improper for this Subject which Seneca relates in one of his Epistles You know says he writing to Lucullus that Harpate my Wives 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 my self 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 I pray believe that what we laugh at in her happens to every one of us no one knows himself to be avaricious Besides the blind call for a Guide but we stray of our own accord I am not ambitious we say but a man cannot live otherwise at Rome I am not wastful but the City requires a great expence 't is not my fault if I am cholerick and if I have not yet establish'd any certain course of Life 't is the fault of Youth Let us not seek our Disease out of our selves 't is in us and planted in our Bowels And even this that we do not perceive our selves to be sick renders us more hard to be cur'd If we do not betimes begin to dress our selves when shall we have done with so many Wounds and Evils wherewith we abound And yet we have a most sweet and charming Medicine of 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 CHAP. XXVI Of Thumbs TAcitus reports that amongst certain Barbarian Kings their manner was when they would make a firm Obligation to joyn their hands close to one another and twist their Thumbs and when by force of straining the Blood it appear'd in the ends they lightly prick'd them with some sharp Instrument and mutually suck'd them Physicians say that the Thumbs are the master Fingers of the Hand and that their Latine Etymologie is deriv'd from Pollere The Greeks call'd them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as who should say another hand And it seems that the Latins also sometimes take it in this sence for the whole hand Sed nec vocibus excitata blandis Molli pollice nec rogata surgit It was at Rome a Signification of Favour to depress and clap in the Thumbs Fautor utroque tuum laudabit pollice ludum Thy Patron when thou mak'st thy sport Will with both Thumbs applaud thee for 't and of disfavour to elevate and thrust them outward converso pollice vulgi Quemlibet occidunt populariter The Vulgar with reverted Thumbs Kill each one that before them comes The Romans exempted from War all such as were maim'd in the Thumbs as having no more sufficient strength to hold their Arms. 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 Italick War had condemn'd Caius Valienus 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 forgot who having won a Naval Battel cut off the Thumbs of all his vanquish'd Enemies to render them incapable of fighting and of handling the Oar. The Athenians also caus'd the Thumbs of those of Aegina to be cut off to deprive them of the preference in the Art of Navigation And in Lacedemonia Pedagogues chastiz'd their Scholars by biting their Thumbs CHAP. XXVII Cowardize the Mother of Cruelty I Have oft heard it said that Cowardize is the Mother of Cruelty and I have found by experience that that malicious and inhumane animosity and fierceness is usually accompanied with a feminine faintness I have seen the most cruel People and upon very frivolous occasions very 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 caus'd so many People every day to be murthered without pity Is it not meanness of Spirit that renders them so plyable to all Extremities Valour whose Effect is only to be exercis'd against resistance Nec nisi bellantis gaudet cervice juvenci neither unless he fight In conquering a Bull does take delight stops when it sees the Enemy at its mercy but Pusillanimity to say that it was also in the Action not having dar'd to meddle in the first act of Danger rushes into the second of Blood and Massacre For the execution in Victories is commonly perform'd by the rascality and hangers on of an Army and that which causes so many unheard of Cruelties in domestick Wars is that the hottest of the People are flesh'd in being up to the Elbows in Blood and ripping up Bodies that lye postrate at their feet having no sence of any other Valour Et Lupus turpes instant morientibus ursi Et quaecunque minor nobilitate fera est None but the Wolves the filthy Bears and all The baser Beasts will in the dying fall Like cowardly House-curs 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 causes our mortal quarrels And that whereas our Fathers had some degree of revenge in their dayes we now begin with the last in ours and that at the first meeting nothing is to be said but kill What is this but Cowardize 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 pleas'd because it 's only aim â—s to make it self 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 therefore to kill a man is to defend him from the Injury and Offence we intend him And as Bias cry'd 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 And as the Orchomenians complain'd that the Penitence of Lyciscus for the Treason committed against them came in season because there was no one remaining alive of those who had been interested in the Offence and whom the Pleasure of this Penitency should affect so Revenge is to be repented of when the Person on whom it is executed is depriv'd 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
