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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3589.txt b/3589.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a019508 --- /dev/null +++ b/3589.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2452 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 9, by Michel de Montaigne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 9 + +Author: Michel de Montaigne + +Release Date: September 17, 2006 [EBook #3589] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE, VOLUME 9 *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 9. + +I. Of the inconstancy of our actions. +II. Of drunkenness. +III. A custom of the Isle of Cea. +IV. To-morrow's a new day. +V. Of conscience. +VI. Use makes perfect. + + + +ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE + +BOOK THE SECOND + +CHAPTER I + +OF THE INCONSTANCY OF OUR ACTIONS + +Such as make it their business to oversee human actions, do not find +themselves in anything so much perplexed as to reconcile them and bring +them into the world's eye with the same lustre and reputation; for they +commonly so strangely contradict one another that it seems impossible +they should proceed from one and the same person. We find the younger +Marius one while a son of Mars and another a son of Venus. Pope Boniface +VIII. entered, it is said, into his Papacy like a fox, behaved himself in +it like a lion, and died like a dog; and who could believe it to be the +same Nero, the perfect image of all cruelty, who, having the sentence of +a condemned man brought to him to sign, as was the custom, cried out, +"O that I had never been taught to write!" so much it went to his heart +to condemn a man to death. All story is full of such examples, and every +man is able to produce so many to himself, or out of his own practice or +observation, that I sometimes wonder to see men of understanding give +themselves the trouble of sorting these pieces, considering that +irresolution appears to me to be the most common and manifest vice of our +nature witness the famous verse of the player Publius: + + "Malum consilium est, quod mutari non potest." + + ["'Tis evil counsel that will admit no change." + --Pub. Mim., ex Aul. Gell., xvii. 14.] + +There seems some reason in forming a judgment of a man from the most +usual methods of his life; but, considering the natural instability of +our manners and opinions, I have often thought even the best authors a +little out in so obstinately endeavouring to make of us any constant and +solid contexture; they choose a general air of a man, and according to +that interpret all his actions, of which, if they cannot bend some to a +uniformity with the rest, they are presently imputed to dissimulation. +Augustus has escaped them, for there was in him so apparent, sudden, and +continual variety of actions all the whole course of his life, that he +has slipped away clear and undecided from the most daring critics. I can +more hardly believe a man's constancy than any other virtue, and believe +nothing sooner than the contrary. He that would judge of a man in detail +and distinctly, bit by bit, would oftener be able to speak the truth. It +is a hard matter, from all antiquity, to pick out a dozen men who have +formed their lives to one certain and constant course, which is the +principal design of wisdom; for to comprise it all in one word, says one +of the ancients, and to contract all the rules of human life into one, +"it is to will, and not to will, always one and the same thing: I will +not vouchsafe," says he, "to add, provided the will be just, for if it be +not just, it is impossible it should be always one." I have indeed +formerly learned that vice is nothing but irregularity, and want of +measure, and therefore 'tis impossible to fix constancy to it. 'Tis a +saying of. Demosthenes, "that the beginning oh all virtue is +consultation and deliberation; the end and perfection, constancy." If we +would resolve on any certain course by reason, we should pitch upon the +best, but nobody has thought on't: + + "Quod petit, spernit; repetit, quod nuper omisit; + AEstuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto." + + ["That which he sought he despises; what he lately lost, he seeks + again. He fluctuates, and is inconsistent in the whole order of + life."--Horace, Ep., i. I, 98.] + +Our ordinary practice is to follow the inclinations of our appetite, be +it to the left or right, upwards or downwards, according as we are wafted +by the breath of occasion. We never meditate what we would have till the +instant we have a mind to have it; and change like that little creature +which receives its colour from what it is laid upon. What we but just +now proposed to ourselves we immediately alter, and presently return +again to it; 'tis nothing but shifting and inconsistency: + + "Ducimur, ut nervis alienis mobile lignum." + + ["We are turned about like the top with the thong of others." + --Idem, Sat., ii. 7, 82.] + +We do not go, we are driven; like things that float, now leisurely, then +with violence, according to the gentleness or rapidity of the current: + + "Nonne videmus, + Quid sibi quisque velit, nescire, et quaerere semper + Commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit?" + + ["Do we not see them, uncertain what they want, and always asking + for something new, as if they could get rid of the burthen." + --Lucretius, iii. 1070.] + +Every day a new whimsy, and our humours keep motion with the time. + + "Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse + Juppiter auctificas lustravit lumine terras." + + ["Such are the minds of men, that they change as the light with + which father Jupiter himself has illumined the increasing earth." + --Cicero, Frag. Poet, lib. x.] + +We fluctuate betwixt various inclinations; we will nothing freely, +nothing absolutely, nothing constantly. In any one who had prescribed +and established determinate laws and rules in his head for his own +conduct, we should perceive an equality of manners, an order and an +infallible relation of one thing or action to another, shine through his +whole life; Empedocles observed this discrepancy in the Agrigentines, +that they gave themselves up to delights, as if every day was their last, +and built as if they had been to live for ever. The judgment would not +be hard to make, as is very evident in the younger Cato; he who therein +has found one step, it will lead him to all the rest; 'tis a harmony of +very according sounds, that cannot jar. But with us 't is quite +contrary; every particular action requires a particular judgment. The +surest way to steer, in my opinion, would be to take our measures from +the nearest allied circumstances, without engaging in a longer +inquisition, or without concluding any other consequence. I was told, +during the civil disorders of our poor kingdom, that a maid, hard by the +place where I then was, had thrown herself out of a window to avoid being +forced by a common soldier who was quartered in the house; she was not +killed by the fall, and therefore, repeating her attempt would have cut +her own throat, had she not been prevented; but having, nevertheless, +wounded herself to some show of danger, she voluntarily confessed that +the soldier had not as yet importuned her otherwise; than by courtship, +earnest solicitation, and presents; but that she was afraid that in the +end he would have proceeded to violence, all which she delivered with +such a countenance and accent, and withal embrued in her own blood, the +highest testimony of her virtue, that she appeared another Lucretia; and +yet I have since been very well assured that both before and after she +was not so difficult a piece. And, according to my host's tale in +Ariosto, be as handsome a man and as worthy a gentleman as you will, do +not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity for having +been repulsed; you do not know but she may have a better stomach to your +muleteer. + +Antigonus, having taken one of his soldiers into a great degree of favour +and esteem for his valour, gave his physicians strict charge to cure him +of a long and inward disease under which he had a great while languished, +and observing that, after his cure, he went much more coldly to work than +before, he asked him what had so altered and cowed him: "Yourself, sir," +replied the other, "by having eased me of the pains that made me weary of +my life." Lucullus's soldier having been rifled by the enemy, performed +upon them in revenge a brave exploit, by which having made himself a +gainer, Lucullus, who had conceived a good opinion of him from that +action, went about to engage him in some enterprise of very great danger, +with all the plausible persuasions and promises he could think of; + + "Verbis, quae timido quoque possent addere mentem" + + ["Words which might add courage to any timid man." + --Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 1, 2.] + +"Pray employ," answered he, "some miserable plundered soldier in that +affair": + + "Quantumvis rusticus, ibit, + Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit;" + + ["Some poor fellow, who has lost his purse, will go whither you + wish, said he."--Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 39.] + +and flatly refused to go. When we read that Mahomet having furiously +rated Chasan, Bassa of the Janissaries, because he had seen the +Hungarians break into his squadrons, and himself behave very ill in the +business, and that Chasan, instead of any other answer, rushed furiously +alone, scimitar in hand, into the first body of the enemy, where he was +presently cut to pieces, we are not to look upon that action, +peradventure, so much as vindication as a turn of mind, not so much +natural valour as a sudden despite. The man you saw yesterday so +adventurous and brave, you must not think it strange to see him as great +a poltroon the next: anger, necessity, company, wine, or the sound of the +trumpet had roused his spirits; this is no valour formed and established +by reason, but accidentally created by such circumstances, and therefore +it is no wonder if by contrary circumstances it appear quite another +thing. + +These supple variations and contradictions so manifest in us, have given +occasion to some to believe that man has two souls; other two distinct +powers that always accompany and incline us, the one towards good and the +other towards ill, according to their own nature and propension; so +abrupt a variety not being imaginable to flow from one and the same +source. + +For my part, the puff of every accident not only carries me along with it +according to its own proclivity, but moreover I discompose and trouble +myself by the instability of my own posture; and whoever will look +narrowly into his own bosom, will hardly find himself twice in the same +condition. I give to my soul sometimes one face and sometimes another, +according to the side I turn her to. If I speak variously of myself, it +is because I consider myself variously; all the contrarieties are there +to be found in one corner or another; after one fashion or another: +bashful, insolent; chaste, lustful; prating, silent; laborious, delicate; +ingenious, heavy; melancholic, pleasant; lying, true; knowing, ignorant; +liberal, covetous, and prodigal: I find all this in myself, more or less, +according as I turn myself about; and whoever will sift himself to the +bottom, will find in himself, and even in his own judgment, this +volubility and discordance. I have nothing to say of myself entirely, +simply, and solidly without mixture and confusion. 'Distinguo' is the +most universal member of my logic. Though I always intend to speak well +of good things, and rather to interpret such things as fall out in the +best sense than otherwise, yet such is the strangeness of our condition, +that we are often pushed on to do well even by vice itself, if well-doing +were not judged by the intention only. One gallant action, therefore, +ought not to conclude a man valiant; if a man were brave indeed, he would +be always so, and upon all occasions. If it were a habit of valour and +not a sally, it would render a man equally resolute in all accidents; the +same alone as in company; the same in lists as in a battle: for, let them +say what they will, there is not one valour for the pavement and another +for the field; he would bear a sickness in his bed as bravely as a wound +in the field, and no more fear death in his own house than at an assault. +We should not then see the same man charge into a breach with a brave +assurance, and afterwards torment himself like a woman for the loss of a +trial at law or the death of a child; when, being an infamous coward, he +is firm in the necessities of poverty; when he shrinks at the sight of a +barber's razor, and rushes fearless upon the swords of the enemy, the +action is commendable, not the man. + +Many of the Greeks, says Cicero,--[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 27.]-- +cannot endure the sight of an enemy, and yet are courageous in sickness; +the Cimbrians and Celtiberians quite contrary; + + "Nihil enim potest esse aequabile, + quod non a certa ratione proficiscatur." + + ["Nothing can be regular that does not proceed from a fixed ground + of reason."--Idem, ibid., c. 26.] + +No valour can be more extreme in its kind than that of Alexander: but it +is of but one kind, nor full enough throughout, nor universal. +Incomparable as it is, it has yet some blemishes; of which his being so +often at his wits' end upon every light suspicion of his captains +conspiring against his life, and the carrying himself in that inquisition +with so much vehemence and indiscreet injustice, and with a fear that +subverted his natural reason, is one pregnant instance. The +superstition, also, with which he was so much tainted, carries along with +it some image of pusillanimity; and the excess of his penitence for the +murder of Clytus is also a testimony of the unevenness of his courage. +All we perform is no other than a cento, as a man may say, of several +pieces, and we would acquire honour by a false title. Virtue cannot be +followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some +other purpose, she presently pulls it away again. 'Tis a vivid and +strong tincture which, when the soul has once thoroughly imbibed it, will +not out but with the piece. And, therefore, to make a right judgment of +a man, we are long and very observingly to follow his trace: if constancy +does not there stand firm upon her own proper base, + + "Cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est," + + ["If the way of his life is thoroughly considered and traced out." + --Cicero, Paradox, v. 1.] + +if the variety of occurrences makes him alter his pace (his path, I mean, +for the pace may be faster or slower) let him go; such an one runs before +the wind, "Avau le dent," as the motto of our Talebot has it. + +'Tis no wonder, says one of the ancients, that chance has so great a +dominion over us, since it is by chance we live. It is not possible for +any one who has not designed his life for some certain end, it is +impossible for any one to arrange the pieces, who has not the whole form +already contrived in his imagination. Of what use are colours to him +that knows not what he is to paint? No one lays down a certain design +for his life, and we only deliberate thereof by pieces. The archer ought +first to know at what he is to aim, and then accommodate his arm, bow, +string, shaft, and motion to it; our counsels deviate and wander, because +not levelled to any determinate end. No wind serves him who addresses +his voyage to no certain, port. I cannot acquiesce in the judgment given +by one in the behalf of Sophocles, who concluded him capable of the +management of domestic affairs, against the accusation of his son, from +having read one of his tragedies. + +Neither do I allow of the conjecture of the Parians, sent to regulate the +Milesians sufficient for such a consequence as they from thence derived +coming to visit the island, they took notice of such grounds as were best +husbanded, and such country-houses as were best governed; and having +taken the names of the owners, when they had assembled the citizens, they +appointed these farmers for new governors and magistrates; concluding +that they, who had been so provident in their own private concerns, would +be so of the public too. We are all lumps, and of so various and inform +a contexture, that every piece plays, every moment, its own game, and +there is as much difference betwixt us and ourselves as betwixt us and +others: + + "Magnam rem puta, unum hominem agere." + + ["Esteem it a great thing always to act as one and the same + man."--Seneca, Ep., 150.] + +Since ambition can teach man valour, temperance, and liberality, and even +justice too; seeing that avarice can inspire the courage of a shop-boy, +bred and nursed up in obscurity and ease, with the assurance to expose +himself so far from the fireside to the mercy of the waves and angry +Neptune in a frail boat; that she further teaches discretion and +prudence; and that even Venus can inflate boys under the discipline of +the rod with boldness and resolution, and infuse masculine courage into +the heart of tender virgins in their mothers' arms: + + "Hac duce, custodes furtim transgressa jacentes, + Ad juvenem tenebris sola puella venit:" + + ["She leading, the maiden, furtively passing by the recumbent + guards, goes alone in the darkness to the youth." + --Tibullus, ii. 2, 75.] + +'tis not all the understanding has to do, simply to judge us by our +outward actions; it must penetrate the very soul, and there discover by +what springs the motion is guided. But that being a high and hazardous +undertaking, I could wish that fewer would attempt it. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF DRUNKENNESS + +The world is nothing but variety and disemblance, vices are all alike, as +they are vices, and peradventure the Stoics understand them so; but +although they are equally vices, yet they are not all equal vices; and he +who has transgressed the ordinary bounds a hundred paces: + + "Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum," + + ["Beyond or within which the right cannot exist." + --Horace, Sat., i, 1, 107.] + +should not be in a worse condition than he that has advanced but ten, is +not to be believed; or that sacrilege is not worse than stealing a +cabbage: + + "Nec vincet ratio hoc, tantumdem ut peccet, idemque, + Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti, + Et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit." + +There is in this as great diversity as in anything whatever. The +confounding of the order and measure of sins is dangerous: murderers, +traitors, and tyrants get too much by it, and it is not reasonable they +should flatter their consciences, because another man is idle, +lascivious, or not assiduous at his devotion. Every one overrates the +offence of his companions, but extenuates his own. Our very instructors +themselves rank them sometimes, in my opinion, very ill. As Socrates +said that the principal office of wisdom was to distinguish good from +evil, we, the best of whom are vicious, ought also to say the same of the +science of distinguishing betwixt vice and vice, without which, and that +very exactly performed, the virtuous and the wicked will remain +confounded and unrecognised. + +Now, amongst the rest, drunkenness seems to me to be a gross and brutish +vice. The soul has greater part in the rest, and there are some vices +that have something, if a man may so say, of generous in them; there are +vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence, valour, +prudence, dexterity, and address; this one is totally corporeal and +earthly. And the rudest nation this day in Europe is that alone where it +is in fashion. Other vices discompose the understanding: this totally +overthrows it and renders the body stupid: + + "Cum vini vis penetravit . . . + Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur + Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens, + Nant oculi; clamor, singultus, jurgia, gliscunt." + + ["When the power of wine has penetrated us, a heaviness of the limbs + follows, the legs of the tottering person are impeded; the tongue + grows torpid, the mind is dimmed, the eyes swim; noise, hiccup, and + quarrels arise.--"Lucretius, i. 3, 475.] + +The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and +government of himself. And 'tis said amongst other things upon this +subject, that, as the must fermenting in a vessel, works up to the top +whatever it has in the bottom, so wine, in those who have drunk beyond +measure, vents the most inward secrets: + + "Tu sapientum + Curas et arcanum jocoso + Consilium retegis Lyaeo." + + ["Thou disclosest to the merry Lyacus the cares and secret + counsel of the wise."--Horace, Od., xxi. 1, 114.] + + [Lyacus, a name given to Bacchus.] + +Josephus tells us that by giving an ambassador the enemy had sent to him +his full dose of liquor, he wormed out his secrets. And yet, Augustus, +committing the most inward secrets of his affairs to Lucius Piso, who +conquered Thrace, never found him faulty in the least, no more than +Tiberias did Cossus, with whom he intrusted his whole counsels, though we +know they were both so given to drink that they have often been fain to +carry both the one and the other drunk out of the Senate: + + "Hesterno inflatum venas ut semper, Lyaeo." + + ["Their veins full, as usual, of yesterday's wine." + --Virgil, Egl., vi. 15.] + +And the design of killing Caesar was as safely communicated to Cimber, +though he would often be drunk, as to Cassius, who drank nothing but +water. + + [As to which Cassius pleasantly said: "What, shall I bear + a tyrant, I who cannot bear wine?"] + +We see our Germans, when drunk as the devil, know their post, remember +the word, and keep to their ranks: + + "Nec facilis victoria de madidis, et + Blaesis, atque mero titubantibus." + + ["Nor is a victory easily obtained over men so drunk, they can + scarce speak or stand."--Juvenal, Sat., xv. 47.] + +I could not have believed there had been so profound, senseless, and dead +a degree of drunkenness had I not read in history that Attalus having, +to put a notable affront upon him, invited to supper the same Pausanias, +who upon the very same occasion afterwards killed Philip of Macedon, +a king who by his excellent qualities gave sufficient testimony of his +education in the house and company of Epaminondas, made him drink to such +a pitch that he could after abandon his beauty, as of a hedge strumpet, +to the muleteers and servants of the basest office in the house. And I +have been further told by a lady whom I highly honour and esteem, that +near Bordeaux and about Castres where she lives, a country woman, a +widow of chaste repute, perceiving in herself the first symptoms of +breeding, innocently told her neighbours that if she had a husband she +should think herself with child; but the causes of suspicion every day +more and more increasing, and at last growing up to a manifest proof, the +poor woman was reduced to the necessity of causing it to be proclaimed in +her parish church, that whoever had done that deed and would frankly +confess it, she did not only promise to forgive, but moreover to marry +him, if he liked the motion; whereupon a young fellow that served her in +the quality of a labourer, encouraged by this proclamation, declared that +he had one holiday found her, having taken too much of the bottle, so +fast asleep by the chimney and in so indecent a posture, that he could +conveniently do his business without waking her; and they yet live +together man and wife. + +It is true that antiquity has not much decried this vice; the writings +even of several philosophers speak very tenderly of it, and even amongst +the Stoics there are some who advise folks to give themselves sometimes +the liberty to drink, nay, to drunkenness, to refresh the soul: + + "Hoc quoque virtutum quondam certamine, magnum + Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt." + + ["In this trial of power formerly they relate that the great + Socrates deserved the palm."--Cornet. Gallus, Ep., i. 47.] + +That censor and reprover of others, Cato, was reproached that he was a +hard drinker: + + "Narratur et prisci Catonis + Saepe mero caluisse virtus." + + ["And of old Cato it is said, that his courage was often warmed with + wine."--Horace, Od., xxi. 3, 11.--Cato the Elder.] + +Cyrus, that so renowned king, amongst the other qualities by which he +claimed to be preferred before his brother Artaxerxes, urged this +excellence, that he could drink a great deal more than he. And in the +best governed nations this trial of skill in drinking is very much in +use. I have heard Silvius, an excellent physician of Paris, say that +lest the digestive faculties of the stomach should grow idle, it were not +amiss once a month to rouse them by this excess, and to spur them lest +they should grow dull and rusty; and one author tells us that the +Persians used to consult about their most important affairs after being +well warmed with wine. + +My taste and constitution are greater enemies to this vice than my +discourse; for besides that I easily submit my belief to the authority of +ancient opinions, I look upon it indeed as an unmanly and stupid vice, +but less malicious and hurtful than the others, which, almost all, more +directly jostle public society. And if we cannot please ourselves but it +must cost us something, as they hold, I find this vice costs a man's +conscience less than the others, besides that it is of no difficult +preparation, nor hard to be found, a consideration not altogether to be +despised. A man well advanced both in dignity and age, amongst three +principal commodities that he said remained to him of life, reckoned to +me this for one, and where would a man more justly find it than amongst +the natural conveniences? But he did not take it right, for delicacy and +the curious choice of wines is therein to be avoided. If you found your +pleasure upon drinking of the best, you condemn yourself to the penance +of drinking of the worst. Your taste must be more indifferent and free; +so delicate a palate is not required to make a good toper. The Germans +drink almost indifferently of all wines with delight; their business is +to pour down and not to taste; and it's so much the better for them: +their pleasure is so much the more plentiful and nearer at hand. + +Secondly, to drink, after the French fashion, but at two meals, and then +very moderately, is to be too sparing of the favours of the god. There +is more time and constancy required than so. The ancients spent whole +nights in this exercise, and ofttimes added the day following to eke it +out, and therefore we are to take greater liberty and stick closer to our +work. I have seen a great lord of my time, a man of high enterprise and +famous success, that without setting himself to't, and after his ordinary +rate of drinking at meals, drank not much less than five quarts of wine, +and at his going away appeared but too wise and discreet, to the +detriment of our affairs. The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course +of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it; +we should, like shopboys and labourers, refuse no occasion nor omit any +opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds. Methinks we +every day abridge and curtail the use of wine, and that the after +breakfasts, dinner snatches, and collations I used to see in my father's +house, when I was a boy, were more usual and frequent then than now. + +Is it that we pretend to a reformation? Truly, no: but it may be we are +more addicted to Venus than our fathers were. They are two exercises +that thwart and hinder one another in their vigour. Lechery weakens our +stomach on the one side; and on the other sobriety renders us more spruce +and amorous for the exercise of love. + +'Tis wonderful what strange stories I have heard my father tell of the +chastity of that age wherein he lived. It was for him to say it, being +both by art and nature cut out and finished for the service of ladies. +He spoke well and little: ever mixing his language with some illustration +out of authors most in use, especially in Spanish, and among the Spanish +he whom they called Marcus Aurelius--[ Guevara's Golden Book of Marcus +Aurelius Antoninus.]--was ordinarily in his mouth. His behaviour was +gently grave, humble, and very modest; he was very solicitous of neatness +and propriety both in his person and clothes, whether on horseback or +afoot, he was monstrously punctual in his word; and of a conscience and +religion generally tending rather towards superstition than otherwise. +For a man of little stature, very strong, well proportioned, and well +knit; of a pleasing countenance inclining to brown, and very adroit in +all noble exercises. I have yet in the house to be seen canes poured +full of lead, with which they say he exercised his arms for throwing the +bar or the stone, or in fencing; and shoes with leaden soles to make him +lighter for running or leaping. Of his vaulting he has left little +miracles behind him: I have seen him when past three score laugh at our +exercises, and throw himself in his furred gown into the saddle, make the +tour of a table upon his thumbs and scarce ever mount the stairs into his +chamber without taking three or four steps at a time. But as to what I +was speaking of before; he said there was scarce one woman of quality of +ill fame in the whole province: he would tell of strange confidences, and +some of them his own, with virtuous women, free from any manner of +suspicion of ill, and for his own part solemnly swore he was a virgin at +his marriage; and yet it was after a long practice of arms beyond the +mountains, of which wars he left us a journal under his own hand, wherein +he has given a precise account from point to point of all passages, both +relating to the public and to himself. And he was, moreover, married at +a well advanced maturity, in the year 1528, the three-and-thirtieth year +of his age, upon his way home from Italy. But let us return to our +bottles. + +The incommodities of old age, that stand in need of some refreshment and +support, might with reason beget in me a desire of this faculty, it being +as it were the last pleasure the course of years deprives us of. The +natural heat, say the good-fellows, first seats itself in the feet: that +concerns infancy; thence it mounts into the middle region, where it makes +a long abode and produces, in my opinion, the sole true pleasures of +human life; all other pleasures in comparison sleep; towards the end, +like a vapour that still mounts upward, it arrives at the throat, where +it makes its final residence, and concludes the progress. I do not, +nevertheless, understand how a man can extend the pleasure of drinking +beyond thirst, and forge in his imagination an appetite artificial and +against nature; my stomach would not proceed so far; it has enough to do +to deal with what it takes in for its necessity. My constitution is not +to care for drink but as following eating and washing down my meat, and +for that reason my last draught is always the greatest. And seeing that +in old age we have our palate furred with phlegms or depraved by some +other ill constitution, the wine tastes better to us as the pores are +cleaner washed and laid more open. At least, I seldom taste the first +glass well. Anacharsis wondered that the Greeks drank in greater glasses +towards the end of a meal than at the beginning; which was, I suppose, +for the same reason the Germans do the same, who then begin the battle of +drink. + +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age, and to get drunk +till forty; but, after forty, gives them leave to please themselves, and +to mix a little liberally in their feasts the influence of Dionysos, that +good deity who restores to younger men their gaiety and to old men their +youth; who mollifies the passions of the soul, as iron is softened by +fire; and in his Lazes allows such merry meetings, provided they have a +discreet chief to govern and keep them in order, as good and of great +utility; drunkenness being, he says, a true and certain trial of every +one's nature, and, withal, fit to inspire old men with mettle to divert +themselves in dancing and music; things of great use, and that they dare +not attempt when sober. He, moreover, says that wine is able to supply +the soul with temperance and the body with health. Nevertheless, these +restrictions, in part borrowed from the Carthaginians, please him: that +men forbear excesses in the expeditions of war; that every judge and +magistrate abstain from it when about the administrations of his place or +the consultations of the public affairs; that the day is not to be +employed with it, that being a time due to other occupations, nor the +night on which a man intends to get children. + +'Tis said that the philosopher Stilpo, when oppressed with age, purposely +hastened his end by drinking pure wine. The same thing, but not designed +by him, despatched also the philosopher Arcesilaus. + +But 'tis an old and pleasant question, whether the soul of a wise man can +be overcome by the strength of wine? + + "Si munitae adhibet vim sapientiae." + +To what vanity does the good opinion we have of ourselves push us? The +most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to +keep itself upright, and from being overthrown by its own weakness. +There is not one of a thousand that is right and settled so much as one +minute in a whole life, and that may not very well doubt, whether +according to her natural condition she ever can be; but to join constancy +to it is her utmost perfection; I mean when nothing should jostle and +discompose her, which a thousand accidents may do. 'Tis to much purpose +that the great poet Lucretius keeps such a clatter with his philosophy, +when, behold! he goes mad with a love philtre. Is it to be imagined +that an apoplexy will not stun Socrates as well as a porter? Some men +have forgotten their own names by the violence of a disease; and a slight +wound has turned the judgment of others topsy-turvy. Let him be as wise +as he will, after all he is but a man; and than that what is there more +frail, more miserable, or more nothing? Wisdom does not force our +natural dispositions, + + "Sudores itaque, et pallorem exsistere toto + Corpore, et infringi linguam, vocemque aboriri, + Caligare oculos, sonere aures, succidere artus, + Demque concidere, ex animi terrore, videmus." + + ["Sweat and paleness come over the whole body, the tongue is + rendered powerless, the voice dies away, the eyes are darkened, + there is ringing in the ears, the limbs sink under us by the + influence of fear."--Lucretius, iii. 155.] + +he must shut his eyes against the blow that threatens him; he must +tremble upon the margin of a precipice, like a child; nature having +reserved these light marks of her authority, not to be forced by our +reason and the stoic virtue, to teach man his mortality and our weakness; +he turns pale with fear, red with shame, and groans with the cholic, if +not with desperate outcry, at least with hoarse and broken voice: + + "Humani a se nihil alienum putet." + + ["Let him not think himself exempt from that which is incidental to + men in general."--Terence, Heauton, i. 1, 25.] + +The poets, that feign all things at pleasure, dare not acquit their +greatest heroes of tears: + + "Sic fatur lacrymans, classique immittit habenas." + + ["Thus he speaks, weeping, and then sets sail with his fleet." + --Aeneid, vi. i.] + +'Tis sufficient for a man to curb and moderate his inclinations, for +totally to suppress them is not in him to do. Even our great Plutarch, +that excellent and perfect judge of human actions, when he sees Brutus +and Torquatus kill their children, begins to doubt whether virtue could +proceed so far, and to question whether these persons had not rather been +stimulated by some other passion.--[Plutarch, Life of Publicola, c. 3.] +--All actions exceeding the ordinary bounds are liable to sinister +interpretation, for as much as our liking no more holds with what is +above than with what is below it. + +Let us leave that other sect, that sets up an express profession of +scornful superiority--[The Stoics.]--: but when even in that sect, +reputed the most quiet and gentle, we hear these rhodomontades of +Metrodorus: + + "Occupavi te, Fortuna, atque cepi: omnesque aditus tuos + interclusi ut ad me aspirare non posses;" + + ["Fortune, I have got the better of thee, and have made all the + avenues so sure thou canst not come at me." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 9.] + +when Anaxarchus, by command of Nicocreon the tyrant of Cyprus, was put +into a stone mortar, and laid upon with mauls of iron, ceases not to say, +"Strike, batter, break; 'tis not Anaxarchus, 'tis but his sheath that you +pound and bray so"; when we hear our martyrs cry out to the tyrant from +the middle of the flame, "This side is roasted enough, fall to and eat, +it is enough done; fall to work with the other;" when we hear the child +in Josephus' torn piece-meal with pincers, defying Antiochus, and crying +out with a constant and assured voice: "Tyrant, thou losest thy labour, +I am still at ease; where is the pain, where are the torments with which +thou didst so threaten me? Is this all thou canst do? My constancy +torments thee more than thy cruelty does me. O pitiful coward, thou +faintest, and I grow stronger; make me complain, make me bend, make me +yield if thou canst; encourage thy guards, cheer up thy executioners; +see, see they faint, and can do no more; arm them, flesh them anew, spur +them up"; truly, a man must confess that there is some phrenzy, some +fury, how holy soever, that at that time possesses those souls. When we +come to these Stoical sallies: "I had rather be mad than voluptuous," a +saying of Antisthenes. When Sextius tells us, "he had rather be fettered +with affliction than pleasure": when Epicurus takes upon him to play with +his gout, and, refusing health and ease, defies all torments, and +despising the lesser pains, as disdaining to contend with them, he covets +and calls out for others sharper, more violent, and more worthy of him; + + "Spumantemque dari, pecora inter inertia, votis + Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem:" + + ["And instead of timid beasts, wishes the foaming boar or tawny lion + would come from the mountain."--AEneid, iv. 158.] + +who but must conclude that these are wild sallies pushed on by a courage +that has broken loose from its place? Our soul cannot from her own seat +reach so high; 'tis necessary she must leave it, raise herself up, and, +taking the bridle in her teeth, transport her man so far that he shall +afterwards himself be astonished at what he has done; as, in war, the +heat of battle impels generous soldiers to perform things of so infinite +danger, as afterwards, recollecting them, they themselves are the first +to wonder at; as it also fares with the poets, who are often rapt with +admiration of their own writings, and know not where again to find the +track through which they performed so fine a Career; which also is in +them called fury and rapture. And as Plato says, 'tis to no purpose for +a sober-minded man to knock at the door of poesy: so Aristotle says, that +no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness; and he has reason +to call all transports, how commendable soever, that surpass our own +judgment and understanding, madness; forasmuch as wisdom is a regular +government of the soul, which is carried on with measure and proportion, +and for which she is to herself responsible. Plato argues thus, that the +faculty of prophesying is so far above us, that we must be out of +ourselves when we meddle with it, and our prudence must either be +obstructed by sleep or sickness, or lifted from her place by some +celestial rapture. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A CUSTOM OF THE ISLE OF CEA + + [Cos. Cea is the form of the name given by Pliny] + +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt, much more to write at +random and play the fool, as I do, ought to be reputed doubting, for it +is for novices and freshmen to inquire and to dispute, and for the +chairman to moderate and determine. + +My moderator is the authority of the divine will, that governs us without +contradiction, and that is seated above these human and vain +contestations. + +Philip having forcibly entered into Peloponnesus, and some one saying to +Damidas that the Lacedaemonians were likely very much to suffer if they +did not in time reconcile themselves to his favour: "Why, you pitiful +fellow," replied he, "what can they suffer who do not fear to die?" It +being also asked of Agis, which way a man might live free? "Why," said +he, "by despising death." These, and a thousand other sayings to the +same purpose, distinctly sound of something more than the patient +attending the stroke of death when it shall come; for there are several +accidents in life far worse to suffer than death itself. Witness the +Lacedaemonian boy taken by Antigonus, and sold for a slave, who being by +his master commanded to some base employment: "Thou shalt see," says the +boy, "whom thou hast bought; it would be a shame for me to serve, being +so near the reach of liberty," and having so said, threw himself from the +top of the house. Antipater severely threatening the Lacedaemonians, +that he might the better incline them to acquiesce in a certain demand of +his: "If thou threatenest us with more than death," replied they, "we +shall the more willingly die"; and to Philip, having written them word +that he would frustrate all their enterprises: "What, wilt thou also +hinder us from dying?" This is the meaning of the sentence, "That the +wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can; and that the +most obliging present Nature has made us, and which takes from us all +colour of complaint of our condition, is to have delivered into our own +custody the keys of life; she has only ordered, one door into life, but a +hundred thousand ways out. We may be straitened for earth to live upon, +but earth sufficient to die upon can never be wanting, as Boiocalus +answered the Romans."--[Tacitus, Annal., xiii. 56.]--Why dost thou +complain of this world? it detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the +cause, if thou livest in pain. There needs no more to die but to will to +die: + + "Ubique mors est; optime hoc cavit deus. + Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest; + At nemo mortem; mille ad hanc aditus patent." + + ["Death is everywhere: heaven has well provided for that. Any one + may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death. To death + there are a thousand avenues."--Seneca, Theb:, i, I, 151.] + +Neither is it a recipe for one disease only; death is the infallible cure +of all; 'tis a most assured port that is never to be feared, and very +often to be sought. It comes all to one, whether a man give himself his +end, or stays to receive it by some other means; whether he pays before +his day, or stay till his day of payment come; from whencesoever it +comes, it is still his; in what part soever the thread breaks, there's +the end of the clue. The most voluntary death is the finest. Life +depends upon the pleasure of others; death upon our own. We ought not to +accommodate ourselves to our own humour in anything so much as in this. +Reputation is not concerned in such an enterprise; 'tis folly to be +concerned by any such apprehension. Living is slavery if the liberty of +dying be wanting. The ordinary method of cure is carried on at the +expense of life; they torment us with caustics, incisions, and +amputations of limbs; they interdict aliment and exhaust our blood; one +step farther and we are cured indeed and effectually. Why is not the +jugular vein as much at our disposal as the median vein? For a desperate +disease a desperate cure. Servius the grammarian, being tormented with +the gout, could think of no better remedy than to apply poison to his +legs, to deprive them of their sense; let them be gouty at their will, so +they were insensible of pain. God gives us leave enough to go when He is +pleased to reduce us to such a condition that to live is far worse than +to die. 