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 thesubject of his writing, were indeed excusable in rare and famous men, whoby their reputation had given others a curiosity to be fully informed ofthem. It is most true, I confess and know very well, that a mechanicwill 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 aneminent person when he comes into a town. It misbecomes any other togive his own character, but him who has qualities worthy of imitation, and whose life and opinions may serve for example: Caesar and Xenophonhad a just and solid foundation whereon to found their narrations, thegreatness of their own performances; and were to be wished that we hadthe journals of Alexander the Great, the commentaries that Augustus, Cato, Sylla, Brutus, and others left of their actions; of such personsmen 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 achurch, 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 andfamiliarity with me in this image of myself. Others have been encouragedto 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 andsterile that I cannot be suspected of ostentation. I judge freely of theactions of others; I give little of my own to judge of, because they arenothing: I do not find so much good in myself, that I cannot tell itwithout blushing. 

What contentment would it not be to me to hear any one thus relate to methe manners, faces, countenances, the ordinary words and fortunes of myancestors? how attentively should I listen to it! In earnest, it wouldbe evil nature to despise so much as the pictures of our friends andpredecessors, the fashion of their clothes and arms. I preserve theirwriting, seal, and a particular sword they wore, and have not thrown thelong 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 beavenged on them; for they cannot care less for me than I shall then dofor them. All the traffic that I have in this with the public is, that Iborrow their utensils of writing, which are more easy and most at hand;and in recompense shall, peradventure, keep a pound of butter in themarket from melting in the sun:--[Montaigne semi-seriously speculates onthe 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 entertainingmyself so many idle hours in so pleasing and useful thoughts? Inmoulding this figure upon myself, I have been so often constrained totemper and compose myself in a right posture, that the copy is trulytaken, 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 bookconsubstantial with the author, of a peculiar design, a parcel of mylife, and whose business is not designed for others, as that of all otherbooks is. In giving myself so continual and so exact an account ofmyself, have I lost my time? For they who sometimes cursorily surveythemselves only, do not so strictly examine themselves, nor penetrate sodeep, as he who makes it his business, his study, and his employment, whointends a lasting record, with all his fidelity, and with all his force:The most delicious pleasures digested within, avoid leaving any trace ofthemselves, and avoid the sight not only of the people, but of any otherperson. How often has this work diverted me from troublesome thoughts?and all that are frivolous should be reputed so. Nature has presented uswith a large faculty of entertaining ourselves alone; and often calls usto it, to teach us that we owe ourselves in part to society, but chieflyand mostly to ourselves. That I may habituate my fancy even to meditatein some method and to some end, and to keep it from losing itself androving at random, 'tis but to give to body and to record all the littlethoughts that present themselves to it. I give ear to my whimsies, because I am to record them. It often falls out, that being displeasedat some action that civility and reason will not permit me openly toreprove, I here disgorge myself, not without design of publicinstruction: 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 Ilisten to books a little more attentively than ordinary, since I watch ifI can purloin anything that may adorn or support my own? I have not atall studied to make a book; but I have in some sort studied because I hadmade it; if it be studying to scratch and pinch now one author, and thenanother, either by the head or foot, not with any design to form opinionsfrom them, but to assist, second, and fortify those I already haveembraced. But whom shall we believe in the report he makes of himself inso corrupt an age? considering there are so few, if, any at all, whom wecan 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, andthe 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 manpersuades another man to believe; as we generally give the name of moneynot only to pieces of the dust alloy, but even to the false also, if theywill pass. Our nation has long been reproached with this vice; forSalvianus of Marseilles, who lived in the time of the EmperorValentinian, says that lying and forswearing themselves is with theFrench not a vice, but a way of speaking. He who would enhance thistestimony, might say that it is now a virtue in them; men form andfashion themselves to it as to an exercise of honour; for dissimulationis one of the most notable qualities of this age. 

I have often considered whence this custom that we so religiously observeshould spring, of being more highly offended with the reproach of a viceso familiar to us than with any other, and that it should be the highestinsult that can in words be done us to reproach us with a lie. Uponexamination, I find that it is natural most to defend the defects withwhich we are most tainted. It seems as if by resenting and being movedat the accusation, we in some sort acquit ourselves of the fault; thoughwe have it in effect, we condemn it in outward appearance. May it notalso be that this reproach seems to imply cowardice and feebleness ofheart? of which can there be a more manifest sign than to eat a man's ownwords--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 whenhe says, "that it is to manifest a contempt of God, and withal a fear ofmen. " It is not possible more fully to represent the horror, baseness, and irregularity of it; for what can a man imagine more hateful andcontemptible than to be a coward towards men, and valiant against hisMaker? Our intelligence being by no other way communicable to oneanother but by a particular word, he who falsifies that betrays publicsociety. 'Tis the only way by which we communicate our thoughts andwills; 'tis the interpreter of the soul, and if it deceive us, we nolonger know nor have further tie upon one another; if that deceive us, itbreaks all our correspondence, and dissolves all the ties of government. Certain nations of the newly discovered Indies (I need not give themnames, seeing they are no more; for, by wonderful and unheardof example, the desolation of that conquest has extended to the utter abolition ofnames and the ancient knowledge of places) offered to their gods humanblood, but only such as was drawn from the tongue and ears, to expiatefor the sin of lying, as well heard as pronounced. That good fellow ofGreece--[Plutarch, Life of Lysander, c. 4. ]--said that children areamused with toys and men with words. 

As to our diverse usages of giving the lie, and the laws of honour inthat case, and the alteration they have received, I defer saying what Iknow of them to another time, and shall learn, if I can, in themeanwhile, at what time the custom took beginning of so exactly weighingand measuring words, and of making our honour interested in them; for itis 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 oneanother the lie without any quarrel. Their laws of duty steered someother course than ours. Caesar is sometimes called thief, and sometimesdrunkard, to his teeth. We see the liberty of invective they practisedupon 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, pushmen on to very vicious effects. In this dispute which has at this timeengaged France in a civil war, the better and the soundest cause no doubtis that which maintains the ancient religion and government of thekingdom. Nevertheless, amongst the good men of that party (for I do notspeak of those who only make a pretence of it, either to execute theirown particular revenges or to gratify their avarice, or to conciliate thefavour of princes, but of those who engage in the quarrel out of truezeal to religion and a holy desire to maintain the peace and governmentof their country), of these, I say, we see many whom passion transportsbeyond the bounds of reason, and sometimes inspires with counsels thatare unjust and violent, and, moreover, rash. 

It is certain that in those first times, when our religion began to gainauthority with the laws, zeal armed many against all sorts of paganbooks, by which the learned suffered an exceeding great loss, a disorderthat I conceive to have done more prejudice to letters than all theflames of the barbarians. Of this Cornelius Tacitus is a very goodtestimony; for though the Emperor Tacitus, his kinsman, had, by expressorder, furnished all the libraries in the world with it, nevertheless oneentire copy could not escape the curious examination of those who desiredto abolish it for only five or six idle clauses that were contrary to ourbelief. 

They had also the trick easily to lend undue praises to all the emperorswho made for us, and universally to condemn all the actions of those whowere 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 soulphilosophy was imprinted in the best characters, by which he professed togovern all his actions; and, in truth, there is no sort of virtue ofwhich he has not left behind him very notable examples: in chastity (ofwhich the whole of his life gave manifest proof) we read the same of himthat was said of Alexander and Scipio, that being in the flower of hisage, for he was slain by the Parthians at one-and-thirty, of a great manyvery beautiful captives, he would not so much as look upon one. As tohis justice, he took himself the pains to hear the parties, and althoughhe would out of curiosity inquire what religion they were of, nevertheless, the antipathy he had to ours never gave any counterpoise tothe balance. He made himself several good laws, and repealed a greatpart of the subsidies and taxes levied by his predecessors. 

We have two good historians who were eyewitnesses of his actions: one ofwhom, Marcellinus, in several places of his history sharply reproves anedict of his whereby he interdicted all Christian rhetoricians andgrammarians to keep school or to teach, and says he could wish that actof his had been buried in silence: it is probable that had he done anymore 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 againstus, 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 theplace; was so bold as to tell him that he was impious, and an enemy toChrist, 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 bishopreplied again, "I thank Jesus Christ for taking away my sight, that I maynot see thy impudent visage, " affecting in that, they say, aphilosophical patience. But this action of his bears no comparison tothe cruelty that he is said to have exercised against us. "He was, " saysEutropius, my other witness, "an enemy to Christianity, but withoutputting his hand to blood. " And, to return to his justice, there isnothing in that whereof he can be accused, the severity excepted hepractised in the beginning of his reign against those who had followedthe party of Constantius, his predecessor. As to his sobriety, he livedalways a soldier-like life; and observed a diet and routine, like onethat prepared and inured himself to the austerities of war. Hisvigilance 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 invisiting the state of his army and guards in person, or in study; foramongst other rare qualities, he was very excellent in all sorts oflearning. 'Tis said of Alexander the Great, that being in bed, for fearlest sleep should divert him from his thoughts and studies, he had alwaysa basin set by his bedside, and held one of his hands out with a ball ofcopper in it, to the end, that, beginning to fall asleep, and his fingersleaving 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 solittle disturbed with fumes by reason of his singular abstinence, that hehad no need of any such invention. As to his military experience, he wasexcellent in all the qualities of a great captain, as it was likely heshould, being almost all his life in a continual exercise of war, andmost of that time with us in France, against the Germans and Franks: wehardly read of any man who ever saw more dangers, or who made morefrequent proofs of his personal valour. 