first Places We are I conceive knowing only in present Knowledge and not at all in what is past no more than in that which is to come But the worst on 't is their Scholars and Pupils are no better nourish'd by this kind of Inspiration nor it makes no deeper Impression upon them than the other but passes from hand to hand only to make a shew to be tolerable Company and to tell pretty Stories like a counterfeit Coyn in Counters of no other use nor value but to reckon with or to set up at Cards Apud alios loqui didicerunt non ipsi secum Non est loquendum sed gubernandum They have learn'd to speak from others not from themselves Speaking is not so necessary as Governing Nature to shew that there is nothing barbarous where she has the sole Command does oftentimes in Nations where Art has the least to do cause productions of Wit such as may rival the greatest Effects of Art whatever As in relation to what I am now speaking of the Gascon Proverb deriv'd from a Corn-pipe is very quaint and subtle Bouha prou bouha mas a remuda lous dits qu'em You may blow till your Eyes start out but if once you offer to stir your Fingers you will be at the end of your Lesson We can say Cicero says thus that these were the Manners of Plato and that these are the very Words of Aristotle but what do we say our selves that is our own What do we do What do we judge A Parrot would say as much as that And this kind of Talking puts me in mind of that rich Gentleman of Rome who had been sollicitous with very great Expence to procure men that were excellent in all sorts of Science which 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 in the Heads of those who liv'd upon his Bounty As they also do whose Learning consists in having noble Libraries I know one who when I question him about his Reading he presently calls for a Book to shew me and dare not venture to tell me so much as that he has Piles in his Posteriours till first he has consulted his Dictionary what Piles and what Posteriours are We take other Mens 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 Neighbours House to fetch it and finding a very good one there fate down to warm himself without remembring to carry any with him home What good does it do us to have the Stomach full of Meat if it do not digest and 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 and so exact a Leader learnt to be so after this perfunctory manner We suffer our selves to lean and relye so over-strongly upon the Arm of another that by so doing we prejudice our own Strength and Vigour Would I fortifie my self against the fear of Death it must be at the Expence of Seneca Would I extract Consolation for my self or my Friend I borrow it from him or Cicero whereas I might have found it in my self had I been train'd up to make use of my own Reason I do not fancy this relative mendicant and precarious Understanding for though we could become learned by other Mens Reading I am sure a Man can never be wise but by his own Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who in his own Concern's not wise I that Man's Wisdom do despise From whence Ennius Nequidquam sapere sapientem qui ipsi sibi prodesse non quiret That wise man knows nothing who cannot profit himself by his Wisdom Non enim paranda nobis solum sed fruenda sapientia est For Wisdom is not only to be acquir'd but enjoy'd Dionysius laught at the Grammarians who cudgell'd their Brains to enquire into the Miseries of Vlysses and were ignorant of their own at Musicians who were so exact in tuning their Instruments and never tun'd their Manners and at Orators who studied to declare what was Justice but never took care to do it If the Mind be not better dispos'd 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 aukward and maladroit so unfit for Company or Employment and all that you shall find he has got is that his Latine and Greek have only made him a greater and more conceited Coxcomb than when he went from home He should bring his Soul repleat with good Literature and he brings it only swell'd and puff'd up with vain and empty Shreds and Snatches of Learning and has really nothing more in him than he had before These Pedants of ours as Plato says of the Sophists their Cousin-Germans are of all Men living they who most pretend to be useful to Mankind and who alone of all Men not only do not better and improve that is committed to them as a Carpenter or a Mason would do but make them much worse and make them pay for being made so to boot If the Rule which Protagoras propos'd 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 receiv'd under his Tuition and accordingly satisfie him our Pedagogues would find themselves basely gravell'd especially if they were to be judg'd by the Testimony of my Experience Our vulgar Perigordin Patois does pleasantly call them Pretenders to Learning Lettre-ferits as a Man should say Letter-mark'd a man on whom Letters have been stamp'd by the Blow of a Mallet and in truth for the most part they appear to have a soft place in their Skuls and to be depriv'd even of common Sense For you see the Husbandman and the Cobler go simply and honestly 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 swims and floats in the Superficies of the Brain are perpetually perplexing and entangling themselves in their own Nonsence They speak fine words sometimes 't is true but let some body 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 deaf'd you