'Tis weakness to truckle under infirmities, but it's madness to +nourish them. The Stoics say, that it is living according to nature in a +wise man to, take his leave of life, even in the height of prosperity, +if he do it opportunely; and in a fool to prolong it, though he be +miserable, provided he be not indigent of those things which they repute +to be according to nature. As I do not offend the law against thieves +when I embezzle my own money and cut my own purse; nor that against +incendiaries when I burn my own wood; so am I not under the lash of those +made against murderers for having deprived myself of my own life. +Hegesias said, that as the condition of life did, so the condition of +death ought to depend upon our own choice. And Diogenes meeting the +philosopher Speusippus, so blown up with an inveterate dropsy that he was +fain to be carried in a litter, and by him saluted with the compliment, +"I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other, +"who art content to live in such a condition." + +And in fact, not long after, Speusippus, weary of so languishing a state +of life, found a means to die. + +But this does not pass without admitting a dispute: for many are of +opinion that we cannot quit this garrison of the world without the +express command of Him who has placed us in it; and that it appertains to +God who has placed us here, not for ourselves only but for His Glory and +the service of others, to dismiss us when it shall best please Him, and +not for us to depart without His licence: that we are not born for +ourselves only, but for our country also, the laws of which require an +account from us upon the score of their own interest, and have an action +of manslaughter good against us; and if these fail to take cognisance of +the fact, we are punished in the other world as deserters of our duty: + + "Proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum + Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi + Proiecere animas." + + ["Thence the sad ones occupy the next abodes, who, though free + from guilt, were by their own hands slain, and, hating light, + sought death."--AEneid, vi. 434.] + +There is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied to than in +breaking it, and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in +Cato; 'tis indiscretion and impatience that push us on to these +precipices: no accidents can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks +and requires evils, pains, and grief, as the things by which she is +nourished and supported; the menaces of tyrants, racks, and tortures +serve only to animate and rouse her: + + "Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus + Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, + Per damma, percmdes, ab ipso + Ducit opes, animumque ferro." + + ["As in Mount Algidus, the sturdy oak even from the axe itself + derives new vigour and life."--Horace, Od., iv. 4, 57.] + +And as another says: + + "Non est, ut putas, virtus, pater, + Timere vitam; sed malis ingentibus + Obstare, nec se vertere, ac retro dare." + + ["Father, 'tis no virtue to fear life, but to withstand great + misfortunes, nor turn back from them."--Seneca, Theb., i. 190.] + +Or as this: + + "Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem + Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest." + + ["It is easy in adversity to despise death; but he acts more + bravely, who can live wretched."--Martial, xi. 56, 15.] + +'Tis cowardice, not virtue, to lie squat in a furrow, under a tomb, to +evade the blows of fortune; virtue never stops nor goes out of her path, +for the greatest storm that blows: + + "Si fractus illabatur orbis, + Impavidum ferient ruinae." + + ["Should the world's axis crack, the ruins will but crush + a fearless head."--Horace, Od., iii. 3, 7.] + +For the most part, the flying from other inconveniences brings us to +this; nay, endeavouring to evade death, we often run into its very mouth: + + "Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori?" + + ["Tell me, is it not madness, that one should die for fear + of dying?"--Martial, ii. 80, 2.] + +like those who, from fear of a precipice, throw themselves headlong into +it; + + "Multos in summa pericula misfit + Venturi timor ipse mali: fortissimus ille est, + Qui promptus metuenda pati, si cominus instent, + Et differre potest." + + ["The fear of future ills often makes men run into extreme danger; + he is truly brave who boldly dares withstand the mischiefs he + apprehends, when they confront him and can be deferred." + --Lucan, vii. 104.] + + "Usque adeo, mortis formidine, vitae + Percipit humanos odium, lucisque videndae, + Ut sibi consciscant moerenti pectore lethum + Obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem." + + ["Death to that degree so frightens some men, that causing them to + hate both life and light, they kill themselves, miserably forgetting + that this same fear is the fountain of their cares." + --Lucretius, iii. 79.] + +Plato, in his Laws, assigns an ignominious sepulture to him who has +deprived his nearest and best friend, namely himself, of life and his +destined course, being neither compelled so to do by public judgment, +by any sad and inevitable accident of fortune, nor by any insupportable +disgrace, but merely pushed on by cowardice and the imbecility of a +timorous soul. And the opinion that makes so little of life, is +ridiculous; for it is our being, 'tis all we have. Things of a nobler +and more elevated being may, indeed, reproach ours; but it is against +nature for us to contemn and make little account of ourselves; 'tis a +disease particular to man, and not discerned in any other creatures, to +hate and despise itself. And it is a vanity of the same stamp to desire +to be something else than what we are; the effect of such a desire does +not at all touch us, forasmuch as it is contradicted and hindered in +itself. He that desires of a man to be made an angel, does nothing for +himself; he would be never the better for it; for, being no more, who +shall rejoice or be sensible of this benefit for him. + + "Debet enim, misere cui forti, aegreque futurum est, + Ipse quoque esse in eo turn tempore, cum male possit + Accidere." + + ["For he to whom misery and pain are to be in the future, must + himself then exist, when these ills befall him." + --Idem, ibid., 874.] + +Security, indolence, impassability, the privation of the evils of this +life, which we pretend to purchase at the price of dying, are of no +manner of advantage to us: that man evades war to very little purpose who +can have no fruition of peace; and as little to the purpose does he avoid +trouble who cannot enjoy repose. + +Amongst those of the first of these two opinions, there has been great +debate, what occasions are sufficient to justify the meditation of +self-murder, which they call "A reasonable exit."--[ Diogenes Laertius, +Life of Zeno.]--For though they say that men must often die for trivial +causes, seeing those that detain us in life are of no very great weight, +yet there is to be some limit. There are fantastic and senseless humours +that have prompted not only individual men, but whole nations to destroy +themselves, of which I have elsewhere given some examples; and we further +read of the Milesian virgins, that by a frantic compact they hanged +themselves one after another till the magistrate took order in it, +enacting that the bodies of such as should be found so hanged should be +drawn by the same halter stark naked through the city. When Therykion +tried to persuade Cleomenes to despatch himself, by reason of the ill +posture of his affairs, and, having missed a death of more honour in the +battle he had lost, to accept of this the second in honour to it, and not +to give the conquerors leisure to make him undergo either an ignominious +death or an infamous life; Cleomenes, with a courage truly Stoic and +Lacedaemonian, rejected his counsel as unmanly and mean; "that," said he, +"is a remedy that can never be wanting, but which a man is never to make +use of, whilst there is an inch of hope remaining": telling him, "that +it was sometimes constancy and valour to live; that he would that even +his death should be of use to his country, and would make of it an act of +honour and virtue." Therykion, notwithstanding, thought himself in the +right, and did his own business; and Cleomenes afterwards did the same, +but not till he had first tried the utmost malevolence of fortune. All +the inconveniences in the world are not considerable enough that a man +should die to evade them; and, besides, there being so many, so sudden +and unexpected changes in human things, it is hard rightly to judge when +we are at the end of our hope: + + "Sperat et in saeva victus gladiator arena, + Sit licet infesto pollice turba minax." + + ["The gladiator conquered in the lists hopes on, though the + menacing spectators, turning their thumb, order him to die." + --Pentadius, De Spe, ap. Virgilii Catadecta.] + +All things, says an old adage, are to be hoped for by a man whilst he +lives; ay, but, replies Seneca, why should this rather be always running +in a man's head that fortune can do all things for the living man, than +this, that fortune has no power over him that knows how to die? +Josephus, when engaged in so near and apparent danger, a whole people +being violently bent against him, that there was no visible means of +escape, nevertheless, being, as he himself says, in this extremity +counselled by one of his friends to despatch himself, it was well for him +that he yet maintained himself in hope, for fortune diverted the accident +beyond all human expectation, so that he saw himself delivered without +any manner of inconvenience. Whereas Brutus and Cassius, on the +contrary, threw away the remains of the Roman liberty, of which they were +the sole protectors, by the precipitation and temerity wherewith they +killed themselves before the due time and a just occasion. Monsieur +d'Anguien, at the battle of Serisolles, twice attempted to run himself +through, despairing of the fortune of the day, which went indeed very +untowardly on that side of the field where he was engaged, and by that +precipitation was very near depriving himself of the enjoyment of so +brave a victory. I have seen a hundred hares escape out of the very +teeth of the greyhounds: + + "Aliquis carnifici suo superstes fuit." + + ["Some have survived their executioners."--Seneca, Ep., 13.] + + "Multa dies, variusque labor mutabilis nevi + Rettulit in melius; multos alterna revisens + Lusit, et in solido rursus fortuna locavit." + + ["Length of days, and the various labour of changeful time, have + brought things to a better state; fortune turning, shews a reverse + face, and again restores men to prosperity."--AEneid, xi. 425.] + +Piny says there are but three sorts of diseases, to escape which a man +has good title to destroy himself; the worst of which is the stone in the +bladder, when the urine is suppressed. + + ["In the quarto edition of these essays, in 1588, Pliny is said to + mention two more, viz., a pain in the stomach and a headache, which, + he says (lib. xxv. c. 9.), were the only three distempers almost + for which men killed themselves."] + +Seneca says those only which for a long time are discomposing the +functions of the soul. And some there have been who, to avoid a worse +death, have chosen one to their own liking. Democritus, general of the +AEtolians, being brought prisoner to Rome, found means to make his escape +by night: but close pursued by his keepers, rather than suffer himself to +be retaken, he fell upon his own sword and died. Antinous and Theodotus, +their city of Epirus being reduced by the Romans to the last extremity, +gave the people counsel universally to kill themselves; but, these +preferring to give themselves up to the enemy, the two chiefs went to +seek the death they desired, rushing furiously upon the enemy, with +intention to strike home but not to ward a blow. The Island of Gozzo +being taken some years ago by the Turks, a Sicilian, who had two +beautiful daughters marriageable, killed them both with his own hand, and +their mother, running in to save them, to boot, which having done, +sallying out of the house with a cross-bow and harquebus, with two shots +he killed two of the Turks nearest to his door, and drawing his sword, +charged furiously in amongst the rest, where he was suddenly enclosed and +cut to pieces, by that means delivering his family and himself from +slavery and dishonour. The Jewish women, after having circumcised their +children, threw them and themselves down a precipice to avoid the cruelty +of Antigonus. I have been told of a person of condition in one of our +prisons, that his friends, being informed that he would certainly be +condemned, to avoid the ignominy of such a death suborned a priest to +tell him that the only means of his deliverance was to recommend himself +to such a saint, under such and such vows, and to fast eight days +together without taking any manner of nourishment, what weakness or +faintness soever he might find in himself during the time; he followed +their advice, and by that means destroyed himself before he was aware, +not dreaming of death or any danger in the experiment. Scribonia +advising her nephew Libo to kill himself rather than await the stroke of +justice, told him that it was to do other people's business to preserve +his life to put it after into the hands of those who within three or four +days would fetch him to execution, and that it was to serve his enemies +to keep his blood to gratify their malice. + +We read in the Bible that Nicanor, the persecutor of the law of God, +having sent his soldiers to seize upon the good old man Razis, surnamed +in honour of his virtue the father of the Jews: the good man, seeing no +other remedy, his gates burned down, and the enemies ready to seize him, +choosing rather to die nobly than to fall into the hands of his wicked +adversaries and suffer himself to be cruelly butchered by them, contrary +to the honour of his rank and quality, stabbed himself with his own +sword, but the blow, for haste, not having been given home, he ran and +threw himself from the top of a wall headlong among them, who separating +themselves and making room, he pitched directly upon his head; +notwithstanding which, feeling yet in himself some remains of life, he +renewed his courage, and starting up upon his feet all bloody and wounded +as he was, and making his way through the crowd to a precipitous rock, +there, through one of his wounds, drew out his bowels, which, tearing and +pulling to pieces with both his hands, he threw amongst his pursuers, all +the while attesting and invoking the Divine vengeance upon them for their +cruelty and injustice. + +Of violences offered to the conscience, that against the chastity of +woman is, in my opinion, most to be avoided, forasmuch as there is a +certain pleasure naturally mixed with it, and for that reason the dissent +therein cannot be sufficiently perfect and entire, so that the violence +seems to be mixed with a little consent of the forced party. The +ecclesiastical history has several examples of devout persons who have +embraced death to secure them from the outrages prepared by tyrants +against their religion and honour. Pelagia and Sophronia, both +canonised, the first of these precipitated herself with her mother and +sisters into the river to avoid being forced by some soldiers, and the +last also killed herself to avoid being ravished by the Emperor +Maxentius. + +It may, peradventure, be an honour to us in future ages, that a learned +author of this present time, and a Parisian, takes a great deal of pains +to persuade the ladies of our age rather to take any other course than to +enter into the horrid meditation of such a despair. I am sorry he had +never heard, that he might have inserted it amongst his other stories, +the saying of a woman, which was told me at Toulouse, who had passed +through the handling of some soldiers: "God be praised," said she, "that +once at least in my life I have had my fill without sin." In truth, +these cruelties are very unworthy the French good nature, and also, God +be thanked, our air is very well purged of them since this good advice: +'tis enough that they say "no" in doing it, according to the rule of the +good Marot. + + "Un doulx nenny, avec un doulx sourire + Est tant honneste."--Marot. + +History is everywhere full of those who by a thousand ways have exchanged +a painful and irksome life for death. Lucius Aruntius killed himself, to +fly, he said, both the future and the past. Granius Silvanus and Statius +Proximus, after having been pardoned by Nero, killed themselves; either +disdaining to live by the favour of so wicked a man, or that they might +not be troubled, at some other time, to obtain a second pardon, +considering the proclivity of his nature to suspect and credit +accusations against worthy men. Spargapises, son of Queen Tomyris, being +a prisoner of war to Cyrus, made use of the first favour Cyrus shewed +him, in commanding him to be unbound, to kill himself, having pretended +to no other benefit of liberty, but only to be revenged of himself for +the disgrace of being taken. Boges, governor in Eion for King Xerxes, +being besieged by the Athenian army under the conduct of Cimon, refused +the conditions offered, that he might safe return into Asia with all his +wealth, impatient to survive the loss of a place his master had given him +to keep; wherefore, having defended the city to the last extremity, +nothing being left to eat, he first threw all the gold and whatever else +the enemy could make booty of into the river Strymon, and then causing a +great pile to be set on fire, and the throats of all the women, children, +concubines, and servants to be cut, he threw their bodies into the fire, +and at last leaped into it himself. + +Ninachetuen, an Indian lord, so soon as he heard the first whisper of the +Portuguese Viceroy's determination to dispossess him, without any +apparent cause, of his command in Malacca, to transfer it to the King of +Campar, he took this resolution with himself: he caused a scaffold, more +long than broad, to be erected, supported by columns royally adorned with +tapestry and strewed with flowers and abundance of perfumes; all which +being prepared, in a robe of cloth of gold, set full of jewels of great +value, he came out into the street, and mounted the steps to the +scaffold, at one corner of which he had a pile lighted of aromatic wood. +Everybody ran to see to what end these unusual preparations were made; +when Ninachetuen, with a manly but displeased countenance, set forth how +much he had obliged the Portuguese nation, and with how unspotted +fidelity he had carried himself in his charge; that having so often, +sword in hand, manifested in the behalf of others, that honour was much +more dear to him than life, he was not to abandon the concern of it for +himself: that fortune denying him all means of opposing the affront +designed to be put upon him, his courage at least enjoined him to free +himself from the sense of it, and not to serve for a fable to the people, +nor for a triumph to men less deserving than himself; which having said +he leaped into the fire. + +Sextilia, wife of Scaurus, and Paxaea, wife of Labeo, to encourage their +husbands to avoid the dangers that pressed upon them, wherein they had no +other share than conjugal affection, voluntarily sacrificed their own +lives to serve them in this extreme necessity for company and example. +What they did for their husbands, Cocceius Nerva did for his country, +with less utility though with equal affection: this great lawyer, +flourishing in health, riches, reputation, and favour with the Emperor, +had no other cause to kill himself but the sole compassion of the +miserable state of the Roman Republic. Nothing can be added to the +beauty of the death of the wife of Fulvius, a familiar favourite of +Augustus: Augustus having discovered that he had vented an important +secret he had entrusted him withal, one morning that he came to make his +court, received him very coldly and looked frowningly upon him. He +returned home, full of, despair, where he sorrowfully told his wife that, +having fallen into this misfortune, he was resolved to kill himself: to +which she roundly replied, "'tis but reason you should, seeing that +having so often experienced the incontinence of my tongue, you could not +take warning: but let me kill myself first," and without any more saying +ran herself through the body with a sword. Vibius Virrius, despairing of +the safety of his city besieged by the Romans and of their mercy, in the +last deliberation of his city's senate, after many arguments conducing to +that end, concluded that the most noble means to escape fortune was by +their own hands: telling them that the enemy would have them in honour, +and Hannibal would be sensible how many faithful friends he had +abandoned; inviting those who approved of his advice to come to a good +supper he had ready at home, where after they had eaten well, they would +drink together of what he had prepared; a beverage, said he, that will +deliver our bodies from torments, our souls from insult, and our eyes and +ears from the sense of so many hateful mischiefs, as the conquered suffer +from cruel and implacable conquerors. I have, said he, taken order for +fit persons to throw our bodies into a funeral pile before my door so +soon as we are dead. Many enough approved this high resolution, but few +imitated it; seven-and-twenty senators followed him, who, after having +tried to drown the thought of this fatal determination in wine, ended the +feast with the mortal mess; and embracing one another, after they had +jointly deplored the misfortune of their country, some retired home to +their own houses, others stayed to be burned with Vibius in his funeral +pyre; and were all of them so long in dying, the vapour of the wine +having prepossessed the veins, and by that means deferred the effect of +poison, that some of them were within an hour of seeing the enemy inside +the walls of Capua, which was taken the next morning, and of undergoing +the miseries they had at so dear a rate endeavoured to avoid. Jubellius +Taurea, another citizen of the same country, the Consul Fulvius returning +from the shameful butchery he had made of two hundred and twenty-five +senators, called him back fiercely by name, and having made him stop: +"Give the word," said he, "that somebody may dispatch me after the +massacre of so many others, that thou mayest boast to have killed a much +more valiant man than thyself." Fulvius, disdaining him as a man out of +his wits, and also having received letters from Rome censuring the +inhumanity of his execution which tied his hands, Jubellius proceeded: +"Since my country has been taken, my friends dead, and having with my own +hands slain my wife and children to rescue them from the desolation of +this ruin, I am denied to die the death of my fellow-citizens, let me +borrow from virtue vengeance on this hated life," and therewithal drawing +a short sword he carried concealed about him, he ran it through his own +bosom, falling down backward, and expiring at the consul's feet. + +Alexander, laying siege to a city of the Indies, those within, finding +themselves very hardly set, put on a vigorous resolution to deprive him +of the pleasure of his victory, and accordingly burned themselves in +general, together with their city, in despite of his humanity: a new kind +of war, where the enemies sought to save them, and they to destroy +themselves, doing to make themselves sure of death, all that men do to +secure life. + +Astapa, a city of Spain, finding itself weak in walls and defence to +withstand the Romans, the inhabitants made a heap of all their riches and +furniture in the public place; and, having ranged upon this heap all the +women and children, and piled them round with wood and other combustible +matter to take sudden fire, and left fifty of their young men for the +execution of that whereon they had resolved, they made a desperate sally, +where for want of power to overcome, they caused themselves to be every +man slain. The fifty, after having massacred every living soul +throughout the whole city, and put fire to this pile, threw themselves +lastly into it, finishing their generous liberty, rather after an +insensible, than after a sorrowful and disgraceful manner, giving the +enemy to understand, that if fortune had been so pleased, they had as +well the courage to snatch from them victory as they had to frustrate and +render it dreadful, and even mortal to those who, allured by the +splendour of the gold melting in this flame, having approached it, +a great number were there suffocated and burned, being kept from retiring +by the crowd that followed after. + +The Abydeans, being pressed by King Philip, put on the same resolution; +but, not having time, they could not put it 'in effect. The king, who +was struck with horror at the rash precipitation of this execution (the +treasure and movables that they had condemned to the flames being first +seized), drawing off his soldiers, granted them three days' time to kill +themselves in, that they might do it with more order and at greater ease: +which time they filled with blood and slaughter beyond the utmost excess +of all hostile cruelty, so that not so much as any one soul was left +alive that had power to destroy itself. There are infinite examples of +like popular resolutions which seem the more fierce and cruel in +proportion as the effect is more universal, and yet are really less so +than when singly executed; what arguments and persuasion cannot do with +individual men, they can do with all, the ardour of society ravishing +particular judgments. + +The condemned who would live to be executed in the reign of Tiberius, +forfeited their goods and were denied the rites of sepulture; those who, +by killing themselves, anticipated it, were interred, and had liberty to +dispose of their estates by will. + +But men sometimes covet death out of hope of a greater good. "I desire," +says St. Paul, "to be with Christ," and "who shall rid me of these +bands?" Cleombrotus of Ambracia, having read Plato's Pheedo, entered +into so great a desire of the life to come that, without any other +occasion, he threw himself into the sea. By which it appears how +improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair, to which the +eagerness of hope often inclines us, and, often, a calm and temperate +desire proceeding from a mature and deliberate judgment. Jacques du +Chastel, bishop of Soissons, in St. Louis's foreign expedition, seeing +the king and whole army upon the point of returning into France, leaving +the affairs of religion imperfect, took a resolution rather to go into +Paradise; wherefore, having taken solemn leave of his friends, he charged +alone, in the sight of every one, into the enemy's army, where he was +presently cut to pieces. In a certain kingdom of the new discovered +world, upon a day of solemn procession, when the idol they adore is drawn +about in public upon a chariot of marvellous greatness; besides that many +are then seen cutting off pieces of their flesh to offer to him, there +are a number of others who prostrate themselves upon the place, causing +themselves to be crushed and broken to pieces under the weighty wheels, +to obtain the veneration of sanctity after death, which is accordingly +paid them. The death of the bishop, sword in hand, has more of +magnanimity in it, and less of sentiment, the ardour of combat taking +away part of the latter. + +There are some governments who have taken upon them to regulate the +justice and opportunity of voluntary death. In former times there was +kept in our city of Marseilles a poison prepared out of hemlock, at the +public charge, for those who had a mind to hasten their end, having +first, before the six hundred, who were their senate, given account of +the reasons and motives of their design, and it was not otherwise lawful, +than by leave from the magistrate and upon just occasion to do violence +to themselves.--[Valerius Maximus, ii. 6, 7.]--The same law was also +in use in other places. + +Sextus Pompeius, in his expedition into Asia, touched at the isle of Cea +in Negropont: it happened whilst he was there, as we have it from one +that was with him, that a woman of great quality, having given an account +to her citizens why she was resolved to put an end to her life, invited +Pompeius to her death, to render it the more honourable, an invitation +that he accepted; and having long tried in vain by the power of his +eloquence, which was very great, and persuasion, to divert her from that +design, he acquiesced in the end in her own will. She had passed the age +of four score and ten in a very happy state, both of body and mind; being +then laid upon her bed, better dressed than ordinary and leaning upon her +elbow, "The gods," said she, "O Sextus Pompeius, and rather those I leave +than those I go to seek, reward thee, for that thou hast not disdained to +be both the counsellor of my life and the witness of my death. For my +part, having always experienced the smiles of fortune, for fear lest the +desire of living too long may make me see a contrary face, I am going, by +a happy end, to dismiss the remains of my soul, leaving behind two +daughters of my body and a legion of nephews"; which having said, with +some exhortations to her family to live in peace, she divided amongst +them her goods, and recommending her domestic gods to her eldest +daughter, she boldly took the bowl that contained the poison, and having +made her vows and prayers to Mercury to conduct her to some happy abode +in the other world, she roundly swallowed the mortal poison. This being +done, she entertained the company with the progress of its operation, and +how the cold by degrees seized the several parts of her body one after +another, till having in the end told them it began to seize upon her +heart and bowels, she called her daughters to do the last office and +close her eyes. + +Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean nation where, by reason of the +sweet temperature of the air, lives rarely ended but by the voluntary +surrender of the inhabitants, who, being weary of and satiated with +living, had the custom, at a very old age, after having made good cheer, +to precipitate themselves into the sea from the top of a certain rock, +assigned for that service. Pain and the fear of a worse death seem to me +the most excusable incitements. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TO-MORROW'S A NEW DAY + +I give, as it seems to me, with good reason the palm to Jacques Amyot of +all our French writers, not only for the simplicity and purity of his +language, wherein he excels all others, nor for his constancy in going +through so long a work, nor for the depth of his knowledge, having been +able so successfully to smooth and unravel so knotty and intricate an +author (for let people tell me what they will, I understand nothing of +Greek; but I meet with sense so well united and maintained throughout his +whole translation, that certainly he either knew the true fancy of the +author, or having, by being long conversant with him, imprinted a vivid +and general idea of that of Plutarch in his soul, he has delivered us +nothing that either derogates from or contradicts him), but above all, I +am the most taken with him for having made so discreet a choice of a book +so worthy and of so great utility wherewith to present his country. We +ignorant fellows had been lost, had not this book raised us out of the +dirt; by this favour of his we dare now speak and write; the ladies are +able to read to schoolmasters; 'tis our breviary. If this good man be +yet living, I would recommend to him Xenophon, to do as much by that; +'tis a much more easy task than the other, and consequently more proper +for his age. And, besides, though I know not how, methinks he does +briskly--and clearly enough trip over steps another would have stumbled +at, yet nevertheless his style seems to be more his own where he does not +encounter those difficulties, and rolls away at his own ease. + +I was just now reading this passage where Plutarch says of himself, that +Rusticus being present at a declamation of his at Rome, there received a +packet from the emperor, and deferred to open it till all was done: for +which, says he, all the company highly applauded the gravity of this +person. 'Tis true, that being upon the subject of curiosity and of that +eager passion for news, which makes us with so much indiscretion and +impatience leave all to entertain a newcomer, and without any manner of +respect or outcry, tear open on a sudden, in what company soever, the +letters that are delivered to us, he had reason to applaud the gravity of +Rusticus upon this occasion; and might moreover have added to it the +commendation of his civility and courtesy, that would not interrupt the +current of his declamation. But I doubt whether any one can commend his +prudence; for receiving unexpected letters, and especially from an +emperor, it might have fallen out that the deferring to read them might +have been of great prejudice. The vice opposite to curiosity is +negligence, to which I naturally incline, and wherein I have seen some +men so extreme that one might have found letters sent them three or four +days before, still sealed up in their pockets. + +I never open any letters directed to another; not only those intrusted +with me, but even such as fortune has guided to my hand; and am angry +with myself if my eyes unawares steal any contents of letters of +importance he is reading when I stand near a great man. Never was man +less inquisitive or less prying into other men's affairs than I. + +In our fathers' days, Monsieur de Boutieres had like to have lost Turin +from having, while engaged in good company at supper, delayed to read +information that was sent him of the treason plotted against that city +where he commanded. And this very Plutarch has given me to understand, +that Julius Caesar had preserved himself, if, going to the Senate the day +he was assassinated by the conspirators, he had read a note which was +presented to him by, the way. He tells also the story of Archias, the +tyrant of Thebes, that the night before the execution of the design +Pelopidas had plotted to kill him to restore his country to liberty, he +had a full account sent him in writing by another Archias, an Athenian, +of the whole conspiracy, and that, this packet having been delivered to +him while he sat at supper, he deferred the opening of it, saying, which +afterwards turned to a proverb in Greece, "Business to-morrow." + +A wise man may, I think, out of respect to another, as not to disturb the +company, as Rusticus did, or not to break off another affair of +importance in hand, defer to read or hear any new thing that is brought +him; but for his own interest or particular pleasure, especially if he be +a public minister, that he will not interrupt his dinner or break his +sleep is inexcusable. And there was anciently at Rome, the consular +place, as they called it, which was the most honourable at the table, as +being a place of most liberty, and of more convenient access to those who +came in to speak to the person seated there; by which it appears, that +being at meat, they did not totally abandon the concern of other affairs +and incidents. But when all is said, it is very hard in human actions to +give so exact a rule upon moral reasons, that fortune will not therein +maintain her own right. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +OF CONSCIENCE + +The Sieur de la Brousse, my brother, and I, travelling one day together +during the time of our civil wars, met a gentleman of good sort. He was +of the contrary party, though I did not know so much, for he pretended +otherwise: and the mischief on't is, that in this sort of war the cards +are so shuffled, your enemy not being distinguished from yourself by any +apparent mark either of language or habit, and being nourished under the +same law, air, and manners, it is very hard to avoid disorder and +confusion. This made me afraid myself of meeting any of our troops in a +place where I was not known, that I might not be in fear to tell my name, +and peradventure of something worse; as it had befallen me before, where, +by such a mistake, I lost both men and horses, and amongst others an +Italian gentleman my page, whom I bred with the greatest care and +affection, was miserably slain, in whom a youth of great promise and +expectation was extinguished. But the gentleman my brother and I met +had so desperate, half-dead a fear upon him at meeting with any horse, +or passing by any of the towns that held for the King, that I at last +discovered it to be alarms of conscience. It seemed to the poor man as +if through his visor and the crosses upon his cassock, one would have +penetrated into his bosom and read the most secret intentions of his +heart; so wonderful is the power of conscience. It makes us betray, +accuse, and fight against ourselves, and for want of other witnesses, to +give evidence against ourselves: + + "Occultum quatiens animo tortore flagellum." + + ["The torturer of the soul brandishing a sharp scourge within." + --Juvenal, iii. 195.] + +This story is in every child's mouth: Bessus the Paeonian, being +reproached for wantonly pulling down a nest of young sparrows and killing +them, replied, that he had reason to do so, seeing that those little +birds never ceased falsely to accuse him of the murder of his father. +This parricide had till then been concealed and unknown, but the +revenging fury of conscience caused it to be discovered by him himself, +who was to suffer for it. Hesiod corrects the saying of Plato, that +punishment closely follows sin, it being, as he says, born at the same +time with it. Whoever expects punishment already suffers it, and whoever +has deserved it expects it. Wickedness contrives torments against +itself: + + "Malum consilium consultori pessimum." + + ["Ill designs are worst to the contriver." + --Apud Aul. Gellium, iv. 5.] + +as the wasp stings and hurts another, but most of all itself, for it +there loses its sting and its use for ever, + + "Vitasque in vulnere ponunt." + + ["And leave their own lives in the wound." + --Virgil, Geo., iv. 238.] + +Cantharides have somewhere about them, by a contrariety of nature, a +counterpoison against their poison. In like manner, at the same time +that men take delight in vice, there springs in the conscience a +displeasure that afflicts us sleeping and waking with various tormenting +imaginations: + + "Quippe ubi se multi, per somnia saepe loquentes, + Aut morbo delirantes, protraxe ferantur, + Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse." + + ["Surely where many, often talking in their sleep, or raving in + disease, are said to have betrayed themselves, and to have given + publicity to offences long concealed."--Lucretius, v. 1157.] + +Apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the Scythians and +afterwards boiled in a cauldron, and that his heart muttered these words +"I am the cause of all these mischiefs that have befallen thee." +Epicurus said that no hiding-hole could conceal the wicked, since they +could never assure themselves of being hid whilst their conscience +discovered them to themselves. + + "Prima est haec ultio, quod se + Judice nemo nocens absohitur." + + ["Tis the first punishment of sin that no man absolves himself." or: + "This is the highest revenge, that by its judgment no offender is + absolved."--Juvenal, xiii. 2.] + +As an ill conscience fills us with fear, so a good one gives us greater +confidence and assurance; and I can truly say that I have gone through +several hazards with a more steady pace in consideration of the secret +knowledge I had of my own will and the innocence of my intentions: + + "Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra + Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo." + + ["As a man's conscience is, so within hope or fear prevails, suiting + to his design."--Ovid, Fast., i. 485.] + +Of this are a thousand examples; but it will be enough to instance three +of one and the same person. Scipio, being one day accused before the +people of Rome of some crimes of a very high nature, instead of excusing +himself or flattering his judges: "It will become you well," said he, +"to sit in judgment upon a head, by whose means you have the power to +judge all the world." Another time, all the answer he gave to several +impeachments brought against him by a tribune of the people, instead of +making his defence: "Let us go, citizens," said he, "let us go render +thanks to the gods for the victory they gave me over the Carthaginians as +this day," and advancing himself before towards the Temple, he had +presently all the assembly and his very accuser himself following at his +heels. And Petilius, having been set on by Cato to demand an account of +the money that had passed through his hands in the province of Antioch, +Scipio being come into the senate to that purpose, produced a book from +under his robe, wherein he told them was an exact account of his receipts +and disbursements; but being required to deliver it to the prothonotary +to be examined, he refused, saying, he would not do himself so great a +disgrace; and in the presence of the whole senate tore the book with his +own hands to pieces. I do not believe that the most seared conscience +could have counterfeited so great an assurance. He had naturally too +high a spirit and was accustomed to too high a fortune, says Titius +Livius, to know how to be criminal, and to lower himself to the meanness +of defending his innocence. The putting men to the rack is a dangerous +invention, and seems to be rather a trial of patience than of truth. +Both he who has the fortitude to endure it conceals the truth, and he who +has not: for why should pain sooner make me confess what really is, than +force me to say what is not? And, on the contrary, if he who is not +guilty of that whereof he is accused, has the courage to undergo those +torments, why should not he who is guilty have the same, so fair a reward +as life being in his prospect? I believe the ground of this invention +proceeds from the consideration of the force of conscience: for, to the +guilty, it seems to assist the rack to make him confess his fault and to +shake his resolution; and, on the other side, that it fortifies the +innocent against the torture. But when all is done, 'tis, in plain +truth, a trial full of uncertainty and danger what would not a man say, +what would not a man do, to avoid so intolerable torments? + + "Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor." + + ["Pain will make even the innocent lie."