His death has something in it parallel with that of Epaminondas, for hewas wounded with an arrow, and tried to pull it out, and had done so, butthat, being edged, it cut and disabled his hand. He incessantly calledout that they should carry him again into the heat of the battle, toencourage his soldiers, who very bravely disputed the fight without him, till night parted the armies. He stood obliged to his philosophy for thesingular contempt he had for his life and all human things. He had afirm belief of the immortality of souls. 

In matter of religion he was wrong throughout, and was surnamed theApostate for having relinquished ours: nevertheless, the opinion seems tome more probable, that he had never thoroughly embraced it, but haddissembled 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 bythose of his own time, of the same opinion, who jeeringly said, that hadhe got the victory over the Parthians, he had destroyed the breed of oxenin the world to supply his sacrifices. He was, moreover, besotted withthe art of divination, and gave authority to all sorts of predictions. He said, amongst other things at his death, that he was obliged to thegods, 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, norby a mean and unmanly death, more becoming lazy and delicate people; norby a death that was languishing, long, and painful; and that they hadthought him worthy to die after that noble manner, in the progress of hisvictories, in the flower of his glory. He had a vision like that ofMarcus Brutus, that first threatened him in Gaul, and afterward appearedto him in Persia just before his death. These words that some make himsay when he felt himself wounded: "Thou hast overcome, Nazarene"; or asothers, "Content thyself, Nazarene"; would hardly have been omitted, hadthey been believed, by my witnesses, who, being present in the army, haveset down to the least motions and words of his end; no more than certainother 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 notown it. But in the end, seeing himself strong enough to dare to discoverhimself, he caused the temples of the gods to be thrown open, and did hisuttermost to set on foot and to encourage idolatry. Which the better toeffect, having at Constantinople found the people disunited, and also theprelates of the church divided amongst themselves, having convened themall before him, he earnestly admonished them to calm those civildissensions, and that every one might freely, and without fear, followhis own religion. Which he the more sedulously solicited, in hope thatthis licence would augment the schisms and factions of their division, and hinder the people from reuniting, and consequently fortifyingthemselves against him by their unanimous intelligence and concord;having experienced by the cruelty of some Christians, that there is nobeast in the world so much to be feared by man as man; these are verynearly his words. 

Wherein this is very worthy of consideration, that the Emperor Julianmade use of the same receipt of liberty of conscience to inflame thecivil dissensions that our kings do to extinguish them. So that a manmay say on one side, that to give the people the reins to entertain everyman his own opinion, is to scatter and sow division, and, as it were, tolend a hand to augment it, there being no legal impediment or restraintto stop or hinder their career; but, on the other side, a man may alsosay, that to give the people the reins to entertain every man his ownopinion, is to mollify and appease them by facility and toleration, andto dull the point which is whetted and made sharper by singularity, novelty, and difficulty: and I think it is better for the honour of thedevotion 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 theirnatural simplicity and purity, fall into our use; the elements that weenjoy are changed, and so 'tis with metals; and gold must be debased withsome other matter to fit it for our service. Neither has virtue, sosimple as that which Aristo, Pyrrho, and also the Stoics, made the end oflife; nor the Cyrenaic and Aristippic pleasure, been without mixtureuseful to it. Of the pleasure and goods that we enjoy, there is not oneexempt 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 imageof it in its full excellence, we stuff it with sickly and painfulepithets and qualities, languor, softness, feebleness, faintness, 'morbidezza': a great testimony of their consanguinity andconsubstantiality. The most profound joy has more of severity thangaiety, in it. The highest and fullest contentment offers more of thegrave 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, whichsays 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 purchasebut 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 godtried to mix in one mass and to confound pain and pleasure, but not beingable 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. Iknow not whether or no he intended anything else by that saying; but formy part, I am of opinion that there is design, consent, and complacencyin 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 ofdelight and delicacy which smiles upon and flatters us even in the verylap 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 asgrateful 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 samemotions and grimaces of the face that serve for weeping; serve forlaughter too; and indeed, before the one or the other be finished, do butobserve the painter's manner of handling, and you will be in doubt towhich of the two the design tends; and the extreme of laughter does atlast 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 bedesired (let us put the case that all his members were always seized witha pleasure like that of generation, in its most excessive height) I feelhim melting under the weight of his delight, and see him utterly unableto support so pure, so continual, and so universal a pleasure. Indeed, he is running away whilst he is there, and naturally makes haste toescape, as from a place where he cannot stand firm, and where he isafraid of sinking. 

When I religiously confess myself to myself, I find that the best virtueI have has in it some tincture of vice; and I am afraid that Plato, inhis purest virtue (I, who am as sincere and loyal a lover of virtue ofthat stamp as any other whatever), if he had listened and laid his earclose to himself and he did so no doubt--would have heard some jarringnote of human mixture, but faint and only perceptible to himself. Man iswholly and throughout but patch and motley. Even the laws of justicethemselves cannot subsist without mixture of injustice; insomuch thatPlato says, they undertake to cut off the hydra's head, who pretend toclear 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 publiccommerce, there may be some excesses in the purity and perspicacity ofour minds; that penetrating light has in it too much of subtlety andcuriosity: we must a little stupefy and blunt them to render them moreobedient to example and practice, and a little veil and obscure them, thebetter to proportion them to this dark and earthly life. And thereforecommon and less speculative souls are found to be more proper for andmore successful in the management of affairs, and the elevated andexquisite opinions of philosophy unfit for business. This sharp vivacityof soul, and the supple and restless volubility attending it, disturb ournegotiations. We are to manage human enterprises more superficially androughly, and leave a great part to fortune; it is not necessary toexamine affairs with so much subtlety and so deep: a man loses himself inthe 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 imaginationsuggested to him, upon the question King Hiero had put to him--[What Godwas. --Cicero, De Nat. Deor. , i. 22. ]--(to answer which he had had manydays for thought), several sharp and subtle considerations, whilst hedoubted which was the most likely, he totally despaired of the truth. 

He who dives into and in his inquisition comprehends all circumstancesand consequences, hinders his election: a little engine well handled issufficient for executions, whether of less or greater weight. The bestmanagers are those who can worst give account how they are so; while thegreatest talkers, for the most part, do nothing to purpose; I know one ofthis sort of men, and a most excellent discourser upon all sorts of goodhusbandry, who has miserably let a hundred thousand livres yearly revenueslip through his hands; I know another who talks, who better advises thanany man of his counsel, and there is not in the world a fairer show ofsoul and understanding than he has; nevertheless, when he comes to thetest, his servants find him quite another thing; not to make any mentionof his misfortunes. 

CHAPTER XXI

AGAINST IDLENESS

The Emperor Vespasian, being sick of the disease whereof he died, did notfor all that neglect to inquire after the state of the empire, and evenin bed continually despatched very many affairs of great consequence; forwhich, being reproved by his physician, as a thing prejudicial to hishealth, "An emperor, " said he, "must die standing. " A fine saying, in myopinion, and worthy a great prince. The Emperor Adrian since made use ofthe same words, and kings should be often put in mind of them, to makethem know that the great office conferred upon them of the command of somany men, is not an employment of ease; and that there is nothing can sojustly disgust a subject, and make him unwilling to expose himself tolabour and danger for the service of his prince, than to see him, in themeantime, devoted to his ease and frivolous amusement, and to besolicitous of his preservation who so much neglects that of his people. 

Whoever will take upon him to maintain that 'tis better for a prince tocarry on his wars by others, than in his own person, fortune will furnishhim with examples enough of those whose lieutenants have brought greatenterprises to a happy issue, and of those also whose presence has donemore hurt than good: but no virtuous and valiant prince can with patienceendure so dishonourable councils. Under colour of saving his head, likethe statue of a saint, for the happiness of his kingdom, they degrade himfrom and declare him incapable of his office, which is militarythroughout: I know one--[Probably Henry IV. ]--who had much rather bebeaten, than to sleep whilst another fights for him; and who neverwithout jealousy heard of any brave thing done even by his own officersin his absence. And Soliman I. Said, with very good reason, in myopinion, 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 thework, but his voice and thought; nor even so much as these, consideringthat in such work as that, the direction and command that deserve honourare only such as are given upon the spot, and in the heat of thebusiness. No pilot performs his office by standing still. The princesof the Ottoman family, the chiefest in the world in military fortune, have warmly embraced this opinion, and Bajazet II. , with his son, whoswerved from it, spending their time in science and other retiredemployments, gave great blows to their empire; and Amurath III. , nowreigning, following their example, begins to find the same. Was it notEdward III. , King of England, who said this of our Charles V. : "Therenever was king who so seldom put on his armour, and yet never king whogave me so much to do. " He had reason to think it strange, as an effectof chance more than of reason. And let those seek out some other to joinwith them than me, who will reckon the Kings of Castile and Portugalamongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors, because at the distanceof twelve hundred leagues from their lazy abode, by the conduct of theircaptains, they made themselves masters of both Indies; of which it has tobe known if they would have had even the courage to go and in personenjoy them. 

The Emperor Julian said yet further, that a philosopher and a brave manought not so much as to breathe; that is to say, not to allow any more tobodily necessities than what we cannot refuse; keeping the soul and bodystill intent and busy about honourable, great, and virtuous things. Hewas ashamed if any one in public saw him spit, or sweat (which is said bysome, also, of the Lacedaemonian young men, and which Xenophon says ofthe Persian), forasmuch as he conceived that exercise, continual labour, and sobriety, ought to have dried up all those superfluities. WhatSeneca says will not be unfit for this place; which is, that the ancientRomans kept their youth always standing, and taught them nothing thatthey were to learn sitting. 

