I do not know My tender Lambs bewitches so Magicians are no very good Authority for me but we experimentally see that Women impart the Marks of their Fancy to the Children they carry in their Wombs witness her that was brought to Bed of a Moor and there was presented to Charles the Emperour and King of Bohemia a Girl from about Pisa all over-rough and cover'd with Hair whom her Mother said to be so conceiv'd by reason of a Picture of St John Baptist that hung within the Curtains of her Bed It is the same with Beasts witness Jacob's ring-streaked and spotted Goats and 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 who for some time mutually fixing their Eyes upon one another the Bird at last let her self fall as dead into the Cats Claws either dazled and astonish'd by the Force of her 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 Faulconer who having earnestly fix'd his Eyes upon a Kite in the Air lay'd 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 the Number and Varieties of Accidents consider'd let him not forbear to believe that these I set down are enough and if I do not apply them well let some other do it for me And also in the Subjects of which I treat viz. of our Manners and Motions the Testimonies and Instances I produce how fabulous soever provided they are possible serve as well as the true whether it has really happen'd or no at Rome or at Paris to Peter or John t is still within the Verge of Possibility and humane Capacity which serves me to good use and supplies me with Variety in the things I write I see and make my Advantage of it as well in Shadow as in Substance and amongst the various Examples I every where meet with in History I cull out the most rare and memorable to fit my own Turn There are some Authors whose only end and Design it is to give an Account of things that have hapned mine if I could arrive unto it should be to deliver what may come to pass There is a just Liberty allow'd in the Schools of supposing and contriving Simile's when they are at a Loss for them in their own Reading I do not however make any use of that Privilege and as to that Affair 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 forbid my self to dare to alter even the most light and indifferent Circumstances my Conscience does not falsifie one Tittle what my Ignorance may do I cannot say And this it is that makes me sometimes enter into Dispute with my own Thoughts whether or no a Divine or a Philosopher Men of so exact and tender Wisdom and Conscience are fit to write History for how can they stake their Reputation upon the Publick 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 performâ—d before their own Eyes wherein several Persons were Actors they would be unwilling to give Evidence upon Oath before a Judge and cannot be so familiarly and thoroughly acquainted with any for whose Intentions they would become absolute Caution For my part I think it less hazardous to write 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 sollicited to write the Affairs of my own Time by some who fansie I look upon them with an Eye less blinded with Prejudice or Partiality than another and have a clearer Insight into them by reason of the free Access Fortune has given me to the Heads of both Factions but they do not consider that to purchase the Glory of Salust I would not give my self the Trouble being a sworn Enemy as I am to all Obligation Assiduity and Perseverance besides that there is nothing so contrary to my Stile as a continued and extended Narrative I so often Interrupt and cut my self short in my Writing only for want of Breath I have neither Fancy nor Expression worth any thing 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 Force Should I take one to be my Guide peradventure I should not be able to keep Pace with him and in the Precipitancy of my Career might deliver Things which upon better Thoughts in my own Judgment and according to Reason would be criminal and punishable in the highest degree Plutarch would tell us of what he has deliver'd to the Light that it is the Work of others that his Examples are all and every where exactly true that they are useful to Posterity and are presented with a Lustre that will light us the way to Vertue which was his Design but it is not of so dangerous consequence as in a Medicinal Drug whether an old Story be so or so CHAP. XXI That the Profit of one Man is the Inconvenience of another DEmades the Athenian condemn'd 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 for as much as no Profit whatever could possibly be made but at the Expence of another and that by the same Rule he should condemn all manner of Gain of what kind soever The Merchant only thrives and grows rich by the Pride Wantonness and Debauchery of Youth the Husbandman by the Price and Scarcity of Grain the Architect by the Ruine of Buildings I awyers and Officers of Justice by Suits and Contentions of Men nay even the Honour and Office of Divines are deriv'd from our Death and Vices a Physician takes no Pleasure in the Health even of his Friends says the ancient Comical Greek nor a Souldier 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 anothers Expence Upon
