +not of his home." He was mistaken, for justice also takes cognisance of +those who glean after the reaper. + +But there should be some restraint of law against foolish and impertinent +scribblers, as well as against vagabonds and idle persons; which if there +were, both I and a hundred others would be banished from the reach of our +people. I do not speak this in jest: scribbling seems to be a symptom of +a disordered and licentious age. When did we write so much as since our +troubles? when the Romans so much, as upon the point of ruin? Besides +that, the refining of wits does not make people wiser in a government: +this idle employment springs from this, that every one applies himself +negligently to the duty of his vocation, and is easily debauched from it. +The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of +every individual man; some contribute treachery, others injustice, +irreligion, tyranny, avarice, cruelty, according to their power; the +weaker sort contribute folly, vanity, and idleness; of these I am one. +It seems as if it were the season for vain things, when the hurtful +oppress us; in a time when doing ill is common, to do but what signifies +nothing is a kind of commendation. 'Tis my comfort, that I shall be one +of the last who shall be called in question; and whilst the greater +offenders are being brought to account, I shall have leisure to amend: +for it would, methinks, be against reason to punish little +inconveniences, whilst we are infested with the greater. As the +physician Philotimus said to one who presented him his finger to dress, +and who he perceived, both by his complexion and his breath, had an ulcer +in his lungs: "Friend, it is not now time to play with your nails."-- +[Plutarch, How we may distinguish a Flatterer from a Friend.] + +And yet I saw, some years ago, a person, whose name and memory I have in +very great esteem, in the very height of our great disorders, when there +was neither law nor justice, nor magistrate who performed his office, no +more than there is now, publish I know not what pitiful reformations +about cloths, cookery, and law chicanery. Those are amusements wherewith +to feed a people that are ill-used, to show that they are not totally +forgotten. Those others do the same, who insist upon prohibiting +particular ways of speaking, dances, and games, to a people totally +abandoned to all sorts of execrable vices. 'Tis no time to bathe and +cleanse one's self, when one is seized by a violent fever; it was for the +Spartans alone to fall to combing and curling themselves, when they were +just upon the point of running headlong into some extreme danger of their +life. + +For my part, I have that worse custom, that if my slipper go awry, I let +my shirt and my cloak do so too; I scorn to mend myself by halves. + +When I am in a bad plight, I fasten upon the mischief; I abandon myself +through despair; I let myself go towards the precipice, and, as they say, +"throw the helve after the hatchet"; I am obstinate in growing worse, and +think myself no longer worth my own care; I am either well or ill +throughout. 'T is a favour to me, that the desolation of this kingdom +falls out in the desolation of my age: I better suffer that my ill be +multiplied, than if my well had been disturbed.--[That, being ill, I +should grow worse, than that, being well, I should grow ill.]--The words +I utter in mishap are words of anger: my courage sets up its bristles, +instead of letting them down; and, contrary to others, I am more devout +in good than in evil fortune, according to the precept of Xenophon, if +not according to his reason; and am more ready to turn up my eyes to +heaven to return thanks, than to crave. I am more solicitous to improve +my health, when I am well, than to restore it when I am sick; +prosperities are the same discipline and instruction to me that +adversities and rods are to others. As if good fortune were a thing +inconsistent with good conscience, men never grow good but in evil +fortune. Good fortune is to me a singular spur to modesty and +moderation: an entreaty wins, a threat checks me; favour makes me bend, +fear stiffens me. + +Amongst human conditions this is common enough: to be better pleased with +foreign things than with our own, and to love innovation and change: + + "Ipsa dies ideo nos grato perluit haustu, + Quod permutatis hora recurrit equis:" + + ["The light of day itself shines more pleasantly upon us because it + changes its horses every hour." Spoke of a water hour-glass, + adds Cotton.] + +I have my share. Those who follow the other extreme, of being quite +satisfied and pleased with and in themselves, of valuing what they have +above all the rest, and of concluding no beauty can be greater than what +they see, if they are not wiser than we, are really more happy; I do not +envy their wisdom, but their good fortune. + +This greedy humour of new and unknown things helps to nourish in me the +desire of travel; but a great many more circumstances contribute to it; +I am very willing to quit the government of my house. There is, I +confess, a kind of convenience in commanding, though it were but in a +barn, and in being obeyed by one's people; but 'tis too uniform and +languid a pleasure, and is, moreover, of necessity mixed with a thousand +vexatious thoughts: one while the poverty and the oppression of your +tenants: another, quarrels amongst neighbours: another, the trespasses +they make upon you afflict you; + + "Aut verberatae grandine vineae, + Fundusque mendax, arbore nunc aquas + Culpante, nunc torrentia agros + Sidera, nunc hyemes iniquas." + + ["Or hail-smitten vines and the deceptive farm; now trees damaged + by the rains, or years of dearth, now summer's heat burning up the + petals, now destructive winters."--Horatius, Od., iii. I, 29.] + +and that God scarce in six months sends a season wherein your bailiff can +do his business as he should; but that if it serves the vines, it spoils +the meadows: + + "Aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol, + Aut subiti perimunt imbres, gelidoeque pruinae, + Flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant;" + + ["Either the scorching sun burns up your fields, or sudden rains or + frosts destroy your harvests, or a violent wind carries away all + before it."--Lucretius, V. 216.] + +to which may be added the new and neat-made shoe of the man of old, that +hurts your foot, + + [Leclerc maliciously suggests that this is a sly hit at Montaigne's + wife, the man of old being the person mentioned in Plutarch's Life + of Paulus Emilius, c. 3, who, when his friends reproached him for + repudiating his wife, whose various merits they extolled, pointed to + his shoe, and said, "That looks a nice well-made shoe to you; but I + alone know where it pinches."] + +and that a stranger does not understand how much it costs you, and what +you contribute to maintain that show of order that is seen in your +family, and that peradventure you buy too dear. + +I came late to the government of a house: they whom nature sent into the +world before me long eased me of that trouble; so that I had already +taken another bent more suitable to my humour. Yet, for so much as I +have seen, 'tis an employment more troublesome than hard; whoever is +capable of anything else, will easily do this. Had I a mind to be rich, +that way would seem too long; I had served my kings, a more profitable +traffic than any other. Since I pretend to nothing but the reputation of +having got nothing or dissipated nothing, conformably to the rest of my +life, improper either to do good or ill of any moment, and that I only +desire to pass on, I can do it, thanks be to God, without any great +endeavour. At the worst, evermore prevent poverty by lessening your +expense; 'tis that which I make my great concern, and doubt not but to do +it before I shall be compelled. As to the rest, I have sufficiently +settled my thoughts to live upon less than I have, and live contentedly: + + "Non aestimatione census, verum victu atque cultu, + terminantur pecunix modus." + + ["'Tis not by the value of possessions, but by our daily subsistence + and tillage, that our riches are truly estimated." + --Cicero, Paradox, vi. 3.] + +My real need does not so wholly take up all I have, that Fortune has not +whereon to fasten her teeth without biting to the quick. My presence, +heedless and ignorant as it is, does me great service in my domestic +affairs; I employ myself in them, but it goes against the hair, finding +that I have this in my house, that though I burn my candle at one end by +myself, the other is not spared. + +Journeys do me no harm but only by their expense, which is great, and +more than I am well able to bear, being always wont to travel with not +only a necessary, but a handsome equipage; I must make them so much +shorter and fewer; I spend therein but the froth, and what I have +reserved for such uses, delaying and deferring my motion till that be +ready. I will not that the pleasure of going abroad spoil the pleasure +of being retired at home; on the contrary, I intend they shall nourish +and favour one another. Fortune has assisted me in this, that since my +principal profession in this life was to live at ease, and rather idly +than busily, she has deprived me of the necessity of growing rich to +provide for the multitude of my heirs. If there be not enough for one, +of that whereof I had so plentifully enough, at his peril be it: his +imprudence will not deserve that I should wish him any more. And every +one, according to the example of Phocion, provides sufficiently for his +children who so provides for them as to leave them as much as was left +him. I should by no means like Crates' way. He left his money in the +hands of a banker with this condition--that if his children were fools, +he should then give it to them; if wise, he should then distribute it to +the most foolish of the people; as if fools, for being less capable of +living without riches, were more capable of using them. + +At all events, the damage occasioned by my absence seems not to deserve, +so long as I am able to support it, that I should waive the occasions of +diverting myself by that troublesome assistance. + +There is always something that goes amiss. The affairs, one while of one +house, and then of another, tear you to pieces; you pry into everything +too near; your perspicacity hurts you here, as well as in other things. +I steal away from occasions of vexing myself, and turn from the knowledge +of things that go amiss; and yet I cannot so order it, but that every +hour I jostle against something or other that displeases me; and the +tricks that they most conceal from me, are those that I the soonest come +to know; some there are that, not to make matters worse, a man must +himself help to conceal. Vain vexations; vain sometimes, but always +vexations. The smallest and slightest impediments are the most piercing: +and as little letters most tire the eyes, so do little affairs most +disturb us. The rout of little ills more offend than one, how great +soever. By how much domestic thorns are numerous and slight, by so much +they prick deeper and without warning, easily surprising us when least we +suspect them. + + [Now Homer shews us clearly enough how surprise gives the advantage; + who represents Ulysses weeping at the death of his dog; and not + weeping at the tears of his mother; the first accident, trivial as + it was, got the better of him, coming upon him quite unexpectedly; + he sustained the second, though more potent, because he was prepared + for it. 'Tis light occasions that humble our lives. ] + +I am no philosopher; evils oppress me according to their weight, and they +weigh as much according to the form as the matter, and very often more. +If I have therein more perspicacity than the vulgar, I have also more +patience; in short, they weigh with me, if they do not hurt me. Life is +a tender thing, and easily molested. Since my age has made me grow more +pensive and morose, + + "Nemo enim resistit sibi, cum caeperit impelli," + + ["For no man resists himself when he has begun to be driven + forward."--Seneca, Ep., 13.] + +for the most trivial cause imaginable, I irritate that humour, which +afterwards nourishes and exasperates itself of its own motion; attracting +and heaping up matter upon matter whereon to feed: + + "Stillicidi casus lapidem cavat:" + + ["The ever falling drop hollows out a stone."--Lucretius, i. 314.] + +these continual tricklings consume and ulcerate me. Ordinary +inconveniences are never light; they are continual and inseparable, +especially when they spring from the members of a family, continual and +inseparable. When I consider my affairs at distance and in gross, I +find, because perhaps my memory is none of the best, that they have gone +on hitherto improving beyond my reason or expectation; my revenue seems +greater than it is; its prosperity betrays me: but when I pry more +narrowly into the business, and see how all things go: + + "Tum vero in curas animum diducimus omnes;" + + ["Indeed we lead the mind into all sorts of cares." + --AEneid, v. 720.] + +I have a thousand things to desire and to fear. To give them quite over, +is very easy for me to do: but to look after them without trouble, is +very hard. 'Tis a miserable thing to be in a place where everything you +see employs and concerns you; and I fancy that I more cheerfully enjoy +the pleasures of another man's house, and with greater and a purer +relish, than those of my own. Diogenes answered according to my humour +him who asked him what sort of wine he liked the best: "That of another," +said he.--[Diogenes Laertius, vi. 54.] + +My father took a delight in building at Montaigne, where he was born; and +in all the government of domestic affairs I love to follow his example +and rules, and I shall engage those who are to succeed me, as much as in +me lies, to do the same. Could I do better for him, I would; and am +proud that his will is still performing and acting by me. God forbid +that in my hands I should ever suffer any image of life, that I am able +to render to so good a father, to fail. And wherever I have taken in +hand to strengthen some old foundations of walls, and to repair some +ruinous buildings, in earnest I have done it more out of respect to his +design, than my own satisfaction; and am angry at myself that I have not +proceeded further to finish the beginnings he left in his house, and so +much the more because I am very likely to be the last possessor of my +race, and to give the last hand to it. For, as to my own particular +application, neither the pleasure of building, which they say is so +bewitching, nor hunting, nor gardens, nor the other pleasures of a +retired life, can much amuse me. And 'tis what I am angry at myself for, +as I am for all other opinions that are incommodious to me; which I would +not so much care to have vigorous and learned, as I would have them easy +and convenient for life, they are true and sound enough, if they are +useful and pleasing. Such as hear me declare my ignorance in husbandry, +whisper in my ear that it is disdain, and that I neglect to know its +instruments, its seasons, its order, how they dress my vines, how they +graft, and to know the names and forms of herbs and fruits, and the +preparing the meat on which I live, the names and prices of the stuffs I +wear, because, say they; I have set my heart upon some higher knowledge; +they kill me in saying so. It is not disdain; it is folly, and rather +stupidity than glory; I had rather be a good horseman than a good +logician: + + "Quin to aliquid saltem potius, quorum indiget usus, + Viminibus mollique paras detexere junco." + + ["'Dost thou not rather do something which is required, and make + osier and reed basket."--Virgil, Eclog., ii. 71.] + +We occupy our thoughts about the general, and about universal causes and +conducts, which will very well carry on themselves without our care; and +leave our own business at random, and Michael much more our concern than +man. Now I am, indeed, for the most part at home; but I would be there +better pleased than anywhere else: + + "Sit meae sedes utinam senectae, + Sit modus lasso maris, et viarum, + Militiaeque." + + ["Let my old age have a fixed seat; let there be a limit to fatigues + from the sea, journeys, warfare."--Horace, Od., ii. 6, 6.] + +I know not whether or no I shall bring it about. I could wish that, +instead of some other member of his succession, my father had resigned to +me the passionate affection he had in his old age to his household +affairs; he was happy in that he could accommodate his desires to his +fortune, and satisfy himself with what he had; political philosophy may +to much purpose condemn the meanness and sterility of my employment, if I +can once come to relish it, as he did. I am of opinion that the most +honourable calling is to serve the public, and to be useful to many, + + "Fructus enim ingenii et virtutis, omnisque praestantiae, + tum maximus capitur, quum in proximum quemque confertur:" + + ["For the greatest enjoyment of evil and virtue, and of all + excellence, is experienced when they are conferred on some one + nearest."--Cicero, De Amicil., c.] + +for myself, I disclaim it; partly out of conscience (for where I see the +weight that lies upon such employments, I perceive also the little means +I have to supply it; and Plato, a master in all political government +himself, nevertheless took care to abstain from it), and partly out of +cowardice. I content myself with enjoying the world without bustle; +only-to live an excusable life, and such as may neither be a burden to +myself nor to any other. + +Never did any man more fully and feebly suffer himself to be governed by +a third person than I should do, had I any one to whom to entrust myself. +One of my wishes at this time should be, to have a son-in-law that knew +handsomely how to cherish my old age, and to rock it asleep; into whose +hands I might deposit, in full sovereignty, the management and use of all +my goods, that he might dispose of them as I do, and get by them what I +get, provided that he on his part were truly acknowledging, and a friend. +But we live in a world where loyalty of one's own children is unknown. + +He who has the charge of my purse in his travels, has it purely and +without control; he could cheat me thoroughly, if he came to reckoning; +and, if he is not a devil, I oblige him to deal faithfully with me by so +entire a trust: + + "Multi fallere do cuerunt, dum timent falli; + et aliis jus peccandi suspicando fecerunt." + + ["Many have taught others to deceive, while they fear to be + deceived, and, by suspecting them, have given them a title to do + ill."--Seneca, Epist., 3.] + +The most common security I take of my people is ignorance; I never +presume any to be vicious till I have first found them so; and repose the +most confidence in the younger sort, that I think are least spoiled by +ill example. I had rather be told at two months' end that I have spent +four hundred crowns, than to have my ears battered every night with +three, five, seven: and I have been, in this way, as little robbed as +another. It is true, I am willing enough not to see it; I, in some sort, +purposely, harbour a kind of perplexed, uncertain knowledge of my money: +up to a certain point, I am content to doubt. One must leave a little +room for the infidelity or indiscretion of a servant; if you have left +enough, in gross, to do your business, let the overplus of Fortune's +liberality run a little more freely at her mercy; 'tis the gleaner's +portion. After all, I do not so much value the fidelity of my people as +I contemn their injury. What a mean and ridiculous thing it is for a man +to study his money, to delight in handling and telling it over and over +again! 'Tis by this avarice makes its approaches. + +In eighteen years that I have had my estate in my, own hands, I could +never prevail with myself either to read over my deeds or examine my +principal affairs, which ought, of necessity, to pass under my knowledge +and inspection. 'Tis not a philosophical disdain of worldly and +transitory things; my taste is not purified to that degree, and I value +them at as great a rate, at least, as they are worth; but 'tis, in truth, +an inexcusable and childish laziness and negligence. What would I not +rather do than read a contract? or than, as a slave to my own business, +tumble over those dusty writings? or, which is worse, those of another +man, as so many do nowadays, to get money? I grudge nothing but care and +trouble, and endeavour nothing so much, as to be careless and at ease. +I had been much fitter, I believe, could it have been without obligation +and servitude, to have lived upon another man's fortune than my own: and, +indeed, I do not know, when I examine it nearer, whether, according to my +humour, what I have to suffer from my affairs and servants, has not in it +something more abject, troublesome, and tormenting than there would be in +serving a man better born than myself, who would govern me with a gentle +rein, and a little at my own case: + + "Servitus obedientia est fracti animi et abjecti, + arbitrio carentis suo." + + ["Servitude is the obedience of a subdued and abject mind, wanting + its own free will."--Cicero, Paradox, V. I.] + +Crates did worse, who threw himself into the liberty of poverty, only to +rid himself of the inconveniences and cares of his house. This is what I +would not do; I hate poverty equally with pain; but I could be content to +change the kind of life I live for another that was humbler and less +chargeable. + +When absent from home, I divest myself of all these thoughts, and should +be less concerned for the ruin of a tower, than I am, when present, at +the fall of a tile. My mind is easily composed at distance, but suffers +as much as that of the meanest peasant when I am at home; the reins of my +bridle being wrongly put on, or a strap flapping against my leg, will +keep me out of humour a day together. I raise my courage, well enough +against inconveniences: lift up my eyes I cannot: + + "Sensus, o superi, sensus." + + ["The senses, O ye gods, the senses."] + +I am at home responsible for whatever goes amiss. Few masters (I speak +of those of medium condition such as mine), and if there be any such, +they are more happy, can rely so much upon another, but that the greatest +part of the burden will lie upon their own shoulders. This takes much +from my grace in entertaining visitors, so that I have, peradventure, +detained some rather out of expectation of a good dinner, than by my own +behaviour; and lose much of the pleasure I ought to reap at my own house +from the visitation and assembling of my friends. The most ridiculous +carriage of a gentleman in his own house, is to see him bustling about +the business of the place, whispering one servant, and looking an angry +look at another: it ought insensibly to slide along, and to represent an +ordinary current; and I think it unhandsome to talk much to our guests of +their entertainment, whether by way of bragging or excuse. I love order +and cleanliness-- + + "Et cantharus et lanx + Ostendunt mihi me"-- + + ["The dishes and the glasses shew me my own reflection." + --Horace, Ep., i. 5, 23] + +more than abundance; and at home have an exact regard to necessity, +little to outward show. If a footman falls to cuffs at another man's +house, or stumble and throw a dish before him as he is carrying it up, +you only laugh and make a jest on't; you sleep whilst the master of the +house is arranging a bill of fare with his steward for your morrow's +entertainment. I speak according as I do myself; quite appreciating, +nevertheless, good husbandry in general, and how pleasant quiet and +prosperous household management, carried regularly on, is to some +natures; and not wishing to fasten my own errors and inconveniences to +the thing; nor to give Plato the lie, who looks upon it as the most +pleasant employment to every one to do his particular affairs without +wrong to another. + +When I travel I have nothing to care for but myself, and the laying out +my money; which is disposed of by one single precept; too many things are +required to the raking it together; in that I understand nothing; in +spending, I understand a little, and how to give some show to my expense, +which is indeed its principal use; but I rely too ambitiously upon it, +which renders it unequal and difform, and, moreover, immoderate in both +the one and the other aspect; if it makes a show, if it serve the turn, +I indiscreetly let it run; and as indiscreetly tie up my purse-strings, +if it does not shine, and does not please me. Whatever it be, whether +art or nature, that imprints in us the condition of living by reference +to others, it does us much more harm than good; we deprive ourselves of +our own utilities, to accommodate appearances to the common opinion: +we care not so much what our being is, as to us and in reality, as what +it is to the public observation. Even the properties of the mind, and +wisdom itself, seem fruitless to us, if only enjoyed by ourselves, and if +it produce not itself to the view and approbation of others. There is a +sort of men whose gold runs in streams underground imperceptibly; others +expose it all in plates and branches; so that to the one a liard is worth +a crown, and to the others the inverse: the world esteeming its use and +value, according to the show. All over-nice solicitude about riches +smells of avarice: even the very disposing of it, with a too systematic +and artificial liberality, is not worth a painful superintendence and +solicitude: he, that will order his expense to just so much, makes it too +pinched and narrow. The keeping or spending are, of themselves, +indifferent things, and receive no colour of good or ill, but according +to the application of the will. + +The other cause that tempts me out to these journeys is, inaptitude for +the present manners in our state. I could easily console myself for this +corruption in regard to the public interest: + + "Pejoraque saecula ferri + Temporibus, quorum sceleri non invenit ipsa + Nomen, et a nullo posuit natura metallo;" + + ["And, worse than the iron ages, for whose crimes there is no + similitude in any of Nature's metals."--Juvenal, xiii. 28.] + +but not to my own. I am, in particular, too much oppressed by them: for, +in my neighbourhood, we are, of late, by the long licence of our civil +wars, grown old in so riotous a form of state, + + "Quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas," + + ["Where wrong and right have changed places." + --Virgil, Georg., i. 504.] + +that in earnest, 'tis a wonder how it can subsist: + + "Armati terram exercent, semperque recentes + Convectare juvat praedas; et vivere rapto." + + ["Men plough, girt with arms; ever delighting in fresh robberies, + and living by rapine."--AEneid, vii. 748.] + +In fine, I see by our example, that the society of men is maintained and +held together, at what price soever; in what condition soever they are +placed, they still close and stick together, both moving and in heaps; as +ill united bodies, that, shuffled together without order, find of +themselves a means to unite and settle, often better than they could have +been disposed by art. King Philip mustered up a rabble of the most +wicked and incorrigible rascals he could pick out, and put them all +together into a city he had caused to be built for that purpose, which +bore their name: I believe that they, even from vices themselves, erected +a government amongst them, and a commodious and just society. I see, not +one action, or three, or a hundred, but manners, in common and received +use, so ferocious, especially in inhumanity and treachery, which are to +me the worst of all vices, that I have not the heart to think of them +without horror; and almost as much admire as I detest them: the exercise +of these signal villainies carries with it as great signs of vigour and +force of soul, as of error and disorder. Necessity reconciles and brings +men together; and this accidental connection afterwards forms itself into +laws: for there have been such, as savage as any human opinion could +conceive, who, nevertheless, have maintained their body with as much +health and length of life as any Plato or Aristotle could invent. And +certainly, all these descriptions of polities, feigned by art, are found +to be ridiculous and unfit to be put in practice. + +These great and tedious debates about the best form of society, and the +most commodious rules to bind us, are debates only proper for the +exercise of our wits; as in the arts there are several subjects which +have their being in agitation and controversy, and have no life but +there. Such an idea of government might be of some value in a new world; +but we take a world already made, and formed to certain customs; we do +not beget it, as Pyrrha or Cadmus did. By what means soever we may have +the privilege to redress and reform it anew, we can hardly writhe it from +its wonted bent, but we shall break all. Solon being asked whether he +had established the best laws he could for the Athenians; "Yes," said he, +"of those they would have received." Varro excuses himself after the +same manner: "that if he were to begin to write of religion, he would say +what he believed; but seeing it was already received, he would write +rather according to use than nature." + +Not according to opinion, but in truth and reality, the best and most +excellent government for every nation is that under which it is +maintained: its form and essential convenience depend upon custom. +We are apt to be displeased at the present condition; but I, +nevertheless, maintain that to desire command in a few--[an oligarchy.]-- +in a republic, or another sort of government in monarchy than that +already established, is both vice and folly: + + "Ayme l'estat, tel que to le veois estre + S'il est royal ayme la royaute; + S'il est de peu, ou biers communaute, + Ayme l'aussi; car Dieu t'y a faict naistre." + + ["Love the government, such as you see it to be. If it be royal, + love royalty; if it is a republic of any sort, still love it; for + God himself created thee therein."] + +So wrote the good Monsieur de Pibrac, whom we have lately lost, a man of +so excellent a wit, such sound opinions, and such gentle manners. This +loss, and that at the same time we have had of Monsieur de Foix, are of +so great importance to the crown, that I do not know whether there is +another couple in France worthy to supply the places of these two Gascons +in sincerity and wisdom in the council of our kings. They were both +variously great men, and certainly, according to the age, rare and great, +each of them in his kind: but what destiny was it that placed them in +these times, men so remote from and so disproportioned to our corruption +and intestine tumults? + +Nothing presses so hard upon a state as innovation: change only gives +form to injustice and tyranny. When any piece is loosened, it may be +proper to stay it; one may take care that the alteration and corruption +natural to all things do not carry us too far from our beginnings and +principles: but to undertake to found so great a mass anew, and to change +the foundations of so vast a building, is for them to do, who to make +clean, efface; who reform particular defects by an universal confusion, +and cure diseases by death: + + "Non tam commutandarum quam evertendarum rerum cupidi." + + ["Not so desirous of changing as of overthrowing things." + --Cicero, De 0ffic., ii. i.] + +The world is unapt to be cured; and so impatient of anything that presses +it, that it thinks of nothing but disengaging itself at what price +soever. We see by a thousand examples, that it ordinarily cures itself +to its cost. The discharge of a present evil is no cure, if there be not +a general amendment of condition. The surgeon's end is not only to cut +away the dead flesh; that is but the progress of his cure; he has a care, +over and above, to fill up the wound with better and more natural flesh, +and to restore the member to its due state. Whoever only proposes to +himself to remove that which offends him, falls short: for good does not +necessarily succeed evil; another evil may succeed, and a worse, as it +happened to Caesar's murderers, who brought the republic to such a pass, +that they had reason to repent the meddling with the matter. The same +has since happened to several others, even down to our own times: the +French, my contemporaries, know it well enough. All great mutations +shake and disorder a state. + +Whoever would look direct at a cure, and well consider of it before he +began, would be very willing to withdraw his hands from meddling in it. +Pacuvius Calavius corrected the vice of this proceeding by a notable +example. His fellow-citizens were in mutiny against their magistrates; +he being a man of great authority in the city of Capua, found means one +day to shut up the Senators in the palace; and calling the people +together in the market-place, there told them that the day was now come +wherein at full liberty they might revenge themselves on the tyrants by +whom they had been so long oppressed, and whom he had now, all alone and +unarmed, at his mercy. He then advised that they should call these out, +one by one, by lot, and should individually determine as to each, causing +whatever should be decreed to be immediately executed; with this proviso, +that they should, at the same time, depute some honest man in the place +of him who was condemned, to the end there might be no vacancy in the +Senate. They had no sooner heard the name of one senator but a great cry +of universal dislike was raised up against him. "I see," says Pacuvius, +"that we must put him out; he is a wicked fellow; let us look out a good +one in his room." Immediately there was a profound silence, every one +being at a stand whom to choose. But one, more impudent than the rest, +having named his man, there arose yet a greater consent of voices against +him, an hundred imperfections being laid to his charge, and as many just +reasons why he should not stand. These contradictory humours growing +hot, it fared worse with the second senator and the third, there being as +much disagreement in the election of the new, as consent in the putting +out of the old. In the end, growing weary of this bustle to no purpose, +they began, some one way and some another, to steal out of the assembly: +every one carrying back this resolution in his mind, that the oldest and +best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was, new and +untried. + +Seeing how miserably we are agitated (for what have we not done!) + + "Eheu! cicatricum, et sceleris pudet, + Fratrumque: quid nos dura refugimus + AEtas? quid intactum nefasti + Liquimus? Unde manus inventus + Metu Deorum continuit? quibus + Pepercit aris." + + ["Alas! our crimes and our fratricides are a shame to us! What + crime does this bad age shrink from? What wickedness have we left + undone? What youth is restrained from evil by the fear of the gods? + What altar is spared?"--Horace, Od., i. 33, 35] + +I do not presently conclude, + + "Ipsa si velit Salus, + Servare prorsus non potest hanc familiam;" + + ["If the goddess Salus herself wish to save this family, she + absolutely cannot"--Terence, Adelph., iv. 7, 43.] + +we are not, peradventure, at our last gasp. The conservation of states +is a thing that, in all likelihood, surpasses our understanding;--a civil +government is, as Plato says, a mighty and puissant thing, and hard to be +dissolved; it often continues against mortal and intestine diseases, +against the injury of unjust laws, against tyranny, the corruption and +ignorance of magistrates, the licence and sedition of the people. In all +our fortunes, we compare ourselves to what is above us, and still look +towards those who are better: but let us measure ourselves with what is +below us: there is no condition so miserable wherein a man may not find a +thousand examples that will administer consolation. 'Tis our vice that +we more unwillingly look upon what is above, than willingly upon what is +below; and Solon was used to say, that "whoever would make a heap of all +the ills together, there is no one who would not rather choose to bear +away the ills he has than to come to an equal division with all other men +from that heap, and take his share." Our government is, indeed, very +sick, but there have been others more sick without dying. The gods play +at ball with us and bandy us every way: + + "Enimvero Dii nos homines quasi pilas habent." + +The stars fatally destined the state of Rome for an example of what they +could do in this kind: in it are comprised all the forms and adventures +that concern a state: all that order or disorder, good or evil fortune, +can do. Who, then, can despair of his condition, seeing the shocks and +commotions wherewith Rome was tumbled and tossed, and yet withstood them +all? If the extent of dominion be the health of a state (which I by no +means think it is, and Isocrates pleases me when he instructs Nicocles +not to envy princes who have large dominions, but those who know how to +preserve those which have fallen into their hands), that of Rome was +never so sound, as when it was most sick. The worst of her forms was the +most fortunate; one can hardly discern any image of government under the +first emperors; it is the most horrible and tumultuous confusion that can +be imagined; it endured it, notwithstanding, and therein continued, +preserving not a monarchy limited within its own bounds, but so many +nations so differing, so remote, so disaffected, so confusedly commanded, +and so unjustly conquered: + + "Nec gentibus ullis + Commodat in populum, terra pelagique potentem, + Invidiam fortuna suam." + + ["Fortune never gave it to any nation to satisfy its hatred against + the people, masters of the seas and of the earth."--Lucan, i. 32.] + +Everything that totters does not fall. The contexture of so great a body +holds by more nails than one; it holds even by its antiquity, like old +buildings, from which the foundations are worn away by time, without +rough-cast or mortar, which yet live and support themselves by their own +weight: + + "Nec jam validis radicibus haerens, + Pondere tuta suo est." + +Moreover, it is not rightly to go to work, to examine only the flank and +the foss, to judge of the security of a place; we must observe which way +approaches can be made to it, and in what condition the assailant is: few +vessels sink with their own weight, and without some exterior violence. +Now, let us everyway cast our eyes; everything about us totters; in all +the great states, both of Christendom and elsewhere, that are known to +us, if you will but look, you will there see evident menace of alteration +and ruin: + + "Et sua sunt illis incommoda; parque per omnes + Tempestas." + + ["They all share in the mischief; the tempest rages + everywhere."--AEneid, ii.] + +Astrologers may very well, as they do, warn us of great revolutions and +imminent mutations: their prophecies are present and palpable, they need +not go to heaven to foretell this. There is not only consolation to be +extracted from this universal combination of ills and menaces, but, +moreover, some hopes of the continuation of our state, forasmuch as, +naturally, nothing falls where all falls: universal sickness is +particular health: conformity is antagonistic to dissolution. For my +part, I despair not, and fancy that I discover ways to save us: + + "Deus haec fortasse benigna + Reducet in sedem vice." + + ["The deity will perchance by a favourable turn restore us to our + former position."--Horace, Epod., xiii. 7.] + +Who knows but that God will have it happen, as in human bodies that purge +and restore themselves to a better state by long and grievous maladies, +which render them more entire and perfect health than that they took from +them? That which weighs the most with me is, that in reckoning the +symptoms of our ill, I see as many natural ones, and that Heaven sends +us, and properly its own, as of those that our disorder and human +imprudence contribute to it. The very stars seem to declare that we have +already continued long enough, and beyond the ordinary term. This also +afflicts me, that the mischief which nearest threatens us, is not an +alteration in the entire and solid mass, but its dissipation and +divulsion, which is the most extreme of our fears. + +I, moreover, fear, in these fantasies of mine, the treachery of my +memory, lest, by inadvertence, it should make me write the same thing +twice. I hate to examine myself, and never review, but very unwillingly, +what has once escaped my pen. I here set down nothing new. These are +common thoughts, and having, peradventure, conceived them an hundred +times, I am afraid I have set them down somewhere else already. +Repetition is everywhere troublesome, though it were in Homer; but 'tis +ruinous in things that have only a superficial and transitory show. I do +not love over-insisting, even in the most profitable things, as in +Seneca; and the usage of his stoical school displeases me, to repeat, +upon every subject, at full length and width the principles and +presuppositions that serve in general, and always to realledge anew +common and universal reasons. + +My memory grows cruelly worse every day: + + "Pocula Lethaeos ut si ducentia somnos, + Arente fauce traxerim;" + + ["As if my dry throat had drunk seducing cups of Lethaean + oblivion."--Horace, Epod., xiv. 3.] + +I must be fain for the time to come (for hitherto, thanks be to God, +nothing has happened much amiss), whereas others seek time and +opportunity to think of what they have to say, to avoid all preparation, +for fear of tying myself to some obligation upon which I must insist. To +be tied and bound to a thing puts me quite out, and to depend upon so +weak an instrument as my memory. I never read this following story that +I am not offended at it with a personal and natural resentment: +Lyncestes, accused of conspiracy against Alexander, the day that he was +brought out before the army, according to the custom, to be heard as to +what he could say for himself, had learned a studied speech, of which, +hesitating and stammering, he pronounced some words. Whilst growing more +and more perplexed, whilst struggling with his memory, and trying to +recollect what he had to say, the soldiers nearest to him charged their +pikes against him and killed him, looking upon him as convict; his +confusion and silence served them for a confession; for having had so +much leisure to prepare himself in prison, they concluded that it was not +his memory that failed him, but that his conscience tied up his tongue +and stopped his mouth. And, truly, well said; the place, the assembly, +the expectation, astound a man, even when he has but the ambition to +speak well; what can a man do when 'tis an harangue upon which his life +depends? + +For my part, the very being tied to what I am to say is enough to loose +me from it. When I wholly commit and refer myself to my memory, I lay so +much stress upon it that it sinks under me: it grows dismayed with the +burden. So much as I trust to it, so much do I put myself out of my own +power, even to the finding it difficult to keep my own countenance; and +have been sometimes very much put to it to conceal the slavery wherein I +was engaged; whereas my design is to manifest, in speaking, a perfect +calmness both of face and accent, and casual and unpremeditated motions, +as rising from present occasions, choosing rather to say nothing to +purpose than to show that I came prepared to speak well, a thing +especially unbecoming a man of my profession, and of too great obligation +on him who cannot retain much. The preparation begets a great deal more +expectation than it will satisfy. A man often strips himself to his +doublet to leap no farther than he would have done in his gown: + + "Nihil est his, qui placere volunt, turn adversarium, + quam expectatio." + + ["Nothing is so adverse to those who make it their business to + please as expectation"--Cicero, Acad., ii. 4] + +It is recorded of the orator Curio, that when he proposed the division of +his oration into three or four parts, or three or four arguments or +reasons, it often happened either that he forgot some one, or added one +or two more. I have always avoided falling into this inconvenience, +having ever hated these promises and prescriptions, not only out of +distrust of my memory, but also because this method relishes too much of +the artist: + + "Simpliciora militares decent." + + ["Simplicity becomes warriors."--Quintilian, Instit. Orat., xi. I.] + +'Tis- enough that I have promised to myself never again to take upon me +to speak in a place of respect, for as to speaking, when a man reads his +speech, besides that it is very absurd, it is a mighty disadvantage to +those who naturally could give it a grace by action; and to rely upon the +mercy of my present invention, I would much less do it; 'tis heavy and +perplexed, and such as would never furnish me in sudden and important +necessities. + +Permit, reader, this essay its course also, and this third sitting to +finish the rest of my picture: I add, but I correct not. First, because +I conceive that a man having once parted with his labours to the world, +he has no further right to them; let him do better if he can, in some new +undertaking, but not adulterate what he has already sold. Of such +dealers nothing should be bought till after they are dead. Let them well +consider what they do before they, produce it to the light who hastens +them? My book is always the same, saving that upon every new edition +(that the buyer may not go away quite empty) I take the liberty to add +(as 'tis but an ill jointed marqueterie) some supernumerary emblem; it is +but overweight, that does not disfigure the primitive form of the essays, +but, by a little artful subtlety, gives a kind of particular value to +every one of those that follow. Thence, however, will easily happen some +transposition of chronology, my stories taking place according to their +opportuneness, not always according to their age. + +Secondly, because as to what concerns myself, I fear to lose by change: +my understanding does not always go forward, it goes backward too. I do +not much less suspect my fancies for being the second or the third, than +for being the first, or present, or past; we often correct ourselves as +foolishly as we do others. I am grown older by a great many years since +my first publications, which were in the year 1580; but I very much doubt +whether I am grown an inch the wiser. I now, and I anon, are two several +persons; but whether better, I cannot determine. It were a fine thing to +be old, if we only travelled towards improvement; but 'tis a drunken, +stumbling, reeling, infirm motion: like that of reeds, which the air +casually waves to and fro at pleasure. Antiochus had in his youth +strongly written in favour of the Academy; in his old age he wrote as +much against it; would not, which of these two soever I should follow, be +still Antiochus? After having established the uncertainty, to go about +to establish the certainty of human opinions, was it not to establish +doubt, and not certainty, and to promise, that had he had yet another age +to live, he would be always upon terms of altering his judgment, not so +much for the better, as for something else? + +The public favour has given me a little more confidence than I expected; +but what I 'most fear is, lest I should glut the world with my writings; +I had rather, of the two, pique my reader than tire him, as a learned man +of my time has done. Praise is always pleasing, let it come from whom, +or upon what account it will; yet ought a man to understand why he is +commended, that he may know how to keep up the same reputation still: +imperfections themselves may get commendation. The vulgar and common +estimation is seldom happy in hitting; and I am much mistaken if, amongst +the writings of my time, the worst are not those which have most gained +the popular applause. For my part, I return my thanks to those good- +natured men who are pleased to take my weak endeavours in good part; the +faults of the workmanship are nowhere so apparent as in a matter which of +itself has no recommendation. Blame not me, reader, for those that slip +in here by the fancy or inadvertency of others; every hand, every +artisan, contribute their own materials; I neither concern myself with +orthography (and only care to have it after the old way) nor pointing, +being very inexpert both in the one and the other. Where they wholly +break the sense, I am very little concerned, for they at least discharge +me; but where they substitute a false one, as they so often do, and wrest +me to their conception, they ruin me. When the sentence, nevertheless, +is not strong enough for my proportion, a civil person ought to reject it +as spurious, and none of mine. Whoever shall know how lazy I am, and how +indulgent to my own humour, will easily believe that I had rather write +as many more essays, than be tied to revise these over again for so +childish a correction. + +I said elsewhere, that being planted in the very centre of this new +religion, I am not only deprived of any great familiarity with men of +other kind of manners than my own, and of other opinions, by which they +hold together, as by a tie that supersedes all other obligations; but +moreover I do not live without danger, amongst men to whom all things are +equally lawful, and of whom the most part cannot offend the laws more +than they have already done; from which the extremist degree of licence +proceeds. All the particular being summed up together, I do not find one +man of my country, who pays so dear for the defence of our laws both in +loss and damages (as the lawyers say) as myself; and some there are who +vapour and brag of their zeal and constancy, that if things were justly +weighed, do much less than I. My house, as one that has ever been open +and free to all comers, and civil to all (for I could never persuade +myself to make it a garrison of war, war being a thing that I prefer to +see as remote as may be), has sufficiently merited popular kindness, and +so that it would be a hard matter justly to insult over me upon my own +dunghill; and I look upon it as a wonderful and exemplary thing that it +yet continues a virgin from blood and plunder during so long a storm, and +so many neighbouring revolutions and tumults. For to confess the truth, +it had been possible enough for a man of my complexion to have shaken +hands with any one constant and continued form whatever; but the contrary +invasions and incursions, alternations and vicissitudes of fortune round +about me, have hitherto more exasperated than calmed and mollified the +temper of the country, and involved me, over and over again, with +invincible difficulties and dangers. + +I escape, 'tis true, but am troubled that it is more by chance, and +something of my own prudence, than by justice; and am not satisfied to be +out of the protection of the laws, and under any other safeguard than +theirs. As matters stand, I live, above one half, by the favour of +others, which is an untoward obligation. I do not like to owe my safety +either to the generosity or affection of great persons, who allow me my +legality and my liberty, or to the obliging manners of my predecessors, +or my own: for what if I were another kind of man? If my deportment, and +the frankness of my conversation or relationship, oblige my neighbours, +'tis that that they should acquit themselves of obligation in only +permitting me to live, and they may say, "We allow him the free liberty +of having divine service read in his own private chapel, when it is +interdicted in all churches round about, and allow him the use of his +goods and his life, as one who protects our wives and cattle in time of +need." For my house has for many descents shared in the reputation of +Lycurgus the Athenian, who was the general depository and guardian of the +purses of his fellow-citizens. Now I am clearly of opinion that a man +should live by right and by authority, and not either by recompense or +favour. How many gallant men have rather chosen to lose their lives than +to be debtors for them? I hate to subject myself to any sort of +obligation, but above all, to that which binds me by the duty of honour. +I think nothing so dear as what has been given me, and this because my +will lies at pawn under the title of gratitude, and more willingly accept +of services that are to be sold; I feel that for the last I give nothing +but money, but for the other I give myself. + +The knot that binds me by the laws of courtesy binds me more than that of +civil constraint; I am much more at ease when bound by a scrivener, than +by myself. Is it not reason that my conscience should be much more +engaged when men simply rely upon it? In a bond, my faith owes nothing, +because it has nothing lent it; let them trust to the security they have +taken without me. I had much rather break the wall of a prison and the +laws themselves than my own word. I am nice, even to superstition, in +keeping my promises, and, therefore, upon all occasions have a care to +make them uncertain and conditional. To those of no great moment, I add +the jealousy of my own rule, to make them weight; it wracks and oppresses +me with its own interest. Even in actions wholly my own and free, if I +once say a thing, I conceive that I have bound myself, and that +delivering it to the knowledge of another, I have positively enjoined it +my own performance. Methinks I promise it, if I but say it: and +therefore am not apt to say much of that kind. The sentence that I pass +upon myself is more severe than that of a judge, who only considers the +common obligation; but my conscience looks upon it with a more severe and +penetrating eye. I lag in those duties to which I should be compelled if +I did not go: + + "Hoc ipsum ita justum est, quod recte fit, si est voluntarium." + + ["This itself is so far just, that it is rightly done, if it is + voluntary."--Cicero, De Offic., i. 9.] + +If the action has not some splendour of liberty, it has neither grace nor +honour: + + "Quod vos jus cogit, vix voluntate impetrent:" + + ["That which the laws compel us to do, we scarcely do with a will." + --Terence, Adelph., iii. 3, 44.] + +where necessity draws me, I love to let my will take its own course: + + "Quia quicquid imperio cogitur, exigenti magis, + quam praestanti, acceptum refertur." + + ["For whatever is compelled by power, is more imputed to him that + exacts than to him that performs."--Valerius Maximus, ii. 2, 6.] + +I know some who follow this rule, even to injustice; who will sooner give +than restore, sooner lend than pay, and will do them the least good to +whom they are most obliged. I don't go so far as that, but I'm not far +off. + +I so much love to disengage and disobligate myself, that I have sometimes +looked upon ingratitudes, affronts, and indignities which I have received +from those to whom either by nature or accident I was bound in some way +of friendship, as an advantage to me; taking this occasion of their ill- +usage, for an acquaintance and discharge of so much of my debt. And +though I still continue to pay them all the external offices of public +reason, I, notwithstanding, find a great saving in doing that upon the +account of justice which I did upon the score of affection, and am a +little eased of the attention and solicitude of my inward will: + + "Est prudentis sustinere, ut currum, sic impetum benevolentia;" + + ["'Tis the part of a wise man to keep a curbing hand upon the + impetus of friendship, as upon that of his horse." + --Cicero, De Amicit., c. 17.] + +'tis in me, too urging and pressing where I take; at least, for a man who +loves not to be strained at all. And this husbanding my friendship +serves me for a sort of consolation in the imperfections of those in whom +I am concerned. I am very sorry they are not such as I could wish they +were, but then I also am spared somewhat of my application and engagement +towards them. I approve of a man who is the less fond of his child for +having a scald head, or for being crooked; and not only when he is ill- +conditioned, but also when he is of unhappy disposition, and imperfect in +his limbs (God himself has abated so much from his value and natural +estimation), provided he carry himself in this coldness of affection with +moderation and exact justice: proximity, with me, lessens not defects, +but rather aggravates them. + +After all, according to what I understand in the science of benefit and +acknowledgment, which is a subtle science, and of great use, I know no +person whatever more free and less indebted than I am at this hour. What +I do owe is simply to foreign obligations and benefits; as to anything +else, no man is more absolutely clear: + + "Nec sunt mihi nota potentum + Munera." + + ["The gifts of great men are unknown to me."--AEneid, xii. 529.] + +Princes give me a great deal if they take nothing from me; and do me good +enough if they do me no harm; that's all I ask from them. O how am I +obliged to God, that he has been pleased I should immediately receive +from his bounty all I have, and specially reserved all my obligation to +himself. How earnestly do I beg of his holy compassion that I may never +owe essential thanks to any one. O happy liberty wherein I have thus far +lived. May it continue with me to the last. I endeavour to have no +express need of any one: + + "In me omnis spec est mihi." + + ["All my hope is in myself."--Terence, Adelph., iii. 5, 9.] + +'Tis what every one may do in himself, but more easily they whom God has +placed in a condition exempt from natural and urgent necessities. It is +a wretched and dangerous thing to depend upon others; we ourselves, in +whom is ever the most just and safest dependence, are not sufficiently +sure. + +I have nothing mine but myself, and yet the possession is, in part, +defective and borrowed. I fortify myself both in courage, which is the +strongest assistant, and also in fortune, therein wherewith to satisfy +myself, though everything else should forsake me. Hippias of Elis not +only furnished himself with knowledge, that he might, at need, cheerfully +retire from all other company to enjoy the Muses: nor only with the +knowledge of philosophy, to teach his soul to be contented with itself, +and bravely to subsist without outward conveniences, when fate would have +it so; he was, moreover, so careful as to learn to cook, to shave +himself, to make his own clothes, his own shoes and drawers, to provide +for all his necessities in himself, and to wean himself from the +assistance of others. A man more freely and cheerfully enjoys borrowed +conveniences, when it is not an enjoyment forced and constrained by need; +and when he has, in his own will and fortune, the means to live without +them. I know myself very well; but 'tis hard for me to imagine any so +pure liberality of any one towards me, any so frank and free hospitality, +that would not appear to me discreditable, tyrannical, and tainted with +reproach, if necessity had reduced me to it. As giving is an ambitious +and authoritative quality, so is accepting a quality of submission; +witness the insulting and quarrelsome refusal that Bajazet made of the +presents that Tamerlane sent him; and those that were offered on the part +of the Emperor Solyman to the Emperor of Calicut, so angered him, that he +not only rudely rejected them, saying that neither he nor any of his +predecessors had ever been wont to take, and that it was their office to +give; but, moreover, caused the ambassadors sent with the gifts to be put +into a dungeon. When Thetis, says Aristotle, flatters Jupiter, when the +Lacedaemonians flatter the Athenians, they do not put them in mind of the +good they have done them, which is always odious, but of the benefits +they have received from them. Such as I see so frequently employ every +one in their affairs, and thrust themselves into so much obligation, +would never do it, did they but relish as I do the sweetness of a pure +liberty, and did they but weigh, as wise: men should, the burden of +obligation: 'tis sometimes, peradventure, fully paid, but 'tis never +dissolved. 'Tis a miserable slavery to a man who loves to be at full +liberty in all reapects. Such as know me, both above and below me in +station, are able to say whether they have ever known a man less +importuning, soliciting, entreating, and pressing upon others than I. +If I am so, and a degree beyond all modern example, 'tis no great wonder, +so many parts of my manners contributing to it: a little natural pride, +an impatience at being refused, the moderation of my desires and designs, +my incapacity for business, and my most beloved qualities, idleness and +freedom; by all these together I have conceived a mortal hatred to being +obliged to any other, or by any other than myself. I leave no stone +unturned, to do without it, rather than employ the bounty of another in +any light or important occasion or necessity whatever. My friends +strangely trouble me when they ask me to ask a third person; and I think +it costs me little less to disengage him who is indebted to me, by making +use of him, than to engage myself to him who owes me nothing. These +conditions being removed, and provided they require of me nothing if any +great trouble or care (for I have declared mortal war against all care), +I am very ready to do every one the best service I can. I have been very +willing to seek occasion to do people a good turn, and to attach them to +me; and methinks there is no more agreeable employment for our means. +But I have yet more avoided receiving than sought occasions of giving, +and moreover, according to Aristotle, it is more easy., My fortune has +allowed me but little to do others good withal, and the little it can +afford, is put into a pretty close hand. Had I been born a great person, +I should have been ambitious to have made myself beloved, not to make +myself feared or admired: shall I more plainly express it? I should more +have endeavoured to please than to profit others. Cyrus very wisely, and +by the mouth of a great captain, and still greater philosopher, prefers +his bounty and benefits much before his valour and warlike conquests; +and the elder Scipio, wherever he would raise himself in esteem, sets a +higher value upon his affability and humanity, than on his prowess and +victories, and has always this glorious saying in his mouth: "That he has +given his enemies as much occasion to love him as his friends." I will +then say, that if a man must, of necessity, owe something, it ought to be +by a more legitimate title than that whereof I am speaking, to which the +necessity of this miserable war compels me; and not in so great a debt as +that of my total preservation both of life and fortune: it overwhelms me. + +I have a thousand times gone to bed in my own house with an apprehension +that I should be betrayed and murdered that very night; compounding with +fortune, that it might be without terror and with quick despatch; and, +after my Paternoster, I have cried out, + + "Impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit!" + + ["Shall impious soldiers have these new-ploughed grounds?" + --Virgil, Ecl., i. 71.] + +What remedy? 'tis the place of my birth, and that of most of my +ancestors; they have here fixed their affection and name. We inure +ourselves to whatever we are accustomed to; and in so miserable a +condition as ours is, custom is a great bounty of nature, which benumbs +out senses to the sufferance of many evils. A civil war has this with it +worse than other wars have, to make us stand sentinels in our own houses. + + "Quam miserum, porta vitam muroque tueri, + Vixque suae tutum viribus esse domus!" + + ["'Tis miserable to protect one's life by doors and walls, and to be + scarcely safe in one's own house."