--Publius Syrus, De Dolore.] + +Whence it comes to pass, that him whom the judge has racked that he may +not die innocent, he makes him die both innocent and racked. A thousand +and a thousand have charged their own heads by false confessions, amongst +whom I place Philotas, considering the circumstances of the trial +Alexander put upon him and the progress of his torture. But so it is +that some say it is the least evil human weakness could invent; very +inhumanly, notwithstanding, and to very little purpose, in my opinion. + +Many nations less barbarous in this than the Greeks and Romans who call +them so, repute it horrible and cruel to torment and pull a man to pieces +for a fault of which they are yet in doubt. How can he help your +ignorance? Are not you unjust, that, not to kill him without cause, do +worse than kill him? And that this is so, do but observe how often men +prefer to die without reason than undergo this examination, more painful +than execution itself; and that oft-times by its extremity anticipates +execution, and perform it. I know not where I had this story, but it +exactly matches the conscience of our justice in this particular. A +country-woman, to a general of a very severe discipline, accused one of +his soldiers that he had taken from her children the little soup meat she +had left to nourish them withal, the army having consumed all the rest; +but of this proof there was none. The general, after having cautioned +the woman to take good heed to what she said, for that she would make +herself guilty of a false accusation if she told a lie, and she +persisting, he presently caused the soldier's belly to be ripped up to +clear the truth of the fact, and the woman was found to be right. An +instructive sentence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +USE MAKES PERFECT + +'Tis not to be expected that argument and instruction, though we never so +voluntarily surrender our belief to what is read to us, should be of +force to lead us on so far as to action, if we do not, over and above, +exercise and form the soul by experience to the course for which we +design it; it will, otherwise, doubtless find itself at a loss when it +comes to the pinch of the business. This is the reason why those amongst +the philosophers who were ambitious to attain to a greater excellence, +were not contented to await the severities of fortune in the retirement +and repose of their own habitations, lest he should have surprised them +raw and inexpert in the combat, but sallied out to meet her, and +purposely threw themselves into the proof of difficulties. Some of them +abandoned riches to exercise themselves in a voluntary poverty; others +sought out labour and an austerity of life, to inure them to hardships +and inconveniences; others have deprived themselves of their dearest +members, as of sight, and of the instruments of generation, lest their +too delightful and effeminate service should soften and debauch the +stability of their souls. + +But in dying, which is the greatest work we have to do, practice can give +us no assistance at all. A man may by custom fortify himself against +pain, shame, necessity, and such-like accidents, but as to death, we can +experiment it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it. +There have, anciently, been men so excellent managers of their time that +they have tried even in death itself to relish and taste it, and who have +bent their utmost faculties of mind to discover what this passage is, but +they are none of them come back to tell us the news: + + "Nemo expergitus exstat, + Frigida quern semel est vitai pausa sequuta." + + ["No one wakes who has once fallen into the cold sleep of death." + --Lucretius, iii. 942] + +Julius Canus, a noble Roman, of singular constancy and virtue, having +been condemned to die by that worthless fellow Caligula, besides many +marvellous testimonies that he gave of his resolution, as he was just +going to receive the stroke of the executioner, was asked by a +philosopher, a friend of his: "Well, Canus, whereabout is your soul now? +what is she doing? What are you thinking of?"--"I was thinking," replied +the other, "to keep myself ready, and the faculties of my mind full +settled and fixed, to try if in this short and quick instant of death, I +could perceive the motion of the soul when she parts from the body, and +whether she has any sentiment at the separation, that I may after come +again if I can, to acquaint my friends with it." This man philosophises +not unto death only, but in death itself. What a strange assurance was +this, and what bravery of courage, to desire his death should be a lesson +to him, and to have leisure to think of other things in so great an +affair: + + "Jus hoc animi morientis habebat." + + ["This mighty power of mind he had dying."-Lucan, viii. 636.] + +And yet I fancy, there is a certain way of making it familiar to us, and +in some sort of making trial what it is. We may gain experience, if not +entire and perfect, yet such, at least, as shall not be totally useless +to us, and that may render us more confident and more assured. If we +cannot overtake it, we may approach it and view it, and if we do not +advance so far as the fort, we may at least discover and make ourselves +acquainted with the avenues. It is not without reason that we are taught +to consider sleep as a resemblance of death: with how great facility do +we pass from waking to sleeping, and with how little concern do we lose +the knowledge of light and of ourselves. Peradventure, the faculty of +sleeping would seem useless and contrary to nature, since it deprives us +of all action and sentiment, were it not that by it nature instructs us +that she has equally made us to die as to live; and in life presents to +us the eternal state she reserves for us after it, to accustom us to it +and to take from us the fear of it. But such as have by violent accident +fallen into a swoon, and in it have lost all sense, these, methinks, have +been very near seeing the true and natural face of death; for as to the +moment of the passage, it is not to be feared that it brings with it any +pain or displeasure, forasmuch as we can have no feeling without leisure; +our sufferings require time, which in death is so short, and so +precipitous, that it must necessarily be insensible. They are the +approaches that we are to fear, and these may fall within the limits of +experience. + +Many things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect; I have +passed a good part of my life in a perfect and entire health; I say, not +only entire, but, moreover, sprightly and wanton. This state, so full of +verdure, jollity, and vigour, made the consideration of sickness so +formidable to me, that when I came to experience it, I found the attacks +faint and easy in comparison with what I had apprehended. Of this I have +daily experience; if I am under the shelter of a warm room, in a stormy +and tempestuous night, I wonder how people can live abroad, and am +afflicted for those who are out in the fields: if I am there myself, I do +not wish to be anywhere else. This one thing of being always shut up in +a chamber I fancied insupportable: but I was presently inured to be so +imprisoned a week, nay a month together, in a very weak, disordered, and +sad condition; and I have found that, in the time of my health, I much +more pitied the sick, than I think myself to be pitied when I am so, and +that the force of my imagination enhances near one-half of the essence +and reality of the thing. I hope that when I come to die I shall find it +the same, and that, after all, it is not worth the pains I take, so much +preparation and so much assistance as I call in, to undergo the stroke. +But, at all events, we cannot give ourselves too much advantage. + +In the time of our third or second troubles (I do not well remember +which), going one day abroad to take the air, about a league from my own +house, which is seated in the very centre of all the bustle and mischief +of the late civil wars in France; thinking myself in all security and so +near to my retreat that I stood in need of no better equipage, I had +taken a horse that went very easy upon his pace, but was not very strong. +Being upon my return home, a sudden occasion falling out to make use of +this horse in a kind of service that he was not accustomed to, one of my +train, a lusty, tall fellow, mounted upon a strong German horse, that had +a very ill mouth, fresh and vigorous, to play the brave and set on ahead +of his fellows, comes thundering full speed in the very track where I +was, rushing like a Colossus upon the little man and the little horse, +with such a career of strength and weight, that he turned us both over +and over, topsy-turvy with our heels in the air: so that there lay the +horse overthrown and stunned with the fall, and I ten or twelve paces +from him stretched out at length, with my face all battered and broken, +my sword which I had had in my hand, above ten paces beyond that, and my +belt broken all to pieces, without motion or sense any more than a stock. +'Twas the only swoon I was ever in till that hour in my life. Those who +were with me, after having used all the means they could to bring me to +myself, concluding me dead, took me up in their arms, and carried me with +very much difficulty home to my house, which was about half a French +league from thence. On the way, having been for more than two hours +given over for a dead man, I began to move and to fetch my breath; for so +great abundance of blood was fallen into my stomach, that nature had need +to rouse her forces to discharge it. They then raised me upon my feet, +where I threw off a whole bucket of clots of blood, as this I did also +several times by the way. This gave me so much ease, that I began to +recover a little life, but so leisurely and by so small advances, that my +first sentiments were much nearer the approaches of death than life: + + "Perche, dubbiosa ancor del suo ritorno, + Non s'assicura attonita la mente." + + ["For the soul, doubtful as to its return, could not compose itself" + --Tasso, Gierus. Lib., xii. 74.] + +The remembrance of this accident, which is very well imprinted in my +memory, so naturally representing to me the image and idea of death, has +in some sort reconciled me to that untoward adventure. When I first +began to open my eyes, it was with so perplexed, so weak and dead a +sight, that I could yet distinguish nothing but only discern the light: + + "Come quel ch'or apre, or'chiude + Gli occhi, mezzo tra'l sonno e l'esser desto." + + ["As a man that now opens, now shuts his eyes, between sleep + and waking."--Tasso, Gierus. Lib., viii., 26.] + +As to the functions of the soul, they advanced with the same pace and +measure with those of the body. I saw myself all bloody, my doublet +being stained all over with the blood I had vomited. The first thought +that came into my mind was that I had a harquebuss shot in my head, and +indeed, at the time there were a great many fired round about us. +Methought my life but just hung upon my, lips: and I shut my eyes, to +help, methought, to thrust it out, and took a pleasure in languishing and +letting myself go. It was an imagination that only superficially floated +upon my soul, as tender and weak as all the rest, but really, not only +exempt from anything displeasing, but mixed with that sweetness that +people feel when they glide into a slumber. + +I believe it is the very same condition those people are in, whom we see +swoon with weakness in the agony of death we pity them without cause, +supposing them agitated with grievous dolours, or that their souls suffer +under painful thoughts. It has ever been my belief, contrary to the +opinion of many, and particularly of La Boetie, that those whom we see so +subdued and stupefied at the approaches of their end, or oppressed with +the length of the disease, or by accident of an apoplexy or falling +sickness, + + "Vi morbi saepe coactus + Ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu, + Concidit, et spumas agit; ingemit, et tremit artus; + Desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat, + Inconstanter, et in jactando membra fatigat;" + + ["Often, compelled by the force of disease, some one as + thunderstruck falls under our eyes, and foams, groans, and trembles, + stretches, twists, breathes irregularly, and in paroxysms wears out + his strength."--Lucretius, iii. 485.] + +or hurt in the head, whom we hear to mutter, and by fits to utter +grievous groans; though we gather from these signs by which it seems as +if they had some remains of consciousness, and that there are movements +of the body; I have always believed, I say, both the body and the soul +benumbed and asleep, + + "Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse suae," + + ["He lives, and does not know that he is alive." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 12.] + +and could not believe that in so great a stupefaction of the members and +so great a defection of the senses, the soul could maintain any force +within to take cognisance of herself, and that, therefore, they had no +tormenting reflections to make them consider and be sensible of the +misery of their condition, and consequently were not much to be pitied. + +I can, for my part, think of no state so insupportable and dreadful, as +to have the soul vivid and afflicted, without means to declare itself; as +one should say of such as are sent to execution with their tongues first +cut out (were it not that in this kind of dying, the most silent seems to +me the most graceful, if accompanied with a grave and constant +countenance); or if those miserable prisoners, who fall into the hands of +the base hangman soldiers of this age, by whom they are tormented with +all sorts of inhuman usage to compel them to some excessive and +impossible ransom; kept, in the meantime, in such condition and place, +where they have no means of expressing or signifying their thoughts and +their misery. The poets have feigned some gods who favour the +deliverance of such as suffer under a languishing death: + + "Hunc ego Diti + Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo." + + ["I bidden offer this sacred thing to Pluto, and from that body + dismiss thee."--AEneid, iv. 782.] + +both the interrupted words, and the short and irregular answers one gets +from them sometimes, by bawling and keeping a clutter about them; or the +motions which seem to yield some consent to what we would have them do, +are no testimony, nevertheless, that they live, an entire life at least. +So it happens to us in the yawning of sleep, before it has fully +possessed us, to perceive, as in a dream, what is done about us, and to +follow the last things that are said with a perplexed and uncertain +hearing which seems but to touch upon the borders of the soul; and to +make answers to the last words that have been spoken to us, which have +more in them of chance than sense. + +Now seeing I have in effect tried it, I have no doubt but I have hitherto +made a right judgment; for first, being in a swoon, I laboured to rip +open the buttons of my doublet with my nails, for my sword was gone; and +yet I felt nothing in my imagination that hurt me; for we have many +motions in us that do not proceed from our direction; + + "Semianimesque micant digiti, ferrumque retractant;" + + ["Half-dead fingers grope about, and grasp again the sword." + --AEneid, x. 396.] + +so falling people extend their arms before them by a natural impulse, +which prompts our limbs to offices and motions without any commission +from our reason. + + "Falciferos memorant currus abscindere membra . . . + Ut tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod + Decidit abscissum; cum mens tamen atque hominis vis + Mobilitate mali, non quit sentire dolorem." + + ["They relate that scythe-bearing chariots mow off limbs, so that + they quiver on the ground; and yet the mind of him from whom the + limb is taken by the swiftness of the blow feels no pain." + --Lucretius, iii. 642.] + +My stomach was so oppressed with the coagulated blood, that my hands +moved to that part, of their own voluntary motion, as they frequently do +to the part that itches, without being directed by our will. There are +several animals, and even men, in whom one may perceive the muscles to +stir and tremble after they are dead. Every one experimentally knows +that there are some members which grow stiff and flag without his leave. +Now, those passions which only touch the outward bark of us, cannot be +said to be ours: to make them so, there must be a concurrence of the +whole man; and the pains which are felt by the hand or the foot while +we are sleeping, are none of ours. + +As I drew near my own house, where the alarm of my fall was already got +before me, and my family were come out to meet me, with the hubbub usual +in such cases, not only did I make some little answer to some questions +which were asked me; but they moreover tell me, that I was sufficiently +collected to order them to bring a horse to my wife whom on the road, +I saw struggling and tiring herself which is hilly and rugged. This +should seem to proceed from a soul its functions; but it was nothing so +with me. I knew not what I said or did, and they were nothing but idle +thoughts in the clouds, that were stirred up by the senses of the eyes +and ears, and proceeded not from me. I knew not for all that, whence I +came or whither I went, neither was I capable to weigh and consider what +was said to me: these were light effects, that the senses produced of +themselves as of custom; what the soul contributed was in a dream, +lightly touched, licked and bedewed by the soft impression of the senses. +Notwithstanding, my condition was, in truth, very easy and quiet; I had +no affliction upon me, either for others or myself; it was an extreme +languor and weakness, without any manner of pain. I saw my own house, +but knew it not. When they had put me to bed I found an inexpressible +sweetness in that repose; for I had been desperately tugged and lugged by +those poor people who had taken the pains to carry me upon their arms a +very great and a very rough way, and had in so doing all quite tired out +themselves, twice or thrice one after another. They offered me several +remedies, but I would take none, certainly believing that I was mortally +wounded in the head. And, in earnest, it had been a very happy death, +for the weakness of my understanding deprived me of the faculty of +discerning, and that of my body of the sense of feeling; I was suffering +myself to glide away so sweetly and after so soft and easy a manner, that +I scarce find any other action less troublesome than that was. But when +I came again to myself and to resume my faculties: + + "Ut tandem sensus convaluere mei," + + ["When at length my lost senses again returned." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 14.] + +which was two or three hours after, I felt myself on a sudden involved in +terrible pain, having my limbs battered and ground with my fall, and was. +so ill for two or three nights after, that I thought I was once more +dying again, but a more painful death, having concluded myself as good as +dead before, and to this hour am sensible of the bruises of that terrible +shock. I will not here omit, that the last thing I could make them beat +into my head, was the memory of this accident, and I had it over and over +again repeated to me, whither I was going, from whence I came, and at +what time of the day this mischance befell me, before I could comprehend +it. As to the manner of my fall, that was concealed from me in favour to +him who had been the occasion, and other flim-flams were invented. But a +long time after, and the very next day that my memory began to return and +to represent to me the state wherein I was, at the instant that I +perceived this horse coming full drive upon me (for I had seen him at my +heels, and gave myself for gone, but this thought had been so sudden, +that fear had had no leisure to introduce itself) it seemed to me like a +flash of lightning that had pierced my soul, and that I came from the +other world. + +This long story of so light an accident would appear vain enough, were it +not for the knowledge I have gained by it for my own use; for I do really +find, that to get acquainted with death, needs no more but nearly to +approach it. Every one, as Pliny says, is a good doctrine to himself, +provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand. Here, this +is not my doctrine, 'tis my study; and is not the lesson of another, but +my own; and if I communicate it, it ought not to be ill taken, for that +which is of use to me, may also, peradventure, be useful to another. As +to the rest, I spoil nothing, I make use of nothing but my own; and if I +play the fool, 'tis at my own expense, and nobody else is concerned in't; +for 'tis a folly that will die with me, and that no one is to inherit. +We hear but of two or three of the ancients, who have beaten this path, +and yet I cannot say if it was after this manner, knowing no more of them +but their names. No one since has followed the track: 'tis a rugged +road, more so than it seems, to follow a pace so rambling and uncertain, +as that of the soul; to penetrate the dark profundities of its intricate +internal windings; to choose and lay hold of so many little nimble +motions; 'tis a new and extraordinary undertaking, and that withdraws us +from the common and most recommended employments of the world. 'Tis now +many years since that my thoughts have had no other aim and level than +myself, and that I have only pried into and studied myself: or, if I +study any other thing, 'tis to apply it to or rather in myself. And yet +I do not think it a fault, if, as others do by other much less profitable +sciences, I communicate what I have learned in this, though I am not very +well pleased with my own progress. There is no description so difficult, +nor doubtless of so great utility, as that of a man's self: and withal, a +man must curl his hair and set out and adjust himself, to appear in +public: now I am perpetually tricking myself out, for I am eternally upon +my own description. Custom has made all speaking of a man's self +vicious, and positively interdicts it, in hatred to the boasting that +seems inseparable from the testimony men give of themselves: + + "In vitium ducit culpae fuga." + + ["The avoiding a mere fault often leads us into a greater." + Or: "The escape from a fault leads into a vice" + --Horace, De Arte Poetics, verse 31.] + +Instead of blowing the child's nose, this is to take his nose off +altogether. I think the remedy worse than the disease. But, allowing it +to be true that it must of necessity be presumption to entertain people +with discourses of one's self, I ought not, pursuing my general design, +to forbear an action that publishes this infirmity of mine, nor conceal +the fault which I not only practise but profess. Notwithstanding, to +speak my thought freely, I think that the custom of condemning wine, +because some people will be drunk, is itself to be condemned; a man +cannot abuse anything but what is good in itself; and I believe that this +rule has only regard to the popular vice. They are bits for calves, with +which neither the saints whom we hear speak so highly of themselves, nor +the philosophers, nor the divines will be curbed; neither will I, who am +as little the one as the other, If they do not write of it expressly, at +all events, when the occasions arise, they don't hesitate to put +themselves on the public highway. Of what does Socrates treat more +largely than of himself? To what does he more direct and address the +discourses of his disciples, than to speak of themselves, not of the +lesson in their book, but of the essence and motion of their souls? We +confess ourselves religiously to God and our confessor; as our +neighbours, do to all the people. But some will answer that we there +speak nothing but accusation against ourselves; why then, we say all; for +our very virtue itself is faulty and penetrable. My trade and art is to +live; he that forbids me to speak according to my own sense, experience, +and practice, may as well enjoin an architect not to speak of building +according to his own knowledge, but according to that of his neighbour; +according to the knowledge of another, and not according to his own. If +it be vainglory for a man to publish his own virtues, why does not Cicero +prefer the eloquence of Hortensius, and Hortensius that of Cicero? +Peradventure they mean that I should give testimony of myself by works +and effects, not barely by words. I chiefly paint my thoughts, a subject +void of form and incapable of operative production; 'tis all that I can +do to couch it in this airy body of the voice; the wisest and devoutest +men have lived in the greatest care to avoid all apparent effects. +Effects would more speak of fortune than of me; they manifest their own +office and not mine, but uncertainly and by conjecture; patterns of some +one particular virtue. I expose myself entire; 'tis a body where, at one +view, the veins, muscles, and tendons are apparent, every of them in its +proper place; here the effects of a cold; there of the heart beating, +very dubiously. I do not write my own acts, but myself and my essence. + +I am of opinion that a man must be very cautious how he values himself, +and equally conscientious to give a true report, be it better or worse, +impartially. If I thought myself perfectly good and wise, I would rattle +it out to some purpose. To speak less of one's self than what one really +is is folly, not modesty; and to take that for current pay which is under +a man's value is pusillanimity and cowardice, according to, Aristotle. +No virtue assists itself with falsehood; truth is never matter of error. +To speak more of one's self than is really true is not always mere +presumption; 'tis, moreover, very often folly; to, be immeasurably +pleased with what one is, and to fall into an indiscreet self-love, is in +my opinion the substance of this vice. The most sovereign remedy to cure +it, is to do quite contrary to what these people direct who, in +forbidding men to speak of themselves, consequently, at the same time, +interdict thinking of themselves too. Pride dwells in the thought; the +tongue can have but a very little share in it. + +They fancy that to think of one's self is to be delighted with one's +self; to frequent and converse with one's self, to be overindulgent; but +this excess springs only in those who take but a superficial view of +themselves, and dedicate their main inspection to their affairs; who call +it mere reverie and idleness to occupy one's self with one's self, and +the building one's self up a mere building of castles in the air; who +look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger. If any one be +in rapture with his own knowledge, looking only on those below him, let +him but turn his eye upward towards past ages, and his pride will be +abated, when he shall there find so many thousand wits that trample him +under foot. If he enter into a flattering presumption of his personal +valour, let him but recollect the lives of Scipio, Epaminondas; so many +armies, so many nations, that leave him so far behind them. No +particular quality can make any man proud, that will at the same time put +the many other weak and imperfect ones he has in the other scale, and the +nothingness of human condition to make up the weight. Because Socrates +had alone digested to purpose the precept of his god, "to know himself," +and by that study arrived at the perfection of setting himself at nought, +he only was reputed worthy the title of a sage. Whosoever shall so know +himself, let him boldly speak it out. + + + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + Addresses his voyage to no certain, port + All apprentices when we come to it (death) + Any one may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death + Business to-morrow + Condemning wine, because some people will be drunk + Conscience makes us betray, accuse, and fight against ourselves + Curiosity and of that eager passion for news + Delivered into our own custody the keys of life + Drunkeness a true and certain trial of every one's nature + I can more hardly believe a man's constancy than any virtue + "I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other + If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt + Improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair + It's madness to nourish infirmity + Let him be as wise as he will, after all he is but a man + Living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting. + Look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger + Lower himself to the meanness of defending his innocence + Much difference betwixt us and ourselves + No alcohol the night on which a man intends to get children + No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness + Not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity + One door into life, but a hundred thousand ways out + Ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life + Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age + Shame for me to serve, being so near the reach of liberty + Speak less of one's self than what one really is is folly + Taught to consider sleep as a resemblance of death + The action is commendable, not the man + The most voluntary death is the finest + The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence + Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect + Thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain + Tis evil counsel that will admit no change + Torture: rather a trial of patience than of truth + We do not go, we are driven + What can they suffer who do not fear to die? + Whoever expects punishment already suffers it + Wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 9 +by Michel de Montaigne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE, VOLUME 9 *** + +***** This file should be named 3589.txt or 3589.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/8/3589/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.08.01*END** +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +ESSAYS OF MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE + + + + +Translated by Charles Cotton + +Edited by William Carew Hazilitt + +1877 + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME 9. + +I. Of the inconstancy of our actions. +II. Of drunkenness. +III. A custom of the Isle of Cea. +IV. To-morrow's a new day. +V. Of conscience. +VI. Use makes perfect. + + + +ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE + +BOOK THE SECOND + +CHAPTER I + +OF THE INCONSTANCY OF OUR ACTIONS + +Such as make it their business to oversee human actions, do not find +themselves in anything so much perplexed as to reconcile them and bring +them into the world's eye with the same lustre and reputation; for they +commonly so strangely contradict one another that it seems impossible +they should proceed from one and the same person. We find the younger +Marius one while a son of Mars and another a son of Venus. Pope Boniface +VIII. entered, it is said, into his Papacy like a fox, behaved himself in +it like a lion, and died like a dog; and who could believe it to be the +same Nero, the perfect image of all cruelty, who, having the sentence of +a condemned man brought to him to sign, as was the custom, cried out, +"O that I had never been taught to write!" so much it went to his heart +to condemn a man to death. All story is full of such examples, and every +man is able to produce so many to himself, or out of his own practice or +observation, that I sometimes wonder to see men of understanding give +themselves the trouble of sorting these pieces, considering that +irresolution appears to me to be the most common and manifest vice of our +nature witness the famous verse of the player Publius: + + "Malum consilium est, quod mutari non potest." + + ["'Tis evil counsel that will admit no change." + --Pub. Mim., ex Aul. Gell., xvii. 14.] + +There seems some reason in forming a judgment of a man from the most +usual methods of his life; but, considering the natural instability of +our manners and opinions, I have often thought even the best authors a +little out in so obstinately endeavouring to make of us any constant and +solid contexture; they choose a general air of a man, and according to +that interpret all his actions, of which, if they cannot bend some to a +uniformity with the rest, they are presently imputed to dissimulation. +Augustus has escaped them, for there was in him so apparent, sudden, and +continual variety of actions all the whole course of his life, that he +has slipped away clear and undecided from the most daring critics. I can +more hardly believe a man's constancy than any other virtue, and believe +nothing sooner than the contrary. He that would judge of a man in detail +and distinctly, bit by bit, would oftener be able to speak the truth. It +is a hard matter, from all antiquity, to pick out a dozen men who have +formed their lives to one certain and constant course, which is the +principal design of wisdom; for to comprise it all in one word, says one +of the ancients, and to contract all the rules of human life into one, +"it is to will, and not to will, always one and the same thing: I will +not vouchsafe," says he, "to add, provided the will be just, for if it be +not just, it is impossible it should be always one." I have indeed +formerly learned that vice is nothing but irregularity, and want of +measure, and therefore 'tis impossible to fix constancy to it. 'Tis a +saying of. Demosthenes, "that the beginning oh all virtue is +consultation and deliberation; the end and perfection, constancy." If we +would resolve on any certain course by reason, we should pitch upon the +best, but nobody has thought on't: + + "Quod petiit, spernit; repetit, quod nuper omisit; + AEstuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto." + + ["That which he sought he despises; what he lately lost, he seeks + again. He fluctuates, and is inconsistent in the whole order of + life.!--Horace, Ep., i. I, 98.] + +Our ordinary practice is to follow the inclinations of our appetite, be +it to the left or right, upwards or downwards, according as we are wafted +by the breath of occasion. We never meditate what we would have till the +instant we have a mind to have it; and change like that little creature +which receives its colour from what it is laid upon. What we but just +now proposed to ourselves we immediately alter, and presently return +again to it; 'tis nothing but shifting and inconsistency: + + "Ducimur, ut nervis alienis mobile lignum." + + ["We are turned about like the top with the thong of others." + --Idem, Sat., ii. 7, 82.] + +We do not go, we are driven; like things that float, now leisurely, then +with violence, according to the gentleness or rapidity of the current: + + "Nonne videmus, + Quid sibi quisque velit, nescire, et quaerere semper + Commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit?" + + ["Do we not see them, uncertain what they want, and always asking + for something new, as if they could get rid of the burthen." + --Lucretius, iii. 1070. + +Every day a new whimsy, and our humours keep motion with the time. + + "Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse + Juppiter auctificas lustravit lumine terras." + + ["Such are the minds of men, that they change as the light with + which father Jupiter himself has illumined the increasing earth." + --Cicero, Frag. Poet, lib. x.] + +We fluctuate betwixt various inclinations; we will nothing freely, +nothing absolutely, nothing constantly. In any one who had prescribed +and established determinate laws and rules in his head for his own +conduct, we should perceive an equality of manners, an order and an +infallible relation of one thing or action to another, shine through his +whole life; Empedocles observed this discrepancy in the Agrigentines, +that they gave themselves up to delights, as if every day was their last, +and built as if they had been to live for ever. The judgment would not +be hard to make, as is very evident in the younger Cato; he who therein +has found one step, it will lead him to all the rest; 'tis a harmony of +very according sounds, that cannot jar. But with us 't is quite +contrary; every particular action requires a particular judgment. The +surest way to steer, in my opinion, would be to take our measures from +the nearest allied circumstances, without engaging in a longer +inquisition, or without concluding any other consequence. I was told, +during the civil disorders of our poor kingdom, that a maid, hard by the +place where I then was, had thrown herself out of a window to avoid being +forced by a common soldier who was quartered in the house; she was not +killed by the fall, and therefore, repeating her attempt would have cut +her own throat, had she not been prevented; but having, nevertheless, +wounded herself to some show of danger, she voluntarily confessed that +the soldier had not as yet importuned her otherwise; than by courtship, +earnest solicitation, and presents; but that she was afraid that in the +end he would have proceeded to violence, all which she delivered with +such a countenance and accent, and withal embrued in her own blood, the +highest testimony of her virtue, that she appeared another Lucretia; and +yet I have since been very well assured that both before and after she +was not so difficult a piece. And, according to my host's tale in +Ariosto, be as handsome a man and as worthy a gentleman as you will, do +not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity for having +been repulsed; you do not know but she may have a better stomach to your +muleteer. + +Antigonus, having taken one of his soldiers into a great degree of favour +and esteem for his valour, gave his physicians strict charge to cure him +of a long and inward disease under which he had a great while languished, +and observing that, after his cure, he went much more coldly to work than +before, he asked him what had so altered and cowed him: "Yourself, sir," +replied the other, "by having eased me of the pains that made me weary of +my life." Lucullus's soldier having been rifled by the enemy, performed +upon them in revenge a brave exploit, by which having made himself a +gainer, Lucullus, who had conceived a good opinion of him from that +action, went about to engage him in some enterprise of very great danger, +with all the plausible persuasions and promises he could think of; + + "Verbis, quae timido quoque possent addere mentem" + + ["Words which might add courage to any timid man." + --Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 1, 2.] + +"Pray employ," answered he, "some miserable plundered soldier in that +affair": + + "Quantumvis rusticus, ibit, + Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit;" + + ["Some poor fellow, who has lost his purse, will go whither you + wish, said he."--Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 39.] + +and flatly refused to go. When we read that Mahomet having furiously +rated Chasan, Bassa of the Janissaries, because he had seen the +Hungarians break into his squadrons, and himself behave very ill in the +business, and that Chasan, instead of any other answer, rushed furiously +alone, scimitar in hand, into the first body of the enemy, where he was +presently cut to pieces, we are not to look upon that action, +peradventure, so much as vindication as a turn of mind, not so much +natural valour as a sudden despite. The man you saw yesterday so +adventurous and brave, you must not think it strange to see him as great +a poltroon the next: anger, necessity, company, wine, or the sound of the +trumpet had roused his spirits; this is no valour formed and established +by reason, but accidentally created by such circumstances, and therefore +it is no wonder if by contrary circumstances it appear quite another +thing. + +These supple variations and contradictions so manifest in us, have given +occasion to some to believe that man has two souls; other two distinct +powers that always accompany and incline us, the one towards good and the +other towards ill, according to their own nature and propension; so +abrupt a variety not being imaginable to flow from one and the same +source. + +For my part, the puff of every accident not only carries me along with it +according to its own proclivity, but moreover I discompose and trouble +myself by the instability of my own posture; and whoever will look +narrowly into his own bosom, will hardly find himself twice in the same +condition. I give to my soul sometimes one face and sometimes another, +according to the side I turn her to. If I speak variously of myself, it +is because I consider myself variously; all the contrarieties are there +to be found in one corner or another; after one fashion or another: +bashful, insolent; chaste, lustful; prating, silent; laborious, delicate; +ingenious, heavy; melancholic, pleasant; lying, true; knowing, ignorant; +liberal, covetous, and prodigal: I find all this in myself, more or less, +according as I turn myself about; and whoever will sift himself to the +bottom, will find in himself, and even in his own judgment, this +volubility and discordance. I have nothing to say of myself entirely, +simply, and solidly without mixture and confusion. 'Distinguo' is the +most universal member of my logic. Though I always intend to speak well +of good things, and rather to interpret such things as fall out in the +best sense than otherwise, yet such is the strangeness of our condition, +that we are often pushed on to do well even by vice itself, if well-doing +were not judged by the intention only. One gallant action, therefore, +ought not to conclude a man valiant; if a man were brave indeed, he would +be always so, and upon all occasions. If it were a habit of valour and +not a sally, it would render a man equally resolute in all accidents; the +same alone as in company; the same in lists as in a battle: for, let them +say what they will, there is not one valour for the pavement and another +for the field; he would bear a sickness in his bed as bravely as a wound +in the field, and no more fear death in his own house than at an assault. +We should not then see the same man charge into a breach with a brave +assurance, and afterwards torment himself like a woman for the loss of a +trial at law or the death of a child; when, being an infamous coward, he +is firm in the necessities of poverty; when he shrinks at the sight of a +barber's razor, and rushes fearless upon the swords of the enemy, the +action is commendable, not the man. + +Many of the Greeks, says Cicero, --[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 27.]-- +cannot endure the sight of an enemy, and yet are courageous in sickness; +the Cimbrians and Celtiberians quite contrary; + + "Nihil enim potest esse aequabile, + quod non a certa ratione proficiscatur." + + ["Nothing can be regular that does not proceed from a fixed ground + of reason."-- Idem, ibid., c. 26.] + +No valour can be more extreme in its kind than that of Alexander: but it +is of but one kind, nor full enough throughout, nor universal. +Incomparable as it is, it has yet some blemishes; of which his being so +often at his wits' end upon every light suspicion of his captains +conspiring against his life, and the carrying himself in that inquisition +with so much vehemence and indiscreet injustice, and with a fear that +subverted his natural reason, is one pregnant instance. The +superstition, also, with which he was so much tainted, carries along with +it some image of pusillanimity; and the excess of his penitence for the +murder of Clytus is also a testimony of the unevenness of his courage. +All we perform is no other than a cento, as a man may say, of several +pieces, and we would acquire honour by a false title. Virtue cannot be +followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some +other purpose, she presently pulls it away again. 