Precipice and so wholly cut off from the rest of the Work that by the six first words I found my self flying into the other World and from thence discover'd the Vale from whence I came so deep and low that I had never since the Heart to descend into it any more If I should set out my Discourses with such rich Spoils as these the Plagiary would be too manifest in his own Defects and I should too much discover the imperfection of my own Writing To reprehend the fault in others that I am guilty of my self appears to me no more unreasonable than to condemn as I often do those of others in my self They are to be every where reprov'd and ought to have no Sanctuary allow'd them I know very well how imprudently I my self at every turn attempt to equal my self to my thefts and to make my style go hand in hand with them not without a temerarious hopes of deceiving the eyes of my Reader from discerning the difference but withall 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 to any one of them 't is only by slights 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 shew to do and if I could hold them in play I were a brave Fellow for I never attaque 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 Arms so as not to discover so much as their fingers ends to carry on a Design as it is not hard for a Man that has any thing of a Scholar in him in an ordinary Subject to do under old Inventions patcht 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 whoever 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 really no manner of title to and then 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 discovering their insufficiency to men of Understanding who will soon smell out and trace them in those borrow'd Allegories and from whom alone they are to expect a legitimate Applause 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 excuse my self neither in this do I in the least glance at the Composers of Canto's who declare themselves for such of which sort of Writers I have in my time known many very ingenious and have their Rhapsodies in very great Esteem and particularly one under the Name of Capilulus 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 Politicks But be it how it will and how inconsiderable soever these Essays of mine may be I will ingeniously confess I never intended to conceal them no more than my old bald grizled Picture before them where the Graver has not presented you with a perfect Face but the Resemblance of mine And these also are but my own particular Opinions and Fancies and I deliver them for no other but only what I my self believe and not for what is really to be believ'd Neither have I any other end in this Writing but only to discover my self who also shall peradventure be another thing to morrow if I chance to meet any Book or Friend to convince me in the mean time I have no Authority to be believ'd neither do I desire it being too conscious of my own inerudition to be able to instruct others A Friend of mine then having read the precedent Chapter the other day told me that I should a little longer have insisted upon the Education of Children and farther have extended my Discourse upon so necessary a point which how fit I am to do let my Friends flatter me if they please I have in the mean time no such Opinion of my own Talent as to promise my self any very good success from my endeavour but 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 Gentleman 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 besides that your having had the best of my Services so long in possession does sufficiently oblige 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 Humane Science is the Education of Children For as in Agriculture the Husbandry that is to precede Planting as also planting it self is certain plain easie and very well known but after that which is planted comes to take root to spread and shoot up there is a great deal more to be done more Art to be us'd more care to be taken and much more difficulty to cultivate and bring them to Perfection so it is with Men it is no hard matter to get Children but after they are born then begins the Trouble Sollicitude and Care vertuously to train Principle and bring them up The Symptoms of their Inclinations in that young and 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 As Simon for Example and Themistocles and a thousand others who have very much deceiv'd the little Expectation the World had of them Cubs of Bears and Bitches Puppies do truly and indeed discover their natural Inclination but Men so soon as ever grown up immediately applying themselves to certain Habits engaging themselves in certain Opinions and conforming themselves to particular Laws and Customs do 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 a Man often takes very great Pains and consumes a good part of his Age in training up Children to things for which by their natural Aversion they are totally unfit In this