--Ovid, Trist., iv. I, 69.] + +'Tis a grievous extremity for a man to be jostled even in his own house +and domestic repose. The country where I live is always the first in +arms and the last that lays them down, and where there is never an +absolute peace: + + "Tunc quoque, cum pax est, trepidant formidine belli.... + Quoties Romam fortuna lacessit; + Hac iter est bellis.... Melius, Fortuna, dedisses + Orbe sub Eco sedem, gelidaque sub Arcto, + Errantesque domos." + + ["Even when there's peace, there is here still the dear of war when + Fortune troubles peace, this is ever the way by which war passes." + --Ovid, Trist., iii. 10, 67.] + + ["We might have lived happier in the remote East or in the icy + North, or among the wandering tribes."--Lucan, i. 255.] + +I sometimes extract the means to fortify myself against these +considerations from indifference and indolence, which, in some sort, +bring us on to resolution. It often befalls me to imagine and expect +mortal dangers with a kind of delight: I stupidly plunge myself headlong +into death, without considering or taking a view of it, as into a deep +and obscure abyss which swallows me up at one leap, and involves me in an +instant in a profound sleep, without any sense of pain. And in these +short and violent deaths, the consequence that I foresee administers more +consolation to me than the effect does fear. They say, that as life is +not better for being long, so death is better for being not long. I do +not so much evade being dead, as I enter into confidence with dying. I +wrap and shroud myself into the storm that is to blind and carry me away +with the fury of a sudden and insensible attack. Moreover, if it should +fall out that, as some gardeners say, roses and violets spring more +odoriferous near garlic and onions, by reason that the last suck and +imbibe all the ill odour of the earth; so, if these depraved natures +should also attract all the malignity of my air and climate, and render +it so much better and purer by their vicinity, I should not lose all. +That cannot be: but there may be something in this, that goodness is more +beautiful and attractive when it is rare; and that contrariety and +diversity fortify and consolidate well-doing within itself, and inflame +it by the jealousy of opposition and by glory. Thieves and robbers, of +their special favour, have no particular spite at me; no more have I to +them: I should have my hands too full. Like consciences are lodged under +several sorts of robes; like cruelty, disloyalty, rapine; and so much the +worse, and more falsely, when the more secure and concealed under colour +of the laws. I less hate an open professed injury than one that is +treacherous; an enemy in arms, than an enemy in a gown. Our fever has +seized upon a body that is not much the worse for it; there was fire +before, and now 'tis broken out into a flame; the noise is greater, not +the evil. I ordinarily answer such as ask me the reason of my travels, +"That I know very well what I fly from, but not what I seek." If they +tell me that there may be as little soundness amongst foreigners, and +that their manners are no better than ours: I first reply, that it is +hard to be believed; + + "Tam multa: scelerum facies!" + + ["There are so many forms of crime."--Virgil, Georg., i. 506.] + +secondly, that it is always gain to change an ill condition for one that +is uncertain; and that the ills of others ought not to afflict us so much +as our own. + +I will not here omit, that I never mutiny so much against France, that I +am not perfectly friends with Paris; that city has ever had my heart from +my infancy, and it has fallen out, as of excellent things, that the more +beautiful cities I have seen since, the more the beauty of this still +wins upon my affection. I love her for herself, and more in her own +native being, than in all the pomp of foreign and acquired +embellishments. I love her tenderly, even to her warts and blemishes. +I am a Frenchman only through this great city, great in people, great in +the felicity of her situation; but, above all, great and incomparable in +variety and diversity of commodities: the glory of France, and one of the +most noble ornaments of the world. May God drive our divisions far from +her. Entire and united, I think her sufficiently defended from all other +violences. I give her caution that, of all sorts of people, those will +be the worst that shall set her in discord; I have no fear for her, but +of herself, and, certainly, I have as much fear for her as for any other +part of the kingdom. Whilst she shall continue, I shall never want a +retreat, where I may stand at bay, sufficient to make me amends for +parting with any other retreat. + +Not because Socrates has said so, but because it is in truth my own +humour, and peradventure not without some excess, I look upon all men as +my compatriots, and embrace a Polander as a Frenchman, preferring the +universal and common tie to all national ties whatever. I am not much +taken with the sweetness of a native air: acquaintance wholly new and +wholly my own appear to me full as good as the other common and +fortuitous ones with Four neighbours: friendships that are purely of our +own acquiring ordinarily carry it above those to which the communication +of climate or of blood oblige us. Nature has placed us in the world free +and unbound; we imprison ourselves in certain straits, like the kings of +Persia, who obliged themselves to drink no other water but that of the +river Choaspes, foolishly quitted claim to their right in all other +streams, and, so far as concerned themselves, dried up all the other +rivers of the world. What Socrates did towards his end, to look upon a +sentence of banishment as worse than a sentence of death against him, I +shall, I think, never be either so decrepid or so strictly habituated to +my own country to be of that opinion. These celestial lives have images +enough that I embrace more by esteem than affection; and they have some +also so elevated and extraordinary that I cannot embrace them so much as +by esteem, forasmuch as I cannot conceive them. That fancy was singular +in a man who thought the whole world his city; it is true that he +disdained travel, and had hardly ever set his foot out of the Attic +territories. What say you to his complaint of the money his friends +offered to save his life, and that he refused to come out of prison by +the mediation of others, in order not to disobey the laws in a time when +they were otherwise so corrupt? These examples are of the first kind for +me; of the second, there are others that I could find out in the same +person: many of these rare examples surpass the force of my action, but +some of them, moreover, surpass the force of my judgment. + +Besides these reasons, travel is in my opinion a very profitable +exercise; the soul is there continually employed in observing new and +unknown things, and I do not know, as I have often said a better school +wherein to model life than by incessantly exposing to it the diversity +of so many other lives, fancies, and usances, and by making it relish a +perpetual variety of forms of human nature. The body is, therein, +neither idle nor overwrought; and that moderate agitation puts it in +breath. I can keep on horseback, tormented with the stone as I am, +without alighting or being weary, eight or ten hours together: + + "Vires ultra sorternque senectae." + + ["Beyond the strength and lot of age."--AEneid, vi. 114.] + +No season is enemy to me but the parching heat of a scorching sun; for +the umbrellas made use of in Italy, ever since the time of the ancient +Romans, more burden a man's arm than they relieve his head. I would fain +know how it was that the Persians, so long ago and in the infancy of +luxury, made ventilators where they wanted them, and planted shades, as +Xenophon reports they did. I love rain, and to dabble in the dirt, as +well as ducks do. The change of air and climate never touches me; every +sky is alike; I am only troubled with inward alterations which I breed +within myself, and those are not so frequent in travel. I am hard to be +got out, but being once upon the road, I hold out as well as the best. +I take as much pains in little as in great attempts, and am as solicitous +to equip myself for a short journey, if but to visit a neighbour, as for +the longest voyage. I have learned to travel after the Spanish fashion, +and to make but one stage of a great many miles; and in excessive heats +I always travel by night, from sun set to sunrise. The other method of +baiting by the way, in haste and hurry to gobble up a dinner, is, +especially in short days, very inconvenient. My horses perform the +better; never any horse tired under me that was able to hold out the +first day's journey. I water them at every brook I meet, and have only a +care they have so much way to go before I come to my inn, as will digest +the water in their bellies. My unwillingness to rise in a morning gives +my servants leisure to dine at their ease before they set out; for my own +part, I never eat too late; my appetite comes to me in eating, and not +else; I am never hungry but at table. + +Some of my friends blame me for continuing this travelling humour, being +married and old. But they are out in't; 'tis the best time to leave a +man's house, when he has put it into a way of continuing without him, and +settled such order as corresponds with its former government. 'Tis much +greater imprudence to abandon it to a less faithful housekeeper, and who +will be less solicitous to look after your affairs. + +The most useful and honourable knowledge and employment for the mother of +a family is the science of good housewifery. I see some that are +covetous indeed, but very few that are good managers. 'Tis the supreme +quality of a woman, which a man ought to seek before any other, as the +only dowry that must ruin or preserve our houses. Let men say what they +will, according to the experience I have learned, I require in married +women the economical virtue above all other virtues; I put my wife to't, +as a concern of her own, leaving her, by my absence, the whole government +of my affairs. I see, and am vexed to see, in several families I know, +Monsieur about noon come home all jaded and ruffled about his affairs, +when Madame is still dressing her hair and tricking up herself, forsooth, +in her closet: this is for queens to do, and that's a question, too: 'tis +ridiculous and unjust that the laziness of our wives should be maintained +with our sweat and labour. No man, so far as in me lie, shall have a +clearer, a more quiet and free fruition of his estate than I. If the +husband bring matter, nature herself will that the wife find the form. + +As to the duties of conjugal friendship, that some think to be impaired +by these absences, I am quite of another- opinion. It is, on the +contrary, an intelligence that easily cools by a too frequent and +assiduous companionship. Every strange woman appears charming, and we +all find by experience that being continually together is not so pleasing +as to part for a time and meet again. These interruptions fill me with +fresh affection towards my family, and render my house more pleasant to +me. Change warms my appetite to the one and then to the other. I know +that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of +the world to the other, and especially this, where there is a continual +communication of offices that rouse the obligation and remembrance. The +Stoics say that there is so great connection and relation amongst the +sages, that he who dines in France nourishes his companion in Egypt; and +that whoever does but hold out his finger, in what part of the world +soever, all the sages upon the habitable earth feel themselves assisted +by it. Fruition and possession principally appertain to the imagination; +it more fervently and constantly embraces what it is in quest of, than +what we hold in our arms. Cast up your daily amusements; you will find +that you are most absent from your friend when he is present with you; +his presence relaxes your attention, and gives you liberty to absent +yourself at every turn and upon every occasion. When I am away at Rome, +I keep and govern my house, and the conveniences I there left; see my +walls rise, my trees shoot, and my revenue increase or decrease, very +near as well as when I am there: + + "Ante oculos errat domus, errat forma locorum." + + ["My house and the forms of places float before my eyes" + --Ovid, Trist, iii. 4, 57.] + +If we enjoy nothing but what we touch, we may say farewell to the money +in our chests, and to our sons when they are gone a hunting. We will +have them nearer to us: is the garden, or half a day's journey from home, +far? What is ten leagues: far or near? If near, what is eleven, twelve, +or thirteen, and so by degrees. In earnest, if there be a woman who can +tell her husband what step ends the near and what step begins the remote, +I would advise her to stop between; + + "Excludat jurgia finis . . . . + Utor permisso; caudaeque pilos ut equinae + Paulatim vello, et demo unum, demo etiam unum + Dum cadat elusus ratione ruentis acervi:" + + ["Let the end shut out all disputes . . . . I use what is + permitted; I pluck out the hairs of the horse's tail one by one; + while I thus outwit my opponent."--Horace, Ep., ii, I, 38, 45] + +and let them boldly call philosophy to their assistance; in whose teeth +it may be cast that, seeing it neither discerns the one nor the other end +of the joint, betwixt the too much and the little, the long and the +short, the light and the heavy, the near and the remote; that seeing it +discovers neither the beginning nor the end, it must needs judge very +uncertainly of the middle: + + "Rerum natura nullam nobis dedit cognitionem finium." + + ["Nature has green to us no knowledge of the end of things." + --Cicero, Acad., ii. 29.] + +Are they not still wives and friends to the dead who are not at the end +of this but in the other world? We embrace not only the absent, but +those who have been, and those who are not yet. We do not promise in +marriage to be continually twisted and linked together, like some little +animals that we see, or, like the bewitched folks of Karenty,--[Karantia, +a town in the isle of Rugen. See Saxo-Grammaticus, Hist. of Denmark, +book xiv.]--tied together like dogs; and a wife ought not to be so +greedily enamoured of her husband's foreparts, that she cannot endure to +see him turn his back, if occasion be. But may not this saying of that +excellent painter of woman's humours be here introduced, to show the +reason of their complaints? + + "Uxor, si cesses, aut to amare cogitat, + Aut tete amari, aut potare, aut animo obsequi; + Et tibi bene esse soli, cum sibi sit male;" + + ["Your wife, if you loiter, thinks that you love or are beloved; or + that you are drinking or following your inclination; and that it is + well for you when it is ill for her (all the pleasure is yours and + hers all the care)." + --Terence, Adelph., act i., sc. I, v. 7.] + +or may it not be, that of itself opposition and contradiction entertain +and nourish them, and that they sufficiently accommodate themselves, +provided they incommodate you? + +In true friendship, wherein I am perfect, I more give myself to my +friend, than I endeavour to attract him to me. I am not only better +pleased in doing him service than if he conferred a benefit upon me, +but, moreover, had rather he should do himself good than me, and he most +obliges me when he does so; and if absence be either more pleasant or +convenient for him, 'tis also more acceptable to me than his presence; +neither is it properly absence, when we can write to one another: I have +sometimes made good use of our separation from one another: we better +filled and further extended the possession of life in being parted. +He--[La Boetie.]--lived, enjoyed, and saw for me, and I for him, as +fully as if he had himself been there; one part of us remained idle, and +we were too much blended in one another when we were together; the +distance of place rendered the conjunction of our wills more rich. This +insatiable desire of personal presence a little implies weakness in the +fruition of souls. + +As to what concerns age, which is alleged against me, 'tis quite +contrary; 'tis for youth to subject itself to common opinions, and to +curb itself to please others; it has wherewithal to please both the +people and itself; we have but too much ado to please ourselves alone. +As natural conveniences fail, let us supply them with those that are +artificial. 'Tis injustice to excuse youth for pursuing its pleasures, +and to forbid old men to seek them. When young, I concealed my wanton +passions with prudence; now I am old, I chase away melancholy by debauch. +And thus do the platonic laws forbid men to travel till forty or fifty +years old, so that travel might be more useful and instructive in so +mature an age. I should sooner subscribe to the second article of the +same Laws, which forbids it after threescore. + +"But, at such an age, you will never return from so long a journey." +What care I for that? I neither undertake it to return, nor to finish it +my business is only to keep myself in motion, whilst motion pleases me; +I only walk for the walk's sake. They who run after a benefit or a hare, +run not; they only run who run at base, and to exercise their running. +My design is divisible throughout: it is not grounded upon any great +hopes: every day concludes my expectation: and the journey of my life is +carried on after the same manner. And yet I have seen places enough a +great way off, where I could have wished to have stayed. And why not, +if Chrysippus, Cleanthes, Diogenes, Zeno, Antipater, so many sages of the +sourest sect, readily abandoned their country, without occasion of +complaint, and only for the enjoyment of another air. In earnest, that +which most displeases me in all my travels is, that I cannot resolve to +settle my abode where I should best like, but that I must always propose +to myself to return, to accommodate myself to the common humour. + +If I feared to die in any other place than that of my birth; if I thought +I should die more uneasily remote from my own family, I should hardly go +out of France; I should not, without fear, step out of my parish; I feel +death always pinching me by the throat or by the back. But I am +otherwise constituted; 'tis in all places alike to me. Yet, might I have +my choice, I think I should rather choose to die on horseback than in +bed; out of my own house, and far from my own people. There is more +heartbreaking than consolation in taking leave of one's friends; I am +willing to omit that civility, for that, of all the offices of +friendship, is the only one that is unpleasant; and I could, with all my +heart, dispense with that great and eternal farewell. If there be any +convenience in so many standers-by, it brings an hundred inconveniences +along with it. I have seen many dying miserably surrounded with all this +train: 'tis a crowd that chokes them. 'Tis against duty, and is a +testimony of little kindness and little care, to permit you to die in +repose; one torments your eyes, another your ears, another your tongue; +you have neither sense nor member that is not worried by them. Your +heart is wounded with compassion to hear the mourning of friends, and, +perhaps with anger, to hear the counterfeit condolings of pretenders. +Who ever has been delicate and sensitive, when well, is much more so when +ill. In such a necessity, a gentle hand is required, accommodated to his +sentiment, to scratch him just in the place where he itches, otherwise +scratch him not at all. If we stand in need of a wise woman--[midwife, +Fr. 'sage femme'.]--to bring us into the world, we have much more need +of a still wiser man to help us out of it. Such a one, and a friend to +boot, a man ought to purchase at any cost for such an occasion. I am not +yet arrived to that pitch of disdainful vigour that is fortified in +itself, that nothing can assist or disturb; I am of a lower form; I +endeavour to hide myself, and to escape from this passage, not by fear, +but by art. I do not intend in this act of dying to make proof and show +of my constancy. For whom should I do it? all the right and interest I +have in reputation will then cease. I content myself with a death +involved within itself, quiet, solitary, and all my own, suitable to my +retired and private life; quite contrary to the Roman superstition, where +a man was looked upon as unhappy who died without speaking, and who had +not his nearest relations to close his eyes. I have enough to do to +comfort myself, without having to console others; thoughts enough in my +head, not to need that circumstances should possess me with new; and +matter enough to occupy me without borrowing. This affair is out of the +part of society; 'tis the act of one single person. Let us live and be +merry amongst our friends; let us go repine and die amongst strangers; a +man may find those, for his money, who will shift his pillow and rub his +feet, and will trouble him no more than he would have them; who will +present to him an indifferent countenance, and suffer him to govern +himself, and to complain according to his own method. + +I wean myself daily by my reason from this childish and inhuman humour, +of desiring by our sufferings to move the compassion and mourning of our +friends: we stretch our own incommodities beyond their just extent when +we extract tears from others; and the constancy which we commend in every +one in supporting his adverse fortune, we accuse and reproach in our +friends when the evil is our own; we are not satisfied that they should +be sensible of our condition only, unless they be, moreover, afflicted. +A man should diffuse joy, but, as much as he can, smother grief. He who +makes himself lamented without reason is a man not to be lamented when +there shall be real cause: to be always complaining is the way never to +be lamented; by making himself always in so pitiful a taking, he is never +commiserated by any. He who makes himself out dead when he is alive, is +subject to be thought living when he is dying. I have seen some who have +taken it ill when they have been told that they looked well, and that +their pulse was good; restrain their smiles, because they betrayed a +recovery, and be angry, at their health because it was not to be +lamented: and, which is a great deal more, these were not women. +I describe my infirmities, such as they really are, at most, and avoid +all expressions of evil prognostic and composed exclamations. If not +mirth, at least a temperate countenance in the standers-by, is proper in +the presence of a wise sick man: he does not quarrel with health, for, +seeing himself in a contrary condition, he is pleased to contemplate it +sound and entire in others, and at least to enjoy it for company: he does +not, for feeling himself melt away, abandon all living thoughts, nor +avoid ordinary discourse. I would study sickness whilst I am well; when +it has seized me, it will make its impression real enough, without the +help of my imagination. We prepare ourselves beforehand for the journeys +we undertake, and resolve upon them; we leave the appointment of the hour +when to take horse to the company, and in their favour defer it. + +I find this unexpected advantage in the publication of my manners, that +it in some sort serves me for a rule. I have, at times, some +consideration of not betraying the history of my life: this public +declaration obliges me to keep my way, and not to give the lie to the +image I have drawn of my qualities, commonly less deformed and +contradictory than consists with the malignity and infirmity of the +judgments of this age. The uniformity and simplicity of my manners +produce a face of easy interpretation; but because the fashion is a +little new and not in use, it gives too great opportunity to slander. +Yet so it is, that whoever would fairly assail me, I think I so +sufficiently assist his purpose in my known and avowed imperfections, +that he may that way satisfy his ill-nature without fighting with the +wind. If I myself, to anticipate accusation and discovery, confess +enough to frustrate his malice, as he conceives, 'tis but reason that he +make use of his right of amplification, and to wire-draw my vices as far +as he can; attack has its rights beyond justice; and let him make the +roots of those errors I have laid open to him shoot up into trees: let +him make his use, not only of those I am really affected with, but also +of those that only threaten me; injurious vices, both in quality and +number; let him cudgel me that way. I should willingly follow the +example of the philosopher Bion: Antigonus being about to reproach him +with the meanness of his birth, he presently cut him short with this +declaration: "I am," said he, "the son of a slave, a butcher, and +branded, and of a strumpet my father married in the lowest of his +fortune; both of them were whipped for offences they had committed. An +orator bought me, when a child, and finding me a pretty and hopeful boy, +bred me up, and when he died left me all his estate, which I have +transported into this city of Athens, and here settled myself to the +study of philosophy. Let the historians never trouble themselves with +inquiring about me: I will tell them about it." A free and generous +confession enervates reproach and disarms slander. So it is that, one +thing with another, I fancy men as often commend as undervalue me beyond +reason; as, methinks also, from my childhood, in rank and degree of +honour, they have given me a place rather above than below my right. +I should find myself more at ease in a country where these degrees were +either regulated or not regarded. Amongst men, when an altercation about +the precedence either of walking or sitting exceeds three replies, 'tis +reputed uncivil. I never stick at giving or taking place out of rule, to +avoid the trouble of such ceremony; and never any man had a mind to go +before me, but I permitted him to do it. + +Besides this profit I make of writing of myself, I have also hoped for +this other advantage, that if it should fall out that my humour should +please or jump with those of some honest man before I die, he would then +desire and seek to be acquainted with me. I have given him a great deal +of made-way; for all that he could have, in many years, acquired by close +familiarity, he has seen in three days in this memorial, and more surely +and exactly. A pleasant fancy: many things that I would not confess to +any one in particular, I deliver to the public, and send my best friends +to a bookseller's shop, there to inform themselves concerning my most +secret thoughts; + + "Excutienda damus praecordia." + + ["We give our hearts to be examined."--Persius, V. 22.] + +Did I, by good direction, know where to seek any one proper for my +conversation, I should certainly go a great way to find him out: for the +sweetness of suitable and agreeable company cannot; in my opinion, be +bought too dear. O what a thing is a true friend! how true is that old +saying, that the use of a friend is more pleasing and necessary than the +elements of water and fire! + +To return to my subject: there is, then, no great harm in dying privately +and far from home; we conceive ourselves obliged to retire for natural +actions less unseemly and less terrible than this. But, moreover, such +as are reduced to spin out a long languishing life, ought not, perhaps, +to wish to trouble a great family with their continual miseries; +therefore the Indians, in a certain province, thought it just to knock a +man on the head when reduced to such a necessity; and in another of their +provinces, they all forsook him to shift for himself as well as he could. +To whom do they not, at last, become tedious and insupportable? the +ordinary offices of fife do not go that length. You teach your best +friends to be cruel perforce; hardening wife and children by long use +neither to regard nor to lament your sufferings. The groans of the stone +are grown so familiar to my people, that nobody takes any notice of them. +And though we should extract some pleasure from their conversation (which +does not always happen, by reason of the disparity of conditions, which +easily begets contempt or envy toward any one whatever), is it not too +much to make abuse of this half a lifetime? The more I should see them +constrain themselves out of affection to be serviceable to me, the more I +should be sorry for their pains. We have liberty to lean, but not to lay +our whole weight upon others, so as to prop ourselves by their ruin; like +him who caused little children's throats to be cut to make use of their +blood for the cure of a disease he had, or that other, who was +continually supplied with tender young girls to keep his old limbs warm +in the night, and to mix the sweetness of their breath with his, sour and +stinking. I should readily advise Venice as a retreat in this decline of +life. Decrepitude is a solitary quality. I am sociable even to excess, +yet I think it reasonable that I should now withdraw my troubles from the +sight of the world and keep them to myself. Let me shrink and draw up +myself in my own shell, like a tortoise, and learn to see men without +hanging upon them. I should endanger them in so slippery a passage: 'tis +time to turn my back to company. + +"But, in these travels, you will be taken ill in some wretched place, +where nothing can be had to relieve you." I always carry most things +necessary about me; and besides, we cannot evade Fortune if she once +resolves to attack us. I need nothing extraordinary when I am sick. +I will not be beholden to my bolus to do that for me which nature cannot. +At the very beginning of my fevers and sicknesses that cast me down, +whilst still entire, and but little, disordered in health, I reconcile +myself to Almighty God by the last Christian, offices, and find myself by +so doing less oppressed and more easy, and have got, methinks, so much +the better of my disease. And I have yet less need of a notary or +counsellor than of a physician. What I have not settled of my affairs +when I was in health, let no one expect I should do it when I am sick. +What I will do for the service of death is always done; I durst not so +much as one day defer it; and if nothing be done, 'tis as much as to say +either that doubt hindered my choice (and sometimes 'tis well chosen not +to choose), or that I was positively resolved not to do anything at all. + +I write my book for few men and for few years. Had it been matter of +duration, I should have put it into firmer language. According to the +continual variation that ours has been subject to, up to this day, who +can expect that its present form should be in use fifty years hence? +It slips every day through our fingers, and since I was born, it is +altered above one-half. We say that it is now perfect; and every age +says the same of its own. I shall hardly trust to that, so long as it +varies and changes as it does. 'Tis for good and useful writings to +rivet it to them, and its reputation will go according to the fortune of +our state. For which reason I am not afraid to insert in it several +private articles, which will spend their use amongst the men that are now +living, and that concern the particular knowledge of some who will see +further into them than every common reader. I will not, after all, as I +often hear dead men spoken of, that men should say of me: "He judged, he +lived so and so; he would have done this or that; could he have spoken +when he was dying, he would have said so or so, and have given this thing +or t'other; I knew him better than any." Now, as much as decency +permits, I here discover my inclinations and affections; but I do more +willingly and freely by word of mouth to any one who desires to be +informed. So it is that in these memoirs, if any one observe, he will +find that I have either told or designed to tell all; what I cannot +express, I point out with my finger: + + "Verum animo satis haec vestigia parva sagaci + Sunt, per quae possis cognoscere caetera tute" + + ["By these footsteps a sagacious mind many easily find all other + matters (are sufficient to enable one to learn the rest well.)" + --Lucretius, i. 403.] + +I leave nothing to be desired or to be guessed at concerning me. If +people must be talking of me, I would have it to be justly and truly; I +would come again, with all my heart, from the other world to give any one +the lie who should report me other than I was, though he did it to honour +me. I perceive that people represent, even living men, quite another +thing than what they really are; and had I not stoutly defended a friend +whom I have lost,--[De la Boetie.]--they would have torn him into a +thousand contrary pieces. + +To conclude the account of my poor humours, I confess that in my travels +I seldom reach my inn but that it comes into my mind to consider whether +I could there be sick and dying at my ease. I desire to be lodged in +some private part of the house, remote from all noise, ill scents, and +smoke. I endeavour to flatter death by these frivolous circumstances; +or, to say better, to discharge myself from all other incumbrances, that +I may have nothing to do, nor be troubled with anything but that which +will lie heavy enough upon me without any other load. I would have my +death share in the ease and conveniences of my life; 'tis a great part of +it, and of great importance, and I hope it will not in the future +contradict the past. Death has some forms that are more easy than +others, and receives divers qualities, according to every one's fancy. +Amongst the natural deaths, that which proceeds from weakness and stupor +I think the most favourable; amongst those that are violent, I can worse +endure to think of a precipice than of the fall of a house that will +crush me in a moment, and of a wound with a sword than of a harquebus +shot; I should rather have chosen to poison myself with Socrates, than +stab myself with Cato. And, though it, be all one, yet my imagination +makes as great a difference as betwixt death and life, betwixt throwing +myself into a burning furnace and plunging into the channel of a river: +so idly does our fear more concern itself in the means than the effect. +It is but an instant, 'tis true, but withal an instant of such weight, +that I would willingly give a great many days of my life to pass it over +after my own fashion. Since every one's imagination renders it more or +less terrible, and since every one has some choice amongst the several +forms of dying, let us try a little further to find some one that is +wholly clear from all offence. Might not one render it even voluptuous, +like the Commoyientes of Antony and Cleopatra? I set aside the brave and +exemplary efforts produced by philosophy and religion; but, amongst men +of little mark there have been found some, such as Petronius and +Tigellinus at Rome, condemned to despatch themselves, who have, as it +were, rocked death asleep with the delicacy of their preparations; they +have made it slip and steal away in the height of their accustomed +diversions amongst girls and good fellows; not a word of consolation, no +mention of making a will, no ambitious affectation of constancy, no talk +of their future condition; amongst sports, feastings, wit, and mirth, +common and indifferent discourses, music, and amorous verses. Were it +not possible for us to imitate this resolution after a more decent +manner? Since there are deaths that are good for fools, deaths good for +the wise, let us find out such as are fit for those who are betwixt both. +My imagination suggests to me one that is easy, and, since we must die, +to be desired. The Roman tyrants thought they did, in a manner, give a +criminal life when they gave him the choice of his death. But was not +Theophrastus, that so delicate, so modest, and so wise a philosopher, +compelled by reason, when he durst say this verse, translated by Cicero: + + "Vitam regit fortuna, non sapientia?" + + ["Fortune, not wisdom, sways human life." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., V. 31.] + +Fortune assists the facility of the bargain of my life, having placed it +in such a condition that for the future it can be neither advantage nor +hindrance to those who are concerned in me; 'tis a condition that I would +have accepted at any time of my life; but in this occasion of trussing up +my baggage, I am particularly pleased that in dying I shall neither do +them good nor harm. She has so ordered it, by a cunning compensation, +that they who may pretend to any considerable advantage by my death will, +at the same time, sustain a material inconvenience. Death sometimes is +more grievous to us, in that it is grievous to others, and interests us +in their interest as much as in our own, and sometimes more. + +In this conveniency of lodging that I desire, I mix nothing of pomp and +amplitude--I hate it rather; but a certain plain neatness, which is +oftenest found in places where there is less of art, and that Nature has +adorned with some grace that is all her own: + + "Non ampliter, sea munditer convivium." + + ["To eat not largely, but cleanly."--Nepos, Life of Atticus, c. 13] + + "Plus salis quam sumptus." + + ["Rather enough than costly (More wit than cost)"--Nonius, xi. 19.] + +And besides, 'tis for those whose affairs compel them to travel in the +depth of winter through the Grisons country to be surprised upon the way +with great inconveniences. I, who, for the most part, travel for my +pleasure, do not order my affairs so ill. If the way be foul on my right +hand, I turn on my left; if I find myself unfit to ride, I stay where I +am; and, so doing, in earnest I see nothing that is not as pleasant and +commodious as my own house. 'Tis true that I always find superfluity +superfluous, and observe a kind of trouble even in abundance itself. +Have I left anything behind me unseen, I go back to see it; 'tis still on +my way; I trace no certain line, either straight or crooked.--[Rousseau +has translated this passage in his Emile, book v.]--Do I not find in the +place to which I go what was reported to me--as it often falls out that +the judgments of others do not jump with mine, and that I have found +their reports for the most part false--I never complain of losing my +labour: I have, at least, informed myself that what was told me was not +true. + +I have a constitution of body as free, and a palate as indifferent, as +any man living: the diversity of manners of several nations only affects +me in the pleasure of variety: every usage has its reason. Let the plate +and dishes be pewter, wood, or earth; my meat be boiled or roasted; let +them give me butter or oil, of nuts or olives, hot or cold, 'tis all one +to me; and so indifferent, that growing old, I accuse this generous +faculty, and would wish that delicacy and choice should correct the +indiscretion of my appetite, and sometimes soothe my stomach. When I +have been abroad out of France and that people, out of courtesy, have +asked me if I would be served after the French manner, I laughed at the +question, and always frequented tables the most filled with foreigners. +I am ashamed to see our countrymen besotted with this foolish humour of +quarrelling with forms contrary to their own; they seem to be out of +their element when out of their own village: wherever they go, they keep +to their own fashions and abominate those of strangers. Do they meet +with a compatriot in Hungary? O the happy chance! They are henceforward +inseparable; they cling together, and their whole discourse is to condemn +the barbarous manners they see about them. Why barbarous, because they +are not French? And those have made the best use of their travels who +have observed most to speak against. Most of them go for no other end +but to come back again; they proceed in their travel with vast gravity +and circumspection, with a silent and incommunicable prudence, preserving +themselves from the contagion of an unknown air. What I am saying of +them puts me in mind of something like it I have at times observed in +some of our young courtiers; they will not mix with any but men of their +own sort, and look upon us as men of another world, with disdain or pity. +Put them upon any discourse but the intrigues of the court, and they are +utterly at a loss; as very owls and novices to us as we are to them. +'Tis truly said that a well-bred man is a compound man. I, on the +contrary, travel very much sated with our own fashions; I do not look for +Gascons in Sicily; I have left enough of them at home; I rather seek for +Greeks and Persians; they are the men I endeavour to be acquainted with +and the men I study; 'tis there that I bestow and employ myself. And +which is more, I fancy that I have met but with few customs that are not +as good as our own; I have not, I confess, travelled very far; scarce out +of the sight of the vanes of my own house. + +As to the rest, most of the accidental company a man falls into upon the +road beget him more trouble than pleasure; I waive them as much as I +civilly can, especially now that age seems in some sort to privilege and +sequester me from the common forms. You suffer for others or others +suffer for you; both of them inconveniences of importance enough, but the +latter appears to me the greater. 'Tis a rare fortune, but of +inestimable solace; to have a worthy man, one of a sound judgment and of +manners conformable to your own, who takes a delight to bear you company. +I have been at an infinite loss for such upon my travels. But such a +companion should be chosen and acquired from your first setting out. +There can be no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so +much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind, that it does not grieve +me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to communicate it to: + + "Si cum hac exceptione detur sapientia, + ut illam inclusam teneam, nec enuntiem, rejiciam." + + ["If wisdom be conferred with this reservation, that I must keep it + to myself, and not communicate it to others, I would none of it." + --Seneca, Ep., 6.] + +This other has strained it one note higher: + + "Si contigerit ea vita sapienti, ut ommum rerum afliuentibus copiis, + quamvis omnia, quae cognitione digna sunt, summo otio secum ipse + consideret et contempletur, tamen, si solitudo tanta sit, ut hominem + videre non possit, excedat a vita." + + ["If such a condition of life should happen to a wise man, that in + the greatest plenty of all conveniences he might, at the most + undisturbed leisure, consider and contemplate all things worth the + knowing, yet if his solitude be such that he must not see a man, let + him depart from life."--Cicero, De Offic., i. 43.] + +Architas pleases me when he says, "that it would be unpleasant, even in +heaven itself, to wander in those great and divine celestial bodies +without a companion. But yet 'tis much better to be alone than in +foolish and troublesome company. Aristippus loved to live as a stranger +in all places: + + "Me si fata meis paterentur ducere vitam + Auspiciis," + + ["If the fates would let me live in my own way."--AEneid, iv. 340.] + +I should choose to pass away the greatest part of my life on horseback: + + "Visere gestiens, + Qua pane debacchentur ignes, + Qua nebula, pluviique rores." + + ["Visit the regions where the sun burns, where are the thick rain- + clouds and the frosts."--Horace, Od., iii. 3, 54.] + +"Have you not more easy diversions at home? What do you there want? Is +not your house situated in a sweet and healthful air, sufficiently +furnished, and more than sufficiently large? Has not the royal majesty +been more than once there entertained with all its train? Are there not +more below your family in good ease than there are above it in eminence? +Is there any local, extraordinary, indigestible thought that afflicts +you?" + + "Qua to nunc coquat, et vexet sub pectore fixa." + + ["That may now worry you, and vex, fixed in your breast." + --Cicero, De Senect, c. 1, Ex Ennio.] + +"Where do you think to live without disturbance?" + + "Nunquam simpliciter Fortuna indulget." + + ["Fortune is never simply complaisant (unmixed)." + --Quintus Curtius, iv. 14] + +You see, then, it is only you that trouble yourself; you will everywhere +follow yourself, and everywhere complain; for there is no satisfaction +here below, but either for brutish or for divine souls. He who, on so +just an occasion, has no contentment, where will he think to find it? +How many thousands of men terminate their wishes in such a condition as +yours? Do but reform yourself; for that is wholly in your own power! +whereas you have no other right but patience towards fortune: + + "Nulla placida quies est, nisi quam ratio composuit." + + ["There is no tranquillity but that which reason has conferred." + --Seneca, Ep., 56.] + +I see the reason of this advice, and see it perfectly well; but he might +sooner have done, and more pertinently, in bidding me in one word be +wise; that resolution is beyond wisdom; 'tis her precise work and +product. Thus the physician keeps preaching to a poor languishing +patient to "be cheerful"; but he would advise him a little more +discreetly in bidding him "be well." For my part, I am but a man of the +common sort. 'Tis a wholesome precept, certain and easy to be +understood, "Be content with what you have," that is to say, with reason: +and yet to follow this advice is no more in the power of the wise men of +the world than in me. 'Tis a common saying, but of a terrible extent: +what does it not comprehend? All things fall under discretion and +qualification. I know very well that, to take it by the letter, this +pleasure of travelling is a testimony of uneasiness and irresolution, +and, in sooth, these two are our governing and predominating qualities. +Yes, I confess, I see nothing, not so much as in a dream, in a wish, +whereon I could set up my rest: variety only, and the possession of +diversity, can satisfy me; that is, if anything can. In travelling, it +pleases me that I may stay where I like, without inconvenience, and that +I have a place wherein commodiously to divert myself. I love a private +life, because 'tis my own choice that I love it, not by any dissenting +from or dislike of public life, which, peradventure, is as much according +to my complexion. I serve my prince more cheerfully because it is by the +free election of my own judgment and reason, without any particular +obligation; and that I am not reduced and constrained so to do for being +rejected or disliked by the other party; and so of all the rest. I hate +the morsels that necessity carves me; any commodity upon which I had only +to depend would have me by the throat; + + "Alter remus aquas, alter mihi radat arenas;" + + ["Let me have one oar in the water, and with the other rake the + shore."--Propertius, iii. 3, 23.] + +one cord will never hold me fast enough. You will say, there is vanity +in this way of living. But where is there not? All these fine precepts +are vanity, and all wisdom is vanity: + + "Dominus novit cogitationes sapientum, quoniam vanae sunt." + + ["The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." + --Ps. xciii. II; or I Cor. iii. 20.] + +These exquisite subtleties are only fit for sermons; they are discourses +that will send us all saddled into the other world. Life is a material +and corporal motion, an action imperfect and irregular of its own proper +essence; I make it my business to serve it according to itself: + + "Quisque suos patimur manes." + + ["We each of us suffer our own particular demon."--AEneid, vi. 743.] + + "Sic est faciendum, ut contra naturam universam nihil contendamus; + ea tamen conservata propriam sequamur." + + ["We must so order it as by no means to contend against universal + nature; but yet, that rule being observed, to follow our own." + --Cicero, De Offcc., i. 31.] + +To what end are these elevated points of philosophy, upon which no human +being can rely? and those rules that exceed both our use and force? + +I see often that we have theories of life set before us which neither the +proposer nor those who hear him have any hope, nor, which is more, any +inclination to follow. Of the same sheet of paper whereon the judge has +but just written a sentence against an adulterer, he steals a piece +whereon to write a love-letter to his companion's wife. She whom you +have but just now illicitly embraced will presently, even in your +hearing, more loudly inveigh against the same fault in her companion than +a Portia would do;--[The chaste daughter of Cato of Utica.]--and men +there are who will condemn others to death for crimes that they +themselves do not repute so much as faults. I have, in my youth, seen a +man of good rank with one hand present to the people verses that excelled +both in wit and debauchery, and with the other, at the same time, the +most ripe and pugnacious theological reformation that the world has been +treated withal these many years. And so men proceed; we let the laws and +precepts follow their way; ourselves keep another course, not only from +debauchery of manners, but ofttimes by judgment and contrary opinion. Do +but hear a philosophical lecture; the invention, eloquence, pertinency +immediately strike upon your mind and move you; there is nothing that +touches or stings your conscience; 'tis not to this they address +themselves. Is not this true? It made Aristo say, that neither a bath +nor a lecture did aught unless it scoured and made men clean. One may +stop at the skin; but it is after the marrow is picked out as, after we +have swallowed good wine out of a fine cup, we examine the designs and +workmanship. In all the courts of ancient philosophy, this is to be +found, that the same teacher publishes rules of temperance and at the +same time lessons in love and wantonness; Xenophon, in the very bosom of +Clinias, wrote against the Aristippic virtue. 'Tis not that there is any +miraculous conversion in it that makes them thus wavering; 'tis that +Solon represents himself, sometimes in his own person, and sometimes in +that of a legislator; one while he speaks for the crowd, and another for +himself; taking the free and natural rules for his own share, feeling +assured of a firm and entire health: + + "Curentur dubii medicis majoribus aegri." + + ["Desperate maladies require the best doctors." + --Juvenal, xiii. 124.] + +Antisthenes allows a sage to love, and to do whatever he thinks +convenient, without regard to the laws, forasmuch as he is better advised +than they, and has a greater knowledge of virtue. His disciple Diogenes +said, that "men to perturbations were to oppose reason: to fortune, +courage: to the laws, nature." For tender stomachs, constrained and +artificial recipes must be prescribed: good and strong stomachs serve +themselves simply with the prescriptions of their own natural appetite; +after this manner do our physicians proceed, who eat melons and drink +iced wines, whilst they confine their patients to syrups and sops. +"I know not," said the courtezan Lais, "what they may talk of books, +wisdom, and philosophy; but these men knock as often at my door as any +others." At the same rate that our licence carries us beyond what is +lawful and allowed, men have, often beyond universal reason, stretched +the precepts and rules of our life: + + "Nemo satis credit tantum delinquere, quantum + Permittas." + + ["No one thinks he has done ill to the full extent of what he may." + --Juvenal, xiv. 233.] + +It were to be wished that there was more proportion betwixt the command +and the obedience; and the mark seems to be unjust to which one cannot +attain. There is no so good man, who so squares all his thoughts and +actions to the laws, that he is not faulty enough to deserve hanging ten +times in his life; and he may well be such a one, as it were great +injustice and great harm to punish and ruin: + + "Ole, quid ad te + De cute quid faciat ille vel ille sua?" + + ["Olus, what is it to thee what he or she does with their skin?" + --Martial, vii. 9, I.] + +and such an one there may be, who has no way offended the laws, who, +nevertheless, would not deserve the character of a virtuous man, and whom +philosophy would justly condemn to be whipped; so unequal and perplexed +is this relation. We are so far from being good men, according to the +laws of God, that we cannot be so according to our own human wisdom never +yet arrived at the duties it had itself prescribed; and could it arrive +there, it would still prescribe to itself others beyond, to which it +would ever aspire and pretend; so great an enemy to consistency is our +human condition. Man enjoins himself to be necessarily in fault: he is +not very discreet to cut out his own duty by the measure of another being +than his own. To whom does he prescribe that which he does not expect +any one should perform? is he unjust in not doing what it is impossible +for him to do? The laws which condemn us not to be able, condemn us for +not being able. + +At the worst, this difform liberty of presenting ourselves two several +ways, the actions after one manner and the reasoning after another, may +be allowed to those who only speak of things; but it cannot be allowed to +those who speak of themselves, as I do: I must march my pen as I do my +feet. Common life ought to have relation to the other lives: the virtue +of Cato was vigorous beyond the reason of the age he lived in; and for a +man who made it his business to govern others, a man dedicated to the +public service, it might be called a justice, if not unjust, at least +vain and out of season. Even my own manners, which differ not above an +inch from those current amongst us, render me, nevertheless, a little +rough and unsociable at my age. I know not whether it be without reason +that I am disgusted with the world I frequent; but I know very well that +it would be without reason, should I complain of its being disgusted with +me, seeing I am so with it. The virtue that is assigned to the affairs +of the world is a virtue of many wavings, corners, and elbows, to join +and adapt itself to human frailty, mixed and artificial, not straight, +clear, constant, nor purely innocent. Our annals to this very day +reproach one of our kings for suffering himself too simply to be carried +away by the conscientious persuasions of his confessor: affairs of state +have bolder precepts; + + "Exeat aula, + Qui vult esse pius." + + ["Let him who will be pious retire from the court." + --Lucan, viii. 493] + +I formerly tried to employ in the service of public affairs opinions and +rules of living, as rough, new, unpolished or unpolluted, as they were +either born with me, or brought away from my education, and wherewith I +serve my own turn, if not so commodiously, at least securely, in my own +particular concerns: a scholastic and novice virtue; but I have found +them unapt and dangerous. He who goes into a crowd must now go one way +and then another, keep his elbows close, retire or advance, and quit the +straight way, according to what he encounters; and must live not so much +according to his own method as to that of others; not according to what +he proposes to himself, but according to what is proposed to him, +according to the time, according to the men, according to the occasions. +Plato says, that whoever escapes from the world's handling with clean +breeches, escapes by miracle: and says withal, that when he appoints his +philosopher the head of a government, he does not mean a corrupt one like +that of Athens, and much less such a one as this of ours, wherein wisdom +itself would be to seek. A good herb, transplanted into a soil contrary +to its own nature, much sooner conforms itself to the soil than it +reforms the soil to it. I found that if I had wholly to apply myself to +such employments, it would require a great deal of change and new +modelling in me before I could be any way fit for it: And though I could +so far prevail upon myself (and why might I not with time and diligence +work such a feat), I would not do it. The little trial I have had of +public employment has been so much disgust to me; I feel at times +temptations toward ambition rising in my soul, but I obstinately oppose +them: + + "At tu, Catulle, obstinatus obdura." + + ["But thou, Catullus, be obstinately firm."--Catullus, viii. 19.] + +I am seldom called to it, and as seldom offer myself uncalled; liberty +and laziness, the qualities most predominant in me, are qualities +diametrically contrary to that trade. We cannot well distinguish the +faculties of men; they have divisions and limits hard and delicate to +choose; to conclude from the discreet conduct of a private life a +capacity for the management of public affairs is to conclude ill; a man +may govern himself well who cannot govern others so, and compose Essays +who could not work effects: men there may be who can order a siege well, +who would ill marshal a battle; who can speak well in private, who would +ill harangue a people or a prince; nay, 'tis peradventure rather a +testimony in him who can do the one that he cannot do the other, than +otherwise. I find that elevated souls are not much more proper for mean +things than mean souls are for high ones. Could it be imagined that +Socrates should have administered occasion of laughter, at the expense of +his own reputation, to the Athenians for: having never been able to sum +up the votes of his tribe, to deliver it to the council? Truly, the +veneration I have for the perfections of this great man deserves that his +fortune should furnish, for the excuse of my principal imperfections, so +magnificent an example. Our sufficiency is cut out into small parcels; +mine has no latitude, and is also very contemptible in number. +Saturninus, to those who had conferred upon him the command in chief: +"Companions," said he, "you have lost a good captain, to make of him a +bad general." + +Whoever boasts, in so sick a time as this, to employ a true and sincere +virtue in the world's service, either knows not what it is, opinions +growing corrupt with manners (and, in truth, to hear them describe it, to +hear the most of them glorify themselves in their deportments, and lay +down their rules; instead of painting virtue, they paint pure vice and +injustice, and so represent it false in the education of princes); or if +he does know it, boasts unjustly and let him say what he will, does a +thousand things of which his own conscience must necessarily accuse him. +I should willingly take Seneca's word on the experience he made upon the +like occasion, provided he would deal sincerely with me. The most +honourable mark of goodness in such a necessity is freely to confess both +one's own faults and those of others; with the power of its virtue to +stay one's inclination towards evil; unwillingly to follow this +propension; to hope better, to desire better. I perceive that in these +divisions wherein we are involved in France, every one labours to defend +his cause; but even the very best of them with dissimulation and +disguise: he who would write roundly of the true state of the quarrel, +would write rashly and wrongly. The most just party is at best but a +member of a decayed and worm-eaten body; but of such a body, the member +that is least affected calls itself sound, and with good reason, +forasmuch as our qualities have no title but in comparison; civil +innocence is measured according to times and places. Imagine this in +Xenophon, related as a fine commendation of Agesilaus: that, being +entreated by a neighbouring prince with whom he had formerly had war, to +permit him to pass through his country, he granted his request, giving +him free passage through Peloponnesus; and not only did not imprison or +poison him, being at his mercy, but courteously received him according to +the obligation of his promise, without doing him the least injury or +offence. To such ideas as theirs this were an act of no especial note; +elsewhere and in another age, the frankness and unanimity of such an +action would be thought wonderful; our monkeyish capets + + [Capets, so called from their short capes, were the students of + Montaigne College at Paris, and were held in great contempt.] + +would have laughed at it, so little does the Spartan innocence resemble +that of France. We are not without virtuous men, but 'tis according to +our notions of virtue. Whoever has his manners established in regularity +above the standard of the age he lives in, let him either wrest or blunt +his rules, or, which I would rather advise him to, let him retire, and +not meddle with us at all. What will he get by it? + + "Egregium sanctumque virum si cerno, bimembri + Hoc monstrum puero, et miranti jam sub aratro + Piscibus inventis, et foetae comparo mulae." + + ["If I see an exemplary and good man, I liken it to a two-headed + boy, or a fish turned up by the plough, or a teeming mule." + --Juvenal, xiii. 64.] + +One may regret better times, but cannot fly from the present; we may wish +for other magistrates, but we must, notwithstanding, obey those we have; +and, peradventure, 'tis more laudable to obey the bad than the good. So +long as the image of the ancient and received laws of this monarchy shall +shine in any corner of the kingdom, there will I be. If they +unfortunately happen to thwart and contradict one another, so as to +produce two parts, of doubtful and difficult choice, I will willingly +choose to withdraw and escape the tempest; in the meantime nature or the +hazards of war may lend me a helping hand. Betwixt Caesar and Pompey, +I should frankly have declared myself; but, as amongst the three robbers +who came after,--[Octavius, Mark Antony, and Lepidus.]--a man must have +been necessitated either to hide himself, or have gone along with the +current of the time, which I think one may fairly do when reason no +longer guides: + + "Quo diversus abis?" + + ["Whither dost thou run wandering?"--AEneid, v. 166.] + +This medley is a little from my theme; I go out of my way; but 'tis +rather by licence than oversight; my fancies follow one another, but +sometimes at a great distance, and look towards one another, but 'tis +with an oblique glance. I have read a dialogue of Plato,--[The +Phaedrus.]--of the like motley and fantastic composition, the beginning +about love, and all the rest to the end about rhetoric; they fear not +these variations, and have a marvellous grace in letting themselves be +carried away at the pleasure of the wind, or at least to seem as if they +were. The titles of my chapters do not always comprehend the whole +matter; they often denote it by some mark only, as these others, Andria, +Eunuchus; or these, Sylla, Cicero, Toyquatus. I love a poetic progress, +by leaps and skips; 'tis an art, as Plato says, light, nimble, demoniac. +There are pieces in Plutarch where he forgets his theme; where the +proposition of his argument is only found by incidence, stuffed and half +stifled in foreign matter. Observe his footsteps in the Daemon of +Socrates. O God! how beautiful are these frolicsome sallies, those +variations and digressions, and all the more when they seem most +fortuitous and careless. 