'Tis a generous desire to wish to die usefully and like a man, but theeffect lies not so much in our resolution as in our good fortune; athousand have proposed to themselves in battle, either to overcome or todie, who have failed both in the one and the other, wounds andimprisonment crossing their design and compelling them to live againsttheir will. There are diseases that overthrow even our desires, and ourknowledge. 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 theIndies, they met with soldiers who had condemned themselves, withhorrible execrations, to enter into no other composition but either tocause themselves to be slain, or to remain victorious; and had theirheads and beards shaved in token of this vow. 'Tis to much purpose forus to hazard ourselves and to be obstinate: it seems as if blows avoidedthose who present themselves too briskly to them, and do not willinglyfall upon those who too willingly seek them, and so defeat them of theirdesign. Such there have been, who, after having tried all ways, nothaving been able with all their endeavour to obtain the favour of dyingby the hand of the enemy, have been constrained, to make good theirresolution of bringing home the honour of victory or of losing theirlives, to kill themselves even in the heat of battle. Of which there areother examples, but this is one: Philistus, general of the naval army ofDionysius the younger against the Syracusans, presented them battle whichwas sharply disputed, their forces being equal: in this engagement, hehad the better at the first, through his own valour: but the Syracusansdrawing about his gally to environ him, after having done great things inhis own person to disengage himself and hoping for no relief, with hisown hand he took away the life he had so liberally, and in vain, exposedto the enemy. 

Mule Moloch, king of Fez, who lately won against Sebastian, king ofPortugal, the battle so famous for the death of three kings, and for thetransmission of that great kingdom to the crown of Castile, was extremelysick when the Portuguese entered in an hostile manner into his dominions;and from that day forward grew worse and worse, still drawing nearer toand foreseeing his end; yet never did man better employ his ownsufficiency 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, andtherefore resigned that honour to his brother; but this was all of theoffice of a general that he resigned; all the rest of greatest utilityand necessity he most, exactly and gloriously performed in his ownperson; his body lying upon a couch, but his judgment and courage uprightand firm to his last gasp, and in some sort beyond it. He might havewasted his enemy, indiscreetly advanced into his dominions, withoutstriking a blow; and it was a very unhappy occurrence, that for want of alittle life or somebody to substitute in the conduct of this war and theaffairs of a troubled state, he was compelled to seek a doubtful andbloody victory, having another by a better and surer way already in hishands. Notwithstanding, he wonderfully managed the continuance of hissickness in consuming the enemy, and in drawing them far from theassistance 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 thisgreat battle. He arranged his battalions in a circular form, environingthe Portuguese army on every side, which round circle coming to close inand 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 preventedtheir flight after the defeat, so that finding all passages possessed andshut 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 theconqueror a very bloody and entire victory. Dying, he caused himself tobe carried and hurried from place to place where most need was, andpassing along the files, encouraged the captains and soldiers one afteranother; but a corner of his main battalions being broken, he was not tobe held from mounting on horseback with his sword in his hand; he did hisutmost to break from those about him, and to rush into the thickest ofthe battle, they all the while withholding him, some by the bridle, someby his robe, and others by his stirrups. This last effort totallyoverwhelmed the little life he had left; they again laid him upon hisbed; but coming to himself, and starting as it were out of his swoon, allother faculties failing, to give his people notice that they were toconceal his death the most necessary command he had then to give, thathis soldiers might not be discouraged (with the news) he expired with hisfinger upon his mouth, the ordinary sign of keeping silence. Who everlived so long and so far into death? whoever died so erect, or more likea man?

The most extreme degree of courageously treating death, and the mostnatural, is to look upon it not only without astonishment but withoutcare, continuing the wonted course of life even into it, as Cato did, who entertained himself in study, and went to sleep, having a violent andbloody death in his heart, and the weapon in his hand with which he wasresolved to despatch himself. 

CHAPTER XXII

OF POSTING

I have been none of the least able in this exercise, which is proper formen of my pitch, well-knit and short; but I give it over; it shakes ustoo much to continue it long. I was at this moment reading, that KingCyrus, 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 couldgo in a day without baiting, and at that distance appointed men, whosebusiness it was to have horses always in readiness, to mount those whowere despatched to him; and some say, that this swift way of posting isequal to that of the flight of cranes. 

Caesar says, that Lucius Vibullius Rufus, being in great haste to carryintelligence to Pompey, rode night and day, still taking fresh horses forthe greater diligence and speed; and he himself, as Suetonius reports, travelled a hundred miles a day in a hired coach; but he was a furiouscourier, 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 threecoaches. In the war of the Romans against King Antiochus, T. SemproniusGracchus, 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 purposelylaid 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 outtowards their nests when he would send back any news; setting a mark ofsome colour upon them to signify his meaning, according to what he andhis people had before agreed upon. 

At the theatre at Rome masters of families carried pigeons in theirbosoms to which they tied letters when they had a mind to send any ordersto their people at home; and the pigeons were trained up to bring back ananswer. 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 acertain kind of litters made for that purpose, and ran with such agilitythat, in their full speed, the first couriers transferred their load tothe second without making any stop. 

I understand that the Wallachians, the grand Signior's couriers, performwonderful journeys, by reason they have liberty to dismount the firstperson they meet upon the road, giving him their own tired horses; andthat to preserve themselves from being weary, they gird themselvesstraight about the middle with a broad girdle; but I could never findany benefit from this. 

CHAPTER XXIII

OF ILL MEANS EMPLOYED TO A GOOD END

There is wonderful relation and correspondence in this universalgovernment of the works of nature, which very well makes it appear thatit is neither accidental nor carried on by divers masters. The diseasesand conditions of our bodies are, in like manner, manifest in states andgovernments; kingdoms and republics are founded, flourish, and decay withage as we do. We are subject to a repletion of humours, useless anddangerous: whether of those that are good (for even those the physiciansare afraid of; and seeing we have nothing in us that is stable, they saythat 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 havingwhither to rise to mend itself, make too sudden and too disorderly aretreat; and therefore prescribe wrestlers to purge and bleed, to qualifythat superabundant health), or else a repletion of evil humours, which isthe ordinary cause of sickness. States are very often sick of the likerepletion, and various sorts of purgations have commonly been applied. Some times a great multitude of families are turned out to clear thecountry, who seek out new abodes elsewhere and encroach upon others. After this manner our ancient Franks came from the remotest part ofGermany 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 theconduct of Brennus and others; so the Goths and Vandals, and also thepeople who now possess Greece, left their native country to go settleelsewhere, where they might have more room; and there are scarce two orthree little corners in the world that have not felt the effect of suchremovals. The Romans by this means erected their colonies; for, perceiving their city to grow immeasurably populous, they eased it of themost unnecessary people, and sent them to inhabit and cultivate the landsconquered by them; sometimes also they purposely maintained wars withsome of their enemies, not only to keep their own men in action, for fearlest idleness, the mother of corruption, should bring upon them someworse 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 toevaporate the too vehement heat of their youth, to prune and clear thebranches from the stock too luxuriant in wood; and to this end it wasthat they maintained so long a war with Carthage. 

In the treaty of Bretigny, Edward III. , king of England, would not, inthe general peace he then made with our king, comprehend the controversyabout the Duchy of Brittany, that he might have a place wherein todischarge himself of his soldiers, and that the vast number of English hehad brought over to serve him in his expedition here might not returnback into England. And this also was one reason why our King Philipconsented to send his son John upon a foreign expedition, that he mighttake along with him a great number of hot young men who were then in hispay. 

There--are many in our times who talk at this rate, wishing thatthis hot emotion that is now amongst us might discharge itself in someneighbouring war, for fear lest all the peccant humours that now reign inthis politic body of ours may diffuse themselves farther, keep the feverstill in the height, and at last cause our total ruin; and, in truth, aforeign is much more supportable than a civil war, but I do not believethat God will favour so unjust a design as to offend and quarrel withothers 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 necessityof making use of ill means to a good end. Lycurgus, the most perfectlegislator that ever was, virtuous and invented this very unjust practiceof making the helots, who were their slaves, drunk by force, to the endthat the Spartans, seeing them so lost and buried in wine, might abhorthe excess of this vice. And yet those were still more to blame who ofold gave leave that criminals, to what sort of death soever condemned, should be cut up alive by the physicians, that they might make a truediscovery of our inward parts, and build their art upon greatercertainty; for, if we must run into excesses, it is more excusable to doit for the health of the soul than that of the body; as the Romanstrained up the people to valour and the contempt of dangers and death bythose furious spectacles of gladiators and fencers, who, having to fightit out to the last, cut, mangled, and killed one another in theirpresence:

 "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 thetraining up the people, to see every day before their eyes a hundred; twohundred, nay, a thousand couples of men armed against one another, cutone another to pieces with so great a constancy of courage, that theywere never heard to utter so much as one syllable of weakness orcommiseration; never seen to turn their backs, nor so much as to make onecowardly step to evade a blow, but rather exposed their necks to theadversary's sword and presented themselves to receive the stroke; andmany of them, when wounded to death, have sent to ask the spectators ifthey were satisfied with their behaviour, before they lay down to dieupon 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 theymade any hesitation about receiving their death. The very girlsthemselves 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 theyafterwards employed innocent slaves in the work, and even freemen too, who sold themselves to this purpose, nay, moreover, senators and knightsof 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 accustomedevery 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 theyhave no manner of concern. 