and declar'd that Thirty Years Old was sufficient for a Judg. Survius Tullius superceded the Knights of above Seven and Forty Years of Age from the Fatigues of War Augustus dismiss'd them at Forty Five Though methinks it seems a little unlikely that Men should be sent to the Fire-side till Five and Fifty or Sixty Years of Age. I should be of Opinion that both our Vacancy and Employment should be as far as possible extended for the Publick Good But I find the fault on the other side that they do not employ us Early enough This Emperour was Arbiter of the whole World at Nineteen and yet would have a Man to be Thirty before he could be fit to bear Office in the Common-wealth For my part I believe our Souls are Adult at Twenty such 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 Vertue will never after come to proof Natural Parts and Excellencies produce that they have of Vigorous and Fine within that Term or never Of all the great Humane Actions I ever Heard or Read of of what sort soever I have Observ'd both in former Ages and our own more perform'd before the Age of Thirty than after And oft-times in the very Lives of the same Men. May I not confidently instance in those of Hannibal and his great concurrent Scipio The better half of their Lives they Liv'd upon the Glory they had Acquir'd in their Youth great Men after 't is 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 decay'd than improv'd and retir'd rather than advanc'd 'T is possible that with those who make the best use of their Time Knowledg and Experience may grow up and encrease with their Years but the Vivacity Quickness and Steadiness and other peices of us of much greater Importance and much more Essentially our own Languish and Decay Vbi jam validis quassatum est viribus aevi Corpus obstusis ceciderunt viribus artus Claudicat ingenium delirat linquaque mensque When once the Body 's shaken by Times Rage The Blood and Vigour Ebbing into Age The Judgment then Halts upon either Hip The Mind does Doat Tongue into Non-sense Trip. Sometimes the Body first submits to Age sometimes the Soul and I have seen enow who have got a Weakness in their Brains before either in their Hams or Stomach And by how much the more it is a Disease of no great pain to the infected Party and of obscure Symptoms so much greater the danger is And 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 consider'd and to how many Natural and Accidental Rubs it is Obnoxious and Expos'd Birth though Noble ought not to share so large a Vacancy and so tedious a course of Education The End of the First Book MICHEL SEIGNEVR DE MONTAIGNE Printed for T. Bassett M. Gilliflower W. Hensman ESSAYS OF MICHAEL SEIGNEUR DE MONTAIGNE In Three Books With Marginal Notes and Quotations of the cited Authors New rendred into English By CHARLES COTTON Esq The Second Volume LONDON Printed for T. Basset at the George in Fleet-street and M. Gilliflower and W. Hensman in Westminster-Hall 1686. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE Second Book Chap. 1. OF the Inconstancy of our Actions Pag. 1 Chap. 2. Of Drunkenness 14 Chap. 3. The Custom of the Isle of Cea 30 Chap. 4. To Morrow's a new Day 55 Chap. 5. Of Conscience 59 Chap. 6. Vse makes Perfectness 66 Chap. 7. Of Recompences of Honour 84 Chap. 8. Of the Affection of Fathers to their Children 90 Chap. 9. Of the Arms of the Parthians 123 Chap. 10. Of Books 129 Chap. 11. Of Cruelty 151 Chap. 12. Apology for Raimond de Sebonde 159 Chap. 13. Of Judging of the Death of another 435 Chap. 14. That the Mind hinders it self p. 446 Chap. 15. That our Desires are augmented by Difficulties 447 Chap. 16. Of Glory 457 Chap. 17. Of Presumption 479 Chap. 18. Of Giving the Lye 532 Chap. 19. Of Liberty of Conscience 540 Chap. 20. That we taste nothing pure 546 Chap. 21. Against Idleness 551 Chap. 22. Of Posts 558 Chap. 23. Of ill Means employed to a good End 560 Chap. 24. Of the Roman Grandeur 566 Chap. 25. Not to counterfeit being sick 569 Chap. 26. Of Thumbs 572 Chap. 27. Cowardize the Mother of Cruelty 574 Chap. 28. All Things have their Season 589 Chap. 29. Of Vertue 593 Chap. 30. Of a monstrous Child 605 Chap. 31. Of Anger 607 Chap. 32. Defence of Seneca and Plutarch 619 Chap. 33. The Story of Spurina 630 Chap. 34. Observation of the Means to carry on a War according to Julius Caesar. 642 Chap. 35. Of three good Women 656 Chap. 36. Of the most excellent Men. 668 Chap. 37. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers 680 ESSAYS OF Michael Seigneur de Montaigne The Second Book CHAP. I. Of the Inconstancy of our Actions SUch as make it their business to controul humane Actions do not find themselves in any thing so much perplext as to reconcile them and bring them into the Worlds eye with the same Lustre and Reputation for they do 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 the Son of Venus Pope Boniface the Eighth entred says one into his Papacy like a Fox behaved himself in it like a Lyon 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 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 That Counsel's ill that will admit no change There is some possibility of 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 chuse a general Air of a man and according to that interpret