'Tis the indiligent reader who loses my +subject, and not I; there will always be found some word or other in a +corner that is to the purpose, though it lie very close. I ramble +indiscreetly and tumultuously; my style and my wit wander at the same +rate. He must fool it a little who would not be deemed wholly a fool, +say both the precepts, and, still more, the examples of our masters. A +thousand poets flag and languish after a prosaic manner; but the best old +prose (and I strew it here up and down indifferently for verse) shines +throughout with the lustre, vigour, and boldness of poetry, and not +without some air of its fury. And certainly prose ought to have the pre- +eminence in speaking. The poet, says Plato, seated upon the muses +tripod, pours out with fury whatever comes into his mouth, like the pipe +of a fountain, without considering and weighing it; and things escape him +of various colours, of contrary substance, and with an irregular torrent. +Plato himself is throughout poetical; and the old theology, as the +learned tell us, is all poetry; and the first philosophy is the original +language of the gods. I would have my matter distinguish itself; it +sufficiently shows where it changes, where it concludes, where it begins, +and where it rejoins, without interlacing it with words of connection +introduced for the relief of weak or negligent ears, and without +explaining myself. Who is he that had not rather not be read at all than +after a drowsy or cursory manner? + + "Nihil est tam utile, quod intransitu prosit." + + ["Nothing is so useful as that which is cursorily so." + --Seneca, Ep., 2.] + +If to take books in hand were to learn them: to look upon them were to +consider them: and to run these slightly over were to grasp them, I were +then to blame to make myself out so ignorant as I say I am. Seeing I +cannot fix the attention of my reader by the weight of what I write, +'manco male', if I should chance to do it by my intricacies. "Nay, but +he will afterwards repent that he ever perplexed himself about it." +'Tis very true, but he will yet be there perplexed. And, besides, there +are some humours in which comprehension produces disdain; who will think +better of me for not understanding what I say, and will conclude the +depth of my sense by its obscurity; which, to speak in good sooth, I +mortally hate, and would avoid it if I could. Aristotle boasts somewhere +in his writings that he affected it: a vicious affectation. The frequent +breaks into chapters that I made my method in the beginning of my book, +having since seemed to me to dissolve the attention before it was raised, +as making it disdain to settle itself to so little, I, upon that account, +have made them longer, such as require proposition and assigned leisure. +In such an employment, to whom you will not give an hour you give +nothing; and you do nothing for him for whom you only do it whilst you +are doing something else. To which may be added that I have, +peradventure, some particular obligation to speak only by halves, to +speak confusedly and discordantly. I am therefore angry at this trouble- +feast reason, and its extravagant projects that worry one's life, and its +opinions, so fine and subtle, though they be all true, I think too dear +bought and too inconvenient. On the contrary, I make it my business to +bring vanity itself in repute, and folly too, if it produce me any +pleasure; and let myself follow my own natural inclinations, without +carrying too strict a hand upon them. + +I have seen elsewhere houses in ruins, and statues both of gods and men: +these are men still. 'Tis all true; and yet, for all that, I cannot so +often revisit the tomb of that so great and so puissant city,--[Rome]-- +that I do not admire and reverence it. The care of the dead is +recommended to us; now, I have been bred up from my infancy with these +dead; I had knowledge of the affairs of Rome long before I had any of +those of my own house; I knew the Capitol and its plan before I knew the +Louvre, and the Tiber before I knew the Seine. The qualities and +fortunes of Lucullus, Metellus, and Scipio have ever run more in my head +than those of any of my own country; they are all dead; so is my father +as absolutely dead as they, and is removed as far from me and life in +eighteen years as they are in sixteen hundred: whose memory, +nevertheless, friendship and society, I do not cease to embrace and +utilise with a perfect and lively union. Nay, of my own inclination, I +pay more service to the dead; they can no longer help themselves, and +therefore, methinks, the more require my assistance: 'tis there that +gratitude appears in its full lustre. The benefit is not so generously +bestowed, where there is retrogradation and reflection. Arcesilaus, +going to visit Ctesibius, who was sick, and finding him in a very poor +condition, very finely conveyed some money under his pillow, and, by +concealing it from him, acquitted him, moreover, from the acknowledgment +due to such a benefit. Such as have merited from me friendship and +gratitude have never lost these by being no more; I have better and more +carefully paid them when gone and ignorant of what I did; I speak most +affectionately of my friends when they can no longer know it. I have had +a hundred quarrels in defending Pompey and for the cause of Brutus; this +acquaintance yet continues betwixt us; we have no other hold even on +present things but by fancy. Finding myself of no use to this age, I +throw myself back upon that other, and am so enamoured of it, that the +free, just, and flourishing state of that ancient Rome (for I neither +love it in its birth nor its old age) interests and impassionates me; +and therefore I cannot so often revisit the sites of their streets and +houses, and those ruins profound even to the Antipodes, that I am not +interested in them. Is it by nature, or through error of fancy, that the +sight of places which we know to have been frequented and inhabited by +persons whose memories are recommended in story, moves us in some sort +more than to hear a recital of their--acts or to read their writings? + + "Tanta vis admonitionis inest in locis....Et id quidem in hac urbe + infinitum; quacumque enim ingredimur, in aliquam historiam vestigium + ponimus." + + ["So great a power of reminiscence resides in places; and that truly + in this city infinite, for which way soever we go, we find the + traces of some story."--Cicero, De Fin., v. I, 2.] + +It pleases me to consider their face, bearing, and vestments: I pronounce +those great names betwixt my teeth, and make them ring in my ears: + + "Ego illos veneror, et tantis nominibus semper assurgo." + + ["I reverence them, and always rise to so great names." + --Seneca, Ep., 64.] + +Of things that are in some part great and admirable, I admire even the +common parts: I could wish to see them in familiar relations, walk, and +sup. It were ingratitude to contemn the relics and images of so many +worthy and valiant men as I have seen live and die, and who, by their +example, give us so many good instructions, knew we how to follow them. + +And, moreover, this very Rome that we now see, deserves to be beloved, so +long and by so many titles allied to our crown; the only common and +universal city; the sovereign magistrate that commands there is equally +acknowledged elsewhere 'tis the metropolitan city of all the Christian +nations the Spaniard and Frenchman is there at home: to be a prince of +that state, there needs no more but to be of Christendom wheresoever. +There is no place upon earth that heaven has embraced with such an +influence and constancy of favour; her very ruins are grand and glorious, + + "Laudandis pretiosior ruinis." + + ["More precious from her glorious ruins." + --Sidonius Apollinaris, Carm., xxiii.; Narba, v. 62.] + +she yet in her very tomb retains the marks and images of empire: + + "Ut palam sit, uno in loco gaudentis opus esse naturx." + + ["That it may be manifest that there is in one place the work of + rejoicing nature."--Pliny, Nat. Hist., iii. 5.] + +Some would blame and be angry at themselves to perceive themselves +tickled with so vain a pleasure our humours are never too vain that are +pleasant let them be what they may, if they constantly content a man of +common understanding, I could not have the heart to blame him. + +I am very much obliged to Fortune, in that, to this very hour, she has +offered me no outrage beyond what I was well able to bear. Is it not her +custom to let those live in quiet by whom she is not importuned? + + "Quanto quisque sibi plum negaverit, + A diis plum feret: nil cupientium + Nudus castra peto . . . . + Multa petentibus + Desunt multa." + + ["The more each man denies himself, the more the gods give him. + Poor as I am, I seek the company of those who ask nothing; they who + desire much will be deficient in much." + --Horace, Od., iii. 16,21,42.] + +If she continue her favour, she will dismiss me very well satisfied: + + "Nihil supra + Deos lacesso." + + ["I trouble the gods no farther."--Horace, Od., ii. 18, 11.] + +But beware a shock: there are a thousand who perish in the port. +I easily comfort myself for what shall here happen when I shall be gone, +present things trouble me enough: + + "Fortunae caetera mando." + + ["I leave the rest to fortune."--Ovid, Metam., ii. 140.] + +Besides, I have not that strong obligation that they say ties men to the +future, by the issue that succeeds to their name and honour; and +peradventure, ought less to covet them, if they are to be so much +desired. I am but too much tied to the world, and to this life, of +myself: I am content to be in Fortune's power by circumstances properly +necessary to my being, without otherwise enlarging her jurisdiction over +me; and have never thought that to be without children was a defect that +ought to render life less complete or less contented: a sterile vocation +has its conveniences too. Children are of the number of things that are +not so much to be desired, especially now that it would be so hard to +make them good: + + "Bona jam nec nasci licet, ita corrupta Bunt semina;" + + ["Nothing good can be born now, the seed is so corrupt." + --Tertullian, De Pudicita.] + +and yet they are justly to be lamented by such as lose them when they +have them. + +He who left me my house in charge, foretold that I was like to ruin it, +considering my humour so little inclined to look after household affairs. +But he was mistaken; for I am in the same condition now as when I first +entered into it, or rather somewhat better; and yet without office or any +place of profit. + +As to the rest, if Fortune has never done me any violent or extraordinary +injury, neither has she done me any particular favour; whatever we derive +from her bounty, was there above a hundred years before my time: I have, +as to my own particular, no essential and solid good, that I stand +indebted for to her liberality. She has, indeed, done me some airy +favours, honorary and titular favours, without substance, and those in +truth she has not granted, but offered me, who, God knows, am all +material, and who take nothing but what is real, and indeed massive too, +for current pay: and who, if I durst confess so much, should not think +avarice much less excusable than ambition: nor pain less to be avoided +than shame; nor health less to be coveted than learning, or riches than +nobility. + +Amongst those empty favours of hers, there is none that so much pleases +vain humour natural to my country, as an authentic bull of a Roman +burgess-ship, that was granted me when I was last there, glorious in +seals and gilded letters, and granted with all gracious liberality. And +because 'tis couched in a mixt style, more or less favourable, and that I +could have been glad to have seen a copy of it before it had passed the +seal. + +Being before burgess of no city at all, I am glad to be created one of +the most noble that ever was or ever shall be. If other men would +consider themselves at the rate I do, they would, as I do, discover +themselves to be full of inanity and foppery; to rid myself of it, I +cannot, without making myself away. We are all steeped in it, as well +one as another; but they who are not aware on't, have somewhat the better +bargain; and yet I know not whether they have or no. + +This opinion and common usage to observe others more than ourselves has +very much relieved us that way: 'tis a very displeasing object: we can +there see nothing but misery and vanity: nature, that we may not be +dejected with the sight of our own deformities, has wisely thrust the +action of seeing outward. We go forward with the current, but to turn +back towards ourselves is a painful motion; so is the sea moved and +troubled when the waves rush against one another. Observe, says every +one, the motions of the heavens, of public affairs; observe the quarrel +of such a person, take notice of such a one's pulse, of such another's +last will and testament; in sum, be always looking high or low, on one +side, before or behind you. It was a paradoxical command anciently given +us by that god of Delphos: "Look into yourself; discover yourself; keep +close to yourself; call back your mind and will, that elsewhere consume +themselves into yourself; you run out, you spill yourself; carry a more +steady hand: men betray you, men spill you, men steal you from yourself. +Dost thou not see that this world we live in keeps all its sight confined +within, and its eyes open to contemplate itself? 'Tis always vanity for +thee, both within and without; but 'tis less vanity when less extended. +Excepting thee, O man, said that god, everything studies itself first, +and has bounds to its labours and desires, according to its need. There +is nothing so empty and necessitous as thou, who embracest the universe; +thou art the investigator without knowledge, the magistrate without +jurisdiction, and, after all, the fool of the farce." + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man may govern himself well who cannot govern others so +A man should diffuse joy, but, as much as he can, smother grief +A well-bred man is a compound man +All over-nice solicitude about riches smells of avarice +Always complaining is the way never to be lamented +Appetite comes to me in eating +Better to be alone than in foolish and troublesome company +By suspecting them, have given them a title to do ill +Change only gives form to injustice and tyranny +Civil innocence is measured according to times and places +Conclude the depth of my sense by its obscurity +Concluding no beauty can be greater than what they see +Confession enervates reproach and disarms slander +Counterfeit condolings of pretenders +Crates did worse, who threw himself into the liberty of poverty +Desire of travel +Enough to do to comfort myself, without having to console others +Friend, it is not now time to play with your nails +Gain to change an ill condition for one that is uncertain +Giving is an ambitious and authoritative quality +Good does not necessarily succeed evil; another evil may succeed +Greedy humour of new and unknown things +He must fool it a little who would not be deemed wholly a fool +I always find superfluity superfluous +I am disgusted with the world I frequent +I am hard to be got out, but being once upon the road +I am very willing to quit the government of my house +I content myself with enjoying the world without bustle +I enter into confidence with dying +I grudge nothing but care and trouble +I hate poverty equally with pain +I scorn to mend myself by halves +I write my book for few men and for few years +Justice als takes cognisance of those who glean after the reaper +Known evil was ever more supportable than one that was, new +Laws (of Plato on travel), which forbids it after threescore. +Liberty and laziness, the qualities most predominant in me +Liberty of poverty +Liberty to lean, but not to lay our whole weight upon others +Little affairs most disturb us +Men as often commend as undervalue me beyond reason +Methinks I promise it, if I but say it +My mind is easily composed at distance +Neither be a burden to myself nor to any other +No use to this age, I throw myself back upon that other +Nothing falls where all falls +Nothing presses so hard upon a state as innovation +Obstinate in growing worse +Occupy our thoughts about the general, and about universal cause +One may regret better times, but cannot fly from the present +Opposition and contradiction entertain and nourish them +Our qualities have no title but in comparison +Preferring the universal and common tie to all national ties +Proceed so long as there shall be ink and paper in the world +Satisfied and pleased with and in themselves +Settled my thoughts to live upon less than I have +Some wives covetous indeed, but very few that are good managers +That looks a nice well-made shoe to you +There can be no pleasure to me without communication +Think myself no longer worth my own care +Tis for youth to subject itself to common opinions +Tis more laudable to obey the bad than the good +Titles of my chapters do not always comprehend the whole matter +Travel with not only a necessary, but a handsome equipage +Turn up my eyes to heaven to return thanks, than to crave +Weigh, as wise: men should, the burden of obligation +What sort of wine he liked the best: "That of another," +What step ends the near and what step begins the remote +When I travel I have nothing to care for but myself +Wise man to keep a curbing hand upon the impetus of friendship +World where loyalty of one's own children is unknown +Wretched and dangerous thing to depend upon others +You have lost a good captain, to make of him a bad general + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V17 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 18. + +X. Of Managing the Will. +XI. Of Cripples. +XII. Of Physiognomy. + + + +CHAPTER X + +OF MANAGING THE WILL + +Few things, in comparison of what commonly affect other men, move, or, to +say better, possess me: for 'tis but reason they should concern a man, +provided they do not possess him. I am very solicitous, both by study +and argument, to enlarge this privilege of insensibility, which is in me +naturally raised to a pretty degree, so that consequently I espouse and +am very much moved with very few things. I have a clear sight enough, +but I fix it upon very few objects; I have a sense delicate and tender +enough; but an apprehension and application hard and negligent. I am +very unwilling to engage myself; as much as in me lies, I employ myself +wholly on myself, and even in that subject should rather choose to curb +and restrain my affection from plunging itself over head and ears into +it, it being a subject that I possess at the mercy of others, and over +which fortune has more right than I; so that even as to health, which I +so much value, 'tis all the more necessary for me not so passionately to +covet and heed it, than to find diseases so insupportable. A man ought +to moderate himself betwixt the hatred of pain and the love of pleasure: +and Plato sets down a middle path of life betwixt the two. But against +such affections as wholly carry me away from myself and fix me elsewhere, +against those, I say, I oppose myself with my utmost power. 'Tis my +opinion that a man should lend himself to others, and only give himself +to himself. Were my will easy to lend itself out and to be swayed, I +should not stick there; I am too tender both by nature and use: + + "Fugax rerum, securaque in otia natus." + + ["Avoiding affairs and born to secure ease." + --Ovid, De Trist., iii. 2, 9.] + +Hot and obstinate disputes, wherein my adversary would at last have the +better, the issue that would render my heat and obstinacy disgraceful +would peradventure vex me to the last degree. Should I set myself to it +at the rate that others do, my soul would never have the force to bear +the emotion and alarms of those who grasp at so much; it would +immediately be disordered by this inward agitation. If, sometimes, I +have been put upon the management of other men's affairs, I have promised +to take them in hand, but not into my lungs and liver; to take them upon +me, not to incorporate them; to take pains, yes: to be impassioned about +it, by no means; I have a care of them, but I will not sit upon them. +I have enough to do to order and govern the domestic throng of those that +I have in my own veins and bowels, without introducing a crowd of other +men's affairs; and am sufficiently concerned about my own proper and +natural business, without meddling with the concerns of others. Such as +know how much they owe to themselves, and how many offices they are bound +to of their own, find that nature has cut them out work enough of their +own to keep them from being idle. "Thou hast business enough at home: +look to that." + +Men let themselves out to hire; their faculties are not for themselves, +but for those to whom they have enslaved themselves; 'tis their tenants +occupy them, not themselves. This common humour pleases not me. We must +be thrifty of the liberty of our souls, and never let it out but upon +just occasions, which are very few, if we judge aright. Do but observe +such as have accustomed themselves to be at every one's call: they do it +indifferently upon all, as well little as great, occasions; in that which +nothing concerns them; as much as in what imports them most. They thrust +themselves in indifferently wherever there is work to do and obligation, +and are without life when not in tumultuous bustle: + + "In negotiis sunt, negotii cause," + + ["They are in business for business' sake."--Seneca, Ep., 22.] + +It is not so much that they will go, as it is that they cannot stand +still: like a rolling stone that cannot stop till it can go no further. +Occupation, with a certain sort of men, is a mark of understanding and +dignity: their souls seek repose in agitation, as children do by being +rocked in a cradle; they may pronounce themselves as serviceable to their +friends, as they are troublesome to themselves. No one distributes his +money to others, but every one distributes his time and his life: there +is nothing of which we are so prodigal as of these two things, of which +to be thrifty would be both commendable and useful. I am of a quite +contrary humour; I look to myself, and commonly covet with no great +ardour what I do desire, and desire little; and I employ and busy myself +at the same rate, rarely and temperately. Whatever they take in hand, +they do it with their utmost will and vehemence. There are so many +dangerous steps, that, for the more safety, we must a little lightly and +superficially glide over the world, and not rush through it. Pleasure +itself is painful in profundity: + + "Incedis per ignes, + Suppositos cineri doloso." + + ["You tread on fire, hidden under deceitful ashes." + --Horace, Od., ii. i, 7.] + +The Parliament of Bordeaux chose me mayor of their city at a time when I +was at a distance from France,--[At Bagno Della Villa, near Lucca, +September 1581]--and still more remote from any such thought. +I entreated to be excused, but I was told by my friends that I had +committed an error in so doing, and the greater because the king had, +moreover, interposed his command in that affair. 'Tis an office that +ought to be looked upon so much more honourable, as it has no other +salary nor advantage than the bare honour of its execution. It continues +two years, but may be extended by a second election, which very rarely +happens; it was to me, and had never been so but twice before: some years +ago to Monsieur de Lansac, and lately to Monsieur de Biron, Marshal of +France, in whose place I succeeded; and, I left mine to Monsieur de +Matignon, Marshal of France also: proud of so noble a fraternity-- + + "Uterque bonus pacis bellique minister." + + ["Either one a good minister in peace and war." + --AEneid, xi. 658.] + +Fortune would have a hand in my promotion, by this particular +circumstance which she put in of her own, not altogether vain; for +Alexander disdained the ambassadors of Corinth, who came to offer him a +burgess-ship of their city; but when they proceeded to lay before him +that Bacchus and Hercules were also in the register, he graciously +thanked them. + +At my arrival, I faithfully and conscientiously represented myself to +them for such as I find myself to be--a man without memory, without +vigilance, without experience, and without vigour; but withal, without +hatred, without ambition, without avarice, and without violence; that +they might be informed of my qualities, and know what they were to expect +from my service. And whereas the knowledge they had had of my late +father, and the honour they had for his memory, had alone incited them to +confer this favour upon me, I plainly told them that I should be very +sorry anything should make so great an impression upon me as their +affairs and the concerns of their city had made upon him, whilst he held +the government to which they had preferred me. I remembered, when a boy, +to have seen him in his old age cruelly tormented with these public +affairs, neglecting the soft repose of his own house, to which the +declension of his age had reduced him for several years before, the +management of his own affairs, and his health; and certainly despising +his own life, which was in great danger of being lost, by being engaged +in long and painful journeys on their behalf. Such was he; and this +humour of his proceeded from a marvellous good nature; never was there a +more charitable and popular soul. Yet this proceeding which I commend in +others, I do not love to follow myself, and am not without excuse. + +He had learned that a man must forget himself for his neighbour, and that +the particular was of no manner of consideration in comparison with the +general. Most of the rules and precepts of the world run this way; to +drive us out of ourselves into the street for the benefit of public +society; they thought to do a great feat to divert and remove us from +ourselves, assuming we were but too much fixed there, and by a too +natural inclination; and have said all they could to that purpose: for +'tis no new thing for the sages to preach things as they serve, not as +they are. Truth has its obstructions, inconveniences, and +incompatibilities with us; we must often deceive that we may not deceive +ourselves; and shut our eyes and our understandings to redress and amend +them: + + "Imperiti enim judicant, et qui frequenter + in hoc ipsum fallendi sunt, ne errent." + + ["For the ignorant judge, and therefore are oft to be deceived, + less they should err."--Quintil., Inst. Orat., xi. 17.] + +When they order us to love three, four, or fifty degrees of things above +ourselves, they do like archers, who, to hit the white, take their aim a +great deal higher than the butt; to make a crooked stick straight, we +bend it the contrary way. + +I believe that in the Temple of Pallas, as we see in all other religions, +there were apparent mysteries to be exposed to the people; and others, +more secret and high, that were only to be shown to such as were +professed; 'tis likely that in these the true point of friendship that +every one owes to himself is to be found; not a false friendship, that +makes us embrace glory, knowledge, riches, and the like, with a principal +and immoderate affection, as members of our being; nor an indiscreet and +effeminate friendship, wherein it happens, as with ivy, that it decays +and ruins the walls it embraces; but a sound and regular friendship, +equally useful and pleasant. He who knows the duties of this friendship +and practises them is truly of the cabinet of the Muses, and has attained +to the height of human wisdom and of our happiness, such an one, exactly +knowing what he owes to himself, will on his part find that he ought to +apply to himself the use of the world and of other men; and to do this, +to contribute to public society the duties and offices appertaining to +him. He who does not in some sort live for others, does not live much +for himself: + + "Qui sibi amicus est, scito hunc amicum omnibus esse." + + ["He who is his own friend, is a friend to everybody else." + --Seneca, Ep., 6.] + +The principal charge we have is, to every one his own conduct; and 'tis +for this only that we here are. As he who should forget to live a +virtuous and holy life, and should think he acquitted himself of his duty +in instructing and training others up to it, would be a fool; even so he +who abandons his own particular healthful and pleasant living to serve +others therewith, takes, in my opinion, a wrong and unnatural course. + +I would not that men should refuse, in the employments they take upon +them, their attention, pains, eloquence, sweat, and blood if need be: + + "Non ipse pro caris amicis + Aut patria, timidus perire:" + + ["Himself not afraid to die for beloved friends, or for his + country."--Horace, Od., iv. 9, 51.] + +but 'tis only borrowed, and accidentally; his mind being always in repose +and in health; not without action, but without vexation, without passion. +To be simply acting costs him so little, that he acts even sleeping; +but it must be set on going with discretion; for the body receives the +offices imposed upon it just according to what they are; the mind often +extends and makes them heavier at its own expense, giving them what +measure it pleases. Men perform like things with several sorts of +endeavour, and different contention of will; the one does well enough +without the other; for how many people hazard themselves every day in war +without any concern which way it goes; and thrust themselves into the +dangers of battles, the loss of which will not break their next night's +sleep? and such a man may be at home, out of the danger which he durst +not have looked upon, who is more passionately concerned for the issue of +this war, and whose soul is more anxious about events than the soldier +who therein stakes his blood and his life. I could have engaged myself +in public employments without quitting my own matters a nail's breadth, +and have given myself to others without abandoning myself. This +sharpness and violence of desires more hinder than they advance the +execution of what we undertake; fill us with impatience against slow or +contrary events, and with heat and suspicion against those with whom we +have to do. We never carry on that thing well by which we are +prepossessed and led: + + "Male cuncta ministrat + Impetus." + + ["Impulse manages all things ill."--Statius, Thebaid, x. 704.] + +He who therein employs only his judgment and address proceeds more +cheerfully: he counterfeits, he gives way, he defers quite at his ease, +according to the necessities of occasions; he fails in his attempt +without trouble and affliction, ready and entire for a new enterprise; +he always marches with the bridle in his hand. In him who is intoxicated +with this violent and tyrannical intention, we discover, of necessity, +much imprudence and injustice; the impetuosity of his desire carries him +away; these are rash motions, and, if fortune do not very much assist, +of very little fruit. Philosophy directs that, in the revenge of +injuries received, we should strip ourselves of choler; not that the +chastisement should be less, but, on the contrary, that the revenge may +be the better and more heavily laid on, which, it conceives, will be by +this impetuosity hindered. For anger not only disturbs, but, of itself, +also wearies the arms of those who chastise; this fire benumbs and wastes +their force; as in precipitation, "festinatio tarda est,"--haste trips +up its own heels, fetters, and stops itself: + + "Ipsa se velocitas implicat."--Seneca, Ep. 44 + +For example, according to what I commonly see, avarice has no greater +impediment than itself; the more bent and vigorous it is, the less it +rakes together, and commonly sooner grows rich when disguised in a visor +of liberality. + +A very excellent gentleman, and a friend of mine, ran a risk of impairing +his faculties by a too passionate attention and affection to the affairs +of a certain prince his master;--[Probably the King of Navarre, afterward +Henry IV.]--which master has thus portrayed himself to me; "that he +foresees the weight of accidents as well as another, but that in those +for which there is no remedy, he presently resolves upon suffering; in +others, having taken all the necessary precautions which by the vivacity +of his understanding he can presently do, he quietly awaits what may +follow." And, in truth, I have accordingly seen him maintain a great +indifferency and liberty of actions and serenity of countenance in very +great and difficult affairs: I find him much greater, and of greater +capacity in adverse than in prosperous fortune; his defeats are to him +more glorious than his victories, and his mourning than his triumph. + +Consider, that even in vain and frivolous actions, as at chess, tennis, +and the like, this eager and ardent engaging with an impetuous desire, +immediately throws the mind and members into indiscretion and disorder: a +man astounds and hinders himself; he who carries himself more moderately, +both towards gain and loss, has always his wits about him; the less +peevish and passionate he is at play, he plays much more advantageously +and surely. + +As to the rest, we hinder the mind's grasp and hold, in giving it so many +things to seize upon; some things we should only offer to it; tie it to +others, and with others incorporate it. It can feel and discern all +things, but ought to feed upon nothing but itself; and should be +instructed in what properly concerns itself, and that is properly of its +own having and substance. The laws of nature teach us what justly we +need. After the sages have told us that no one is indigent according to +nature, and that every one is so according to opinion, they very subtly +distinguish betwixt the desires that proceed from her, and those that +proceed from the disorder of our own fancy: those of which we can see the +end are hers; those that fly before us, and of which we can see no end, +are our own: the poverty of goods is easily cured; the poverty of the +soul is irreparable: + + "Nam si, quod satis est homini, id satis esse potesset + Hoc sat erat: nunc, quum hoc non est, qui credimus porro + Divitias ullas animum mi explere potesse?" + + ["For if what is for man enough, could be enough, it were enough; + but since it is not so, how can I believe that any wealth can give + my mind content."--Lucilius aped Nonium Marcellinum, V. sec. 98.] + +Socrates, seeing a great quantity of riches, jewels, and furniture +carried in pomp through his city: "How many things," said he, "I do not +desire!"--[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., V. 32.]--Metrodorus lived on twelve +ounces a day, Epicurus upon less; Metrocles slept in winter abroad +amongst sheep, in summer in the cloisters of churches: + + "Sufficit ad id natura, quod poscit." + + ["Nature suffices for what he requires."--Seneca, Ep., 90.] + +Cleanthes lived by the labour of his own hands, and boasted that +Cleanthes, if he would, could yet maintain another Cleanthes. + +If that which nature exactly and originally requires of us for the +conservation of our being be too little (as in truth what it is, and how +good cheap life may be maintained, cannot be better expressed than by +this consideration, that it is so little that by its littleness it +escapes the gripe and shock of fortune), let us allow ourselves a little +more; let us call every one of our habits and conditions nature; let us +rate and treat ourselves by this measure; let us stretch our +appurtenances and accounts so far; for so far, I fancy, we have some +excuse. Custom is a second nature, and no less powerful. What is +wanting to my custom, I reckon is wanting to me; and I should be almost +as well content that they took away my life as cut me short in the way +wherein I have so long lived. I am no longer in condition for any great +change, nor to put myself into a new and unwonted course, not even to +augmentation. 'Tis past the time for me to become other than what I am; +and as I should complain of any great good hap that should now befall me, +that it came not in time to be enjoyed: + + "Quo mihi fortunas, si non conceditur uti?" + + ["What is the good fortune to me, if it is not granted to me + to use it."--Horace, Ep., i. 5, 12.] + +so should I complain of any inward acquisition. It were almost better +never, than so late, to become an honest man, and well fit to live, when +one has no longer to live. I, who am about to make my exit out of the +world, would easily resign to any newcomer, who should desire it, all the +prudence I am now acquiring in the world's commerce; after meat, mustard. +I have no need of goods of which I can make no use; of what use is +knowledge to him who has lost his head? 'Tis an injury and unkindness in +fortune to tender us presents that will only inspire us with a just +despite that we had them not in their due season. Guide me no more; I +can no longer go. Of so many parts as make up a sufficiency, patience is +the most sufficient. Give the capacity of an excellent treble to the +chorister who has rotten lungs, and eloquence to a hermit exiled into the +deserts of Arabia. There needs no art to help a fall; the end finds +itself of itself at the conclusion of every affair. My world is at an +end, my form expired; I am totally of the past, and am bound to authorise +it, and to conform my outgoing to it. I will here declare, by way of +example, that the Pope's late ten days' diminution + + [Gregory XIII., in 1582, reformed the Calendar, and, in consequence, + in France they all at once passed from the 9th to the 20th + December.] + +has taken me so aback that I cannot well reconcile myself to it; I belong +to the years wherein we kept another kind of account. So ancient and so +long a custom challenges my adherence to it, so that I am constrained to +be somewhat heretical on that point incapable of any, though corrective, +innovation. My imagination, in spite of my teeth, always pushes me ten +days forward or backward, and is ever murmuring in my ears: "This rule +concerns those who are to begin to be." If health itself, sweet as it +is, returns to me by fits, 'tis rather to give me cause of regret than +possession of it; I have no place left to keep it in. Time leaves me; +without which nothing can be possessed. Oh, what little account should I +make of those great elective dignities that I see in such esteem in the +world, that are never conferred but upon men who are taking leave of it; +wherein they do not so much regard how well the man will discharge his +trust, as how short his administration will be: from the very entry they +look at the exit. In short, I am about finishing this man, and not +rebuilding another. By long use, this form is in me turned into +substance, and fortune into nature. + +I say, therefore, that every one of us feeble creatures is excusable in +thinking that to be his own which is comprised under this measure; but +withal, beyond these limits, 'tis nothing but confusion; 'tis the largest +extent we can grant to our own claims. The more we amplify our need and +our possession, so much the more do we expose ourselves to the blows of +Fortune and adversities. The career of our desires ought to be +circumscribed and restrained to a short limit of the nearest and most +contiguous commodities; and their course ought, moreover, to be performed +not in a right line, that ends elsewhere, but in a circle, of which the +two points, by a short wheel, meet and terminate in ourselves. Actions +that are carried on without this reflection--a near and essential +reflection, I mean--such as those of ambitious and avaricious men, and so +many more as run point-blank, and to whose career always carries them +before themselves, such actions, I say; are erroneous and sickly. + +Most of our business is farce: + + "Mundus universus exercet histrioniam." + --[Petronius Arbiter, iii. 8.] + +We must play our part properly, but withal as a part of a borrowed +personage; we must not make real essence of a mask and outward +appearance; nor of a strange person, our own; we cannot distinguish the +skin from the shirt: 'tis enough to meal the face, without mealing the +breast. I see some who transform and transubstantiate themselves into as +many new shapes and new beings as they undertake new employments; and who +strut and fume even to the heart and liver, and carry their state along +with them even to the close-stool: I cannot make them distinguish the +salutations made to themselves from those made to their commission, their +train, or their mule: + + "Tantum se fortunx permittunt, etiam ut naturam dediscant." + + ["They so much give themselves up to fortune, as even to unlearn + nature."--Quintus Curtius, iii. 2.] + +They swell and puff up their souls, and their natural way of speaking, +according to the height of their magisterial place. The Mayor of +Bordeaux and Montaigne have ever been two by very manifest separation. +Because one is an advocate or a financier, he must not ignore the knavery +there is in such callings; an honest man is not accountable for the vice +or absurdity of his employment, and ought not on that account refuse to +take the calling upon him: 'tis the usage of his country, and there is +money to be got by it; a man must live by the world; and make his best of +it, such as it is. But the judgment of an emperor ought to be above his +empire, and see and consider it as a foreign accident; and he ought to +know how to enjoy himself apart from it, and to communicate himself as +James and Peter, to himself, at all events. + +I cannot engage myself so deep and so entire; when my will gives me to +anything, 'tis not with so violent an obligation that my judgment is +infected with it. In the present broils of this kingdom, my own interest +has not made me blind to the laudable qualities of our adversaries, nor +to those that are reproachable in those men of our party. Others adore +all of their own side; for my part, I do not so much as excuse most +things in those of mine: a good work has never the worst grace with me +for being made against me. The knot of the controversy excepted, I have +always kept myself in equanimity and pure indifference: + + "Neque extra necessitates belli praecipuum odium gero;" + + ["Nor bear particular hatred beyond the necessities of war."] + +for which I am pleased with myself; and the more because I see others +commonly fail in the contrary direction. Such as extend their anger and +hatred beyond the dispute in question, as most men do, show that they +spring from some other occasion and private cause; like one who, being +cured of an ulcer, has yet a fever remaining, by which it appears that +the ulcer had another more concealed beginning. The reason is that they +are not concerned in the common cause, because it is wounding to the +state and general interest; but are only nettled by reason of their +particular concern. This is why they are so especially animated, and to +a degree so far beyond justice and public reason: + + "Non tam omnia universi, quam ea, quae ad quemque pertinent, + singuli carpebant." + + ["Every one was not so much angry against things in general, as + against those that particularly concern himself." + --Livy, xxxiv. 36.] + +I would have the advantage on our side; but if it be not, I shall not run +mad. I am heartily for the right party; but I do not want to be taken +notice of as an especial enemy to others, and beyond the general quarrel. +I marvellously challenge this vicious form of opinion: "He is of the +League because he admires the graciousness of Monsieur de Guise; he is +astonished at the King of Navarre's energy, therefore he is a Huguenot; +he finds this to say of the manners of the king, he is therefore +seditious in his heart." And I did not grant to the magistrate himself +that he did well in condemning a book because it had placed a heretic-- +[Theodore de Beza.]--amongst the best poets of the time. Shall we not +dare to say of a thief that he has a handsome leg? If a woman be a +strumpet, must it needs follow that she has a foul smell? Did they in +the wisest ages revoke the proud title of Capitolinus they had before +conferred on Marcus Manlius as conservator of religion and the public +liberty, and stifle the memory of his liberality, his feats of arms, and +military recompenses granted to his valour, because he, afterwards +aspired to the sovereignty, to the prejudice of the laws of his country? +If we take a hatred against an advocate, he will not be allowed the next +day to be eloquent. I have elsewhere spoken of the zeal that pushed on +worthy men to the like faults. For my part, I can say, "Such an one does +this thing ill, and another thing virtuously and well." So in the +prognostication or sinister events of affairs they would have every one +in his party blind or a blockhead, and that our persuasion and judgment +should subserve not truth, but to the project of our desires. I should +rather incline towards the other extreme; so much I fear being suborned +by my desire; to which may be added that I am a little tenderly +distrustful of things that I wish. + +I have in my time seen wonders in the indiscreet and prodigious facility +of people in suffering their hopes and belief to be led and governed, +which way best pleased and served their leaders, despite a hundred +mistakes one upon another, despite mere dreams and phantasms. I no more +wonder at those who have been blinded and seduced by the fooleries of +Apollonius and Mahomet. Their sense and understanding are absolutely +taken away by their passion; their discretion has no more any other +choice than that which smiles upon them and encourages their cause. +I had principally observed this in the beginning of our intestine +distempers; that other, which has sprung up since, in imitating, has +surpassed it; by which I am satisfied that it is a quality inseparable +from popular errors; after the first, that rolls, opinions drive on one +another like waves with the wind: a man is not a member of the body, if +it be in his power to forsake it, and if he do not roll the common way. +But, doubtless, they wrong the just side when they go about to assist it +with fraud; I have ever been against that practice: 'tis only fit to work +upon weak heads; for the sound, there are surer and more honest ways to +keep up their courage and to excuse adverse accidents. + +Heaven never saw a greater animosity than that betwixt Caesar and Pompey, +nor ever shall; and yet I observe, methinks, in those brave souls, +a great moderation towards one another: it was a jealousy of honour and +command, which did not transport them to a furious and indiscreet hatred, +and was without malignity and detraction: in their hottest exploits upon +one another, I discover some remains of respect and good-will: and am +therefore of opinion that, had, it been possible, each of them would +rather have done his business without the ruin of the other than with it. +Take notice how much otherwise matters went with Marius and Sylla. + +We must not precipitate ourselves so headlong after our affections and +interests. As, when I was young, I opposed myself to the progress of +love which I perceived to advance too fast upon me, and had a care lest +it should at last become so pleasing as to force, captivate, and wholly +reduce me to its mercy: so I do the same upon all other occasions where +my will is running on with too warm an appetite. I lean opposite to the +side it inclines to; as I find it going to plunge and make itself drunk +with its own wine; I evade nourishing its pleasure so far, that I cannot +recover it without infinite loss. Souls that, through their own +stupidity, only discern things by halves, have this happiness, that they +smart less with hurtful things: 'tis a spiritual leprosy that has some +show of health, and such a health as philosophy does not altogether +contemn; but yet we have no reason to call it wisdom, as we often do. +And after this manner some one anciently mocked Diogeries, who, in the +depth of winter and quite naked, went embracing an image of snow for a +trial of his endurance: the other seeing him in this position, "Art thou +now very cold?" said he. "Not at all," replied Diogenes. "Why, then," +pursued the other, "what difficult and exemplary thing dost thou think +thou doest in embracing that snow?" To take a true measure of constancy, +one must necessarily know what the suffering is. + +But souls that are to meet with adverse events and the injuries of +fortune, in their depth and sharpness, that are to weigh and taste them +according to their natural weight and bitterness, let such show their +skill in avoiding the causes and diverting the blow. What did King Cotys +do? He paid liberally for the rich and beautiful vessel that had been +presented to him, but, seeing it was exceedingly brittle, he immediately +broke it betimes, to prevent so easy a matter of displeasure against his +servants. In like manner, I have willingly avoided all confusion in my +affairs, and never coveted to have my estate contiguous to those of my +relations, and such with whom I coveted a strict friendship; for thence +matter of unkindness and falling out often proceeds. I formerly loved +hazardous games of cards and dice; but have long since left them off, +only for this reason that, with whatever good air I carried my losses, +I could not help feeling vexed within. A man of honour, who ought to be +touchily sensible of the lie or of an insult, and who is not to take a +scurvy excuse for satisfaction, should avoid occasions of dispute. +I shun melancholy, crabbed men, as I would the plague; and in matters I +cannot talk of without emotion and concern I never meddle, if not +compelled by my duty: + + "Melius non incipient, quam desinent." + + ["They had better never to begin than to have to desist." + --Seneca, Ep., 72.] + +The surest way, therefore, is to prepare one's self beforehand for +occasions. + +I know very well that some wise men have taken another way, and have not +feared to grapple and engage to the utmost upon several subjects these +are confident of their own strength, under which they protect themselves +in all ill successes, making their patience wrestle and contend with +disaster: + + "Velut rupes, vastum quae prodit in aequor, + Obvia ventorum furiis, expostaque ponto, + Vim cunctam atque minas perfert coelique marisque; + Ipsa immota manens." + + ["As a rock, which projects into the vast ocean, exposed to the + furious winds and the raging sea, defies the force and menaces of + sky and sea, itself unshaken."--Virgil, AEneid, x. 693.] + +Let us not attempt these examples; we shall never come up to them. They +set themselves resolutely, and without agitation, to behold the ruin of +their country, which possessed and commanded all their will: this is too +much, and too hard a task for our commoner souls. Cato gave up the +noblest life that ever was upon this account; we meaner spirits must fly +from the storm as far as we can; we must provide for sentiment, and not +for patience, and evade the blows we cannot meet. Zeno, seeing +Chremonides, a young man whom he loved, draw near to sit down by him, +suddenly started up; and Cleanthes demanding of him the reason why he did +so, "I hear," said he, "that physicians especially order repose, and +forbid emotion in all tumours." Socrates does not say: "Do not surrender +to the charms of beauty; stand your ground, and do your utmost to oppose +it." "Fly it," says he; "shun the fight and encounter of it, as of a +powerful poison that darts and wounds at a distance." And his good +disciple, feigning or reciting, but, in my opinion, rather reciting than +feigning, the rare perfections of the great Cyrus, makes him distrustful +of his own strength to resist the charms of the divine beauty of that +illustrous Panthea, his captive, and committing the visiting and keeping +her to another, who could not have so much liberty as himself. And the +Holy Ghost in like manner: + + "Ne nos inducas in tentationem." + + ["Lead us not into temptation."--St. Matthew, vi. 13.] + +We do not pray that our reason may not be combated and overcome by +concupiscence, but that it should not be so much as tried by it; that we +should not be brought into a state wherein we are so much as to suffer +the approaches, solicitations, and temptations of sin: and we beg of +Almighty God to keep our consciences quiet, fully and perfectly delivered +from all commerce of evil. + +Such as say that they have reason for their revenging passion, or any +other sort of troublesome agitation of mind, often say true, as things +now are, but not as they were: they speak to us when the causes of their +error are by themselves nourished and advanced; but look backward--recall +these causes to their beginning--and there you will put them to a +nonplus. Will they have their faults less, for being of longer +continuance; and that of an unjust beginning, the sequel can be just? +Whoever shall desire the good of his country, as I do, without fretting +or pining himself, will be troubled, but will not swoon to see it +threatening either its own ruin, or a no less ruinous continuance; poor +vessel, that the waves, the winds, and the pilot toss and steer to so +contrary designs! + + "In tam diversa magister + Ventus et unda trahunt." + +He who does not gape after the favour of princes, as after a thing he +cannot live without, does not much concern himself at the coldness of +their reception and countenance, nor at the inconstancy of their wills. +He who does not brood over his children or his honours with a slavish +propension, ceases not to live commodiously enough after their loss. He +who does good principally for his own satisfaction will not be much +troubled to see men judge of his actions contrary to his merit. A +quarter of an ounce of patience will provide sufficiently against such +inconveniences. I find ease in this receipt, redeeming myself in the +beginning as good cheap as I can; and find that by this means I have +escaped much trouble and many difficulties. With very little ado I stop +the first sally of my emotions, and leave the subject that begins to be +troublesome before it transports me. He who stops not the start will +never be able to stop the course; he who cannot keep them out will never, +get them out when they are once got in; and he who cannot arrive at the +beginning will never arrive at the end of all. Nor will he bear the fall +who cannot sustain the shock: + + "Etenim ipsae se impellunt, ubi semel a ratione discessum est; + ipsaque sibi imbecillitas indulget, in altumque provehitur + imprudens, nec reperit locum consistendi." + + ["For they throw themselves headlong when once they lose their + reason; and infirmity so far indulges itself, and from want of + prudence is carried out into deep water, nor finds a place to + shelter it."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iv. 18.] + +I am betimes sensible of the little breezes that begin to sing and +whistle within, forerunners of the storm: + + "Ceu flamina prima + Cum deprensa fremunt sylvis et caeca volutant + Murmura, venturos nautis prodentia ventos." + + ["As the breezes, pent in the woods, first send out dull murmurs, + announcing the approach of winds to mariners."--AEneid, x. 97.] + +How often have I done myself a manifest injustice to avoid the hazard of +having yet a worse done me by the judges, after an age of vexations, +dirty and vile practices, more enemies to my nature than fire or the +rack? + + "Convenit a litibus, quantum licet, et nescio an paulo plus etiam + quam licet, abhorrentem esse: est enim non modo liberale, paululum + nonnunquam de suo jure decedere, sed interdum etiam fructuosum." + + ["A man should abhor lawsuits as much as he may, and I know not + whether not something more; for 'tis not only liberal, but sometimes + also advantageous, too, a little to recede from one's right. + --"Cicero, De Offic., ii. 18.] + +Were we wise, we ought to rejoice and boast, as I one day heard a young +gentleman of a good family very innocently do, that his mother had lost +her cause, as if it had been a cough, a fever, or something very +troublesome to keep. Even the favours that fortune might have given me +through relationship or acquaintance with those who have sovereign +authority in those affairs, I have very conscientiously and very +carefully avoided employing them to the prejudice of others, and of +advancing my pretensions above their true right. In fine, I have so much +prevailed by my endeavours (and happily I may say it) that I am to this +day a virgin from all suits in law; though I have had very fair offers +made me, and with very just title, would I have hearkened to them, and a +virgin from quarrels too. I have almost passed over a long life without +any offence of moment, either active or passive, or without ever hearing +a worse word than my own name: a rare favour of Heaven. + +Our greatest agitations have ridiculous springs and causes: what ruin did +our last Duke of Burgundy run into about a cartload of sheepskins! +And was not the graving of a seal the first and principal cause of the +greatest commotion that this machine of the world ever underwent? +--[The civil war between Marius and Sylla; see Plutarch's Life of Marius, +c. 3.]--for Pompey and Caesar were but the offsets and continuation of +the two others: and I have in my time seen the wisest heads in this +kingdom assembled with great ceremony, and at the public expense, about +treaties and agreements, of which the true decision, in the meantime, +absolutely depended upon the ladies' cabinet council, and the inclination +of some bit of a woman. + +The poets very well understood this when they put all Greece and Asia to +fire and sword about an apple. Look why that man hazards his life and +honour upon the fortune of his rapier and dagger; let him acquaint you +with the occasion of the quarrel; he cannot do it without blushing: the +occasion is so idle and frivolous. + +A little thing will engage you in it; but being once embarked, all the +cords draw; great provisions are then required, more hard and more +important. How much easier is it not to enter in than it is to get out? +Now we should proceed contrary to the reed, which, at its first +springing, produces a long and straight shoot, but afterwards, as if +tired and out of breath, it runs into thick and frequent joints and +knots, as so many pauses which demonstrate that it has no more its first +vigour and firmness; 'twere better to begin gently and coldly, and to +keep one's breath and vigorous efforts for the height and stress of the +business. We guide affairs in their beginnings, and have them in our own +power; but afterwards, when they are once at work, 'tis they that guide +and govern us, and we are to follow them. + +Yet do I not mean to say that this counsel has discharged me of all +difficulty, and that I have not often had enough to do to curb and +restrain my passions; they are not always to be governed according to the +measure of occasions, and often have their entries very sharp and +violent. But still good fruit and profit may thence be reaped; except +for those who in well-doing are not satisfied with any benefit, if +reputation be wanting; for, in truth, such an effect is not valued but by +every one to himself; you are better contented, but not more esteemed, +seeing you reformed yourself before you got into the whirl of the dance, +or that the provocative matter was in sight. Yet not in this only, but +in all other duties of life also, the way of those who aim at honour is +very different from that they proceed by, who propose to themselves order +and reason. I find some who rashly and furiously rush into the lists and +cool in the course. As Plutarch says, that those who, through false +shame, are soft and facile to grant whatever is desired of them, are +afterwards as facile to break their word and to recant; so he who enters +lightly into a quarrel is apt to go as lightly out of it. The same +difficulty that keeps me from entering into it, would, when once hot and +engaged in quarrel, incite me to maintain it with great obstinacy and +resolution. 'Tis the tyranny of custom; when a man is once engaged; he +must go through with it, or die. "Undertake coolly," said Bias, +"but pursue with ardour." For want of prudence, men fall into want of +courage, which is still more intolerable. + +Most accommodations of the quarrels of these days of ours are shameful +and false; we only seek to save appearances, and in the meantime betray +and disavow our true intentions; we salve over the fact. We know very +well how we said the thing, and in what sense we spoke it, and the +company know it, and our friends whom we have wished to make sensible of +our advantage, understand it well enough too: 'tis at the expense of our +frankness and of the honour of our courage, that we disown our thoughts, +and seek refuge in falsities, to make matters up. We give ourselves the +lie, to excuse the lie we have given to another. You are not to consider +if your word or action may admit of another interpretation; 'tis your own +true and sincere interpretation, your real meaning in what you said or +did, that you are thenceforward to maintain, whatever it cost you. Men +speak to your virtue and conscience, which are not things to be put under +a mask; let us leave these pitiful ways and expedients to the jugglers of +the law. The excuses and reparations that I see every day made and given +to repair indiscretion, seem to me more scandalous than the indiscretion +itself. It were better to affront your adversary a second time than to +offend yourself by giving him so unmanly a satisfaction. You have braved +him in your heat and anger, and you would flatter and appease him in your +cooler and better sense; and by that means lay yourself lower and at his +feet, whom before you pretended to overtop. I do not find anything a +gentleman can say so vicious in him as unsaying what he has said is +infamous, when to unsay it is authoritatively extracted from him; +forasmuch as obstinacy is more excusable in a man of honour than +pusillanimity. Passions are as easy for me to evade, as they are hard +for me to moderate: + + "Exscinduntur facilius ammo, quam temperantur." + + ["They are more easily to be eradicated than governed."] + +He who cannot attain the noble Stoical impassibility, let him secure +himself in the bosom of this popular stolidity of mine; what they +performed by virtue, I inure myself to do by temperament. The middle +region harbours storms and tempests; the two extremes, of philosophers +and peasants, concur in tranquillity and happiness: + + "Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, + Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum + Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari! + Fortunatus et ille, Deos qui novit agrestes, + Panaque, Sylvanumque senem, Nymphasque sorores!" + + ["Happy is he who could discover the causes of things, and place + under his feet all fears and inexorable fate, and the sound of + rapacious Acheron: he is blest who knows the country gods, and Pan, + and old Sylvanus, and the sister nymphs."