'Tis a vivid and +strong tincture which, when the soul has once thoroughly imbibed it, will +not out but with the piece. And, therefore, to make a right judgment of +a man, we are long and very observingly to follow his trace: if constancy +does not there stand firm upon her own proper base, + + "Cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est," + + ["If the way of his life is thoroughly considered and traced out." + --Cicero, Paradox, v. 1.] + +if the variety of occurrences makes him alter his pace (his path, I mean, +for the pace may be faster or slower) let him go; such an one runs before +the wind, "Avau le dent," as the motto of our Talebot has it. + +'Tis no wonder, says one of the ancients, that chance has so great a +dominion over us, since it is by chance we live. It is not possible for +any one who has not designed his life for some certain end, it is +impossible for any one to arrange the pieces, who has not the whole form +already contrived in his imagination. Of what use are colours to him +that knows not what he is to paint? No one lays down a certain design +for his life, and we only deliberate thereof by pieces. The archer ought +first to know at what he is to aim, and then accommodate his arm, bow, +string, shaft, and motion to it; our counsels deviate and wander, because +not levelled to any determinate end. No wind serves him who addresses +his voyage to no certain, port. I cannot acquiesce in the judgment given +by one in the behalf of Sophocles, who concluded him capable of the +management of domestic affairs, against the accusation of his son, from +having read one of his tragedies. + +Neither do I allow of the conjecture of the Parians, sent to regulate the +Milesians sufficient for such a consequence as they from thence derived +coming to visit the island, they took notice of such grounds as were best +husbanded, and such country-houses as were best governed; and having +taken the names of the owners, when they had assembled the citizens, they +appointed these farmers for new governors and magistrates; concluding +that they, who had been so provident in their own private concerns, would +be so of the public too. We are all lumps, and of so various and inform +a contexture, that every piece plays, every moment, its own game, and +there is as much difference betwixt us and ourselves as betwixt us and +others: + + "Magnam rem puta, unum hominem agere." + + ["Esteem it a great thing always to act as one and the same + man."--Seneca, Ep., 150.] + +Since ambition can teach man valour, temperance, and liberality, and even +justice too; seeing that avarice can inspire the courage of a shop-boy, +bred and nursed up in obscurity and ease, with the assurance to expose +himself so far from the fireside to the mercy of the waves and angry +Neptune in a frail boat; that she further teaches discretion and +prudence; and that even Venus can inflate boys under the discipline of +the rod with boldness and resolution, and infuse masculine courage into +the heart of tender virgins in their mothers' arms: + + "Hac duce, custodes furtim transgressa jacentes, + Ad juvenem tenebris sola puella venit:" + + ["She leading, the maiden, furtively passing by the recumbent + guards, goes alone in the darkness to the youth." + --Tibullus, ii. 2, 75.] + +'tis not all the understanding has to do, simply to judge us by our +outward actions; it must penetrate the very soul, and there discover by +what springs the motion is guided. But that being a high and hazardous +undertaking, I could wish that fewer would attempt it. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF DRUNKENNESS + +The world is nothing but variety and disemblance, vices are all alike, as +they are vices, and peradventure the Stoics understand them so; but +although they are equally vices, yet they are not all equal vices; and he +who has transgressed the ordinary bounds a hundred paces: + + "Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum," + + ["Beyond or within which the right cannot exist." + --Horace, Sat., i, 1, 107.] + +should not be in a worse condition than he that has advanced but ten, is +not to be believed; or that sacrilege is not worse than stealing a +cabbage: + + "Nec vincet ratio hoc, tantumdem ut peccet, idemque, + Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti, + Et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit." + +There is in this as great diversity as in anything whatever. The +confounding of the order and measure of sins is dangerous: murderers, +traitors, and tyrants get too much by it, and it is not reasonable they +should flatter their consciences, because another man is idle, +lascivious, or not assiduous at his devotion. Every one overrates the +offence of his companions, but extenuates his own. Our very instructors +themselves rank them sometimes, in my opinion, very ill. As Socrates +said that the principal office of wisdom was to distinguish good from +evil, we, the best of whom are vicious, ought also to say the same of the +science of distinguishing betwixt vice and vice, without which, and that +very exactly performed, the virtuous and the wicked will remain +confounded and unrecognised. + +Now, amongst the rest, drunkenness seems to me to be a gross and brutish +vice. The soul has greater part in the rest, and there are some vices +that have something, if a man may so say, of generous in them; there are +vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence, valour, +prudence, dexterity, and address; this one is totally corporeal and +earthly. And the rudest nation this day in Europe is that alone where it +is in fashion. Other vices discompose the understanding: this totally +overthrows it and renders the body stupid: + + "Cum vini vis penetravit . . . + Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur + Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens, + Nant oculi; clamor, singultus, jurgia, gliscunt." + + ["When the power of wine has penetrated us, a heaviness of the limbs + follows, the legs of the tottering person are impeded; the tongue + grows torpid, the mind is dimmed, the eyes swim; noise, hiccup, and + quarrels arise.--"Lucretius, i. 3, 475.] + +The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and +government of himself. And 'tis said amongst other things upon this +subject, that, as the must fermenting in a vessel, works up to the top +whatever it has in the bottom, so wine, in those who have drunk beyond +measure, vents the most inward secrets: + + "Tu sapientum + Curas et arcanum jocoso + Consilium retegis Lyaeo." + + ["Thou disclosest to the merry Lyacus the cares and secret + counsel of the wise."--Horace, Od., xxi. 1, 114.] + + [Lyacus, a name given to Bacchus.] + +Josephus tells us that by giving an ambassador the enemy had sent to him +his full dose of liquor, he wormed out his secrets. And yet, Augustus, +committing the most inward secrets of his affairs to Lucius Piso, who +conquered Thrace, never found him faulty in the least, no more than +Tiberias did Cossus, with whom he intrusted his whole counsels, though we +know they were both so given to drink that they have often been fain to +carry both the one and the other drunk out of the Senate: + + "Hesterno inflatum venas ut semper, Lyaeo." + + ["Their veins full, as usual, of yesterday's wine." + --Virgil, Egl., vi. 15.] + +And the design of killing Caesar was as safely communicated to Cimber, +though he would often be drunk, as to Cassius, who drank nothing but +water. + + [As to which Cassius pleasantly said: "What, shall I bear + a tyrant, I who cannot bear wine?"] + +We see our Germans, when drunk as the devil, know their post, remember +the word, and keep to their ranks: + + "Nec facilis victoria de madidis, et + Blaesis, atque mero titubantibus." + + ["Nor is a victory easily obtained over men so drunk, they can + scarce speak or stand."--Juvenal, Sat., xv. 47.] + +I could not have believed there had been so profound, senseless, and dead +a degree of drunkenness had I not read in history that Attalus having, +to put a notable affront upon him, invited to supper the same Pausanias, +who upon the very same occasion afterwards killed Philip of Macedon, +a king who by his excellent qualities gave sufficient testimony of his +education in the house and company of Epaminondas, made him drink to such +a pitch that he could after abandon his beauty, as of a hedge strumpet, +to the muleteers and servants of the basest office in the house. And I +have been further told by a lady whom I highly honour and esteem, that +near Bordeaux and about Castres where she lives, a country woman, a +widow of chaste repute, perceiving in herself the first symptoms of +breeding, innocently told her neighbours that if she had a husband she +should think herself with child; but the causes of suspicion every day +more and more increasing, and at last growing up to a manifest proof, the +poor woman was reduced to the necessity of causing it to be proclaimed in +her parish church, that whoever had done that deed and would frankly +confess it, she did not only promise to forgive, but moreover to marry +him, if he liked the motion; whereupon a young fellow that served her in +the quality of a labourer, encouraged by this proclamation, declared that +he had one holiday found her, having taken too much of the bottle, so +fast asleep by the chimney and in so indecent a posture, that he could +conveniently do his business without waking her; and they yet live +together man and wife. + +It is true that antiquity has not much decried this vice; the writings +even of several philosophers speak very tenderly of it, and even amongst +the Stoics there are some who advise folks to give themselves sometimes +the liberty to drink, nay, to drunkenness, to refresh the soul: + + "Hoc quoque virtutum quondam certamine, magnum + Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt." + + ["In this trial of power formerly they relate that the great + Socrates deserved the palm."--Cornet. Gallus, Ep., i. 47.] + +That censor and reprover of others, Cato, was reproached that he was a +hard drinker: + + Narratur et prisci Catonis + Saepe mero caluisse virtus." + + ["And of old Cato it is said, that his courage was often warmed with + wine."--Horace, Od., xxi. 3, 11. --Cato the Elder.] + +Cyrus, that so renowned king, amongst the other qualities by which he +claimed to be preferred before his brother Artaxerxes, urged this +excellence, that he could drink a great deal more than he. And in the +best governed nations this trial of skill in drinking is very much in +use. I have heard Silvius, an excellent physician of Paris, say that +lest the digestive faculties of the stomach should grow idle, it were not +amiss once a month to rouse them by this excess, and to spur them lest +they should grow dull and rusty; and one author tells us that the +Persians used to consult about their most important affairs after being +well warmed with wine. + +My taste and constitution are greater enemies to this vice than my +discourse; for besides that I easily submit my belief to the authority of +ancient opinions, I look upon it indeed as an unmanly and stupid vice, +but less malicious and hurtful than the others, which, almost all, more +directly jostle public society. And if we cannot please ourselves but it +must cost us something, as they hold, I find this vice costs a man's +conscience less than the others, besides that it is of no difficult +preparation, nor hard to be found, a consideration not altogether to be +despised. A man well advanced both in dignity and age, amongst three +principal commodities that he said remained to him of life, reckoned to +me this for one, and where would a man more justly find it than amongst +the natural conveniences? But he did not take it right, for delicacy and +the curious choice of wines is therein to be avoided. If you found your +pleasure upon drinking of the best, you condemn yourself to the penance +of drinking of the worst. Your taste must be more indifferent and free; +so delicate a palate is not required to make a good toper. The Germans +drink almost indifferently of all wines with delight; their business is +to pour down and not to taste; and it's so much the better for them: +their pleasure is so much the more plentiful and nearer at hand. + +Secondly, to drink, after the French fashion, but at two meals, and then +very moderately, is to be too sparing of the favours of the god. There +is more time and constancy required than so. The ancients spent whole +nights in this exercise, and ofttimes added the day following to eke it +out, and therefore we are to take greater liberty and stick closer to our +work. I have seen a great lord of my time, a man of high enterprise and +famous success, that without setting himself to't, and after his ordinary +rate of drinking at meals, drank not much less than five quarts of wine, +and at his going away appeared but too wise and discreet, to the +detriment of our affairs. The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course +of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it; +we should, like shopboys and labourers, refuse no occasion nor omit any +opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds. Methinks we +every day abridge and curtail the use of wine, and that the after +breakfasts, dinner snatches, and collations I used to see in my father's +house, when I was a boy, were more usual and frequent then than now. + +Is it that we pretend to a reformation? Truly, no: but it may be we are +more addicted to Venus than our fathers were. They are two exercises +that thwart and hinder one another in their vigour. Lechery weakens our +stomach on the one side; and on the other sobriety renders us more spruce +and amorous for the exercise of love. + +'Tis wonderful what strange stories I have heard my father tell of the +chastity of that age wherein he lived. It was for him to say it, being +both by art and nature cut out and finished for the service of ladies. +He spoke well and little: ever mixing his language with some illustration +out of authors most in use, especially in Spanish, and among the Spanish +he whom they called Marcus Aurelius --[ Guevara's Golden Book of Marcus +Aurelius Antoninus.]-- was ordinarily in his mouth. His behaviour was +gently grave, humble, and very modest; he was very solicitous of neatness +and propriety both in his person and clothes, whether on horseback or +afoot, he was monstrously punctual in his word; and of a conscience and +religion generally tending rather towards superstition than otherwise. +For a man of little stature, very strong, well proportioned, and well +knit; of a pleasing countenance inclining to brown, and very adroit in +all noble exercises. I have yet in the house to be seen canes poured +full of lead, with which they say he exercised his arms for throwing the +bar or the stone, or in fencing; and shoes with leaden soles to make him +lighter for running or leaping. Of his vaulting he has left little +miracles behind him: I have seen him when past three score laugh at our +exercises, and throw himself in his furred gown into the saddle, make the +tour of a table upon his thumbs and scarce ever mount the stairs into his +chamber without taking three or four steps at a time. But as to what I +was speaking of before; he said there was scarce one woman of quality of +ill fame in the whole province: he would tell of strange confidences, and +some of them his own, with virtuous women, free from any manner of +suspicion of ill, and for his own part solemnly swore he was a virgin at +his marriage; and yet it was after a long practice of arms beyond the +mountains, of which wars he left us a journal under his own hand, wherein +he has given a precise account from point to point of all passages, both +relating to the public and to himself. And he was, moreover, married at +a well advanced maturity, in the year 1528, the three-and-thirtieth year +of his age, upon his way home from Italy. But let us return to our +bottles. + +The incommodities of old age, that stand in need of some refreshment and +support, might with reason beget in me a desire of this faculty, it being +as it were the last pleasure the course of years deprives us of. The +natural heat, say the good-fellows, first seats itself in the feet: that +concerns infancy; thence it mounts into the middle region, where it makes +a long abode and produces, in my opinion, the sole true pleasures of +human life; all other pleasures in comparison sleep; towards the end, +like a vapour that still mounts upward, it arrives at the throat, where +it makes its final residence, and concludes the progress. I do not, +nevertheless, understand how a man can extend the pleasure of drinking +beyond thirst, and forge in his imagination an appetite artificial and +against nature; my stomach would not proceed so far; it has enough to do +to deal with what it takes in for its necessity. My constitution is not +to care for drink but as following eating and washing down my meat, and +for that reason my last draught is always the greatest. And seeing that +in old age we have our palate furred with phlegms or depraved by some +other ill constitution, the wine tastes better to us as the pores are +cleaner washed and laid more open. At least, I seldom taste the first +glass well. Anacharsis wondered that the Greeks drank in greater glasses +towards the end of a meal than at the beginning; which was, I suppose, +for the same reason the Germans do the same, who then begin the battle of +drink. + +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age, and to get drunk +till forty; but, after forty, gives them leave to please themselves, and +to mix a little liberally in their feasts the influence of Dionysos, that +good deity who restores to younger men their gaiety and to old men their +youth; who mollifies the passions of the soul, as iron is softened by +fire; and in his Lazes allows such merry meetings, provided they have a +discreet chief to govern and keep them in order, as good and of great +utility; drunkenness being, he says, a true and certain trial of every +one's nature, and, withal, fit to inspire old men with mettle to divert +themselves in dancing and music; things of great use, and that they dare +not attempt when sober. He, moreover, says that wine is able to supply +the soul with temperance and the body with health. Nevertheless, these +restrictions, in part borrowed from the Carthaginians, please him: that +men forbear excesses in the expeditions of war; that every judge and +magistrate abstain from it when about the administrations of his place or +the consultations of the public affairs; that the day is not to be +employed with it, that being a time due to other occupations, nor the +night on which a man intends to get children. + +'Tis said that the philosopher Stilpo, when oppressed with age, purposely +hastened his end by drinking pure wine. The same thing, but not designed +by him, despatched also the philosopher Arcesilaus. + +But 'tis an old and pleasant question, whether the soul of a wise man can +be overcome by the strength of wine? + + "Si munitae adhibet vim sapientiae." + +To what vanity does the good opinion we have of ourselves push us? The +most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to +keep itself upright, and from being overthrown by its own weakness. +There is not one of a thousand that is right and settled so much as one +minute in a whole life, and that may not very well doubt, whether +according to her natural condition she ever can be; but to join constancy +to it is her utmost perfection; I mean when nothing should jostle and +discompose her, which a thousand accidents may do. 'Tis to much purpose +that the great poet Lucretius keeps such a clatter with his philosophy, +when, behold! he goes mad with a love philtre. Is it to be imagined +that an apoplexy will not stun Socrates as well as a porter? Some men +have forgotten their own names by the violence of a disease; and a slight +wound has turned the judgment of others topsy-turvy. Let him be as wise +as he will, after all he is but a man; and than that what is there more +frail, more miserable, or more nothing? Wisdom does not force our +natural dispositions, + + "Sudores itaque, et pallorem exsistere toto + Corpore, et infringi linguam, vocemque aboriri, + Caligare oculos, sonere aures, succidere artus, + Demque concidere, ex animi terrore, videmus." + + ["Sweat and paleness come over the whole body, the tongue is + rendered powerless, the voice dies away, the eyes are darkened, + there is ringing in the ears, the limbs sink under us by the + influence of fear."--Lucretius, iii. 155.] + +he must shut his eyes against the blow that threatens him; he must +tremble upon the margin of a precipice, like a child; nature having +reserved these light marks of her authority, not to be forced by our +reason and the stoic virtue, to teach man his mortality and our weakness; +he turns pale with fear, red with shame, and groans with the cholic, if +not with desperate outcry, at least with hoarse and broken voice: + + "Humani a se nihil alienum putet." + + [" Let him not think himself exempt from that which is incidental to + men in general."--Terence, Heauton, i. 1, 25.] + +The poets, that feign all things at pleasure, dare not acquit their +greatest heroes of tears: + + "Sic fatur lacrymans, classique immittit habenas." + + ["Thus he speaks, weeping, and then sets sail with his fleet." + --Aeneid, vi. i.] + +'Tis sufficient for a man to curb and moderate his inclinations, for +totally to suppress them is not in him to do. Even our great Plutarch, +that excellent and perfect judge of human actions, when he sees Brutus +and Torquatus kill their children, begins to doubt whether virtue could +proceed so far, and to question whether these persons had not rather been +stimulated by some other passion.--[Plutarch, Life of Publicola, c. 3.] +-- All actions exceeding the ordinary bounds are liable to sinister +interpretation, for as much as our liking no more holds with what is +above than with what is below it. + +Let us leave that other sect, that sets up an express profession of +scornful superiority --[The Stoics.]--: but when even in that sect, +reputed the most quiet and gentle, we hear these rhodomontades of +Metrodorus: + + "Occupavi te, Fortuna, atque cepi: omnesque aditus tuos + interclusi ut ad me aspirare non posses;" + + [Fortune, I have got the better of thee, and have made all the + avenues so sure thou canst not come at me." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 9.] + +when Anaxarchus, by command of Nicocreon the tyrant of Cyprus, was put +into a stone mortar, and laid upon with mauls of iron, ceases not to say, +"Strike, batter, break; 'tis not Anaxarchus, 'tis but his sheath that you +pound and bray so"; when we hear our martyrs cry out to the tyrant from +the middle of the flame, "This side is roasted enough, fall to and eat, +it is enough done; fall to work with the other;" when we hear the child +in Josephus' torn piece-meal with pincers, defying Antiochus, and crying +out with a constant and assured voice: "Tyrant, thou losest thy labour, +I am still at ease; where is the pain, where are the torments with which +thou didst so threaten me? Is this all thou canst do? My constancy +torments thee more than thy cruelty does me. O pitiful coward, thou +faintest, and I grow stronger; make me complain, make me bend, make me +yield if thou canst; encourage thy guards, cheer up thy executioners; +see, see they faint, and can do no more; arm them, flesh them anew, spur +them up"; truly, a man must confess that there is some phrenzy, some +fury, how holy soever, that at that time possesses those souls. When we +come to these Stoical sallies: "I had rather be mad than voluptuous," a +saying of Antisthenes. When Sextius tells us, "he had rather be fettered +with affliction than pleasure": when Epicurus takes upon him to play with +his gout, and, refusing health and ease, defies all torments, and +despising the lesser pains, as disdaining to contend with them, he covets +and calls out for others sharper, more violent, and more worthy of him; + + "Spumantemque dari, pecora inter inertia, votis + Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem:" + + ["And instead of timid beasts, wishes the foaming boar or tawny lion + would come from the mountain."--AEneid, iv. 158.] + +who but must conclude that these are wild sallies pushed on by a courage +that has broken loose from its place? Our soul cannot from her own seat +reach so high; 'tis necessary she must leave it, raise herself up, and, +taking the bridle in her teeth, transport her man so far that he shall +afterwards himself be astonished at what he has done; as, in war, the +heat of battle impels generous soldiers to perform things of so infinite +danger, as afterwards, recollecting them, they themselves are the first +to wonder at; as it also fares with the poets, who are often rapt with +admiration of their own writings, and know not where again to find the +track through which they performed so fine a Career; which also is in +them called fury and rapture. And as Plato says, 'tis to no purpose for +a sober-minded man to knock at the door of poesy: so Aristotle says, that +no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness; and he has reason +to call all transports, how commendable soever, that surpass our own +judgment and understanding, madness; forasmuch as wisdom is a regular +government of the soul, which is carried on with measure and proportion, +and for which she is to herself responsible. Plato argues thus, that the +faculty of prophesying is so far above us, that we must be out of +ourselves when we meddle with it, and our prudence must either be +obstructed by sleep or sickness, or lifted from her place by some +celestial rapture. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A CUSTOM OF THE ISLE OF CEA + + [Cos. Cea is the form of the name given by Pliny] + +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt, much more to write at +random and play the fool, as I do, ought to be reputed doubting, for it +is for novices and freshmen to inquire and to dispute, and for the +chairman to moderate and determine. + +My moderator is the authority of the divine will, that governs us without +contradiction, and that is seated above these human and vain +contestations. + +Philip having forcibly entered into Peloponnesus, and some one saying to +Damidas that the Lacedaemonians were likely very much to suffer if they +did not in time reconcile themselves to his favour: "Why, you pitiful +fellow," replied he, "what can they suffer who do not fear to die?" It +being also asked of Agis, which way a man might live free? "Why," said +he, "by despising death." These, and a thousand other sayings to the +same purpose, distinctly sound of something more than the patient +attending the stroke of death when it shall come; for there are several +accidents in life far worse to suffer than death itself. Witness the +Lacedaemonian boy taken by Antigonus, and sold for a slave, who being by +his master commanded to some base employment: "Thou shalt see," says the +boy, "whom thou hast bought; it would be a shame for me to serve, being +so near the reach of liberty," and having so said, threw himself from the +top of the house. Antipater severely threatening the Lacedaemonians, +that he might the better incline them to acquiesce in a certain demand of +his: "If thou threatenest us with more than death," replied they, "we +shall the more willingly die"; and to Philip, having written them word +that he would frustrate all their enterprises: "What, wilt thou also +hinder us from dying?" This is the meaning of the sentence, "That the +wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can; and that the +most obliging present Nature has made us, and which takes from us all +colour of complaint of our condition, is to have delivered into our own +custody the keys of life; she has only ordered, one door into life, but a +hundred thousand ways out. We may be straitened for earth to live upon, +but earth sufficient to die upon can never be wanting, as Boiocalus +answered the Romans."--[Tacitus, Annal., xiii. 56.]-- Why dost thou +complain of this world? it detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the +cause, if thou livest in pain. There needs no more to die but to will to +die: + + "Ubique mors est; optime hoc cavit deus. + Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest; + At nemo mortem; mille ad hanc aditus patent." + + ["Death is everywhere: heaven has well provided for that. Any one + may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death. To death + there are a thousand avenues."--Seneca, Theb:, i, I, 151.] + +Neither is it a recipe for one disease only; death is the infallible cure +of all; 'tis a most assured port that is never to be feared, and very +often to be sought. It comes all to one, whether a man give himself his +end, or stays to receive it by some other means; whether he pays before +his day, or stay till his day of payment come; from whencesoever it +comes, it is still his; in what part soever the thread breaks, there's +the end of the clue. The most voluntary death is the finest. Life +depends upon the pleasure of others; death upon our own. We ought not to +accommodate ourselves to our own humour in anything so much as in this. +Reputation is not concerned in such an enterprise; 'tis folly to be +concerned by any such apprehension. Living is slavery if the liberty of +dying be wanting. The ordinary method of cure is carried on at the +expense of life; they torment us with caustics, incisions, and +amputations of limbs; they interdict aliment and exhaust our blood; one +step farther and we are cured indeed and effectually. Why is not the +jugular vein as much at our disposal as the median vein? For a desperate +disease a desperate cure. Servius the grammarian, being tormented with +the gout, could think of no better remedy than to apply poison to his +legs, to deprive them of their sense; let them be gouty at their will, so +they were insensible of pain. God gives us leave enough to go when He is +pleased to reduce us to such a condition that to live is far worse than +to die. 'Tis weakness to truckle under infirmities, but it's madness to +nourish them. The Stoics say, that it is living according to nature in a +wise man to, take his leave of life, even in the height of prosperity, +if he do it opportunely; and in a fool to prolong it, though he be +miserable, provided he be not indigent of those things which they repute +to be according to nature. As I do not offend the law against thieves +when I embezzle my own money and cut my own purse; nor that against +incendiaries when I burn my own wood; so am I not under the lash of those +made against murderers for having deprived myself of my own life. +Hegesias said, that as the condition of life did, so the condition of +death ought to depend upon our own choice. And Diogenes meeting the +philosopher Speusippus, so blown up with an inveterate dropsy that he was +fain to be carried in a litter, and by him saluted with the compliment, +"I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other, " who +art content to live in such a condition. + +And in fact, not long after, Speusippus, weary of so languishing a state +of life, found a means to die. + +But this does not pass without admitting a dispute: for many are of +opinion that we cannot quit this garrison of the world without the +express command of Him who has placed us in it; and that it appertains to +God who has placed us here, not for ourselves only but for His Glory and +the service of others, to dismiss us when it shall best please Him, and +not for us to depart without His licence: that we are not born for +ourselves only, but for our country also, the laws of which require an +account from us upon the score of their own interest, and have an action +of manslaughter good against us; and if these fail to take cognisance of +the fact, we are punished in the other world as deserters of our duty: + + "Proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum + Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi + Proiecere animas." + + ["Thence the sad ones occupy the next abodes, who, though free + from guilt, were by their own hands slain, and, hating light, + sought death."--AEneid, vi. 434.] + +There is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied to than in +breaking it, and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in +Cato; 'tis indiscretion and impatience that push us on to these +precipices: no accidents can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks +and requires evils, pains, and grief, as the things by which she is +nourished and supported; the menaces of tyrants, racks, and tortures +serve only to animate and rouse her: + + "Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus + Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, + Per damma, percmdes, ab ipso + Ducit opes, animumque ferro." + + ["As in Mount Algidus, the sturdy oak even from the axe itself + derives new vigour and life."--Horace, Od., iv. 4, 57.] + +And as another says: + + "Non est, ut putas, virtus, pater, + Timere vitam; sed malis ingentibus + Obstare, nec se vertere, ac retro dare." + + ["Father, 'tis no virtue to fear life, but to withstand great + misfortunes, nor turn back from them."--Seneca, Theb., i. 190.] + +Or as this: + + "Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem + Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest." + + ["It is easy in adversity to despise death; but he acts more + bravely, who can live wretched."--Martial, xi. 56, 15.] + +'Tis cowardice, not virtue, to lie squat in a furrow, under a tomb, to +evade the blows of fortune; virtue never stops nor goes out of her path, +for the greatest storm that blows: + + "Si fractus illabatur orbis, + Impavidum ferient ruinae." + + ["Should the world's axis crack, the ruins will but crush + a fearless head."--Horace, Od., iii. 3, 7.] + +For the most part, the flying from other inconveniences brings us to +this; nay, endeavouring to evade death, we often run into its very mouth: + + "Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori?" + + ["Tell me, is it not madness, that one should die for fear + of dying?"--Martial, ii. 80, 2.] + +like those who, from fear of a precipice, throw themselves headlong into +it; + + "Multos in summa pericula misfit + Venturi timor ipse mali: fortissimus ille est, + Qui promptus metuenda pati, si cominus instent, + Et differre potest." + + ["The fear of future ills often makes men run into extreme danger; + he is truly brave who boldly dares withstand the mischiefs he + apprehends, when they confront him and can be deferred." + --Lucan, vii. 104.] + + "Usque adeo, mortis formidine, vitae + Percipit humanos odium, lucisque videndae, + Ut sibi consciscant moerenti pectore lethum + Obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem." + + ["Death to that degree so frightens some men, that causing them to + hate both life and light, they kill themselves, miserably forgetting + that this same fear is the fountain of their cares." + --Lucretius, iii. 79.] + +Plato, in his Laws, assigns an ignominious sepulture to him who has +deprived his nearest and best friend, namely himself, of life and his +destined course, being neither compelled so to do by public judgment, +by any sad and inevitable accident of fortune, nor by any insupportable +disgrace, but merely pushed on by cowardice and the imbecility of a +timorous soul. And the opinion that makes so little of life, is +ridiculous; for it is our being, 'tis all we have. Things of a nobler +and more elevated being may, indeed, reproach ours; but it is against +nature for us to contemn and make little account of ourselves; 'tis a +disease particular to man, and not discerned in any other creatures, to +hate and despise itself. And it is a vanity of the same stamp to desire +to be something else than what we are; the effect of such a desire does +not at all touch us, forasmuch as it is contradicted and hindered in +itself. He that desires of a man to be made an angel, does nothing for +himself; he would be never the better for it; for, being no more, who +shall rejoice or be sensible of this benefit for him. + + "Debet enim, misere cui forti, aegreque futurum est, + Ipse quoque esse in eo turn tempore, cum male possit + Accidere." + + ["For he to whom misery and pain are to be in the future, must + himself then exist, when these ills befall him." + --Idem, ibid., 874.] + +Security, indolence, impassability, the privation of the evils of this +life, which we pretend to purchase at the price of dying, are of no +manner of advantage to us: that man evades war to very little purpose who +can have no fruition of peace; and as little to the purpose does he avoid +trouble who cannot enjoy repose. + +Amongst those of the first of these two opinions, there has been great +debate, what occasions are sufficient to justify the meditation of self- +murder, which they call "A reasonable exit." --[ Diogenes Laertius, Life +of Zeno.]-- For though they say that men must often die for trivial +causes, seeing those that detain us in life are of no very great weight, +yet there is to be some limit. There are fantastic and senseless humours +that have prompted not only individual men, but whole nations to destroy +themselves, of which I have elsewhere given some examples; and we further +read of the Milesian virgins, that by a frantic compact they hanged +themselves one after another till the magistrate took order in it, +enacting that the bodies of such as should be found so hanged should be +drawn by the same halter stark naked through the city. When Therykion +tried to persuade Cleomenes to despatch himself, by reason of the ill +posture of his affairs, and, having missed a death of more honour in the +battle he had lost, to accept of this the second in honour to it, and not +to give the conquerors leisure to make him undergo either an ignominious +death or an infamous life; Cleomenes, with a courage truly Stoic and +Lacedaemonian, rejected his counsel as unmanly and mean; "that," said he, +"is a remedy that can never be wanting, but which a man is never to make +use of, whilst there is an inch of hope remaining": telling him, " that +it was sometimes constancy and valour to live; that he would that even +his death should be of use to his country, and would make of it an act of +honour and virtue." Therykion, notwithstanding, thought himself in the +right, and did his own business; and Cleomenes afterwards did the same, +but not till he had first tried the utmost malevolence of fortune. All +the inconveniences in the world are not considerable enough that a man +should die to evade them; and, besides, there being so many, so sudden +and unexpected changes in human things, it is hard rightly to judge when +we are at the end of our hope: + + "Sperat et in saeva victus gladiator arena, + Sit licet infesto pollice turba minax." + + ["The gladiator conquered in the lists hopes on, though the + menacing spectators, turning their thumb, order him to die." + --Pentadius, De Spe, ap. Virgilii Catadecta.] + +All things, says an old adage, are to be hoped for by a man whilst he +lives; ay, but, replies Seneca, why should this rather be always running +in a man's head that fortune can do all things for the living man, than +this, that fortune has no power over him that knows how to die? +Josephus, when engaged in so near and apparent danger, a whole people +being violently bent against him, that there was no visible means of +escape, nevertheless, being, as he himself says, in this extremity +counselled by one of his friends to despatch himself, it was well for him +that he yet maintained himself in hope, for fortune diverted the accident +beyond all human expectation, so that he saw himself delivered without +any manner of inconvenience. Whereas Brutus and Cassius, on the +contrary, threw away the remains of the Roman liberty, of which they were +the sole protectors, by the precipitation and temerity wherewith they +killed themselves before the due time and a just occasion. Monsieur +d'Anguien, at the battle of Serisolles, twice attempted to run himself +through, despairing of the fortune of the day, which went indeed very +untowardly on that side of the field where he was engaged, and by that +precipitation was very near depriving himself of the enjoyment of so +brave a victory. I have seen a hundred hares escape out of the very +teeth of the greyhounds: + + "Aliquis carnifici suo superstes fuit." + + ["Some have survived their executioners."--Seneca, Ep., 13.] + + "Multa dies, variusque labor mutabilis nevi + Rettulit in melius; multos alterna revisens + Lusit, et in solido rursus fortuna locavit." + + [Length of days, and the various labour of changeful time, have + brought things to a better state; fortune turning, shews a reverse + face, and again restores men to prosperity."--AEneid, xi. 425.] + +Piny says there are but three sorts of diseases, to escape which a man +has good title to destroy himself; the worst of which is the stone in the +bladder, when the urine is suppressed. + + ["In the quarto edition of these essays, in 1588, Pliny is said to + mention two more, viz., a pain in the stomach and a headache, which, + he says (lib. xxv. c. 9.), were the only three distempers almost + for which men killed themselves."] + +Seneca says those only which for a long time are discomposing the +functions of the soul. And some there have been who, to avoid a worse +death, have chosen one to their own liking. Democritus, general of the +AEtolians, being brought prisoner to Rome, found means to make his escape +by night: but close pursued by his keepers, rather than suffer himself to +be retaken, he fell upon his own sword and died. Antinous and Theodotus, +their city of Epirus being reduced by the Romans to the last extremity, +gave the people counsel universally to kill themselves; but, these +preferring to give themselves up to the enemy, the two chiefs went to +seek the death they desired, rushing furiously upon the enemy, with +intention to strike home but not to ward a blow. The Island of Gozzo +being taken some years ago by the Turks, a Sicilian, who had two +beautiful daughters marriageable, killed them both with his own hand, and +their mother, running in to save them, to boot, which having done, +sallying out of the house with a cross-bow and harquebus, with two shots +he killed two of the Turks nearest to his door, and drawing his sword, +charged furiously in amongst the rest, where he was suddenly enclosed and +cut to pieces, by that means delivering his family and himself from +slavery and dishonour. The Jewish women, after having circumcised their +children, threw them and themselves down a precipice to avoid the cruelty +of Antigonus. I have been told of a person of condition in one of our +prisons, that his friends, being informed that he would certainly be +condemned, to avoid the ignominy of such a death suborned a priest to +tell him that the only means of his deliverance was to recommend himself +to such a saint, under such and such vows, and to fast eight days +together without taking any manner of nourishment, what weakness or +faintness soever he might find in himself during the time; he followed +their advice, and by that means destroyed himself before he was aware, +not dreaming of death or any danger in the experiment. Scribonia +advising her nephew Libo to kill himself rather than await the stroke of +justice, told him that it was to do other people's business to preserve +his life to put it after into the hands of those who within three or four +days would fetch him to execution, and that it was to serve his enemies +to keep his blood to gratify their malice. + +We read in the Bible that Nicanor, the persecutor of the law of God, +having sent his soldiers to seize upon the good old man Razis, surnamed +in honour of his virtue the father of the Jews: the good man, seeing no +other remedy, his gates burned down, and the enemies ready to seize him, +choosing rather to die nobly than to fall into the hands of his wicked +adversaries and suffer himself to be cruelly butchered by them, contrary +to the honour of his rank and quality, stabbed himself with his own +sword, but the blow, for haste, not having been given home, he ran and +threw himself from the top of a wall headlong among them, who separating +themselves and making room, he pitched directly upon his head; +notwithstanding which, feeling yet in himself some remains of life, he +renewed his courage, and starting up upon his feet all bloody and wounded +as he was, and making his way through the crowd to a precipitous rock, +there, through one of his wounds, drew out his bowels, which, tearing and +pulling to pieces with both his hands, he threw amongst his pursuers, all +the while attesting and invoking the Divine vengeance upon them for their +cruelty and injustice. + +Of violences offered to the conscience, that against the chastity of +woman is, in my opinion, most to be avoided, forasmuch as there is a +certain pleasure naturally mixed with it, and for that reason the dissent +therein cannot be sufficiently perfect and entire, so that the violence +seems to be mixed with a little consent of the forced party. The +ecclesiastical history has several examples of devout persons who have +embraced death to secure them from the outrages prepared by tyrants +against their religion and honour. Pelagia and Sophronia, both +canonised, the first of these precipitated herself with her mother and +sisters into the river to avoid being forced by some soldiers, and the +last also killed herself to avoid being ravished by the Emperor +Maxentius. + +It may, peradventure, be an honour to us in future ages, that a learned +author of this present time, and a Parisian, takes a great deal of pains +to persuade the ladies of our age rather to take any other course than to +enter into the horrid meditation of such a despair. I am sorry he had +never heard, that he might have inserted it amongst his other stories, +the saying of a woman, which was told me at Toulouse, who had passed +through the handling of some soldiers: "God be praised," said she, "that +once at least in my life I have had my fill without sin." In truth, +these cruelties are very unworthy the French good nature, and also, God +be thanked, our air is very well purged of them since this good advice: +'tis enough that they say "no" in doing it, according to the rule of the +good Marot. + "Un doulx nenny, avec un doulx sourire + Est tant honneste."