the Crown where for the Regulation of Community in Goods and Estates observ'd in the Country certain Sovereign Magistrates have committed to them the universal Charge and over-seeing 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 servile Condition of Women is look'd 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 shewing 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 boyl the Bodies of their dead and afterwards pound them to a pulp which they mix with their Wine and drink it Where the most coveted Sepulture is to be eaten with Dogs and elsewhere by Birds Where they believe the Souls of the happy live in all manner of Liberty in delightful Fields furnish'd with all sorts of Delicacies and that it is those 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 and put off their shooes when they enter the King's Palace Where the Eunuchs who take charge of the Religious Women have moreover their Lips and Noses cut away and disguis'd that they may not be lov'd and the Priests put out their own Eyes to be better acquainted with their Daemons and the better to receive and retain their Oracles Where every one creates to himself a Deity of what he likes best according to his own Fancy the Hunter a Lyon or a Fox the Fisher some certain Fish and Idols of every Humane 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 and there 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 New-years Gift the King sends every Year to the Princes his Subjects 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 Treason Where when the King to betake himself wholly to Devotion retires from his Administration which often falls out his next Successor is oblig'd to do the same by which means 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 ancient men to govern in his stead and sometimes transferring it into the hands of the Common-People Where Men and Women are both Circumcis'd and also Baptiz'd Where the Souldier 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 singular Opinion of the Mortality of the Soul Where the Women are deliver'd without Pain or Fear Where the Women wear Copper Fetters upon both their 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 towards Heaven Where Men carry Burthens upon their Heads and Women on their Shoulders the Women pissing standing and the Men cowring down Where they send their Blood in token of Friendship and cense 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 sometimes 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 design ' d to the Fathers and to the Mothers of the Females the Punishment being to hang them by the Heels in the Smoak Where they eat all sorts of Herbs without other Scruple than of the Illness of the Smell Where all things are open the finest Houses and that are furnish'd with the richest Furniture without Doors Windows Trunks or Chests to lock a Thief being there punish'd double to what they are in other Places Where they crack Lice with their Teeth like Monkeys and abhorr to see them kill'd with ones 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 neighbâ—ring 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 their Sons without Scandal or Offence 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 Humane Flesh in another 't is reputed a charitable Office for a Man to kill his Father at a certain Age and elsewhere the Fathers dispose of their Children whilst yet in their Mothers Wombs some to be preserv'd and carefully brought up and others they proscribe either to be thrown off 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 fring'd Tassels at the bottom of their Garment as they have lain with several men Moreover has not Custom made a Republick of Women separately by themselves Has it not put Arms into their Hands made them to raise Armies and fight Battels 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 despis'd but entertain'd with the greatest Triumph where Children of seven years old offer'd themselves to be whip'd to death without changing their Countenance where Riches were in such Contempt that the poorest and most wretched Citizen would
Plays of Children are not perform'd in Play but are to be judgâ—d 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 extream Aversion for 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 Pistols when winning or losing against my Wife and Daughter is indifferent to me as when I play in good earnest with others for the roundest Sums At all Times and in all Places my own Eyes are sufficient to look to my Fingers I am not so narrowly watch'd by any other neither is there any I more fear to be discover'd by or to offend I saw the other day at my own House a little Fellow who came to shew himself for Money a Native of Nants born without Arms who has so well taught his Feet to perform the Services his Hands should have done him that indeed they have half forgot their natural Office and the use for which they were design'd the Fellow too calls them his Hands and we may allow him so to do for with them he cuts any thing charges and discharges a Pistol threds a Needle Sows Writes and 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 and the Money I gave him he carried away in his Foot as we do in our Hand I have seen another who being yet a Boy flourishâ—d a two-handed Sword and if I may so say handled a Halbert with the mere Motions and Writhing of his Neck and Shoulders for want of hands tost them into the Air and caâ—ch'd them again darted a Dagger and crack'd a Whip as well as any Coach-man 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 and has nothing so hard a Game to play What has she not the Power to impose upon our Judgments and Belief Is there any so fantastick Opinion omitting the gross Impostures of Religions with which we see so many populous Nations and so many understanding men so strangely besotted for this being beyond the reach of Humane Reason any Error is more excusable in such as through the Divine Bounty are not endued with an extraordinary Illumination from above but of other Opinions are there any so sensless and extravagant that she has not planted and establish'd 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 Cicero 〈◊〉 Nat. 