--Virgil, Georg., ii. 490.] + +The births of all things are weak and tender; and therefore we should +have our eyes intent on beginnings; for as when, in its infancy, the +danger is not perceived, so when it is grown up, the remedy is as little +to be found. I had every day encountered a million of crosses, harder to +digest in the progress of ambition, than it has been hard for me to curb +the natural propension that inclined me to it: + + "Jure perhorrui + Lath conspicuum tollere verticem." + + ["I ever justly feared to raise my head too high." + --Horace, Od.,iii. 16, 18.] + +All public actions are subject to uncertain and various interpretations; +for too many heads judge of them. Some say of this civic employment of +mine (and I am willing to say a word or two about it, not that it is +worth so much, but to give an account of my manners in such things), that +I have behaved myself in it as a man who is too supine and of a languid +temperament; and they have some colour for what they say. I endeavoured +to keep my mind and my thoughts in repose; + + "Cum semper natura, tum etiam aetate jam quietus;" + + ["As being always quiet by nature, so also now by age." + --Cicero, De Petit. Consul., c. 2.] + +and if they sometimes lash out upon some rude and sensible impression, +'tis in truth without my advice. Yet from this natural heaviness of +mine, men ought not to conclude a total inability in me (for want of care +and want of sense are two very different things), and much less any +unkindness or ingratitude towards that corporation who employed the +utmost means they had in their power to oblige me, both before they knew +me and after; and they did much more for me in choosing me anew than in +conferring that honour upon me at first. I wish them all imaginable +good; and assuredly had occasion been, there is nothing I would have +spared for their service; I did for them as I would have done for myself. +'Tis a good, warlike, and generous people, but capable of obedience and +discipline, and of whom the best use may be made, if well guided. They +say also that my administration passed over without leaving any mark or +trace. Good! They moreover accuse my cessation in a time when everybody +almost was convicted of doing too much. I am impatient to be doing where +my will spurs me on; but this itself is an enemy to perseverance. Let +him who will make use of me according to my own way, employ me in affairs +where vigour and liberty are required, where a direct, short, and, +moreover, a hazardous conduct are necessary; I may do something; but if +it must be long, subtle, laborious, artificial and intricate, he had +better call in somebody else. All important offices are not necessarily +difficult: I came prepared to do somewhat rougher work, had there been +great occasion; for it is in my power to do something more than I do, or +than I love to do. I did not, to my knowledge, omit anything that my +duty really required. I easily forgot those offices that ambition mixes +with duty and palliates with its title; these are they that, for the most +part, fill the eyes and ears, and give men the most satisfaction; not the +thing but the appearance contents them; if they hear no noise, they think +men sleep. My humour is no friend to tumult; I could appease a commotion +without commotion, and chastise a disorder without being myself +disorderly; if I stand in need of anger and inflammation, I borrow it, +and put it on. My manners are languid, rather faint than sharp. I do +not condemn a magistrate who sleeps, provided the people under his charge +sleep as well as he: the laws in that case sleep too. For my part, I +commend a gliding, staid, and silent life: + + "Neque submissam et abjectam, neque se efferentem;" + + ["Neither subject and abject, nor obtrusive." + --Cicero, De Offic., i. 34] + +my fortune will have it so. I am descended from a family that has lived +without lustre or tumult, and, time out of mind, particularly ambitious +of a character for probity. + +Our people nowadays are so bred up to bustle and ostentation, that good +nature, moderation, equability, constancy, and such like quiet and +obscure qualities, are no more thought on or regarded. Rough bodies make +themselves felt; the smooth are imperceptibly handled: sickness is felt, +health little or not at all; no more than the oils that foment us, in +comparison of the pains for which we are fomented. 'Tis acting for one's +particular reputation and profit, not for the public good, to refer that +to be done in the public squares which one may do in the council chamber; +and to noon day what might have been done the night before; and to be +jealous to do that himself which his colleague can do as well as he; so +were some surgeons of Greece wont to perform their operations upon +scaffolds in the sight of the people, to draw more practice and profit. +They think that good rules cannot be understood but by the sound of +trumpet. Ambition is not a vice of little people, nor of such modest +means as ours. One said to Alexander: "Your father will leave you a +great dominion, easy and pacific"; this youth was emulous of his father's +victories and of the justice of his government; he would not have enjoyed +the empire of the world in ease and peace. Alcibiades, in Plato, had +rather die young, beautiful, rich, noble, and learned, and all this in +full excellence, than to stop short of such condition; this disease is, +peradventure, excusable in so strong and so full a soul. When wretched +and dwarfish little souls cajole and deceive themselves, and think to +spread their fame for having given right judgment in an affair, or +maintained the discipline of the guard of a gate of their city, the more +they think to exalt their heads the more they show their tails. This +little well-doing has neither body nor life; it vanishes in the first +mouth, and goes no further than from one street to another. Talk of it +by all means to your son or your servant, like that old fellow who, +having no other auditor of his praises nor approver of his valour, +boasted to his chambermaid, crying, "O Perrete, what a brave, clever man +hast thou for thy master! "At the worst, talk of it to yourself, like a +councillor of my acquaintance, who, having disgorged a whole cartful of +law jargon with great heat and as great folly, coming out of the council +chamber to make water, was heard very complacently to mutter betwixt his +teeth: + + "Non nobis, domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam." + + ["Not unto us, O Lord, not to us: but unto Thy name be the glory." + --Psalm cxiii. I.] + +He who gets it of nobody else, let him pay himself out of his own purse. + +Fame is not prostituted at so cheap a rate: rare and exemplary actions, +to which it is due, would not endure the company of this prodigious crowd +of petty daily performances. Marble may exalt your titles, as much as +you please, for having repaired a rod of wall or cleansed a public sewer; +but not men of sense. Renown does not follow all good deeds, if novelty +and difficulty be not conjoined; nay, so much as mere esteem, according +to the Stoics, is not due to every action that proceeds from virtue; nor +will they allow him bare thanks who, out of temperance, abstains from an +old blear-eyed crone. Those who have known the admirable qualities of +Scipio Africanus, deny him the glory that Panaetius attributes to him, of +being abstinent from gifts, as a glory not so much his as that of his +age. We have pleasures suitable to our lot; let us not usurp those of +grandeur: our own are more natural, and by so much more solid and sure, +as they are lower. If not for that of conscience, yet at least for +ambition's sake, let us reject ambition; let us disdain that thirst of +honour and renown, so low and mendicant, that it makes us beg it of all +sorts of people: + + "Quae est ista laus quae: possit e macello peti?" + + ["What praise is that which is to be got in the market-place (meat + market)?" Cicero, De Fin., ii. 15.] + +by abject means, and at what cheap rate soever: 'tis dishonour to be so +honoured. Let us learn to be no more greedy, than we are capable, of +glory. To be puffed up with every action that is innocent or of use, is +only for those with whom such things are extraordinary and rare: they +will value it as it costs them. The more a good effect makes a noise, +the more do I abate of its goodness as I suspect that it was more +performed for the noise, than upon account of the goodness: exposed upon +the stall, 'tis half sold. Those actions have much more grace and +lustre, that slip from the hand of him that does them, negligently and +without noise, and that some honest man thereafter finds out and raises +from the shade, to produce it to the light upon its own account, + + "Mihi quidem laudabiliora videntur omnia, quae sine + venditatione, et sine populo teste fiunt," + + ["All things truly seem more laudable to me that are performed + without ostentation, and without the testimony of the people." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 26.] + +says the most ostentatious man that ever lived. + +I had but to conserve and to continue, which are silent and insensible +effects: innovation is of great lustre; but 'tis interdicted in this age, +when we are pressed upon and have nothing to defend ourselves from but +novelties. To forbear doing is often as generous as to do; but 'tis less +in the light, and the little good I have in me is of this kind. In fine, +occasions in this employment of mine have been confederate with my +humour, and I heartily thank them for it. Is there any who desires to be +sick, that he may see his physician at work? and would not the physician +deserve to be whipped who should wish the plague amongst us, that he +might put his art in practice? I have never been of that wicked humour, +and common enough, to desire that troubles and disorders in this city +should elevate and honour my government; I have ever heartily contributed +all I could to their tranquillity and ease. + +He who will not thank me for the order, the sweet and silent calm that +has accompanied my administration, cannot, however, deprive me of the +share that belongs to me by title of my good fortune. And I am of such a +composition, that I would as willingly be lucky as wise, and had rather +owe my successes purely to the favour of Almighty God, than to any +operation of my own. I had sufficiently published to the world my +unfitness for such public offices; but I have something in me yet worse +than incapacity itself; which is, that I am not much displeased at it, +and that I do not much go about to cure it, considering the course of +life that I have proposed to myself. + +Neither have I satisfied myself in this employment; but I have very near +arrived at what I expected from my own performance, and have much +surpassed what I promised them with whom I had to do: for I am apt to +promise something less than what I am able to do, and than what I hope to +make good. I assure myself that I have left no offence or hatred behind +me; to leave regret or desire for me amongst them, I at least know very +well that I never much aimed at it: + + "Mene huic confidere monstro! + Mene salis placidi vultum, fluctusque quietos + Ignorare?" + + ["Should I place confidence in this monster? Should I be ignorant + of the dangers of that seeming placid sea, those now quiet waves?" + --Virgil, Aeneid, V. 849.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OF CRIPPLES + +'Tis now two or three years ago that they made the year ten days shorter +in France.--[By the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.]--How many +changes may we expect should follow this reformation! it was really +moving heaven and earth at once. Yet nothing for all that stirs from its +place my neighbours still find their seasons of sowing and reaping, the +opportunities of doing their business, the hurtful and propitious days, +dust at the same time where they had, time out of mind, assigned them; +there was no more error perceived in our old use, than there is amendment +found in the alteration; so great an uncertainty there is throughout; so +gross, obscure, and obtuse is our perception. 'Tis said that this +regulation might have been carried on with less inconvenience, by +subtracting for some years, according to the example of Augustus, the +Bissextile, which is in some sort a day of impediment and trouble, till +we had exactly satisfied this debt, the which itself is not done by this +correction, and we yet remain some days in arrear: and yet, by this +means, such order might be taken for the future, arranging that after the +revolution of such or such a number of years, the supernumerary day might +be always thrown out, so that we could not, henceforward, err above four- +and-twenty hours in our computation. We have no other account of time +but years; the world has for many ages made use of that only; and yet it +is a measure that to this day we are not agreed upon, and one that we +still doubt what form other nations have variously given to it, and what +was the true use of it. What does this saying of some mean, that the +heavens in growing old bow themselves down nearer towards us, and put us +into an uncertainty even of hours and days? and that which Plutarch says +of the months, that astrology had not in his time determined as to the +motion of the moon; what a fine condition are we in to keep records of +things past. + +I was just now ruminating, as I often do, what a free and roving thing +human reason is. I ordinarily see that men, in things propounded to +them, more willingly study to find out reasons than to ascertain truth: +they slip over presuppositions, but are curious in examination of +consequences; they leave the things, and fly to the causes. Pleasant +talkers! The knowledge of causes only concerns him who has the conduct +of things; not us, who are merely to undergo them, and who have perfectly +full and accomplished use of them, according to our need, without +penetrating into the original and essence; wine is none the more pleasant +to him who knows its first faculties. On the contrary, both the body and +the soul interrupt and weaken the right they have of the use of the world +and of themselves, by mixing with it the opinion of learning; effects +concern us, but the means not at all. To determine and to distribute +appertain to superiority and command; as it does to subjection to accept. +Let me reprehend our custom. They commonly begin thus: "How is such a +thing done?" Whereas they should say, "Is such a thing done?" Our +reason is able to create a hundred other worlds, and to find out the +beginnings and contexture; it needs neither matter nor foundation: let it +but run on, it builds as well in the air as on the earth, and with +inanity as well as with matter: + + "Dare pondus idonea fumo." + + ["Able to give weight to smoke."--Persius, v. 20.] + +I find that almost throughout we should say, "there is no such thing," +and should myself often make use of this answer, but I dare not: for they +cry that it is an evasion produced from ignorance and weakness of +understanding; and I am fain, for the most part, to juggle for company, +and prate of frivolous subjects and tales that I believe not a word of; +besides that, in truth, 'tis a little rude and quarrelsome flatly to deny +a stated fact; and few people but will affirm, especially in things hard +to be believed, that they have seen them, or at least will name witnesses +whose authority will stop our mouths from contradiction. In this way, we +know the foundations and means of things that never were; and the world +scuffles about a thousand questions, of which both the Pro and the Con +are false. + + "Ita finitima sunt falsa veris, ut in praecipitem + locum non debeat se sapiens committere." + + ["False things are so near the true, that a wise man should not + trust himself in a precipitous place"--Cicero, Acad., ii. 21.] + +Truth and lies are faced alike; their port, taste, and proceedings are +the same, and we look upon them with the same eye. I find that we are +not only remiss in defending ourselves from deceit, but that we seek and +offer ourselves to be gulled; we love to entangle ourselves in vanity, as +a thing conformable to our being. + +I have seen the birth of many miracles in my time; which, although they +were abortive, yet have we not failed to foresee what they would have +come to, had they lived their full age. 'Tis but finding the end of the +clew, and a man may wind off as much as he will; and there is a greater +distance betwixt nothing and the least thing in the world than there is +betwixt this and the greatest. Now the first that are imbued with this +beginning of novelty, when they set out with their tale, find, by the +oppositions they meet with, where the difficulty of persuasion lies, and +so caulk up that place with some false piece; + + [Voltaire says of this passage, "He who would learn to doubt should + read this whole chapter of Montaigne, the least methodical of all + philosophers, but the wisest and most amiable." + --Melanges Historiques, xvii. 694, ed. of Lefevre.] + +besides that: + + "Insita hominibus libido alendi de industria rumores," + + ["Men having a natural desire to nourish reports." + --Livy, xxviii. 24.] + +we naturally make a conscience of restoring what has been lent us, +without some usury and accession of our own. The particular error first +makes the public error, and afterwards, in turn, the public error makes +the particular one; and thus all this vast fabric goes forming and piling +itself up from hand to hand, so that the remotest witness knows more +about it than those who were nearest, and the last informed is better +persuaded than the first. + +'Tis a natural progress; for whoever believes anything, thinks it a work +of charity to persuade another into the same opinion; which the better to +do, he will make no difficulty of adding as much of his own invention as +he conceives necessary to his tale to encounter the resistance or want of +conception he meets with in others. I myself, who make a great +conscience of lying, and am not very solicitous of giving credit and +authority to what I say, yet find that in the arguments I have in hand, +being heated with the opposition of another, or by the proper warmth of +my own narration, I swell and puff up my subject by voice, motion, +vigour, and force of words, and moreover, by extension and amplification, +not without some prejudice to the naked truth; but I do it conditionally +withal, that to the first who brings me to myself, and who asks me the +plain and bare truth, I presently surrender my passion, and deliver the +matter to him without exaggeration, without emphasis, or any painting of +my own. A quick and earnest way of speaking, as mine is, is apt to run +into hyperbole. There is nothing to which men commonly are more inclined +than to make way for their own opinions; where the ordinary means fail +us, we add command, force, fire, and sword. 'Tis a misfortune to be at +such a pass, that the best test of truth is the multitude of believers in +a crowd, where the number of fools so much exceeds the wise: + + "Quasi vero quidquam sit tam valde, quam nil sapere, vulgare." + + ["As if anything were so common as ignorance." + --Cicero, De Divin., ii.] + + "Sanitatis patrocinium est, insanientium turba." + + ["The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise." + --St. Augustine, De Civit. Dei, vi. 10.] + +'Tis hard to resolve a man's judgment against the common opinions: the +first persuasion, taken from the very subject itself, possesses the +simple, and from them diffuses itself to the wise, under the authority of +the number and antiquity of the witnesses. For my part, what I should +not believe from one, I should not believe from a hundred and one: and I +do not judge opinions by years. + +'Tis not long since one of our princes, in whom the gout had spoiled an +excellent nature and sprightly disposition, suffered himself to be so far +persuaded with the report made to him of the marvellous operations of a +certain priest who by words and gestures cured all sorts of diseases, +as to go a long journey to seek him out, and by the force of his mere +imagination, for some hours so persuaded and laid his legs asleep, as to +obtain that service from them they had long time forgotten. Had fortune +heaped up five or six such-like incidents, it had been enough to have +brought this miracle into nature. There was afterwards discovered so +much simplicity and so little art in the author of these performances, +that he was thought too contemptible to be punished, as would be thought +of most such things, were they well examined: + + "Miramur ex intervallo fallentia." + + ["We admire after an interval (or at a distance) things that + deceive."--Seneca, Ep., 118, 2.] + +So does our sight often represent to us strange images at a distance that +vanish on approaching near: + + "Nunquam ad liquidum fama perducitur." + + ["Report is never fully substantiated." + --Quintus Curtius, ix. 2.] + +'Tis wonderful from how many idle beginnings and frivolous causes such +famous impressions commonly, proceed. This it is that obstructs +information; for whilst we seek out causes and solid and weighty ends, +worthy of so great a name, we lose the true ones; they escape our sight +by their littleness. And, in truth, a very prudent, diligent, and subtle +inquisition is required in such searches, indifferent, and not +prepossessed. To this very hour, all these miracles and strange events +have concealed themselves from me: I have never seen greater monster or +miracle in the world than myself: one grows familiar with all strange +things by time and custom, but the more I frequent and the better I know +myself, the more does my own deformity astonish me, the less I understand +myself. + +The principal right of advancing and producing such accidents is reserved +to fortune. Passing the day before yesterday through a village two +leagues from my house, I found the place yet warm with a miracle that had +lately failed of success there, where with first the neighbourhood had +been several months amused; then the neighbouring provinces began to take +it up, and to run thither in great companies of all sorts of people. +A young fellow of the place had one night in sport counterfeited the +voice of a spirit in his own house, without any other design at present, +but only for sport; but this having succeeded with him better than he +expected, to extend his farce with more actors he associated with him a +stupid silly country girl, and at last there were three of them of the +same age and understanding, who from domestic, proceeded to public, +preachings, hiding themselves under the altar of the church, never +speaking but by night, and forbidding any light to be brought. From +words which tended to the conversion of the world, and threats of the day +of judgment (for these are subjects under the authority and reverence of +which imposture most securely lurks), they proceeded to visions and +gesticulations so simple and ridiculous that--nothing could hardly be so +gross in the sports of little children. Yet had fortune never so little +favoured the design, who knows to what height this juggling might have at +last arrived? These poor devils are at present in prison, and are like +shortly to pay for the common folly; and I know not whether some judge +will not also make them smart for his. We see clearly into this, which +is discovered; but in many things of the like nature that exceed our +knowledge, I am of opinion that we ought to suspend our judgment, whether +as to rejection or as to reception. + +Great abuses in the world are begotten, or, to speak more boldly, all the +abuses of the world are begotten, by our being taught to be afraid of +professing our ignorance, and that we are bound to accept all things we +are not able to refute: we speak of all things by precepts and decisions. +The style at Rome was that even that which a witness deposed to having +seen with his own eyes, and what a judge determined with his most certain +knowledge, was couched in this form of speaking: "it seems to me." They +make me hate things that are likely, when they would impose them upon me +as infallible. I love these words which mollify and moderate the +temerity of our propositions: "peradventure; in some sort; some; 'tis +said, I think," and the like: and had I been set to train up children I +had put this way of answering into their mouths, inquiring and not +resolving: "What does this mean? I understand it not; it may be: is it +true?" so that they should rather have retained the form of pupils at +threescore years old than to go out doctors, as they do, at ten. Whoever +will be cured of ignorance must confess it. + +Iris is the daughter of Thaumas; + + ["That is, of Admiration. She (Iris, the rainbow) is beautiful, and + for that reason, because she has a face to be admired, she is said + to have been the daughter of Thamus." + --Cicero, De Nat. Deor., iii. 20.] + +admiration is the foundation of all philosophy, inquisition the progress, +ignorance the end. But there is a sort of ignorance, strong and +generous, that yields nothing in honour and courage to knowledge; an +ignorance which to conceive requires no less knowledge than to conceive +knowledge itself. I read in my younger years a trial that Corras, + + [A celebrated Calvinist lawyer, born at Toulouse; 1513, and + assassinated there, 4th October 1572.] + +a councillor of Toulouse, printed, of a strange incident, of two men who +presented themselves the one for the other. I remember (and I hardly +remember anything else) that he seemed to have rendered the imposture of +him whom he judged to be guilty, so wonderful and so far exceeding both +our knowledge and his own, who was the judge, that I thought it a very +bold sentence that condemned him to be hanged. Let us have some form of +decree that says, "The court understands nothing of the matter" more +freely and ingenuously than the Areopagites did, who, finding themselves +perplexed with a cause they could not unravel, ordered the parties to +appear again after a hundred years. + +The witches of my neighbourhood run the hazard of their lives upon the +report of every new author who seeks to give body to their dreams. To +accommodate the examples that Holy Writ gives us of such things, most +certain and irrefragable examples, and to tie them to our modern events, +seeing that we neither see the causes nor the means, will require another +sort-of wit than ours. It, peradventure, only appertains to that sole +all-potent testimony to tell us. "This is, and that is, and not that +other." God ought to be believed; and certainly with very good reason; +but not one amongst us for all that who is astonished at his own +narration (and he must of necessity be astonished if he be not out of his +wits), whether he employ it about other men's affairs or against himself. + +I am plain and heavy, and stick to the solid and the probable, avoiding +those ancient reproaches: + + "Majorem fidem homines adhibent iis, quae non intelligunt; + --Cupidine humani ingenii libentius obscura creduntur." + + ["Men are most apt to believe what they least understand: and from + the acquisitiveness of the human intellect, obscure things are more + easily credited." The second sentence is from Tacitus, Hist. 1. 22.] + +I see very well that men get angry, and that I am forbidden to doubt upon +pain of execrable injuries; a new way of persuading! Thank God, I am not +to be cuffed into belief. Let them be angry with those who accuse their +opinion of falsity; I only accuse it of difficulty and boldness, and +condemn the opposite affirmation equally, if not so imperiously, with +them. He who will establish this proposition by authority and huffing +discovers his reason to be very weak. For a verbal and scholastic +altercation let them have as much appearance as their contradictors; + + "Videantur sane, non affirmentur modo;" + + ["They may indeed appear to be; let them not be affirmed (Let them + state the probabilities, but not affirm.)" + --Cicero, Acad., n. 27.] + +but in the real consequence they draw from it these have much the +advantage. To kill men, a clear and strong light is required, and our +life is too real and essential to warrant these supernatural and +fantastic accidents. + +As to drugs and poisons, I throw them out of my count, as being the worst +sort of homicides: yet even in this, 'tis said, that men are not always +to rely upon the personal confessions of these people; for they have +sometimes been known to accuse themselves of the murder of persons who +have afterwards been found living and well. In these other extravagant +accusations, I should be apt to say, that it is sufficient a man, what +recommendation soever he may have, be believed as to human things; but of +what is beyond his conception, and of supernatural effect, he ought then +only to be believed when authorised by a supernatural approbation. The +privilege it has pleased Almighty God to give to some of our witnesses, +ought not to be lightly communicated and made cheap. I have my ears +battered with a thousand such tales as these: "Three persons saw him such +a day in the east three, the next day in the west: at such an hour, in +such a place, and in such habit"; assuredly I should not believe it +myself. How much more natural and likely do I find it that two men +should lie than that one man in twelve hours' time should fly with the +wind from east to west? How much more natural that our understanding +should be carried from its place by the volubility of our disordered +minds, than that one of us should be carried by a strange spirit upon a +broomstaff, flesh and bones as we are, up the shaft of a chimney? Let +not us seek illusions from without and unknown, we who are perpetually +agitated with illusions domestic and our own. Methinks one is pardonable +in disbelieving a miracle, at least, at all events where one can elude +its verification as such, by means not miraculous; and I am of St. +Augustine's opinion, that, "'tis better to lean towards doubt than +assurance, in things hard to prove and dangerous to believe." + +'Tis now some years ago that I travelled through the territories of a +sovereign prince, who, in my favour, and to abate my incredulity, did me +the honour to let me see, in his own presence, and in a private place, +ten or twelve prisoners of this kind, and amongst others, an old woman, +a real witch in foulness and deformity, who long had been famous in that +profession. I saw both proofs and free confessions, and I know not what +insensible mark upon the miserable creature: I examined and talked with +her and the rest as much and as long as I would, and gave the best and +soundest attention I could, and I am not a man to suffer my judgment to +be made captive by prepossession. In the end, and in all conscience, I +should rather have prescribed them hellebore than hemlock; + + "Captisque res magis mentibus, quam consceleratis similis visa;" + + ["The thing was rather to be attributed to madness, than malice." + ("The thing seemed to resemble minds possessed rather than guilty.") + --Livy, viii, 18.] + +justice has its corrections proper for such maladies. As to the +oppositions and arguments that worthy men have made to me, both there, +and often in other places, I have met with none that have convinced me, +and that have not admitted a more likely solution than their conclusions. +It is true, indeed, that the proofs and reasons that are founded upon +experience and fact, I do not go about to untie, neither have they any +end; I often cut them, as Alexander did the Gordian knot. After all, +'tis setting a man's conjectures at a very high price upon them to cause +a man to be roasted alive. + +We are told by several examples, as Praestantius of his father, that +being more profoundly, asleep than men usually are, he fancied himself +to be a mare, and that he served the soldiers for a sumpter; and what +he fancied himself to be, he really proved. If sorcerers dream so +materially; if dreams can sometimes so incorporate themselves with +effects, still I cannot believe that therefore our will should be +accountable to justice; which I say as one who am neither judge nor privy +councillor, and who think myself by many degrees unworthy so to be, but a +man of the common sort, born and avowed to the obedience of the public +reason, both in its words and acts. He who should record my idle talk as +being to the prejudice of the pettiest law, opinion, or custom of his +parish, would do himself a great deal of wrong, and me much more; for, in +what I say, I warrant no other certainty, but that 'tis what I had then +in my thought, a tumultuous and wavering thought. All I say is by way of +discourse, and nothing by way of advice: + + "Nec me pudet, ut istos fateri nescire, quod nesciam;" + + ["Neither am I ashamed, as they are, to confess my ignorance of what + I do not know."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., i. 25.] + +I should not speak so boldly, if it were my due to be believed; and so I +told a great man, who complained of the tartness and contentiousness of +my exhortations. Perceiving you to be ready and prepared on one part, I +propose to you the other, with all the diligence and care I can, to clear +your judgment, not to compel it. God has your hearts in His hands, and +will furnish you with the means of choice. I am not so presumptuous even +as to desire that my opinions should bias you--in a thing of so great +importance: my fortune has not trained them up to so potent and elevated +conclusions. Truly, I have not only a great many humours, but also a +great many opinions, that I would endeavour to make my son dislike, if I +had one. What, if the truest are not always the most commodious to man, +being of so wild a composition? + +Whether it be to the purpose or not, tis no great matter: 'tis a common +proverb in Italy, that he knows not Venus in her perfect sweetness who +has never lain with a lame mistress. Fortune, or some particular +incident, long ago put this saying into the mouths of the people; and the +same is said of men as well as of women; for the queen of the Amazons +answered the Scythian who courted her to love, "Lame men perform best." +In this feminine republic, to evade the dominion of the males, they +lamed them in their infancy--arms, legs, and other members that gave them +advantage over them, and only made use of them in that wherein we, in +these parts of the world, make use of them. I should have been apt to +think; that the shuffling pace of the lame mistress added some new +pleasure to the work, and some extraordinary titillation to those who +were at the sport; but I have lately learnt that ancient philosophy has +itself determined it, which says that the legs and thighs of lame women, +not receiving, by reason of their imperfection, their due aliment, it +falls out that the genital parts above are fuller and better supplied and +much more vigorous; or else that this defect, hindering exercise, they +who are troubled with it less dissipate their strength, and come more +entire to the sports of Venus; which also is the reason why the Greeks +decried the women-weavers as being more hot than other women by reason of +their sedentary trade, which they carry on without any great exercise of +the body. What is it we may not reason of at this rate? I might also +say of these, that the jaggling about whilst so sitting at work, rouses +and provokes their desire, as the swinging and jolting of coaches does +that of our ladies. + +Do not these examples serve to make good what I said at first: that our +reasons often anticipate the effect, and have so infinite an extent of +jurisdiction that they judge and exercise themselves even on inanity +itself and non-existency? Besides the flexibility of our invention to +forge reasons of all sorts of dreams, our imagination is equally facile +to receive impressions of falsity by very frivolous appearances; for, by +the sole authority of the ancient and common use of this proverb, I have +formerly made myself believe that I have had more pleasure in a woman by +reason she was not straight, and accordingly reckoned that deformity +amongst her graces. + +Torquato Tasso, in the comparison he makes betwixt France and Italy, +says that he has observed that our legs are generally smaller than those +of the Italian gentlemen, and attributes the cause of it to our being +continually on horseback; which is the very same cause from which +Suetonius draws a quite opposite conclusion; for he says, on the +contrary, that Germanicus had made his legs bigger by the continuation of +the same exercise. + +Nothing is so supple and erratic as our understanding; it is the shoe of +Theramenes, fit for all feet. It is double and diverse, and the matters +are double and diverse too. "Give me a drachm of silver," said a Cynic +philosopher to Antigonus. "That is not a present befitting a king," +replied he. "Give me then a talent," said the other. "That is not a +present befitting a Cynic." + + "Seu plures calor ille vias et caeca relaxat + Spiramenta, novas veniat qua succus in herbas + Seu durat magis, et venas astringit hiantes; + Ne tenues pluviae, rapidive potentia colic + Acrior, aut Boreae penetrabile frigus adurat." + + ["Whether the heat opens more passages and secret pores through + which the sap may be derived into the new-born herbs; or whether it + rather hardens and binds the gaping veins that the small showers and + keen influence of the violent sun or penetrating cold of Boreas may + not hurt them."--Virg., Georg., i. 89.] + + "Ogni medaglia ha il suo rovescio." + + ["Every medal has its reverse."--Italian Proverb.] + +This is the reason why Clitomachus said of old that Carneades had outdone +the labours of Hercules, in having eradicated consent from men, that is +to say, opinion and the courage of judging. This so vigorous fancy of +Carneades sprang, in my opinion, anciently from the impudence of those +who made profession of knowledge and their immeasurable self-conceit. +AEsop was set to sale with two other slaves; the buyer asked the first of +these what he could do; he, to enhance his own value, promised mountains +and marvels, saying he could do this and that, and I know not what; the +second said as much of himself or more: when it came to AEsop's turn, and +that he was also asked what he could do; "Nothing," said he, "for these +two have taken up all before me; they know everything." So has it +happened in the school of philosophy: the pride of those who attributed +the capacity of all things to the human mind created in others, out of +despite and emulation, this opinion, that it is capable of nothing: the +one maintain the same extreme in ignorance that the others do in +knowledge; to make it undeniably manifest that man is immoderate +throughout, and can never stop but of necessity and the want of ability +to proceed further. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OF PHYSIOGNOMY + +Almost all the opinions we have are taken on authority and trust; and +'tis not amiss; we could not choose worse than by ourselves in so weak an +age. That image of Socrates' discourses, which his friends have +transmitted to us, we approve upon no other account than a reverence to +public sanction: 'tis not according to our own knowledge; they are not +after our way; if anything of the kind should spring up now, few men +would value them. We discern no graces that are not pointed and puffed +out and inflated by art; such as glide on in their own purity and +simplicity easily escape so gross a sight as ours; they have a delicate +and concealed beauty, such as requires a clear and purified sight to +discover its secret light. Is not simplicity, as we take it, cousin- +german to folly and a quality of reproach? Socrates makes his soul move +a natural and common motion: a peasant said this; a woman said that; he +has never anybody in his mouth but carters, joiners, cobblers, and +masons; his are inductions and similitudes drawn from the most common and +known actions of men; every one understands him. We should never have +recognised the nobility and splendour of his admirable conceptions under +so mean a form; we, who think all things low and flat that are not +elevated, by learned doctrine, and who discern no riches but in pomp and +show. This world of ours is only formed for ostentation: men are only +puffed up with wind, and are bandied to and fro like tennis-balls. He +proposed to himself no vain and idle fancies; his design was to furnish +us with precepts and things that more really and fitly serve to the use +of life; + + "Servare modum, finemque tenere, + Naturamque sequi." + + ["To keep a just mean, to observe a just limit, + and to follow Nature."--Lucan, ii. 381.] + +He was also always one and the same, and raised himself, not by starts +but by complexion, to the highest pitch of vigour; or, to say better, +mounted not at all, but rather brought down, reduced, and subjected all +asperities and difficulties to his original and natural condition; for in +Cato 'tis most manifest that 'tis a procedure extended far beyond the +common ways of men: in the brave exploits of his life, and in his death, +we find him always mounted upon the great horse; whereas the other ever +creeps upon the ground, and with a gentle and ordinary pace, treats of +the most useful matters, and bears himself, both at his death and in the +rudest difficulties that could present themselves, in the ordinary way of +human life. + +It has fallen out well that the man most worthy to be known and to be +presented to the world for example should be he of whom we have the most +certain knowledge; he has been pried into by the most clear-sighted men +that ever were; the testimonies we have of him are admirable both in +fidelity and fulness. 'Tis a great thing that he was able so to order +the pure imaginations of a child, that, without altering or wresting +them, he thereby produced the most beautiful effects of our soul: he +presents it neither elevated nor rich; he only represents it sound, but +assuredly with a brisk and full health. By these common and natural +springs, by these ordinary and popular fancies, without being moved or +put out, he set up not only the most regular, but the most high and +vigorous beliefs, actions, and manners that ever were. 'Tis he who +brought again from heaven, where she lost her time, human wisdom, to +restore her to man with whom her most just and greatest business lies. +See him plead before his judges; observe by what reasons he rouses his +courage to the hazards of war; with what arguments he fortifies his +patience against calumny, tyranny, death, and the perverseness of his +wife: you will find nothing in all this borrowed from arts and sciences: +the simplest may there discover their own means and strength; 'tis not +possible more to retire or to creep more low. He has done human nature a +great kindness in showing it how much it can do of itself. + +We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow +and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another's than of +our own. Man can in nothing fix himself to his actual necessity: of +pleasure, wealth, and power, he grasps at more than he can hold; his +greediness is incapable of moderation. And I find that in curiosity of +knowing he is the same; he cuts himself out more work than he can do, and +more than he needs to do: extending the utility of knowledge to the full +of its matter: + + "Ut omnium rerum, sic litterarum quoque, intemperantia laboramus." + + ["We carry intemperance into the study of literature, as well as + into everything else."--Seneca, Ep., 106.] + +And Tacitus had reason to commend the mother of Agricola for having +restrained her son in his too violent appetite for learning. + +Tis a good, if duly considered, which has in it, as the other goods of +men have, a great deal of vanity and weakness, proper and natural to +itself, and that costs very dear. Its acquisition is far more hazardous +than that of all other meat or drink; for, as to other things, what we +have bought we carry home in some vessel, and there have full leisure to +examine our purchase, how much we shall eat or drink of it, and when: but +sciences we can, at the very first, stow into no other vessel than the +soul; we swallow them in buying, and return from the market, either +already infected or amended: there are some that only burden and +overcharge the stomach, instead of nourishing; and, moreover, some that, +under colour of curing, poison us. I have been pleased, in places where +I have been, to see men in devotion vow ignorance as well as chastity, +poverty, and penitence: 'tis also a gelding of our unruly appetites, to +blunt this cupidity that spurs us on to the study of books, and to +deprive the soul of this voluptuous complacency that tickles us with the +opinion of knowledge: and 'tis plenarily to accomplish the vow of +poverty, to add unto it that of the mind. We need little doctrine to +live at our ease; and Socrates teaches us that this is in us, and the way +how to find it, and the manner how to use it: All our sufficiency which +exceeds the natural is well-nigh superfluous and vain: 'tis much if it +does not rather burden and cumber us than do us good: + + "Paucis opus est literis ad mentem bonam:" + + ["Little learning is needed to form a sound mind." + --Seneca, Ep., 106.] + +'tis a feverish excess of the mind; a tempestuous and unquiet instrument. +Do but recollect yourself, and you will find in yourself natural +arguments against death, true, and the fittest to serve you in time of +necessity: 'tis they that make a peasant, and whole nations, die with as +much firmness as a philosopher. Should I have died less cheerfully +before I had read Cicero's Tusculan Quastiones? I believe not; and when +I find myself at the best, I perceive that my tongue is enriched indeed, +but my courage little or nothing elevated by them; that is just as nature +framed it at first, and defends itself against the conflict only after a +natural and ordinary way. Books have not so much served me for +instruction as exercise. What if knowledge, trying to arm us with new +defences against natural inconveniences, has more imprinted in our +fancies their weight and greatness, than her reasons and subtleties to +secure us from them? They are subtleties, indeed, with which she often +alarms us to little purpose. Do but observe how many slight and +frivolous, and, if nearly examined, incorporeal arguments, the closest +and wisest authors scatter about one good one: they are but verbal quirks +and fallacies to amuse and gull us: but forasmuch as it may be with some +profit, I will sift them no further; many of that sort are here and there +dispersed up and down this book, either borrowed or by imitation. +Therefore one ought to take a little heed not to call that force which is +only a pretty knack of writing, and that solid which is only sharp, or +that good which is only fine: + + "Quae magis gustata quam potata, delectant," + + ["Which more delight in the tasting than in being drunk." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 5.] + +everything that pleases does not nourish: + + "Ubi non ingenii, sed animi negotium agitur." + + ["Where the question is not about the wit, but about the soul." + --Seneca, Ep., 75.] + +To see the trouble that Seneca gives himself to fortify himself against +death; to see him so sweat and pant to harden and encourage himself, and +bustle so long upon this perch, would have lessened his reputation with +me, had he not very bravely held himself at the last. His so ardent and +frequent agitations discover that he was in himself impetuous and +passionate, + + "Magnus animus remissius loquitur, et securius . . . + non est alius ingenio, alius ammo color;" + + ["A great courage speaks more calmly and more securely. There is + not one complexion for the wit and another for the mind." + --Seneca, Ep. 114, 115] + +he must be convinced at his own expense; and he in some sort discovers +that he was hard pressed by his enemy. Plutarch's way, by how much it is +more disdainful and farther stretched, is, in my opinion, so much more +manly and persuasive: and I am apt to believe that his soul had more +assured and more regular motions. The one more sharp, pricks and makes +us start, and more touches the soul; the other more constantly solid, +forms, establishes, and supports us, and more touches the understanding. +That ravishes the judgment, this wins it. I have likewise seen other +writings, yet more reverenced than these, that in the representation of +the conflict they maintain against the temptations of the flesh, paint +them, so sharp, so powerful and invincible, that we ourselves, who are of +the common herd, are as much to wonder at the strangeness and unknown +force of their temptation, as at the resisting it. + +To what end do we so arm ourselves with this harness of science? Let us +look down upon the poor people that we see scattered upon the face of the +earth, prone and intent upon their business, that neither know Aristotle +nor Cato, example nor precept; from these nature every day extracts +effects of constancy and patience, more pure and manly than those we so +inquisitively study in the schools: how many do I ordinarily see who +slight poverty? how many who desire to die, or who die without alarm or +regret? He who is now digging in my garden, has this morning buried his +father or his son. The very names by which they call diseases sweeten +and mollify the sharpness of them: the phthisic is with them no more than +a cough, dysentery but a looseness, the pleurisy but a stitch; and, as +they gently name them, so they patiently endure them; they are very great +and grievous indeed when they hinder their ordinary labour; they never +keep their beds but to die: + + "Simplex illa et aperta virtus in obscuram et solertem + scientiam versa est." + + ["That overt and simple virtue is converted into an obscure and + subtle science."--Seneca, Ep., 95.] + +I was writing this about the time when a great load of our intestine +troubles for several months lay with all its weight upon me; I had the +enemy at my door on one side, and the freebooters, worse enemies, on the +other, + + "Non armis, sed vitiis, certatur;" + + ["The fight is not with arms, but with vices."--Seneca, Ep. 95.] + +and underwent all sorts of military injuries at once: + + "Hostis adest dextra laevaque a parte timendus. + Vicinoque malo terret utrumque latus." + + ["Right and left a formidable enemy is to be feared, and threatens + me on both sides with impending danger."--Ovid, De Ponto, i. 3, 57.] + +A monstrous war! Other wars are bent against strangers, this against +itself, destroying itself with its own poison. It is of so malignant and +ruinous a nature, that it ruins itself with the rest; and with its own +rage mangles and tears itself to pieces. We more often see it dissolve +of itself than through scarcity of any necessary thing or by force of the +enemy. All discipline evades it; it comes to compose sedition, and is +itself full of it; would chastise disobedience, and itself is the +example; and, employed for the defence of the laws, rebels against its +own. What a condition are we in! Our physic makes us sick! + + "Nostre mal s'empoisonne + Du secours qu'on luy donne." + + "Exuperat magis, aegrescitque medendo." + + ["Our disease is poisoned with its very remedies"--AEnead, xii. 46.] + + "Omnia fanda, nefanda, malo permista furore, + Justificam nobis mentem avertere deorum." + + ["Right and wrong, all shuffled together in this wicked fury, have + deprived us of the gods' protection." + --Catullus, De Nuptiis Pelei et Thetidos, V. 405.] + +In the beginning of these popular maladies, one may distinguish the sound +from the sick; but when they come to continue, as ours have done, the +whole body is then infected from head to foot; no part is free from +corruption, for there is no air that men so greedily draw in that +diffuses itself so soon and that penetrates so deep as that of licence. +Our armies only subsist and are kept together by the cement of +foreigners; for of Frenchmen there is now no constant and regular army to +be made. What a shame it is! there is no longer any discipline but what +we see in the mercenary soldiers. As to ourselves, our conduct is at +discretion, and that not of the chief, but every one at his own. The +general has a harder game to play within than he has without; he it is +who has to follow, to court the soldiers, to give way to them; he alone +has to obey: all the rest if disolution and free licence. It pleases me +to observe how much pusillanimity and cowardice there is in ambition; by +how abject and servile ways it must arrive at its end; but it displeases +me to see good and generous natures, and that are capable of justice, +every day corrupted in the management and command of this confusion. +Long toleration begets habit; habit, consent and imitation. We had ill- +formed souls enough, without spoiling those that were generous and good; +so that, if we hold on, there will scarcely remain any with whom to +intrust the health of this State of ours, in case fortune chance to +restore it: + + "Hunc saltem everso juvenem succurrere seclo, + Ne prohibete." + + ["Forbid not, at least, that this young man repair this ruined age." + --Virgil, Georg., i. 500. Montaigne probably refers to Henry, king + of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV.] + +What has become of the old precept, "That soldiers ought more to fear +their chief than the enemy"?--[Valerius Maximus, Ext. 2.]--and of that +wonderful example, that an orchard being enclosed within the precincts of +a camp of the Roman army, was seen at their dislodgment the next day in +the same condition, not an apple, though ripe and delicious, being pulled +off, but all left to the possessor? I could wish that our youth, instead +of the time they spend in less fruitful travels and less honourable +employments, would bestow one half of that time in being an eye-witness +of naval exploits, under some good captain of Rhodes, and the other half +in observing the discipline of the Turkish armies; for they have many +differences and advantages over ours; one of these is, that our soldiers +become more licentious in expeditions, theirs more temperate and +circumspect; for the thefts and insolencies committed upon the common +people, which are only punished with a cudgel in peace, are capital in +war; for an egg taken by a Turkish soldier without paying for it, fifty +blows with a stick is the fixed rate; for anything else, of what sort or +how trivial soever, not necessary to nourishment, they are presently +impaled or beheaded without mercy. I am astonished, in the history of +Selim, the most cruel conqueror that ever was, to see that when he +subdued Egypt, the beautiful gardens about Damascus being all open, and +in a conquered land, and his army encamped upon the very place, should be +left untouched by the hands of the soldiers, by reason they had not +received the signal of pillage. + +But is there any disease in a government that it is worth while to physic +with such a mortal drug?--[i.e. as civil war.]--No, said Favonius, not +even the tyrannical usurpation of a Commonwealth. Plato, likewise, will +not consent that a man should violate the peace of his country in order +to cure it, and by no means approves of a reformation that disturbs and +hazards all, and that is to be purchased at the price of the citizens' +blood and ruin; determining it to be the duty of a good patriot in such a +case to let it alone, and only to pray to God for his extraordinary +assistance: and he seems to be angry with his great friend Dion, for +having proceeded somewhat after another manner. I was a Platonist in +this point before I knew there had ever been such a man as Plato in the +world. And if this person ought absolutely to be rejected from our +society (he who by the sincerity of his conscience merited from the +divine favour to penetrate so far into the Christian light, through the +universal darkness wherein the world was involved in his time), I do not +think it becomes us to suffer ourselves to be instructed by a heathen, +how great an impiety it is not to expect from God any relief simply his +own and without our co-operation. I often doubt, whether amongst so many +men as meddle in such affairs, there is not to be found some one of so +weak understanding as to have been really persuaded that he went towards +reformation by the worst of deformations; and advanced towards salvation +by the most express causes that we have of most assured damnation; that +by overthrowing government, the magistracy, and the laws, in whose +protection God has placed him, by dismembering his good mother, and +giving her limbs to be mangled by her old enemies, filling fraternal +hearts with parricidal hatreds, calling devils and furies to his aid, he +can assist the most holy sweetness and justice of the divine law. +Ambition, avarice, cruelty, and revenge have not sufficient natural +impetuosity of their own; let us bait them with the glorious titles of +justice and devotion. There cannot a worse state of things be imagined +than where wickedness comes to be legitimate, and assumes, with the +magistrates' permission, the cloak of virtue: + + "Nihil in speciem fallacius, quam prava religio, + ubi deorum numen prxtenditur sceleribus." + + ["Nothing has a more deceiving face than false religion, where the + divinity of the gods is obscured by crimes."--Livy, xxxix. 16.] + +The extremest sort of injustice, according to Plato, is where that which +is unjust should be reputed for just. + +The common people then suffered very much, and not present damage only: + + "Undique totis + Usque adeo turbatur agris," + + ["Such great disorders overtake our fields on every side." + --Virgil, Eclog., i. II.] + +but future too; the living were to suffer, and so were they who were yet +unborn; they stript them, and consequently myself, even of hope, taking +from them all they had laid up in store to live on for many years: + + "Quae nequeunt secum ferre aut abducere, perdunt; + Et cremat insontes turba scelesta casas . . . + Muris nulla fides, squalent populatibus agri." + + ["What they cannot bear away, they spoil; and the wicked mob burn + harmless houses; walls cannot secure their masters, and the fields + are squalid with devastation." + --Ovid, Trist., iii. 10, 35; Claudianus, In Eutyop., i. 244.] + +Besides this shock, I suffered others: I underwent the inconveniences +that moderation brings along with it in such a disease: I was robbed on +all hands; to the Ghibelline I was a Guelph, and to the Guelph a +Ghibelline; one of my poets expresses this very well, but I know not +where it is. + + ["So Tories called me Whig, and Whigs a Tory."--Pope, after Horace.] + +The situation of my house, and my friendliness with my neighbours, +presented me with one face; my life and my actions with another. They +did not lay formal accusations to my charge, for they had no foundation +for so doing; I never hide my head from the laws, and whoever would have +questioned me, would have done himself a greater prejudice than me; they +were only mute suspicions that were whispered about, which never want +appearance in so confused a mixture, no more than envious or idle heads. +I commonly myself lend a hand to injurious presumptions that fortune +scatters abroad against me, by a way I have ever had of evading to +justify, excuse, or explain myself; conceiving that it were to compromise +my conscience to plead in its behalf: + + "Perspicuitas enim argumentatione elevatur;" + + ["For perspicuity is lessened by argument." + ("The clearness of a cause is clouded by argumentation.") + --Cicero, De Nat. Deor., iii. 4.] + +and, as if every one saw as clearly into me as I do myself, instead of +retiring from an accusation, I step up to meet it, and rather give it +some kind of colour by an ironical and scoffing confession, if I do not +sit totally mute, as of a thing not worth my answer. But such as look +upon this kind of behaviour of mine as too haughty a confidence, have as +little kindness for me as they who interpret the weakness of an +indefensible cause; namely, the great folks, towards whom want of +submission is the great fault, harsh towards all justice that knows and +feels itself, and is not submissive humble, and suppliant; I have often +knocked my head against this pillar. So it is that at what then befell +me, an ambitious man would have hanged himself, and a covetous man would +have done the same. I have no manner of care of getting; + + "Si mihi, quod nunc est, etiam minus; et mihi vivam + Quod superest aevi, si quid superesse volent dii:" + + ["If I may have what I now own, or even less, and may live for + myself what of life remains, if the gods grant me remaining years." + --Horace, Ep., i. 18, 107.] + +but the losses that befall me by the injury of others, whether by theft +or violence, go almost as near my heart as they would to that of the most +avaricious man. The offence troubles me, without comparison, more than +the loss. A thousand several sorts of mischiefs fell upon me in the neck +of one another; I could more cheerfully have borne them all at once. + +I was already considering to whom, amongst my friends, I might commit a +necessitous and discredited old age; and having turned my eyes quite +round, I found myself bare. To let one's self fall plump down, and from +so great a height, it ought to be in the arms of a solid, vigorous, and +fortunate friendship: these are very rare, if there be any. At last, I +saw that it was safest for me to trust to myself in my necessity; and if +it should so fall out, that I should be but upon cold terms in Fortune's +favour, I should so much the more pressingly recommend me to my own, and +attach myself and look to myself all the more closely. Men on all +occasions throw themselves upon foreign assistance to spare their own, +which is alone certain and sufficient to him who knows how therewith to +arm himself. Every one runs elsewhere, and to the future, forasmuch as +no one is arrived at himself. And I was satisfied that they were +profitable inconveniences; forasmuch as, first, ill scholars are to be +admonished with the rod, when reason will not do, as a crooked piece of +wood is by fire and straining reduced to straightness. I have a great +while preached to myself to stick close to my own concerns, and separate +myself from the affairs of others; yet I am still turning my eyes aside. +A bow, a favourable word, a kind look from a great person tempts me; of +which God knows if there is scarcity in these days, and what they +signify. I, moreover, without wrinkling my forehead, hearken to the +persuasions offered me, to draw me into the marketplace, and so gently +refuse, as if I were half willing to be overcome. Now for so indocile a +spirit blows are required; this vessel which thus chops and cleaves, and +is ready to fall one piece from another, must have the hoops forced down +with good sound strokes of a mallet. Secondly, that this accident served +me for exercise to prepare me for worse, if I, who both by the benefit of +fortune, and by the condition of my manners, hoped to be among the last, +should happen to be one of the first assailed by this storm; instructing +myself betimes to constrain my life, and fit it for a new state. The +true liberty is to be able to do what a man will with himself: + + "Potentissimus est, qui se habet in potestate." + + ["He is most potent who is master of himself."--Seneca, Ep., 94.] + +In an ordinary and quiet time, a man prepares himself for moderate and +common accidents; but in the confusion wherein we have been for these +thirty years, every Frenchman, whether personal or in general, sees +himself every hour upon the point of the total ruin and overthrow of his +fortune: by so much the more ought he to have his courage supplied with +the strongest and most vigorous provisions. Let us thank fortune, that +has not made us live in an effeminate, idle, and languishing age; some +who could never have been so by other means will be made famous by their +misfortunes. As I seldom read in histories the confusions of other +states without regret that I was not present, the better to consider +them, so does my curiosity make me in some sort please myself in seeing +with my own eyes this notable spectacle of our public death, its form and +symptoms; and since I cannot hinder it, I am content to have been +destined to be present therein, and thereby to instruct myself. So do +we eagerly covet to see, though but in shadow and the fables of theatres, +the pomp of tragic representations of human fortune; 'tis not without +compassion at what we hear, but we please ourselves in rousing our +displeasure, by the rarity of these pitiable events. Nothing tickles +that does not pinch. And good historians skip over, as stagnant water +and dead sea, calm narrations, to return to seditions, to wars, to which +they know that we invite them. + +I question whether I can decently confess with how small a sacrifice of +its repose and tranquillity I have passed over above the one half of my +life amid the ruin of my country. I lend myself my patience somewhat too +cheap, in accidents that do not privately assail me; and do not so much +regard what they take from me, as what remains safe, both within and +without. There is comfort in evading, one while this, another while +that, of the evils that are levelled at ourselves too, at last, but at +present hurt others only about us; as also, that in matters of public +interest, the more universally my affection is dispersed, the weaker it +is: to which may be added, that it is half true: + + "Tantum ex publicis malis sentimus, + quantum ad privatas res pertinet;" + + ["We are only so far sensible of public evils as they respect our + private affairs."