--Marot. + +History is everywhere full of those who by a thousand ways have exchanged +a painful and irksome life for death. Lucius Aruntius killed himself, to +fly, he said, both the future and the past. Granius Silvanus and Statius +Proximus, after having been pardoned by Nero, killed themselves; either +disdaining to live by the favour of so wicked a man, or that they might +not be troubled, at some other time, to obtain a second pardon, +considering the proclivity of his nature to suspect and credit +accusations against worthy men. Spargapises, son of Queen Tomyris, being +a prisoner of war to Cyrus, made use of the first favour Cyrus shewed +him, in commanding him to be unbound, to kill himself, having pretended +to no other benefit of liberty, but only to be revenged of himself for +the disgrace of being taken. Boges, governor in Eion for King Xerxes, +being besieged by the Athenian army under the conduct of Cimon, refused +the conditions offered, that he might safe return into Asia with all his +wealth, impatient to survive the loss of a place his master had given him +to keep; wherefore, having defended the city to the last extremity, +nothing being left to eat, he first threw all the gold and whatever else +the enemy could make booty of into the river Strymon, and then causing a +great pile to be set on fire, and the throats of all the women, children, +concubines, and servants to be cut, he threw their bodies into the fire, +and at last leaped into it himself. + +Ninachetuen, an Indian lord, so soon as he heard the first whisper of the +Portuguese Viceroy's determination to dispossess him, without any +apparent cause, of his command in Malacca, to transfer it to the King of +Campar, he took this resolution with himself: he caused a scaffold, more +long than broad, to be erected, supported by columns royally adorned with +tapestry and strewed with flowers and abundance of perfumes; all which +being prepared, in a robe of cloth of gold, set full of jewels of great +value, he came out into the street, and mounted the steps to the +scaffold, at one corner of which he had a pile lighted of aromatic wood. +Everybody ran to see to what end these unusual preparations were made; +when Ninachetuen, with a manly but displeased countenance, set forth how +much he had obliged the Portuguese nation, and with how unspotted +fidelity he had carried himself in his charge; that having so often, +sword in hand, manifested in the behalf of others, that honour was much +more dear to him than life, he was not to abandon the concern of it for +himself: that fortune denying him all means of opposing the affront +designed to be put upon him, his courage at least enjoined him to free +himself from the sense of it, and not to serve for a fable to the people, +nor for a triumph to men less deserving than himself; which having said +he leaped into the fire. + +Sextilia, wife of Scaurus, and Paxaea, wife of Labeo, to encourage their +husbands to avoid the dangers that pressed upon them, wherein they had no +other share than conjugal affection, voluntarily sacrificed their own +lives to serve them in this extreme necessity for company and example. +What they did for their husbands, Cocceius Nerva did for his country, +with less utility though with equal affection: this great lawyer, +flourishing in health, riches, reputation, and favour with the Emperor, +had no other cause to kill himself but the sole compassion of the +miserable state of the Roman Republic. Nothing can be added to the +beauty of the death of the wife of Fulvius, a familiar favourite of +Augustus: Augustus having discovered that he had vented an important +secret he had entrusted him withal, one morning that he came to make his +court, received him very coldly and looked frowningly upon him. He +returned home, full of, despair, where he sorrowfully told his wife that, +having fallen into this misfortune, he was resolved to kill himself: to +which she roundly replied, "'tis but reason you should, seeing that +having so often experienced the incontinence of my tongue, you could not +take warning: but let me kill myself first," and without any more saying +ran herself through the body with a sword. Vibius Virrius, despairing of +the safety of his city besieged by the Romans and of their mercy, in the +last deliberation of his city's senate, after many arguments conducing to +that end, concluded that the most noble means to escape fortune was by +their own hands: telling them that the enemy would have them in honour, +and Hannibal would be sensible how many faithful friends he had +abandoned; inviting those who approved of his advice to come to a good +supper he had ready at home, where after they had eaten well, they would +drink together of what he had prepared; a beverage, said he, that will +deliver our bodies from torments, our souls from insult, and our eyes and +ears from the sense of so many hateful mischiefs, as the conquered suffer +from cruel and implacable conquerors. I have, said he, taken order for +fit persons to throw our bodies into a funeral pile before my door so +soon as we are dead. Many enough approved this high resolution, but few +imitated it; seven-and-twenty senators followed him, who, after having +tried to drown the thought of this fatal determination in wine, ended the +feast with the mortal mess; and embracing one another, after they had +jointly deplored the misfortune of their country, some retired home to +their own houses, others stayed to be burned with Vibius in his funeral +pyre; and were all of them so long in dying, the vapour of the wine +having prepossessed the veins, and by that means deferred the effect of +poison, that some of them were within an hour of seeing the enemy inside +the walls of Capua, which was taken the next morning, and of undergoing +the miseries they had at so dear a rate endeavoured to avoid. Jubellius +Taurea, another citizen of the same country, the Consul Fulvius returning +from the shameful butchery he had made of two hundred and twenty-five +senators, called him back fiercely by name, and having made him stop: +"Give the word," said he, "that somebody may dispatch me after the +massacre of so many others, that thou mayest boast to have killed a much +more valiant man than thyself." Fulvius, disdaining him as a man out of +his wits, and also having received letters from Rome censuring the +inhumanity of his execution which tied his hands, Jubellius proceeded: +"Since my country has been taken, my friends dead, and having with my own +hands slain my wife and children to rescue them from the desolation of +this ruin, I am denied to die the death of my fellow-citizens, let me +borrow from virtue vengeance on this hated life," and therewithal drawing +a short sword he carried concealed about him, he ran it through his own +bosom, falling down backward, and expiring at the consul's feet. + +Alexander, laying siege to a city of the Indies, those within, finding +themselves very hardly set, put on a vigorous resolution to deprive him +of the pleasure of his victory, and accordingly burned themselves in +general, together with their city, in despite of his humanity: a new kind +of war, where the enemies sought to save them, and they to destroy +themselves, doing to make themselves sure of death, all that men do to +secure life. + +Astapa, a city of Spain, finding itself weak in walls and defence to +withstand the Romans, the inhabitants made a heap of all their riches and +furniture in the public place; and, having ranged upon this heap all the +women and children, and piled them round with wood and other combustible +matter to take sudden fire, and left fifty of their young men for the +execution of that whereon they had resolved, they made a desperate sally, +where for want of power to overcome, they caused themselves to be every +man slain. The fifty, after having massacred every living soul +throughout the whole city, and put fire to this pile, threw themselves +lastly into it, finishing their generous liberty, rather after an +insensible, than after a sorrowful and disgraceful manner, giving the +enemy to understand, that if fortune had been so pleased, they had as +well the courage to snatch from them victory as they had to frustrate and +render it dreadful, and even mortal to those who, allured by the +splendour of the gold melting in this flame, having approached it, +a great number were there suffocated and burned, being kept from retiring +by the crowd that followed after. + +The Abydeans, being pressed by King Philip, put on the same resolution; +but, not having time, they could not put it 'in effect. The king, who +was struck with horror at the rash precipitation of this execution (the +treasure and movables that they had condemned to the flames being first +seized), drawing off his soldiers, granted them three days' time to kill +themselves in, that they might do it with more order and at greater ease: +which time they filled with blood and slaughter beyond the utmost excess +of all hostile cruelty, so that not so much as any one soul was left +alive that had power to destroy itself. There are infinite examples of +like popular resolutions which seem the more fierce and cruel in +proportion as the effect is more universal, and yet are really less so +than when singly executed; what arguments and persuasion cannot do with +individual men, they can do with all, the ardour of society ravishing +particular judgments. + +The condemned who would live to be executed in the reign of Tiberius, +forfeited their goods and were denied the rites of sepulture; those who, +by killing themselves, anticipated it, were interred, and had liberty to +dispose of their estates by will. + +But men sometimes covet death out of hope of a greater good. "I desire," +says St. Paul, "to be with Christ," and "who shall rid me of these +bands?" Cleombrotus of Ambracia, having read Plato's Pheedo, entered +into so great a desire of the life to come that, without any other +occasion, he threw himself into the sea. By which it appears how +improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair, to which the +eagerness of hope often inclines us, and, often, a calm and temperate +desire proceeding from a mature and deliberate judgment. Jacques du +Chastel, bishop of Soissons, in St. Louis's foreign expedition, seeing +the king and whole army upon the point of returning into France, leaving +the affairs of religion imperfect, took a resolution rather to go into +Paradise; wherefore, having taken solemn leave of his friends, he charged +alone, in the sight of every one, into the enemy's army, where he was +presently cut to pieces. In a certain kingdom of the new discovered +world, upon a day of solemn procession, when the idol they adore is drawn +about in public upon a chariot of marvellous greatness; besides that many +are then seen cutting off pieces of their flesh to offer to him, there +are a number of others who prostrate themselves upon the place, causing +themselves to be crushed and broken to pieces under the weighty wheels, +to obtain the veneration of sanctity after death, which is accordingly +paid them. The death of the bishop, sword in hand, has more of +magnanimity in it, and less of sentiment, the ardour of combat taking +away part of the latter. + +There are some governments who have taken upon them to regulate the +justice and opportunity of voluntary death. In former times there was +kept in our city of Marseilles a poison prepared out of hemlock, at the +public charge, for those who had a mind to hasten their end, having +first, before the six hundred, who were their senate, given account of +the reasons and motives of their design, and it was not otherwise lawful, +than by leave from the magistrate and upon just occasion to do violence +to themselves. --[Valerius Maximus, ii. 6, 7.]-- The same law was also +in use in other places. + +Sextus Pompeius, in his expedition into Asia, touched at the isle of Cea +in Negropont: it happened whilst he was there, as we have it from one +that was with him, that a woman of great quality, having given an account +to her citizens why she was resolved to put an end to her life, invited +Pompeius to her death, to render it the more honourable, an invitation +that he accepted; and having long tried in vain by the power of his +eloquence, which was very great, and persuasion, to divert her from that +design, he acquiesced in the end in her own will. She had passed the age +of four score and ten in a very happy state, both of body and mind; being +then laid upon her bed, better dressed than ordinary and leaning upon her +elbow, "The gods," said she, "O Sextus Pompeius, and rather those I leave +than those I go to seek, reward thee, for that thou hast not disdained to +be both the counsellor of my life and the witness of my death. For my +part, having always experienced the smiles of fortune, for fear lest the +desire of living too long may make me see a contrary face, I am going, by +a happy end, to dismiss the remains of my soul, leaving behind two +daughters of my body and a legion of nephews"; which having said, with +some exhortations to her family to live in peace, she divided amongst +them her goods, and recommending her domestic gods to her eldest +daughter, she boldly took the bowl that contained the poison, and having +made her vows and prayers to Mercury to conduct her to some happy abode +in the other world, she roundly swallowed the mortal poison. This being +done, she entertained the company with the progress of its operation, and +how the cold by degrees seized the several parts of her body one after +another, till having in the end told them it began to seize upon her +heart and bowels, she called her daughters to do the last office and +close her eyes. + +Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean nation where, by reason of the +sweet temperature of the air, lives rarely ended but by the voluntary +surrender of the inhabitants, who, being weary of and satiated with +living, had the custom, at a very old age, after having made good cheer, +to precipitate themselves into the sea from the top of a certain rock, +assigned for that service. Pain and the fear of a worse death seem to me +the most excusable incitements., + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TO-MORROW'S A NEW DAY + +I give, as it seems to me, with good reason the palm to Jacques Amyot of +all our French writers, not only for the simplicity and purity of his +language, wherein he excels all others, nor for his constancy in going +through so long a work, nor for the depth of his knowledge, having been +able so successfully to smooth and unravel so knotty and intricate an +author (for let people tell me what they will, I understand nothing of +Greek; but I meet with sense so well united and maintained throughout his +whole translation, that certainly he either knew the true fancy of the +author, or having, by being long conversant with him, imprinted a vivid +and general idea of that of Plutarch in his soul, he has delivered us +nothing that either derogates from or contradicts him), but above all, I +am the most taken with him for having made so discreet a choice of a book +so worthy and of so great utility wherewith to present his country. We +ignorant fellows had been lost, had not this book raised us out of the +dirt; by this favour of his we dare now speak and write; the ladies are +able to read to schoolmasters; 'tis our breviary. If this good man be +yet living, I would recommend to him Xenophon, to do as much by that; +'tis a much more easy task than the other, and consequently more proper +for his age. And, besides, though I know not how, methinks he does +briskly--and clearly enough trip over steps another would have stumbled +at, yet nevertheless his style seems to be more his own where he does not +encounter those difficulties, and rolls away at his own ease. + +I was just now reading this passage where Plutarch says of himself, that +Rusticus being present at a declamation of his at Rome, there received a +packet from the emperor, and deferred to open it till all was done: for +which, says he, all the company highly applauded the gravity of this +person. 'Tis true, that being upon the subject of curiosity and of that +eager passion for news, which makes us with so much indiscretion and +impatience leave all to entertain a newcomer, and without any manner of +respect or outcry, tear open on a sudden, in what company soever, the +letters that are delivered to us, he had reason to applaud the gravity of +Rusticus upon this occasion; and might moreover have added to it the +commendation of his civility and courtesy, that would not interrupt the +current of his declamation. But I doubt whether any one can commend his +prudence; for receiving unexpected letters, and especially from an +emperor, it might have fallen out that the deferring to read them might +have been of great prejudice. The vice opposite to curiosity is +negligence, to which I naturally incline, and wherein I have seen some +men so extreme that one might have found letters sent them three or four +days before, still sealed up in their pockets. + +I never open any letters directed to another; not only those intrusted +with me, but even such as fortune has guided to my hand; and am angry +with myself if my eyes unawares steal any contents of letters of +importance he is reading when I stand near a great man. Never was man +less inquisitive or less prying into other men's affairs than I. + +In our fathers' days, Monsieur de Boutieres had like to have lost Turin +from having, while engaged in good company at supper, delayed to read +information that was sent him of the treason plotted against that city +where he commanded. And this very Plutarch has given me to understand, +that Julius Caesar had preserved himself, if, going to the Senate the day +he was assassinated by the conspirators, he had read a note which was +presented to him by, the way. He tells also the story of Archias, the +tyrant of Thebes, that the night before the execution of the design +Pelopidas had plotted to kill him to restore his country to liberty, he +had a full account sent him in writing by another Archias, an Athenian, +of the whole conspiracy, and that, this packet having been delivered to +him while he sat at supper, he deferred the opening of it, saying, which +afterwards turned to a proverb in Greece, "Business to-morrow." + +A wise man may, I think, out of respect to another, as not to disturb the +company, as Rusticus did, or not to break off another affair of +importance in hand, defer to read or hear any new thing that is brought +him; but for his own interest or particular pleasure, especially if he be +a public minister, that he will not interrupt his dinner or break his +sleep is inexcusable. And there was anciently at Rome, the consular +place, as they called it, which was the most honourable at the table, as +being a place of most liberty, and of more convenient access to those who +came in to speak to the person seated there; by which it appears, that +being at meat, they did not totally abandon the concern of other affairs +and incidents. But when all is said, it is very hard in human actions to +give so exact a rule upon moral reasons, that fortune will not therein +maintain her own right. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +OF CONSCIENCE + +The Sieur de la Brousse, my brother, and I, travelling one day together +during the time of our civil wars, met a gentleman of good sort. He was +of the contrary party, though I did not know so much, for he pretended +otherwise: and the mischief on't is, that in this sort of war the cards +are so shuffled, your enemy not being distinguished from yourself by any +apparent mark either of language or habit, and being nourished under the +same law, air, and manners, it is very hard to avoid disorder and +confusion. This made me afraid myself of meeting any of our troops in a +place where I was not known, that I might not be in fear to tell my name, +and peradventure of something worse; as it had befallen me before, where, +by such a mistake, I lost both men and horses, and amongst others an +Italian gentleman my page, whom I bred with the greatest care and +affection, was miserably slain, in whom a youth of great promise and +expectation was extinguished. But the gentleman my brother and I met +had so desperate, half-dead a fear upon him at meeting with any horse, +or passing by any of the towns that held for the King, that I at last +discovered it to be alarms of conscience. It seemed to the poor man as +if through his visor and the crosses upon his cassock, one would have +penetrated into his bosom and read the most secret intentions of his +heart; so wonderful is the power of conscience. It makes us betray, +accuse, and fight against ourselves, and for want of other witnesses, to +give evidence against ourselves: + + "Occultum quatiens animo tortore flagellum." + + ["The torturer of the soul brandishing a sharp scourge within." + --Juvenal, iii. 195.] + +This story is in every child's mouth: Bessus the Paeonian, being +reproached for wantonly pulling down a nest of young sparrows and killing +them, replied, that he had reason to do so, seeing that those little +birds never ceased falsely to accuse him of the murder of his father. +This parricide had till then been concealed and unknown, but the +revenging fury of conscience caused it to be discovered by him himself, +who was to suffer for it. Hesiod corrects the saying of Plato, that +punishment closely follows sin, it being, as he says, born at the same +time with it. Whoever expects punishment already suffers it, and whoever +has deserved it expects it. Wickedness contrives torments against +itself: + + "Malum consilium consultori pessimum:" + + [Ill designs are worst to the contriver." + --Apud Aul. Gellium, iv. 5.] + +as the wasp stings and hurts another, but most of all itself, for it +there loses its sting and its use for ever, + + "Vitasque in vulnere ponunt." + + [And leave their own lives in the wound." + --Virgil, Geo., iv. 238.] + +Cantharides have somewhere about them, by a contrariety of nature, a +counterpoison against their poison. In like manner, at the same time +that men take delight in vice, there springs in the conscience a +displeasure that afflicts us sleeping and waking with various tormenting +imaginations: + + "Quippe ubi se multi, per somnia saepe loquentes, + Aut morbo delirantes, protraxe ferantur, + Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse." + + ["Surely where many, often talking in their sleep, or raving in + disease, are said to have betrayed themselves, and to have given + publicity to offences long concealed."--Lucretius, v. 1157.] + +Apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the Scythians and +afterwards boiled in a cauldron, and that his heart muttered these words +"I am the cause of all these mischiefs that have befallen thee." +Epicurus said that no hiding-hole could conceal the wicked, since they +could never assure themselves of being hid whilst their conscience +discovered them to themselves. + + "Prima est haec ultio, quod se + Judice nemo nocens absohitur." + + ["Tis the first punishment of sin that no man absolves himself." or: + "This is the highest revenge, that by its judgment no offender is + absolved."--Juvenal, xiii. 2.] + +As an ill conscience fills us with fear, so a good one gives us greater +confidence and assurance; and I can truly say that I have gone through +several hazards with a more steady pace in consideration of the secret +knowledge I had of my own will and the innocence of my intentions: + + "Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra + Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo." + + ["As a man's conscience is, so within hope or fear prevails, suiting + to his design."--Ovid, Fast., i. 485.] + +Of this are a thousand examples; but it will be enough to instance three +of one and the same person. Scipio, being one day accused before the +people of Rome of some crimes of a very high nature, instead of excusing +himself or flattering his judges: "It will become you well," said he, +"to sit in judgment upon a head, by whose means you have the power to +judge all the world." Another time, all the answer he gave to several +impeachments brought against him by a tribune of the people, instead of +making his defence: "Let us go, citizens," said he, "let us go render +thanks to the gods for the victory they gave me over the Carthaginians as +this day," and advancing himself before towards the Temple, he had +presently all the assembly and his very accuser himself following at his +heels. And Petilius, having been set on by Cato to demand an account of +the money that had passed through his hands in the province of Antioch, +Scipio being come into the senate to that purpose, produced a book from +under his robe, wherein he told them was an exact account of his receipts +and disbursements; but being required to deliver it to the prothonotary +to be examined, he refused, saying, he would not do himself so great a +disgrace; and in the presence of the whole senate tore the book with his +own hands to pieces. I do not believe that the most seared conscience +could have counterfeited so great an assurance. He had naturally too +high a spirit and was accustomed to too high a fortune, says Titius +Livius, to know how to be criminal, and to lower himself to the meanness +of defending his innocence. The putting men to the rack is a dangerous +invention, and seems to be rather a trial of patience than of truth. +Both he who has the fortitude to endure it conceals the truth, and he who +has not: for why should pain sooner make me confess what really is, than +force me to say what is not? And, on the contrary, if he who is not +guilty of that whereof he is accused, has the courage to undergo those +torments, why should not he who is guilty have the same, so fair a reward +as life being in his prospect? I believe the ground of this invention +proceeds from the consideration of the force of conscience: for, to the +guilty, it seems to assist the rack to make him confess his fault and to +shake his resolution; and, on the other side, that it fortifies the +innocent against the torture. But when all is done, 'tis, in plain +truth, a trial full of uncertainty and danger what would not a man say, +what would not a man do, to avoid so intolerable torments? + + "Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor." + + ["Pain will make even the innocent lie."--Publius Syrus, De Dolore.] + +Whence it comes to pass, that him whom the judge has racked that he may +not die innocent, he makes him die both innocent and racked. A thousand +and a thousand have charged their own heads by false confessions, amongst +whom I place Philotas, considering the circumstances of the trial +Alexander put upon him and the progress of his torture. But so it is +that some say it is the least evil human weakness could invent; very +inhumanly, notwithstanding, and to very little purpose, in my opinion. + +Many nations less barbarous in this than the Greeks and Romans who call +them so, repute it horrible and cruel to torment and pull a man to pieces +for a fault of which they are yet in doubt. How can he help your +ignorance? Are not you unjust, that, not to kill him without cause, do +worse than kill him? And that this is so, do but observe how often men +prefer to die without reason than undergo this examination, more painful +than execution itself; and that oft-times by its extremity anticipates +execution, and perform it. I know not where I had this story, but it +exactly matches the conscience of our justice in this particular. A +country-woman, to a general of a very severe discipline, accused one of +his soldiers that he had taken from her children the little soup meat she +had left to nourish them withal, the army having consumed all the rest; +but of this proof there was none. The general, after having cautioned +the woman to take good heed to what she said, for that she would make +herself guilty of a false accusation if she told a lie, and she +persisting, he presently caused the soldier's belly to be ripped up to +clear the truth of the fact, and the woman was found to be right. An +instructive sentence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +USE MAKES PERFECT + +'Tis not to be expected that argument and instruction, though we never so +voluntarily surrender our belief to what is read to us, should be of +force to lead us on so far as to action, if we do not, over and above, +exercise and form the soul by experience to the course for which we +design it; it will, otherwise, doubtless find itself at a loss when it +comes to the pinch of the business. This is the reason why those amongst +the philosophers who were ambitious to attain to a greater excellence, +were not contented to await the severities of fortune in the retirement +and repose of their own habitations, lest he should have surprised them +raw and inexpert in the combat, but sallied out to meet her, and +purposely threw themselves into the proof of difficulties. Some of them +abandoned riches to exercise themselves in a voluntary poverty; others +sought out labour and an austerity of life, to inure them to hardships +and inconveniences; others have deprived themselves of their dearest +members, as of sight, and of the instruments of generation, lest their +too delightful and effeminate service should soften and debauch the +stability of their souls. + +But in dying, which is the greatest work we have to do, practice can give +us no assistance at all. A man may by custom fortify himself against +pain, shame, necessity, and such-like accidents, but as to death, we can +experiment it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it. +There have, anciently, been men so excellent managers of their time that +they have tried even in death itself to relish and taste it, and who have +bent their utmost faculties of mind to discover what this passage is, but +they are none of them come back to tell us the news: + + "Nemo expergitus exstat, + Frigida quern semel est vitai pausa sequuta." + + ["No one wakes who has once fallen into the cold sleep of death." + --Lucretius, iii. 942] + +Julius Canus, a noble Roman, of singular constancy and virtue, having +been condemned to die by that worthless fellow Caligula, besides many +marvellous testimonies that he gave of his resolution, as he was just +going to receive the stroke of the executioner, was asked by a +philosopher, a friend of his: "Well, Canus, whereabout is your soul now? +what is she doing? What are you thinking of?"--"I was thinking," replied +the other, "to keep myself ready, and the faculties of my mind full +settled and fixed, to try if in this short and quick instant of death, I +could perceive the motion of the soul when she parts from the body, and +whether she has any sentiment at the separation, that I may after come +again if I can, to acquaint my friends with it." This man philosophises +not unto death only, but in death itself. What a strange assurance was +this, and what bravery of courage, to desire his death should be a lesson +to him, and to have leisure to think of other things in so great an +affair: + + "Jus hoc animi morientis habebat." + + ["This mighty power of mind he had dying."-Lucan, viii. 636.] + +And yet I fancy, there is a certain way of making it familiar to us, and +in some sort of making trial what it is. We may gain experience, if not +entire and perfect, yet such, at least, as shall not be totally useless +to us, and that may render us more confident and more assured. If we +cannot overtake it, we may approach it and view it, and if we do not +advance so far as the fort, we may at least discover and make ourselves +acquainted with the avenues. It is not without reason that we are taught +to consider sleep as a resemblance of death: with how great facility do +we pass from waking to sleeping, and with how little concern do we lose +the knowledge of light and of ourselves. Peradventure, the faculty of +sleeping would seem useless and contrary to nature, since it deprives us +of all action and sentiment, were it not that by it nature instructs us +that she has equally made us to die as to live; and in life presents to +us the eternal state she reserves for us after it, to accustom us to it +and to take from us the fear of it. But such as have by violent accident +fallen into a swoon, and in it have lost all sense, these, methinks, have +been very near seeing the true and natural face of death; for as to the +moment of the passage, it is not to be feared that it brings with it any +pain or displeasure, forasmuch as we can have no feeling without leisure; +our sufferings require time, which in death is so short, and so +precipitous, that it must necessarily be insensible. They are the +approaches that we are to fear, and these may fall within the limits of +experience. + +Many things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect; I have +passed a good part of my life in a perfect and entire health; I say, not +only entire, but, moreover, sprightly and wanton. This state, so full of +verdure, jollity, and vigour, made the consideration of sickness so +formidable to me, that when I came to experience it, I found the attacks +faint and easy in comparison with what I had apprehended. Of this I have +daily experience; if I am under the shelter of a warm room, in a stormy +and tempestuous night, I wonder how people can live abroad, and am +afflicted for those who are out in the fields: if I am there myself, I do +not wish to be anywhere else. This one thing of being always shut up in +a chamber I fancied insupportable: but I was presently inured to be so +imprisoned a week, nay a month together, in a very weak, disordered, and +sad condition; and I have found that, in the time of my health, I much +more pitied the sick, than I think myself to be pitied when I am so, and +that the force of my imagination enhances near one-half of the essence +and reality of the thing. I hope that when I come to die I shall find it +the same, and that, after all, it is not worth the pains I take, so much +preparation and so much assistance as I call in, to undergo the stroke. +But, at all events, we cannot give ourselves too much advantage. + +In the time of our third or second troubles (I do not well remember +which), going one day abroad to take the air, about a league from my own +house, which is seated in the very centre of all the bustle and mischief +of the late civil wars in France; thinking myself in all security and so +near to my retreat that I stood in need of no better equipage, I had +taken a horse that went very easy upon his pace, but was not very strong. +Being upon my return home, a sudden occasion falling out to make use of +this horse in a kind of service that he was not accustomed to, one of my +train, a lusty, tall fellow, mounted upon a strong German horse, that had +a very ill mouth, fresh and vigorous, to play the brave and set on ahead +of his fellows, comes thundering full speed in the very track where I +was, rushing like a Colossus upon the little man and the little horse, +with such a career of strength and weight, that he turned us both over +and over, topsy-turvy with our heels in the air: so that there lay the +horse overthrown and stunned with the fall, and I ten or twelve paces +from him stretched out at length, with my face all battered and broken, +my sword which I had had in my hand, above ten paces beyond that, and my +belt broken all to pieces, without motion or sense any more than a stock. +'Twas the only swoon I was ever in till that hour in my life. Those who +were with me, after having used all the means they could to bring me to +myself, concluding me dead, took me up in their arms, and carried me with +very much difficulty home to my house, which was about half a French +league from thence. On the way, having been for more than two hours +given over for a dead man, I began to move and to fetch my breath; for so +great abundance of blood was fallen into my stomach, that nature had need +to rouse her forces to discharge it. They then raised me upon my feet, +where I threw off a whole bucket of clots of blood, as this I did also +several times by the way. This gave me so much ease, that I began to +recover a little life, but so leisurely and by so small advances, that my +first sentiments were much nearer the approaches of death than life: + + "Perche, dubbiosa ancor del suo ritorno, + Non s'assicura attonita la mente." + + ["For the soul, doubtful as to its return, could not compose itself" + --Tasso, Gierus. Lib., xii. 74.] + +The remembrance of this accident, which is very well imprinted in my +memory, so naturally representing to me the image and idea of death, has +in some sort reconciled me to that untoward adventure. When I first +began to open my eyes, it was with so perplexed, so weak and dead a +sight, that I could yet distinguish nothing but only discern the light: + + "Come quel ch'or apre, or'chiude + Gli occhi, mezzo tra'l sonno e l'esser desto." + + ["As a man that now opens, now shuts his eyes, between sleep + and waking."--Tasso, Gierus. Lib., viii., 26.] + +As to the functions of the soul, they advanced with the same pace and +measure with those of the body. I saw myself all bloody, my doublet +being stained all over with the blood I had vomited. The first thought +that came into my mind was that I had a harquebuss shot in my head, and +indeed, at the time there were a great many fired round about us. +Methought my life but just hung upon my, lips: and I shut my eyes, to +help, methought, to thrust it out, and took a pleasure in languishing and +letting myself go. It was an imagination that only superficially floated +upon my soul, as tender and weak as all the rest, but really, not only +exempt from anything displeasing, but mixed with that sweetness that +people feel when they glide into a slumber. + +I believe it is the very same condition those people are in, whom we see +swoon with weakness in the agony of death we pity them without cause, +supposing them agitated with grievous dolours, or that their souls suffer +under painful thoughts. It has ever been my belief, contrary to the +opinion of many, and particularly of La Boetie, that those whom we see so +subdued and stupefied at the approaches of their end, or oppressed with +the length of the disease, or by accident of an apoplexy or falling +sickness, + + "Vi morbi saepe coactus + Ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu, + Concidit, et spumas agit; ingemit, et tremit artus; + Desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat, + Inconstanter, et in jactando membra fatigat;" + + ["Often, compelled by the force of disease, some one as + thunderstruck falls under our eyes, and foams, groans, and trembles, + stretches, twists, breathes irregularly, and in paroxysms wears out + his strength."--Lucretius, iii. 485.] + +or hurt in the head, whom we hear to mutter, and by fits to utter +grievous groans; though we gather from these signs by which it seems as +if they had some remains of consciousness, and that there are movements +of the body; I have always believed, I say, both the body and the soul +benumbed and asleep, + + "Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse suae," + + ["He lives, and does not know that he is alive." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 12.] + +and could not believe that in so great a stupefaction of the members and +so great a defection of the senses, the soul could maintain any force +within to take cognisance of herself, and that, therefore, they had no +tormenting reflections to make them consider and be sensible of the +misery of their condition, and consequently were not much to be pitied. + +I can, for my part, think of no state so insupportable and dreadful, as +to have the soul vivid and afflicted, without means to declare itself; as +one should say of such as are sent to execution with their tongues first +cut out (were it not that in this kind of dying, the most silent seems to +me the most graceful, if accompanied with a grave and constant +countenance); or if those miserable prisoners, who fall into the hands of +the base hangman soldiers of this age, by whom they are tormented with +all sorts of inhuman usage to compel them to some excessive and +impossible ransom; kept, in the meantime, in such condition and place, +where they have no means of expressing or signifying their thoughts and +their misery. The poets have feigned some gods who favour the +deliverance of such as suffer under a languishing death: + + "Hunc ego Diti + Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo." + + ["I bidden offer this sacred thing to Pluto, and from that body + dismiss thee."