CHAPTER XXIV

OF THE ROMAN GRANDEUR

I will only say a word or two of this infinite argument, to show thesimplicity of those who compare the pitiful greatness of these times withthat of Rome. In the seventh book of Cicero's Familiar Epistles (and letthe grammarians put out that surname of familiar if they please, for intruth it is not very suitable; and they who, instead of familiar, havesubstituted "ad Familiares, " may gather something to justify them for sodoing out of what Suetonius says in the Life of Caesar, that there was avolume of letters of his "ad Familiares ") there is one directed toCaesar, then in Gaul, wherein Cicero repeats these words, which were inthe end of another letter that Caesar had written to him: "As to whatconcerns Marcus Furius, whom you have recommended to me, I will make himking of Gaul, and if you would have me advance any other friend of yourssend him to me. " It was no new thing for a simple citizen of Rome, asCaesar then was, to dispose of kingdoms, for he took away that of KingDeiotarus from him to give it to a gentleman of the city of Pergamus, called Mithridates; and they who wrote his Life record several citiessold by him; and Suetonius says, that he had once from King Ptolemy threemillions and six hundred thousand crowns, which was very like selling himhis 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 notso much seen in what they took, as in what they gave; and, indeed, someages before Antonius, they had dethroned one amongst the rest with sowonderful authority, that in all the Roman history I have not observedanything that more denotes the height of their power. Antiochuspossessed all Egypt, and was, moreover, ready to conquer Cyprus and otherappendages of that empire: when being upon the progress of his victories, C. Popilius came to him from the Senate, and at their first meetingrefused 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 ananswer, that I may carry it back to the Senate, before thou stirrest outof this circle. " Antiochus, astonished at the roughness of so positivea command, after a little pause, replied, "I will obey the Senate'scommand. " Then Popilius saluted him as friend of the Roman people. To have renounced claim to so great a monarchy, and a course of suchsuccessful fortune, from the effects of three lines in writing! Trulyhe had reason, as he afterwards did, to send the Senate word by hisambassadors, that he had received their order with the same respect as ifit had come from the immortal gods. 

All the kingdoms that Augustus gained by the right of war, he eitherrestored to those who had lost them or presented them to strangers. AndTacitus, in reference to this, speaking of Cogidunus, king of England, gives us, by a marvellous touch, an instance of that infinite power: theRomans, says he, were from all antiquity accustomed to leave the kingsthey 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 andother principalities, had therein more respect to this consideration thanto that he was wont to allege, viz. , that he was glutted and overchargedwith so many monarchies and so much dominion, as his own valour and thatof 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 hasof all sorts--where he pleasantly tells the story of Caelius, who, toavoid 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 tocolour this anointed his legs, and had them lapped up in a great manyswathings, and perfectly counterfeited both the gesture and countenanceof a gouty person; till in the end, Fortune did him the kindness to makehim 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 toescape the proscriptions of the triumvirs of Rome, and the better to beconcealed from the discovery of those who pursued him, having hiddenhimself in a disguise, would yet add this invention, to counterfeithaving but one eye; but when he came to have a little more liberty, andwent to take off the plaster he had a great while worn over his eye, hefound he had totally lost the sight of it indeed, and that it wasabsolutely gone. 'Tis possible that the action of sight was dulled fromhaving been so long without exercise, and that the optic power was whollyretired into the other eye: for we evidently perceive that the eye wekeep shut sends some part of its virtue to its fellow, so that it willswell and grow bigger; and so inaction, with the heat of ligatures and, plasters, might very well have brought some gouty humour upon thecounterfeiter in Martial. 

Reading in Froissart the vow of a troop of young English gentlemen, tokeep their left eyes bound up till they had arrived in France andperformed some notable exploit upon us, I have often been tickled withthis 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 havingbut one eye, squinting, lameness, or any other personal defect; for, besides that their bodies being then so tender, may be subject to take anill bent, fortune, I know not how, sometimes seems to delight in takingus at our word; and I have heard several examples related of people whohave 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 toaffect doing it with an elegant air; many have threatened that this fancywould one day be turned into necessity: if so, I should be the first ofmy family to have the gout. 

But let us a little lengthen this chapter, and add another anecdoteconcerning blindness. Pliny reports of one who, dreaming he was blind, found himself so indeed in the morning without any preceding infirmity inhis eyes. The force of imagination might assist in this case, as I havesaid elsewhere, and Pliny seems to be of the same opinion; but it is morelikely that the motions which the body felt within, of which physicians, if they please, may find out the cause, taking away his sight, were theoccasion of his dream. 

Let us add another story, not very improper for this subject, whichSeneca relates in one of his epistles: "You know, " says he, writing toLucilius, "that Harpaste, my wife's fool, is thrown upon me as anhereditary 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 canlaugh at myself. This fool has suddenly lost her sight: I tell you astrange, but a very true thing she is not sensible that she is blind, buteternally importunes her keeper to take her abroad, because she says thehouse 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 orgrasping; and, again, the blind call for a guide, while we stray of ourown accord. I am not ambitious, we say; but a man cannot live otherwiseat Rome; I am not wasteful, but the city requires a great outlay; 'tisnot my fault if I am choleric--if I have not yet established any certaincourse of life: 'tis the fault of youth. Let us not seek our disease outof ourselves; 'tis in us, and planted in our bowels; and the mere factthat we do not perceive ourselves to be sick, renders us more hard to becured. If we do not betimes begin to see to ourselves, when shall wehave provided for so many wounds and evils wherewith we abound? And yetwe have a most sweet and charming medicine in philosophy; for of all therest we are sensible of no pleasure till after the cure: this pleases andheals at once. " This is what Seneca says, that has carried me from mysubject, 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 closeto one another, and intertwist their thumbs; and when, by force ofstraining the blood, it appeared in the ends, they lightly pricked themwith some sharp instrument, and mutually sucked them. 

Physicians say that the thumbs are the master fingers of the hand, andthat their Latin etymology is derived from "pollere. " The Greeks calledthem 'Avtixeip', as who should say, another hand. And it seems that theLatins 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 thethumbs:

 "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, ashaving no more sufficient strength to hold their weapons. Augustusconfiscated the estate of a Roman knight who had maliciously cut off thethumbs of two young children he had, to excuse them from going into thearmies; and, before him, the Senate, in the time of the Italic war, hadcondemned Caius Vatienus to perpetual imprisonment, and confiscated allhis goods, for having purposely cut off the thumb of his left hand, toexempt himself from that expedition. Some one, I have forgotten who, having won a naval battle, cut off the thumbs of all his vanquishedenemies, 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 theirthumbs. 

CHAPTER XXVII

COWARDICE THE MOTHER OF CRUELTY

I have often heard it said that cowardice is the mother of cruelty; and Ihave found by experience that malicious and inhuman animosity andfierceness are usually accompanied with feminine weakness. I have seenthe most cruel people, and upon frivolous occasions, apt to cry. Alexander, the tyrant of Pheres, durst not be a spectator of tragedies inthe theatre, for fear lest his citizens should see him weep at themisfortunes of Hecuba and Andromache, who himself without pity caused somany people every day to be murdered. Is it not meanness of spirit thatrenders them so pliable to all extremities? Valour, whose effect is onlyto 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 thatit was also in the game, not having dared to meddle in the first act ofdanger, takes as its part the second, of blood and massacre. The murdersin victories are commonly performed by the rascality and hangers-on of anarmy, and that which causes so many unheard of cruelties in domestic warsis, that this canaille makes war in imbruing itself up to the elbows inblood, and ripping up a body that lies prostrate at its feet, having nosense 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 wildbeasts, they durst not come near in the field. What is it in these timesof ours that makes our quarrels mortal; and that, whereas our fathers hadsome degrees of revenge, we now begin with the last in ours, and at thefirst meeting nothing is to be said but, kill? What is this butcowardice?

Every one is sensible that there is more bravery and disdain in subduingan enemy, than in cutting, his throat; and in making him yield, than inputting him to the sword: besides that the appetite of revenge is bettersatisfied and pleased because its only aim is to make itself felt: Andthis is the reason why we do not fall upon a beast or a stone when theyhurt 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 intendhim. And as Bias cried out to a wicked fellow, "I know that sooner orlater 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 theOrchomenians that the penitence of Lyciscus for the treason committedagainst them, came at a season when there was no one remaining alive ofthose who had been interested in the offence, and whom the pleasure ofthis penitence should affect: so revenge is to be pitied, when the personon whom it is executed is deprived of means of suffering under it: for asthe avenger will look on to enjoy the pleasure of his revenge, so theperson on whom he takes revenge should be a spectator too, to beafflicted and to repent. "He will repent it, " we say, and because wehave given him a pistol-shot through the head, do we imagine he willrepent? On the contrary, if we but observe, we shall find, that he makesmouths at us in falling, and is so far from penitency, that he does notso much as repine at us; and we do him the kindest office of life, whichis to make him die insensibly, and soon: we are afterwards to hideourselves, and to shift and fly from the officers of justice, who pursueus, whilst he is at rest. Killing is good to frustrate an offence tocome, not to revenge one that is already past; and more an act of fearthan of bravery; of precaution than of courage; of defence than ofenterprise. It is manifest that by it we lose both the true end ofrevenge and the care of our reputation; we are afraid, if he lives hewill do us another injury as great as the first; 'tis not out ofanimosity to him, but care of thyself, that thou gettest rid of him. 

In the kingdom of Narsingah this expedient would be useless to us, wherenot only soldiers, but tradesmen also, end their differences by thesword. The king never denies the field to any who wish to fight; andwhen they are persons of quality; he looks on, rewarding the victor witha 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 inmany. 