〈◊〉 id est speculatorem venatorémque naturae ab animis consuetudine imbutis quaerere testimonium veritatis Is it not a Shame for a Philosopher that is for an Observer and Hunter of Nature to derive Testimony from Minds prepossess d with Custom I do believe that no so absurd or ridiculous Fancy can enter into Humane Imagination that does not meet with some Example of Publick Practice and that consequently our Reason does not ground and support it self upon 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 of my acquaintance was always wont to blow his Nose with his Fingers a thing very much against our Fashion would justifie himself for so doing and was a man very famous for pleasant Repartees who upon that occasion ask'd 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 accustom'd to any thing 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 travell'd over those remote Examples Men could settle themselves to reflect upon and rightly to confer them Humane Reason is a Tincture equally infus'd almost into all our Opinions and Customs of what form soever they are infinite in Matter infinite in Diversity But I return to my Subject There are a People where his Wife aud Children excepted no one speaks to the King but through a Trunk In one and the same Nation the Virgins discover those Parts that Modesty should perswade them to hide and the married Women carefully cover and conceal 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 Physick 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 't is the same the same with a Nobleman and so of the rest except it be a Labourer or one of mean Condition for them it belongs to the Lord of the Place to perform that Office and yet a severe Loyalty during Marriage is afterward strictness enjoyn'd There is a place where Bawdy-houses of Young-men are kept for the Pleasure of Women as we know there are of Women for the Necessities of Men and also Marriages 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 wighty Gymmals of Gold thrust through their Paps and Buttocks Where in eating they wipe their Fingers upon their Thighs Genetories and the Soles of their Feet Where Children are excluded and Brothers and Nephews only inherit and elsewhere Nephews only saving in the Royal Family and the Succession of
kind of man he is For within all this there was not a more illustrious and polite Soul living 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 and so solid a Judgment that a man would have thought he had never practis'd any other thing but Arms and been all his life enploy'd in Affairs of State And these are great and vigorous Natures Juven Sat. 14. Queis arte benigna Et meliore luto finxit praecordia Titan. With greater Art whose mind The Sun has made of Clay much more refin'd that can keep themselves upright in defiance of a Pedantick 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 Talent of Learning to which some of the others also add the tryal of Understanding by asking their Judgment of some Case in Law of which 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 and the last may make shift without the other but the other never without this For as the Greek Verse says Menander in Gnom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Learning is nothing worth if Wit And Understanding be not joyn'd with it To what Use serves Learning if the Understanding be away Would to God that for the good of our Judicature those Societies were as well furnish'd with Understanding and Conscience as they are with Knowledge Non Vitae Sen. Epist â—06 sed Scholae discimus We do not study for the service of our future Life but only for the present use of the School Whereas we are not to â—ie 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 meliorare its imperfect state it were without question better to let it alone 'T is a dangerous weapon and that will endanger to wound its master if put into an aukard and unskilful hand Ut fuerit melius non didicisse So that it were better never to have learn'd at all And this peradventure is the reason why neither we nor indeed Christian Religion require much Learning in Women and that Francis Duke of Britany Son of John the Fifth one being talking with him about his Marriage with Isabelle the Daughter of Scotland and adding that she was homely bred and without any manner of Learning made answer That he lik'd her the better and that a Woman was wise enough if she could distinguish her Husband's Shirt and 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 Privy Councils of Princes and if this End and Design of acquiring Riches which is the only thing we propose to our selves by the means of Law Physick Pedantry and even Divinity it self did not uphold and keep them in credit you would without doubt see them as poor and unregarded as ever And what loss would it be if they neither instruct us to think well nor to do well Postquam docti prodierunt boni desinunt After once they become Learned they cease to be good All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not the Science of Honesty and good Nature But the reason I glanc'd upon but now may it not also proceed from hence that our Study having almost no other Aim but Profit fewer of those who by Nature are born to Offices and Employments rather of Glory than Gain addict themselves to Letters or for so little a while being taken from their Studies before they can come to have any taste of them to a Prosession that has nothing to do with Books that there ordinarily remain no other to apply themselves wholly to Learning but People of mean Condition who in that only study to live and have Preferment only in their Prospect and by such People whose Souls are both by Nature and Education and domestick Example of the basest Metal and Allay the Fruits of Knowledge are both immaturely gathered ill-digested and deliver'd to their Pupils quite another thing For it is not for Knowledge to enlighten a Soul that is dark of it self nor to make a blind man to see Her Business is not to find a man Eyes but to guide govern and direct his