the knowledge of a certain Herb proper for their Cure There is no Sense that has not a mighty Dominion and that does not by it's power introduce an infinite number of Knowledges If we were defective in the intelligence of sounds of Musick and of the Voice it would cause an inimaginable confusion in all the rest of our Science For besides what appertains to the proper effect of every Sense how many Arguments Consequences and Conclusions do we draw to other things by comparing one Sense with another Let an Understanding Man imagine humane Nature originally produc'd without the Sense of Seeing and consider what Ignorance and Trouble such a Defect would bring upon him what a Darkness and Blindness in the Soul he will then see by that of how great Importance to the knowledge of Truth the privation of such another Sense or of two or three should we be so depriv'd would be We have form'd a Truth by the Consultation and Concurrence of our five Senses but peradventure we should have the consent and contribution of eight or ten to make a certain discovery of our own Being The Sects that controvert the Knowledge of man do it principally by the incertainty and weakness of our Senses For since all Knowledge is by their means and mediation convey'd unto us if they fail in their report if they corrupt or alter what they bring us from without if the Light which by them creeps into the Soul be obscur'd in the passage we have nothing else to hold by From this extream difficulty all these fancies proceed that every subject has all we there find in it self That it has nothing in it of what we think we there find and that of the Epicureans that the Sun is no bigger than 't is judg'd by our sight to be Quicquid id est nihilo fertur majore figura Quà m nostris oculis quam cernimus esse videtur But be it what it will in our esteems It is no bigger than to us it seems That the apparences which represent a Body great to him that is near and less to him that is more remote are both true Nec tamen hic oculis falli concedimus hilum Proinde animi vitium hoc oculis adsingere noli Yet that the Eye 's deluded we deny Charge not the Soul's fault therefore on the eye and resolutely that there is no deceit in the Senses that we are to lye at their Mercy and seek elsewhere Reasons to salve and excuse the Difference and Contradictions we there find even to the inventing of Lyes and other slams if it come to that rather than accuse the Senses Timagoras vow'd that by pressing or turning his Eye he could never perceive the light of the Candle to double and that the seeming so proceeded from the Vice of Opinion and not from the Instrument The most absurd of all the Epicureans Absurdities is in denying the force and effect of the Senses Proinde quod in quoque est his visum tempore verum est Et si non potuit ratio dissolvere causam Cur ea quae fuerint juxtim quadrata procul sint Visa rotunda tamen praestat rationis egentem Reddere mendose causas utriusque figurae Quam manibus manifesta suis emittere quoquam Et violare fidem primam convellere tota Fundamenta quibus nixatur vita salusque Non modo enim ratio ruat omnis vita quoque ipsa Concidat extemplo nisi credere sensibus ausis Praecipitesque locos vitare caetera quae sint In genere hoc fugienda Whatever and whenever seen is true And if our Reason can't the Knot undoe Why things seem to be square when very near And at a greater distance round appear 'T is better yet for him that 's at a pause To give of either Figure a false cause Than to permit things manifest to go Out of his Hands to give the lye unto His first belief and the Foundations rend On which all Life and Safety do depend For not alone Reason but Life and all Together will with sudden Ruin fall Unless we dare our Senses trust to miss The danger of a dreadful precipice And other such like Dangers that with Care And Wariness to be evaded are This so desperate and unphilosophical Advice expresses only this that humane Knowledge cannot support it self but by Reason that is unreasonable foolish and mad but that it is yet better that man to set a greater value upon himself make use of any other Remedy how fantastick soever than to confess his necessary Ignorance a truth so disadvantageous to him He cannot avoid owning that the Senses are the sovereign Lords of his Knowledge but they are uncertain and falsifiable in all Circumstances 'T is there that he is to fight it out to the last and if his just Forces fail him as they do to supply that Defect with Obstinacy Temerity and Impudence In case that what the Epicureans say be true viz. That we have no Knowledge if the Senses apparences be false and if that also be true which the Stoicks say That the apparences of the Senses are so false that they can furnish us with no manner of Knowledge We shall conclude to the Disadvantage of these two great Dogmatical Sects that there is no Science at all As to what concerns the Error and uncertainty of the Operation of the Senses every one may furnish himself with as many examples as he pleases so ordinary are the Faults and Tricks they put upon us In the Eccho of a Valley the sound of the Trumpet seems to meet us which comes from a place behind Extantesque procul medio de gurgite montes Idem apparent longè diversi licet Et fugere ad puppim colles campique videntur Quos agimus propter Navim And Rocks i' th Seas that proudly raise their Head Tho far disjoyn'd tho Royal Navies spread Their Sails between yet if from distance shown They seem an Island all combin'd in one Thus Ships though driven by a prosperous Gale Seem fixt to Saylors those seem under Sail That ride at Anchor safe and all admire As they row by to see the Rocks retire Vbi in medio nobis equus acer obhaesit Flumine equi corpus transversum ferre videtur Vis in adversum Flumen contrudere raptim Thus when in rapid Streams my Horse hath stood And I look'd downward on the rowling Flood Though he stood still I thought he did divide The headlong Streams strive against the Tide And all things seem'd to move on every side Like a Musket Bullet under the Fore-finger the middle Finger being lap'd over it which feels so like two that a Man will have much ado to persuade himself there is but one the end of the two Fingers feeling each of them one at the same time For that the Senses are very often Masters of our Reason and constrain it to receive Impressions which it