If we thought by virtue to be always masters of our enemies, and totriumph over them at pleasure, we should be sorry they should escape fromus as they do, by dying: but we have a mind to conquer, more with safetythan 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, heforbore to publish it till he was dead; which is to bite one's thumb at ablind 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 ofhim that it was only for hobgoblins to wrestle with the dead. 

He who stays to see the author die, whose writings he intends toquestion, 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 himdo 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 enoughnot to fear their adversaries, living and provoked we tremble for fear sosoon as we see them on foot. And that this is so, does not our noblepractice of these days, equally to prosecute to death both him that hasoffended us and him we have offended, make it out? 'Tis also a kindof cowardice that has introduced the custom of having seconds, thirds, and fourths in our duels; they were formerly duels; they are nowskirmishes, rencontres, and battles. Solitude was, doubtless, terribleto 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. Thirdpersons 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 broughtit to this pass that the witnesses themselves engage; whoever is invitedcannot handsomely stand by as an idle spectator, for fear of beingsuspected either of want of affection or of courage. Besides theinjustice and unworthiness of such an action, of engaging other strengthand valour in the protection of your honour than your own, I conceive ita disadvantage to a brave man, and who wholly relies upon himself, toshuffle his fortune with that of a second; every one runs hazard enoughhimself without hazarding for another, and has enough to do to assurehimself in his own valour for the defence of his life, without intrustinga thing so dear in a third man's hand. For, if it be not expresslyagreed 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 goodreason; and to say that it is foul play, it is so indeed, as it is, wellarmed, to attack a man who has but the hilt of a broken sword in hishand, or, clear and untouched, a man who is desperately wounded: but ifthese be advantages you have got by fighting, you may make use of themwithout reproach. The disparity and inequality are only weighed andconsidered from the condition of the combatants when they began; as tothe rest, you must take your chance: and though you had, alone, threeenemies upon you at once, your two companions being killed, you have nomore wrong done you, than I should do in a battle, by running a manthrough whom I should see engaged with one of our own men, with the likeadvantage. The nature of society will have it so that where there istroop against troop, as where our Duke of Orleans challenged Henry, kingof England, a hundred against a hundred; three hundred against as many, as the Argians against the Lacedaemonians; three to three, as the Horatiiagainst the Curiatii, the multitude on either side is considered but asone single man: the hazard, wherever there is company, being confused andmixed. 

I have a domestic interest in this discourse; for my brother, the Sieurde Mattecoulom, was at Rome asked by a gentleman with whom he had nogreat acquaintance, and who was a defendant challenged by another, to behis second; in this duel he found himself matched with a gentleman muchbetter known to him. (I would fain have an explanation of these rules ofhonour, which so often shock and confound those of reason. ) After havingdespatched his man, seeing the two principals still on foot and sound, heran in to disengage his friend. What could he do less? should he havestood still, and if chance would have ordered it so, have seen him he wascome thither to defend killed before his face? what he had hitherto donehelped not the business; the quarrel was yet undecided. The courtesythat you can, and certainly ought to shew to your enemy, when you havereduced him to an ill condition and have a great advantage over him, I donot 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 ofyours: he could neither be just nor courteous, at the hazard of him hewas there to serve. And he was therefore enlarged from the prisons ofItaly 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 byreport only, but we must go into foreign countries, there to show themwhat fools we are. Put three Frenchmen into the deserts of Libya, theywill not live a month together without fighting; so that you would saythis peregrination were a thing purposely designed to give foreigners thepleasure of our tragedies, and, for the most part, to such as rejoice andlaugh at our miseries. We go into Italy to learn to fence, and exercisethe 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 betwixttwo princes, cousin-germans, in Spain, the elder, says Livy, by his skilland dexterity in arms, easily overcoming the greater and more awkwardstrength of the younger), and of which the knowledge, as I experimentallyknow, has inspired some with courage above their natural measure; butthis is not properly valour, because it supports itself upon address, andis founded upon something besides itself. The honour of combat consistsin the jealousy of courage, and not of skill; and therefore I have knowna friend of mine, famed as a great master in this exercise, in hisquarrels make choice of such arms as might deprive him of this advantageand that wholly depended upon fortune and assurance, that they might notattribute his victory rather to his skill in fencing than his valour. When I was young, gentlemen avoided the reputation of good fencers asinjurious to them, and learned to fence with all imaginable privacy as atrade 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 theexercises of our forefathers: this other exercise is so much the lessnoble, as it only respects a private end; that teaches us to destroy oneanother against law and justice, and that every way always produces veryill effects. It is much more worthy and more becoming to exerciseourselves in things that strengthen than that weaken our government andthat tend to the public safety and common glory. The consul, PubliusRutilius, was the first who taught the soldiers to handle their armswith skill, and joined art with valour, not for the rise of privatequarrel, but for war and the quarrels of the people of Rome; a popularand civil defence. And besides the example of Caesar, who commanded hismen to shoot chiefly at the face of Pompey's soldiers in the battle ofPharsalia, a thousand other commanders have also bethought them to inventnew forms of weapons and new ways of striking and defending, according asoccasion should require. 

But as Philopoemen condemned wrestling, wherein he excelled, because thepreparatives that were therein employed were differing from those thatappertain to military discipline, to which alone he conceived men ofhonour ought wholly to apply themselves; so it seems to me that thisaddress to which we form our limbs, those writhings and motions young menare taught in this new school, are not only of no use, but rathercontrary and hurtful to the practice of fight in battle; and also ourpeople commonly make use of particular weapons, and peculiarly designedfor duel; and I have seen, when it has been disapproved, that a gentlemanchallenged to fight with rapier and poignard appeared in the array of aman-at-arms, and that another should take his cloak instead of hispoignard. It is worthy of consideration that Laches in Plato, speakingof learning to fence after our manner, says that he never knew any greatsoldier 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 mayat least conclude that they are qualities of no relation orcorrespondence; and in the education of the children of his government, Plato interdicts the art of boxing, introduced by Amycus and Epeius, andthat of wrestling, by Antaeus and Cercyo, because they have another endthan to render youth fit for the service of war and contribute nothing toit. But I see that I have somewhat strayed from my theme. 

The Emperor Mauricius, being advertised by dreams and severalprognostics, that one Phocas, an obscure soldier, should kill him, questioned his son-in-law, Philip, who this Phocas was, and what were hisnature, qualities, and manners; and so soon as Philip, amongst otherthings, had told him that he was cowardly and timorous, the emperorimmediately concluded then that he was a murderer and cruel. What is itthat makes tyrants so sanguinary? 'Tis only the solicitude for their ownsafety, and that their faint hearts can furnish them with no other meansof 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 fearof a just revenge, which afterwards produces a series of new cruelties, to obliterate one another. Philip, king of Macedon, who had so much todo with the people of Rome, agitated with the horror of so many murderscommitted by his order, and doubting of being able to keep himself securefrom so many families, at divers times mortally injured and offended byhim, resolved to seize all the children of those he had caused to beslain, to despatch them daily one after another, and so to establish hisown repose. 

Fine matter is never impertinent, however placed; and therefore I, whomore consider the weight and utility of what I deliver than its order andconnection, 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 ownnative beauty, and are able to justify themselves, the least end of ahair will serve to draw them into my discourse. 

Amongst others condemned by Philip, had been one Herodicus, prince ofThessaly; he had, moreover, after him caused his two sons-in-law to beput to death, each leaving a son very young behind him. Theoxena andArcho were their two widows. Theoxena, though highly courted to it, could not be persuaded to marry again: Archo married Poris, the greatestman among the AEnians, and by him had a great many children, whom she, dying, left at a very tender age. Theoxena, moved with a maternalcharity towards her nephews, that she might have them under her own eyesand in her own protection, married Poris: when presently comes aproclamation of the king's edict. This brave-spirited mother, suspectingthe cruelty of Philip, and afraid of the insolence of the soldierstowards these charming and tender children was so bold as to declare hatshe would rather kill them with her own hands than deliver them. Poris, startled at this protestation, promised her to steal them away, and totransport them to Athens, and there commit them to the custody of somefaithful friends of his. They took, therefore, the opportunity of anannual feast which was celebrated at AEnia in honour of AEneas, andthither they went. Having appeared by day at the public ceremonies andbanquet, they stole the night following into a vessel laid ready for thepurpose, to escape away by sea. The wind proved contrary, and findingthemselves in the morning within sight of the land whence they hadlaunched overnight, and being pursued by the guards of the port, Porisperceiving this, laboured all he could to make the mariners do theirutmost to escape from the pursuers. But Theoxena, frantic with affectionand revenge, in pursuance of her former resolution, prepared both weaponsand poison, and exposing them before them; "Go to, my children, " saidshe, "death is now the only means of your defence and liberty, and shalladminister occasion to the gods to exercise their sacred justice: thesesharp swords, and these full cups, will open you the way into it;courage, fear nothing! And thou, my son, who art the eldest, take thissteel into thy hand, that thou mayest the more bravely die. " Thechildren having on one side so powerful a counsellor, and the enemy attheir throats on the other, run all of them eagerly upon what was next tohand; and, half dead, were thrown into the sea. Theoxena, proud ofhaving so gloriously provided for the safety of her children, claspingher arms with great affection about her husband's neck. "Let us, myfriend, " said she, "follow these boys, and enjoy the same sepulchre theydo"; and so, having embraced, they threw themselves headlong into thesea; so that the ship was carried--back without the owners into theharbour. 