--Livy, xxx. 44.] + +and that the health from which we fell was so ill, that itself relieves +the regret we should have for it. It was health, but only in comparison +with the sickness that has succeeded it: we are not fallen from any great +height; the corruption and brigandage which are in dignity and office +seem to me the least supportable: we are less injuriously rifled in a +wood than in a place of security. It was an universal juncture of +particular members, each corrupted by emulation of the others, and most +of them with old ulcers, that neither received nor required any cure. +This convulsion, therefore, really more animated than pressed me, by the +assistance of my conscience, which was not only at peace within itself, +but elevated, and I did not find any reason to complain of myself. Also, +as God never sends evils, any more than goods, absolutely pure to men, +my health continued at that time more than usually good; and, as I can +do nothing without it, there are few things that I cannot do with it. +It afforded me means to rouse up all my faculties, and to lay my hand +before the wound that would else, peradventure, have gone farther; and I +experienced, in my patience, that I had some stand against fortune, and +that it must be a great shock could throw me out of the saddle. I do not +say this to provoke her to give me a more vigorous charge: I am her +humble servant, and submit to her pleasure: let her be content, in God's +name. Am I sensible of her assaults? Yes, I am. But, as those who are +possessed and oppressed with sorrow sometimes suffer themselves, +nevertheless, by intervals to taste a little pleasure, and are sometimes +surprised with a smile, so have I so much power over myself, as to make +my ordinary condition quiet and free from disturbing thoughts; yet I +suffer myself, withal, by fits to be surprised with the stings of those +unpleasing imaginations that assault me, whilst I am arming myself to +drive them away, or at least to wrestle with them. + +But behold another aggravation of the evil which befell me in the tail of +the rest: both without doors and within I was assailed with a most +violent plague, violent in comparison of all others; for as sound bodies +are subject to more grievous maladies, forasmuch as they, are not to be +forced but by such, so my very healthful air, where no contagion, however +near, in the memory of man, ever took footing, coming to be corrupted, +produced strange effects: + + "Mista senum et juvenum densentur funera; nullum + Saeva caput Proserpina fugit;" + + ["Old and young die in mixed heaps. Cruel Proserpine forbears + none."--Horace, Od., i. 28, 19.] + +I had to suffer this pleasant condition, that the sight of my house, was +frightful to me; whatever I had there was without guard, and left to the +mercy of any one who wished to take it. I myself, who am so hospitable, +was in very great distress for a retreat for my family; a distracted +family, frightful both to its friends and itself, and filling every place +with horror where it attempted to settle, having to shift its abode so +soon as any one's finger began but to ache; all diseases are then +concluded to be the plague, and people do not stay to examine whether +they are so or no. And the mischief on't is that, according to the rules +of art, in every danger that a man comes near, he must undergo a +quarantine in fear of the evil, your imagination all the while tormenting +you at pleasure, and turning even your health itself into a fever. Yet +all this would have much less affected me had I not withal been compelled +to be sensible of the sufferings of others, and miserably to serve six +months together for a guide to this caravan; for I carry my own antidotes +within myself, which are resolution and patience. Apprehension, which is +particularly feared in this disease, does not much trouble me; and, if +being alone, I should have been taken, it had been a less cheerless and +more remote departure; 'tis a kind of death that I do not think of the +worst sort; 'tis commonly short, stupid, without pain, and consoled by +the public condition; without ceremony, without mourning, without a +crowd. But as to the people about us, the hundredth part of them could +not be saved: + + "Videas desertaque regna + Pastorum, et longe saltus lateque vacantes." + + ["You would see shepherds' haunts deserted, and far and wide empty + pastures."--Virgil, Georg., iii. 476.] + +In this place my largest revenue is manual: what an hundred men ploughed +for me, lay a long time fallow. + +But then, what example of resolution did we not see in the simplicity of +all this people? Generally, every one renounced all care of life; the +grapes, the principal wealth of the country, remained untouched upon the +vines; every man indifferently prepared for and expected death, either +to-night or to-morrow, with a countenance and voice so far from fear, +as if they had come to terms with this necessity, and that it was an +universal and inevitable sentence. 'Tis always such; but how slender +hold has the resolution of dying? The distance and difference of a few +hours, the sole consideration of company, renders its apprehension +various to us. Observe these people; by reason that they die in the same +month, children, young people, and old, they are no longer astonished at +it; they no longer lament. I saw some who were afraid of staying behind, +as in a dreadful solitude; and I did not commonly observe any other +solicitude amongst them than that of sepulture; they were troubled to see +the dead bodies scattered about the fields, at the mercy of the wild +beasts that presently flocked thither. How differing are the fancies of +men; the Neorites, a nation subjected by Alexander, threw the bodies of +their dead into the deepest and less frequented part of their woods, on +purpose to have them there eaten; the only sepulture reputed happy +amongst them. Some, who were yet in health, dug their own graves; others +laid themselves down in them whilst alive; and a labourer of mine, in +dying, with his hands and feet pulled the earth upon him. Was not this +to nestle and settle himself to sleep at greater ease? A bravery in some +sort like that of the Roman soldiers who, after the battle of Cannae, +were found with their heads thrust into holes in the earth, which they +had made, and in suffocating themselves, with their own hands pulled the +earth about their ears. In short, a whole province was, by the common +usage, at once brought to a course nothing inferior in undauntedness to +the most studied and premeditated resolution. + +Most of the instructions of science to encourage us herein have in them +more of show than of force, and more of ornament than of effect. We have +abandoned Nature, and will teach her what to do; teach her who so happily +and so securely conducted us; and in the meantime, from the footsteps of +her instruction, and that little which, by the benefit of ignorance, +remains of her image imprinted in the life of this rustic rout of +unpolished men, science is constrained every day to borrow patterns for +her disciples of constancy, tranquillity, and innocence. It is pretty to +see that these persons, full of so much fine knowledge, have to imitate +this foolish simplicity, and this in the primary actions of virtue; and +that our wisdom must learn even from beasts the most profitable +instructions in the greatest and most necessary concerns of our life; +as, how we are to live and die, manage our property, love and bring up +our children, maintain justice: a singular testimony of human infirmity; +and that this reason we so handle at our pleasure, finding evermore some +diversity and novelty, leaves in us no apparent trace of nature. Men +have done with nature as perfumers with oils; they have sophisticated her +with so many argumentations and far-fetched discourses, that she is +become variable and particular to each, and has lost her proper, +constant, and universal face; so that we must seek testimony from beasts, +not subject to favour, corruption, or diversity of opinions. It is, +indeed, true that even these themselves do not always go exactly in the +path of nature, but wherein they swerve, it is so little that you may +always see the track; as horses that are led make many bounds and +curvets, but 'tis always at the length of the halter, and still follow +him that leads them; and as a young hawk takes its flight, but still +under the restraint of its tether: + + "Exsilia, torments, bells, morbos, naufragia meditare . . . + ut nullo sis malo tiro." + + ["To meditate upon banishments, tortures, wars, diseases, and + shipwrecks, that thou mayest not be a novice in any disaster." + --Seneca, Ep., 91, 107.] + +What good will this curiosity do us, to anticipate all the inconveniences +of human nature, and to prepare ourselves with so much trouble against +things which, peradventure, will never befall us? + + "Parem passis tristitiam facit, pati posse;" + + ["It troubles men as much that they may possibly suffer, + as if they really did suffer."--Idem, ibid., 74.] + +not only the blow, but the wind of the blow strikes us: or, like +phrenetic people--for certainly it is a phrensy--to go immediately and +whip yourself, because it may so fall out that Fortune may one day make +you undergo it; and to put on your furred gown at Midsummer, because you +will stand in need of it at Christmas! Throw yourselves, say they, into +the experience of all the evils, the most extreme evils that can possibly +befall you, and so be assured of them. On the contrary, the most easy +and most natural way would be to banish even the thoughts of them; they +will not come soon enough; their true being will not continue with us +long enough; our mind must lengthen and extend them; we must incorporate +them in us beforehand, and there entertain them, as if they would not +otherwise sufficiently press upon our senses. "We shall find them heavy +enough when they come," says one of our masters, of none of the tender +sects, but of the most severe; "in the meantime, favour thyself; believe +what pleases thee best; what good will it do thee to anticipate thy ill +fortune, to lose the present for fear of the future: and to make thyself +miserable now, because thou art to be so in time?" These are his words. +Science, indeed, does us one good office in instructing us exactly as to +the dimensions of evils, + + "Curis acuens mortalia corda!" + + ["Probing mortal hearts with cares."--Virgil, Georg., i. 23.] + +'Twere pity that any part of their greatness should escape our sense and +knowledge. + +'Tis certain that for the most part the preparation for death has +administered more torment than the thing itself. It was of old truly +said, and by a very judicious author: + + "Minus afficit sensus fatigatio, quam cogitatio." + + ["Suffering itself less afflicts the senses than the apprehension + of suffering."--Quintilian, Inst. Orat., i. 12.] + +The sentiment of present death sometimes, of itself, animates us with a +prompt resolution not to avoid a thing that is utterly inevitable: many +gladiators have been seen in the olden time, who, after having fought +timorously and ill, have courageously entertained death, offering their +throats to the enemies' sword and bidding them despatch. The sight of +future death requires a courage that is slow, and consequently hard to be +got. If you know not how to die, never trouble yourself; nature will, at +the time, fully and sufficiently instruct you: she will exactly do that +business for you; take you no care-- + + "Incertam frustra, mortales, funeris horam, + Quaeritis et qua sit mors aditura via.... + Poena minor certam subito perferre ruinam; + Quod timeas, gravius sustinuisse diu." + + ["Mortals, in vain you seek to know the uncertain hour of death, + and by what channel it will come upon you."--Propertius, ii. 27, 1. + "'Tis less painful to undergo sudden destruction; 'tis hard to bear + that which you long fear."--Incert. Auct.] + +We trouble life by the care of death, and death by the care of life: the +one torments, the other frights us. It is not against death that we +prepare, that is too momentary a thing; a quarter of an hour's suffering, +without consequence and without damage, does not deserve especial +precepts: to say the truth, we prepare ourselves against the preparations +of death. Philosophy ordains that we should always have death before our +eyes, to see and consider it before the time, and then gives us rules and +precautions to provide that this foresight and thought do us no harm; +just so do physicians, who throw us into diseases, to the end they may +have whereon to employ their drugs and their art. If we have not known +how to live, 'tis injustice to teach us how to die, and make the end +difform from all the rest; if we have known how to live firmly and +quietly, we shall know how to die so too. They may boast as much as they +please: + + "Tota philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est;" + + ["The whole life of philosophers is the meditation of death." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 30.] + +but I fancy that, though it be the end, it is not the aim of life; 'tis +its end, its extremity, but not, nevertheless, its object; it ought +itself to be its own aim and design; its true study is to order, govern, +and suffer itself. In the number of several other offices, that the +general and principal chapter of Knowing how to live comprehends, is this +article of Knowing how to die; and, did not our fears give it weight, +one of the lightest too. + +To judge of them by utility and by the naked truth, the lessons of +simplicity are not much inferior to those which learning teaches us: nay, +quite the contrary. Men differ in sentiment and force; we must lead them +to their own good according to their capacities and by various ways: + + "Quo me comque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes." + + ["Wherever the season takes me,(where the tempest drives me) + there I am carried as a guest."--Horace, Ep., i. i, 15.] + +I never saw any peasant among my neighbours cogitate with what +countenance and assurance he should pass over his last hour; nature +teaches him not to think of death till he is dying; and then he does it +with a better grace than Aristotle, upon whom death presses with a double +weight, both of itself and from so long a premeditation; and, therefore, +it was the opinion of Caesar, that the least premeditated death was the +easiest and the most happy: + + "Plus dolet quam necesse est, qui ante dolet, quam necesse est." + + ["He grieves more than is necessary, who grieves before it is + necessary."--Seneca, Ep., 98.] + +The sharpness of this imagination springs from our curiosity: 'tis thus +we ever impede ourselves, desiring to anticipate and regulate natural +prescripts. It is only for the doctors to dine worse for it, when in the +best health, and to frown at the image of death; the common sort stand in +need of no remedy or consolation, but just in the shock, and when the +blow comes; and consider on't no more than just what they endure. Is it +not then, as we say, that the stolidity and want of apprehension in the +vulgar give them that patience m present evils, and that profound +carelessness of future sinister accidents? That their souls, in being +more gross and dull, are less penetrable and not so easily moved? If it +be so, let us henceforth, in God's name, teach nothing but ignorance; +'tis the utmost fruit the sciences promise us, to which this stolidity so +gently leads its disciples. + +We have no want of good masters, interpreters of natural simplicity. +Socrates shall be one; for, as I remember, he speaks something to this +purpose to the judges who sat upon his life and death. + + [That which follows is taken from the Apology of Socrates in Plato, + chap. 17, &c.] + +"I am afraid, my masters, that if I entreat you not to put me to death, I +shall confirm the charge of my accusers, which is, that I pretend to be +wiser than others, as having some more secret knowledge of things that +are above and below us. I have neither frequented nor known death, nor +have ever seen any person that has tried its qualities, from whom to +inform myself. Such as fear it, presuppose they know it; as for my part, +I neither know what it is, nor what they do in the other world. Death +is, peradventure, an indifferent thing; peradventure, a thing to be +desired. 'Tis nevertheless to be believed, if it be a transmigration +from one place to another, that it is a bettering of one's condition to +go and live with so many great persons deceased, and to be exempt from +having any more to do with unjust and corrupt judges; if it be an +annihilation of our being, 'tis yet a bettering of one's condition to +enter into a long and peaceable night; we find nothing more sweet in life +than quiet repose and a profound sleep without dreams. The things that +I know to be evil, as to injure one's neighbour and to disobey one's +superior, whether it be God or man, I carefully avoid; such as I do not +know whether they be good or evil, I cannot fear them. If I am to die +and leave you alive, the gods alone only know whether it will go better +with you or with me. Wherefore, as to what concerns me, you may do as +you shall think fit. But according to my method of advising just and +profitable things, I say that you will do your consciences more right to +set me at liberty, unless you see further into my cause than I do; and, +judging according to my past actions, both public and private, according +to my intentions, and according to the profit that so many of our +citizens, both young and old, daily extract from my conversation, and the +fruit that you all reap from me, you cannot more duly acquit yourselves +towards my merit than in ordering that, my poverty considered, I should +be maintained at the Prytanaeum, at the public expense, a thing that I +have often known you, with less reason, grant to others. Do not impute +it to obstinacy or disdain that I do not, according to the custom, +supplicate and go about to move you to commiseration. I have both +friends and kindred, not being, as Homer says, begotten of wood or of +stone, no more than others, who might well present themselves before you +with tears and mourning, and I have three desolate children with whom to +move you to compassion; but I should do a shame to our city at the age I +am, and in the reputation of wisdom which is now charged against me, to +appear in such an abject form. What would men say of the other +Athenians? I have always admonished those who have frequented my +lectures, not to redeem their lives by an unbecoming action; and in the +wars of my country, at Amphipolis, Potidea, Delia, and other expeditions +where I have been, I have effectually manifested how far I was from +securing my safety by my shame. I should, moreover, compromise your +duty, and should invite you to unbecoming things; for 'tis not for my +prayers to persuade you, but for the pure and solid reasons of justice. +You have sworn to the gods to keep yourselves upright; and it would seem +as if I suspected you, or would recriminate upon you that I do not +believe that you are so; and I should testify against myself, not to +believe them as I ought, mistrusting their conduct, and not purely +committing my affair into their hands. I wholly rely upon them; and hold +myself assured they will do in this what shall be most fit both for you +and for me: good men, whether living or dead, have no reason to fear the +gods." + +Is not this an innocent child's pleading of an unimaginable loftiness, +true, frank, and just, unexampled?--and in what a necessity employed! +Truly, he had very good reason to prefer it before that which the great +orator Lysias had penned for him: admirably couched, indeed, in the +judiciary style, but unworthy of so noble a criminal. Had a suppliant +voice been heard out of the mouth of Socrates, that lofty virtue had +struck sail in the height of its glory; and ought his rich and powerful +nature to have committed her defence to art, and, in her highest proof, +have renounced truth and simplicity, the ornaments of his speaking, to +adorn and deck herself with the embellishments of figures and the +flourishes of a premeditated speech? He did very wisely, and like +himself, not to corrupt the tenor of an incorrupt life, and so sacred an +image of the human form, to spin out his decrepitude another year, and to +betray the immortal memory of that glorious end. He owed his life not to +himself, but to the example of the world; had it not been a public +damage, that he should have concluded it after a lazy and obscure manner? +Assuredly, that careless and indifferent consideration of his death +deserved that posterity should consider it so much the more, as indeed +they did; and there is nothing so just in justice than that which fortune +ordained for his recommendation; for the Athenians abominated all those +who had been causers of his death to such a degree, that they avoided +them as excommunicated persons, and looked upon everything as polluted +that had been touched by them; no one would wash with them in the public +baths, none would salute or own acquaintance with them: so that, at last, +unable longer to support this public hatred, they hanged themselves. + +If any one shall think that, amongst so many other examples that I had to +choose out of in the sayings of Socrates for my present purpose, I have +made an ill choice of this, and shall judge this discourse of his +elevated above common conceptions, I must tell them that I have properly +selected it; for I am of another opinion, and hold it to be a discourse, +in rank and simplicity, much below and behind common conceptions. He +represents, in an inartificial boldness and infantine security, the pure +and first impression and ignorance of nature; for it is to be believed +that we have naturally a fear of pain, but not of death, by reason of +itself; 'tis a part of our being, and no less essential than living. + +To what end should nature have begotten in us a hatred to it and a horror +of it, considering that it is of so great utility to her in maintaining +the succession and vicissitude of her works? and that in this universal +republic, it conduces more to birth and augmentation than to loss or +ruin? + + "Sic rerum summa novatur." + + "Mille animas una necata dedit." + +"The failing of one life is the passage to a thousand other lives." + +Nature has imprinted in beasts the care of themselves and of their +conservation; they proceed so far as hitting or hurting to be timorous of +being worse, of themselves, of our haltering and beating them, accidents +subject to their sense and experience; but that we should kill them, they +cannot fear, nor have they the faculty to imagine and conclude such a +thing as death; it is said, indeed, that we see them not only cheerfully +undergo it, horses for the most part neighing and swans singing when they +die, but, moreover, seek it at need, of which elephants have given many +examples. + +Besides, the method of arguing, of which Socrates here makes use, is it +not equally admirable both in simplicity and vehemence? Truly it is much +more easy to speak like Aristotle and to live like Caesar than to speak +and live as Socrates did; there lies the extreme degree of perfection and +difficulty; art cannot reach it. Now, our faculties are not so trained +up; we do not try, we do not know them; we invest ourselves with those of +others, and let our own lie idle; as some one may say of me, that I have +here only made a nosegay of foreign flowers, having furnished nothing of +my own but the thread to tie them. + +Certainly I have so far yielded to public opinion, that those borrowed +ornaments accompany me; but I do not mean that they shall cover me and +hide me; that is quite contrary to my design, who desire to make a show +of nothing but what is my own, and what is my own by nature; and had I +taken my own advice, I had at all hazards spoken purely alone, I more and +more load myself every day, + + [In fact, the first edition of the Essays (Bordeaux, 1580) has very + few quotations. These became more numerous in the edition of 1588; + but the multitude of classical texts which at times encumber + Montaigne's text, only dates from the posthumous edition of 1595, he + had made these collections in the four last years of his life, as an + amusement of his" idleness."--Le Clerc. They grow, however, more + sparing in the Third Book.] + +beyond my purpose and first method, upon the account of idleness and the +humour of the age. If it misbecome me, as I believe it does, 'tis no +matter; it may be of use to some others. Such there are who quote Plato +and Homer, who never saw either of them; and I also have taken things out +of places far enough distant from their source. Without pains and +without learning, having a thousand volumes about me in the place where I +write, I can presently borrow, if I please, from a dozen such scrap- +gatherers, people about whom I do not much trouble myself, wherewith to +trick up this treatise of Physiognomy; there needs no more but a +preliminary epistle of a German to stuff me with quotations. And so it +is we go in quest of a tickling story to cheat the foolish world. These +lumber pies of commonplaces, wherewith so many furnish their studies, are +of little use but to common subjects, and serve but to show us, and not +to direct us: a ridiculous fruit of learning, that Socrates so pleasantly +discusses against Euthydemus. I have seen books made of things that were +never either studied or understood; the author committing to several of +his learned friends the examination of this and t'other matter to compile +it, contenting himself, for his share, with having projected the design, +and by his industry to have tied together this faggot of unknown +provisions; the ink and paper, at least, are his. This is to buy or +borrow a book, and not to make one; 'tis to show men not that he can make +a book, but that, whereof they may be in doubt, he cannot make one. +A president, where I was, boasted that he had amassed together two +hundred and odd commonplaces in one of his judgments; in telling which, +he deprived himself of the glory he had got by it: in my opinion, a +pusillanimous and absurd vanity for such a subject and such a person. +I do the contrary; and amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can +steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service; at the hazard +of having it said that 'tis for want of understanding its natural use; +I give it some particular touch of my own hand, to the end it may not be +so absolutely foreign. These set their thefts in show and value +themselves upon them, and so have more credit with the laws than I have: +we naturalists I think that there is a great and incomparable preference +in the honour of invention over that of allegation. + +If I would have spoken by learning, I had spoken sooner; I had written of +the time nearer to my studies, when I had more wit and better memory, and +should sooner have trusted to the vigour of that age than of this, would +I have made a business of writing. And what if this gracious favour-- +[His acquaintance with Mademoiselle de Gournay.]--which Fortune has +lately offered me upon the account of this work, had befallen me in that +time of my life, instead of this, wherein 'tis equally desirable to +possess, soon to be lost! Two of my acquaintance, great men in this +faculty, have, in my opinion, lost half, in refusing to publish at forty +years old, that they might stay till threescore. Maturity has its +defects as well as green years, and worse; and old age is as unfit for +this kind of business as any other. He who commits his decrepitude to +the press plays the fool if he think to squeeze anything out thence that +does not relish of dreaming, dotage, and drivelling; the mind grows +costive and thick in growing old. I deliver my ignorance in pomp and +state, and my learning meagrely and poorly; this accidentally and +accessorily, that principally and expressly; and write specifically of +nothing but nothing, nor of any science but of that inscience. I have +chosen a time when my life, which I am to give an account of, lies wholly +before me; what remains has more to do with death; and of my death +itself, should I find it a prating death, as others do, I would willingly +give an account at my departure. + +Socrates was a perfect exemplar in all great qualities, and I am vexed +that he had so deformed a face and body as is said, and so unsuitable to +the beauty of his soul, himself being so amorous and such an admirer of +beauty: Nature did him wrong. There is nothing more probable than the +conformity and relation of the body to the soul: + + "Ipsi animi magni refert, quali in corpore locati sint: multo enim a + corpore existunt, qux acuant mentem: multa qua obtundant;" + + ["It is of great consequence in what bodies minds are placed, for + many things spring from the body that may sharpen the mind, and many + that may blunt it."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., i. 33.] + +this refers to an unnatural ugliness and deformity of limbs; but we call +ugliness also an unseemliness at first sight, which is principally lodged +in the face, and disgusts us on very slight grounds: by the complexion, a +spot, a rugged countenance, for some reasons often wholly inexplicable, +in members nevertheless of good symmetry and perfect. The deformity, +that clothed a very beautiful soul in La Boetie, was of this predicament: +that superficial ugliness, which nevertheless is always the most +imperious, is of least prejudice to the state of the mind, and of little +certainty in the opinion of men. The other, which is never properly +called deformity, being more substantial, strikes deeper in. Not every +shoe of smooth shining leather, but every shoe well-made, shews the shape +of the foot within. As Socrates said of his, it betrayed equal ugliness +in his soul, had he not corrected it by education; but in saying so, I +hold he was in jest, as his custom was; never so excellent a soul formed +itself. + +I cannot often enough repeat how great an esteem I have for beauty, that +potent and advantageous quality; he (La Boetie) called it "a short +tyranny," and Plato, "the privilege of nature." We have nothing that +excels it in reputation; it has the first place in the commerce of men; +it presents itself in the front; seduces and prepossesses our judgments +with great authority and wonderful impression. Phryne had lost her cause +in the hands of an excellent advocate, if, opening her robe, she had not +corrupted her judges by the lustre of her beauty. And I find that Cyrus, +Alexander, and Caesar, the three masters of the world, never neglected +beauty in their greatest affairs; no more did the first Scipio. The same +word in Greek signifies both fair and good; and the Holy Word often says +good when it means fair: I should willingly maintain the priority in good +things, according to the song that Plato calls an idle thing, taken out +of some ancient poet: "health, beauty, riches." Aristotle says that the +right of command appertains to the beautiful; and that, when there is a +person whose beauty comes near the images of the gods, veneration is +equally due to him. To him who asked why people oftener and longer +frequent the company of handsome persons: "That question," said he, "is +only to be asked by the blind." Most of the philosophers, and the +greatest, paid for their schooling, and acquired wisdom by the favour and +mediation of their beauty. Not only in the men that serve me, but also +in the beasts, I consider it within two fingers' breadth of goodness. + +And yet I fancy that those features and moulds of face, and those +lineaments, by which men guess at our internal complexions and our +fortunes to come, is a thing that does not very directly and simply lie +under the chapter of beauty and deformity, no more than every good odour +and serenity of air promises health, nor all fog and stink infection in a +time of pestilence. Such as accuse ladies of contradicting their beauty +by their manners, do not always hit right; for, in a face which is none +of the best, there may dwell some air of probity and trust; as, on the +contrary, I have read, betwixt two beautiful eyes, menaces of a dangerous +and malignant nature. There are favourable physiognomies, so that in a +crowd of victorious enemies, you shall presently choose, amongst men you +never saw before, one rather than another to whom to surrender, and with +whom to intrust your life; and yet not properly upon the consideration of +beauty. + +A person's look is but a feeble warranty; and yet it is something +considerable too; and if I had to lash them, I would most severely +scourge the wicked ones who belie and betray the promises that nature has +planted in their foreheads; I should with greater severity punish malice +under a mild and gentle aspect. It seems as if there were some lucky and +some unlucky faces; and I believe there is some art in distinguishing +affable from merely simple faces, severe from rugged, malicious from +pensive, scornful from melancholic, and such other bordering qualities. +There are beauties which are not only haughty, but sour, and others that +are not only gentle, but more than that, insipid; to prognosticate from +them future events is a matter that I shall leave undecided. + +I have, as I have said elsewhere as to my own concern, simply and +implicitly embraced this ancient rule, "That we cannot fail in following +Nature," and that the sovereign precept is to conform ourselves to her. +I have not, as Socrates did, corrected my natural composition by the +force of reason, and have not in the least disturbed my inclination by +art; I have let myself go as I came: I contend not; my two principal +parts live, of their own accord, in peace and good intelligence, but my +nurse's milk, thank God, was tolerably wholesome and good. Shall I say +this by the way, that I see in greater esteem than 'tis worth, and in use +solely among ourselves, a certain image of scholastic probity, a slave to +precepts, and fettered with hope and fear? I would have it such as that +laws and religions should not make, but perfect and authorise it; that +finds it has wherewithal to support itself without help, born and rooted +in us from the seed of universal reason, imprinted in every man by +nature. That reason which strengthens Socrates from his vicious bend +renders him obedient to the gods and men of authority in his city: +courageous in death, not because his soul is immortal, but because he is +mortal. 'Tis a doctrine ruinous to all government, and much more hurtful +than ingenious and subtle, which persuades the people that a religious +belief is alone sufficient, and without conduct, to satisfy the divine +justice. Use demonstrates to us a vast distinction betwixt devotion and +conscience. + +I have a favourable aspect, both in form and in interpretation: + + "Quid dixi, habere me? imo habui, Chreme." + + ["What did I say? that I have? no, Chremes, I had." + --Terence, Heaut., act i., sec. 2, v. 42.] + + "Heu! tantum attriti corporis ossa vides;" + + ["Alas! of a worn body thou seest only the bones"] + +and that makes a quite contrary show to that of Socrates. It has often +befallen me, that upon the mere credit of my presence and air, persons +who had no manner of knowledge of me have put a very great confidence in +me, whether in their own affairs or mine; and I have in foreign parts +thence obtained singular and rare favours. But the two following +examples are, peradventure, worth particular relation. A certain person +planned to surprise my house and me in it; his scheme was to come to my +gates alone, and to be importunate to be let in. I knew him by name, +and had fair reason to repose confidence in him, as being my neighbour +and something related to me. I caused the gates to be opened to him, +as I do to every one. There I found him, with every appearance of alarm, +his horse panting and very tired. He entertained me with this story: +"That, about half a league off, he had met with a certain enemy of his, +whom I also knew, and had heard of their quarrel; that his enemy had +given him a very brisk chase, and that having been surprised in disorder, +and his party being too weak, he had fled to my gates for refuge; +and that he was in great trouble for his followers, whom (he said) he +concluded to be all either dead or taken." I innocently did my best to +comfort, assure, and refresh him. Shortly after came four or five of his +soldiers, who presented themselves in the same countenance and affright, +to get in too; and after them more, and still more, very well mounted and +armed, to the number of five-and-twenty or thirty, pretending that they +had the enemy at their heels. This mystery began a little to awaken my +suspicion; I was not ignorant what an age I lived in, how much my house +might be envied, and I had several examples of others of my acquaintance +to whom a mishap of this sort had happened. But thinking there was +nothing to be got by having begun to do a courtesy, unless I went through +with it, and that I could not disengage myself from them without spoiling +all, I let myself go the most natural and simple way, as I always do, and +invited them all to come in. And in truth I am naturally very little +inclined to suspicion and distrust; I willingly incline towards excuse +and the gentlest interpretation; I take men according to the common +order, and do not more believe in those perverse and unnatural +inclinations, unless convinced by manifest evidence, than I do in +monsters and miracles; and I am, moreover, a man who willingly commit +myself to Fortune, and throw myself headlong into her arms; and I have +hitherto found more reason to applaud than to blame myself for so doing, +having ever found her more discreet about, and a greater friend to, my +affairs than I am myself. There are some actions in my life whereof the +conduct may justly be called difficult, or, if you please, prudent; of +these, supposing the third part to have been my own, doubtless the other +two-thirds were absolutely hers. We make, methinks, a mistake in that we +do not enough trust Heaven with our affairs, and pretend to more from our +own conduct than appertains to us; and therefore it is that our designs +so often miscarry. Heaven is jealous of the extent that we attribute to +the right of human prudence above its own, and cuts it all the shorter by +how much the more we amplify it. The last comers remained on horseback +in my courtyard, whilst their leader, who was with me in the parlour, +would not have his horse put up in the stable, saying he should +immediately retire, so soon as he had news of his men. He saw himself +master of his enterprise, and nothing now remained but its execution. +He has since several times said (for he was not ashamed to tell the story +himself) that my countenance and frankness had snatched the treachery out +of his hands. He again mounted his horse; his followers, who had their +eyes intent upon him, to see when he would give the signal, being very +much astonished to find him come away and leave his prey behind him. + +Another time, relying upon some truce just published in the army, I took +a journey through a very ticklish country. I had not ridden far, but I +was discovered, and two or three parties of horse, from various places, +were sent out to seize me; one of them overtook me on the third day, and +I was attacked by fifteen or twenty gentlemen in vizors, followed at a +distance by a band of foot-soldiers. I was taken, withdrawn into the +thick of a neighbouring forest, dismounted, robbed, my trunks rifled, my +money-box taken, and my horses and equipage divided amongst new masters. +We had, in this copse, a very long contest about my ransom, which they +set so high, that it was manifest that I was not known to them. They +were, moreover, in a very great debate about my life; and, in truth, +there were various circumstances that clearly showed the danger I was in: + + "Tunc animis opus, AEnea, tunc pectore firmo." + + ["Then, AEneas, there is need of courage, of a firm heart." + --AEneid, vi. 261.] + +I still insisted upon the truce, too willing they should have the gain of +what they had already taken from me, which was not to be despised, +without promise of any other ransom. After two or three hours that we +had been in this place, and that they had mounted me upon a horse that +was not likely to run from them, and committed me to the guard of fifteen +or twenty harquebusiers, and dispersed my servants to others, having +given order that they should carry us away prisoners several ways, and I +being already got some two or three musket-shots from the place, + + "Jam prece Pollucis, jam Castoris, implorata," + + ["By a prayer addressed now to Pollux, now to Castor." + --Catullus, lxvi. 65.] + +behold a sudden and unexpected alteration; I saw the chief return to me +with gentler language, making search amongst the troopers for my +scattered property, and causing as much as could be recovered to be +restored to me, even to my money-box; but the best present they made was +my liberty, for the rest did not much concern me at that time. The true +cause of so sudden a change, and of this reconsideration, without any +apparent impulse, and of so miraculous a repentance, in such a time, in a +planned and deliberate enterprise, and become just by usage (for, at the +first dash, I plainly confessed to them of what party I was, and whither +I was going), truly, I do not yet rightly understand. The most prominent +amongst them, who pulled off his vizor and told me his name, repeatedly +told me at the time, over and over again, that I owed my deliverance to +my countenance, and the liberty and boldness of my speech, that rendered +me unworthy of such a misadventure, and should secure me from its +repetition. 'Tis possible that the Divine goodness willed to make use of +this vain instrument for my preservation; and it, moreover, defended me +the next day from other and worse ambushes, of which these my assailants +had given me warning. The last of these two gentlemen is yet living +himself to tell the story; the first was killed not long ago. + +If my face did not answer for me, if men did not read in my eyes and in +my voice the innocence of intention, I had not lived so long without +quarrels and without giving offence, seeing the indiscreet whatever comes +into my head, and to judge so rashly of things. This way may, with +reason, appear uncivil, and ill adapted to our way of conversation; but +I have never met with any who judged it outrageous or malicious, or that +took offence at my liberty, if he had it from my own mouth; words +repeated have another kind of sound and sense. Nor do I hate any person; +and I am so slow to offend, that I cannot do it, even upon the account of +reason itself; and when occasion has required me to sentence criminals, +I have rather chosen to fail in point of justice than to do it: + + "Ut magis peccari nolim, quam satis animi + ad vindicanda peccata habeam." + + ["So that I had rather men should not commit faults than that I + should have sufficient courage to condemn them."---Livy, xxxix. 21.] + +Aristotle, 'tis said, was reproached for having been too merciful to a +wicked man: "I was indeed," said he, "merciful to the man, but not to his +wickedness." Ordinary judgments exasperate themselves to punishment by +the horror of the fact: but it cools mine; the horror of the first murder +makes me fear a second; and the deformity of the first cruelty makes me +abhor all imitation of it.' That may be applied to me, who am but a +Squire of Clubs, which was said of Charillus, king of Sparta: "He cannot +be good, seeing he is not evil even to the wicked." Or thus--for +Plutarch delivers it both these ways, as he does a thousand other things, +variously and contradictorily--"He must needs be good, because he is so +even to the wicked." Even as in lawful actions I dislike to employ +myself when for such as are displeased at it; so, to say the truth, in +unlawful things I do not make conscience enough of employing myself when +it is for such as are willing. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man should abhor lawsuits as much as he may +A person's look is but a feeble warranty +Accept all things we are not able to refute +Admiration is the foundation of all philosophy +Advantageous, too, a little to recede from one's right +All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice +Apt to promise something less than what I am able to do +As if anything were so common as ignorance +Authority of the number and antiquity of the witnesses +Best test of truth is the multitude of believers in a crowd +Books have not so much served me for instruction as exercise +Books of things that were never either studied or understood +Condemn the opposite affirmation equally +Courageous in death, not because his soul is immortal--Socrates +Death conduces more to birth and augmentation than to loss +Decree that says, "The court understands nothing of the matter" +Deformity of the first cruelty makes me abhor all imitation +Enters lightly into a quarrel is apt to go as lightly out of it +Establish this proposition by authority and huffing +Extend their anger and hatred beyond the dispute in question +Fabric goes forming and piling itself up from hand to hand +Fortune heaped up five or six such-like incidents +Hard to resolve a man's judgment against the common opinions +Haste trips up its own heels, fetters, and stops itself +He cannot be good, seeing he is not evil even to the wicked +He who stops not the start will never be able to stop the course +"How many things," said he, "I do not desire!" +How much easier is it not to enter in than it is to get out +I am a little tenderly distrustful of things that I wish +I am no longer in condition for any great change +I am not to be cuffed into belief +I am plain and heavy, and stick to the solid and the probable +I do not judge opinions by years +I ever justly feared to raise my head too high +I would as willingly be lucky as wise +If I stand in need of anger and inflammation, I borrow it +If they hear no noise, they think men sleep +Impose them upon me as infallible +Inconveniences that moderation brings (in civil war) +Lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself +Let not us seek illusions from without and unknown +"Little learning is needed to form a sound mind."--Seneca +Long toleration begets habit; habit, consent and imitation +Men are not always to rely upon the personal confessions +Merciful to the man, but not to his wickedness--Aristotle +Miracles and strange events have concealed themselves from me +My humour is no friend to tumult +Nosegay of foreign flowers, having furnished nothing of my own +Not believe from one, I should not believe from a hundred +Nothing is so supple and erratic as our understanding +Number of fools so much exceeds the wise +Opinions we have are taken on authority and trust +Others adore all of their own side +Pitiful ways and expedients to the jugglers of the law +Prepare ourselves against the preparations of death +Profession of knowledge and their immeasurable self-conceit +Quiet repose and a profound sleep without dreams +Reasons often anticipate the effect +Refusin to justify, excuse, or explain myself +Remotest witness knows more about it than those who were nearest +Restoring what has been lent us, wit usury and accession +Richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow +Right of command appertains to the beautiful-Aristotle +Rude and quarrelsome flatly to deny a stated fact +Suffer my judgment to be made captive by prepossession +Swell and puff up their souls, and their natural way of speaking +Taught to be afraid of professing our ignorance +The last informed is better persuaded than the first +The mind grows costive and thick in growing old +The particular error first makes the public error +Their souls seek repose in agitation +They gently name them, so they patiently endure them (diseases) +Those oppressed with sorrow sometimes surprised by a smile +Threats of the day of judgment +Tis better to lean towards doubt than assurance--Augustine +Tis no matter; it may be of use to some others +To forbear doing is often as generous as to do +To kill men, a clear and strong light is required +Too contemptible to be punished +True liberty is to be able to do what a man will with himself +Vast distinction betwixt devotion and conscience +We have naturally a fear of pain, but not of death +What did I say? that I have? no, Chremes, I had +Who discern no riches but in pomp and show +Whoever will be cured of ignorance must confess it +Would have every one in his party blind or a blockhead +Wrong the just side when they go about to assist it with fraud +Yet at least for ambition's sake, let us reject ambition + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V18 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 19. + +XIII. Of Experience. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +OF EXPERIENCE + +There is no desire more natural than that of knowledge. We try all ways +that can lead us to it; where reason is wanting, we therein employ +experience, + + "Per varios usus artem experientia fecit, + Exemplo monstrante viam," + + ["By various trials experience created art, example shewing the + way."--Manilius, i. 59.] + +which is a means much more weak and cheap; but truth is so great a thing +that we ought not to disdain any mediation that will guide us to it. +Reason has so many forms that we know not to which to take; experience +has no fewer; the consequence we would draw from the comparison of events +is unsure, by reason they are always unlike. There is no quality so +universal in this image of things as diversity and variety. Both the +Greeks and the Latins and we, for the most express example of similitude, +employ that of eggs; and yet there have been men, particularly one at +Delphos, who could distinguish marks of difference amongst eggs so well +that he never mistook one for another, and having many hens, could tell +which had laid it. + +Dissimilitude intrudes itself of itself in our works; no art can arrive +at perfect similitude: neither Perrozet nor any other can so carefully +polish and blanch the backs of his cards that some gamesters will not +distinguish them by seeing them only shuffled by another. Resemblance +does not so much make one as difference makes another. Nature has +obliged herself to make nothing other that was not unlike. + +And yet I am not much pleased with his opinion, who thought by the +multitude of laws to curb the authority of judges in cutting out for them +their several parcels; he was not aware that there is as much liberty and +latitude in the interpretation of laws as in their form; and they but +fool themselves, who think to lessen and stop our disputes by recalling +us to the express words of the Bible: forasmuch as our mind does not find +the field less spacious wherein to controvert the sense of another than +to deliver his own; and as if there were less animosity and tartness in +commentary than in invention. We see how much he was mistaken, for we +have more laws in France than all the rest of the world put together, and +more than would be necessary for the government of all the worlds of +Epicurus: + + "Ut olim flagitiis, sic nunc legibus, laboramus." + + ["As we were formerly by crimes, so we are now overburdened by + laws."--Tacitus, Annal., iii. 25.] + +and yet we have left so much to the opinions and decisions of our judges +that there never was so full a liberty or so full a license. What have +our legislators gained by culling out a hundred thousand particular +cases, and by applying to these a hundred thousand laws? This number +holds no manner of proportion with the infinite diversity of human +actions; the multiplication of our inventions will never arrive at the +variety of examples; add to these a hundred times as many more, it will +still not happen that, of events to come, there shall one be found that, +in this vast number of millions of events so chosen and recorded, shall +so tally with any other one, and be so exactly coupled and matched with +it that there will not remain some circumstance and diversity which will +require a diverse judgment. There is little relation betwixt our +actions, which are in perpetual mutation, and fixed and immutable laws; +the most to be desired are those that are the most rare, the most simple +and general; and I am even of opinion that we had better have none at all +than to have them in so prodigious a number as we have. + +Nature always gives them better and happier than those we make ourselves; +witness the picture of the Golden Age of the Poets and the state wherein +we see nations live who have no other. Some there are, who for their +only judge take the first passer-by that travels along their mountains, +to determine their cause; and others who, on their market day, choose out +some one amongst them upon the spot to decide their controversies. What +danger would there be that the wisest amongst us should so determine +ours, according to occurrences and at sight, without obligation of +example and consequence? For every foot its own shoe. King Ferdinand, +sending colonies to the Indies, wisely provided that they should not +carry along with them any students of jurisprudence, for fear lest suits +should get footing in that new world, as being a science in its own +nature, breeder of altercation and division; judging with Plato, "that +lawyers and physicians are bad institutions of a country." + +Whence does it come to pass that our common language, so easy for all +other uses, becomes obscure and unintelligible in wills and contracts? +and that he who so clearly expresses himself in whatever else he speaks +or writes, cannot find in these any way of declaring himself that does +not fall into doubt and contradiction? if it be not that the princes of +that art, applying themselves with a peculiar attention to cull out +portentous words and to contrive artificial sentences, have so weighed +every syllable, and so thoroughly sifted every sort of quirking +connection that they are now confounded and entangled in the infinity of +figures and minute divisions, and can no more fall within any rule or +prescription, nor any certain intelligence: + + "Confusum est, quidquid usque in pulverem sectum est." + + ["Whatever is beaten into powder is undistinguishable (confused)." + --Seneca, Ep., 89.] + +As you see children trying to bring a mass of quicksilver to a certain +number of parts, the more they press and work it and endeavour to reduce +it to their own will, the more they irritate the liberty of this generous +metal; it evades their endeavour and sprinkles itself into so many +separate bodies as frustrate all reckoning; so is it here, for in +subdividing these subtilties we teach men to increase their doubts; they +put us into a way of extending and diversifying difficulties, and +lengthen and disperse them. In sowing and retailing questions they make +the world fructify and increase in uncertainties and disputes, as the +earth is made fertile by being crumbled and dug deep. + + "Difficultatem facit doctrina." + + ["Learning (Doctrine) begets difficulty." + --Quintilian, Insat. Orat., x. 3.] + +We doubted of Ulpian, and are still now more perplexed with Bartolus and +Baldus. We should efface the trace of this innumerable diversity of +opinions; not adorn ourselves with it, and fill posterity with crotchets. +I know not what to say to it; but experience makes it manifest, that so +many interpretations dissipate truth and break it. Aristotle wrote to be +understood; if he could not do this, much less will another that is not +so good at it; and a third than he, who expressed his own thoughts. We +open the matter, and spill it in pouring out: of one subject we make a +thousand, and in multiplying and subdividing them, fall again into the +infinity of atoms of Epicurus. Never did two men make the same judgment +of the same thing; and 'tis impossible to find two opinions exactly +alike, not only in several men, but in the same man, at diverse hours. +I often find matter of doubt in things of which the commentary has +disdained to take notice; I am most apt to stumble in an even country, +like some horses that I have known, that make most trips in the smoothest +way. + +Who will not say that glosses augment doubts and ignorance, since there's +no book to be found, either human or divine, which the world busies +itself about, whereof the difficulties are cleared by interpretation. +The hundredth commentator passes it on to the next, still more knotty and +perplexed than he found it. When were we ever agreed amongst ourselves: +"This book has enough; there is now no more to be said about it"? This +is most apparent in the law; we give the authority of law to infinite +doctors, infinite decrees, and as many interpretations; yet do we find +any end of the need of interpretating? is there, for all that, any +progress or advancement towards peace, or do we stand in need of any +fewer advocates and judges than when this great mass of law was yet in +its first infancy? On the contrary, we darken and bury intelligence; we +can no longer discover it, but at the mercy of so many fences and +barriers. Men do not know the natural disease of the mind; it does +nothing but ferret and inquire, and is eternally wheeling, juggling, and +perplexing itself like silkworms, and then suffocates itself in its work; +"Mus in pice."--[" A mouse in a pitch barrel."]--It thinks it discovers +at a great distance, I know not what glimpses of light and imaginary +truth: but whilst running to it, so many difficulties, hindrances, and +new inquisitions cross it, that it loses its way, and is made drunk with +the motion: not much unlike AEsop's dogs, that seeing something like a +dead body floating in the sea, and not being able to approach it, set to +work to drink the water and lay the passage dry, and so choked +themselves. To which what one Crates' said of the writings of Heraclitus +falls pat enough, "that they required a reader who could swim well," so +that the depth and weight of his learning might not overwhelm and stifle +him. 'Tis nothing but particular weakness that makes us content with +what others or ourselves have found out in this chase after knowledge: +one of better understanding will not rest so content; there is always +room for one to follow, nay, even for ourselves; and another road; there +is no end of our inquisitions; our end is in the other world. 'Tis a +sign either that the mind has grown shortsighted when it is satisfied, or +that it has got weary. No generous mind can stop in itself; it will +still tend further and beyond its power; it has sallies beyond its +effects; if it do not advance and press forward, and retire, and rush and +wheel about, 'tis but half alive; its pursuits are without bound or +method; its aliment is admiration, the chase, ambiguity, which Apollo +sufficiently declared in always speaking to us in a double, obscure, and +oblique sense: not feeding, but amusing and puzzling us. 'Tis an +irregular and perpetual motion, without model and without aim; its +inventions heat, pursue, and interproduce one another: + +Estienne de la Boetie; thus translated by Cotton: + + "So in a running stream one wave we see + After another roll incessantly, + And as they glide, each does successively + Pursue the other, each the other fly + By this that's evermore pushed on, and this + By that continually preceded is: + The water still does into water swill, + Still the same brook, but different water still." + +There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, +and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we do nothing but +comment upon one another. Every place swarms with commentaries; of +authors there is great scarcity. Is it not the principal and most +reputed knowledge of our later ages to understand the learned? Is it not +the common and final end of all studies? Our opinions are grafted upon +one another; the first serves as a stock to the second, the second to the +third, and so forth; thus step by step we climb the ladder; whence it +comes to pass that he who is mounted highest has often more honour than +merit, for he is got up but an inch upon the shoulders of the last, but +one. + +How often, and, peradventure, how foolishly, have I extended my book to +make it speak of itself; foolishly, if for no other reason but this, that +it should remind me of what I say of others who do the same: that the +frequent amorous glances they cast upon their work witness that their +hearts pant with self-love, and that even the disdainful severity +wherewith they scourge them are but the dandlings and caressings of +maternal love; as Aristotle, whose valuing and undervaluing himself often +spring from the same air of arrogance. My own excuse is, that I ought in +this to have more liberty than others, forasmuch as I write specifically +of myself and of my writings, as I do of my other actions; that my theme +turns upon itself; but I know not whether others will accept this excuse. + +I observed in Germany that Luther has left as many divisions and disputes +about the doubt of his opinions, and more, than he himself raised upon +the Holy Scriptures. Our contest is verbal: I ask what nature is, what +pleasure, circle, and substitution are? the question is about words, and +is answered accordingly. A stone is a body; but if a man should further +urge: "And what is a body?"--"Substance"; "And what is substance?" and +so on, he would drive the respondent to the end of his Calepin. + + [Calepin (Ambrogio da Calepio), a famous lexicographer of the + fifteenth century. His Polyglot Dictionary became so famous, that + Calepin became a common appellation for a lexicon] + +We exchange one word for another, and often for one less understood. +I better know what man is than I know what Animal is, or Mortal, or +Rational. To satisfy one doubt, they give me three; 'tis the Hydra's +head. Socrates asked Menon, "What virtue was." "There is," says Menon, +"the virtue of a man and of a woman, of a magistrate and of a private +person, of an old man and of a child." "Very fine," cried Socrates, +"we were in quest of one virtue, and thou hast brought us a whole +swarm." We put one question, and they return us a whole hive. As no +event, no face, entirely resembles another, so do they not entirely +differ: an ingenious mixture of nature. If our faces were not alike, we +could not distinguish man from beast; if they were not unlike, we could +not distinguish one man from another; all things hold by some similitude; +every example halts, and the relation which is drawn from experience is +always faulty and imperfect. Comparisons are ever-coupled at one end or +other: so do the laws serve, and are fitted to every one of our affairs, +by some wrested, biassed, and forced interpretation. + +Since the ethic laws, that concern the particular duty of every one in +himself, are so hard to be framed, as we see they are, 'tis no wonder if +those which govern so many particulars are much more so. Do but consider +the form of this justice that governs us; 'tis a true testimony of human +weakness, so full is it of error and contradiction. What we find to be +favour and severity in justice--and we find so much of them both, that I +know not whether the medium is as often met with are sickly and unjust +members of the very body and essence of justice. Some country people +have just brought me news in great haste, that they presently left in a +forest of mine a man with a hundred wounds upon him, who was yet +breathing, and begged of them water for pity's sake, and help to carry +him to some place of relief; they tell me they durst not go near him, but +have run away, lest the officers of justice should catch them there; and +as happens to those who are found near a murdered person, they should be +called in question about this accident, to their utter ruin, having +neither money nor friends to defend their innocence. What could I have +said to these people? 