steps provided he have sound Feet and straight Legs to go upon Knowledge is an excellent Drug but no Drug has virtue enough to preserve it self 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 and good enough who looks a squint 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 Republick 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 Shooe-maker with his Shooes out at the Toes we say 't is no wonder for commonly none go worse shod than their Wives and they In like manner Experience does often present us a Physician worse physick'd a Divine worse reform'd and frequently a Scholar of less Sufficiency than another Ariosto of Chios had anciently Reason to say That Philosophers did their Auditories harm forasmuch as most of the Souls of those that heard them were not capable of making benefit of their Instructions and if they did not apply them to good would certainly apply them to ill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex Aristippi acerbos ex Zenonis Schola exire Cicero de Natu. Deoâ— l. 2. They proceeded effeminate prodigals from the School of Aristippus and Churls and Cynicks from that of Zeno. In that excellent Institution that Xenophon attributes to the Persians we find that they taught their Children Vertue as other Nations do Letters Plato tells us that the eldest Son in their Royal Succession was thus brought up so soon as he was born he was deliver'd not to Women but to Eunuchs of the greatest Authority about their Kings for their Vertue 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 arriv'd at fourteen he was transferr'd into the hands of four the wisest the most just the most temperate and most valiant of the Nation of which the first was to instruct him in Religion the second
perhaps without Reason that we attribute Facility of Belief and easiness of Persuasion to Simplicity and Ignorance and I have heard the Belief compar'd to the Impression of a Seal stamp'd upon the Soul which by how much softer and of less resistance it is is the more easie to be impos'd upon Ut necesse est lancem in libra ponderibus impositis de primis sic animum perspicuis â—edere As the Scale of the Balance must give way to the Weight that presses it down so the mind must of necessity yield to Demonstration and by how much the Soul is more empty and without Counterpoise with so much greater Facility it dips under the weight of the first Perswasion 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 side 't is a very great Presumption to slight and condemn all things for false that do not appear to us likely to be true which is the ordinary Vice of such as fansie themselves wiser than their Neighbours I was my self 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 Magick Terrors Wonders Sorceries Hob-goblins or Thessalian Prodigies I presently pitied the poor People that were abus'd by these Follies whereas I now find that I my self was to be pitied as much at least as they not that Experience has taught me any thing to convince my former Opinion tho' my Curiosity has endeavoured that way but Reason has instructed me that thus Resolutely to condemn any thing for false and impossible is arrogantly and impiously to circumscribe and limit the Will of God and the Power of 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 every thing 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 we apply our Studies to and we shall find that it is rather Custom than Knowledge that takes away the Wonder and renders them easie and familiar to us Lucret. l. 2. Jam nemo cessus saturusque videndi Suspicere in Caeli dignatur lucide Templa Already glutted with the Sight now none Heaven's lucid Temples deigns to look upon And that if those things were now newly presented to us we should think them as strange and incredible if not more than any others Id. ibid. Si nunc primum mortalibus adsint Ex improviso seu sint objecta repentè Nil magis his rebus poterat mirabile dici Aut minus ante quod auderent fore credere gentes Where things are suddenly and by surprize Just now objected new to mortal Eyes At nothing could they be astonish'd more Nor less than what they so admir'd before He that had never seen a River imagin'd the first he met with to be the Sea and the greatest things that have fall'n within our Knowledge we conclude the Extreams that Nature makes of the kind Id. ibid. Scilicet fluvius qui non est maximus ei est Qui non ante aliquem majorem vidit ingens Atbor homoque videtur omnia de genere omni Maxime quae vidit quisque haec ingentia fingit A little River unto him does seem That bigger never saw a mighty Stream A Tree a Man any thing seems to his view O' th kind the greatest that ne'er greater knew Consuetudine Oculorum Cicero de Nat. Deora lib. 2. assuescunt Animi nequâ— admirantur neque requirunt rationes earum rerum quas semper vident Things grow familiar to Mens Minds by being often seen so that they neither admire nor are inquisitive into things they daily see The Novelty rather than the greatness of things tempts us to enquire into their Causes But we are to judge with more reverence and with greater Acknowledgment of our own Ignorance and Infirmity of this infinite Power of Nature How many unlikely things are there testified by People of very good Repute which if we cannot persuade our selves absolutely to believe we ought at least to leave them in Suspence for to conclude them impossible is by a temerarious Presumption to pretend to know the utmost Bounds of Possibility Did we rightly understand the difference betwixt impossible betwixt extraordinary and what is contrary to the common Opinion of Men in believing rashly and on the other side in being not too incredulous we should then observe the Rule of Ne quid nimis enjoyn'd by Chilo When we find in Froissard that the Count de Foix knew in Bearn the defeat