Tyrants, at once both to kill and to make their anger felt, have employedtheir capacity to invent the most lingering deaths. They will have theirenemies despatched, but not so fast that they may not have leisure totaste their vengeance. And therein they are mightily perplexed; for ifthe torments they inflict are violent, they are short; if long, they arenot then so painful as they desire; and thus plague themselves in choiceof the greatest cruelty. Of this we have a thousand examples inantiquity, and I know not whether we, unawares, do not retain some tracesof this barbarity. 

All that exceeds a simple death appears to me absolute cruelty. Ourjustice cannot expect that he, whom the fear of dying by being beheadedor hanged will not restrain, should be any more awed by the imaginationof a languishing fire, pincers, or the wheel. And I know not, in themeantime, whether we do not throw them into despair; for in whatcondition can be the soul of a man, expecting four-and-twenty hourstogether to be broken upon a wheel, or after the old way, nailed to across? Josephus relates that in the time of the war the Romans made inJudaea, happening to pass by where they had three days before crucifiedcertain Jews, he amongst them knew three of his own friends, and obtainedthe favour of having them taken down, of whom two, he says, died; thethird lived a great while after. 

Chalcondylas, a writer of good credit, in the records he has left behindhim of things that happened in his time, and near him, tells us, as ofthe most excessive torment, of that the Emperor Mohammed very oftenpractised, of cutting off men in the middle by the diaphragm with oneblow of a scimitar, whence it followed that they died as it were twodeaths at once; and both the one part, says he, and the other, were seento stir and strive a great while after in very great torment. I do notthink there was any great suffering in this motion the torments that arethe most dreadful to look on are not always the greatest to endure; and Ifind those that other historians relate to have been practised by himupon the Epirot lords, are more horrid and cruel, where they werecondemned to be flayed alive piecemeal, after so malicious a manner thatthey continued fifteen days in that misery. 

And these other two: Croesus, having caused a gentleman, the favourite ofhis 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 combsbelonging to that trade, till he died. George Sechel, chief commander ofthe peasants of Poland, who committed so many mischiefs under the titleof the Crusade, being defeated in battle and taken bu the Vayvode ofTransylvania, was three days bound naked upon the rack exposed to allsorts of torments that any one could contrive against him: during whichtime many other prisoners were kept fasting; in the end, he living andlooking on, they made his beloved brother Lucat, for whom alone heentreated, taking on himself the blame of all their evil actions drinkhis blood, and caused twenty of his most favoured captains to feed uponhim, tearing his flesh in pieces with their teeth, and swallowing themorsels. The remainder of his body and his bowels, so soon as he wasdead, 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 killedhimself, compare two beautiful natures, much resembling one another. The first acquired his reputation several ways, and excels in militaryexploits and the utility of his public employments; but the virtue of theyounger, besides that it were blasphemy to compare any to it in vigour, was much more pure and unblemished. For who could absolve that of theCensor from envy and ambition, having dared to attack the honour ofScipio, a man in goodness and all other excellent qualities infinitelybeyond him or any other of his time?

That which they, report of him, amongst other things, that in his extremeold age he put himself upon learning the Greek tongue with so greedy anappetite, as if to quench a long thirst, does not seem to me to make muchfor his honour; it being properly what we call falling into secondchildhood. All things have their seasons, even good ones, and I may saymy Paternoster out of time; as they accused T. Quintus Flaminius, thatbeing general of an army, he was seen praying apart in the time of abattle 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 hisschool lectures: "When will this man be wise, " said he, "if he is yetlearning?" And Philopaemen, to those who extolled King Ptolemy for everyday 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; heought now really to employ them. " The young are to make theirpreparations, the old to enjoy them, say the sages: and the greatest vicethey observe in us is that our desires incessantly grow young again; weare always re-beginning to live. 

Our studies and desires should sometime be sensible of age; yet we haveone foot in the grave and still our appetites and pursuits spring everyday 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 ofnothing now but ending; rid myself of all new hopes and enterprises; takemy last leave of every place I depart from, and every day dispossessmyself 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 inme several cares and desires wherewith my life has been disturbed; thecare 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 timewhen 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 oldAbecedarian!--[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 inhis decrepit age, "that I may go out better, " said he, "and at greaterease. " Such a study was that of the younger Cato, feeling his endapproach, and which he met with in Plato's Discourse of the Eternity ofthe Soul: not, as we are to believe, that he was not long beforefurnished with all sorts of provision for such a departure; for ofassurance, an established will and instruction, he had more than Platohad in all his writings; his knowledge and courage were in this respectabove philosophy; he applied himself to this study, not for the serviceof his death; but, as a man whose sleeps were never disturbed in theimportance 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; thatwherein he was to die he spent in reading. The loss either of lifeor 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 theflights and emotions of the soul or a resolute and constant habit; andvery well perceive that there is nothing we may not do, nay, even to thesurpassing the Divinity itself, says a certain person, forasmuch as it ismore 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 toman's imbecility and frailty a God-like resolution and assurance; but itis by fits and starts; and in the lives of those heroes of times pastthere are sometimes miraculous impulses, and that seem infinitely toexceed our natural force; but they are indeed only impulses: and 'tishard to believe, that these so elevated qualities in a man can sothoroughly 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, whenroused by the discourses or examples of others, much beyond theirordinary stretch; but 'tis a kind of passion which pushes and agitatesthem, and in some sort ravishes them from themselves: but, thisperturbation once overcome, we see that they insensibly flag and slackenof themselves, if not to the lowest degree, at least so as to be no morethe same; insomuch as that upon every trivial occasion, the losing of abird, or the breaking, of a glass, we suffer ourselves to be moved littleless than one of the common people. I am of opinion, that order, moderation, and constancy excepted, all things are to be done by a manthat is very imperfect and defective in general. Therefore it is, saythe Sages, that to make a right judgment of a man, you are chiefly to pryinto 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 makehis life correspond with his doctrine. And because he maintained theimbecility of human judgment to be so extreme as to be incapable of anychoice or inclination, and would have it perpetually wavering andsuspended, considering and receiving all things as indifferent, 'tissaid, that he always comforted himself after the same manner andcountenance: if he had begun a discourse, he would always end what he hadto 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, beingpreserved from precipices, collision with carts, and other likeaccidents, by the care of his friends: for, to fear or to avoid anything, had been to shock his own propositions, which deprived the sensesthemselves of all election and certainty. Sometimes he suffered incisionand cauteries with so great constancy as never to be seen so much as towince. 'Tis something to bring the soul to these imaginations; 'tis moreto join the effects, and yet not impossible; but to conjoin them withsuch perseverance and constancy as to make them habitual, is certainly, in attempts so remote from the common usage, almost incredible to bedone. Therefore it was, that being sometime taken in his house sharplyscolding with his sister, and being reproached that he thereintransgressed his own rules of indifference: "What!" said he, "must thisbit 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 hardtotally to put off man; and we must endeavour and force ourselves toresist and encounter things, first by effects, but at least by reason andargument. "

About seven or eight years since, a husbandman yet living, but twoleagues from my house, having long been tormented with his wife'sjealousy, coming one day home from his work, and she welcoming him withher accustomed railing, entered into so great fury that with a sickle hehad yet in his hand, he totally cut off all those parts that she wasjealous of and threw them in her face. And, 'tis said that a younggentleman of our nation, brisk and amorous, having by his perseverance atlast mollified the heart of a fair mistress, enraged, that upon the pointof 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 rebelliousmember, and sent it to his mistress, a cruel and bloody victim for theexpiation of his offence. If this had been done upon matureconsideration, and upon the account of religion, as the priests of Cybeledid, what should we say of so high an action?

A few days since, at Bergerac, five leagues from my house, up the riverDordogne, a woman having overnight been beaten and abused by her husband, a choleric ill-conditioned fellow, resolved to escape from his ill-usageat the price of her life; and going so soon as she was up the nextmorning to visit her neighbours, as she was wont to do, and having letsome words fall in recommendation of her affairs, she took a sister ofhers by the hand, and led her to the bridge; whither being come, andhaving taken leave of her, in jest as it were, without any manner ofalteration in her countenance, she threw herself headlong from the topinto the river, and was there drowned. That which is the most remarkablein 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 customthere for the men to have many wives, and the best beloved of them tokill herself at her husband's decease, every one of them makes it thebusiness of her whole life to obtain this privilege and gain thisadvantage over her companions; and the good offices they do theirhusbands aim at no other recompense but to be preferred in accompanyinghim 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 Orientalnations this custom in practice, that not only the wives bury themselveswith their husbands, but even the slaves he has enjoyed also; which isdone 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 heraffairs. The day being come, she mounts on horseback, dressed as fine asat her wedding, and with a cheerful countenance says she is going tosleep with her spouse, holding a looking-glass in her left hand and anarrow in the other. Being thus conducted in pomp, accompanied with herkindred and friends and a great concourse of people in great joy, she isat last brought to the public place appointed for such spectacles: thisis a great space, in the midst of which is a pit full of wood, andadjoining to it a mount raised four or five steps, upon which she isbrought and served with a magnificent repast; which being done, she fallsto dancing and singing, and gives order, when she thinks fit, to kindlethe fire. This being done, she descends, and taking the nearest of herhusband's relations by the hand, they walk to the river close by, whereshe strips herself stark naked, and having distributed her clothes andjewels to her friends, plunges herself into the water, as if there tocleanse herself from her sins; coming out thence, she wraps herself in ayellow linen of five-and-twenty ells long, and again giving her hand tothis kinsman of her husband's, they return back to the mount, where shemakes a speech to the people, and recommends her children to them, if shehave any. Betwixt the pit and the mount there is commonly a curtaindrawn to screen the burning furnace from their sight, which some of them, to manifest the greater courage, forbid. Having ended what she has tosay, a woman presents her with a vessel of oil, wherewith to anoint herhead and her whole body, which when done with she throws into the fire, and in an instant precipitates herself after. Immediately, the peoplethrow a good many billets and logs upon her that she may not be long indying, and convert all their joy into sorrow and mourning. If they arepersons of meaner condition, the body of the defunct is carried to theplace of sepulture, and there placed sitting, the widow kneeling beforehim, embracing the dead body; and they continue in this posture whilstthe people build a wall about them, which so soon as it is raised to theheight 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, thewall is presently raised up, and closed, and there they remain entombed. 