--AEneid, iv. 782.] + +both the interrupted words, and the short and irregular answers one gets +from them sometimes, by bawling and keeping a clutter about them; or the +motions which seem to yield some consent to what we would have them do, +are no testimony, nevertheless, that they live, an entire life at least. +So it happens to us in the yawning of sleep, before it has fully +possessed us, to perceive, as in a dream, what is done about us, and to +follow the last things that are said with a perplexed and uncertain +hearing which seems but to touch upon the borders of the soul; and to +make answers to the last words that have been spoken to us, which have +more in them of chance than sense. + +Now seeing I have in effect tried it, I have no doubt but I have hitherto +made a right judgment; for first, being in a swoon, I laboured to rip +open the buttons of my doublet with my nails, for my sword was gone; and +yet I felt nothing in my imagination that hurt me; for we have many +motions in us that do not proceed from our direction; + + "Semianimesque micant digiti, ferrumque retractant;" + + ["Half-dead fingers grope about, and grasp again the sword." + --AEneid, x. 396.] + +so falling people extend their arms before them by a natural impulse, +which prompts our limbs to offices and motions without any commission +from our reason. + + "Falciferos memorant currus abscindere membra . . . + Ut tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod + Decidit abscissum; cum mens tamen atque hominis vis + Mobilitate mali, non quit sentire dolorem." + + ["They relate that scythe-bearing chariots mow off limbs, so that + they quiver on the ground; and yet the mind of him from whom the + limb is taken by the swiftness of the blow feels no pain." + --Lucretius, iii. 642.] + +My stomach was so oppressed with the coagulated blood, that my hands +moved to that part, of their own voluntary motion, as they frequently do +to the part that itches, without being directed by our will. There are +several animals, and even men, in whom one may perceive the muscles to +stir and tremble after they are dead. Every one experimentally knows +that there are some members which grow stiff and flag without his leave. +Now, those passions which only touch the outward bark of us, cannot be +said to be ours: to make them so, there must be a concurrence of the +whole man; and the pains which are felt by the hand or the foot while +we are sleeping, are none of ours. + +As I drew near my own house, where the alarm of my fall was already got +before me, and my family were come out to meet me, with the hubbub usual +in such cases, not only did I make some little answer to some questions +which were asked me; but they moreover tell me, that I was sufficiently +collected to order them to bring a horse to my wife whom on the road, +I saw struggling and tiring herself which is hilly and rugged. This +should seem to proceed from a soul its functions; but it was nothing so +with me. I knew not what I said or did, and they were nothing but idle +thoughts in the clouds, that were stirred up by the senses of the eyes +and ears, and proceeded not from me. I knew not for all that, whence I +came or whither I went, neither was I capable to weigh and consider what +was said to me: these were light effects, that the senses produced of +themselves as of custom; what the soul contributed was in a dream, +lightly touched, licked and bedewed by the soft impression of the senses. +Notwithstanding, my condition was, in truth, very easy and quiet; I had +no affliction upon me, either for others or myself; it was an extreme +languor and weakness, without any manner of pain. I saw my own house, +but knew it not. When they had put me to bed I found an inexpressible +sweetness in that repose; for I had been desperately tugged and lugged by +those poor people who had taken the pains to carry me upon their arms a +very great and a very rough way, and had in so doing all quite tired out +themselves, twice or thrice one after another. They offered me several +remedies, but I would take none, certainly believing that I was mortally +wounded in the head. And, in earnest, it had been a very happy death, +for the weakness of my understanding deprived me of the faculty of +discerning, and that of my body of the sense of feeling; I was suffering +myself to glide away so sweetly and after so soft and easy a manner, that +I scarce find any other action less troublesome than that was. But when +I came again to myself and to resume my faculties: + + "Ut tandem sensus convaluere mei," + + ["When at length my lost senses again returned." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 14.] + +which was two or three hours after, I felt myself on a sudden involved in +terrible pain, having my limbs battered and ground with my fall, and was. +so ill for two or three nights after, that I thought I was once more +dying again, but a more painful death, having concluded myself as good as +dead before, and to this hour am sensible of the bruises of that terrible +shock. I will not here omit, that the last thing I could make them beat +into my head, was the memory of this accident, and I had it over and over +again repeated to me, whither I was going, from whence I came, and at +what time of the day this mischance befell me, before I could comprehend +it. As to the manner of my fall, that was concealed from me in favour to +him who had been the occasion, and other flim-flams were invented. But a +long time after, and the very next day that my memory began to return and +to represent to me the state wherein I was, at the instant that I +perceived this horse coming full drive upon me (for I had seen him at my +heels, and gave myself for gone, but this thought had been so sudden, +that fear had had no leisure to introduce itself) it seemed to me like a +flash of lightning that had pierced my soul, and that I came from the +other world. + +This long story of so light an accident would appear vain enough, were it +not for the knowledge I have gained by it for my own use; for I do really +find, that to get acquainted with death, needs no more but nearly to +approach it. Every one, as Pliny says, is a good doctrine to himself, +provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand. Here, this +is not my doctrine, 'tis my study; and is not the lesson of another, but +my own; and if I communicate it, it ought not to be ill taken, for that +which is of use to me, may also, peradventure, be useful to another. As +to the rest, I spoil nothing, I make use of nothing but my own; and if I +play the fool, 'tis at my own expense, and nobody else is concerned in't; +for 'tis a folly that will die with me, and that no one is to inherit. +We hear but of two or three of the ancients, who have beaten this path, +and yet I cannot say if it was after this manner, knowing no more of them +but their names. No one since has followed the track: 'tis a rugged +road, more so than it seems, to follow a pace so rambling and uncertain, +as that of the soul; to penetrate the dark profundities of its intricate +internal windings; to choose and lay hold of so many little nimble +motions; 'tis a new and extraordinary undertaking, and that withdraws us +from the common and most recommended employments of the world. 'Tis now +many years since that my thoughts have had no other aim and level than +myself, and that I have only pried into and studied myself: or, if I +study any other thing, 'tis to apply it to or rather in myself. And yet +I do not think it a fault, if, as others do by other much less profitable +sciences, I communicate what I have learned in this, though I am not very +well pleased with my own progress. There is no description so difficult, +nor doubtless of so great utility, as that of a man's self: and withal, a +man must curl his hair and set out and adjust himself, to appear in +public: now I am perpetually tricking myself out, for I am eternally upon +my own description. Custom has made all speaking of a man's self +vicious, and positively interdicts it, in hatred to the boasting that +seems inseparable from the testimony men give of themselves: + + "In vitium ducit culpae fuga." + + ["The avoiding a mere fault often leads us into a greater." + Or: "The escape from a fault leads into a vice" + --Horace, De Arte Poetics, verse 31.] + +Instead of blowing the child's nose, this is to take his nose off +altogether. I think the remedy worse than the disease. But, allowing it +to be true that it must of necessity be presumption to entertain people +with discourses of one's self, I ought not, pursuing my general design, +to forbear an action that publishes this infirmity of mine, nor conceal +the fault which I not only practise but profess. Notwithstanding, to +speak my thought freely, I think that the custom of condemning wine, +because some people will be drunk, is itself to be condemned; a man +cannot abuse anything but what is good in itself; and I believe that this +rule has only regard to the popular vice. They are bits for calves, with +which neither the saints whom we hear speak so highly of themselves, nor +the philosophers, nor the divines will be curbed; neither will I, who am +as little the one as the other, If they do not write of it expressly, at +all events, when the occasions arise, they don't hesitate to put +themselves on the public highway. Of what does Socrates treat more +largely than of himself? To what does he more direct and address the +discourses of his disciples, than to speak of themselves, not of the +lesson in their book, but of the essence and motion of their souls? We +confess ourselves religiously to God and our confessor; as our +neighbours, do to all the people. But some will answer that we there +speak nothing but accusation against ourselves; why then, we say all; for +our very virtue itself is faulty and penetrable. My trade and art is to +live; he that forbids me to speak according to my own sense, experience, +and practice, may as well enjoin an architect not to speak of building +according to his own knowledge, but according to that of his neighbour; +according to the knowledge of another, and not according to his own. If +it be vainglory for a man to publish his own virtues, why does not Cicero +prefer the eloquence of Hortensius, and Hortensius that of Cicero? +Peradventure they mean that I should give testimony of myself by works +and effects, not barely by words. I chiefly paint my thoughts, a subject +void of form and incapable of operative production; 'tis all that I can +do to couch it in this airy body of the voice; the wisest and devoutest +men have lived in the greatest care to avoid all apparent effects. +Effects would more speak of fortune than of me; they manifest their own +office and not mine, but uncertainly and by conjecture; patterns of some +one particular virtue. I expose myself entire; 'tis a body where, at one +view, the veins, muscles, and tendons are apparent, every of them in its +proper place; here the effects of a cold; there of the heart beating, +very dubiously. I do not write my own acts, but myself and my essence. + +I am of opinion that a man must be very cautious how he values himself, +and equally conscientious to give a true report, be it better or worse, +impartially. If I thought myself perfectly good and wise, I would rattle +it out to some purpose. To speak less of one's self than what one really +is is folly, not modesty; and to take that for current pay which is under +a man's value is pusillanimity and cowardice, according to, Aristotle. +No virtue assists itself with falsehood; truth is never matter of error. +To speak more of one's self than is really true is not always mere +presumption; 'tis, moreover, very often folly; to, be immeasurably +pleased with what one is, and to fall into an indiscreet self-love, is in +my opinion the substance of this vice. The most sovereign remedy to cure +it, is to do quite contrary to what these people direct who, in +forbidding men to speak of themselves, consequently, at the same time, +interdict thinking of themselves too. Pride dwells in the thought; the +tongue can have but a very little share in it. + +They fancy that to think of one's self is to be delighted with one's +self; to frequent and converse with one's self, to be overindulgent; but +this excess springs only in those who take but a superficial view of +themselves, and dedicate their main inspection to their affairs; who call +it mere reverie and idleness to occupy one's self with one's self, and +the building one's self up a mere building of castles in the air; who +look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger. If any one be +in rapture with his own knowledge, looking only on those below him, let +him but turn his eye upward towards past ages, and his pride will be +abated, when he shall there find so many thousand wits that trample him +under foot. If he enter into a flattering presumption of his personal +valour, let him but recollect the lives of Scipio, Epaminondas; so many +armies, so many nations, that leave him so far behind them. No +particular quality can make any man proud, that will at the same time put +the many other weak and imperfect ones he has in the other scale, and the +nothingness of human condition to make up the weight. Because Socrates +had alone digested to purpose the precept of his god, "to know himself," +and by that study arrived at the perfection of setting himself at nought, +he only was reputed worthy the title of a sage. Whosoever shall so know +himself, let him boldly speak it out. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Addresses his voyage to no certain, port +All apprentices when we come to it (death) +Any one may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death +Business to-morrow +Condemning wine, because some people will be drunk +Conscience makes us betray, accuse, and fight against ourselves +Curiosity and of that eager passion for news +Delivered into our own custody the keys of life +Drunkeness a true and certain trial of every one's nature +I can more hardly believe a man's constancy than any virtue +"I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt +Improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair +It's madness to nourish infirmity +Let him be as wise as he will, after all he is but a man +Living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting. +Look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger +Lower himself to the meanness of defending his innocence +Much difference betwixt us and ourselves +No alcohol the night on which a man intends to get children +No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness +Not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity +One door into life, but a hundred thousand ways out +Ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age +Shame for me to serve, being so near the reach of liberty +Speak less of one's self than what one really is is folly +Taught to consider sleep as a resemblance of death +The action is commendable, not the man +The most voluntary death is the finest +The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence +Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect +Thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain +Tis evil counsel that will admit no change +Torture: rather a trial of patience than of truth +We do not go, we are driven +What can they suffer who do not fear to die? +Whoever expects punishment already suffers it +Wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V9 +By Michel de Montaigne + diff --git a/old/mn09v10.zip b/old/mn09v10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6beb64 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mn09v10.zip diff --git a/old/mn09v11.txt b/old/mn09v11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b217ce --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mn09v11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2449 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V9 +#9 in our series by Michel de Montaigne, Translator: Cotton +Edited by William Carew Hazlitt, 1877 + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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Use makes perfect. + + + +ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE + +BOOK THE SECOND + +CHAPTER I + +OF THE INCONSTANCY OF OUR ACTIONS + +Such as make it their business to oversee human actions, do not find +themselves in anything so much perplexed as to reconcile them and bring +them into the world's eye with the same lustre and reputation; for they +commonly so strangely contradict one another that it seems impossible +they should proceed from one and the same person. We find the younger +Marius one while a son of Mars and another a son of Venus. Pope Boniface +VIII. entered, it is said, into his Papacy like a fox, behaved himself in +it like a lion, and died like a dog; and who could believe it to be the +same Nero, the perfect image of all cruelty, who, having the sentence of +a condemned man brought to him to sign, as was the custom, cried out, +"O that I had never been taught to write!" so much it went to his heart +to condemn a man to death. All story is full of such examples, and every +man is able to produce so many to himself, or out of his own practice or +observation, that I sometimes wonder to see men of understanding give +themselves the trouble of sorting these pieces, considering that +irresolution appears to me to be the most common and manifest vice of our +nature witness the famous verse of the player Publius: + + "Malum consilium est, quod mutari non potest." + + ["'Tis evil counsel that will admit no change." + --Pub. Mim., ex Aul. Gell., xvii. 14.] + +There seems some reason in forming a judgment of a man from the most +usual methods of his life; but, considering the natural instability of +our manners and opinions, I have often thought even the best authors a +little out in so obstinately endeavouring to make of us any constant and +solid contexture; they choose a general air of a man, and according to +that interpret all his actions, of which, if they cannot bend some to a +uniformity with the rest, they are presently imputed to dissimulation. +Augustus has escaped them, for there was in him so apparent, sudden, and +continual variety of actions all the whole course of his life, that he +has slipped away clear and undecided from the most daring critics. I can +more hardly believe a man's constancy than any other virtue, and believe +nothing sooner than the contrary. He that would judge of a man in detail +and distinctly, bit by bit, would oftener be able to speak the truth. It +is a hard matter, from all antiquity, to pick out a dozen men who have +formed their lives to one certain and constant course, which is the +principal design of wisdom; for to comprise it all in one word, says one +of the ancients, and to contract all the rules of human life into one, +"it is to will, and not to will, always one and the same thing: I will +not vouchsafe," says he, "to add, provided the will be just, for if it be +not just, it is impossible it should be always one." I have indeed +formerly learned that vice is nothing but irregularity, and want of +measure, and therefore 'tis impossible to fix constancy to it. 'Tis a +saying of. Demosthenes, "that the beginning oh all virtue is +consultation and deliberation; the end and perfection, constancy." If we +would resolve on any certain course by reason, we should pitch upon the +best, but nobody has thought on't: + + "Quod petiit, spernit; repetit, quod nuper omisit; + AEstuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto." + + ["That which he sought he despises; what he lately lost, he seeks + again. He fluctuates, and is inconsistent in the whole order of + life."--Horace, Ep., i. I, 98.] + +Our ordinary practice is to follow the inclinations of our appetite, be +it to the left or right, upwards or downwards, according as we are wafted +by the breath of occasion. We never meditate what we would have till the +instant we have a mind to have it; and change like that little creature +which receives its colour from what it is laid upon. What we but just +now proposed to ourselves we immediately alter, and presently return +again to it; 'tis nothing but shifting and inconsistency: + + "Ducimur, ut nervis alienis mobile lignum." + + ["We are turned about like the top with the thong of others." + --Idem, Sat., ii. 7, 82.] + +We do not go, we are driven; like things that float, now leisurely, then +with violence, according to the gentleness or rapidity of the current: + + "Nonne videmus, + Quid sibi quisque velit, nescire, et quaerere semper + Commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit?" + + ["Do we not see them, uncertain what they want, and always asking + for something new, as if they could get rid of the burthen." + --Lucretius, iii. 1070.] + +Every day a new whimsy, and our humours keep motion with the time. + + "Tales sunt hominum mentes, quali pater ipse + Juppiter auctificas lustravit lumine terras." + + ["Such are the minds of men, that they change as the light with + which father Jupiter himself has illumined the increasing earth." + --Cicero, Frag. Poet, lib. x.] + +We fluctuate betwixt various inclinations; we will nothing freely, +nothing absolutely, nothing constantly. In any one who had prescribed +and established determinate laws and rules in his head for his own +conduct, we should perceive an equality of manners, an order and an +infallible relation of one thing or action to another, shine through his +whole life; Empedocles observed this discrepancy in the Agrigentines, +that they gave themselves up to delights, as if every day was their last, +and built as if they had been to live for ever. The judgment would not +be hard to make, as is very evident in the younger Cato; he who therein +has found one step, it will lead him to all the rest; 'tis a harmony of +very according sounds, that cannot jar. But with us 't is quite +contrary; every particular action requires a particular judgment. The +surest way to steer, in my opinion, would be to take our measures from +the nearest allied circumstances, without engaging in a longer +inquisition, or without concluding any other consequence. I was told, +during the civil disorders of our poor kingdom, that a maid, hard by the +place where I then was, had thrown herself out of a window to avoid being +forced by a common soldier who was quartered in the house; she was not +killed by the fall, and therefore, repeating her attempt would have cut +her own throat, had she not been prevented; but having, nevertheless, +wounded herself to some show of danger, she voluntarily confessed that +the soldier had not as yet importuned her otherwise; than by courtship, +earnest solicitation, and presents; but that she was afraid that in the +end he would have proceeded to violence, all which she delivered with +such a countenance and accent, and withal embrued in her own blood, the +highest testimony of her virtue, that she appeared another Lucretia; and +yet I have since been very well assured that both before and after she +was not so difficult a piece. And, according to my host's tale in +Ariosto, be as handsome a man and as worthy a gentleman as you will, do +not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity for having +been repulsed; you do not know but she may have a better stomach to your +muleteer. + +Antigonus, having taken one of his soldiers into a great degree of favour +and esteem for his valour, gave his physicians strict charge to cure him +of a long and inward disease under which he had a great while languished, +and observing that, after his cure, he went much more coldly to work than +before, he asked him what had so altered and cowed him: "Yourself, sir," +replied the other, "by having eased me of the pains that made me weary of +my life." Lucullus's soldier having been rifled by the enemy, performed +upon them in revenge a brave exploit, by which having made himself a +gainer, Lucullus, who had conceived a good opinion of him from that +action, went about to engage him in some enterprise of very great danger, +with all the plausible persuasions and promises he could think of; + + "Verbis, quae timido quoque possent addere mentem" + + ["Words which might add courage to any timid man." + --Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 1, 2.] + +"Pray employ," answered he, "some miserable plundered soldier in that +affair": + + "Quantumvis rusticus, ibit, + Ibit eo, quo vis, qui zonam perdidit, inquit;" + + ["Some poor fellow, who has lost his purse, will go whither you + wish, said he."--Horace, Ep., ii. 2, 39.] + +and flatly refused to go. When we read that Mahomet having furiously +rated Chasan, Bassa of the Janissaries, because he had seen the +Hungarians break into his squadrons, and himself behave very ill in the +business, and that Chasan, instead of any other answer, rushed furiously +alone, scimitar in hand, into the first body of the enemy, where he was +presently cut to pieces, we are not to look upon that action, +peradventure, so much as vindication as a turn of mind, not so much +natural valour as a sudden despite. The man you saw yesterday so +adventurous and brave, you must not think it strange to see him as great +a poltroon the next: anger, necessity, company, wine, or the sound of the +trumpet had roused his spirits; this is no valour formed and established +by reason, but accidentally created by such circumstances, and therefore +it is no wonder if by contrary circumstances it appear quite another +thing. + +These supple variations and contradictions so manifest in us, have given +occasion to some to believe that man has two souls; other two distinct +powers that always accompany and incline us, the one towards good and the +other towards ill, according to their own nature and propension; so +abrupt a variety not being imaginable to flow from one and the same +source. + +For my part, the puff of every accident not only carries me along with it +according to its own proclivity, but moreover I discompose and trouble +myself by the instability of my own posture; and whoever will look +narrowly into his own bosom, will hardly find himself twice in the same +condition. I give to my soul sometimes one face and sometimes another, +according to the side I turn her to. If I speak variously of myself, it +is because I consider myself variously; all the contrarieties are there +to be found in one corner or another; after one fashion or another: +bashful, insolent; chaste, lustful; prating, silent; laborious, delicate; +ingenious, heavy; melancholic, pleasant; lying, true; knowing, ignorant; +liberal, covetous, and prodigal: I find all this in myself, more or less, +according as I turn myself about; and whoever will sift himself to the +bottom, will find in himself, and even in his own judgment, this +volubility and discordance. I have nothing to say of myself entirely, +simply, and solidly without mixture and confusion. 'Distinguo' is the +most universal member of my logic. Though I always intend to speak well +of good things, and rather to interpret such things as fall out in the +best sense than otherwise, yet such is the strangeness of our condition, +that we are often pushed on to do well even by vice itself, if well-doing +were not judged by the intention only. One gallant action, therefore, +ought not to conclude a man valiant; if a man were brave indeed, he would +be always so, and upon all occasions. If it were a habit of valour and +not a sally, it would render a man equally resolute in all accidents; the +same alone as in company; the same in lists as in a battle: for, let them +say what they will, there is not one valour for the pavement and another +for the field; he would bear a sickness in his bed as bravely as a wound +in the field, and no more fear death in his own house than at an assault. +We should not then see the same man charge into a breach with a brave +assurance, and afterwards torment himself like a woman for the loss of a +trial at law or the death of a child; when, being an infamous coward, he +is firm in the necessities of poverty; when he shrinks at the sight of a +barber's razor, and rushes fearless upon the swords of the enemy, the +action is commendable, not the man. + +Many of the Greeks, says Cicero,--[Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 27.]-- +cannot endure the sight of an enemy, and yet are courageous in sickness; +the Cimbrians and Celtiberians quite contrary; + + "Nihil enim potest esse aequabile, + quod non a certa ratione proficiscatur." + + ["Nothing can be regular that does not proceed from a fixed ground + of reason."--Idem, ibid., c. 26.] + +No valour can be more extreme in its kind than that of Alexander: but it +is of but one kind, nor full enough throughout, nor universal. +Incomparable as it is, it has yet some blemishes; of which his being so +often at his wits' end upon every light suspicion of his captains +conspiring against his life, and the carrying himself in that inquisition +with so much vehemence and indiscreet injustice, and with a fear that +subverted his natural reason, is one pregnant instance. The +superstition, also, with which he was so much tainted, carries along with +it some image of pusillanimity; and the excess of his penitence for the +murder of Clytus is also a testimony of the unevenness of his courage. +All we perform is no other than a cento, as a man may say, of several +pieces, and we would acquire honour by a false title. Virtue cannot be +followed but for herself, and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some +other purpose, she presently pulls it away again. 'Tis a vivid and +strong tincture which, when the soul has once thoroughly imbibed it, will +not out but with the piece. And, therefore, to make a right judgment of +a man, we are long and very observingly to follow his trace: if constancy +does not there stand firm upon her own proper base, + + "Cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est," + + ["If the way of his life is thoroughly considered and traced out." + --Cicero, Paradox, v. 1.] + +if the variety of occurrences makes him alter his pace (his path, I mean, +for the pace may be faster or slower) let him go; such an one runs before +the wind, "Avau le dent," as the motto of our Talebot has it. + +'Tis no wonder, says one of the ancients, that chance has so great a +dominion over us, since it is by chance we live. It is not possible for +any one who has not designed his life for some certain end, it is +impossible for any one to arrange the pieces, who has not the whole form +already contrived in his imagination. Of what use are colours to him +that knows not what he is to paint? No one lays down a certain design +for his life, and we only deliberate thereof by pieces. The archer ought +first to know at what he is to aim, and then accommodate his arm, bow, +string, shaft, and motion to it; our counsels deviate and wander, because +not levelled to any determinate end. No wind serves him who addresses +his voyage to no certain, port. I cannot acquiesce in the judgment given +by one in the behalf of Sophocles, who concluded him capable of the +management of domestic affairs, against the accusation of his son, from +having read one of his tragedies. + +Neither do I allow of the conjecture of the Parians, sent to regulate the +Milesians sufficient for such a consequence as they from thence derived +coming to visit the island, they took notice of such grounds as were best +husbanded, and such country-houses as were best governed; and having +taken the names of the owners, when they had assembled the citizens, they +appointed these farmers for new governors and magistrates; concluding +that they, who had been so provident in their own private concerns, would +be so of the public too. We are all lumps, and of so various and inform +a contexture, that every piece plays, every moment, its own game, and +there is as much difference betwixt us and ourselves as betwixt us and +others: + + "Magnam rem puta, unum hominem agere." + + ["Esteem it a great thing always to act as one and the same + man."--Seneca, Ep., 150.] + +Since ambition can teach man valour, temperance, and liberality, and even +justice too; seeing that avarice can inspire the courage of a shop-boy, +bred and nursed up in obscurity and ease, with the assurance to expose +himself so far from the fireside to the mercy of the waves and angry +Neptune in a frail boat; that she further teaches discretion and +prudence; and that even Venus can inflate boys under the discipline of +the rod with boldness and resolution, and infuse masculine courage into +the heart of tender virgins in their mothers' arms: + + "Hac duce, custodes furtim transgressa jacentes, + Ad juvenem tenebris sola puella venit:" + + ["She leading, the maiden, furtively passing by the recumbent + guards, goes alone in the darkness to the youth." + --Tibullus, ii. 2, 75.] + +'tis not all the understanding has to do, simply to judge us by our +outward actions; it must penetrate the very soul, and there discover by +what springs the motion is guided. But that being a high and hazardous +undertaking, I could wish that fewer would attempt it. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OF DRUNKENNESS + +The world is nothing but variety and disemblance, vices are all alike, as +they are vices, and peradventure the Stoics understand them so; but +although they are equally vices, yet they are not all equal vices; and he +who has transgressed the ordinary bounds a hundred paces: + + "Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum," + + ["Beyond or within which the right cannot exist." + --Horace, Sat., i, 1, 107.] + +should not be in a worse condition than he that has advanced but ten, is +not to be believed; or that sacrilege is not worse than stealing a +cabbage: + + "Nec vincet ratio hoc, tantumdem ut peccet, idemque, + Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti, + Et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit." + +There is in this as great diversity as in anything whatever. The +confounding of the order and measure of sins is dangerous: murderers, +traitors, and tyrants get too much by it, and it is not reasonable they +should flatter their consciences, because another man is idle, +lascivious, or not assiduous at his devotion. Every one overrates the +offence of his companions, but extenuates his own. Our very instructors +themselves rank them sometimes, in my opinion, very ill. As Socrates +said that the principal office of wisdom was to distinguish good from +evil, we, the best of whom are vicious, ought also to say the same of the +science of distinguishing betwixt vice and vice, without which, and that +very exactly performed, the virtuous and the wicked will remain +confounded and unrecognised. + +Now, amongst the rest, drunkenness seems to me to be a gross and brutish +vice. The soul has greater part in the rest, and there are some vices +that have something, if a man may so say, of generous in them; there are +vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence, valour, +prudence, dexterity, and address; this one is totally corporeal and +earthly. And the rudest nation this day in Europe is that alone where it +is in fashion. Other vices discompose the understanding: this totally +overthrows it and renders the body stupid: + + "Cum vini vis penetravit . . . + Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur + Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens, + Nant oculi; clamor, singultus, jurgia, gliscunt." + + ["When the power of wine has penetrated us, a heaviness of the limbs + follows, the legs of the tottering person are impeded; the tongue + grows torpid, the mind is dimmed, the eyes swim; noise, hiccup, and + quarrels arise.--"Lucretius, i. 3, 475.] + +The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and +government of himself. And 'tis said amongst other things upon this +subject, that, as the must fermenting in a vessel, works up to the top +whatever it has in the bottom, so wine, in those who have drunk beyond +measure, vents the most inward secrets: + + "Tu sapientum + Curas et arcanum jocoso + Consilium retegis Lyaeo." + + ["Thou disclosest to the merry Lyacus the cares and secret + counsel of the wise."--Horace, Od., xxi. 1, 114.] + + [Lyacus, a name given to Bacchus.] + +Josephus tells us that by giving an ambassador the enemy had sent to him +his full dose of liquor, he wormed out his secrets. And yet, Augustus, +committing the most inward secrets of his affairs to Lucius Piso, who +conquered Thrace, never found him faulty in the least, no more than +Tiberias did Cossus, with whom he intrusted his whole counsels, though we +know they were both so given to drink that they have often been fain to +carry both the one and the other drunk out of the Senate: + + "Hesterno inflatum venas ut semper, Lyaeo." + + ["Their veins full, as usual, of yesterday's wine." + --Virgil, Egl., vi. 15.] + +And the design of killing Caesar was as safely communicated to Cimber, +though he would often be drunk, as to Cassius, who drank nothing but +water. + + [As to which Cassius pleasantly said: "What, shall I bear + a tyrant, I who cannot bear wine?"] + +We see our Germans, when drunk as the devil, know their post, remember +the word, and keep to their ranks: + + "Nec facilis victoria de madidis, et + Blaesis, atque mero titubantibus." + + ["Nor is a victory easily obtained over men so drunk, they can + scarce speak or stand."--Juvenal, Sat., xv. 47.] + +I could not have believed there had been so profound, senseless, and dead +a degree of drunkenness had I not read in history that Attalus having, +to put a notable affront upon him, invited to supper the same Pausanias, +who upon the very same occasion afterwards killed Philip of Macedon, +a king who by his excellent qualities gave sufficient testimony of his +education in the house and company of Epaminondas, made him drink to such +a pitch that he could after abandon his beauty, as of a hedge strumpet, +to the muleteers and servants of the basest office in the house. And I +have been further told by a lady whom I highly honour and esteem, that +near Bordeaux and about Castres where she lives, a country woman, a +widow of chaste repute, perceiving in herself the first symptoms of +breeding, innocently told her neighbours that if she had a husband she +should think herself with child; but the causes of suspicion every day +more and more increasing, and at last growing up to a manifest proof, the +poor woman was reduced to the necessity of causing it to be proclaimed in +her parish church, that whoever had done that deed and would frankly +confess it, she did not only promise to forgive, but moreover to marry +him, if he liked the motion; whereupon a young fellow that served her in +the quality of a labourer, encouraged by this proclamation, declared that +he had one holiday found her, having taken too much of the bottle, so +fast asleep by the chimney and in so indecent a posture, that he could +conveniently do his business without waking her; and they yet live +together man and wife. + +It is true that antiquity has not much decried this vice; the writings +even of several philosophers speak very tenderly of it, and even amongst +the Stoics there are some who advise folks to give themselves sometimes +the liberty to drink, nay, to drunkenness, to refresh the soul: + + "Hoc quoque virtutum quondam certamine, magnum + Socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt." + + ["In this trial of power formerly they relate that the great + Socrates deserved the palm."--Cornet. Gallus, Ep., i. 47.] + +That censor and reprover of others, Cato, was reproached that he was a +hard drinker: + + "Narratur et prisci Catonis + Saepe mero caluisse virtus." + + ["And of old Cato it is said, that his courage was often warmed with + wine."--Horace, Od., xxi. 3, 11.--Cato the Elder.] + +Cyrus, that so renowned king, amongst the other qualities by which he +claimed to be preferred before his brother Artaxerxes, urged this +excellence, that he could drink a great deal more than he. And in the +best governed nations this trial of skill in drinking is very much in +use. I have heard Silvius, an excellent physician of Paris, say that +lest the digestive faculties of the stomach should grow idle, it were not +amiss once a month to rouse them by this excess, and to spur them lest +they should grow dull and rusty; and one author tells us that the +Persians used to consult about their most important affairs after being +well warmed with wine. + +My taste and constitution are greater enemies to this vice than my +discourse; for besides that I easily submit my belief to the authority of +ancient opinions, I look upon it indeed as an unmanly and stupid vice, +but less malicious and hurtful than the others, which, almost all, more +directly jostle public society. And if we cannot please ourselves but it +must cost us something, as they hold, I find this vice costs a man's +conscience less than the others, besides that it is of no difficult +preparation, nor hard to be found, a consideration not altogether to be +despised. A man well advanced both in dignity and age, amongst three +principal commodities that he said remained to him of life, reckoned to +me this for one, and where would a man more justly find it than amongst +the natural conveniences? But he did not take it right, for delicacy and +the curious choice of wines is therein to be avoided. If you found your +pleasure upon drinking of the best, you condemn yourself to the penance +of drinking of the worst. Your taste must be more indifferent and free; +so delicate a palate is not required to make a good toper. The Germans +drink almost indifferently of all wines with delight; their business is +to pour down and not to taste; and it's so much the better for them: +their pleasure is so much the more plentiful and nearer at hand. + +Secondly, to drink, after the French fashion, but at two meals, and then +very moderately, is to be too sparing of the favours of the god. There +is more time and constancy required than so. The ancients spent whole +nights in this exercise, and ofttimes added the day following to eke it +out, and therefore we are to take greater liberty and stick closer to our +work. I have seen a great lord of my time, a man of high enterprise and +famous success, that without setting himself to't, and after his ordinary +rate of drinking at meals, drank not much less than five quarts of wine, +and at his going away appeared but too wise and discreet, to the +detriment of our affairs. The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course +of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it; +we should, like shopboys and labourers, refuse no occasion nor omit any +opportunity of drinking, and always have it in our minds. Methinks we +every day abridge and curtail the use of wine, and that the after +breakfasts, dinner snatches, and collations I used to see in my father's +house, when I was a boy, were more usual and frequent then than now. + +Is it that we pretend to a reformation? Truly, no: but it may be we are +more addicted to Venus than our fathers were. They are two exercises +that thwart and hinder one another in their vigour. Lechery weakens our +stomach on the one side; and on the other sobriety renders us more spruce +and amorous for the exercise of love. + +'Tis wonderful what strange stories I have heard my father tell of the +chastity of that age wherein he lived. It was for him to say it, being +both by art and nature cut out and finished for the service of ladies. +He spoke well and little: ever mixing his language with some illustration +out of authors most in use, especially in Spanish, and among the Spanish +he whom they called Marcus Aurelius--[ Guevara's Golden Book of Marcus +Aurelius Antoninus.]