of John King of Castile at Juberoth the next day after and the means by which he tells us he came to do so we may be allow'd 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 Mant performed his publick Obsequies at Rome and commanded the like throughout all 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 is assur'd by certain Knowledge that in the time of Domitian the News of the Battel lost by Antonius in Germany was publish'd at Rome many days Journey from thence and dispers'd 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 preceeded the accident shall we not say that these simple People have suffer'd themselves to be deceived with the Vulgar for not having been so clear sighted as we Is there any thing more delicate more clear more spritely than Pliny's Judgment when he is pleased to set it to work Any thing more remote from vanity Setting aside hâ—s Learning of which I make less account in which of these do any of us excell him And yet there is scarce a Puisne Sophister that does not convince 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 Relicks away with it his Authority is not sufficient to bear us the liberty of contradicting him but generally to condemn all such like Stories seems to me an impudence of the worst Character The great St. Augustine professes himself to have seen a blind Child recover sight upon the Relick of St. Gervase and St. Protasius at Milan a Woman at Carthage cur'd of a Cancer by the sign of the Cross made upon her by a Woman newly Baptiz'd Hesperius a familiar Friend of his to have driven away the Spirits that
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 surcharg'd 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 a saying to every thing There is no Action so private that can escape their Inspection and Jurisdiction but they are best taught who are best able to censure and curb their own Liberty 'T is the Women that expose their Nudities over freely upon the account of Pleasure though in the Necessities of Physick and Chirurgery they are more shy and more reserv'd I will therefore in their behalf teach the Husbands that is such as are too extravagant and sensual in the exercise of the Matrimonial Duty 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 are Faults as reproveable here as illegitimate and adulterous Practices Those immodest and Debauch'd Tricks and Postures that the first Ardour suggests to us in this Affair are not only indecently but inconveniently practis'd upon our Wives Let them at least learn impudency from another hand they are always 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 thence should be a sober and serious delight and mix with a certain kind of Gravity it should be a kind of discreet and conscientious pleasure And being that the chief end of it is Generation some make a Question whether when Men are out of hopes of that fruit as when they are superannuated or already with Child it be lawful to lie with our Wives 'T is Homicide according to Plato and certain Nations the Mahometan a mongst others Abominate all Conjunction with Women with Child and others also with those who are Unclean 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 any more receive him A brave Example of Conjugal Continency It was doubtless from some Lascivious Poet 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 vehemency 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 of their immoderate Lust sending for other Women in their stead with whom they were not oblig'd to so great a decorum of respect All Pleasures and all sorts of Gratifications are not properly and fitly conferr'd upon all sorts of Persons Epaminondas had Committed a young Man for certain Debauches for whom Pelopidas mediated that at his request he might be set at liberty which notwithstanding the great intelligence betwixt them Epaminondas resolutely deny'd 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 delicate Boy is that said he I that were a Prize answered Pericles for any other than a Praetor who ought not only to have his Hands but his Eyes Chaste too Elius Verus the Emperour answered his Wife who Reproach'd 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 Desire In fine there is no so just and lawful pleasure wherein the Intemperance and Excess is not to be Condemn'd 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 Propert. lib. 3. Ele. 6. Fortunae miseras auximus Arte vias We with Misfortune ' gainst our selves take part And our own Miseries encrease by Art Humane 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 Artifically disguising and tricking out the ills of Life to alleviate the Sense of them Had I rul'd the Roast I should have taken another and more natural course which to say the truth is both Commodious and Sacred 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 what is oft times worse than the Disease by tormenting us more and by adding to our Misery and Pain To this end Watchings Fastings Hair-shirts remote and solitary Banishments perpetual Imprisonments Whips and other Afflictions have been introduc'd amongst Men But so that they should carry a sting with them and be real Afflictions indeed and not fall out so 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 Liv'd as Merry as the Day was long and that what had been enjoyn'd him for a Penance turn'd to his greatest 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 Heathful and more Spritely and to him to whose Palate Fish were more acceptable than Flesh it would be no proper nor sanative Receipt no more than in the other sort of Physick where the Drugs