'Tis certain that this office of humanity would +have brought them into trouble. + +How many innocent people have we known that have been punished, and this +without the judge's fault; and how many that have not arrived at our +knowledge? This happened in my time: certain men were condemned to die +for a murder committed; their sentence, if not pronounced, at least +determined and concluded on. The judges, just in the nick, are informed +by the officers of an inferior court hard by, that they have some men in +custody, who have directly confessed the murder, and made an indubitable +discovery of all the particulars of the fact. Yet it was gravely +deliberated whether or not they ought to suspend the execution of the +sentence already passed upon the first accused: they considered the +novelty of the example judicially, and the consequence of reversing +judgments; that the sentence was passed, and the judges deprived of +repentance; and in the result, these poor devils were sacrificed by the +forms of justice. Philip, or some other, provided against a like +inconvenience after this manner. He had condemned a man in a great fine +towards another by an absolute judgment. The truth some time after being +discovered, he found that he had passed an unjust sentence. On one side +was the reason of the cause; on the other side, the reason of the +judicial forms: he in some sort satisfied both, leaving the sentence in +the state it was, and out of his own purse recompensing the condemned +party. But he had to do with a reparable affair; my men were irreparably +hanged. How many condemnations have I seen more criminal than the crimes +themselves? + +All which makes me remember the ancient opinions, "That 'tis of necessity +a man must do wrong by retail who will do right in gross; and injustice +in little things, who would come to do justice in great: that human +justice is formed after the model of physic, according to which, all that +is useful is also just and honest: and of what is held by the Stoics, +that Nature herself proceeds contrary to justice in most of her works: +and of what is received by the Cyrenaics, that there is nothing just of +itself, but that customs and laws make justice: and what the Theodorians +held that theft, sacrilege, and all sorts of uncleanness, are just in a +sage, if he knows them to be profitable to him." There is no remedy: I +am in the same case that Alcibiades was, that I will never, if I can help +it, put myself into the hands of a man who may determine as to my head, +where my life and honour shall more depend upon the skill and diligence +of my attorney than on my own innocence. I would venture myself with +such justice as would take notice of my good deeds, as well as my ill; +where I had as much to hope as to fear: indemnity is not sufficient pay +to a man who does better than not to do amiss. Our justice presents to +us but one hand, and that the left hand, too; let him be who he may, he +shall be sure to come off with loss. + +In China, of which kingdom the government and arts, without commerce with +or knowledge of ours, surpass our examples in several excellent features, +and of which the history teaches me how much greater and more various the +world is than either the ancients or we have been able to penetrate, the +officers deputed by the prince to visit the state of his provinces, as +they punish those who behave themselves ill in their charge, so do they +liberally reward those who have conducted themselves better than the +common sort, and beyond the necessity of their duty; these there present +themselves, not only to be approved but to get; not simply to be paid, +but to have a present made to them. + +No judge, thank God, has ever yet spoken to me in the quality of a judge, +upon any account whatever, whether my own or that of a third party, +whether criminal or civil; nor no prison has ever received me, not even +to walk there. Imagination renders the very outside of a jail +displeasing to me; I am so enamoured of liberty, that should I be +interdicted the access to some corner of the Indies, I should live a +little less at my ease; and whilst I can find earth or air open +elsewhere, I shall never lurk in any place where I must hide myself. +My God! how ill should I endure the condition wherein I see so many +people, nailed to a corner of the kingdom, deprived of the right to enter +the principal cities and courts, and the liberty of the public roads, +for having quarrelled with our laws. If those under which I live should +shake a finger at me by way of menace, I would immediately go seek out +others, let them be where they would. All my little prudence in the +civil wars wherein we are now engaged is employed that they may not +hinder my liberty of going and coming. + +Now, the laws keep up their credit, not for being just, but because they +are laws; 'tis the mystic foundation of their authority; they have no +other, and it well answers their purpose. They are often made by fools, +still oftener by men who, out of hatred to equality, fail in equity, but +always by men, vain and irresolute authors. There is nothing so much, +nor so grossly, nor so ordinarily faulty, as the laws. Whoever obeys +them because they are just, does not justly obey them as he ought. Our +French laws, by their irregularity and deformity, lend, in some sort, a +helping hand to the disorder and corruption that all manifest in their +dispensation and execution: the command is so perplexed and inconstant, +that it in some sort excuses alike disobedience and defect in the +interpretation, the administration and the observation of it. What fruit +then soever we may extract from experience, that will little advantage +our institution, which we draw from foreign examples, if we make so +little profit of that we have of our own, which is more familiar to us, +and, doubtless, sufficient to instruct us in that whereof we have need. +I study myself more than any other subject; 'tis my metaphysic, my +physic: + + "Quis deus hanc mundi temperet arte domum: + Qua venit exoriens, qua deficit: unde coactis + Cornibus in plenum menstrua luna redit + Unde salo superant venti, quid flamine captet + Eurus, et in nubes unde perennis aqua; + Sit ventura dies mundi quae subruat arces...." + + + ["What god may govern with skill this dwelling of the world? whence + rises the monthly moon, whither wanes she? how is it that her horns + are contracted and reopen? whence do winds prevail on the main? + what does the east wind court with its blasts? and whence are the + clouds perpetually supplied with water? is a day to come which may + undermine the world?"--Propertius, iii. 5, 26.] + + "Quaerite, quos agitat mundi labor." + + ["Ask whom the cares of the world trouble"--Lucan, i. 417.] + +In this universality, I suffer myself to be ignorantly and negligently +led by the general law of the world: I shall know it well enough when I +feel it; my learning cannot make it alter its course; it will not change +itself for me; 'tis folly to hope it, and a greater folly to concern +one's self about it, seeing it is necessarily alike public and common. +The goodness and capacity of the governor ought absolutely to discharge +us of all care of the government: philosophical inquisitions and +contemplations serve for no other use but to increase our curiosity. +The philosophers; with great reason, send us back to the rules of nature; +but they have nothing to do with so sublime a knowledge; they falsify +them, and present us her face painted with too high and too adulterate a +complexion, whence spring so many different pictures of so uniform a +subject. As she has given us feet to walk with, so has she given us +prudence to guide us in life: not so ingenious, robust, and pompous a +prudence as that of their invention; but yet one that is easy, quiet, and +salutary, and that very well performs what the other promises, in him who +has the good luck to know how to employ it sincerely and regularly, that +is to say, according to nature. The most simply to commit one's self to +nature is to do it most wisely. Oh, what a soft, easy, and wholesome +pillow is ignorance and incuriosity, whereon to repose a well-ordered +head! + +I had rather understand myself well in myself, than in Cicero. Of the +experience I have of myself, I find enough to make me wise, if I were but +a good scholar: whoever will call to mind the excess of his past anger, +and to what a degree that fever transported him, will see the deformity +of this passion better than in Aristotle, and conceive a more just hatred +against it; whoever will remember the ills he has undergone, those that +have threatened him, and the light occasions that have removed him from +one state to another, will by that prepare himself for future changes, +and the knowledge of his condition. The life of Caesar has no greater +example for us than our own: though popular and of command, 'tis still a +life subject to all human accidents. Let us but listen to it; we apply +to ourselves all whereof we have principal need; whoever shall call to +memory how many and many times he has been mistaken in his own judgment, +is he not a great fool if he does not ever after suspect it? When I find +myself convinced, by the reason of another, of a false opinion, I do not +so much learn what he has said to me that is new and the particular +ignorance--that would be no great acquisition--as, in general, I learn my +own debility and the treachery of my understanding, whence I extract the +reformation of the whole mass. In all my other errors I do the same, and +find from this rule great utility to life; I regard not the species and +individual as a stone that I have stumbled at; I learn to suspect my +steps throughout, and am careful to place them right. To learn that a +man has said or done a foolish thing is nothing: a man must learn that he +is nothing but a fool, a much more ample, and important instruction. The +false steps that my memory has so often made, even then when it was most +secure and confident of itself, are not idly thrown away; it vainly +swears and assures me I shake my ears; the first opposition that is made +to its testimony puts me into suspense, and I durst not rely upon it in +anything of moment, nor warrant it in another person's concerns: and were +it not that what I do for want of memory, others do more often for want +of good faith, I should always, in matter of fact, rather choose to take +the truth from another's mouth than from my own. If every one would pry +into the effects and circumstances of the passions that sway him, as I +have done into those which I am most subject to, he would see them +coming, and would a little break their impetuosity and career; they do +not always seize us on a sudden; there is threatening and degrees + + "Fluctus uti primo coepit cum albescere vento, + Paulatim sese tollit mare, et altius undas + Erigit, inde imo consurgit ad aethera fundo." + + ["As with the first wind the sea begins to foam, and swells, thence + higher swells, and higher raises the waves, till the ocean rises + from its depths to the sky."--AEneid, vii. 528.] + +Judgment holds in me a magisterial seat; at least it carefully endeavours +to make it so: it leaves my appetites to take their own course, hatred +and friendship, nay, even that I bear to myself, without change or +corruption; if it cannot reform the other parts according to its own +model, at least it suffers not itself to be corrupted by them, but plays +its game apart. + +The advice to every one, "to know themselves," should be of important +effect, since that god of wisdom and light' caused it to be written on +the front of his temple,--[At Delphi]--as comprehending all he had to +advise us. Plato says also, that prudence is no other thing than the +execution of this ordinance; and Socrates minutely verifies it in +Xenophon. The difficulties and obscurity are not discerned in any +science but by those who are got into it; for a certain degree of +intelligence is required to be able to know that a man knows not, and we +must push against a door to know whether it be bolted against us or no: +whence this Platonic subtlety springs, that "neither they who know are to +enquire, forasmuch as they know; nor they who do not know, forasmuch as +to inquire they must know what they inquire of. So in this, "of knowing +a man's self," that every man is seen so resolved and satisfied with +himself, that every man thinks himself sufficiently intelligent, +signifies that every one knows nothing about the matter; as Socrates +gives Euthydemus to understand. I, who profess nothing else, therein +find so infinite a depth and variety, that all the fruit I have reaped +from my learning serves only to make me sensible how much I have to +learn. To my weakness, so often confessed, I owe the propension I have +to modesty, to the obedience of belief prescribed me, to a constant +coldness and moderation of opinions, and a hatred of that troublesome and +wrangling arrogance, wholly believing and trusting in itself, the capital +enemy of discipline and truth. Do but hear them domineer; the first +fopperies they utter, 'tis in the style wherewith men establish religions +and laws: + + "Nihil est turpius, quam cognitioni et perceptions + assertionem approbationemque praecurrere." + + ["Nothing is worse than that assertion and decision should precede + knowledge and perception."--Cicero, Acad., i. 13.] + +Aristarchus said that anciently there were scarce seven sages to be found +in the world, and in his time scarce so many fools: have not we more +reason than he to say so in this age of ours? Affirmation and obstinacy +are express signs of want of wit. This fellow may have knocked his nose +against the ground a hundred times in a day, yet he will be at his Ergo's +as resolute and sturdy as before. You would say he had had some new soul +and vigour of understanding infused into him since, and that it happened +to him, as to that ancient son of the earth, who took fresh courage and +vigour by his fall; + + "Cui cum tetigere parentem, + jam defecta vigent renovata robore membra:" + + ["Whose broken limbs, when they touched his mother earth, + immediately new force acquired."--Lucan, iv. 599.] + +does not this incorrigible coxcomb think that he assumes a new +understanding by undertaking a new dispute? 'Tis by my own experience +that I accuse human ignorance, which is, in my opinion, the surest part +of the world's school. Such as will not conclude it in themselves, by so +vain an example as mine, or their own, let them believe it from Socrates, +the master of masters; for the philosopher Antisthenes said to his +disciples, "Let us go and hear Socrates; there I will be a pupil with you"; +and, maintaining this doctrine of the Stoic sect, "that virtue was +sufficient to make a life completely happy, having no need of any other +thing whatever"; except of the force of Socrates, added he. + +That long attention that I employ in considering myself, also fits rile +to judge tolerably enough of others; and there are few things whereof I +speak better and with better excuse. I happen very often more exactly to +see and distinguish the qualities of my friends than they do themselves: +I have astonished some with the pertinence of my description, and have +given them warning of themselves. By having from my infancy been +accustomed to contemplate my own life in those of others, I have acquired +a complexion studious in that particular; and when I am once interit upon +it, I let few things about me, whether countenances, humours, +or discourses, that serve to that purpose, escape me. I study all, +both what I am to avoid and what I am to follow. Also in my friends, +I discover by their productions their inward inclinations; not by +arranging this infinite variety of so diverse and unconnected actions +into certain species and chapters, and distinctly distributing my parcels +and divisions under known heads and classes; + + "Sed neque quam multae species, nec nomina quae sint, + Est numerus." + + ["But neither can we enumerate how many kinds there what are their + names."--Virgil, Georg., ii. 103.] + +The wise speak and deliver their fancies more specifically, and piece by +piece; I, who see no further into things than as use informs me, present +mine generally without rule and experimentally: I pronounce my opinion by +disjointed articles, as a thing that cannot be spoken at once and in +gross; relation and conformity are not to be found in such low and common +souls as ours. Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every +piece keeps its place and bears its mark: + + "Sola sapientia in se tota conversa est." + + ["Wisdom only is wholly within itself"--Cicero, De Fin., iii. 7.] + +I leave it to artists, and I know not whether or no they will be able to +bring it about, in so perplexed, minute, and fortuitous a thing, to +marshal into distinct bodies this infinite diversity of faces, to settle +our inconstancy, and set it in order. I do not only find it hard to +piece our actions to one another, but I moreover find it hard properly to +design each by itself by any principal quality, so ambiguous and variform +they are with diverse lights. That which is remarked for rare in +Perseus, king of Macedon, "that his mind, fixing itself to no one +condition, wandered in all sorts of living, and represented manners so +wild and erratic that it was neither known to himself or any other what +kind of man he was," seems almost to fit all the world; and, especially, +I have seen another of his make, to whom I think this conclusion might +more properly be applied; no moderate settledness, still running headlong +from one extreme to another, upon occasions not to be guessed at; no line +of path without traverse and wonderful contrariety: no one quality simple +and unmixed; so that the best guess men can one day make will be, that he +affected and studied to make himself known by being not to be known. A +man had need have sound ears to hear himself frankly criticised; and as +there are few who can endure to hear it without being nettled, those who +hazard the undertaking it to us manifest a singular effect of friendship; +for 'tis to love sincerely indeed, to venture to wound and offend us, for +our own good. I think it harsh to judge a man whose ill qualities are +more than his good ones: Plato requires three things in him who will +examine the soul of another: knowledge, benevolence, boldness. + +I was sometimes asked, what I should have thought myself fit for, had any +one designed to make use of me, while I was of suitable years: + + "Dum melior vires sanguis dabat, aemula necdum + Temporibus geminis canebat sparsa senectus:" + + ["Whilst better blood gave me vigour, and before envious old age + whitened and thinned my temples."--AEneid, V. 415.] + +"for nothing," said I; and I willingly excuse myself from knowing +anything which enslaves me to others. But I had told the truth to my +master,--[Was this Henri VI.? D.W.]--and had regulated his manners, if +he had so pleased, not in gross, by scholastic lessons, which I +understand not, and from which I see no true reformation spring in those +that do; but by observing them by leisure, at all opportunities, and +simply and naturally judging them as an eye-witness, distinctly one by +one; giving him to understand upon what terms he was in the common +opinion, in opposition to his flatterers. There is none of us who would +not be worse than kings, if so continually corrupted as they are with +that sort of canaille. How, if Alexander, that great king and +philosopher, cannot defend himself from them! + +I should have had fidelity, judgment, and freedom enough for that +purpose. It would be a nameless office, otherwise it would lose its +grace and its effect; and 'tis a part that is not indifferently fit for +all men; for truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times +and indiscriminately; its use, noble as it is, has its circumspections +and limits. It often falls out, as the world goes, that a man lets it +slip into the ear of a prince, not only to no purpose, but moreover +injuriously and unjustly; and no man shall make me believe that a +virtuous remonstrance may not be viciously applied, and that the interest +of the substance is not often to give way to that of the form. + +For such a purpose, I would have a man who is content with his own +fortune: + + "Quod sit, esse velit, nihilque malit," + + ["Who is pleased with what he is and desires nothing further." + --Martial, x. ii, 18.] + +and of moderate station; forasmuch as, on the one hand, he would not be +afraid to touch his master's heart to the quick, for fear by that means +of losing his preferment: and, on the other hand, being of no high +quality, he would have more easy communication with all sorts of people. +I would have this office limited to only one person; for to allow the +privilege of his liberty and privacy to many, would beget an inconvenient +irreverence; and of that one, I would above all things require the +fidelity of silence. + +A king is not to be believed when he brags of his constancy in standing +the shock of the enemy for his glory, if for his profit and amendment he +cannot stand the liberty of a friend's advice, which has no other power +but to pinch his ear, the remainder of its effect being still in his own +hands. Now, there is no condition of men whatever who stand in so great +need of true and free advice and warning, as they do: they sustain a +public life, and have to satisfy the opinion of so many spectators, that, +as those about them conceal from them whatever should divert them from +their own way, they insensibly find themselves involved in the hatred and +detestation of their people, often upon occasions which they might have +avoided without any prejudice even of their pleasures themselves, had +they been advised and set right in time. Their favourites commonly have +more regard to themselves than to their master; and indeed it answers +with them, forasmuch as, in truth, most offices of real friendship, when +applied to the sovereign, are under a rude and dangerous hazard, so that +therein there is great need, not only of very great affection and +freedom, but of courage too. + +In fine, all this hodge-podge which I scribble here, is nothing but a +register of the essays of my own life, which, for the internal soundness, +is exemplary enough to take instruction against the grain; but as to +bodily health, no man can furnish out more profitable experience than I, +who present it pure, and no way corrupted and changed by art or opinion. +Experience is properly upon its own dunghill in the subject of physic, +where reason wholly gives it place: Tiberius said that whoever had lived +twenty years ought to be responsible to himself for all things that were +hurtful or wholesome to him, and know how to order himself without +physic; + + [All that Suetonius says in his Life of Tiberius is that this + emperor, after he was thirty years old, governed his health without + the aid of physicians; and what Plutarch tells us, in his essay on + the Rules and Precepts of Health, is that Tiberius said that the man + who, having attained sixty years, held out his pulse to a physician + was a fool.] + +and he might have learned it of Socrates, who, advising his disciples to +be solicitous of their health as a chief study, added that it was hard if +a man of sense, having a care to his exercise and diet, did not better +know than any physician what was good or ill for him. And physic itself +professes always to have experience for the test of its operations: so +Plato had reason to say that, to be a right physician, it would be +necessary that he who would become such, should first himself have passed +through all the diseases he pretends to cure, and through all the +accidents and circumstances whereof he is to judge. 'Tis but reason they +should get the pox, if they will know how to cure it; for my part, +I should put myself into such hands; the others but guide us, like him +who paints seas and rocks and ports sitting at table, and there makes the +model of a ship sailing in all security; but put him to the work itself, +he knows not at which end to begin. They make such a description of our +maladies as a town crier does of a lost horse or dog--such a color, such +a height, such an ear--but bring it to him and he knows it not, for all +that. If physic should one day give me some good and visible relief, +then truly I will cry out in good earnest: + + "Tandem effcaci do manus scientiae." + + ["Show me and efficacious science, and I will take it by the hand." + --Horace, xvii. I.] + +The arts that promise to keep our bodies and souls in health promise a +great deal; but, withal, there are none that less keep their promise. +And, in our time, those who make profession of these arts amongst us, +less manifest the effects than any other sort of men; one may say of +them, at the most, that they sell medicinal drugs; but that they are +physicians, a man cannot say. + + [The edition of 1588 adds: "Judging by themselves, and those + who are ruled by them."] + +I have lived long enough to be able to give an account of the custom that +has carried me so far; for him who has a mind to try it, as his taster, +I have made the experiment. Here are some of the articles, as my memory +shall supply me with them; I have no custom that has not varied according +to circumstances; but I only record those that I have been best +acquainted with, and that hitherto have had the greatest possession of +me. + +My form of life is the same in sickness as in health; the same bed, the +same hours, the same meat, and even the same drink, serve me in both +conditions alike; I add nothing to them but the moderation of more or +less, according to my strength and appetite. My health is to maintain my +wonted state without disturbance. I see that sickness puts me off it on +one side, and if I will be ruled by the physicians, they will put me off +on the other; so that by fortune and by art I am out of my way. +I believe nothing more certainly than this, that I cannot be hurt by the +use of things to which I have been so long accustomed. 'Tis for custom +to give a form to a man's life, such as it pleases him; she is all in all +in that: 'tis the potion of Circe, that varies our nature as she best +pleases. How many nations, and but three steps from us, think the fear +of the night-dew, that so manifestly is hurtful to us, a ridiculous +fancy; and our own watermen and peasants laugh at it. You make a German +sick if you lay him upon a mattress, as you do an Italian if you lay him +on a feather-bed, and a Frenchman, if without curtains or fire. A Spanish +stomach cannot hold out to eat as we can, nor ours to drink like the +Swiss. A German made me very merry at Augsburg, by finding fault with +our hearths, by the same arguments which we commonly make use of in +decrying their stoves: for, to say the truth, the smothered heat, and +then the smell of that heated matter of which the fire is composed, very +much offend such as are not used to them; not me; and, indeed, the heat +being always equal, constant, and universal, without flame, without +smoke, and without the wind that comes down our chimneys, they may many +ways sustain comparison with ours. Why do we not imitate the Roman +architecture? for they say that anciently fires were not made in the +houses, but on the outside, and at the foot of them, whence the heat was +conveyed to the whole fabric by pipes contrived in the wall, which were +drawn twining about the rooms that were to be warmed: which I have seen +plainly described somewhere in Seneca. This German hearing me commend +the conveniences and beauties of his city, which truly deserves it, began +to compassionate me that I had to leave it; and the first inconvenience +he alleged to me was, the heaviness of head that the chimneys elsewhere +would bring upon me. He had heard some one make this complaint, and +fixed it upon us, being by custom deprived of the means of perceiving it +at home. All heat that comes from the fire weakens and dulls me. Evenus +said that fire was the best condiment of life: I rather choose any other +way of making myself warm. + +We are afraid to drink our wines, when toward the bottom of the cask; in +Portugal those fumes are reputed delicious, and it is the beverage of +princes. In short, every nation has many customs and usages that are not +only unknown to other nations, but savage and miraculous in their sight. +What should we do with those people who admit of no evidence that is not +in print, who believe not men if they are not in a book, nor truth if it +be not of competent age? we dignify our fopperies when we commit them to +the press: 'tis of a great deal more weight to say, "I have read such a +thing," than if you only say, "I have heard such a thing." But I, who no +more disbelieve a man's mouth than his pen, and who know that men write +as indiscreetly as they speak, and who look upon this age as one that is +past, as soon quote a friend as Aulus Gelliusor Macrobius; and what I +have seen, as what they have written. And, as 'tis held of virtue, that +it is not greater for having continued longer, so do I hold of truth, +that for being older it is none the wiser. I often say, that it is mere +folly that makes us run after foreign and scholastic examples; their +fertility is the same now that it was in the time of Homer and Plato. +But is it not that we seek more honour from the quotation, than from the +truth of the matter in hand? As if it were more to the purpose to borrow +our proofs from the shops of Vascosan or Plantin, than from what is to be +seen in our own village; or else, indeed, that we have not the wit to +cull out and make useful what we see before us, and to judge of it +clearly enough to draw it into example: for if we say that we want +authority to give faith to our testimony, we speak from the purpose; +forasmuch as, in my opinion, of the most ordinary, common, and known +things, could we but find out their light, the greatest miracles of +nature might be formed, and the most wonderful examples, especially upon +the subject of human actions. + +Now, upon this subject, setting aside the examples I have gathered from +books, and what Aristotle says of Andron the Argian, that he travelled +over the arid sands of Lybia without drinking: a gentleman, who has very +well behaved himself in several employments, said, in a place where I +was, that he had ridden from Madrid to Lisbon, in the heat of summer, +without any drink at all. He is very healthful and vigorous for his age, +and has nothing extraordinary in the use of his life, but this, to live +sometimes two or three months, nay, a whole year, as he has told me, +without drinking. He is sometimes thirsty, but he lets it pass over, +and he holds that it is an appetite which easily goes off of itself; +and he drinks more out of caprice than either for need or pleasure. + +Here is another example: 'tis not long ago that I found one of the +learnedest men in France, among those of not inconsiderable fortune, +studying in a corner of a hall that they had separated for him with +tapestry, and about him a rabble of his servants full of licence. He +told me, and Seneca almost says the same of himself, he made an +advantage of this hubbub; that, beaten with this noise, he so much +the more collected and retired himself into himself for contemplation, +and that this tempest of voices drove back his thoughts within himself. +Being a student at Padua, he had his study so long situated amid the +rattle of coaches and the tumult of the square, that he not only formed +himself to the contempt, but even to the use of noise, for the service of +his studies. Socrates answered Alcibiades, who was astonished how he +could endure the perpetual scolding of his wife, "Why," said he, "as +those do who are accustomed to the ordinary noise of wheels drawing +water." I am quite otherwise; I have a tender head and easily +discomposed; when 'tis bent upon anything, the least buzzing of a fly +murders it. + +Seneca in his youth having warmly espoused the example of Sextius, of +eating nothing that had died, for a whole year dispensed with such food, +and, as he said, with pleasure, and discontinued it that he might not be +suspected of taking up this rule from some new religion by which it was +prescribed: he adopted, in like manner, from the precepts of Attalus a +custom not to lie upon any sort of bedding that gave way under his +weight, and, even to his old age, made use of such as would not yield to +any pressure. What the usage of his time made him account roughness, +that of ours makes us look upon as effeminacy. + +Do but observe the difference betwixt the way of living of my labourers +and my own; the Scythians and Indians have nothing more remote both from +my capacity and my form. I have picked up charity boys to serve me: who +soon after have quitted both my kitchen and livery, only that they might +return to their former course of life; and I found one afterwards, +picking mussels out of the sewer for his dinner, whom I could neither by +entreaties nor threats reclaim from the sweetness he found in indigence. +Beggars have their magnificences and delights, as well as the rich, and, +'tis said, their dignities and polities. These are the effects of +custom; she can mould us, not only into what form she pleases (the sages +say we ought to apply ourselves to the best, which she will soon make +easy to us), but also to change and variation, which is the most noble +and most useful instruction of all she teaches us. The best of my bodily +conditions is that I am flexible and not very obstinate: I have +inclinations more my own and ordinary, and more agreeable than others; +but I am diverted from them with very little ado, and easily slip into a +contrary course. A young man ought to cross his own rules, to awaken his +vigour and to keep it from growing faint and rusty; and there is no +course of life so weak and sottish as that which is carried on by rule +and discipline; + + "Ad primum lapidem vectari quum placet, hora + Sumitur ex libro; si prurit frictus ocelli + Angulus, inspecta genesi, collyria quaerit;" + + ["When he is pleased to have himself carried to the first milestone, + the hour is chosen from the almanac; if he but rub the corner of his + eye, his horoscope having been examined, he seeks the aid of + salves."---Juvenal, vi. 576.] + +he shall often throw himself even into excesses, if he will take my +advice; otherwise the least debauch will destroy him, and render him +troublesome and disagreeable in company. The worst quality in a well- +bred man is over-fastidiousness, and an obligation to a certain +particular way; and it is particular, if not pliable and supple. It is a +kind of reproach, not to be able, or not to dare, to do what we see those +about us do; let such as these stop at home. It is in every man +unbecoming, but in a soldier vicious and intolerable: who, as Philopcemen +said, ought to accustom himself to every variety and inequality of life. + +Though I have been brought up, as much as was possible, to liberty and +independence, yet so it is that, growing old, and having by indifference +more settled upon certain forms (my age is now past instruction, and has +henceforward nothing to do but to keep itself up as well as it can), +custom has already, ere I was aware, so imprinted its character in me in +certain things, that I look upon it as a kind of excess to leave them +off; and, without a force upon myself, cannot sleep in the daytime, nor +eat between meals, nor breakfast, nor go to bed, without a great interval +betwixt eating and sleeping,--[Gastroesophogeal Reflux. D.W.]--as of +three hours after supper; nor get children but before I sleep, nor get +them standing; nor endure my own sweat; nor quench my thirst either with +pure water or pure wine; nor keep my head long bare, nor cut my hair +after dinner; and I should be as uneasy without my gloves as without my +shirt, or without washing when I rise from table or out of my bed; and I +could not lie without a canopy and curtains, as if they were essential +things. I could dine without a tablecloth, but without a clean napkin, +after the German fashion, very incommodiously; I foul them more than the +Germans or Italians do, and make but little use either of spoon or fork. +I complain that they did not keep up the fashion, begun after the example +of kings, to change our napkin at every service, as they do our plate. +We are told of that laborious soldier Marius that, growing old, he became +nice in his drink, and never drank but out of a particular cup of his own +I, in like manner, have suffered myself to fancy a certain form of +glasses, and not willingly to drink in common glasses, no more than from +a strange common hand: all metal offends me in comparison of a clear and +transparent matter: let my eyes taste, too, according to their capacity. +I owe several other such niceties to custom. Nature has also, on the +other side, helped me to some of hers: as not to be able to endure more +than two full meals in one day, without overcharging my stomach, nor a +total abstinence from one of those meals without filling myself with +wind, drying up my mouth, and dulling my appetite; the finding great +inconvenience from overmuch evening air; for of late years, in night +marches, which often happen to be all night long, after five or six hours +my stomach begins to be queasy, with a violent pain in my head, so that I +always vomit before the day can break. When the others go to breakfast, +I go to sleep; and when I rise, I am as brisk and gay as before. I had +always been told that the night dew never rises but in the beginning of +the night; but for some years past, long and familiar intercourse with +a lord, possessed with the opinion that the night dew is more sharp and +dangerous about the declining of the sun, an hour or two before it sets, +which he carefully avoids, and despises that of the night, he almost +impressed upon me, not so much his reasoning as his experiences. What, +shall mere doubt and inquiry strike our imagination, so as to change us? +Such as absolutely and on a sudden give way to these propensions, draw +total destruction upon themselves. I am sorry for several gentlemen who, +through the folly of their physicians, have in their youth and health +wholly shut themselves up: it were better to endure a cough, than, by +disuse, for ever to lose the commerce of common life in things of so +great utility. Malignant science, to interdict us the most pleasant +hours of the day! Let us keep our possession to the last; for the most +part, a man hardens himself by being obstinate, and corrects his +constitution, as Caesar did the falling sickness, by dint of contempt. +A man should addict himself to the best rules, but not enslave himself to +them, except to such, if there be any such, where obligation and +servitude are of profit. + +Both kings and philosophers go to stool, and ladies too; public lives are +bound to ceremony; mine, that is obscure and private, enjoys all natural +dispensation; soldier and Gascon are also qualities a little subject to +indiscretion; wherefore I shall say of this act of relieving nature, that +it is desirable to refer it to certain prescribed and nocturnal hours, +and compel one's self to this by custom, as I have done; but not to +subject one's self, as I have done in my declining years, to a particular +convenience of place and seat for that purpose, and make it troublesome +by long sitting; and yet, in the fouler offices, is it not in some +measure excusable to require more care and cleanliness? + + "Naturt homo mundum et elegans animal est." + + ["Man is by nature a clean and delicate creature."--Seneca, Ep., 92.] + +Of all the actions of nature, I am the most impatient of being +interrupted in that. I have seen many soldiers troubled with the +unruliness of their bellies; whereas mine and I never fail of our +punctual assignation, which is at leaping out of bed, if some +indispensable business or sickness does not molest us. + +I think then, as I said before, that sick men cannot better place +themselves anywhere in more safety, than in sitting still in that course +of life wherein they have been bred and trained up; change, be it what it +will, distempers and puts one out. Do you believe that chestnuts can +hurt a Perigordin or a Lucchese, or milk and cheese the mountain people? +We enjoin them not only a new, but a contrary, method of life; a change +that the healthful cannot endure. Prescribe water to a Breton of +threescore and ten; shut a seaman up in a stove; forbid a Basque footman +to walk: you will deprive them of motion, and in the end of air and +light: + + "An vivere tanti est? + Cogimur a suetis animum suspendere rebus, + Atque, ut vivamus, vivere desinimus. . + Hos superesse reor, quibus et spirabilis aer + Et lux, qua regimur, redditur ipsa gravis." + + ["Is life worth so much? We are compelled to withhold the mind + from things to which we are accustomed; and, that we may live, we + cease to live . . . . Do I conceive that they still live, to + whom the respirable air, and the light itself, by which we are + governed, is rendered oppressive?" + --Pseudo-Gallus, Eclog., i. 155, 247.] + +If they do no other good, they do this at least, that they prepare +patients betimes for death, by little and little undermining and cutting +off the use of life. + +Both well and sick, I have ever willingly suffered myself to obey the +appetites that pressed upon me. I give great rein to my desires and +propensities; I do not love to cure one disease by another; I hate +remedies that are more troublesome than the disease itself. To be +subject to the colic and subject to abstain from eating oysters are two +evils instead of one; the disease torments us on the one side, and the +remedy on the other. Since we are ever in danger of mistaking, let us +rather run the hazard of a mistake, after we have had the pleasure. The +world proceeds quite the other way, and thinks nothing profitable that is +not painful; it has great suspicion of facility. My appetite, in various +things, has of its own accord happily enough accommodated itself to the +health of my stomach. Relish and pungency in sauces were pleasant to me +when young; my stomach disliking them since, my taste incontinently +followed. Wine is hurtful to sick people, and 'tis the first thing that +my mouth then finds distasteful, and with an invincible dislike. +Whatever I take against my liking does me harm; and nothing hurts me that +I eat with appetite and delight. I never received harm by any action +that was very pleasant to me; and accordingly have made all medicinal +conclusions largely give way to my pleasure; and I have, when I was +young, + + "Quem circumcursans huc atque huc saepe Cupido + Fulgebat crocink splendidus in tunic." + + ["When Cupid, fluttering round me here and there, shone in his rich + purple mantle."--Catullus, lxvi. 133.] + +given myself the rein as licentiously and inconsiderately to the desire +that was predominant in me, as any other whomsoever: + + "Et militavi non sine gloria;" + + ["And I have played the soldier not ingloriously." + --Horace, Od., iii. 26, 2.] + +yet more in continuation and holding out, than in sally: + + "Sex me vix memini sustinuisse vices." + + ["I can scarcely remember six bouts in one night" + --Ovid, Amor., iii. 7, 26.] + +'Tis certainly a misfortune and a miracle at once to confess at what a +tender age I first came under the subjection of love: it was, indeed, by +chance; for it was long before the years of choice or knowledge; I do not +remember myself so far back; and my fortune may well be coupled with that +of Quartilla, who could not remember when she was a maid: + + "Inde tragus, celeresque pili, mirandaque matri + Barba meae." + + ["Thence the odour of the arm-pits, the precocious hair, and the + beard which astonished my mother."--Martial, xi. 22, 7.] + +Physicians modify their rules according to the violent longings that +happen to sick persons, ordinarily with good success; this great desire +cannot be imagined so strange and vicious, but that nature must have a +hand in it. And then how easy a thing is it to satisfy the fancy? In my +opinion; this part wholly carries it, at least, above all the rest. The +most grievous and ordinary evils are those that fancy loads us with; this +Spanish saying pleases me in several aspects: + + "Defenda me Dios de me." + + ["God defend me from myself."] + +I am sorry when I am sick, that I have not some longing that might give +me the pleasure of satisfying it; all the rules of physic would hardly be +able to divert me from it. I do the same when I am well; I can see very +little more to be hoped or wished for. 'Twere pity a man should be so +weak and languishing, as not to have even wishing left to him. + +The art of physic is not so fixed, that we need be without authority for +whatever we do; it changes according to climates and moons, according to +Fernel and to Scaliger.--[Physicians to Henry II.]--If your physician +does not think it good for you to sleep, to drink wine, or to eat such +and such meats, never trouble yourself; I will find you another that +shall not be of his opinion; the diversity of medical arguments and +opinions embraces all sorts and forms. I saw a miserable sick person +panting and burning for thirst, that he might be cured, who was +afterwards laughed at for his pains by another physician, who condemned +that advice as prejudicial to him: had he not tormented himself to good +purpose? There lately died of the stone a man of that profession, who +had made use of extreme abstinence to contend with his disease: his +fellow-physicians say that, on the contrary, this abstinence had dried +him up and baked the gravel in his kidneys. + +I have observed, that both in wounds and sicknesses, speaking discomposes +and hurts me, as much as any irregularity I can commit. My voice pains +and tires me, for 'tis loud and forced; so that when I have gone to a +whisper some great persons about affairs of consequence, they have often +desired me to moderate my voice. + +This story is worth a diversion. Some one in a certain Greek school +speaking loud as I do, the master of the ceremonies sent to him to speak +softly: "Tell him, then, he must send me," replied the other, "the tone +he would have me speak in." To which the other replied, "That he should +take the tone from the ears of him to whom he spake." It was well said, +if it is to be understood: "Speak according to the affair you are +speaking about to your auditor," for if it mean, "'tis sufficient that he +hear you, or govern yourself by him," I do not find it to be reason. The +tone and motion of my voice carries with it a great deal of the +expression and signification of my meaning, and 'tis I who am to govern +it, to make myself understood: there is a voice to instruct, a voice to +flatter, and a voice to reprehend. I will not only that my voice reach +him, but, peradventure, that it strike and pierce him. When I rate my +valet with sharp and bitter language, it would be very pretty for him to +say; "Pray, master, speak lower; I hear you very well": + + "Est quaedam vox ad auditum accommodata, + non magnitudine, sed proprietate." + + ["There is a certain voice accommodated to the hearing, not by its + loudness, but by its propriety."--Quintilian, xi. 3.] + +Speaking is half his who speaks, and half his who hears; the latter ought +to prepare himself to receive it, according to its bias; as with tennis- +players, he who receives the ball, shifts and prepares, according as he +sees him move who strikes the stroke, and according to the stroke itself. + +Experience has, moreover, taught me this, that we ruin ourselves by +impatience. Evils have their life and limits, their diseases and their +recovery. + +The constitution of maladies is formed by the pattern of the constitution +of animals; they have their fortune and their days limited from their +birth; he who attempts imperiously to cut them short by force in the +middle of their course, lengthens and multiplies them, and incenses +instead of appeasing them. I am of Crantor's opinion, that we are +neither obstinately and deafly to oppose evils, nor succumb to them from +want of courage; but that we are naturally to give way to them, according +to their condition and our own. We ought to grant free passage to +diseases; I find they stay less with me, who let them alone; and I have +lost some, reputed the most tenacious and obstinate, by their own decay, +without help and without art, and contrary to its rules. Let us a little +permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs +than we. But such an one died of it; and so shall you: if not of that +disease, of another. And how many have not escaped dying, who have had +three physicians at their tails? Example is a vague and universal +mirror, and of various reflections. If it be a delicious medicine, take +it: 'tis always so much present good. I will never stick at the name nor +the colour, if it be pleasant and grateful to the palate: pleasure is one +of the chiefest kinds of profit. I have suffered colds, gouty +defluxions, relaxations, palpitations of the heart, megrims, and other +accidents, to grow old and die in time a natural death. I have so lost +them when I was half fit to keep them: they are sooner prevailed upon by +courtesy than huffing. We must patiently suffer the laws of our +condition; we are born to grow old, to grow weak, and to be sick, in +despite of all medicine. 'Tis the first lesson the Mexicans teach their +children; so soon as ever they are born they thus salute them: "Thou art +come into the world, child, to endure: endure, suffer, and say nothing." +'Tis injustice to lament that which has befallen any one which may befall +every one: + + "Indignare, si quid in to inique proprio constitutum est." + + ["Then be angry, when there is anything unjustly decreed against + thee alone."--Seneca, Ep., 91.] + +See an old man who begs of God that he will maintain his health vigorous +and entire; that is to say, that he restore him to youth: + + "Stulte, quid haec frustra votis puerilibus optas?" + + ["Fool! why do you vainly form these puerile wishes?" + --Ovid., Trist., 111. 8, II.] + +is it not folly? his condition is not capable of it. The gout, the +stone, and indigestion are symptoms of long years; as heat, rains, and +winds are of long journeys. Plato does not believe that AEsculapius +troubled himself to provide by regimen to prolong life in a weak and +wasted body, useless to his country and to his profession, or to beget +healthful and robust children; and does not think this care suitable to +the Divine justice and prudence, which is to direct all things to +utility. My good friend, your business is done; nobody can restore you; +they can, at the most, but patch you up, and prop you a little, and by +that means prolong your misery an hour or two: + + "Non secus instantem cupiens fulcire ruinam, + Diversis contra nititur obiicibus; + Donec certa dies, omni compage soluta, + Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium." + + ["Like one who, desiring to stay an impending ruin, places various + props against it, till, in a short time, the house, the props, and + all, giving way, fall together."--Pseudo-Gallus, i. 171.] + +We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony +of the world, is composed of contrary things--of diverse tones, sweet and +harsh, sharp and flat, sprightly and solemn: the musician who should only +affect some of these, what would he be able to do? he must know how to +make use of them all, and to mix them; and so we should mingle the goods +and evils which are consubstantial with our life; our being cannot +subsist without this mixture, and the one part is no less necessary to it +than the other. To attempt to combat natural necessity, is to represent +the folly of Ctesiphon, who undertook to kick with his mule.--[Plutarch, +How to restrain Anger, c. 8.] + +I consult little about the alterations I feel: for these doctors take +advantage; when they have you at their mercy, they surfeit your ears with +their prognostics; and formerly surprising me, weakened with sickness, +injuriously handled me with their dogmas and magisterial fopperies--one +while menacing me with great pains, and another with approaching death. +Hereby I was indeed moved and shaken, but not subdued nor jostled from my +place; and though my judgment was neither altered nor distracted, yet it +was at least disturbed: 'tis always agitation and combat. + +Now, I use my imagination as gently as I can, and would discharge it, if +I could, of all trouble and contest; a man must assist, flatter, and +deceive it, if he can; my mind is fit for that office; it needs no +appearances throughout: could it persuade as it preaches, it would +successfully relieve me. Will you have an example? It tells me: "that +'tis for my good to have the stone: that the structure of my age must +naturally suffer some decay, and it is now time it should begin to +disjoin and to confess a breach; 'tis a common necessity, and there is +nothing in it either miraculous or new; I therein pay what is due to old +age, and I cannot expect a better bargain; that society ought to comfort +me, being fallen into the most common infirmity of my age; I see +everywhere men tormented with the same disease, and am honoured by the +fellowship, forasmuch as men of the best quality are most frequently +afflicted with it: 'tis a noble and dignified disease: that of such as +are struck with it, few have it to a less degree of pain; that these are +put to the trouble of a strict diet and the daily taking of nauseous +potions, whereas I owe my better state purely to my good fortune; for +some ordinary broths of eringo or burst-wort that I have twice or thrice +taken to oblige the ladies, who, with greater kindness than my pain was +sharp, would needs present me half of theirs, seemed to me equally easy +to take and fruitless in operation, the others have to pay a thousand +vows to AEsculapius, and as many crowns to their physicians, for the +voiding a little gravel, which I often do by the aid of nature: even the +decorum of my countenance is not disturbed in company; and I can hold my +water ten hours, and as long as any man in health. The fear of this +disease," says my mind, "formerly affrighted thee, when it was unknown to +thee; the cries and despairing groans of those who make it worse by their +impatience, begot a horror in thee. 'Tis an infirmity that punishes the +members by which thou hast most offended. Thou art a conscientious +fellow;" + + "Quae venit indigne poena, dolenda venit:" + + ["We are entitled to complain of a punishment that we have not + deserved."--Ovid, Heroid., v. 8.] + +"consider this chastisement: 'tis very easy in comparison of others, and +inflicted with a paternal tenderness: do but observe how late it comes; +it only seizes on and incommodes that part of thy life which is, one way +and another, sterile and lost; having, as it were by composition, given +time for the licence and pleasures of thy youth. The fear and the +compassion that the people have of this disease serve thee for matter of +glory; a quality whereof if thou bast thy judgment purified, and that thy +reason has somewhat cured it, thy friends notwithstanding, discern some +tincture in thy complexion. 