--was ordinarily in his mouth. His behaviour was +gently grave, humble, and very modest; he was very solicitous of neatness +and propriety both in his person and clothes, whether on horseback or +afoot, he was monstrously punctual in his word; and of a conscience and +religion generally tending rather towards superstition than otherwise. +For a man of little stature, very strong, well proportioned, and well +knit; of a pleasing countenance inclining to brown, and very adroit in +all noble exercises. I have yet in the house to be seen canes poured +full of lead, with which they say he exercised his arms for throwing the +bar or the stone, or in fencing; and shoes with leaden soles to make him +lighter for running or leaping. Of his vaulting he has left little +miracles behind him: I have seen him when past three score laugh at our +exercises, and throw himself in his furred gown into the saddle, make the +tour of a table upon his thumbs and scarce ever mount the stairs into his +chamber without taking three or four steps at a time. But as to what I +was speaking of before; he said there was scarce one woman of quality of +ill fame in the whole province: he would tell of strange confidences, and +some of them his own, with virtuous women, free from any manner of +suspicion of ill, and for his own part solemnly swore he was a virgin at +his marriage; and yet it was after a long practice of arms beyond the +mountains, of which wars he left us a journal under his own hand, wherein +he has given a precise account from point to point of all passages, both +relating to the public and to himself. And he was, moreover, married at +a well advanced maturity, in the year 1528, the three-and-thirtieth year +of his age, upon his way home from Italy. But let us return to our +bottles. + +The incommodities of old age, that stand in need of some refreshment and +support, might with reason beget in me a desire of this faculty, it being +as it were the last pleasure the course of years deprives us of. The +natural heat, say the good-fellows, first seats itself in the feet: that +concerns infancy; thence it mounts into the middle region, where it makes +a long abode and produces, in my opinion, the sole true pleasures of +human life; all other pleasures in comparison sleep; towards the end, +like a vapour that still mounts upward, it arrives at the throat, where +it makes its final residence, and concludes the progress. I do not, +nevertheless, understand how a man can extend the pleasure of drinking +beyond thirst, and forge in his imagination an appetite artificial and +against nature; my stomach would not proceed so far; it has enough to do +to deal with what it takes in for its necessity. My constitution is not +to care for drink but as following eating and washing down my meat, and +for that reason my last draught is always the greatest. And seeing that +in old age we have our palate furred with phlegms or depraved by some +other ill constitution, the wine tastes better to us as the pores are +cleaner washed and laid more open. At least, I seldom taste the first +glass well. Anacharsis wondered that the Greeks drank in greater glasses +towards the end of a meal than at the beginning; which was, I suppose, +for the same reason the Germans do the same, who then begin the battle of +drink. + +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age, and to get drunk +till forty; but, after forty, gives them leave to please themselves, and +to mix a little liberally in their feasts the influence of Dionysos, that +good deity who restores to younger men their gaiety and to old men their +youth; who mollifies the passions of the soul, as iron is softened by +fire; and in his Lazes allows such merry meetings, provided they have a +discreet chief to govern and keep them in order, as good and of great +utility; drunkenness being, he says, a true and certain trial of every +one's nature, and, withal, fit to inspire old men with mettle to divert +themselves in dancing and music; things of great use, and that they dare +not attempt when sober. He, moreover, says that wine is able to supply +the soul with temperance and the body with health. Nevertheless, these +restrictions, in part borrowed from the Carthaginians, please him: that +men forbear excesses in the expeditions of war; that every judge and +magistrate abstain from it when about the administrations of his place or +the consultations of the public affairs; that the day is not to be +employed with it, that being a time due to other occupations, nor the +night on which a man intends to get children. + +'Tis said that the philosopher Stilpo, when oppressed with age, purposely +hastened his end by drinking pure wine. The same thing, but not designed +by him, despatched also the philosopher Arcesilaus. + +But 'tis an old and pleasant question, whether the soul of a wise man can +be overcome by the strength of wine? + + "Si munitae adhibet vim sapientiae." + +To what vanity does the good opinion we have of ourselves push us? The +most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to +keep itself upright, and from being overthrown by its own weakness. +There is not one of a thousand that is right and settled so much as one +minute in a whole life, and that may not very well doubt, whether +according to her natural condition she ever can be; but to join constancy +to it is her utmost perfection; I mean when nothing should jostle and +discompose her, which a thousand accidents may do. 'Tis to much purpose +that the great poet Lucretius keeps such a clatter with his philosophy, +when, behold! he goes mad with a love philtre. Is it to be imagined +that an apoplexy will not stun Socrates as well as a porter? Some men +have forgotten their own names by the violence of a disease; and a slight +wound has turned the judgment of others topsy-turvy. Let him be as wise +as he will, after all he is but a man; and than that what is there more +frail, more miserable, or more nothing? Wisdom does not force our +natural dispositions, + + "Sudores itaque, et pallorem exsistere toto + Corpore, et infringi linguam, vocemque aboriri, + Caligare oculos, sonere aures, succidere artus, + Demque concidere, ex animi terrore, videmus." + + ["Sweat and paleness come over the whole body, the tongue is + rendered powerless, the voice dies away, the eyes are darkened, + there is ringing in the ears, the limbs sink under us by the + influence of fear."--Lucretius, iii. 155.] + +he must shut his eyes against the blow that threatens him; he must +tremble upon the margin of a precipice, like a child; nature having +reserved these light marks of her authority, not to be forced by our +reason and the stoic virtue, to teach man his mortality and our weakness; +he turns pale with fear, red with shame, and groans with the cholic, if +not with desperate outcry, at least with hoarse and broken voice: + + "Humani a se nihil alienum putet." + + ["Let him not think himself exempt from that which is incidental to + men in general."--Terence, Heauton, i. 1, 25.] + +The poets, that feign all things at pleasure, dare not acquit their +greatest heroes of tears: + + "Sic fatur lacrymans, classique immittit habenas." + + ["Thus he speaks, weeping, and then sets sail with his fleet." + --Aeneid, vi. i.] + +'Tis sufficient for a man to curb and moderate his inclinations, for +totally to suppress them is not in him to do. Even our great Plutarch, +that excellent and perfect judge of human actions, when he sees Brutus +and Torquatus kill their children, begins to doubt whether virtue could +proceed so far, and to question whether these persons had not rather been +stimulated by some other passion.--[Plutarch, Life of Publicola, c. 3.] +--All actions exceeding the ordinary bounds are liable to sinister +interpretation, for as much as our liking no more holds with what is +above than with what is below it. + +Let us leave that other sect, that sets up an express profession of +scornful superiority--[The Stoics.]--: but when even in that sect, +reputed the most quiet and gentle, we hear these rhodomontades of +Metrodorus: + + "Occupavi te, Fortuna, atque cepi: omnesque aditus tuos + interclusi ut ad me aspirare non posses;" + + ["Fortune, I have got the better of thee, and have made all the + avenues so sure thou canst not come at me." + --Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., v. 9.] + +when Anaxarchus, by command of Nicocreon the tyrant of Cyprus, was put +into a stone mortar, and laid upon with mauls of iron, ceases not to say, +"Strike, batter, break; 'tis not Anaxarchus, 'tis but his sheath that you +pound and bray so"; when we hear our martyrs cry out to the tyrant from +the middle of the flame, "This side is roasted enough, fall to and eat, +it is enough done; fall to work with the other;" when we hear the child +in Josephus' torn piece-meal with pincers, defying Antiochus, and crying +out with a constant and assured voice: "Tyrant, thou losest thy labour, +I am still at ease; where is the pain, where are the torments with which +thou didst so threaten me? Is this all thou canst do? My constancy +torments thee more than thy cruelty does me. O pitiful coward, thou +faintest, and I grow stronger; make me complain, make me bend, make me +yield if thou canst; encourage thy guards, cheer up thy executioners; +see, see they faint, and can do no more; arm them, flesh them anew, spur +them up"; truly, a man must confess that there is some phrenzy, some +fury, how holy soever, that at that time possesses those souls. When we +come to these Stoical sallies: "I had rather be mad than voluptuous," a +saying of Antisthenes. When Sextius tells us, "he had rather be fettered +with affliction than pleasure": when Epicurus takes upon him to play with +his gout, and, refusing health and ease, defies all torments, and +despising the lesser pains, as disdaining to contend with them, he covets +and calls out for others sharper, more violent, and more worthy of him; + + "Spumantemque dari, pecora inter inertia, votis + Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem:" + + ["And instead of timid beasts, wishes the foaming boar or tawny lion + would come from the mountain."--AEneid, iv. 158.] + +who but must conclude that these are wild sallies pushed on by a courage +that has broken loose from its place? Our soul cannot from her own seat +reach so high; 'tis necessary she must leave it, raise herself up, and, +taking the bridle in her teeth, transport her man so far that he shall +afterwards himself be astonished at what he has done; as, in war, the +heat of battle impels generous soldiers to perform things of so infinite +danger, as afterwards, recollecting them, they themselves are the first +to wonder at; as it also fares with the poets, who are often rapt with +admiration of their own writings, and know not where again to find the +track through which they performed so fine a Career; which also is in +them called fury and rapture. And as Plato says, 'tis to no purpose for +a sober-minded man to knock at the door of poesy: so Aristotle says, that +no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness; and he has reason +to call all transports, how commendable soever, that surpass our own +judgment and understanding, madness; forasmuch as wisdom is a regular +government of the soul, which is carried on with measure and proportion, +and for which she is to herself responsible. Plato argues thus, that the +faculty of prophesying is so far above us, that we must be out of +ourselves when we meddle with it, and our prudence must either be +obstructed by sleep or sickness, or lifted from her place by some +celestial rapture. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A CUSTOM OF THE ISLE OF CEA + + [Cos. Cea is the form of the name given by Pliny] + +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt, much more to write at +random and play the fool, as I do, ought to be reputed doubting, for it +is for novices and freshmen to inquire and to dispute, and for the +chairman to moderate and determine. + +My moderator is the authority of the divine will, that governs us without +contradiction, and that is seated above these human and vain +contestations. + +Philip having forcibly entered into Peloponnesus, and some one saying to +Damidas that the Lacedaemonians were likely very much to suffer if they +did not in time reconcile themselves to his favour: "Why, you pitiful +fellow," replied he, "what can they suffer who do not fear to die?" It +being also asked of Agis, which way a man might live free? "Why," said +he, "by despising death." These, and a thousand other sayings to the +same purpose, distinctly sound of something more than the patient +attending the stroke of death when it shall come; for there are several +accidents in life far worse to suffer than death itself. Witness the +Lacedaemonian boy taken by Antigonus, and sold for a slave, who being by +his master commanded to some base employment: "Thou shalt see," says the +boy, "whom thou hast bought; it would be a shame for me to serve, being +so near the reach of liberty," and having so said, threw himself from the +top of the house. Antipater severely threatening the Lacedaemonians, +that he might the better incline them to acquiesce in a certain demand of +his: "If thou threatenest us with more than death," replied they, "we +shall the more willingly die"; and to Philip, having written them word +that he would frustrate all their enterprises: "What, wilt thou also +hinder us from dying?" This is the meaning of the sentence, "That the +wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can; and that the +most obliging present Nature has made us, and which takes from us all +colour of complaint of our condition, is to have delivered into our own +custody the keys of life; she has only ordered, one door into life, but a +hundred thousand ways out. We may be straitened for earth to live upon, +but earth sufficient to die upon can never be wanting, as Boiocalus +answered the Romans."--[Tacitus, Annal., xiii. 56.]--Why dost thou +complain of this world? it detains thee not; thy own cowardice is the +cause, if thou livest in pain. There needs no more to die but to will to +die: + + "Ubique mors est; optime hoc cavit deus. + Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest; + At nemo mortem; mille ad hanc aditus patent." + + ["Death is everywhere: heaven has well provided for that. Any one + may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death. To death + there are a thousand avenues."--Seneca, Theb:, i, I, 151.] + +Neither is it a recipe for one disease only; death is the infallible cure +of all; 'tis a most assured port that is never to be feared, and very +often to be sought. It comes all to one, whether a man give himself his +end, or stays to receive it by some other means; whether he pays before +his day, or stay till his day of payment come; from whencesoever it +comes, it is still his; in what part soever the thread breaks, there's +the end of the clue. The most voluntary death is the finest. Life +depends upon the pleasure of others; death upon our own. We ought not to +accommodate ourselves to our own humour in anything so much as in this. +Reputation is not concerned in such an enterprise; 'tis folly to be +concerned by any such apprehension. Living is slavery if the liberty of +dying be wanting. The ordinary method of cure is carried on at the +expense of life; they torment us with caustics, incisions, and +amputations of limbs; they interdict aliment and exhaust our blood; one +step farther and we are cured indeed and effectually. Why is not the +jugular vein as much at our disposal as the median vein? For a desperate +disease a desperate cure. Servius the grammarian, being tormented with +the gout, could think of no better remedy than to apply poison to his +legs, to deprive them of their sense; let them be gouty at their will, so +they were insensible of pain. God gives us leave enough to go when He is +pleased to reduce us to such a condition that to live is far worse than +to die. 'Tis weakness to truckle under infirmities, but it's madness to +nourish them. The Stoics say, that it is living according to nature in a +wise man to, take his leave of life, even in the height of prosperity, +if he do it opportunely; and in a fool to prolong it, though he be +miserable, provided he be not indigent of those things which they repute +to be according to nature. As I do not offend the law against thieves +when I embezzle my own money and cut my own purse; nor that against +incendiaries when I burn my own wood; so am I not under the lash of those +made against murderers for having deprived myself of my own life. +Hegesias said, that as the condition of life did, so the condition of +death ought to depend upon our own choice. And Diogenes meeting the +philosopher Speusippus, so blown up with an inveterate dropsy that he was +fain to be carried in a litter, and by him saluted with the compliment, +"I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other, +"who art content to live in such a condition." + +And in fact, not long after, Speusippus, weary of so languishing a state +of life, found a means to die. + +But this does not pass without admitting a dispute: for many are of +opinion that we cannot quit this garrison of the world without the +express command of Him who has placed us in it; and that it appertains to +God who has placed us here, not for ourselves only but for His Glory and +the service of others, to dismiss us when it shall best please Him, and +not for us to depart without His licence: that we are not born for +ourselves only, but for our country also, the laws of which require an +account from us upon the score of their own interest, and have an action +of manslaughter good against us; and if these fail to take cognisance of +the fact, we are punished in the other world as deserters of our duty: + + "Proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum + Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi + Proiecere animas." + + ["Thence the sad ones occupy the next abodes, who, though free + from guilt, were by their own hands slain, and, hating light, + sought death."--AEneid, vi. 434.] + +There is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied to than in +breaking it, and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in +Cato; 'tis indiscretion and impatience that push us on to these +precipices: no accidents can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks +and requires evils, pains, and grief, as the things by which she is +nourished and supported; the menaces of tyrants, racks, and tortures +serve only to animate and rouse her: + + "Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus + Nigrae feraci frondis in Algido, + Per damma, percmdes, ab ipso + Ducit opes, animumque ferro." + + ["As in Mount Algidus, the sturdy oak even from the axe itself + derives new vigour and life."--Horace, Od., iv. 4, 57.] + +And as another says: + + "Non est, ut putas, virtus, pater, + Timere vitam; sed malis ingentibus + Obstare, nec se vertere, ac retro dare." + + ["Father, 'tis no virtue to fear life, but to withstand great + misfortunes, nor turn back from them."--Seneca, Theb., i. 190.] + +Or as this: + + "Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem + Fortius ille facit, qui miser esse potest." + + ["It is easy in adversity to despise death; but he acts more + bravely, who can live wretched."--Martial, xi. 56, 15.] + +'Tis cowardice, not virtue, to lie squat in a furrow, under a tomb, to +evade the blows of fortune; virtue never stops nor goes out of her path, +for the greatest storm that blows: + + "Si fractus illabatur orbis, + Impavidum ferient ruinae." + + ["Should the world's axis crack, the ruins will but crush + a fearless head."--Horace, Od., iii. 3, 7.] + +For the most part, the flying from other inconveniences brings us to +this; nay, endeavouring to evade death, we often run into its very mouth: + + "Hic, rogo, non furor est, ne moriare, mori?" + + ["Tell me, is it not madness, that one should die for fear + of dying?"--Martial, ii. 80, 2.] + +like those who, from fear of a precipice, throw themselves headlong into +it; + + "Multos in summa pericula misfit + Venturi timor ipse mali: fortissimus ille est, + Qui promptus metuenda pati, si cominus instent, + Et differre potest." + + ["The fear of future ills often makes men run into extreme danger; + he is truly brave who boldly dares withstand the mischiefs he + apprehends, when they confront him and can be deferred." + --Lucan, vii. 104.] + + "Usque adeo, mortis formidine, vitae + Percipit humanos odium, lucisque videndae, + Ut sibi consciscant moerenti pectore lethum + Obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem." + + ["Death to that degree so frightens some men, that causing them to + hate both life and light, they kill themselves, miserably forgetting + that this same fear is the fountain of their cares." + --Lucretius, iii. 79.] + +Plato, in his Laws, assigns an ignominious sepulture to him who has +deprived his nearest and best friend, namely himself, of life and his +destined course, being neither compelled so to do by public judgment, +by any sad and inevitable accident of fortune, nor by any insupportable +disgrace, but merely pushed on by cowardice and the imbecility of a +timorous soul. And the opinion that makes so little of life, is +ridiculous; for it is our being, 'tis all we have. Things of a nobler +and more elevated being may, indeed, reproach ours; but it is against +nature for us to contemn and make little account of ourselves; 'tis a +disease particular to man, and not discerned in any other creatures, to +hate and despise itself. And it is a vanity of the same stamp to desire +to be something else than what we are; the effect of such a desire does +not at all touch us, forasmuch as it is contradicted and hindered in +itself. He that desires of a man to be made an angel, does nothing for +himself; he would be never the better for it; for, being no more, who +shall rejoice or be sensible of this benefit for him. + + "Debet enim, misere cui forti, aegreque futurum est, + Ipse quoque esse in eo turn tempore, cum male possit + Accidere." + + ["For he to whom misery and pain are to be in the future, must + himself then exist, when these ills befall him." + --Idem, ibid., 874.] + +Security, indolence, impassability, the privation of the evils of this +life, which we pretend to purchase at the price of dying, are of no +manner of advantage to us: that man evades war to very little purpose who +can have no fruition of peace; and as little to the purpose does he avoid +trouble who cannot enjoy repose. + +Amongst those of the first of these two opinions, there has been great +debate, what occasions are sufficient to justify the meditation of self- +murder, which they call "A reasonable exit."--[ Diogenes Laertius, Life +of Zeno.]--For though they say that men must often die for trivial +causes, seeing those that detain us in life are of no very great weight, +yet there is to be some limit. There are fantastic and senseless humours +that have prompted not only individual men, but whole nations to destroy +themselves, of which I have elsewhere given some examples; and we further +read of the Milesian virgins, that by a frantic compact they hanged +themselves one after another till the magistrate took order in it, +enacting that the bodies of such as should be found so hanged should be +drawn by the same halter stark naked through the city. When Therykion +tried to persuade Cleomenes to despatch himself, by reason of the ill +posture of his affairs, and, having missed a death of more honour in the +battle he had lost, to accept of this the second in honour to it, and not +to give the conquerors leisure to make him undergo either an ignominious +death or an infamous life; Cleomenes, with a courage truly Stoic and +Lacedaemonian, rejected his counsel as unmanly and mean; "that," said he, +"is a remedy that can never be wanting, but which a man is never to make +use of, whilst there is an inch of hope remaining": telling him, "that +it was sometimes constancy and valour to live; that he would that even +his death should be of use to his country, and would make of it an act of +honour and virtue." Therykion, notwithstanding, thought himself in the +right, and did his own business; and Cleomenes afterwards did the same, +but not till he had first tried the utmost malevolence of fortune. All +the inconveniences in the world are not considerable enough that a man +should die to evade them; and, besides, there being so many, so sudden +and unexpected changes in human things, it is hard rightly to judge when +we are at the end of our hope: + + "Sperat et in saeva victus gladiator arena, + Sit licet infesto pollice turba minax." + + ["The gladiator conquered in the lists hopes on, though the + menacing spectators, turning their thumb, order him to die." + --Pentadius, De Spe, ap. Virgilii Catadecta.] + +All things, says an old adage, are to be hoped for by a man whilst he +lives; ay, but, replies Seneca, why should this rather be always running +in a man's head that fortune can do all things for the living man, than +this, that fortune has no power over him that knows how to die? +Josephus, when engaged in so near and apparent danger, a whole people +being violently bent against him, that there was no visible means of +escape, nevertheless, being, as he himself says, in this extremity +counselled by one of his friends to despatch himself, it was well for him +that he yet maintained himself in hope, for fortune diverted the accident +beyond all human expectation, so that he saw himself delivered without +any manner of inconvenience. Whereas Brutus and Cassius, on the +contrary, threw away the remains of the Roman liberty, of which they were +the sole protectors, by the precipitation and temerity wherewith they +killed themselves before the due time and a just occasion. Monsieur +d'Anguien, at the battle of Serisolles, twice attempted to run himself +through, despairing of the fortune of the day, which went indeed very +untowardly on that side of the field where he was engaged, and by that +precipitation was very near depriving himself of the enjoyment of so +brave a victory. I have seen a hundred hares escape out of the very +teeth of the greyhounds: + + "Aliquis carnifici suo superstes fuit." + + ["Some have survived their executioners."--Seneca, Ep., 13.] + + "Multa dies, variusque labor mutabilis nevi + Rettulit in melius; multos alterna revisens + Lusit, et in solido rursus fortuna locavit." + + ["Length of days, and the various labour of changeful time, have + brought things to a better state; fortune turning, shews a reverse + face, and again restores men to prosperity."--AEneid, xi. 425.] + +Piny says there are but three sorts of diseases, to escape which a man +has good title to destroy himself; the worst of which is the stone in the +bladder, when the urine is suppressed. + + ["In the quarto edition of these essays, in 1588, Pliny is said to + mention two more, viz., a pain in the stomach and a headache, which, + he says (lib. xxv. c. 9.), were the only three distempers almost + for which men killed themselves."] + +Seneca says those only which for a long time are discomposing the +functions of the soul. And some there have been who, to avoid a worse +death, have chosen one to their own liking. Democritus, general of the +AEtolians, being brought prisoner to Rome, found means to make his escape +by night: but close pursued by his keepers, rather than suffer himself to +be retaken, he fell upon his own sword and died. Antinous and Theodotus, +their city of Epirus being reduced by the Romans to the last extremity, +gave the people counsel universally to kill themselves; but, these +preferring to give themselves up to the enemy, the two chiefs went to +seek the death they desired, rushing furiously upon the enemy, with +intention to strike home but not to ward a blow. The Island of Gozzo +being taken some years ago by the Turks, a Sicilian, who had two +beautiful daughters marriageable, killed them both with his own hand, and +their mother, running in to save them, to boot, which having done, +sallying out of the house with a cross-bow and harquebus, with two shots +he killed two of the Turks nearest to his door, and drawing his sword, +charged furiously in amongst the rest, where he was suddenly enclosed and +cut to pieces, by that means delivering his family and himself from +slavery and dishonour. The Jewish women, after having circumcised their +children, threw them and themselves down a precipice to avoid the cruelty +of Antigonus. I have been told of a person of condition in one of our +prisons, that his friends, being informed that he would certainly be +condemned, to avoid the ignominy of such a death suborned a priest to +tell him that the only means of his deliverance was to recommend himself +to such a saint, under such and such vows, and to fast eight days +together without taking any manner of nourishment, what weakness or +faintness soever he might find in himself during the time; he followed +their advice, and by that means destroyed himself before he was aware, +not dreaming of death or any danger in the experiment. Scribonia +advising her nephew Libo to kill himself rather than await the stroke of +justice, told him that it was to do other people's business to preserve +his life to put it after into the hands of those who within three or four +days would fetch him to execution, and that it was to serve his enemies +to keep his blood to gratify their malice. + +We read in the Bible that Nicanor, the persecutor of the law of God, +having sent his soldiers to seize upon the good old man Razis, surnamed +in honour of his virtue the father of the Jews: the good man, seeing no +other remedy, his gates burned down, and the enemies ready to seize him, +choosing rather to die nobly than to fall into the hands of his wicked +adversaries and suffer himself to be cruelly butchered by them, contrary +to the honour of his rank and quality, stabbed himself with his own +sword, but the blow, for haste, not having been given home, he ran and +threw himself from the top of a wall headlong among them, who separating +themselves and making room, he pitched directly upon his head; +notwithstanding which, feeling yet in himself some remains of life, he +renewed his courage, and starting up upon his feet all bloody and wounded +as he was, and making his way through the crowd to a precipitous rock, +there, through one of his wounds, drew out his bowels, which, tearing and +pulling to pieces with both his hands, he threw amongst his pursuers, all +the while attesting and invoking the Divine vengeance upon them for their +cruelty and injustice. + +Of violences offered to the conscience, that against the chastity of +woman is, in my opinion, most to be avoided, forasmuch as there is a +certain pleasure naturally mixed with it, and for that reason the dissent +therein cannot be sufficiently perfect and entire, so that the violence +seems to be mixed with a little consent of the forced party. The +ecclesiastical history has several examples of devout persons who have +embraced death to secure them from the outrages prepared by tyrants +against their religion and honour. Pelagia and Sophronia, both +canonised, the first of these precipitated herself with her mother and +sisters into the river to avoid being forced by some soldiers, and the +last also killed herself to avoid being ravished by the Emperor +Maxentius. + +It may, peradventure, be an honour to us in future ages, that a learned +author of this present time, and a Parisian, takes a great deal of pains +to persuade the ladies of our age rather to take any other course than to +enter into the horrid meditation of such a despair. I am sorry he had +never heard, that he might have inserted it amongst his other stories, +the saying of a woman, which was told me at Toulouse, who had passed +through the handling of some soldiers: "God be praised," said she, "that +once at least in my life I have had my fill without sin." In truth, +these cruelties are very unworthy the French good nature, and also, God +be thanked, our air is very well purged of them since this good advice: +'tis enough that they say "no" in doing it, according to the rule of the +good Marot. + "Un doulx nenny, avec un doulx sourire + Est tant honneste."--Marot. + +History is everywhere full of those who by a thousand ways have exchanged +a painful and irksome life for death. Lucius Aruntius killed himself, to +fly, he said, both the future and the past. Granius Silvanus and Statius +Proximus, after having been pardoned by Nero, killed themselves; either +disdaining to live by the favour of so wicked a man, or that they might +not be troubled, at some other time, to obtain a second pardon, +considering the proclivity of his nature to suspect and credit +accusations against worthy men. Spargapises, son of Queen Tomyris, being +a prisoner of war to Cyrus, made use of the first favour Cyrus shewed +him, in commanding him to be unbound, to kill himself, having pretended +to no other benefit of liberty, but only to be revenged of himself for +the disgrace of being taken. Boges, governor in Eion for King Xerxes, +being besieged by the Athenian army under the conduct of Cimon, refused +the conditions offered, that he might safe return into Asia with all his +wealth, impatient to survive the loss of a place his master had given him +to keep; wherefore, having defended the city to the last extremity, +nothing being left to eat, he first threw all the gold and whatever else +the enemy could make booty of into the river Strymon, and then causing a +great pile to be set on fire, and the throats of all the women, children, +concubines, and servants to be cut, he threw their bodies into the fire, +and at last leaped into it himself. + +Ninachetuen, an Indian lord, so soon as he heard the first whisper of the +Portuguese Viceroy's determination to dispossess him, without any +apparent cause, of his command in Malacca, to transfer it to the King of +Campar, he took this resolution with himself: he caused a scaffold, more +long than broad, to be erected, supported by columns royally adorned with +tapestry and strewed with flowers and abundance of perfumes; all which +being prepared, in a robe of cloth of gold, set full of jewels of great +value, he came out into the street, and mounted the steps to the +scaffold, at one corner of which he had a pile lighted of aromatic wood. +Everybody ran to see to what end these unusual preparations were made; +when Ninachetuen, with a manly but displeased countenance, set forth how +much he had obliged the Portuguese nation, and with how unspotted +fidelity he had carried himself in his charge; that having so often, +sword in hand, manifested in the behalf of others, that honour was much +more dear to him than life, he was not to abandon the concern of it for +himself: that fortune denying him all means of opposing the affront +designed to be put upon him, his courage at least enjoined him to free +himself from the sense of it, and not to serve for a fable to the people, +nor for a triumph to men less deserving than himself; which having said +he leaped into the fire. + +Sextilia, wife of Scaurus, and Paxaea, wife of Labeo, to encourage their +husbands to avoid the dangers that pressed upon them, wherein they had no +other share than conjugal affection, voluntarily sacrificed their own +lives to serve them in this extreme necessity for company and example. +What they did for their husbands, Cocceius Nerva did for his country, +with less utility though with equal affection: this great lawyer, +flourishing in health, riches, reputation, and favour with the Emperor, +had no other cause to kill himself but the sole compassion of the +miserable state of the Roman Republic. Nothing can be added to the +beauty of the death of the wife of Fulvius, a familiar favourite of +Augustus: Augustus having discovered that he had vented an important +secret he had entrusted him withal, one morning that he came to make his +court, received him very coldly and looked frowningly upon him. He +returned home, full of, despair, where he sorrowfully told his wife that, +having fallen into this misfortune, he was resolved to kill himself: to +which she roundly replied, "'tis but reason you should, seeing that +having so often experienced the incontinence of my tongue, you could not +take warning: but let me kill myself first," and without any more saying +ran herself through the body with a sword. Vibius Virrius, despairing of +the safety of his city besieged by the Romans and of their mercy, in the +last deliberation of his city's senate, after many arguments conducing to +that end, concluded that the most noble means to escape fortune was by +their own hands: telling them that the enemy would have them in honour, +and Hannibal would be sensible how many faithful friends he had +abandoned; inviting those who approved of his advice to come to a good +supper he had ready at home, where after they had eaten well, they would +drink together of what he had prepared; a beverage, said he, that will +deliver our bodies from torments, our souls from insult, and our eyes and +ears from the sense of so many hateful mischiefs, as the conquered suffer +from cruel and implacable conquerors. I have, said he, taken order for +fit persons to throw our bodies into a funeral pile before my door so +soon as we are dead. Many enough approved this high resolution, but few +imitated it; seven-and-twenty senators followed him, who, after having +tried to drown the thought of this fatal determination in wine, ended the +feast with the mortal mess; and embracing one another, after they had +jointly deplored the misfortune of their country, some retired home to +their own houses, others stayed to be burned with Vibius in his funeral +pyre; and were all of them so long in dying, the vapour of the wine +having prepossessed the veins, and by that means deferred the effect of +poison, that some of them were within an hour of seeing the enemy inside +the walls of Capua, which was taken the next morning, and of undergoing +the miseries they had at so dear a rate endeavoured to avoid. Jubellius +Taurea, another citizen of the same country, the Consul Fulvius returning +from the shameful butchery he had made of two hundred and twenty-five +senators, called him back fiercely by name, and having made him stop: +"Give the word," said he, "that somebody may dispatch me after the +massacre of so many others, that thou mayest boast to have killed a much +more valiant man than thyself." Fulvius, disdaining him as a man out of +his wits, and also having received letters from Rome censuring the +inhumanity of his execution which tied his hands, Jubellius proceeded: +"Since my country has been taken, my friends dead, and having with my own +hands slain my wife and children to rescue them from the desolation of +this ruin, I am denied to die the death of my fellow-citizens, let me +borrow from virtue vengeance on this hated life," and therewithal drawing +a short sword he carried concealed about him, he ran it through his own +bosom, falling down backward, and expiring at the consul's feet. + +Alexander, laying siege to a city of the Indies, those within, finding +themselves very hardly set, put on a vigorous resolution to deprive him +of the pleasure of his victory, and accordingly burned themselves in +general, together with their city, in despite of his humanity: a new kind +of war, where the enemies sought to save them, and they to destroy +themselves, doing to make themselves sure of death, all that men do to +secure life. + +Astapa, a city of Spain, finding itself weak in walls and defence to +withstand the Romans, the inhabitants made a heap of all their riches and +furniture in the public place; and, having ranged upon this heap all the +women and children, and piled them round with wood and other combustible +matter to take sudden fire, and left fifty of their young men for the +execution of that whereon they had resolved, they made a desperate sally, +where for want of power to overcome, they caused themselves to be every +man slain. The fifty, after having massacred every living soul +throughout the whole city, and put fire to this pile, threw themselves +lastly into it, finishing their generous liberty, rather after an +insensible, than after a sorrowful and disgraceful manner, giving the +enemy to understand, that if fortune had been so pleased, they had as +well the courage to snatch from them victory as they had to frustrate and +render it dreadful, and even mortal to those who, allured by the +splendour of the gold melting in this flame, having approached it, +a great number were there suffocated and burned, being kept from retiring +by the crowd that followed after. + +The Abydeans, being pressed by King Philip, put on the same resolution; +but, not having time, they could not put it 'in effect. The king, who +was struck with horror at the rash precipitation of this execution (the +treasure and movables that they had condemned to the flames being first +seized), drawing off his soldiers, granted them three days' time to kill +themselves in, that they might do it with more order and at greater ease: +which time they filled with blood and slaughter beyond the utmost excess +of all hostile cruelty, so that not so much as any one soul was left +alive that had power to destroy itself. There are infinite examples of +like popular resolutions which seem the more fierce and cruel in +proportion as the effect is more universal, and yet are really less so +than when singly executed; what arguments and persuasion cannot do with +individual men, they can do with all, the ardour of society ravishing +particular judgments. + +The condemned who would live to be executed in the reign of Tiberius, +forfeited their goods and were denied the rites of sepulture; those who, +by killing themselves, anticipated it, were interred, and had liberty to +dispose of their estates by will. + +But men sometimes covet death out of hope of a greater good. "I desire," +says St. Paul, "to be with Christ," and "who shall rid me of these +bands?" Cleombrotus of Ambracia, having read Plato's Pheedo, entered +into so great a desire of the life to come that, without any other +occasion, he threw himself into the sea. By which it appears how +improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair, to which the +eagerness of hope often inclines us, and, often, a calm and temperate +desire proceeding from a mature and deliberate judgment. Jacques du +Chastel, bishop of Soissons, in St. Louis's foreign expedition, seeing +the king and whole army upon the point of returning into France, leaving +the affairs of religion imperfect, took a resolution rather to go into +Paradise; wherefore, having taken solemn leave of his friends, he charged +alone, in the sight of every one, into the enemy's army, where he was +presently cut to pieces. In a certain kingdom of the new discovered +world, upon a day of solemn procession, when the idol they adore is drawn +about in public upon a chariot of marvellous greatness; besides that many +are then seen cutting off pieces of their flesh to offer to him, there +are a number of others who prostrate themselves upon the place, causing +themselves to be crushed and broken to pieces under the weighty wheels, +to obtain the veneration of sanctity after death, which is accordingly +paid them. The death of the bishop, sword in hand, has more of +magnanimity in it, and less of sentiment, the ardour of combat taking +away part of the latter. + +There are some governments who have taken upon them to regulate the +justice and opportunity of voluntary death. In former times there was +kept in our city of Marseilles a poison prepared out of hemlock, at the +public charge, for those who had a mind to hasten their end, having +first, before the six hundred, who were their senate, given account of +the reasons and motives of their design, and it was not otherwise lawful, +than by leave from the magistrate and upon just occasion to do violence +to themselves.--[Valerius Maximus, ii. 6, 7.]