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 a Mouth 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 our selves and to shift and flye 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 Bravery of Precaution than Courage and of Defence than of attempt It is manifest that by it we quit 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 't is not out of Animosity to him but care of thy self that thou rid'st him out of the way In the Kingdom of Narsingua this expedient would be useless to us where not only Souldiers but Trades-men also end their Differences by the Sword The King never denies the Field to any that will fight and sometimes when they are Persons of Quality looks on rewarding the Victor with a Chain of Gold but for which any one that will may fight with him again by which means by having come off from one Combat he has engag'd himself in many If we thought by Vertue 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 Asinius Pollio who for being a worthy man was the less to be excus'd committed a like Error who having writ a Libel against Plancus forbore to publish it till he was first dead which is to bite a mans Thumb at a blind man to rail at one that is deaf and to wound a man that has no feeling rather than to run the hazard of his Resentment And it was also said in his behalf that it was only for Hobgoblins to wrestle with the dead He that stays to see the Author dye whose Writings he intends to question what does he say but that he is foolish and troublesome It was told 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 to revenge an Injury with the lye the lye with a box of the Ear and so forward they were valiant enough not to fear their Adversary both living and provok'd We tremble for fear so long 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 'T is also a kind of Cowardize that has introduc'd the custom of having seconds thirds and fourths in our Duels They were formerly Duels they are now Skirmishes Rencontres and Battels Solitude was doubtless terrible to those who were the first inventors of this Practice Quum in se cuique minimum fiduciae esset They had little confidence in themselves For naturally any company whatever is comfortable in danger Third Persons were formerly call'd in to prevent Disorder and foul play only and to be witness of the Success of the Combat But since they have brought it to this paâ—â— that they themselves engage whoever is invited cannot handsomly stand by as an idle Spectator for fear of being suspected either of want of Affection or Courage Besides the injustice and unworthiness of such an Action of engaging other Force 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 since every one runs hazard enough in himself without hazarding for another and has enough to do to assure himself in his own Vertue for the defence of his Life without intrusting a thing so dear in a third man's hand For if it be not expresly agreed upon before to the contrary 't is a combin'd Party of all four and if your Second be kill'd 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 arm'd to charge a man that has but the hilts of a broken Sword in his hand or clear and untouch'd a man that 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 is only weigh'd and consider'd from the condition of the Combatants when they begun as to the rest you must take your Fortune and though you had alone three Enemies upon you at once your two Companions being kill'd you have no more wrong done you than I should do in a Battel by running a man through I should see engag'd 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 Orleance challeng'd Henry King of England an hundred against an hundred three hundred against as many as the Argians against the Lacedemonians and three to three as the Horatii against the Curiatii the multitude on either side is consider'd but as one single man the hazard every where where there is company being confus'd and mix'd I have a domestick Interest in this Discourse for my Brother the Sieur de Matecoulom was at Rome entreated by a Gentleman with whom he had no great acquaintance and who was Defendant and challeng'd by another to be his Second In this Duel he found himself match'd with a Gentleman much better known to him where after having dispatch'd his man seeing the two Principal 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 order'd it so have seen him he was come thither to defend kill'd before his face what he had thither done signified nothing to the Business the Quarrel was yet undecided The courtesie that you can and certainly ought to shew to your Enemy when you have reduc'd 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 in the case where you are only call'd 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 was also inlarged from the Prisons of Italy at the speedy and solemn