There was, in this same country, something like this in theirgymnosophists; for not by constraint of others nor by the impetuosity ofa sudden humour, but by the express profession of their order, theircustom was, as soon as they arrived at a certain age, or that they sawthemselves threatened by any disease, to cause a funeral pile to beerected for them, and on the top a stately bed, where, after havingjoyfully feasted their friends and acquaintance, they laid them down withso great resolution, that fire being applied to it, they were never seento stir either hand or foot; and after this manner, one of them, Calanusby name; expired in the presence of the whole army of Alexander theGreat. And he was neither reputed holy nor happy amongst them who didnot thus destroy himself, dismissing his soul purged and purified by thefire, after having consumed all that was earthly and mortal. Thisconstant premeditation of the whole life is that which makes the wonder. 

Amongst our other controversies, that of 'Fatum' has also crept in; andto tie things to come, and even our own wills, to a certain andinevitable necessity, we are yet upon this argument of time past:"Since God foresees that all things shall so fall out, as doubtless Hedoes, it must then necessarily follow, that they must so fall out": towhich our masters reply: "that the seeing anything come to pass, as wedo, 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, wesee because things do fall out, but things do not fall out because wesee: events cause knowledge, but knowledge does not cause events. Thatwhich 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 Hisprescience, has also those which we call accidental and voluntary, depending upon the liberty. He has given our free will, and knows thatwe do amiss because we would do so. "

I have seen a great many commanders encourage their soldiers with thisfatal necessity; for if our time be limited to a certain hour, neitherthe enemies' shot nor our own boldness, nor our flight and cowardice, can either shorten or prolong our lives. This is easily said, but seewho will be so easily persuaded; and if it be so that a strong and livelyfaith draws along with it actions of the same kind, certainly this faithwe so much brag of, is very light in this age of ours, unless thecontempt it has of works makes it disdain their company. So it is, thatto this very purpose the Sire de Joinville, as credible a witness as anyother 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, intheir religion, so firmly believed the number of every man's days to befrom all eternity prefixed and set down by an inevitable decree, thatthey went naked to the wars, excepting a Turkish sword, and their bodiesonly covered with a white linen cloth: and for the greatest curse theycould 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 atestimony of faith very much beyond ours. And of this sort is that alsothat two friars of Florence gave in our fathers' days. Being engaged insome controversy of learning, they agreed to go both of them into thefire in the sight of all the people, each for the verification of hisargument, and all things were already prepared, and the thing just uponthe point of execution, when it was interrupted by an unexpectedaccident. --[7th April 1498. Savonarola issued the challenge. After manydelays from demands and counter-demands by each side as to the details ofthe fire, both parties found that they had important business to transactin another county--both just barely escaped assassination at the hands ofthe disappointed spectators. D. W. ]

A young Turkish lord, having performed a notable exploit in his ownperson 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 andinexperienced years (for it was his first sally into arms) had inspiredhim with so brave a courage, replied, that his chief tutor for valour wasa hare. "For being, " said he, "one day a hunting, I found a haresitting, and though I had a brace of excellent greyhounds with me, yetmethought it would be best for sureness to make use of my bow; for shesat very fair. I then fell to letting fly my arrows, and shot forty thatI had in my quiver, not only without hurting, but without starting herfrom her form. At last I slipped my dogs after her, but to no morepurpose than I had shot: by which I understood that she had been securedby her destiny; and, that neither darts nor swords can wound without thepermission of fate, which we can neither hasten nor defer. " This storymay serve, by the way, to let us see how flexible our reason is to allsorts of images. 

A person of great years, name, dignity, and learning boasted to me thathe had been induced to a certain very important change in his faith by astrange and whimsical incitation, and one otherwise so inadequate, that Ithought 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 historianssay, that the persuasion those of their nation have imprinted in them ofthe fatal and unalterable prescription of their days, manifestly conducesto the giving them great assurance in dangers. And I know a great princewho makes very fortunate use of it, whether it be that he really believesit, 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 ofresolution than in those two who conspired the death of the Prince ofOrange. 

 [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 persuadedinto an attempt, wherein his companion, who had done his utmost, had hadso ill success; and after the same method, and with the same arms, to goattack a lord, armed with so recent a late lesson of distrust, powerfulin followers and bodily strength, in his own hall, amidst his guards, andin a city wholly at his devotion. Assuredly, he employed a very resolutearm and a courage enflamed with furious passion. A poignard is surer forstriking home; but by reason that more motion and force of hand isrequired than with a pistol, the blow is more subject to be put by orhindered. That this man did not run to a certain death, I make no greatdoubt; for the hopes any one could flatter him withal, could not findplace in any sober understanding, and the conduct of his exploitsufficiently manifests that he had no want of that, no more than ofcourage. The motives of so powerful a persuasion may be diverse, for ourfancy does what it will, both with itself and us. The execution that wasdone near Orleans--[The murder of the Duke of Guise by Poltrot. ]--wasnothing like this; there was in this more of chance than vigour; thewound was not mortal, if fortune had not made it so, and to attempt toshoot on horseback, and at a great distance, by one whose body was inmotion from the motion of his horse, was the attempt of a man who hadrather miss his blow than fail of saving himself. This was apparent fromwhat followed; for he was so astonished and stupefied with the thought ofso high an execution, that he totally lost his judgment both to find hisway to flight and to govern his tongue. What needed he to have done morethan to fly back to his friends across the river? 'Tis what I have donein less dangers, and that I think of very little hazard, how broad soeverthe river may be, provided your horse have easy going in, and that yousee 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 youwonder 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 andpurity of manners. They hold that the nearest way to gain Paradise is tokill some one of a contrary religion; which is the reason they have oftenbeen seen, being but one or two, and without armour, to attempt againstpowerful enemies, at the price of a certain death and without anyconsideration of their own danger. So was our Raymond, Count of Tripoli, assassinated (which word is derived from their name) in the heart of hiscity, --[in 1151]--during our enterprises of the Holy War: and likewiseConrad, Marquis of Monteferrat, the murderers at their execution bearingthemselves with great pride and glory that they had performed so brave anexploit. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

OF A MONSTROUS CHILD

This story shall go by itself; for I will leave it to physicians todiscourse of. Two days ago I saw a child that two men and a nurse, whosaid they were the father, the uncle, and the aunt of it, carried aboutto get money by showing it, by reason it was so strange a creature. Itwas, 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 hadnever 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 onlychewed a little and spat it out again without swallowing; the cry of itseemed indeed a little odd and particular, and it was just fourteenmonths old. Under the breast it was joined to another child, but withouta head, and which had the spine of the back without motion, the restentire; for though it had one arm shorter than the other, it had beenbroken by accident at their birth; they were joined breast to breast, andas if a lesser child sought to throw its arms about the neck of onesomething bigger. The juncture and thickness of the place where theywere conjoined was not above four fingers, or thereabouts, so that if youthrust up the imperfect child you might see the navel of the other belowit, and the joining was betwixt the paps and the navel. The navel of theimperfect child could not be seen, but all the rest of the belly, so thatall 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 themembers of the other were nourished, sensible, and in the same plightwith that she gave suck to, excepting that they were shorter and less. This double body and several limbs relating to one head might beinterpreted a favourable prognostic to the king, --[Henry III. ]--ofmaintaining 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, whohas no sign of any genital parts; he has three holes by which heincessantly voids his water; he is bearded, has desire, and seeks contactwith women. 

Those that we call monsters are not so to God, who sees in the immensityof His work the infinite forms that He has comprehended therein; and itis to be believed that this figure which astonishes us has relation tosome other figure of the same kind unknown to man. From His all wisdomnothing but good, common; and regular proceeds; but we do not discern thedisposition 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, butnothing, whatever it be, is contrary to her. Let, therefore, thisuniversal and natural reason expel the error and astonishment thatnovelty brings along with it. 

CHAPTER XXXI

OF ANGER

Plutarch is admirable throughout, but especially where he judges of humanactions. What fine things does he say in the comparison of Lycurgus andNuma upon the subject of our great folly in abandoning children to thecare and government of their fathers? The most of our civil governments, as Aristotle says, "leave, after the manner of the Cyclopes, to every onethe ordering of their wives and children, according to their own foolishand indiscreet fancy; and the Lacedaemonian and Cretan are almost theonly governments that have committed the education of children to thelaws. Who does not see that in a state all depends upon their nurtureand bringing up? and yet they are left to the mercy of parents, let thembe as foolish and ill-conditioned as they may, without any manner ofdiscretion. "

Amongst other things, how often have I, as I have passed along ourstreets, had a good mind to get up a farce, to revenge the poor boys whomI have seen hided, knocked down, and miserably beaten by some father ormother, when in their fury and mad with rage? You shall see them comeout 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 thatdisfigure the countenance), with a roaring and terrible voice, very oftenagainst those that are but newly come from nurse, and there they arelamed and spoiled with blows, whilst our justice takes no cognisance ofit, as if these maims and dislocations were not executed upon members ofour 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 judgmentas anger. No one would demur upon punishing a judge with death whoshould condemn a criminal on the account of his own choler; why, then, should fathers and pedagogues be any more allowed to whip and chastisechildren in their anger? 'Tis then no longer correction, but revenge. Chastisement is instead of physic to children; and would we endure aphysician who should be animated against and enraged at his patient?