purest Breaths has nothing in it of greater perfection than to be without any offensive Smell like those of heathful Children which made Plautus say Plaut Molest Art 1. Sce. 3. Mulier tum bene olet ubi nihil olet That Woman we a sweet one call Whose Body breathes no Scent at all And such as make use of these exotick Perfumes are with good reason to be suspected of some Natural Imperfection which they endeavour by these Odours to conceal according to that of Mr. Johnson which without offence to Monsieur de Montaigne I will here presumâ— to insert it being at least as well said as any of those he quotes out of the Ancient Poets Ben. Johnson Still to be Neat still to be Drest As you were going to a Feast Still to be Powder'd still Perfum'd Lady it is to be presum'd Though Arts hid causes are not found All is not sweet all is not sound As may be judg'd by these following Mart. lib. 6. Epig. 55. Rides nos Coracine nil olenteâ— Malo quam bene olere nil olere Because thou Coracinus still dost go With Musk and Ambergrease perfumed so We under thy Contempt forsooth must fall I 'd rather than smell sweet not smell at all And elsewhere Id. lib. a. Ep. 1â— Posthume non bene olet qui bene semper olet He does not Naturally Smell well Who always of Perfumes does Smell I am nevertheless a strange lover of good Smells and as much abominate the ill one which also I reach at a greater distance I think than other Men Hoâ— Ep. 1â— Namque sagacius unus odoror Polypus anâ—gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in alis Quam canis aceâ— ubi lateat sus For I can Smell a Putrid Polypus Or the Rank Arm-pits of a Red-hair'd Fuss As soon as best Nos'd Hound the stinking Sâ—â—e Where the Wild Boar does in the Forest Lie Of Smells the simple and natural seem to be most pleasing Let the Ladies look to that for 't is chiefly their concern In the wildest parts of Barbary the Scythian Women after Bathing were wont to Powder and Crust their Faces and whole Bodies with a certain Odoriferous Drug growing in their own Territories which being cleans'd off when they came to have familiarity with Men they were found Perfum'd and Sleek 'T is not to be believ'd 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 furnish'd Mankind with a Vehicle to convey Smells to the Nose had no reason for they will do it themselves especially to me My very Mustachio's perform that Office for if I stroke them but with my Gloves or Handkerchief the Smell will not out a whole Day They will Reproach me where I have been the close luscious devouring and melting Kisses of Youthful Ardour would in my Wanton Age have left a Sweetness upon my Lips for several Hours after And yet I have ever found my self very little subject to Epidemick Diseases that are caught either by conversing with the Sick or bred by the contagion of the Air I have very well escap'd from those of my time of which there has been several Virâ—lent sorts in our Cities and Armies We Read of Socrates that though he never departed from Athens during the frequent Plagues that infested that City he only was never Infected Physicians might I believe if they would extract greater Utility from Odours than they do for I have often observ'd that they cause an alteration in me and work upon my Spirits according to their several Vertues which makes me approve of what is said namely that the use of Incense and Perfumes in Churches so Ancient and so universally receiv'd in all Nations and Religions was intended to chear us and to â—ouse and purifie the Senses the better to fit us for Contemplation I could have been glad the better to judge of it to have tasted the Cuâ—nary Art of those Cooks who had so rare 〈◊〉 way of Seasoning Exotick Odours with the relish of Meats As it was particularly observ'd in the Service of the King of Tuâ—is who in our Days Landed at Naples to have an interview with Charles the Emperour where his Dishes were farc'd with Odoâ—iferous Drugs to that Degree of Expence that the Cookery of one Peacock and two Pheasants amounted to a Hundred Duckets to dress them after their Fashion And when the Carveâ— came to break them up not only the Dining room but all the Appartments of his Palace and the adjoining Streets were fill'd with an Aromatick Vapour which did not presently vanish My chiefest care in chusing my Lodgings is always to avoid a thick and stinking Air and those Beautiful Cities of Venice and Paris have very much lessen'd the Kindness I had for them the one by the offensive Smell of her Marshes and the other of her Dirt. CHAP. LVI Of Prayers I Propose formless and undetermin'd Fancies like those who publish subtle Questions to be after disputed upon in the Schools not to Establish truth but to seek it I submit them to the better Judgments of those whose Office it is to regulate not my Writings and Actions only but moreover my very Thoughts and Opinions Let what I here set down meet with Correction or Applause it shall be of equal welcome and utility to me my self before hand condemning it for Absurd and Impious if any thing shall be found through Ignorance or Inadvertency couch'd in this Rhapsody contrary to the Resolutions and Prescriptions of the Roman Cotholick Church into which I was Born and in which I will Die And yet always submitting to the Authority of their Censure who have an Absolute Power over me I thus Temerariously venture at every thing as upon this present Subject I know not if or no I am deceiv'd but since by a particular favour of the Divine Bounty a certain Form of Prayer has been prescrib'd 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 and going to Bed and in every particular Action wherein Prayer is requir'd I would that Christians always make use of the Lord's Prayer if not alone yet at least always The Church may lengthen or alter 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 preference 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 pâ—opeâ— for all Occasions 'T is the only Prayer I use in all Places and Conditions and what I still repeat instead of changing whence it