that only communicated his Life by the workings of his Belly you might see in his House a shew of a row of Basons of seven or eight days Excrements that was all his Study all his Discourse all other talk stunk in his Nostrils These 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 writ six thousand Books upon the sole subject of Grammar What then ought prating to produce since pratling and the first beginning to speak stuff'd the World with such a horrible number of Volumes So many words about words only O Pythagoras why didst not thou allay the Tempest They accus'd one Galba of old for living idly he made answer That every one ought to give account of his actions but not of his leisure He was mistaken for Justice takes Cognizance and will have an account even of those that Glean which is one of the lasiest Employments But there should be some restraint of Law against foolish and impertinent Scriblers as well as against Vagabonds and idle Persons which if there was both I and a hundred others would be banish'd the Kingdom I do not speak this in jest Scribling seems to be a sign of a disordered and licencious Age. When did we write so much as since our Civil Wars When the Romans so much as when their Common-Wealth was 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 debauch'd from it The Corruption of the Age is made up upon the particular Contribution of every individual man One contributes Treachery others Injustice Irreligion Tyranny Avarice and Cruelty according as they are of Power the weaker sort contribute Folly Vanity and Idleness of which I am one It seems as if it were the Season for vain things when the hurtful oppress us and that in a time when doing ill is common to do nothing but what signifies nothing is a kind of Commendation 'T is my comfort that I shall be one of the last that shall be called in question and whilst the greater Offenders are calling to account I shall have leisure to amend for it would methinks be against reason to punish little Inconveniencies whilst we are infected 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 said he it is not now time to concern your self about your fingers ends 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 put in Execution nor Magistrate that perform'd his Office no more than there is now publish I know not what pitiful Reformations about Cloths Cookery and long depending Suits in Law These are amusements wherewith to feed a People that are ill us'd to shew that they are not totally forgot These others do the same who insist upon stoutly defending the Forms of Speaking Dances and Games to a People totally abandoned to all sort of execrable Vices 'T is no time to bathe and cleanse a man's self when he is seiz'd on by a violent Fever 'T is for the Spartiates only to fall to combing and curling themselves when they are just upon the point of running head-long into some extream danger of their Life For my part I have yet a worse Custom that if my Shoe go awry I let my Shirt and my Cloak do so too I scorn to mend my self by halves when I am lean I feed upon mischief I abandon my self through despair let my self go towards the Precipice and as the Saying is Throw the Helve after the Hatchet I am obstinate in growing worse and think my self no more worth my own care I am either good 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 ills be multiplied than if my goods had been disturb'd The words I utter in mishap are words of spite 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 my thanks than to crave I am more sollicitous 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 Persecutions are to others as if good Fortune were a thing inconsistent with good Conscience men never grow good but in evil Good Fortune is to me a singular spur to modesty and moderation An intreaty wins a threat checks me favour makes me bend fear stiffens me Amongst humane Conditions this is common enough to be better pleased with strange things than our own and to love Innovation and Change Ipsa dies ideo nos grato perluit haustu Quod permutatis hora recurrit equis The day it self with better draughts does pass Because it changes Water every Glass I have my share Those who follow the other extream of agreeing amongst themselves to value what they have above all the rest and to conclude 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 over-run the Government of my House There is I confess a kind of convenience in Commanding though it were but in a Barn and to be obey'd by ones Servants But 't is too uniform and languishing a Pleasure and is moreover of necessity mixt 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 afflicts you Aut verberatae grandine vineae Fundusque mendax arbore nunc aquas Culpante nunc torrentia agros Sydera nunc hyemes iniquas Or Hail-smit Vines or Years of Death Sometimes the too much wet in fault Sometimes the Stars that broil the Earth Sometimes the Winter that was naught and that God scarce in six Months sends a Season wherein your Bayliff can do his business as he should but that if it serves the Vines it spoils the Medows Aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius Sol Aut subiti perimunt imbres