,,essays ,,of ,,michel ,,de ,,montaigne ,translated by ,charles ,cotton ,edited by ,william ,carew ,hazilitt #ahgg ,,contents ,,of ,,volume #i4 ,i4 ,of the inconstancy of our actions4 ,,ii4 ,of drunkenness4 ,,iii4 ,a custom of the ,isle of ,cea4 ,,iv4 ,to-morrow's a new day4 ,v4 ,of conscience4 ,,vi4 ,use makes perfect4 ,,essays ,,of ,,montaigne ,,book ,,the ,,second ,,chapter ,i ,,of ,,the ,,inconstancy ,,of ,,our ,,actions ,such as make it their business to oversee human actions1 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 reputation2 for they commonly so strangely contradict one another that it seems impossible they should proceed from one and the same person4 ,we find the younger ,marius one while a son of ,mars and another a son of ,venus4 ,pope ,boniface ,,viii4 entered1 it is said1 into his ,papacy like a fox1 behaved himself in it like a lion1 and died like a dog2 and who could believe it to be the same ,nero1 the perfect image of all cruelty1 who1 having the sentence of a condemned man brought to him to sign1 as was the custom1 cried out1 ,o that ,i had never been taught to write6 so much it went to his heart to condemn a man to death4 ,all story is full of such examples1 and every man is able to produce so many to himself1 or out of his own practice or observation1 that ,i sometimes wonder to see men of understanding give themselves the trouble of sorting these pieces1 considering that irresolution appears to me to be the most common and manifest vice of our nature witness the famous verse of the player ,publius3 ,malum consilium est1 quod mutari non potest4 ',tis evil counsel that will admit no change4 --,pub4 ,mim41 ex ,aul4 ,gell41 xvii4 #ad4 ,there seems some reason in forming a judgment of a man from the most usual methods of his life2 but1 considering the natural instability of our manners and opinions1 ,i have often thought even the best authors a little out in so obstinately endeavouring to make of us any constant and solid contexture2 they choose a general air of a man1 and according to that interpret all his actions1 of which1 if they cannot bend some to a uniformity with the rest1 they are presently imputed to dissimulation4 ,augustus has escaped them1 for there was in him so apparent1 sudden1 and continual variety of actions all the whole course of his life1 that he has slipped away clear and undecided from the most daring critics4 ,i can more hardly believe a man's constancy than any other virtue1 and believe nothing sooner than the contrary4 ,he that would judge of a man in detail and distinctly1 bit by bit1 would oftener be able to speak the truth4 ,it is a hard matter1 from all antiquity1 to pick out a dozen men who have formed their lives to one certain and constant course1 which is the principal design of wisdom2 for to comprise it all in one word1 says one of the ancients1 and to contract all the rules of human life into one1 it is to will1 and not to will1 always one and the same thing3 ,i will not vouchsafe1 says he1 to add1 provided the will be just1 for if it be not just1 it is impossible it should be always one4 ,i have indeed formerly learned that vice is nothing but irregularity1 and want of measure1 and therefore 'tis impossible to fix constancy to it4 ',tis a saying of4 ,demosthenes1 that the beginning oh all virtue is consultation and deliberation2 the end and perfection1 constancy4 ,if we would resolve on any certain course by reason1 we should pitch upon the best1 but nobody has thought on't3 ,quod petit1 spernit2 repetit1 quod nuper omisit2 ,a,estuat1 et vitae disconvenit ordine toto4 ,that which he sought he despises2 what he lately lost1 he seeks again4 ,he fluctuates1 and is inconsistent in the whole order of life4--,horace1 ,ep41 i4 ,i1 #ih4 ,our ordinary practice is to follow the inclinations of our appetite1 be it to the left or right1 upwards or downwards1 according as we are wafted by the breath of occasion4 ,we never meditate what we would have till the instant we have a mind to have it2 and change like that little creature which receives its colour from what it is laid upon4 ,what we but just now proposed to ourselves we immediately alter1 and presently return again to it2 'tis nothing but shifting and inconsistency3 ,ducimur1 ut nervis alienis mobile lignum4 ,we are turned about like the top with the thong of others4 --,idem1 ,sat41 ii4 #g1 #hb4 ,we do not go1 we are driven2 like things that float1 now leisurely1 then with violence1 according to the gentleness or rapidity of the current3 ,nonne videmus1 ,quid sibi quisque velit1 nescire1 et quaerere semper ,commutare locum1 quasi onus deponere possit8 ,do we not see them1 uncertain what they want1 and always asking for something new1 as if they could get rid of the burthen4 --,lucretius1 iii4 #ajgj4 ,every day a new whimsy1 and our humours keep motion with the time4 ,tales sunt hominum mentes1 quali pater ipse ,juppiter auctificas lustravit lumine terras4 ,such are the minds of men1 that they change as the light with which father ,jupiter himself has illumined the increasing earth4 --,cicero1 ,frag4 ,poet1 lib4 x4 ,we fluctuate betwixt various inclinations2 we will nothing freely1 nothing absolutely1 nothing constantly4 ,in any one who had prescribed and established determinate laws and rules in his head for his own conduct1 we should perceive an equality of manners1 an order and an infallible relation of one thing or action to another1 shine through his