We ourselves, to do well, should never lay a hand upon our servantswhilst our anger lasts. When the pulse beats, and we feel emotion inourselves, let us defer the business; things will indeed appear otherwiseto us when we are calm and cool. 'Tis passion that then commands, 'tispassion that speaks, and not we. Faults seen through passion appear muchgreater to us than they really are, as bodies do when seen through amist. He who is hungry uses meat; but he who will make use ofchastisement should have neither hunger nor thirst to it. And, moreover, chastisements that are inflicted with weight and discretion are muchbetter received and with greater benefit by him who suffers; otherwise, he will not think himself justly condemned by a man transported withanger and fury, and will allege his master's excessive passion, hisinflamed countenance, his unwonted oaths, his emotion and precipitousrashness, 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 vehemencethat Caesar had manifested in that sentence. 

Saying is a different thing from doing; we are to consider the sermonapart and the preacher apart. These men lent themselves to a prettybusiness who in our times have attempted to shake the truth of our Churchby the vices of her ministers; she extracts her testimony elsewhere; 'tisa 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 maypreach truth, even though he believe it not himself. 'Tis doubtless afine harmony when doing and saying go together; and I will not deny butthat saying, when the actions follow, is not of greater authority andefficacy, as Eudamidas said, hearing a philosopher talk of militaryaffairs: "These things are finely said, but he who speaks them is not tobe believed for his ears have never been used to the sound of thetrumpet. " And Cleomenes, hearing an orator declaiming upon valour, burstout into laughter, at which the other being angry; "I should, " said he tohim, "do the same if it were a swallow that spoke of this subject; but ifit were an eagle I should willingly hear him. " I perceive, methinks, inthe writings of the ancients, that he who speaks what he thinks, strikesmuch more home than he who only feigns. Hear Cicero speak of the love ofliberty: hear Brutus speak of it, the mere written words of this mansound 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 dothe same: the first languishingly drawls it out so you perceive he wouldmake you resolve upon a thing on which he is not resolved himself; heinspires you not with courage, for he himself has none; the otheranimates and inflames you. I never read an author, even of those whotreat of virtue and of actions, that I do not curiously inquire what kindof a man he was himself; for the Ephori at Sparta, seeing a dissolutefellow propose a wholesome advice to the people, commanded him to holdhis peace, and entreated a virtuous man to attribute to himself theinvention, and to propose it. Plutarch's writings, if well understood, sufficiently bespeak their author, and so that I think I know him eveninto his soul; and yet I could wish that we had some fuller account ofhis life. And I am thus far wandered from my subject, upon the accountof the obligation I have to Aulus Gellius, for having left us in writingthis 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 theprecepts of philosophy often ringing in his ears, having for some offenceof 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 nothingto deserve it; but at last falling in good earnest to exclaim against andrail at his master, he reproached him that he was no philosopher, as hehad boasted himself to be: that he had often heard him say it wasindecent to be angry, nay, had written a book to that purpose; and thatthe 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 andcoldly answered, "How, ruffian, " said he, "by what dost thou judge thatI am now angry? Does either my face, my colour, or my voice give anymanifestation of my being moved? I do not think my eyes look fierce, that my countenance appears troubled, or that my voice is dreadful: am Ired, do I foam, does any word escape my lips I ought to repent? Do Istart? Do I tremble with fury? For those, I tell thee, are the truesigns of anger. " And so, turning to the fellow that was whipping him, "Ply on thy work, " said he, "whilst this gentleman and I dispute. " Thisis his story. 

Archytas Tarentinus, returning from a war wherein he had beencaptain-general, found all things in his house in very great disorder, and his lands quite out of tillage, through the ill husbandry of hisreceiver, and having caused him to be called to him; "Go, " said he, "if Iwere not in anger I would soundly drub your sides. " Plato likewise, being highly offended with one of his slaves, gave Speusippus order tochastise him, excusing himself from doing it because he was in anger. And Carillus, a Lacedaemonian, to a Helot, who carried himself insolentlytowards him: "By the gods, " said he, "if I was not angry, I wouldimmediately 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 gooddefence and presents us with a just excuse, are we angry against truthand innocence itself? In proof of which, I remember a marvellous exampleof antiquity. 

Piso, otherwise a man of very eminent virtue, being moved against asoldier of his, for that returning alone from forage he could give him noaccount where he had left a companion of his, took it for granted that hehad killed him, and presently condemned him to death. He was no soonermounted upon the gibbet, but, behold, his wandering companion arrives, atwhich all the army were exceedingly glad, and after many embraces of thetwo comrades, the hangman carried both the one and the other into Piso'spresence, all those present believing it would be a great pleasure evento himself; but it proved quite contrary; for through shame and spite, his fury, which was not yet cool, redoubled; and by a subtlety which hispassion suddenly suggested to him, he made three criminals for havingfound one innocent, and caused them all to be despatched: the firstsoldier, because sentence had passed upon him; the second, who had losthis way, because he was the cause of his companion's death; and thehangman, for not having obeyed the order which had been given him. Such as have had to do with testy and obstinate women, may haveexperimented into what a rage it puts them to oppose silence and coldnessto their fury, and that a man disdains to nourish their anger. Theorator Celius was wonderfully choleric by nature; and to one who suppedin his company, a man of a gentle and sweet conversation, and who, thathe 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 betwo. " Women, in like manner, are only angry that others may be angryagain, in imitation of the laws of love. Phocion, to one who interruptedhis speaking by injurious and very opprobrious words, made no otherreturn than silence, and to give him full liberty and leisure to vent hisspleen; which he having accordingly done, and the storm blown over, without any mention of this disturbance, he proceeded in his discoursewhere he had left off before. No answer can nettle a man like such acontempt. 

Of the most choleric man in France (anger is always an imperfection, butmore excusable in, a soldier, for in that trade it cannot sometimes beavoided) I often say, that he is the most patient man that I know, andthe most discreet in bridling his passions; which rise in him with sogreat 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. Andfor my part, I know no passion which I could with so much violence tomyself attempt to cover and conceal; I would not set wisdom at so high aprice; and do not so much consider what a man does, as how much it costshim to do no worse. 

Another boasted himself to me of the regularity and gentleness of hismanners, which are to truth very singular; to whom I replied, that it wasindeed something, especially m persons of so eminent a quality ashimself, upon whom every one had their eyes, to present himself alwayswell-tempered to the world; but that the principal thing was to makeprovision for within and for himself; and that it was not in my opinionvery well to order his business outwardly well, and to grate himselfwithin, which I was afraid he did, in putting on and maintaining thismask 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 moreretiredly into it: "The more you retire backward, the farther you enterin. " I would rather advise that a man should give his servant a box ofthe ear a little unseasonably, than rack his fancy to present this graveand composed countenance; and had rather discover my passions than broodover them at my own expense; they grow less inventing and manifestingthemselves; 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 thefirst place to manage their anger and not to lavish it upon everyoccasion, for that both lessens the value and hinders the effect: rashand incessant scolding runs into custom, and renders itself despised; andwhat you lay out upon a servant for a theft is not felt, because it isthe same he has seen you a hundred times employ against him for havingill washed a glass, or set a stool out of place. Secondly, that they benot angry to no purpose, but make sure that their reprehension reach himwith whom they are offended; for, ordinarily, they rail and bawl beforehe comes into their presence, and continue scolding an age after he isgone:

 "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 iseither chastised or concerned, but in the clamour of their voice. I likewise in quarrels condemn those who huff and vapour without anenemy: those rhodomontades should be reserved to discharge upon theoffending 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 asprivate as I can; I lose myself indeed in promptness and violence, butnot in trouble; so that I throw out all sorts of injurious words atrandom, and without choice, and never consider pertinently to dart mylanguage where I think it will deepest wound, for I commonly make use ofno other weapon than my tongue. 

My servants have a better bargain of me in great occasions than inlittle; the little ones surprise me; and the misfortune is, that when youare once upon the precipice, 'tis no matter who gave you the push, youalways go to the bottom; the fall urges, moves, and makes haste ofitself. In great occasions this satisfies me, that they are so justevery one expects a reasonable indignation, and then I glorify myself indeceiving their expectation; against these, I fortify and prepare myself;they disturb my head, and threaten to transport me very far, should Ifollow them. I can easily contain myself from entering into one of thesepassions, and am strong enough, when I expect them, to repel theirviolence, be the cause never so great; but if a passion once prepossessand seize me, it carries me away, be the cause never so small. I bargainthus with those who may contend with me when you see me moved first, letme alone, right or wrong; I'll do the same for you. The storm is onlybegot 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 shallbe always at peace. A profitable advice, but hard to execute. Sometimesalso it falls out that I put on a seeming anger, for the better governingof my house, without any real emotion. As age renders my humours moresharp, I study to oppose them, and will, if I can, order it so, that forthe future I may be so much the less peevish and hard to please, as Ihave more excuse and inclination to be so, although I have heretoforebeen reckoned amongst those who have the greatest patience. 

A word more to conclude this argument. Aristotle says, that angersometimes serves for arms to virtue and valour. That is probable;nevertheless, they who contradict him pleasantly answer, that 'tis aweapon of novel use, for we move all other arms, this moves us; our handguides 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