'Tis a pleasure to hear it said of oneself +what strength of mind, what patience! Thou art seen to sweat with pain, +to turn pale and red, to tremble, to vomit blood, to suffer strange +contractions and convulsions, at times to let great tears drop from thine +eyes, to urine thick, black, and dreadful water, or to have it suppressed +by some sharp and craggy stone, that cruelly pricks and tears the neck of +the bladder, whilst all the while thou entertainest the company with an +ordinary countenance; droning by fits with thy people; making one in a +continuous discourse, now and then making excuse for thy pain, and +representing thy suffering less than it is. Dost thou call to mind the +men of past times, who so greedily sought diseases to keep their virtue +in breath and exercise? Put the case that nature sets thee on and impels +thee to this glorious school, into which thou wouldst never have entered +of thy own free will. If thou tellest me that it is a dangerous and +mortal disease, what others are not so? for 'tis a physical cheat to +expect any that they say do not go direct to death: what matters if they +go thither by accident, or if they easily slide and slip into the path +that leads us to it? But thou dost not die because thou art sick; thou +diest because thou art living: death kills thee without the help of +sickness: and sickness has deferred death in some, who have lived longer +by reason that they thought themselves always dying; to which may be +added, that as in wounds, so in diseases, some are medicinal and +wholesome. The stone is often no less long-lived than you; we see men +with whom it has continued from their infancy even to their extreme old +age; and if they had not broken company, it would have been with them +longer still; you more often kill it than it kills you. And though it +should present to you the image of approaching death, were it not a good +office to a man of such an age, to put him in mind of his end? And, +which is worse, thou hast no longer anything that should make thee desire +to be cured. Whether or no, common necessity will soon call thee away. +Do but consider how skilfully and gently she puts thee out of concern +with life, and weans thee from the world; not forcing thee with a +tyrannical subjection, like so many other infirmities which thou seest +old men afflicted withal, that hold them in continual torment, and keep +them in perpetual and unintermitted weakness and pains, but by warnings +and instructions at intervals, intermixing long pauses of repose, as it +were to give thee opportunity to meditate and ruminate upon thy lesson, +at thy own ease and leisure. To give thee means to judge aright, and to +assume the resolution of a man of courage, it presents to thee the state +of thy entire condition, both in good and evil; and one while a very +cheerful and another an insupportable life, in one and the same day. If +thou embracest not death, at least thou shakest hands with it once a +month; whence thou hast more cause to hope that it will one day surprise +thee without menace; and that being so often conducted to the water-side, +but still thinking thyself to be upon the accustomed terms, thou and thy +confidence will at one time or another be unexpectedly wafted over. A +man cannot reasonably complain of diseases that fairly divide the time +with health." + +I am obliged to Fortune for having so often assaulted me with the same +sort of weapons: she forms and fashions me by use, hardens and habituates +me, so that I can know within a little for how much I shall be quit. For +want of natural memory, I make one of paper; and as any new symptom +happens in my disease, I set it down, whence it falls out that, having +now almost passed through all sorts of examples, if anything striking +threatens me, turning over these little loose notes, as the Sybilline +leaves, I never fail of finding matter of consolation from some +favourable prognostic in my past experience. Custom also makes me hope +better for the time to come; for, the conduct of this clearing out having +so long continued, 'tis to be believed that nature will not alter her +course, and that no other worse accident will happen than what I already +feel. And besides, the condition of this disease is not unsuitable to my +prompt and sudden complexion: when it assaults me gently, I am afraid, +for 'tis then for a great while; but it has, naturally, brisk and +vigorous excesses; it claws me to purpose for a day or two. My kidneys +held out an age without alteration; and I have almost now lived another, +since they changed their state; evils have their periods, as well as +benefits: peradventure, the infirmity draws towards an end. Age weakens +the heat of my stomach, and, its digestion being less perfect, sends this +crude matter to my kidneys; why, at a certain revolution, may not the +heat of my kidneys be also abated, so that they can no more petrify my +phlegm, and nature find out some other way of purgation. Years have +evidently helped me to drain certain rheums; and why not these excrements +which furnish matter for gravel? But is there anything delightful in +comparison of this sudden change, when from an excessive pain, I come, by +the voiding of a stone, to recover, as by a flash of lightning, the +beautiful light of health, so free and full, as it happens in our sudden +and sharpest colics? Is there anything in the pain suffered, that one +can counterpoise to the pleasure of so sudden an amendment? Oh, how much +does health seem the more pleasant to me, after a sickness so near and so +contiguous, that I can distinguish them in the presence of one another, +in their greatest show; when they appear in emulation, as if to make head +against and dispute it with one another! As the Stoics say that vices +are profitably introduced to give value to and to set off virtue, we can, +with better reason and less temerity of conjecture, say that nature has +given us pain for the honour and service of pleasure and indolence. When +Socrates, after his fetters were knocked off, felt the pleasure of that +itching which the weight of them had caused in his legs, he rejoiced to +consider the strict alliance betwixt pain and pleasure; how they are +linked together by a necessary connection, so that by turns they follow +and mutually beget one another; and cried out to good AEsop, that he +ought out of this consideration to have taken matter for a fine fable. + +The worst that I see in other diseases is, that they are not so grievous +in their effect as they are in their issue: a man is a whole year in +recovering, and all the while full of weakness and fear. There is so +much hazard, and so many steps to arrive at safety, that there is no end +on't before they have unmuffled you of a kerchief, and then of a cap, +before they allow you to walk abroad and take the air, to drink wine, to +lie with your wife, to eat melons, 'tis odds you relapse into some new +distemper. The stone has this privilege, that it carries itself clean +off: whereas the other maladies always leave behind them some impression +and alteration that render the body subject to a new disease, and lend a +hand to one another. Those are excusable that content themselves with +possessing us, without extending farther and introducing their followers; +but courteous and kind are those whose passage brings us any profitable +issue. Since I have been troubled with the stone, I find myself freed +from all other accidents, much more, methinks, than I was before, and +have never had any fever since; I argue that the extreme and frequent +vomitings that I am subject to purge me: and, on the other hand, my +distastes for this and that, and the strange fasts I am forced to keep, +digest my peccant humours, and nature, with those stones, voids whatever +there is in me superfluous and hurtful. Let them never tell me that it +is a medicine too dear bought: for what avail so many stinking draughts, +so many caustics, incisions, sweats, setons, diets, and so many other +methods of cure, which often, by reason we are not able to undergo their +violence and importunity, bring us to our graves? So that when I have +the stone, I look upon it as physic; when free from it, as an absolute +deliverance. + +And here is another particular benefit of my disease; which is, that it +almost plays its game by itself, and lets 'me play mine, if I have only +courage to do it; for, in its greatest fury, I have endured it ten hours +together on horseback. Do but endure only; you need no other regimen +play, run, dine, do this and t'other, if you can; your debauch will do +you more good than harm; say as much to one that has the pox, the gout, +or hernia! The other diseases have more universal obligations; rack our +actions after another kind of manner, disturb our whole order, and to +their consideration engage the whole state of life: this only pinches the +skin; it leaves the understanding and the will wholly at our own +disposal, and the tongue, the hands, and the feet; it rather awakens than +stupefies you. The soul is struck with the ardour of a fever, +overwhelmed with an epilepsy, and displaced by a sharp megrim, and, in +short, astounded by all the diseases that hurt the whole mass and the +most noble parts; this never meddles with the soul; if anything goes +amiss with her, 'tis her own fault; she betrays, dismounts, and abandons +herself. There are none but fools who suffer themselves to be persuaded +that this hard and massive body which is baked in our kidneys is to be +dissolved by drinks; wherefore, when it is once stirred, there is nothing +to be done but to give it passage; and, for that matter, it will itself +make one. + +I moreover observe this particular convenience in it, that it is a +disease wherein we have little to guess at: we are dispensed from the +trouble into which other diseases throw us by the uncertainty of their +causes, conditions, and progress; a trouble that is infinitely painful: +we have no need of consultations and doctoral interpretations; the senses +well enough inform us both what it is and where it is. + +By suchlike arguments, weak and strong, as Cicero with the disease of his +old age, I try to rock asleep and amuse my imagination, and to dress its +wounds. If I find them worse tomorrow, I will provide new stratagems. +That this is true: I am come to that pass of late, that the least motion +forces pure blood out of my kidneys: what of that? I move about, +nevertheless, as before, and ride after my hounds with a juvenile and +insolent ardour; and hold that I have very good satisfaction for an +accident of that importance, when it costs me no more but a dull +heaviness and uneasiness in that part; 'tis some great stone that wastes +and consumes the substance of my kidneys and my life, which I by little +and little evacuate, not without some natural pleasure, as an excrement +henceforward superfluous and troublesome. Now if I feel anything +stirring, do not fancy that I trouble myself to consult my pulse or my +urine, thereby to put myself upon some annoying prevention; I shall soon +enough feel the pain, without making it more and longer by the disease of +fear. He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears. To +which may be added that the doubts and ignorance of those who take upon +them to expound the designs of nature and her internal progressions, and +the many false prognostics of their art, ought to give us to understand +that her ways are inscrutable and utterly unknown; there is great +uncertainty, variety, and obscurity in what she either promises or +threatens. Old age excepted, which is an indubitable sign of the +approach of death, in all other accidents I see few signs of the future, +whereon we may ground our divination. I only judge of myself by actual +sensation, not by reasoning: to what end, since I am resolved to bring +nothing to it but expectation and patience? Will you know how much I get +by this? observe those who do otherwise, and who rely upon so many +diverse persuasions and counsels; how often the imagination presses upon +them without any bodily pain. I have many times amused myself, being +well and in safety, and quite free from these dangerous attacks in +communicating them to the physicians as then beginning to discover +themselves in me; I underwent the decree of their dreadful conclusions, +being all the while quite at my ease, and so much the more obliged to the +favour of God and better satisfied of the vanity of this art. + +There is nothing that ought so much to be recommended to youth as +activity and vigilance our life is nothing but movement. I bestir myself +with great difficulty, and am slow in everything, whether in rising, +going to bed, or eating: seven of the clock in the morning is early for +me, and where I rule, I never dine before eleven, nor sup till after six. +I formerly attributed the cause of the fevers and other diseases I fell +into to the heaviness that long sleeping had brought upon me, and have +ever repented going to sleep again in the morning. Plato is more angry +at excess of sleeping than at excess of drinking. I love to lie hard and +alone, even without my wife, as kings do; pretty well covered with +clothes. They never warm my bed, but since I have grown old they give me +at need cloths to lay to my feet and stomach. They found fault with the +great Scipio that he was a great sleeper; not, in my opinion, for any +other reason than that men were displeased that he alone should have +nothing in him to be found fault with. If I am anything fastidious in my +way of living 'tis rather in my lying than anything else; but generally +I give way and accommodate myself as well as any one to necessity. +Sleeping has taken up a great part of my life, and I yet continue, at the +age I now am, to sleep eight or nine hours at one breath. I wean myself +with utility from this proneness to sloth, and am evidently the better +for so doing. I find the change a little hard indeed, but in three days +'tis over; and I see but few who live with less sleep, when need +requires, and who more constantly exercise themselves, or to whom long +journeys are less troublesome. My body is capable of a firm, but not of +a violent or sudden agitation. I escape of late from violent exercises, +and such as make me sweat: my limbs grow weary before they are warm. +I can stand a whole day together, and am never weary of walking; but from +my youth I have ever preferred to ride upon paved roads; on foot, I get +up to the haunches in dirt, and little fellows as I am are subject in the +streets to be elbowed and jostled for want of presence; I have ever loved +to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or +higher than my seat. + +There is no profession as pleasant as the military, a profession both +noble in its execution (for valour is the stoutest, proudest, and most +generous of all virtues), and noble in its cause: there is no utility +either more universal or more just than the protection of the peace and +greatness of one's country. The company of so many noble, young, and +active men delights you; the ordinary sight of so many tragic spectacles; +the freedom of the conversation, without art; a masculine and +unceremonious way of living, please you; the variety of a thousand +several actions; the encouraging harmony of martial music that ravishes +and inflames both your ears and souls; the honour of this occupation, +nay, even its hardships and difficulties, which Plato holds so light that +in his Republic he makes women and children share in them, are delightful +to you. You put yourself voluntarily upon particular exploits and +hazards, according as you judge of their lustre and importance; and, a +volunteer, find even life itself excusably employed: + + "Pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis." + + ["'Tis fine to die sword in hand." ("And he remembers that it + is honourable to die in arms.")--AEneid, ii. 317.] + + +To fear common dangers that concern so great a multitude of men; not to +dare to do what so many sorts of souls, what a whole people dare, is for +a heart that is poor and mean beyond all measure: company encourages even +children. If others excel you in knowledge, in gracefulness, in +strength, or fortune, you have alternative resources at your disposal; +but to give place to them in stability of mind, you can blame no one for +that but yourself. Death is more abject, more languishing and +troublesome, in bed than in a fight: fevers and catarrhs as painful and +mortal as a musket-shot. Whoever has fortified himself valiantly to bear +the accidents of common life need not raise his courage to be a soldier: + + "Vivere, mi Lucili, militare est." + + ["To live, my Lucilius, is (to make war) to be a soldier." + --Seneca, Ep., 96.] + +I do not remember that I ever had the itch, and yet scratching is one of +nature's sweetest gratifications, and so much at hand; but repentance +follows too near. I use it most in my ears, which are at intervals apt +to itch. + +I came into the world with all my senses entire, even to perfection. My +stomach is commodiously good, as also is my head and my breath; and, for +the most part, uphold themselves so in the height of fevers. I have +passed the age to which some nations, not without reason, have prescribed +so just a term of life that they would not suffer men to exceed it; and +yet I have some intermissions, though short and inconstant, so clean and +sound as to be little inferior to the health and pleasantness of my +youth. I do not speak of vigour and sprightliness; 'tis not reason they +should follow me beyond their limits: + + "Non hoc amplius est liminis, aut aquae + Coelestis, patiens latus." + + ["I am no longer able to stand waiting at a door in the rain." + --Horace, Od., iii. 10, 9.] + +My face and eyes presently discover my condition; all my alterations +begin there, and appear somewhat worse than they really are; my friends +often pity me before I feel the cause in myself. My looking-glass does +not frighten me; for even in my youth it has befallen me more than once +to have a scurvy complexion and of ill augury, without any great +consequence, so that the physicians, not finding any cause within +answerable to that outward alteration, attributed it to the mind and to +some secret passion that tormented me within; but they were deceived. +If my body would govern itself as well, according to my rule, as my mind +does, we should move a little more at our ease. My mind was then not +only free from trouble, but, moreover, full of joy and satisfaction, +as it commonly is, half by its complexion, half by its design: + + "Nec vitiant artus aegrae contagia mentis." + + ["Nor do the troubles of the body ever affect my mind." + --Ovid, Trist., iii. 8, 25.] + +I am of the opinion that this temperature of my soul has often raised my +body from its lapses; this is often depressed; if the other be not brisk +and gay, 'tis at least tranquil and at rest. I had a quartan ague four +or five months, that made me look miserably ill; my mind was always, if +not calm, yet pleasant. If the pain be without me, the weakness and +languor do not much afflict me; I see various corporal faintings, that +beget a horror in me but to name, which yet I should less fear than a +thousand passions and agitations of the mind that I see about me. I make +up my mind no more to run; 'tis enough that I can crawl along; nor do I +more complain of the natural decadence that I feel in myself: + + "Quis tumidum guttur miratur in Alpibus?" + + ["Who is surprised to see a swollen goitre in the Alps?" + --Juvenal, xiii. 162.] + +than I regret that my duration shall not be as long and entire as that of +an oak. + +I have no reason to complain of my imagination; I have had few thoughts +in my life that have so much as broken my sleep, except those of desire, +which have awakened without afflicting me. I dream but seldom, and then +of chimaeras and fantastic things, commonly produced from pleasant +thoughts, and rather ridiculous than sad; and I believe it to be true +that dreams are faithful interpreters of our inclinations; but there is +art required to sort and understand them + + "Res, quae in vita usurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident, + Quaeque agunt vigilantes, agitantque, ea si cui in somno accidunt, + Minus mirandum est." + + ["'Tis less wonder, what men practise, think, care for, see, and do + when waking, (should also run in their heads and disturb them when + they are asleep) and which affect their feelings, if they happen to + any in sleep."--Attius, cited in Cicero, De Divin., i. 22.] + +Plato, moreover, says, that 'tis the office of prudence to draw +instructions of divination of future things from dreams: I don't know +about this, but there are wonderful instances of it that Socrates, +Xenophon, and Aristotle, men of irreproachable authority, relate. +Historians say that the Atlantes never dream; who also never eat any +animal food, which I add, forasmuch as it is, peradventure, the reason +why they never dream, for Pythagoras ordered a certain preparation of +diet to beget appropriate dreams. Mine are very gentle, without any +agitation of body or expression of voice. I have seen several of my time +wonderfully disturbed by them. Theon the philosopher walked in his +sleep, and so did Pericles servant, and that upon the tiles and top of +the house. + +I hardly ever choose my dish at table, but take the next at hand, and +unwillingly change it for another. A confusion of meats and a clatter of +dishes displease me as much as any other confusion: I am easily satisfied +with few dishes: and am an enemy to the opinion of Favorinus, that in a +feast they should snatch from you the meat you like, and set a plate of +another sort before you; and that 'tis a pitiful supper, if you do not +sate your guests with the rumps of various fowls, the beccafico only +deserving to be all eaten. I usually eat salt meats, yet I prefer bread +that has no salt in it; and my baker never sends up other to my table, +contrary to the custom of the country. In my infancy, what they had most +to correct in me was the refusal of things that children commonly best +love, as sugar, sweetmeats, and march-panes. My tutor contended with +this aversion to delicate things, as a kind of over-nicety; and indeed +'tis nothing else but a difficulty of taste, in anything it applies +itself to. Whoever cures a child of an obstinate liking for brown bread, +bacon, or garlic, cures him also of pampering his palate. There are some +who affect temperance and plainness by wishing for beef and ham amongst +the partridges; 'tis all very fine; this is the delicacy of the delicate; +'tis the taste of an effeminate fortune that disrelishes ordinary and +accustomed things. + + "Per qux luxuria divitiarum taedio ludit." + + ["By which the luxury of wealth causes tedium."--Seneca, Ep., 18.] + +Not to make good cheer with what another is enjoying, and to be curious +in what a man eats, is the essence of this vice: + + "Si modica coenare times olus omne patella." + + ["If you can't be content with herbs in a small dish for supper." + --Horace, Ep., i. 5, 2.] + +There is indeed this difference, that 'tis better to oblige one's +appetite to things that are most easy to be had; but 'tis always vice to +oblige one's self. I formerly said a kinsman of mine was overnice, who, +by being in our galleys, had unlearned the use of beds and to undress +when he went to sleep. + +If I had any sons, I should willingly wish them my fortune. The good +father that God gave me (who has nothing of me but the acknowledgment of +his goodness, but truly 'tis a very hearty one) sent me from my cradle to +be brought up in a poor village of his, and there continued me all the +while I was at nurse, and still longer, bringing me up to the meanest and +most common way of living: + + "Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venter." + + ["A well-governed stomach is a great part of liberty." + --Seneca,Ep., 123.] + +Never take upon yourselves, and much less give up to your wives, the care +of their nurture; leave the formation to fortune, under popular and +natural laws; leave it to custom to train them up to frugality and +hardship, that they may rather descend from rigour than mount up to it. +This humour of his yet aimed at another end, to make me familiar with the +people and the condition of men who most need our assistance; considering +that I should rather regard them who extend their arms to me, than those +who turn their backs upon me; and for this reason it was that he provided +to hold me at the font persons of the meanest fortune, to oblige and +attach me to them. + +Nor has his design succeeded altogether ill; for, whether upon the +account of the more honour in such a condescension, or out of a natural +compassion that has a very great power over me, I have an inclination +towards the meaner sort of people. The faction which I should condemn in +our wars, I should more sharply condemn, flourishing and successful; it +will somewhat reconcile me to it, when I shall see it miserable and +overwhelmed. How willingly do I admire the fine humour of Cheilonis, +daughter and wife to kings of Sparta. Whilst her husband Cleombrotus, in +the commotion of her city, had the advantage over Leonidas her father, +she, like a good daughter, stuck close to her father in all his misery +and exile, in opposition to the conqueror. But so soon as the chance of +war turned, she changed her will with the change of fortune, and bravely +turned to her husband's side, whom she accompanied throughout, where his +ruin carried him: admitting, as it appears to me, no other choice than to +cleave to the side that stood most in need of her, and where she could +best manifest her compassion. I am naturally more apt to follow the +example of Flaminius, who rather gave his assistance to those who had +most need of him than to those who had power to do him good, than I do to +that of Pyrrhus, who was of an humour to truckle under the great and to +domineer over the poor. + +Long sittings at table both trouble me and do me harm; for, be it that I +was so accustomed when a child, I eat all the while I sit. Therefore it +is that at my own house, though the meals there are of the shortest, I +usually sit down a little while after the rest, after the manner of +Augustus, but I do not imitate him in rising also before the rest; on the +contrary, I love to sit still a long time after, and to hear them talk, +provided I am none of the talkers: for I tire and hurt myself with +speaking upon a full stomach, as much as I find it very wholesome and +pleasant to argue and to strain my voice before dinner. + +The ancient Greeks and Romans had more reason than we in setting apart +for eating, which is a principal action of life, if they were not +prevented by other extraordinary business, many hours and the greatest +part of the night; eating and drinking more deliberately than we do, who +perform all our actions post-haste; and in extending this natural +pleasure to more leisure and better use, intermixing with profitable +conversation. + +They whose concern it is to have a care of me, may very easily hinder me +from eating anything they think will do me harm; for in such matters I +never covet nor miss anything I do not see; but withal, if it once comes +in my sight, 'tis in vain to persuade me to forbear; so that when I +design to fast I must be kept apart from the suppers, and must have only +so much given me as is required for a prescribed collation; for if to +table, I forget my resolution. When I order my cook to alter the manner +of dressing any dish, all my family know what it means, that my stomach +is out of order, and that I shall not touch it. + +I love to have all meats, that will endure it, very little boiled or +roasted, and prefer them very high, and even, as to several, quite gone. +Nothing but hardness generally offends me (of any other quality I am as +patient and indifferent as any man I have known); so that, contrary to +the common humour, even in fish it often happens that I find them both +too fresh and too firm; not for want of teeth, which I ever had good, +even to excellence, and which age does not now begin to threaten; I have +always been used every morning to rub them with a napkin, and before and +after dinner. God is favourable to those whom He makes to die by +degrees; 'tis the only benefit of old age; the last death will be so much +the less painful; it will kill but a half or a quarter of a man. There +is one tooth lately fallen out without drawing and without pain; it was +the natural term of its duration; in that part of my being and several +others, are already dead, others half dead, of those that were most +active and in the first rank during my vigorous years; 'tis so I melt and +steal away from myself. What a folly it would be in my understanding to +apprehend the height of this fall, already so much advanced, as if it +were from the very top! I hope I shall not. I, in truth, receive a +principal consolation in meditating my death, that it will be just and +natural, and that henceforward I cannot herein either require or hope +from Destiny any other but unlawful favour. Men make themselves believe +that we formerly had longer lives as well as greater stature. But they +deceive themselves; and Solon, who was of those elder times, limits the +duration of life to threescore and ten years. I, who have so much and so +universally adored that "The mean is best," of the passed time, and who +have concluded the most moderate measures to be the most perfect, shall +I pretend to an immeasurable and prodigious old age? Whatever happens +contrary to the course of nature may be troublesome; but what comes +according to her should always be pleasant: + + "Omnia, quae secundum naturam fiunt, sunt habenda in bonis." + + ["All things that are done according to nature + are to be accounted good."--Cicero, De Senect., c. 19.] + +And so, says Plato, the death which is occasioned by wounds and diseases +is violent; but that which comes upon us, old age conducting us to it, is +of all others the most easy, and in some sort delicious: + + "Vitam adolescentibus vis aufert, senibus maturitas." + + ["Young men are taken away by violence, old men by maturity." + --Cicero, ubi sup.] + +Death mixes and confounds itself throughout with life; decay anticipates +its hour, and shoulders itself even into the course of our advance. +I have portraits of myself taken at five-and-twenty and five-and-thirty +years of age. I compare them with that lately drawn: how many times is +it no longer me; how much more is my present image unlike the former, +than unlike my dying one? It is too much to abuse nature, to make her +trot so far that she must be forced to leave us, and abandon our conduct, +our eyes, teeth, legs, and all the rest to the mercy of a foreign and +haggard countenance, and to resign us into the hands of art, being weary +of following us herself. + +I am not excessively fond either of salads or fruits, except melons. My +father hated all sorts of sauces; I love them all. Eating too much hurts +me; but, as to the quality of what I eat, I do not yet certainly know +that any sort of meat disagrees with me; neither have I observed that +either full moon or decrease, autumn or spring, have any influence upon +me. We have in us motions that are inconstant and unknown; for example, +I found radishes first grateful to my stomach, since that nauseous, and +now again grateful. In several other things, I find my stomach and +appetite vary after the same manner; I have changed again and again from +white wine to claret, from claret to white wine. + +I am a great lover of fish, and consequently make my fasts feasts and +feasts fasts; and I believe what some people say, that it is more easy of +digestion than flesh. As I make a conscience of eating flesh upon fish- +days, so does my taste make a conscience of mixing fish and flesh; the +difference betwixt them seems to me too remote. + +From my youth, I have sometimes kept out of the way at meals; either to +sharpen my appetite against the next morning (for, as Epicurus fasted and +made lean meals to accustom his pleasure to make shift without abundance, +I, on the contrary, do it to prepare my pleasure to make better and more +cheerful use of abundance); or else I fasted to preserve my vigour for +the service of some action of body or mind: for both the one and the +other of these is cruelly dulled in me by repletion; and, above all +things, I hate that foolish coupling of so healthful and sprightly a +goddess with that little belching god, bloated with the fumes of his +liquor--[ Montaigne did not approve of coupling Bacchus with Venus.]-- +or to cure my sick stomach, or for want of fit company; for I say, as the +same Epicurus did, that one is not so much to regard what he eats, as +with whom; and I commend Chilo, that he would not engage himself to be at +Periander's feast till he was first informed who were to be the other +guests; no dish is so acceptable to me, nor no sauce so appetising, as +that which is extracted from society. I think it more wholesome to eat +more leisurely and less, and to eat oftener; but I would have appetite +and hunger attended to; I should take no pleasure to be fed with three or +four pitiful and stinted repasts a day, after a medicinal manner: who +will assure me that, if I have a good appetite in the morning, I shall +have the same at supper? But we old fellows especially, let us take the +first opportune time of eating, and leave to almanac-makers hopes and +prognostics. The utmost fruit of my health is pleasure; let us take hold +of the present and known. I avoid the invariable in these laws of +fasting; he who would have one form serve him, let him avoid the +continuing it; we harden ourselves in it; our strength is there stupefied +and laid asleep; six months after, you shall find your stomach so inured +to it, that all you have got is the loss of your liberty of doing +otherwise but to your prejudice. + +I never keep my legs and thighs warmer in winter than in summer; one +simple pair of silk stockings is all. I have suffered myself, for the +relief of my colds, to keep my head warmer, and my belly upon the account +of my colic: my diseases in a few days habituate themselves thereto, and +disdained my ordinary provisions: we soon get from a coif to a kerchief +over it, from a simple cap to a quilted hat; the trimmings of the doublet +must not merely serve for ornament: there must be added a hare's skin or +a vulture's skin, and a cap under the hat: follow this gradation, and you +will go a very fine way to work. I will do nothing of the sort, and +would willingly leave off what I have begun. If you fall into any new +inconvenience, all this is labour lost; you are accustomed to it; seek +out some other. Thus do they destroy themselves who submit to be +pestered with these enforced and superstitious rules; they must add +something more, and something more after that; there is no end on't. + +For what concerns our affairs and pleasures, it is much more commodious, +as the ancients did, to lose one's dinner, and defer making good cheer +till the hour of retirement and repose, without breaking up a day; and so +was I formerly used to do. As to health, I since by experience find, on +the contrary, that it is better to dine, and that the digestion is better +while awake. I am not very used to be thirsty, either well or sick; my +mouth is, indeed, apt to be dry, but without thirst; and commonly I never +drink but with thirst that is created by eating, and far on in the meal; +I drink pretty well for a man of my pitch: in summer, and at a relishing +meal, I do not only exceed the limits of Augustus, who drank but thrice +precisely; but not to offend Democritus rule, who forbade that men should +stop at four times as an unlucky number, I proceed at need to the fifth +glass, about three half-pints; for the little glasses are my favourites, +and I like to drink them off, which other people avoid as an unbecoming +thing. I mix my wine sometimes with half, sometimes with the third part +water; and when I am at home, by an ancient custom that my father's +physician prescribed both to him and himself, they mix that which is +designed for me in the buttery, two or three hours before 'tis brought +in. 'Tis said that Cranabs, king of Attica, was the inventor of this +custom of diluting wine; whether useful or no, I have heard disputed. +I think it more decent and wholesome for children to drink no wine till +after sixteen or eighteen years of age. The most usual and common method +of living is the most becoming; all particularity, in my opinion, is to +be avoided; and I should as much hate a German who mixed water with his +wine, as I should a Frenchman who drank it pure. Public usage gives the +law in these things. + +I fear a mist, and fly from smoke as from the plague: the first repairs I +fell upon in my own house were the chimneys and houses of office, the +common and insupportable defects of all old buildings; and amongst the +difficulties of war I reckon the choking dust they made us ride in a +whole day together. I have a free and easy respiration, and my colds for +the most part go off without offence to the lungs and without a cough. + +The heat of summer is more an enemy to me than the cold of winter; for, +besides the incommodity of heat, less remediable than cold, and besides +the force of the sunbeams that strike upon the head, all glittering light +offends my eyes, so that I could not now sit at dinner over against a +flaming fire. + +To dull the whiteness of paper, in those times when I was more wont to +read, I laid a piece of glass upon my book, and found my eyes much +relieved by it. I am to this hour--to the age of fifty-four--Ignorant of +the use of spectacles; and I can see as far as ever I did, or any other. +'Tis true that in the evening I begin to find a little disturbance and +weakness in my sight if I read, an exercise I have always found +troublesome, especially by night. Here is one step back, and a very +manifest one; I shall retire another: from the second to the third, and +so to the fourth, so gently, that I shall be stark blind before I shall +be sensible of the age and decay of my sight: so artificially do the +Fatal Sisters untwist our lives. And so I doubt whether my hearing +begins to grow thick; and you will see I shall have half lost it, when I +shall still lay the fault on the voices of those who speak to me. A man +must screw up his soul to a high pitch to make it sensible how it ebbs +away. + +My walking is quick and firm; and I know not which of the two, my mind or +my body, I have most to do to keep in the same state. That preacher is +very much my friend who can fix my attention a whole sermon through: in +places of ceremony, where every one's countenance is so starched, where I +have seen the ladies keep even their eyes so fixed, I could never order +it so, that some part or other of me did not lash out; so that though I +was seated, I was never settled; and as to gesticulation, I am never +without a switch in my hand, walking or riding. As the philosopher +Chrysippus' maid said of her master, that he was only drunk in his legs, +for it was his custom to be always kicking them about in what place +soever he sat; and she said it when, the wine having made all his +companions drunk, he found no alteration in himself at all; it may have +been said of me from my infancy, that I had either folly or quicksilver +in my feet, so much stirring and unsettledness there is in them, wherever +they are placed. + +'Tis indecent, besides the hurt it does to one's health, and even to the +pleasure of eating, to eat greedily as I do; I often bite my tongue, and +sometimes my fingers, in my haste. Diogenes, meeting a boy eating after +that manner, gave his tutor a box on the ear! There were men at Rome +that taught people to chew, as well as to walk, with a good grace. I +lose thereby the leisure of speaking, which gives great relish to the +table, provided the discourse be suitable, that is, pleasant and short. + +There is jealousy and envy amongst our pleasures; they cross and hinder +one another. Alcibiades, a man who well understood how to make good +cheer, banished even music from the table, that it might not disturb the +entertainment of discourse, for the reason, as Plato tells us, "that it +is the custom of ordinary people to call fiddlers and singing men to +feasts, for want of good discourse and pleasant talk, with which men of +understanding know how to entertain one another." Varro requires all +this in entertainments: "Persons of graceful presence and agreeable +conversation, who are neither silent nor garrulous; neatness and +delicacy, both of meat and place; and fair weather." The art of dining +well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure; neither the +greatest captains nor the greatest philosophers have disdained the use or +science of eating well. My imagination has delivered three repasts to +the custody of my memory, which fortune rendered sovereignly sweet to me, +upon several occasions in my more flourishing age; my present state +excludes me; for every one, according to the good temper of body and mind +wherein he then finds himself, furnishes for his own share a particular +grace and savour. I, who but crawl upon the earth, hate this inhuman +wisdom, that will have us despise and hate all culture of the body; I +look upon it as an equal injustice to loath natural pleasures as to be +too much in love with them. Xerxes was a blockhead, who, environed with +all human delights, proposed a reward to him who could find out others; +but he is not much less so who cuts off any of those pleasures that +nature has provided for him. A man should neither pursue nor avoid them, +but receive them. I receive them, I confess, a little too warmly and +kindly, and easily suffer myself to follow my natural propensions. We +have no need to exaggerate their inanity; they themselves will make us +sufficiently sensible of it, thanks to our sick wet-blanket mind, that +puts us out of taste with them as with itself; it treats both itself and +all it receives, one while better, and another worse, according to its +insatiable, vagabond, and versatile essence: + + "Sincerum est nisi vas, quodcunque infundis, acescit." + + ["Unless the vessel be clean, it will sour whatever + you put into it."--Horace, Ep., i. 2, 54.] + +I, who boast that I so curiously and particularly embrace the +conveniences of life, find them, when I most nearly consider them, very +little more than wind. But what? We are all wind throughout; and, +moreover, the wind itself, more discreet than we, loves to bluster and +shift from corner to corner, and contents itself with its proper offices +without desiring stability and solidity-qualities not its own. + +The pure pleasures, as well as the pure displeasures, of the imagination, +say some, are the greatest, as was expressed by the balance of +Critolaiis. 'Tis no wonder; it makes them to its own liking, and cuts +them out of the whole cloth; of this I every day see notable examples, +and, peradventure, to be desired. But I, who am of a mixed and heavy +condition, cannot snap so soon at this one simple object, but that I +negligently suffer myself to be carried away with the present pleasures +of the, general human law, intellectually sensible, and sensibly +intellectual. The Cyrenaic philosophers will have it that as corporal +pains, so corporal pleasures are more powerful, both as double and as +more just. There are some, as Aristotle says, who out of a savage kind +of stupidity dislike them; and I know others who out of ambition do the +same. Why do they not, moreover, forswear breathing? why do they not +live of their own? why not refuse light, because it is gratuitous, and +costs them neither invention nor exertion? Let Mars, Pallas, or Mercury +afford them their light by which to see, instead of Venus, Ceres, and +Bacchus. These boastful humours may counterfeit some content, for what +will not fancy do? But as to wisdom, there is no touch of it. Will they +not seek the quadrature of the circle, even when on their wives? I hate +that we should be enjoined to have our minds in the clouds, when our +bodies are at table; I would not have the mind nailed there, nor wallow +there; I would have it take place there and sit, but not lie down. +Aristippus maintained nothing but the body, as if we had no soul; Zeno +comprehended only the soul, as if we had no body: both of them faultily. +Pythagoras, they say, followed a philosophy that was all contemplation, +Socrates one that was all conduct and action; Plato found a mean betwixt +the two; but they only say this for the sake of talking. The true +temperament is found in Socrates; and, Plato is much more Socratic than +Pythagoric, and it becomes him better. When I dance, I dance; when I +sleep, I sleep. Nay, when I walk alone in a beautiful orchard, if my +thoughts are some part of the time taken up with external occurrences, +I some part of the time call them back again to my walk, to the orchard, +to the sweetness of that solitude, and to myself. + +Nature has mother-like observed this, that the actions she has enjoined +us for our necessity should be also pleasurable to us; and she invites us +to them, not only by reason, but also by appetite, and 'tis injustice to +infringe her laws. When I see alike Caesar and Alexander, in the midst +of his greatest business, so fully enjoy human and corporal pleasures, I +do not say that he relaxed his mind: I say that he strengthened it, by +vigour of courage subjecting those violent employments and laborious +thoughts to the ordinary usage of life: wise, had he believed the last +was his ordinary, the first his extraordinary, vocation. We are great +fools. "He has passed his life in idleness," say we: "I have done +nothing to-day." What? have you not lived? that is not only the +fundamental, but the most illustrious, of your occupations. "Had I been +put to the management of great affairs, I should have made it seen what I +could do." "Have you known how to meditate and manage your life? you +have performed the greatest work of all." In order to shew and develop +herself, nature needs only fortune; she equally manifests herself in all +stages, and behind a curtain as well as without one. Have you known how +to regulate your conduct, you have done a great deal more than he who has +composed books. Have you known how to take repose, you have done more +than he who has taken empires and cities. + +The glorious masterpiece of man is to live to purpose; all other things: +to reign, to lay up treasure, to build, are but little appendices and +props. I take pleasure in seeing a general of an army, at the foot of a +breach he is presently to assault, give himself up entire and free at +dinner, to talk and be merry with his friends. And Brutus, when heaven +and earth were conspired against him and the Roman liberty, stealing some +hour of the night from his rounds to read and scan Polybius in all +security. 'Tis for little souls, buried under the weight of affairs, not +from them to know how clearly to disengage themselves, not to know how to +lay them aside and take them up again: + + "O fortes, pejoraque passi + Mecum saepe viri! nunc vino pellite curas + Cras ingens iterabimus aequor." + + ["O brave spirits, who have often suffered sorrow with me, drink + cares away; tomorrow we will embark once more on the vast sea." + --Horace, Od., i. 7, 30.] + +Whether it be in jest or earnest, that the theological and Sorbonnical +wine, and their feasts, are turned into a proverb, I find it reasonable +they should dine so much more commodiously and pleasantly, as they have +profitably and seriously employed the morning in the exercise of their +schools. The conscience of having well spent the other hours, is the +just and savoury sauce of the dinner-table. The sages lived after that +manner; and that inimitable emulation to virtue, which astonishes us both +in the one and the other Cato, that humour of theirs, so severe as even +to be importunate, gently submits itself and yields to the laws of the +human condition, of Venus and Bacchus; according to the precepts of their +sect, that require the perfect sage to be as expert and intelligent in +the use of natural pleasures as in all other duties of life: + + "Cui cor sapiat, ei et sapiat palatus." + +Relaxation and facility, methinks, wonderfully honour and best become a +strong and generous soul. Epaminondas did not think that to take part, +and that heartily, in songs and sports and dances with the young men of +his city, were things that in any way derogated from the honour of his +glorious victories and the perfect purity of manners that was in him. +And amongst so many admirable actions of Scipio the grandfather, a person +worthy to be reputed of a heavenly extraction, there is nothing that +gives him a greater grace than to see him carelessly and childishly +trifling at gathering and selecting cockle shells, and playing at quoits, + + [This game, as the "Dictionnaire de Trevoux" describes it, is one + wherein two persons contend which of them shall soonest pick up some + object.] + +amusing and tickling himself in representing by writing in comedies the +meanest and most popular actions of men. And his head full of that +wonderful enterprise of Hannibal and Africa, visiting the schools in +Sicily, and attending philosophical lectures, to the extent of arming the +blind envy of his enemies at Rome. Nor is there anything more remarkable +in Socrates than that, old as he was, he found time to make himself +taught dancing and playing upon instruments, and thought it time well +spent. This same man was seen in an ecstasy, standing upon his feet a +whole day and a night together, in the presence of all the Grecian army, +surprised and absorbed by some profound thought. He was the first, +amongst so many valiant men of the army, to run to the relief of +Alcibiades, oppressed with the enemy, to shield him with his own body, +and disengage him from the crowd by absolute force of arms. It was he +who, in the Delian battle, raised and saved Xenophon when fallen from his +horse; and who, amongst all the people of Athens, enraged as he was at so +unworthy a spectacle, first presented himself to rescue Theramenes, whom +the thirty tyrants were leading to execution by their satellites, and +desisted not from his bold enterprise but at the remonstrance of +Theramenes himself, though he was only followed by two more in all. He +was seen, when courted by a beauty with whom he was in love, to maintain +at need a severe abstinence. He was seen ever to go to the wars, and +walk upon ice, with bare feet; to wear the same robe, winter and summer; +to surpass all his companions in patience of bearing hardships, and to +eat no more at a feast than at his own private dinner. He was seen, for +seven-and-twenty years together, to endure hunger, poverty, the +indocility of his children, and the nails of his wife, with the same +countenance. And, in the end, calumny, tyranny, imprisonment, fetters, +and poison. But was this man obliged to drink full bumpers by any rule +of civility? he was also the man of the whole army with whom the +advantage in drinking, remained. And he never refused to play at +noisettes, nor to ride the hobby-horse with children, and it became him +well; for all actions, says philosophy, equally become and equally honour +a wise man. We have enough wherewithal to do it, and we ought never to +be weary of presenting the image of this great man in all the patterns +and forms of perfection. There are very few examples of life, full and +pure; and we wrong our teaching every day, to propose to ourselves those +that are weak and imperfect, scarce good for any one service, and rather +pull us back; corrupters rather than correctors of manners. The people +deceive themselves; a man goes much more easily indeed by the ends, where +the extremity serves for a bound, a stop, and guide, than by the middle +way, large and open; and according to art, more than according to nature: +but withal much less nobly and commendably. + +Greatness of soul consists not so much in mounting and in pressing +forward, as in knowing how to govern and circumscribe itself; it takes +everything for great, that is enough, and demonstrates itself in +preferring moderate to eminent things. There is nothing so fine and +legitimate as well and duly to play the man; nor science so arduous as +well and naturally to know how to live this life; and of all the +infirmities we have, 'tis the most barbarous to despise our being. + +Whoever has a mind to isolate his spirit, when the body is ill at ease, +to preserve it from the contagion, let him by all means do it if he can: +but otherwise let him on the contrary favour and assist it, and not +refuse to participate of its natural pleasures with a conjugal +complacency, bringing to it, if it be the wiser, moderation, lest by +indiscretion they should get confounded with displeasure. Intemperance +is the pest of pleasure; and temperance is not its scourge, but rather +its seasoning. Euxodus, who therein established the sovereign good, and +his companions, who set so high a value upon it, tasted it in its most +charming sweetness, by the means of temperance, which in them was +singular and exemplary. + +I enjoin my soul to look upon pain and pleasure with an eye equally +regulated: + + "Eodem enim vitio est effusio animi in laetitia + quo in dolore contractio," + + ["For from the same imperfection arises the expansion of the + mind in pleasure and its contraction in sorrow." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., iv. 31.] + +and equally firm; but the one gaily and the other severely, and so far as +it is able, to be careful to extinguish the one as to extend the other. +The judging rightly of good brings along with it the judging soundly of +evil: pain has something of the inevitable in its tender beginnings, and +pleasure something of the evitable in its excessive end. Plato couples +them together, and wills that it should be equally the office of +fortitude to fight against pain, and against the immoderate and charming +blandishments of pleasure: they are two fountains, from which whoever +draws, when and as much as he needs, whether city, man, or beast, is very +fortunate. The first is to be taken medicinally and upon necessity, and +more scantily; the other for thirst, but not to, drunkenness. Pain, +pleasure, love and hatred are the first things that a child is sensible +of: if, when reason comes, they apply it to themselves, that is virtue. + +I have a special vocabulary of my own; I "pass away time," when it is ill +and uneasy, but when 'tis good I do not pass it away: "I taste it over +again and adhere to it"; one must run over the ill and settle upon the +good. This ordinary phrase of pastime, and passing away the time, +represents the usage of those wise sort of people who think they cannot +do better with their lives than to let them run out and slide away, pass +them over, and baulk them, and, as much as they can, ignore them and shun +them as a thing of troublesome and contemptible quality: but I know it to +be another kind of thing, and find it both valuable and commodious, even +in its latest decay, wherein I now enjoy it; and nature has delivered it +into our hands in such and so favourable circumstances that we have only +ourselves to blame if it be troublesome to us, or escapes us +unprofitably: + + "Stulti vita ingrata est, trepida est, tota in futurum fertur." + + ["The life of a fool is thankless, timorous, and wholly bent upon + the future."--Seneca, Ep:, 15.] + +Nevertheless I compose myself to lose mine without regret; but withal as +a thing that is perishable by its condition, not that it molests or +annoys me. Nor does it properly well become any not to be displeased +when they die, excepting such as are pleased to live. There is good +husbandry in enjoying it: I enjoy it double to what others do; for the +measure of its fruition depends upon our more or less application to it. +Chiefly that I perceive mine to be so short in time, I desire to extend +it in weight; I will stop the promptitude of its flight by the +promptitude of my grasp; and by the vigour of using it compensate the +speed of its running away. In proportion as the possession of life is +more short, I must make it so much deeper and fuller. + +Others feel the pleasure of content and prosperity; I feel it too, as +well as they, but not as it passes and slips by; one should study, taste, +and ruminate upon it to render condign thanks to Him who grants it to us. +They enjoy the other pleasures as they do that of sleep, without knowing +it. To the end that even sleep itself should not so stupidly escape from +me, I have formerly caused myself to be disturbed in my sleep, so that I +might the better and more sensibly relish and taste it. I ponder with +myself of content; I do not skim over, but sound it; and I bend my +reason, now grown perverse and peevish, to entertain it. Do I find +myself in any calm composedness? is there any pleasure that tickles me? +I do not suffer it to dally with my senses only; I associate my soul to +it too: not there to engage itself, but therein to take delight; not +there to lose itself, but to be present there; and I employ it, on its +part, to view itself in this prosperous state, to weigh and appreciate +its happiness and to amplify it. It reckons how much it stands indebted +to God that its conscience and the intestine passions are in repose; that +it has the body in its natural disposition, orderly and competently +enjoying the soft and soothing functions by which He, of His grace is +pleased to compensate the sufferings wherewith His justice at His good +pleasure chastises us. It reflects how great a benefit it is to be so +protected, that which way soever it turns its eye the heavens are calm +around it. No desire, no fear, no doubt, troubles the air; no +difficulty, past, present, or to, come, that its imagination may not pass +over without offence. This consideration takes great lustre from the +comparison of different conditions. So it is that I present to my +thought, in a thousand aspects, those whom fortune or their own error +carries away and torments. And, again, those who, more like to me, so +negligently and incuriously receive their good fortune. Those are folks +who spend their time indeed; they pass over the present and that which +they possess, to wait on hope, and for shadows and vain images which +fancy puts before them: + + "Morte obita quales fama est volitare figuras, + Aut quae sopitos deludunt somnia sensus:" + + ["Such forms as those which after death are reputed to hover about, + or dreams which delude the senses in sleep."--AEneid, x. 641.] + +which hasten and prolong their flight, according as they are pursued. +The fruit and end of their pursuit is to pursue; as Alexander said, that +the end of his labour was to labour: + + "Nil actum credens, cum quid superesset agendum." + + ["Thinking nothing done, if anything remained to be done. + --"Lucan, ii. 657.] + +For my part then, I love life and cultivate it, such as it has pleased +God to bestow it upon us. I do not desire it should be without the +necessity of eating and drinking; and I should think it a not less +excusable failing to wish it had been twice as long; + + "Sapiens divitiarum naturalium quaesitor acerrimus:" + + ["A wise man is the keenest seeker for natural riches." + --Seneca, Ep., 119.] + +nor that we should support ourselves by putting only a little of that +drug into our mouths, by which Epimenides took away his appetite and kept +himself alive; nor that we should stupidly beget children with our +fingers or heels, but rather; with reverence be it spoken, that we might +voluptuously beget them with our fingers and heels; nor that the body +should be without desire and without titillation. These are ungrateful +and wicked complaints. I accept kindly, and with gratitude, what nature +has done for me; am well pleased with it, and proud of it. A man does +wrong to that great and omnipotent giver to refuse, annul, or disfigure +his gift: all goodness himself, he has made everything good: + + "Omnia quae secundum naturam sunt, aestimatione digna sunt." + + ["All things that are according to nature are worthy of esteem." + --Cicero, De Fin., iii. 6.] + +Of philosophical opinions, I preferably embrace those that are most +solid, that is to say, the most human and most our own: my discourse is, +suitable to my manners, low and humble: philosophy plays the child, to my +thinking, when it puts itself upon its Ergos to preach to us that 'tis a +barbarous alliance to marry the divine with the earthly, the reasonable +with the unreasonable, the severe with the indulgent, the honest with the +dishonest. That pleasure is a brutish quality, unworthy to be tasted by +a wise man; that the sole pleasure he extracts from the enjoyment of a +fair young wife is a pleasure of his conscience to perform an action +according to order, as to put on his boots for a profitable journey. +Oh, that its followers had no more right, nor nerves, nor vigour in +getting their wives' maidenheads than in its lesson. + +This is not what Socrates says, who is its master and ours: he values, as +he ought, bodily pleasure; but he prefers that of the mind as having more +force, constancy, facility, variety, and dignity. This, according to +him, goes by no means alone--he is not so fantastic--but only it goes +first; temperance with him is the moderatrix, not the adversary of +pleasure. Nature is a gentle guide, but not more sweet and gentle than +prudent and just. + + "Intrandum est in rerum naturam, et penitus, + quid ea postulet, pervidendum." + + ["A man must search into the nature of things, and fully examine + what she requires."--Cicero, De Fin., V. 16.] + +I hunt after her foot throughout: we have confounded it with artificial +traces; and that academic and peripatetic good, which is "to live +according to it," becomes on this account hard to limit and explain; and +that of the Stoics, neighbour to it, which is "to consent to nature." +Is it not an error to esteem any actions less worthy, because they are +necessary? And yet they will not take it out of my head, that it is not +a very convenient marriage of pleasure with necessity, with which, says +an ancient, the gods always conspire. To what end do we dismember by +divorce a building united by so close and brotherly a correspondence? +Let us, on the contrary, confirm it by mutual offices; let the mind rouse +and quicken the heaviness of the body, and the body stay and fix the +levity of the soul: + + "Qui, velut summum bonum, laudat animac naturam, et, tanquam malum, + naturam carnis accusat, profectd et animam carnatiter appetit, et + carnem carnaliter fugit; quoniam id vanitate sentit humans, non + veritate divina." + + ["He who commends the nature of the soul as the supreme good, and + condemns the nature of the flesh as evil, at once both carnally + desires the soul, and carnally flies the flesh, because he feels + thus from human vanity, not from divine truth." + --St. Augustin, De Civit. Dei, xiv. 5.] + +In this present that God has made us, there is nothing unworthy our care; +we stand accountable for it even to a hair; and is it not a commission to +man, to conduct man according to his condition; 'tis express, plain, and +the very principal one, and the Creator has seriously and strictly +prescribed it to us. Authority has power only to work in regard to +matters of common judgment, and is of more weight in a foreign language; +therefore let us again charge at it in this place: + + "Stultitiae proprium quis non dixerit, ignave et contumaciter + facere, quae facienda sunt; et alio corpus impellere, alio animum; + distrahique inter diversissimos motus?" + + ["Who will not say, that it is the property of folly, slothfully and + contumaciously to perform what is to be done, and to bend the body + one way and the mind another, and to be distracted betwixt wholly + different motions?"--Seneca, Ep., 74.] + +To make this apparent, ask any one, some day, to tell you what whimsies +and imaginations he put into his pate, upon the account of which he +diverted his thoughts from a good meal, and regrets the time he spends in +eating; you will find there is nothing so insipid in all the dishes at +your table as this wise meditation of his (for the most part we had +better sleep than wake to the purpose we wake); and that his discourses +and notions are not worth the worst mess there. Though they were the +ecstasies of Archimedes himself, what then? I do not here speak of, nor +mix with the rabble of us ordinary men, and the vanity of the thoughts +and desires that divert us, those venerable souls, elevated by the ardour +of devotion and religion, to a constant and conscientious meditation of +divine things, who, by the energy of vivid and vehement hope, +prepossessing the use of the eternal nourishment, the final aim and last +step of Christian desires, the sole constant, and incorruptible pleasure, +disdain to apply themselves to our necessitous, fluid, and ambiguous +conveniences, and easily resign to the body the care and use of sensual +and temporal pasture; 'tis a privileged study. Between ourselves, I have +ever observed supercelestial opinions and subterranean manners to be of +singular accord. + +AEsop, that great man, saw his master piss as he walked: "What then," +said he, "must we drop as we run?" Let us manage our time; there yet +remains a great deal idle and ill employed. The mind has not willingly +other hours enough wherein to do its business, without disassociating +itself from the body, in that little space it must have for its +necessity. They would put themselves out of themselves, and escape from +being men. It is folly; instead of transforming themselves into angels, +they transform themselves into beasts; instead of elevating, they lay +themselves lower. These transcendental humours affright me, like high +and inaccessible places; and nothing is hard for me to digest in the life +of Socrates but his ecstasies and communication with demons; nothing so +human in Plato as that for which they say he was called divine; and of +our sciences, those seem to be the most terrestrial and low that are +highest mounted; and I find nothing so humble and mortal in the life of +Alexander as his fancies about his immortalisation. Philotas pleasantly +quipped him in his answer; he congratulated him by letter concerning the +oracle of Jupiter Ammon, which had placed him amongst the gods: "Upon thy +account I am glad of it, but the men are to be pitied who are to live +with a man, and to obey him, who exceeds and is not contented with the +measure of a man:" + + "Diis to minorem quod geris, imperas." + + ["Because thou carriest thyself lower than the gods, thou rulest." + --Horace, Od., iii. 6, 5.] + +The pretty inscription wherewith the Athenians honoured the entry of +Pompey into their city is conformable to my sense: "By so much thou art +a god, as thou confessest thee a man." 'Tis an absolute and, as it were, +a divine perfection, for a man to know how loyally to enjoy his being. +We seek other conditions, by reason we do not understand the use of our +own; and go out of ourselves, because we know not how there to reside. +'Tis to much purpose to go upon stilts, for, when upon stilts, we must +yet walk with our legs; and when seated upon the most elevated throne in +the world, we are but seated upon our breech. The fairest lives, in my +opinion, are those which regularly accommodate themselves to the common +and human model without miracle, without extravagance. Old age stands a +little in need of a more gentle treatment. Let us recommend that to God, +the protector of health and wisdom, but let it be gay and sociable: + + "Frui paratis et valido mihi + Latoe, dones, et precor, integra + Cum mente; nec turpem senectam + Degere, nec Cithara carentem." + + ["Grant it to me, Apollo, that I may enjoy my possessions in good + health; let me be sound in mind; let me not lead a dishonourable + old age, nor want the cittern."--Horace, Od., i. 31, 17.] + +Or: + + ["Grant it to me, Apollo, that I may enjoy what I have in good + health; let me be sound in body and mind; let me live in honour when + old, nor let music be wanting."] + + + + +APOLOGY: +[In fact, the first edition of the Essays (Bordeaux, 1580) has very few +quotations. These became more numerous in the edition of 1588; but the +multitude of classical texts which at times encumber Montaigne's text, +only dates from the posthumous edition of 1595] he had made these +collections in the four last years of his life, as an amusement of his +"idleness."--Le Clerc. They grow, however, more sparing in the Third +Book. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A well-governed stomach is a great part of liberty +Affirmation and obstinacy are express signs of want of wit +Alexander said, that the end of his labour was to labour +All actions equally become and equally honour a wise man +As we were formerly by crimes, so we are now overburdened by law +At the most, but patch you up, and prop you a little +better have none at all than to have them in so prodigious a num +Both kings and philosophers go to stool +Cannot stand the liberty of a friend's advice +Cleave to the side that stood most in need of her +Condemnations have I seen more criminal than the crimes +Customs and laws make justice +Dignify our fopperies when we commit them to the press +Diversity of medical arguments and opinions embraces all +Every man thinks himself sufficiently intelligent +Excuse myself from knowing anything which enslaves me to others +First informed who were to be the other guests +Go out of ourselves, because we know not how there to reside +Got up but an inch upon the shoulders of the last, but one +Hate remedies that are more troublesome than the disease itself +He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears +How many and many times he has been mistaken in his own judgment +"I have done nothing to-day."