--The same law was also +in use in other places. + +Sextus Pompeius, in his expedition into Asia, touched at the isle of Cea +in Negropont: it happened whilst he was there, as we have it from one +that was with him, that a woman of great quality, having given an account +to her citizens why she was resolved to put an end to her life, invited +Pompeius to her death, to render it the more honourable, an invitation +that he accepted; and having long tried in vain by the power of his +eloquence, which was very great, and persuasion, to divert her from that +design, he acquiesced in the end in her own will. She had passed the age +of four score and ten in a very happy state, both of body and mind; being +then laid upon her bed, better dressed than ordinary and leaning upon her +elbow, "The gods," said she, "O Sextus Pompeius, and rather those I leave +than those I go to seek, reward thee, for that thou hast not disdained to +be both the counsellor of my life and the witness of my death. For my +part, having always experienced the smiles of fortune, for fear lest the +desire of living too long may make me see a contrary face, I am going, by +a happy end, to dismiss the remains of my soul, leaving behind two +daughters of my body and a legion of nephews"; which having said, with +some exhortations to her family to live in peace, she divided amongst +them her goods, and recommending her domestic gods to her eldest +daughter, she boldly took the bowl that contained the poison, and having +made her vows and prayers to Mercury to conduct her to some happy abode +in the other world, she roundly swallowed the mortal poison. This being +done, she entertained the company with the progress of its operation, and +how the cold by degrees seized the several parts of her body one after +another, till having in the end told them it began to seize upon her +heart and bowels, she called her daughters to do the last office and +close her eyes. + +Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean nation where, by reason of the +sweet temperature of the air, lives rarely ended but by the voluntary +surrender of the inhabitants, who, being weary of and satiated with +living, had the custom, at a very old age, after having made good cheer, +to precipitate themselves into the sea from the top of a certain rock, +assigned for that service. Pain and the fear of a worse death seem to me +the most excusable incitements. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TO-MORROW'S A NEW DAY + +I give, as it seems to me, with good reason the palm to Jacques Amyot of +all our French writers, not only for the simplicity and purity of his +language, wherein he excels all others, nor for his constancy in going +through so long a work, nor for the depth of his knowledge, having been +able so successfully to smooth and unravel so knotty and intricate an +author (for let people tell me what they will, I understand nothing of +Greek; but I meet with sense so well united and maintained throughout his +whole translation, that certainly he either knew the true fancy of the +author, or having, by being long conversant with him, imprinted a vivid +and general idea of that of Plutarch in his soul, he has delivered us +nothing that either derogates from or contradicts him), but above all, I +am the most taken with him for having made so discreet a choice of a book +so worthy and of so great utility wherewith to present his country. We +ignorant fellows had been lost, had not this book raised us out of the +dirt; by this favour of his we dare now speak and write; the ladies are +able to read to schoolmasters; 'tis our breviary. If this good man be +yet living, I would recommend to him Xenophon, to do as much by that; +'tis a much more easy task than the other, and consequently more proper +for his age. And, besides, though I know not how, methinks he does +briskly--and clearly enough trip over steps another would have stumbled +at, yet nevertheless his style seems to be more his own where he does not +encounter those difficulties, and rolls away at his own ease. + +I was just now reading this passage where Plutarch says of himself, that +Rusticus being present at a declamation of his at Rome, there received a +packet from the emperor, and deferred to open it till all was done: for +which, says he, all the company highly applauded the gravity of this +person. 'Tis true, that being upon the subject of curiosity and of that +eager passion for news, which makes us with so much indiscretion and +impatience leave all to entertain a newcomer, and without any manner of +respect or outcry, tear open on a sudden, in what company soever, the +letters that are delivered to us, he had reason to applaud the gravity of +Rusticus upon this occasion; and might moreover have added to it the +commendation of his civility and courtesy, that would not interrupt the +current of his declamation. But I doubt whether any one can commend his +prudence; for receiving unexpected letters, and especially from an +emperor, it might have fallen out that the deferring to read them might +have been of great prejudice. The vice opposite to curiosity is +negligence, to which I naturally incline, and wherein I have seen some +men so extreme that one might have found letters sent them three or four +days before, still sealed up in their pockets. + +I never open any letters directed to another; not only those intrusted +with me, but even such as fortune has guided to my hand; and am angry +with myself if my eyes unawares steal any contents of letters of +importance he is reading when I stand near a great man. Never was man +less inquisitive or less prying into other men's affairs than I. + +In our fathers' days, Monsieur de Boutieres had like to have lost Turin +from having, while engaged in good company at supper, delayed to read +information that was sent him of the treason plotted against that city +where he commanded. And this very Plutarch has given me to understand, +that Julius Caesar had preserved himself, if, going to the Senate the day +he was assassinated by the conspirators, he had read a note which was +presented to him by, the way. He tells also the story of Archias, the +tyrant of Thebes, that the night before the execution of the design +Pelopidas had plotted to kill him to restore his country to liberty, he +had a full account sent him in writing by another Archias, an Athenian, +of the whole conspiracy, and that, this packet having been delivered to +him while he sat at supper, he deferred the opening of it, saying, which +afterwards turned to a proverb in Greece, "Business to-morrow." + +A wise man may, I think, out of respect to another, as not to disturb the +company, as Rusticus did, or not to break off another affair of +importance in hand, defer to read or hear any new thing that is brought +him; but for his own interest or particular pleasure, especially if he be +a public minister, that he will not interrupt his dinner or break his +sleep is inexcusable. And there was anciently at Rome, the consular +place, as they called it, which was the most honourable at the table, as +being a place of most liberty, and of more convenient access to those who +came in to speak to the person seated there; by which it appears, that +being at meat, they did not totally abandon the concern of other affairs +and incidents. But when all is said, it is very hard in human actions to +give so exact a rule upon moral reasons, that fortune will not therein +maintain her own right. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +OF CONSCIENCE + +The Sieur de la Brousse, my brother, and I, travelling one day together +during the time of our civil wars, met a gentleman of good sort. He was +of the contrary party, though I did not know so much, for he pretended +otherwise: and the mischief on't is, that in this sort of war the cards +are so shuffled, your enemy not being distinguished from yourself by any +apparent mark either of language or habit, and being nourished under the +same law, air, and manners, it is very hard to avoid disorder and +confusion. This made me afraid myself of meeting any of our troops in a +place where I was not known, that I might not be in fear to tell my name, +and peradventure of something worse; as it had befallen me before, where, +by such a mistake, I lost both men and horses, and amongst others an +Italian gentleman my page, whom I bred with the greatest care and +affection, was miserably slain, in whom a youth of great promise and +expectation was extinguished. But the gentleman my brother and I met +had so desperate, half-dead a fear upon him at meeting with any horse, +or passing by any of the towns that held for the King, that I at last +discovered it to be alarms of conscience. It seemed to the poor man as +if through his visor and the crosses upon his cassock, one would have +penetrated into his bosom and read the most secret intentions of his +heart; so wonderful is the power of conscience. It makes us betray, +accuse, and fight against ourselves, and for want of other witnesses, to +give evidence against ourselves: + + "Occultum quatiens animo tortore flagellum." + + ["The torturer of the soul brandishing a sharp scourge within." + --Juvenal, iii. 195.] + +This story is in every child's mouth: Bessus the Paeonian, being +reproached for wantonly pulling down a nest of young sparrows and killing +them, replied, that he had reason to do so, seeing that those little +birds never ceased falsely to accuse him of the murder of his father. +This parricide had till then been concealed and unknown, but the +revenging fury of conscience caused it to be discovered by him himself, +who was to suffer for it. Hesiod corrects the saying of Plato, that +punishment closely follows sin, it being, as he says, born at the same +time with it. Whoever expects punishment already suffers it, and whoever +has deserved it expects it. Wickedness contrives torments against +itself: + + "Malum consilium consultori pessimum." + + ["Ill designs are worst to the contriver." + --Apud Aul. Gellium, iv. 5.] + +as the wasp stings and hurts another, but most of all itself, for it +there loses its sting and its use for ever, + + "Vitasque in vulnere ponunt." + + ["And leave their own lives in the wound." + --Virgil, Geo., iv. 238.] + +Cantharides have somewhere about them, by a contrariety of nature, a +counterpoison against their poison. In like manner, at the same time +that men take delight in vice, there springs in the conscience a +displeasure that afflicts us sleeping and waking with various tormenting +imaginations: + + "Quippe ubi se multi, per somnia saepe loquentes, + Aut morbo delirantes, protraxe ferantur, + Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse." + + ["Surely where many, often talking in their sleep, or raving in + disease, are said to have betrayed themselves, and to have given + publicity to offences long concealed."--Lucretius, v. 1157.] + +Apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the Scythians and +afterwards boiled in a cauldron, and that his heart muttered these words +"I am the cause of all these mischiefs that have befallen thee." +Epicurus said that no hiding-hole could conceal the wicked, since they +could never assure themselves of being hid whilst their conscience +discovered them to themselves. + + "Prima est haec ultio, quod se + Judice nemo nocens absohitur." + + ["Tis the first punishment of sin that no man absolves himself." or: + "This is the highest revenge, that by its judgment no offender is + absolved."--Juvenal, xiii. 2.] + +As an ill conscience fills us with fear, so a good one gives us greater +confidence and assurance; and I can truly say that I have gone through +several hazards with a more steady pace in consideration of the secret +knowledge I had of my own will and the innocence of my intentions: + + "Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra + Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo." + + ["As a man's conscience is, so within hope or fear prevails, suiting + to his design."--Ovid, Fast., i. 485.] + +Of this are a thousand examples; but it will be enough to instance three +of one and the same person. Scipio, being one day accused before the +people of Rome of some crimes of a very high nature, instead of excusing +himself or flattering his judges: "It will become you well," said he, +"to sit in judgment upon a head, by whose means you have the power to +judge all the world." Another time, all the answer he gave to several +impeachments brought against him by a tribune of the people, instead of +making his defence: "Let us go, citizens," said he, "let us go render +thanks to the gods for the victory they gave me over the Carthaginians as +this day," and advancing himself before towards the Temple, he had +presently all the assembly and his very accuser himself following at his +heels. And Petilius, having been set on by Cato to demand an account of +the money that had passed through his hands in the province of Antioch, +Scipio being come into the senate to that purpose, produced a book from +under his robe, wherein he told them was an exact account of his receipts +and disbursements; but being required to deliver it to the prothonotary +to be examined, he refused, saying, he would not do himself so great a +disgrace; and in the presence of the whole senate tore the book with his +own hands to pieces. I do not believe that the most seared conscience +could have counterfeited so great an assurance. He had naturally too +high a spirit and was accustomed to too high a fortune, says Titius +Livius, to know how to be criminal, and to lower himself to the meanness +of defending his innocence. The putting men to the rack is a dangerous +invention, and seems to be rather a trial of patience than of truth. +Both he who has the fortitude to endure it conceals the truth, and he who +has not: for why should pain sooner make me confess what really is, than +force me to say what is not? And, on the contrary, if he who is not +guilty of that whereof he is accused, has the courage to undergo those +torments, why should not he who is guilty have the same, so fair a reward +as life being in his prospect? I believe the ground of this invention +proceeds from the consideration of the force of conscience: for, to the +guilty, it seems to assist the rack to make him confess his fault and to +shake his resolution; and, on the other side, that it fortifies the +innocent against the torture. But when all is done, 'tis, in plain +truth, a trial full of uncertainty and danger what would not a man say, +what would not a man do, to avoid so intolerable torments? + + "Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor." + + ["Pain will make even the innocent lie."--Publius Syrus, De Dolore.] + +Whence it comes to pass, that him whom the judge has racked that he may +not die innocent, he makes him die both innocent and racked. A thousand +and a thousand have charged their own heads by false confessions, amongst +whom I place Philotas, considering the circumstances of the trial +Alexander put upon him and the progress of his torture. But so it is +that some say it is the least evil human weakness could invent; very +inhumanly, notwithstanding, and to very little purpose, in my opinion. + +Many nations less barbarous in this than the Greeks and Romans who call +them so, repute it horrible and cruel to torment and pull a man to pieces +for a fault of which they are yet in doubt. How can he help your +ignorance? Are not you unjust, that, not to kill him without cause, do +worse than kill him? And that this is so, do but observe how often men +prefer to die without reason than undergo this examination, more painful +than execution itself; and that oft-times by its extremity anticipates +execution, and perform it. I know not where I had this story, but it +exactly matches the conscience of our justice in this particular. A +country-woman, to a general of a very severe discipline, accused one of +his soldiers that he had taken from her children the little soup meat she +had left to nourish them withal, the army having consumed all the rest; +but of this proof there was none. The general, after having cautioned +the woman to take good heed to what she said, for that she would make +herself guilty of a false accusation if she told a lie, and she +persisting, he presently caused the soldier's belly to be ripped up to +clear the truth of the fact, and the woman was found to be right. An +instructive sentence. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +USE MAKES PERFECT + +'Tis not to be expected that argument and instruction, though we never so +voluntarily surrender our belief to what is read to us, should be of +force to lead us on so far as to action, if we do not, over and above, +exercise and form the soul by experience to the course for which we +design it; it will, otherwise, doubtless find itself at a loss when it +comes to the pinch of the business. This is the reason why those amongst +the philosophers who were ambitious to attain to a greater excellence, +were not contented to await the severities of fortune in the retirement +and repose of their own habitations, lest he should have surprised them +raw and inexpert in the combat, but sallied out to meet her, and +purposely threw themselves into the proof of difficulties. Some of them +abandoned riches to exercise themselves in a voluntary poverty; others +sought out labour and an austerity of life, to inure them to hardships +and inconveniences; others have deprived themselves of their dearest +members, as of sight, and of the instruments of generation, lest their +too delightful and effeminate service should soften and debauch the +stability of their souls. + +But in dying, which is the greatest work we have to do, practice can give +us no assistance at all. A man may by custom fortify himself against +pain, shame, necessity, and such-like accidents, but as to death, we can +experiment it but once, and are all apprentices when we come to it. +There have, anciently, been men so excellent managers of their time that +they have tried even in death itself to relish and taste it, and who have +bent their utmost faculties of mind to discover what this passage is, but +they are none of them come back to tell us the news: + + "Nemo expergitus exstat, + Frigida quern semel est vitai pausa sequuta." + + ["No one wakes who has once fallen into the cold sleep of death." + --Lucretius, iii. 942] + +Julius Canus, a noble Roman, of singular constancy and virtue, having +been condemned to die by that worthless fellow Caligula, besides many +marvellous testimonies that he gave of his resolution, as he was just +going to receive the stroke of the executioner, was asked by a +philosopher, a friend of his: "Well, Canus, whereabout is your soul now? +what is she doing? What are you thinking of?"--"I was thinking," replied +the other, "to keep myself ready, and the faculties of my mind full +settled and fixed, to try if in this short and quick instant of death, I +could perceive the motion of the soul when she parts from the body, and +whether she has any sentiment at the separation, that I may after come +again if I can, to acquaint my friends with it." This man philosophises +not unto death only, but in death itself. What a strange assurance was +this, and what bravery of courage, to desire his death should be a lesson +to him, and to have leisure to think of other things in so great an +affair: + + "Jus hoc animi morientis habebat." + + ["This mighty power of mind he had dying."-Lucan, viii. 636.] + +And yet I fancy, there is a certain way of making it familiar to us, and +in some sort of making trial what it is. We may gain experience, if not +entire and perfect, yet such, at least, as shall not be totally useless +to us, and that may render us more confident and more assured. If we +cannot overtake it, we may approach it and view it, and if we do not +advance so far as the fort, we may at least discover and make ourselves +acquainted with the avenues. It is not without reason that we are taught +to consider sleep as a resemblance of death: with how great facility do +we pass from waking to sleeping, and with how little concern do we lose +the knowledge of light and of ourselves. Peradventure, the faculty of +sleeping would seem useless and contrary to nature, since it deprives us +of all action and sentiment, were it not that by it nature instructs us +that she has equally made us to die as to live; and in life presents to +us the eternal state she reserves for us after it, to accustom us to it +and to take from us the fear of it. But such as have by violent accident +fallen into a swoon, and in it have lost all sense, these, methinks, have +been very near seeing the true and natural face of death; for as to the +moment of the passage, it is not to be feared that it brings with it any +pain or displeasure, forasmuch as we can have no feeling without leisure; +our sufferings require time, which in death is so short, and so +precipitous, that it must necessarily be insensible. They are the +approaches that we are to fear, and these may fall within the limits of +experience. + +Many things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect; I have +passed a good part of my life in a perfect and entire health; I say, not +only entire, but, moreover, sprightly and wanton. This state, so full of +verdure, jollity, and vigour, made the consideration of sickness so +formidable to me, that when I came to experience it, I found the attacks +faint and easy in comparison with what I had apprehended. Of this I have +daily experience; if I am under the shelter of a warm room, in a stormy +and tempestuous night, I wonder how people can live abroad, and am +afflicted for those who are out in the fields: if I am there myself, I do +not wish to be anywhere else. This one thing of being always shut up in +a chamber I fancied insupportable: but I was presently inured to be so +imprisoned a week, nay a month together, in a very weak, disordered, and +sad condition; and I have found that, in the time of my health, I much +more pitied the sick, than I think myself to be pitied when I am so, and +that the force of my imagination enhances near one-half of the essence +and reality of the thing. I hope that when I come to die I shall find it +the same, and that, after all, it is not worth the pains I take, so much +preparation and so much assistance as I call in, to undergo the stroke. +But, at all events, we cannot give ourselves too much advantage. + +In the time of our third or second troubles (I do not well remember +which), going one day abroad to take the air, about a league from my own +house, which is seated in the very centre of all the bustle and mischief +of the late civil wars in France; thinking myself in all security and so +near to my retreat that I stood in need of no better equipage, I had +taken a horse that went very easy upon his pace, but was not very strong. +Being upon my return home, a sudden occasion falling out to make use of +this horse in a kind of service that he was not accustomed to, one of my +train, a lusty, tall fellow, mounted upon a strong German horse, that had +a very ill mouth, fresh and vigorous, to play the brave and set on ahead +of his fellows, comes thundering full speed in the very track where I +was, rushing like a Colossus upon the little man and the little horse, +with such a career of strength and weight, that he turned us both over +and over, topsy-turvy with our heels in the air: so that there lay the +horse overthrown and stunned with the fall, and I ten or twelve paces +from him stretched out at length, with my face all battered and broken, +my sword which I had had in my hand, above ten paces beyond that, and my +belt broken all to pieces, without motion or sense any more than a stock. +'Twas the only swoon I was ever in till that hour in my life. Those who +were with me, after having used all the means they could to bring me to +myself, concluding me dead, took me up in their arms, and carried me with +very much difficulty home to my house, which was about half a French +league from thence. On the way, having been for more than two hours +given over for a dead man, I began to move and to fetch my breath; for so +great abundance of blood was fallen into my stomach, that nature had need +to rouse her forces to discharge it. They then raised me upon my feet, +where I threw off a whole bucket of clots of blood, as this I did also +several times by the way. This gave me so much ease, that I began to +recover a little life, but so leisurely and by so small advances, that my +first sentiments were much nearer the approaches of death than life: + + "Perche, dubbiosa ancor del suo ritorno, + Non s'assicura attonita la mente." + + ["For the soul, doubtful as to its return, could not compose itself" + --Tasso, Gierus. Lib., xii. 74.] + +The remembrance of this accident, which is very well imprinted in my +memory, so naturally representing to me the image and idea of death, has +in some sort reconciled me to that untoward adventure. When I first +began to open my eyes, it was with so perplexed, so weak and dead a +sight, that I could yet distinguish nothing but only discern the light: + + "Come quel ch'or apre, or'chiude + Gli occhi, mezzo tra'l sonno e l'esser desto." + + ["As a man that now opens, now shuts his eyes, between sleep + and waking."--Tasso, Gierus. Lib., viii., 26.] + +As to the functions of the soul, they advanced with the same pace and +measure with those of the body. I saw myself all bloody, my doublet +being stained all over with the blood I had vomited. The first thought +that came into my mind was that I had a harquebuss shot in my head, and +indeed, at the time there were a great many fired round about us. +Methought my life but just hung upon my, lips: and I shut my eyes, to +help, methought, to thrust it out, and took a pleasure in languishing and +letting myself go. It was an imagination that only superficially floated +upon my soul, as tender and weak as all the rest, but really, not only +exempt from anything displeasing, but mixed with that sweetness that +people feel when they glide into a slumber. + +I believe it is the very same condition those people are in, whom we see +swoon with weakness in the agony of death we pity them without cause, +supposing them agitated with grievous dolours, or that their souls suffer +under painful thoughts. It has ever been my belief, contrary to the +opinion of many, and particularly of La Boetie, that those whom we see so +subdued and stupefied at the approaches of their end, or oppressed with +the length of the disease, or by accident of an apoplexy or falling +sickness, + + "Vi morbi saepe coactus + Ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu, + Concidit, et spumas agit; ingemit, et tremit artus; + Desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat, + Inconstanter, et in jactando membra fatigat;" + + ["Often, compelled by the force of disease, some one as + thunderstruck falls under our eyes, and foams, groans, and trembles, + stretches, twists, breathes irregularly, and in paroxysms wears out + his strength."--Lucretius, iii. 485.] + +or hurt in the head, whom we hear to mutter, and by fits to utter +grievous groans; though we gather from these signs by which it seems as +if they had some remains of consciousness, and that there are movements +of the body; I have always believed, I say, both the body and the soul +benumbed and asleep, + + "Vivit, et est vitae nescius ipse suae," + + ["He lives, and does not know that he is alive." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 12.] + +and could not believe that in so great a stupefaction of the members and +so great a defection of the senses, the soul could maintain any force +within to take cognisance of herself, and that, therefore, they had no +tormenting reflections to make them consider and be sensible of the +misery of their condition, and consequently were not much to be pitied. + +I can, for my part, think of no state so insupportable and dreadful, as +to have the soul vivid and afflicted, without means to declare itself; as +one should say of such as are sent to execution with their tongues first +cut out (were it not that in this kind of dying, the most silent seems to +me the most graceful, if accompanied with a grave and constant +countenance); or if those miserable prisoners, who fall into the hands of +the base hangman soldiers of this age, by whom they are tormented with +all sorts of inhuman usage to compel them to some excessive and +impossible ransom; kept, in the meantime, in such condition and place, +where they have no means of expressing or signifying their thoughts and +their misery. The poets have feigned some gods who favour the +deliverance of such as suffer under a languishing death: + + "Hunc ego Diti + Sacrum jussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo." + + ["I bidden offer this sacred thing to Pluto, and from that body + dismiss thee."--AEneid, iv. 782.] + +both the interrupted words, and the short and irregular answers one gets +from them sometimes, by bawling and keeping a clutter about them; or the +motions which seem to yield some consent to what we would have them do, +are no testimony, nevertheless, that they live, an entire life at least. +So it happens to us in the yawning of sleep, before it has fully +possessed us, to perceive, as in a dream, what is done about us, and to +follow the last things that are said with a perplexed and uncertain +hearing which seems but to touch upon the borders of the soul; and to +make answers to the last words that have been spoken to us, which have +more in them of chance than sense. + +Now seeing I have in effect tried it, I have no doubt but I have hitherto +made a right judgment; for first, being in a swoon, I laboured to rip +open the buttons of my doublet with my nails, for my sword was gone; and +yet I felt nothing in my imagination that hurt me; for we have many +motions in us that do not proceed from our direction; + + "Semianimesque micant digiti, ferrumque retractant;" + + ["Half-dead fingers grope about, and grasp again the sword." + --AEneid, x. 396.] + +so falling people extend their arms before them by a natural impulse, +which prompts our limbs to offices and motions without any commission +from our reason. + + "Falciferos memorant currus abscindere membra . . . + Ut tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod + Decidit abscissum; cum mens tamen atque hominis vis + Mobilitate mali, non quit sentire dolorem." + + ["They relate that scythe-bearing chariots mow off limbs, so that + they quiver on the ground; and yet the mind of him from whom the + limb is taken by the swiftness of the blow feels no pain." + --Lucretius, iii. 642.] + +My stomach was so oppressed with the coagulated blood, that my hands +moved to that part, of their own voluntary motion, as they frequently do +to the part that itches, without being directed by our will. There are +several animals, and even men, in whom one may perceive the muscles to +stir and tremble after they are dead. Every one experimentally knows +that there are some members which grow stiff and flag without his leave. +Now, those passions which only touch the outward bark of us, cannot be +said to be ours: to make them so, there must be a concurrence of the +whole man; and the pains which are felt by the hand or the foot while +we are sleeping, are none of ours. + +As I drew near my own house, where the alarm of my fall was already got +before me, and my family were come out to meet me, with the hubbub usual +in such cases, not only did I make some little answer to some questions +which were asked me; but they moreover tell me, that I was sufficiently +collected to order them to bring a horse to my wife whom on the road, +I saw struggling and tiring herself which is hilly and rugged. This +should seem to proceed from a soul its functions; but it was nothing so +with me. I knew not what I said or did, and they were nothing but idle +thoughts in the clouds, that were stirred up by the senses of the eyes +and ears, and proceeded not from me. I knew not for all that, whence I +came or whither I went, neither was I capable to weigh and consider what +was said to me: these were light effects, that the senses produced of +themselves as of custom; what the soul contributed was in a dream, +lightly touched, licked and bedewed by the soft impression of the senses. +Notwithstanding, my condition was, in truth, very easy and quiet; I had +no affliction upon me, either for others or myself; it was an extreme +languor and weakness, without any manner of pain. I saw my own house, +but knew it not. When they had put me to bed I found an inexpressible +sweetness in that repose; for I had been desperately tugged and lugged by +those poor people who had taken the pains to carry me upon their arms a +very great and a very rough way, and had in so doing all quite tired out +themselves, twice or thrice one after another. They offered me several +remedies, but I would take none, certainly believing that I was mortally +wounded in the head. And, in earnest, it had been a very happy death, +for the weakness of my understanding deprived me of the faculty of +discerning, and that of my body of the sense of feeling; I was suffering +myself to glide away so sweetly and after so soft and easy a manner, that +I scarce find any other action less troublesome than that was. But when +I came again to myself and to resume my faculties: + + "Ut tandem sensus convaluere mei," + + ["When at length my lost senses again returned." + --Ovid, Trist., i. 3, 14.] + +which was two or three hours after, I felt myself on a sudden involved in +terrible pain, having my limbs battered and ground with my fall, and was. +so ill for two or three nights after, that I thought I was once more +dying again, but a more painful death, having concluded myself as good as +dead before, and to this hour am sensible of the bruises of that terrible +shock. I will not here omit, that the last thing I could make them beat +into my head, was the memory of this accident, and I had it over and over +again repeated to me, whither I was going, from whence I came, and at +what time of the day this mischance befell me, before I could comprehend +it. As to the manner of my fall, that was concealed from me in favour to +him who had been the occasion, and other flim-flams were invented. But a +long time after, and the very next day that my memory began to return and +to represent to me the state wherein I was, at the instant that I +perceived this horse coming full drive upon me (for I had seen him at my +heels, and gave myself for gone, but this thought had been so sudden, +that fear had had no leisure to introduce itself) it seemed to me like a +flash of lightning that had pierced my soul, and that I came from the +other world. + +This long story of so light an accident would appear vain enough, were it +not for the knowledge I have gained by it for my own use; for I do really +find, that to get acquainted with death, needs no more but nearly to +approach it. Every one, as Pliny says, is a good doctrine to himself, +provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand. Here, this +is not my doctrine, 'tis my study; and is not the lesson of another, but +my own; and if I communicate it, it ought not to be ill taken, for that +which is of use to me, may also, peradventure, be useful to another. As +to the rest, I spoil nothing, I make use of nothing but my own; and if I +play the fool, 'tis at my own expense, and nobody else is concerned in't; +for 'tis a folly that will die with me, and that no one is to inherit. +We hear but of two or three of the ancients, who have beaten this path, +and yet I cannot say if it was after this manner, knowing no more of them +but their names. No one since has followed the track: 'tis a rugged +road, more so than it seems, to follow a pace so rambling and uncertain, +as that of the soul; to penetrate the dark profundities of its intricate +internal windings; to choose and lay hold of so many little nimble +motions; 'tis a new and extraordinary undertaking, and that withdraws us +from the common and most recommended employments of the world. 'Tis now +many years since that my thoughts have had no other aim and level than +myself, and that I have only pried into and studied myself: or, if I +study any other thing, 'tis to apply it to or rather in myself. And yet +I do not think it a fault, if, as others do by other much less profitable +sciences, I communicate what I have learned in this, though I am not very +well pleased with my own progress. There is no description so difficult, +nor doubtless of so great utility, as that of a man's self: and withal, a +man must curl his hair and set out and adjust himself, to appear in +public: now I am perpetually tricking myself out, for I am eternally upon +my own description. Custom has made all speaking of a man's self +vicious, and positively interdicts it, in hatred to the boasting that +seems inseparable from the testimony men give of themselves: + + "In vitium ducit culpae fuga." + + ["The avoiding a mere fault often leads us into a greater." + Or: "The escape from a fault leads into a vice" + --Horace, De Arte Poetics, verse 31.] + +Instead of blowing the child's nose, this is to take his nose off +altogether. I think the remedy worse than the disease. But, allowing it +to be true that it must of necessity be presumption to entertain people +with discourses of one's self, I ought not, pursuing my general design, +to forbear an action that publishes this infirmity of mine, nor conceal +the fault which I not only practise but profess. Notwithstanding, to +speak my thought freely, I think that the custom of condemning wine, +because some people will be drunk, is itself to be condemned; a man +cannot abuse anything but what is good in itself; and I believe that this +rule has only regard to the popular vice. They are bits for calves, with +which neither the saints whom we hear speak so highly of themselves, nor +the philosophers, nor the divines will be curbed; neither will I, who am +as little the one as the other, If they do not write of it expressly, at +all events, when the occasions arise, they don't hesitate to put +themselves on the public highway. Of what does Socrates treat more +largely than of himself? To what does he more direct and address the +discourses of his disciples, than to speak of themselves, not of the +lesson in their book, but of the essence and motion of their souls? We +confess ourselves religiously to God and our confessor; as our +neighbours, do to all the people. But some will answer that we there +speak nothing but accusation against ourselves; why then, we say all; for +our very virtue itself is faulty and penetrable. My trade and art is to +live; he that forbids me to speak according to my own sense, experience, +and practice, may as well enjoin an architect not to speak of building +according to his own knowledge, but according to that of his neighbour; +according to the knowledge of another, and not according to his own. If +it be vainglory for a man to publish his own virtues, why does not Cicero +prefer the eloquence of Hortensius, and Hortensius that of Cicero? +Peradventure they mean that I should give testimony of myself by works +and effects, not barely by words. I chiefly paint my thoughts, a subject +void of form and incapable of operative production; 'tis all that I can +do to couch it in this airy body of the voice; the wisest and devoutest +men have lived in the greatest care to avoid all apparent effects. +Effects would more speak of fortune than of me; they manifest their own +office and not mine, but uncertainly and by conjecture; patterns of some +one particular virtue. I expose myself entire; 'tis a body where, at one +view, the veins, muscles, and tendons are apparent, every of them in its +proper place; here the effects of a cold; there of the heart beating, +very dubiously. I do not write my own acts, but myself and my essence. + +I am of opinion that a man must be very cautious how he values himself, +and equally conscientious to give a true report, be it better or worse, +impartially. If I thought myself perfectly good and wise, I would rattle +it out to some purpose. To speak less of one's self than what one really +is is folly, not modesty; and to take that for current pay which is under +a man's value is pusillanimity and cowardice, according to, Aristotle. +No virtue assists itself with falsehood; truth is never matter of error. +To speak more of one's self than is really true is not always mere +presumption; 'tis, moreover, very often folly; to, be immeasurably +pleased with what one is, and to fall into an indiscreet self-love, is in +my opinion the substance of this vice. The most sovereign remedy to cure +it, is to do quite contrary to what these people direct who, in +forbidding men to speak of themselves, consequently, at the same time, +interdict thinking of themselves too. Pride dwells in the thought; the +tongue can have but a very little share in it. + +They fancy that to think of one's self is to be delighted with one's +self; to frequent and converse with one's self, to be overindulgent; but +this excess springs only in those who take but a superficial view of +themselves, and dedicate their main inspection to their affairs; who call +it mere reverie and idleness to occupy one's self with one's self, and +the building one's self up a mere building of castles in the air; who +look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger. If any one be +in rapture with his own knowledge, looking only on those below him, let +him but turn his eye upward towards past ages, and his pride will be +abated, when he shall there find so many thousand wits that trample him +under foot. If he enter into a flattering presumption of his personal +valour, let him but recollect the lives of Scipio, Epaminondas; so many +armies, so many nations, that leave him so far behind them. No +particular quality can make any man proud, that will at the same time put +the many other weak and imperfect ones he has in the other scale, and the +nothingness of human condition to make up the weight. Because Socrates +had alone digested to purpose the precept of his god, "to know himself," +and by that study arrived at the perfection of setting himself at nought, +he only was reputed worthy the title of a sage. Whosoever shall so know +himself, let him boldly speak it out. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Addresses his voyage to no certain, port +All apprentices when we come to it (death) +Any one may deprive us of life; no one can deprive us of death +Business to-morrow +Condemning wine, because some people will be drunk +Conscience makes us betray, accuse, and fight against ourselves +Curiosity and of that eager passion for news +Delivered into our own custody the keys of life +Drunkeness a true and certain trial of every one's nature +I can more hardly believe a man's constancy than any virtue +"I wish you good health." "No health to thee," replied the other +If to philosophise be, as 'tis defined, to doubt +Improperly we call this voluntary dissolution, despair +It's madness to nourish infirmity +Let him be as wise as he will, after all he is but a man +Living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting. +Look upon themselves as a third person only, a stranger +Lower himself to the meanness of defending his innocence +Much difference betwixt us and ourselves +No alcohol the night on which a man intends to get children +No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness +Not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity +One door into life, but a hundred thousand ways out +Ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life +Plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age +Shame for me to serve, being so near the reach of liberty +Speak less of one's self than what one really is is folly +Taught to consider sleep as a resemblance of death +The action is commendable, not the man +The most voluntary death is the finest +The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence +Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect +Thy own cowardice is the cause, if thou livest in pain +Tis evil counsel that will admit no change +Torture: rather a trial of patience than of truth +We do not go, we are driven +What can they suffer who do not fear to die? +Whoever expects punishment already suffers it +Wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Essays of Montaigne, V9 +By Michel de Montaigne + diff --git a/old/mn09v11.zip b/old/mn09v11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2640dd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mn09v11.zip |