--"What? have you not lived?" +If it be a delicious medicine, take it +Intelligence is required to be able to know that a man knows not +Intemperance is the pest of pleasure +Language: obscure and unintelligible in wills and contracts +Last death will kill but a half or a quarter of a man +Law: breeder of altercation and division +Laws keep up their credit, not for being just--but as laws +Lay the fault on the voices of those who speak to me. +Learn my own debility and the treachery of my understanding +Life of Caesar has no greater example for us than our own +Long sittings at table both trouble me and do me harm +Made all medicinal conclusions largely give way to my pleasure +Man after who held out his pulse to a physician was a fool +Man must learn that he is nothing but a fool +More ado to interpret interpretations +More books upon books than upon any other subject +Never did two men make the same judgment of the same thing +Nnone that less keep their promise(than physicians) +Nor get children but before I sleep, nor get them standing +Nothing so grossly, nor so ordinarily faulty, as the laws +Our justice presents to us but one hand +Perpetual scolding of his wife (of Socrates) +Physician: pass through all the diseases he pretends to cure +Plato angry at excess of sleeping than at excess of drinking +Plato: lawyers and physicians are bad institutions of a country +Prolong your misery an hour or two +Put us into a way of extending and diversifying difficulties +Resolved to bring nothing to it but expectation and patience +Scratching is one of nature's sweetest gratifications +Seek the quadrature of the circle, even when on their wives +So weak and languishing, as not to have even wishing left to him +Soft, easy, and wholesome pillow is ignorance and incuriosity +Study makes me sensible how much I have to learn +Style wherewith men establish religions and laws +Subdividing these subtilties we teach men to increase their doub +That we may live, we cease to live +The mean is best +There is none of us who would not be worse than kings +Thinking nothing done, if anything remained to be done +Thinks nothing profitable that is not painful +Thou diest because thou art living +Tis so I melt and steal away from myself +Truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times +Truth, that for being older it is none the wiser +We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade +We ought to grant free passage to diseases +Whoever will call to mind the excess of his past anger +Why do we not imitate the Roman architecture? +Wrangling arrogance, wholly believing and trusting in itself +Yet do we find any end of the need of interpretating? + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V19 +By Michel de Montaigne + + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE COMPLETE EDITION: + +A child should not be brought up in his mother's lap +A gallant man does not give over his pursuit for being refused +A generous heart ought not to belie its own thoughts +A hundred more escape us than ever come to our knowledge +A lady could not boast of her chastity who was never tempted +A little cheese when a mind to make a feast +A little thing will turn and divert us +A man may always study, but he must not always go to school +A man may govern himself well who cannot govern others so +A man may play the fool in everything else, but not in poetry +A man must either imitate the vicious or hate them +A man must have courage to fear +A man never speaks of himself without loss +A man should abhor lawsuits as much as he may +A man should diffuse joy, but, as much as he can, smother grief +A man's accusations of himself are always believed +A parrot would say as much as that +A person's look is but a feeble warranty +A well-bred man is a compound man +A well-governed stomach is a great part of liberty +A word ill taken obliterates ten years' merit +Abhorrence of the patient are necessary circumstances +Abominate that incidental repentance which old age brings +Accept all things we are not able to refute +Accommodated my subject to my strength +Accursed be thou, as he that arms himself for fear of death +Accusing all others of ignorance and imposition +Acquiesce and submit to truth +Acquire by his writings an immortal life +Addict thyself to the study of letters +Addresses his voyage to no certain, port +Admiration is the foundation of all philosophy +Advantageous, too, a little to recede from one's right +Advise to choose weapons of the shortest sort +Affect words that are not of current use +Affection towards their husbands, (not) until they have lost them +Affirmation and obstinacy are express signs of want of wit +Affright people with the very mention of death +Against my trifles you could say no more than I myself have said +Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face +Agesilaus, what he thought most proper for boys to learn? +Agitated betwixt hope and fear +Agitation has usurped the place of reason +Alexander said, that the end of his labour was to labour +All actions equally become and equally honour a wise man +All apprentices when we come to it (death) +All defence shows a face of war +All I aim at is, to pass my time at my ease +All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice +All judgments in gross are weak and imperfect +All over-nice solicitude about riches smells of avarice +All things have their seasons, even good ones +All think he has yet twenty good years to come +All those who have authority to be angry in my family +Almanacs +Always be parading their pedantic science +Always complaining is the way never to be lamented +Always the perfect religion +Am as jealous of my repose as of my authority +An advantage in judgment we yield to none +"An emperor," said he, "must die standing" +An ignorance that knowledge creates and begets +Ancient Romans kept their youth always standing at school +And hate him so as you were one day to love him +And we suffer the ills of a long peace +Anger and hatred are beyond the duty of justice +Any argument if it be carried on with method +Any old government better than change and alteration +Any one may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death +Anything appears greatest to him that never knew a greater +Anything becomes foul when commended by the multitude +Anything of value in him, let him make it appear in his conduct +Appetite comes to me in eating +Appetite is more sharp than one already half-glutted by the eyes +Appetite runs after that it has not +Appetite to read more, than glutted with that we have +Applaud his judgment than commend his knowledge +Apprenticeship and a resemblance of death +Apprenticeships that are to be served beforehand +Apt to promise something less than what I am able to do +Archer that shoots over, misses as much as he that falls short +Armed parties (the true school of treason, inhumanity, robbery +Arrogant ignorance +Art that could come to the knowledge of but few persons +"Art thou not ashamed," said he to him, "to sing so well?" +Arts of persuasion, to insinuate it into our minds +As great a benefit to be without (children) +As if anything were so common as ignorance +As if impatience were of itself a better remedy than patience +As we were formerly by crimes, so we are now overburdened by law +Ashamed to lay out as much thought and study upon it +Assurance they give us of the certainty of their drugs +At least, if they do no good, they will do no harm +At the most, but patch you up, and prop you a little +Attribute facility of belief to simplicity and ignorance +Attribute to itself; all the happy successes that happen +Authority of the number and antiquity of the witnesses +Authority to be dissected by the vain fancies of men +Authority which a graceful presence and a majestic mien beget +Avoid all magnificences that will in a short time be forgotten +Away with that eloquence that enchants us with itself +Away with this violence! away with this compulsion! +Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age +Be not angry to no purpose +Be on which side you will, you have as fair a game to play +Bears well a changed fortune, acting both parts equally well +Beast of company, as the ancient said, but not of the herd +Beauty of stature is the only beauty of men +Because the people know so well how to obey +Become a fool by too much wisdom +Being as impatient of commanding as of being commanded +Being dead they were then by one day happier than he +Being over-studious, we impair our health and spoil our humour +Belief compared to the impression of a seal upon the soul +Believing Heaven concerned at our ordinary actions +Best part of a captain to know how to make use of occasions +Best test of truth is the multitude of believers in a crowd +Best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice +Better at speaking than writing--Motion and action animate word +better have none at all than to have them in so prodigious a num +Better to be alone than in foolish and troublesome company +Blemishes of the great naturally appear greater +Books go side by side with me in my whole course +Books have many charming qualities to such as know how to choose +Books have not so much served me for instruction as exercise +Books I read over again, still smile upon me with fresh novelty +Books of things that were never either studied or understood +Both himself and his posterity declared ignoble, taxable +Both kings and philosophers go to stool +Burnt and roasted for opinions taken upon trust from others +Business to-morrow +But ill proves the honour and beauty of an action by its utility +But it is not enough that our education does not spoil us +By resenting the lie we acquit ourselves of the fault +By suspecting them, have given them a title to do ill +By the gods," said he, "if I was not angry, I would execute you +By the misery of this life, aiming at bliss in another +Caesar: he would be thought an excellent engineer to boot +Caesar's choice of death: "the shortest" +Can neither keep nor enjoy anything with a good grace +Cannot stand the liberty of a friend's advice +Carnal appetites only supported by use and exercise +Cato said: So many servants, so many enemies +Ceremony forbids us to express by words things that are lawful +Certain other things that people hide only to show them +Change is to be feared +Change of fashions +Change only gives form to injustice and tyranny +Cherish themselves most where they are most wrong +Chess: this idle and childish game +Chiefly knew himself to be mortal by this act +Childish ignorance of many very ordinary things +Children are amused with toys and men with words +Cicero: on fame +Civil innocence is measured according to times and places +Cleave to the side that stood most in need of her +cloak on one shoulder, my cap on one side, a stocking disordered +College: a real house of correction of imprisoned youth +Coming out of the same hole +Commit themselves to the common fortune +Common consolation, discourages and softens me +Common friendships will admit of division +Conclude the depth of my sense by its obscurity +Concluding no beauty can be greater than what they see +Condemn all violence in the education of a tender soul +Condemn the opposite affirmation equally +Condemnations have I seen more criminal than the crimes +Condemning wine, because some people will be drunk +Confession enervates reproach and disarms slander +Confidence in another man's virtue +Conscience makes us betray, accuse, and fight against ourselves +Conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature +Consent, and complacency in giving a man's self up to melancholy +Consoles himself upon the utility and eternity of his writings +Content: more easily found in want than in abundance +Counterfeit condolings of pretenders +Courageous in death, not because his soul is immortal--Socrates +Courtesy and good manners is a very necessary study +Crafty humility that springs from presumption +Crates did worse, who threw himself into the liberty of poverty +Cruelty is the very extreme of all vices +Culling out of several books the sentences that best please me +Curiosity and of that eager passion for news +Curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a scourge +"Custom," replied Plato, "is no little thing" +Customs and laws make justice +Dangerous man you have deprived of all means to escape +Dangers do, in truth, little or nothing hasten our end +Dearness is a good sauce to meat +Death can, whenever we please, cut short inconveniences +Death conduces more to birth and augmentation than to loss +Death discharges us of all our obligations +Death has us every moment by the throat +Death is a part of you +Death is terrible to Cicero, coveted by Cato +Death of old age the most rare and very seldom seen +Deceit maintains and supplies most men's employment +Decree that says, "The court understands nothing of the matter" +Defence allures attempt, and defiance provokes an enemy +Defend most the defects with which we are most tainted +Defer my revenge to another and better time +Deformity of the first cruelty makes me abhor all imitation +Delivered into our own custody the keys of life +Denying all solicitation, both of hand and mind +Depend as much upon fortune as anything else we do +Desire of riches is more sharpened by their use than by the need +Desire of travel +Desires, that still increase as they are fulfilled +Detest in others the defects which are more manifest in us +Did my discourses came only from my mouth or from my heart +Did not approve all sorts of means to obtain a victory +Die well--that is, patiently and tranquilly +Difference betwixt memory and understanding +Difficulty gives all things their estimation +Dignify our fopperies when we commit them to the press +Diogenes, esteeming us no better than flies or bladders +Discover what there is of good and clean in the bottom of the po +Disdainful, contemplative, serious and grave as the ass +Disease had arrived at its period or an effect of chance? +Disgorge what we eat in the same condition it was swallowed +Disguise, by their abridgments and at their own choice +Dissentient and tumultuary drugs +Diversity of medical arguments and opinions embraces all +Diverting the opinions and conjectures of the people +Do not much blame them for making their advantage of our folly +Do not to pray that all things may go as we would have them +Do not, nevertheless, always believe myself +Do thine own work, and know thyself +Doctors: more felicity and duration in their own lives? +Doctrine much more intricate and fantastic than the thing itself +Dost thou, then, old man, collect food for others' ears? +Doubt whether those (old writings) we have be not the worst +Doubtful ills plague us worst +Downright and sincere obedience +Drugs being in its own nature an enemy to our health +Drunkeness a true and certain trial of every one's nature +Dying appears to him a natural and indifferent accident +Each amongst you has made somebody cuckold +Eat your bread with the sauce of a more pleasing imagination +Education +Education ought to be carried on with a severe sweetness +Effect and performance are not at all in our power +Either tranquil life, or happy death +Eloquence prejudices the subject it would advance +Emperor Julian, surnamed the Apostate +Endeavouring to be brief, I become obscure +Engaged in the avenues of old age, being already past forty +Enough to do to comfort myself, without having to console others +Enslave our own contentment to the power of another? +Enters lightly into a quarrel is apt to go as lightly out of it +Entertain us with fables: astrologers and physicians +Epicurus +Establish this proposition by authority and huffing +Evade this tormenting and unprofitable knowledge +Even the very promises of physic are incredible in themselves +Events are a very poor testimony of our worth and parts +Every abridgment of a good book is a foolish abridgment +Every day travels towards death; the last only arrives at it +Every government has a god at the head of it +Every man thinks himself sufficiently intelligent +Every place of retirement requires a walk +Everything has many faces and several aspects +Examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned +Excel above the common rate in frivolous things +Excuse myself from knowing anything which enslaves me to others +Executions rather whet than dull the edge of vices +Expresses more contempt and condemnation than the other +Extend their anger and hatred beyond the dispute in question +Extremity of philosophy is hurtful +Fabric goes forming and piling itself up from hand to hand +Fame: an echo, a dream, nay, the shadow of a dream +Fancy that others cannot believe otherwise than as he does +Fantastic gibberish of the prophetic canting +Far more easy and pleasant to follow than to lead +Fathers conceal their affection from their children +Fault not to discern how far a man's worth extends +Fault will be theirs for having consulted me +Fear and distrust invite and draw on offence +Fear is more importunate and insupportable than death itself +Fear of the fall more fevers me than the fall itself +Fear to lose a thing, which being lost, cannot be lamented? +Fear was not that I should do ill, but that I should do nothing +Fear: begets a terrible astonishment and confusion +Feared, lest disgrace should make such delinquents desperate +Feminine polity has a mysterious procedure +Few men have been admired by their own domestics +Few men have made a wife of a mistress, who have not repented it +First informed who were to be the other guests +First thing to be considered in love matters: a fitting time +Flatterer in your old age or in your sickness +Follies do not make me laugh, it is our wisdom which does +Folly and absurdity are not to be cured by bare admonition +Folly of gaping after future things +Folly satisfied with itself than any reason can reasonably be +Folly than to be moved and angry at the follies of the world +Folly to hazard that upon the uncertainty of augmenting it +Folly to put out their own light and shine by a borrowed lustre +For fear of the laws and report of men +For who ever thought he wanted sense? +Fortune heaped up five or six such-like incidents +Fortune rules in all things +Fortune sometimes seems to delight in taking us at our word +Fortune will still be mistress of events +Fox, who found fault with what he could not obtain +Friend, it is not now time to play with your nails +Friend, the hook will not stick in such soft cheese +Friendships that the law and natural obligation impose upon us +Fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed +Gain to change an ill condition for one that is uncertain +Gave them new and more plausible names for their excuse +Gentleman would play the fool to make a show of defence +Gently to bear the inconstancy of a lover +Gewgaw to hang in a cabinet or at the end of the tongue +Give but the rind of my attention +Give me time to recover my strength and health +Give the ladies a cruel contempt of our natural furniture +Give these young wenches the things they long for +Give us history, more as they receive it than as they believe it +Giving is an ambitious and authoritative quality +Glory and curiosity are the scourges of the soul +Go out of ourselves, because we know not how there to reside +Good does not necessarily succeed evil; another evil may succeed +Good to be certain and finite, and evil, infinite and uncertain +Got up but an inch upon the shoulders of the last, but one +Gradations above and below pleasure +Gratify the gods and nature by massacre and murder +Great presumption to be so fond of one's own opinions +Greatest apprehensions, from things unseen, concealed +Greatest talkers, for the most part, do nothing to purpose +Greedy humour of new and unknown things +Grief provokes itself +Gross impostures of religions +Guess at our meaning under general and doubtful terms +Happen to do anything commendable, I attribute it to fortune +Hard to resolve a man's judgment against the common opinions +Haste trips up its own heels, fetters, and stops itself +Hate all sorts of obligation and restraint +Hate remedies that are more troublesome than the disease itself +Have ever had a great respect for her I loved +Have more wherewith to defray my journey, than I have way to go +Have no other title left me to these things but by the ears +Have you ever found any who have been dissatisfied with dying? +Having too good an opinion of our own worth +He cannot be good, seeing he is not evil even to the wicked +He did not think mankind worthy of a wise man's concern +He felt a pleasure and delight in so noble an action +He judged other men by himself +He may employ his passion, who can make no use of his reason +He may well go a foot, they say, who leads his horse in his hand +He must fool it a little who would not be deemed wholly a fool +He should discern in himself, as well as in others +He took himself along with him +He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears +He who is only a good man that men may know it +He who lays the cloth is ever at the charge of the feast +He who lives everywhere, lives nowhere +He who provides for all, provides for nothing +He who stops not the start will never be able to stop the course +He will choose to be alone +Headache should come before drunkenness +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 +Hearing a philosopher talk of military affairs +Heat and stir up their imagination, and then we find fault +Help: no other effect than that of lengthening my suffering +High time to die when there is more ill than good in living +Hoary head and rivelled face of ancient usage +Hobbes said that if he Had been at college as long as others-- +Hold a stiff rein upon suspicion +Home anxieties and a mind enslaved by wearing complaints +Homer: The only words that have motion and action +Honour of valour consists in fighting, not in subduing +How infirm and decaying material this fabric of ours is +How many and many times he has been mistaken in his own judgment +How many more have died before they arrived at thy age +How many several ways has death to surprise us? +How many things," said he, "I do not desire!" +How many worthy men have we known to survive their reputation +How much easier is it not to enter in than it is to get out +How much it costs him to do no worse +How much more insupportable and painful an immortal life +How uncertain duration these accidental conveniences are +Humble out of pride +Husbands hate their wives only because they themselves do wrong +I always find superfluity superfluous +I am a little tenderly distrustful of things that I wish +I am apt to dream that I dream +I am disgusted with the world I frequent +I am hard to be got out, but being once upon the road +I am no longer in condition for any great change +I am not to be cuffed into belief +I am plain and heavy, and stick to the solid and the probable +I am very glad to find the way beaten before me by others +I am very willing to quit the government of my house +I bequeath to Areteus the maintenance of my mother +I can more hardly believe a man's constancy than any virtue +I cannot well refuse to play with my dog +I content myself with enjoying the world without bustle +I dare not promise but that I may one day be so much a fool +I do not consider what it is now, but what it was then +I do not judge opinions by years +I do not much lament the dead, and should envy them rather +I do not say that 'tis well said, but well thought +I do not willingly alight when I am once on horseback +I enter into confidence with dying +I ever justly feared to raise my head too high +I every day hear fools say things that are not foolish +I find myself here fettered by the laws of ceremony +I find no quality so easy to counterfeit as devotion +I for my part always went the plain way to work +I grudge nothing but care and trouble +I had much rather die than live upon charity +I had rather be old a brief time, than be old before old age +I hail and caress truth in what quarter soever I find it +I hate all sorts of tyranny, both in word and deed +I hate poverty equally with pain +I have a great aversion from a novelty +"I have done nothing to-day"--"What? have you not lived?" +I have lived longer by this one day than I should have done +I have no mind to die, but I have no objection to be dead +I have not a wit supple enough to evade a sudden question +I have nothing of my own that satisfies my judgment +I honour those most to whom I show the least honour +I lay no great stress upon my opinions; or of others +I look upon death carelessly when I look upon it universally +I love stout expressions amongst gentle men +I love temperate and moderate natures +I need not seek a fool from afar; I can laugh at myself +I owe it rather to my fortune than my reason +I receive but little advice, I also give but little +I scorn to mend myself by halves +I see no people so soon sick as those who take physic +I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare +I take hold of, as little glorious and exemplary as you will +I understand my men even by their silence and smiles +I was always superstitiously afraid of giving offence +I was too frightened to be ill +"I wish you good health"--"No health to thee" replied the other +I would as willingly be lucky as wise +I would be rich of myself, and not by borrowing +I write my book for few men and for few years +Idleness is to me a very painful labour +Idleness, the mother of corruption +If a passion once prepossess and seize me, it carries me away +If I am talking my best, whoever interrupts me, stops me +If I stand in need of anger and inflammation, I borrow it +If it be a delicious medicine, take it +If it be the writer's wit or borrowed from some other +If nature do not help a little, it is very hard +If they can only be kind to us out of pity +If they chop upon one truth, that carries a mighty report +If they hear no noise, they think men sleep +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt +Ignorance does not offend me, but the foppery of it +Impotencies that so unseasonably surprise the lover +Ill luck is good for something +Imagne the mighty will not abase themselves so much as to live +Imitating other men's natures, thou layest aside thy own +Immoderate either seeking or evading glory or reputation +Impose them upon me as infallible +Impostures: very strangeness lends them credit +Improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair +Impunity pass with us for justice +In everything else a man may keep some decorum +In ordinary friendships I am somewhat cold and shy +In solitude, be company for thyself--Tibullus +In sorrow there is some mixture of pleasure +In the meantime, their halves were begging at their doors +In this last scene of death, there is no more counterfeiting +In those days, the tailor took measure of it +In war not to drive an enemy to despair +Inclination to love one another at the first sight +Inclination to variety and novelty common to us both +Incline the history to their own fancy +Inconsiderate excuses are a kind of self-accusation +Inconveniences that moderation brings (in civil war) +Indiscreet desire of a present cure, that so blind us +Indocile liberty of this member +Inquisitive after everything +Insensible of the stroke when our youth dies in us +Insert whole sections and pages out of ancient authors +Intelligence is required to be able to know that a man knows not +Intemperance is the pest of pleasure +Intended to get a new husband than to lament the old +Interdict all gifts betwixt man and wife +Interdiction incites, and who are more eager, being forbidden +It (my books) may know many things that are gone from me +It happens, as with cages, the birds without despair to get in +It is better to die than to live miserable +It is no hard matter to get children +It is not a book to read, 'tis a book to study and learn +It is not for outward show that the soul is to play its part +It's madness to nourish infirmity +Jealousy: no remedy but flight or patience +Judge by justice, and choose men by reason +Judge by the eye of reason, and not from common report +Judgment of duty principally lies in the will +Judgment of great things is many times formed from lesser thing +Justice als takes cognisance of those who glean after the reaper +Killing is good to frustrate an offence to come, not to revenge +Knock you down with the authority of their experience +Knot is not so sure that a man may not half suspect it will slip +Knowledge and truth may be in us without judgment +Knowledge is not so absolutely necessary as judgment +Knowledge of others, wherein the honour consists +Known evil was ever more supportable than one that was, new +Ladies are no sooner ours, than we are no more theirs +Language: obscure and unintelligible in wills and contracts +Lascivious poet: Homer +Last death will kill but a half or a quarter of a man +Law: breeder of altercation and division +Laws (of Plato on travel), which forbids it after threescore +Laws cannot subsist without mixture of injustice +Laws do what they can, when they cannot do what they would +Laws keep up their credit, not for being just--but as laws +Lay the fault on the voices of those who speak to me +Laying themselves low to avoid the danger of falling +Learn my own debility and the treachery of my understanding +Learn the theory from those who best know the practice +Learn what it is right to wish +Learning improves fortunes enough, but not minds +Least end of a hair will serve to draw them into my discourse +Least touch or prick of a pencil in comparison of the whole +Leave society when we can no longer add anything to it +Leaving nothing unsaid, how home and bitter soever +Led by the ears by this charming harmony of words +Lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself +Lessen the just value of things that I possess +Let a man take which course he will," said he; "he will repent" +Let him be as wise as he will, after all he is but a man +Let him be satisfied with correcting himself +Let him examine every man's talent +Let it alone a little +Let it be permitted to the timid to hope +Let not us seek illusions from without and unknown +Let us not be ashamed to speak what we are not ashamed to think +Let us not seek our disease out of ourselves; 'tis in us +Liberality at the expense of others +Liberty and laziness, the qualities most predominant in me +Liberty of poverty +Liberty to lean, but not to lay our whole weight upon others +Library: Tis there that I am in my kingdom +License of judgments is a great disturbance to great affairs +Life of Caesar has no greater example for us than our own +Life should be cut off in the sound and living part +Light griefs can speak: deep sorrows are dumb +Light prognostics they give of themselves in their tender years +Little affairs most disturb us +Little knacks and frivolous subtleties +Little learning is needed to form a sound mind" --Seneca +Little less trouble in governing a private family than a kingdom +Live a quite contrary sort of life to what they prescribe others +Live at the expense of life itself +Live, not so long as they please, but as long as they ought +Living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting +Living well, which of all arts is the greatest +Llaying the fault upon the patient, by such frivolous reasons +Lodge nothing in his fancy upon simple authority and upon trust +Long a voyage I should at last run myself into some disadvantage +Long sittings at table both trouble me and do me harm +Long toleration begets habit; habit, consent and imitation +Look on death not only without astonishment but without care +Look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger +Look, you who think the gods have no care of human things +Lose what I have a particular care to lock safe up +Loses more by defending his vineyard than if he gave it up +Love is the appetite of generation by the mediation of beauty +Love shamefully and dishonestly cured by marriage +Love them the less for our own faults +Love we bear to our wives is very lawful +Love, full, lively, and sharp; a pleasure inflamed by difficulty +Loved them for our sport, like monkeys, and not as men +Lower himself to the meanness of defending his innocence +Made all medicinal conclusions largely give way to my pleasure +Making their advantage of our folly, for most men do the same +Malice must be employed to correct this arrogant ignorance +Malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom +Malicious kind of justice +Man (must) know that he is his own +Man after who held out his pulse to a physician was a fool +Man can never be wise but by his own wisdom +Man may say too much even upon the best subjects +Man may with less trouble adapt himself to entire abstinence +Man must approach his wife with prudence and temperance +Man must have a care not to do his master so great service +Man must learn that he is nothing but a fool +Man runs a very great hazard in their hands (of physicians) +Mark of singular good nature to preserve old age +Marriage +Marriage rejects the company and conditions of love +Melancholy: Are there not some constitutions that feed upon it? +Memories are full enough, but the judgment totally void +Men approve of things for their being rare and new +Men are not always to rely upon the personal confessions +Men as often commend as undervalue me beyond reason +Men make them (the rules) without their (women's) help +Men must embark, and not deliberate, upon high enterprises +Men should furnish themselves with such things as would float +Mercenaries who would receive any (pay) +Merciful to the man, but not to his wickedness--Aristotle +Methinks I am no more than half of myself +Methinks I promise it, if I but say it +Miracle: everything our reason cannot comprehend +Miracles and strange events have concealed themselves from me +Miracles appear to be so, according to our ignorance of nature +Miserable kind of remedy, to owe one's health to one's disease! +Miserable, who has not at home where to be by himself +Misfortunes that only hurt us by being known +Mix railing, indiscretion, and fury in his disputations +Moderation is a virtue that gives more work than suffering +Modesty is a foolish virtue in an indigent person (Homer) +More ado to interpret interpretations +More books upon books than upon any other subject +More brave men been lost in occasions of little moment +More solicitous that men speak of us, than how they speak +More supportable to be always alone than never to be so +More valued a victory obtained by counsel than by force +Morosity and melancholic humour of a sour ill-natured pedant +Most cruel people, and upon frivolous occasions, apt to cry +Most men are rich in borrowed sufficiency +Most men do not so much believe as they acquiesce and permit +Most of my actions are guided by example, not by choice +Mothers are too tender +Motive to some vicious occasion or some prospect of profit +Much better to offend him once than myself every day +Much difference betwixt us and ourselves +Must for the most part entertain ourselves with ourselves +Must of necessity walk in the steps of another +My affection alters, my judgment does not +My books: from me hold that which I have not retained +My dog unseasonably importunes me to play +My fancy does not go by itself, as when my legs move it +My humour is no friend to tumult +My humour is unfit either to speak or write for beginners +My innocence is a simple one; little vigour and no art +My mind is easily composed at distance +My reason is not obliged to bow and bend; my knees are +My thoughts sleep if I sit still +My words does but injure the love I have conceived within +Natural death the most rare and very seldom seen +Nature of judgment to have it more deliberate and more slow +Nature of wit is to have its operation prompt and sudden +Nature, who left us in such a state of imperfection +Nearest to the opinions of those with whom they have to do +Negligent garb, which is yet observable amongst the young men +Neither be a burden to myself nor to any other +Neither continency nor virtue where there are no opposing desire +Neither men nor their lives are measured by the ell +Neither the courage to die nor the heart to live +Never any man knew so much, and spake so little +Never did two men make the same judgment of the same thing +Never observed any great stability in my soul to resist passions +Never oppose them either by word or sign, how false or absurd +Never represent things to you simply as they are +Never spoke of my money, but falsely, as others do +New World: sold it opinions and our arts at a very dear rate +Nnone that less keep their promise(than physicians) +No alcohol the night on which a man intends to get children +No beast in the world so much to be feared by man as man +No danger with them, though they may do us no good +No doing more difficult than that not doing, nor more active +No effect of virtue, to have stronger arms and legs +No evil is honourable; but death is honourable +No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness +No great choice betwixt not knowing to speak anything but ill-- +No man continues ill long but by his own fault +No man is free from speaking foolish things +No man more certain than another of to-morrow--Seneca +No necessity upon a man to live in necessity +No one can be called happy till he is dead and buried +No other foundation or support than public abuse +No passion so contagious as that of fear +No physic that has not something hurtful in it +No use to this age, I throw myself back upon that other +No way found to tranquillity that is good in common +Noble and rich, where examples of virtue are rarely lodged +Nobody prognosticated that I should be wicked, but only useless +Noise of arms deafened the voice of laws +None of the sex, let her be as ugly as the devil thinks lovable +Nor get children but before I sleep, nor get them standing +Nor have other tie upon one another, but by our word +Nosegay of foreign flowers, having furnished nothing of my own +Not a victory that puts not an end to the war +Not being able to govern events, I govern myself +Not believe from one, I should not believe from a hundred +Not certain to live till I came home +Not conceiving things otherwise than by this outward bark +Not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity +Not for any profit, but for the honour of honesty itself +Not having been able to pronounce one syllable, which is No! +Not in a condition to lend must forbid himself to borrow +Not melancholic, but meditative +Not to instruct but to be instructed +Not want, but rather abundance, that creates avarice +Nothing can be a grievance that is but once +Nothing falls where all falls +Nothing is more confident than a bad poet +Nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know +Nothing is so supple and erratic as our understanding +Nothing noble can be performed without danger +Nothing presses so hard upon a state as innovation +Nothing so grossly, nor so ordinarily faulty, as the laws +Nothing tempts my tears but tears +Nothing that so poisons as flattery +Number of fools so much exceeds the wise +O Athenians, what this man says, I will do +O my friends, there is no friend: Aristotle +O wretched men, whose pleasures are a crime +O, the furious advantage of opportunity! +Obedience is never pure nor calm in him who reasons and disputes +Obliged to his age for having weaned him from pleasure +Observed the laws of marriage, than I either promised or expect +Obstinacy and contention are common qualities +Obstinacy is the sister of constancy +Obstinancy and heat in argument are the surest proofs of folly +Obstinate in growing worse +Occasion to La Boetie to write his "Voluntary Servitude" +Occasions of the least lustre are ever the most dangerous +Occupy our thoughts about the general, and about universal cause +Of the fleeting years each steals something from me +Office of magnanimity openly and professedly to love and hate +Oftentimes agitated with divers passions +Old age: applaud the past and condemn the present +Old men who retain the memory of things past +Omit, as incredible, such things as they do not understand +On all occasions to contradict and oppose +One door into life, but a hundred thousand ways out +One may be humble out of pride +One may more boldly dare what nobody thinks you dare +One may regret better times, but cannot fly from the present +One must first know what is his own and what is not +Only desire to become more wise, not more learned or eloquent +Only secure harbour from the storms and tempests of life +Only set the humours they would purge more violently in work +Open speaking draws out discoveries, like wine and love +Opinions they have of things and not by the things themselves +Opinions we have are taken on authority and trust +Opposition and contradiction entertain and nourish them +Option now of continuing in life or of completing the voyage +Order a purge for your brain, it will there be much better +Order it so that your virtue may conquer your misfortune +Ordinances it (Medicine)foists upon us +Ordinary friendships, you are to walk with bridle in your hand +Ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life +Others adore all of their own side +Ought not only to have his hands, but his eyes, too, chaste +Ought not to expect much either from his vigilance or power +Ought to withdraw and retire his soul from the crowd +Our extremest pleasure has some sort of groaning +Our fancy does what it will, both with itself and us +Our judgments are yet sick +Our justice presents to us but one hand +Our knowledge, which is a wretched foundation +Our qualities have no title but in comparison +Our will is more obstinate by being opposed +Over-circumspect and wary prudence is a mortal enemy +Overvalue things, because they are foreign, absent +Owe ourselves chiefly and mostly to ourselves +Passion has a more absolute command over us than reason +Passion has already confounded his judgment +Passion of dandling and caressing infants scarcely born +Pay very strict usury who did not in due time pay the principal +People are willing to be gulled in what they desire +People conceiving they have right and title to be judges +Perfect friendship I speak of is indivisible +Perfect men as they are, they are yet simply men +Perfection: but I will not buy it so dear as it costs +Perpetual scolding of his wife (of Socrates) +Petulant madness contends with itself +Philopoemen: paying the penalty of my ugliness +Philosophy +Philosophy has discourses proper for childhood +Philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die +Philosophy is that which instructs us to live +Philosophy looked upon as a vain and fantastic name +Phusicians cure by by misery and pain +Physic +Physician worse physicked +Physician: pass through all the diseases he pretends to cure +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 +Pinch the secret strings of our imperfections +Pitiful ways and expedients to the jugglers of the law +Pity is reputed a vice amongst the Stoics +Plato angry at excess of sleeping than at excess of drinking +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age +Plato said of the Egyptians, that they were all physicians +Plato says, that the gods made man for their sport +Plato will have nobody marry before thirty +Plato: lawyers and physicians are bad institutions of a country +Plays of children are not performed in play +Pleasing all: a mark that can never be aimed at or hit +Pleasure of telling (a pleasure little inferior to that of doing +Poets +Possession begets a contempt of what it holds and rules +Practical Jokes: Tis unhandsome to fight in play +Preachers very often work more upon their auditory than reasons +Preface to bribe the benevolence of the courteous reader +Prefer in bed, beauty before goodness +Preferring the universal and common tie to all national ties +Premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty +Prepare ourselves against the preparations of death +Present Him such words as the memory suggests to the tongue +Present himself with a halter about his neck to the people +Presumptive knowledge by silence +Pretending to find out the cause of every accident +Priest shall on the wedding-day open the way to the bride +Proceed so long as there shall be ink and paper in the world +Profession of knowledge and their immeasurable self-conceit +Profit made only at the expense of another +Prolong his life also prolonged and augmented his pain +Prolong your misery an hour or two +Prudent and just man may be intemperate and inconsistent +Prudent man, when I imagine him in this posture +Psalms of King David: promiscuous, indiscreet +Public weal requires that men should betray, and lie +Puerile simplicities of our children +Pure cowardice that makes our belief so pliable +Put us into a way of extending and diversifying difficulties +Pyrrho's hog +Quiet repose and a profound sleep without dreams +Rage compelled to excuse itself by a pretence of good-will +Rage it puts them to oppose silence and coldness to their fury +Rash and incessant scolding runs into custom +Rather be a less while old than be old before I am really so +Rather complain of ill-fortune than be ashamed of victory +Rather prating of another man's province than his own +Reading those books, converse with the great and heroic souls +Reasons often anticipate the effect +Recommendation of strangeness, rarity, and dear purchase +Refusin to justify, excuse, or explain myself +Regret so honourable a post, where necessity must make them bold +Remotest witness knows more about it than those who were nearest +Represented her a little too passionate for a married Venus +Reputation: most useless, frivolous, and false coin that passes +Repute for value in them, not what they bring to us +Reserve a backshop, wholly our own and entirely free +Resolved to bring nothing to it but expectation and patience +Rest satisfied, without desire of prolongation of life or name +Restoring what has been lent us, wit usury and accession +Revenge more wounds our children than it heals us +Revenge, which afterwards produces a series of new cruelties +Reverse of truth has a hundred thousand forms +Rhetoric: an art to flatter and deceive +Rhetoric: to govern a disorderly and tumultuous rabble +Richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow +Ridiculous desire of riches when we have lost the use of them +Right of command appertains to the beautiful-Aristotle +Rome was more valiant before she grew so learned +Rowers who so advance backward +Rude and quarrelsome flatly to deny a stated fact +Same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago +Satisfaction of mind to have only one path to walk in +Satisfied and pleased with and in themselves +Say of some compositions that they stink of oil and of the lamp +Scratching is one of nature's sweetest gratifications +Season a denial with asperity, suspense, or favour +See how flexible our reason is +Seek the quadrature of the circle, even when on their wives +Seeming anger, for the better governing of my house +Send us to the better air of some other country +Sense: no one who is not contented with his share +Setting too great a value upon ourselves +Setting too little a value upon others +Settled my thoughts to live upon less than I have +Sex: To put fools and wise men, beasts and us, on a level +Shake the truth of our Church by the vices of her ministers +Shame for me to serve, being so near the reach of liberty +Sharps and sweets of marriage, are kept secret by the wise +She who only refuses, because 'tis forbidden, consents +Shelter my own weakness under these great reputations +Short of the foremost, but before the last +Should first have mended their breeches +Silence, therefore, and modesty are very advantageous qualities +Silent mien procured the credit of prudence and capacity +Sins that make the least noise are the worst +Sitting betwixt two stools +Slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk +Sleep suffocates and suppresses the faculties of the soul +Smile upon us whilst we are alive +So austere and very wise countenance and carriage--of physicians +So many trillions of men, buried before us +So much are men enslaved to their miserable being +So that I could have said no worse behind their backs +So weak and languishing, as not to have even wishing left to him +Socrates kept a confounded scolding wife +Socrates: According to what a man can +Soft, easy, and wholesome pillow is ignorance and incuriosity +Solon said that eating was physic against the malady hunger +Solon, that none can be said to be happy until he is dead +some people rude, by being overcivil in their courtesy +Some wives covetous indeed, but very few that are good managers +Sometimes the body first submits to age, sometimes the mind +Souls that are regular and strong of themselves are rare +Sparing and an husband of his knowledge +Speak less of one's self than what one really is is folly +Spectators can claim no interest in the honour and pleasure +Stilpo lost wife, children, and goods +Stilpo: thank God, nothing was lost of his +Strangely suspect all this merchandise: medical care +Strong memory is commonly coupled with infirm judgment +Studied, when young, for ostentation, now for diversion +Studies, to teach me to do, and not to write +Study makes me sensible how much I have to learn +Study of books is a languishing and feeble motion +Study to declare what is justice, but never took care to do it +Stumble upon a truth amongst an infinite number of lies +Stupidity and facility natural to the common people +Style wherewith men establish religions and laws +Subdividing these subtilties we teach men to increase their doub +Such a recipe as they will not take themselves +Suffer my judgment to be made captive by prepossession +Suffer those inconveniences which are not possibly to be avoided +Sufficiently covered by their virtue without any other robe +Suicide: a morsel that is to be swallowed without chewing +Superstitiously to seek out in the stars the ancient causes +Swell and puff up their souls, and their natural way of speaking +Swim in troubled waters without fishing in them +Take a pleasure in being uninterested in other men's affairs +Take all things at the worst, and to resolve to bear that worst +Take my last leave of every place I depart from +Take two sorts of grist out of the same sack +Taking things upon trust from vulgar opinion +Taught to be afraid of professing our ignorance +Taught to consider sleep as a resemblance of death +Tearing a body limb from limb by racks and torments +Testimony of the truth from minds prepossessed by custom? +That he could neither read nor swim +That looks a nice well-made shoe to you +That we may live, we cease to live +That which cowardice itself has chosen for its refuge +The action is commendable, not the man +The age we live in produces but very indifferent things +The authors, with whom I converse +The Babylonians carried their sick into the public square +The best authors too much humble and discourage me +The Bible: the wicked and ignorant grow worse by it +The cause of truth ought to be the common cause +The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine +The consequence of common examples +The day of your birth is one day's advance towards the grave +The deadest deaths are the best +The event often justifies a very foolish conduct +The faintness that surprises in the exercises of Venus +The gods sell us all the goods they give us +The good opinion of the vulgar is injurious +The honour we receive from those that fear us is not honour +The ignorant return from the combat full of joy and triumph +The impulse of nature, which is a rough counsellor +The last informed is better persuaded than the first +The mean is best +The mind grows costive and thick in growing old +The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness +The most voluntary death is the finest +The particular error first makes the public error +The pedestal is no part of the statue +The privilege of the mind to rescue itself from old age +The reward of a thing well done is to have done it +The satiety of living, inclines a man to desire to die +The sick man has not to complain who has his cure in his sleeve +The storm is only begot by a concurrence of angers +The thing in the world I am most afraid of is fear +The very name Liberality sounds of Liberty +The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence +The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high +Their disguises and figures only serve to cosen fools +Their labour is not to delivery, but about conception +Their pictures are not here who were cast away +Their souls seek repose in agitation +There are defeats more triumphant than victories +There are some upon whom their rich clothes weep +There can be no pleasure to me without communication +There is more trouble in keeping money than in getting it +There is no allurement like modesty, if it be not rude +There is no long, nor short, to things that are no more +There is no merchant that always gains +There is no reason that has not its contrary +There is no recompense becomes virtue +There is none of us who would not be worse than kings +There is nothing I hate so much as driving a bargain +There is nothing like alluring the appetite and affections +There is nothing single and rare in respect of nature +These sleepy, sluggish sort of men are often the most dangerous +They (good women) are not by the dozen, as every one knows +They begin to teach us to live when we have almost done living +They better conquer us by flying +They buy a cat in a sack +They can neither lend nor give anything to one another +They do not see my heart, they see but my countenance +They err as much who too much forbear Venus +They gently name them, so they patiently endure them (diseases) +They have heard, they have seen, they have done so and so +They have not one more invention left wherewith to amuse us +They have not the courage to suffer themselves to be corrected +They have yet touched nothing of that which is mine +They juggle and trifle in all their discourses at our expense +They must be very hard to please, if they are not contented +They must become insensible and invisible to satisfy us +They neither instruct us to think well nor to do well +They never loved them till dead +They who would fight custom with grammar are triflers +Thing at which we all aim, even in virtue is pleasure +Things grow familiar to men's minds by being often seen +Things I say are better than those I write +Things often appear greater to us at distance than near at hand +Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect +Things that engage us elsewhere and separate us from ourselves +Think myself no longer worth my own care +Think of physic as much good or ill as any one would have me +Thinking nothing done, if anything remained to be done +Thinks nothing profitable that is not painful +This decay of nature which renders him useless, burdensome +This plodding occupation of bookes is as painfull as any other +Those immodest and debauched tricks and postures +Those oppressed with sorrow sometimes surprised by a smile +Those which we fear the least are, peradventure, most to be fear +Those who can please and hug themselves in what they do +Those within (marriage) despair of getting out +Thou diest because thou art living +Thou wilt not feel it long if thou feelest it too much +Though I be engaged to one forme, I do not tie the world unto it +Though nobody should read me, have I wasted time +Threats of the day of judgment +Thucydides: which was the better wrestler +Thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain +Tis all swine's flesh, varied by sauces +Tis an exact life that maintains itself in due order in private +Tis better to lean towards doubt than assurance--Augustine +Tis evil counsel that will admit no change +Tis far beyond not fearing death to taste and relish it +Tis for youth to subject itself to common opinions +Tis impossible to deal fairly with a fool +Tis in some sort a kind of dying to avoid the pain of living well +Tis more laudable to obey the bad than the good +Tis no matter; it may be of use to some others +Tis not the cause, but their interest, that inflames them +Tis not the number of men, but the number of good men +Tis said of Epimenides, that he always prophesied backward +Tis so I melt and steal away from myself +Tis the sharpnss of our mind that gives the edge to our pains +Tis then no longer correction, but revenge +Tis there she talks plain French +Titillation of ill-natured pleasure in seeing others suffer +Title of barbarism to everything that is not familiar +Titles being so dearly bought +Titles of my chapters do not always comprehend the whole matter +To be a slave, incessantly to be led by the nose by one's self +To be, not to seem +To condemn them as impossible, is by a temerarious presumption +To contemn what we do not comprehend +To die of old age is a death rare, extraordinary, and singular +To do well where there was danger was the proper office +To forbear doing is often as generous as to do +To forbid us anything is to make us have a mind to't +To fret and vex at folly, as I do, is folly itself +To give a currency to his little pittance of learning +To go a mile out of their way to hook in a fine word +To keep me from dying is not in your power +To kill men, a clear and strong light is required +To know by rote, is no knowledge +To make little things appear great was his profession +To make their private advantage at the public expense +To smell, though well, is to stink +To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die +To what friend dare you intrust your griefs +To whom no one is ill who can be good? +Tongue will grow too stiff to bend +Too contemptible to be punished +Torture: rather a trial of patience than of truth +Totally brutified by an immoderate thirst after knowledge +Transferring of money from the right owners to strangers +Travel with not only a necessary, but a handsome equipage +True liberty is to be able to do what a man will with himself +Truly he, with a great effort will shortly say a mighty trifle +Truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times +Truth, that for being older it is none the wiser +Turks have alms and hospitals for beasts +Turn up my eyes to heaven to return thanks, than to crave +Tutor to the ignorance and folly of the first we meet +Twas a happy marriage betwixt a blind wife and a deaf husband +Twenty people prating about him when he is at stool +Two opinions alike, no more than two hairs +Two principal guiding reins are reward and punishment +Tyrannic sourness not to endure a form contrary to one's own +Tyrannical authority physicians usurp over poor creatures +Unbecoming rudeness to carp at everything +Under fortune's favour, to prepare myself for her disgrace +Universal judgments that I see so common, signify nothing +Unjust judges of their actions, as they are of ours +Unjust to exact from me what I do not owe +Upon the precipice, 'tis no matter who gave you the push +Use veils from us the true aspect of things +Utility of living consists not in the length of days +Valour has its bounds as well as other virtues +Valour whetted and enraged by mischance +Valour will cause a trembling in the limbs as well as fear +Valuing the interest of discipline +Vast distinction betwixt devotion and conscience +Venture it upon his neighbour, if he will let him +venture the making ourselves better without any danger +Very idea we invent for their chastity is ridiculous +Vice of confining their belief to their own capacity +Vices will cling together, if a man have not a care +Victorious envied the conquered +Virtue and ambition, unfortunately, seldom lodge together +Virtue is a pleasant and gay quality +Virtue is much strengthened by combats +Virtue refuses facility for a companion +Viscid melting kisses of youthful ardour in my wanton age +Voice and determination of the rabble, the mother of ignorance +Vulgar reports and opinions that drive us on +We are masters of nothing but the will +We are not to judge of counsels by events +We ask most when we bring least +We believe we do not believe +We can never be despised according to our full desert +We cannot be bound beyond what we are able to perform +We confess our ignorance in many things +We consider our death as a very great thing +We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others by him +We do not easily accept the medicine we understand +We do not go, we are driven +We do not so much forsake vices as we change them +We have lived enough for others +We have more curiosity than capacity +We have naturally a fear of pain, but not of death +We have not the thousandth part of ancient writings +We have taught the ladies to blush +We much more aptly imagine an artisan upon his close-stool +We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade +We neither see far forward nor far backward +We only labour to stuff the memory +We ought to grant free passage to diseases +We say a good marriage because no one says to the contrary +We set too much value upon ourselves +We still carry our fetters along with us +We take other men's knowledge and opinions upon trust +Weakness and instability of a private and particular fancy +Weigh, as wise: men should, the burden of obligation +Well, and what if it had been death itself? +Were more ambitious of a great reputation than of a good one +What a man says should be what he thinks +What are become of all our brave philosophical precepts? +What can they not do, what do they fear to do (for beauty) +What can they suffer who do not fear to die? +What did I say? that I have? no, Chremes, I had +What he did by nature and accident, he cannot do by design +What is more accidental than reputation? +What may be done to-morrow, may be done to-day +What more? they lie with their lovers learnedly +What need have they of anything but to live beloved and honoured +What sort of wine he liked the best: "That of another" +What step ends the near and what step begins the remote +What they ought to do when they come to be men +What we have not seen, we are forced to receive from other hands +What, shall so much knowledge be lost +Whatever was not ordinary diet, was instead of a drug +When I travel I have nothing to care for but myself +When jealousy seizes these poor souls +When their eyes give the lie to their tongue +When time begins to wear things out of memory +When we have got it, we want something else +"When will this man be wise," said he, "if he is yet learning?" +When you see me moved first, let me alone, right or wrong +Where the lion's skin is too short +Where their profit is, let them there have their pleasure too +Wherever the mind is perplexed, it is in an entire disorder +Whilst thou wast silent, thou seemedst to be some great thing +Whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead +Who by their fondness of some fine sounding word +Who can flee from himself +Who discern no riches but in pomp and show +Who does not boast of some rare recipe +Who escapes being talked of at the same rate +Who ever saw one physician approve of another's prescription +Who has once been a very fool, will never after be very wise +Who would weigh him without the honour and grandeur of his end +Whoever expects punishment already suffers it +Whoever will be cured of ignorance must confess it +Whoever will call to mind the excess of his past anger +Whosoever despises his own life, is always master +Why do we not imitate the Roman architecture? +Wide of the mark in judging of their own works +Willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead +Willingly slip the collar of command upon any pretence whatever +Wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of moderation +Wisdom is folly that does not accommodate itself to the common +Wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can +Wise man never loses anything if he have himself +Wise man to keep a curbing hand upon the impetus of friendship +Wise may learn more of fools, than fools can of the wise +Wise whose invested money is visible in beautiful villas +Wiser who only know what is needful for them to know +With being too well I am about to die +Woman who goes to bed to a man, must put off her modesty +Women who paint, pounce, and plaster up their ruins +Wont to give others their life, and not to receive it +World where loyalty of one's own children is unknown +Worse endure an ill-contrived robe than an ill-contrived mind +Would have every one in his party blind or a blockhead +Would in this affair have a man a little play the servant +Wrangling arrogance, wholly believing and trusting in itself +Wretched and dangerous thing to depend upon others +Write what he knows, and as much as he knows, but no more +Wrong the just side when they go about to assist it with fraud +Yet at least for ambition's sake, let us reject ambition +Yet do we find any end of the need of interpretating? +You and companion are theatre enough to one another +You have lost a good captain, to make of him a bad general +You may indeed make me die an ill death +You must first see us die +You must let yourself down to those with whom you converse +Young and old die upon the same terms +Young are to make their preparations, the old to enjoy them + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, Complete +by Michel de Montaigne + |