whole life2 ,empedocles observed this discrepancy in the ,agrigentines1 that they gave themselves up to delights1 as if every day was their last1 and built as if they had been to live for ever4 ,the judgment would not be hard to make1 as is very evident in the younger ,cato2 he who therein has found one step1 it will lead him to all the rest2 'tis a harmony of very according sounds1 that cannot jar4 ,but with us 't is quite contrary2 every particular action requires a particular judgment4 ,the surest way to steer1 in my opinion1 would be to take our measures from the nearest allied circumstances1 without engaging in a longer inquisition1 or without concluding any other consequence4 ,i was told1 during the civil disorders of our poor kingdom1 that a maid1 hard by the place where ,i then was1 had thrown herself out of a window to avoid being forced by a common soldier who was quartered in the house2 she was not killed by the fall1 and therefore1 repeating her attempt would have cut her own throat1 had she not been prevented2 but having1 nevertheless1 wounded herself to some show of danger1 she voluntarily confessed that the soldier had not as yet importuned her otherwise2 than by courtship1 earnest solicitation1 and presents2 but that she was afraid that in the end he would have proceeded to violence1 all which she delivered with such a countenance and accent1 and withal embrued in her own blood1 the highest testimony of her virtue1 that she appeared another ,lucretia2 and yet ,i have since been very well assured that both before and after she was not so difficult a piece4 ,and1 according to my host's tale in ,ariosto1 be as handsome a man and as worthy a gentleman as you will1 do not conclude too much upon your mistress's inviolable chastity for having been repulsed2 you do not know but she may have a better stomach to your muleteer4 ,antigonus1 having taken one of his soldiers into a great degree of favour and esteem for his valour1 gave his physicians strict charge to cure him of a long and inward disease under which he had a great while languished1 and observing that1 after his cure1 he went much more coldly to work than before1 he asked him what had so altered and cowed him3 ,yourself1 sir1 replied the other1 by having eased me of the pains that made me weary of my life4 ,lucullus's soldier having been rifled by the enemy1 performed upon them in revenge a brave exploit1 by which having made himself a gainer1 ,lucullus1 who had conceived a good opinion of him from that action1 went about to engage him in some enterprise of very great danger1 with all the plausible persuasions and promises he could think of2 ,verbis1 quae timido quoque possent addere mentem ,words which might add courage to any timid man4 --,horace1 ,ep41 ii4 #b1 #a1 #b4 ,pray employ1 answered he1 some miserable plundered soldier in that affair3 ,quantumvis rusticus1 ibit1 ,ibit eo1 quo vis1 qui zonam perdidit1 inquit2 ,some poor fellow1 who has lost his purse1 will go whither you wish1 said he4--,horace1 ,ep41 ii4 #b1 #ci4 and flatly refused to go4 ,when we read that ,mahomet having furiously rated ,chasan1 ,bassa of the ,janissaries1 because he had seen the ,hungarians break into his squadrons1 and himself behave very ill in the business1 and that ,chasan1 instead of any other answer1 rushed furiously alone1 scimitar in hand1 into the first body of the enemy1 where he was presently cut to pieces1 we are not to look upon that action1 peradventure1 so much as vindication as a turn of mind1 not so much natural valour as a sudden despite4 ,the man you saw yesterday so adventurous and brave1 you must not think it strange to see him as great a poltroon the next3 anger1 necessity1 company1 wine1 or the sound of the trumpet had roused his spirits2 this is no valour formed and established by reason1 but accidentally created by such circumstances1 and therefore it is no wonder if by contrary circumstances it appear quite another thing4 ,these supple variations and contradictions so manifest in us1 have given occasion to some to believe that man has two souls2 other two distinct powers that always accompany and incline us1 the one towards good and the other towards ill1 according to their own nature and propension2 so abrupt a variety not being imaginable to flow from one and the same source4 ,for my part1 the puff of every accident not only carries me along with it according to its own proclivity1 but moreover ,i discompose and trouble myself by the instability of my own posture2 and whoever will look narrowly into his own bosom1 will hardly find himself twice in the same condition4 ,i give to my soul sometimes one face and sometimes another1 according to the side ,i turn her to4 ,if ,i speak variously of myself1 it is because ,i consider myself variously2 all the contrarieties are there to be found in one corner or another2 after one fashion or another3 bashful1 insolent2 chaste1 lustful2 prating1 silent2 laborious1 delicate2 ingenious1 heavy2 melancholic1 pleasant2 lying1 true2 knowing1 ignorant2 liberal1 covetous1 and prodigal3 ,i find all this in myself1 more or less1 according as ,i turn myself about2 and whoever will sift himself to the bottom1 will find in himself1 and even in his own judgment1 this volubility and discordance4 ,i have nothing to say of myself entirely1 simply1 and solidly without mixture and confusion4 ',distinguo' is the most universal member of my logic4 ,though ,i always intend to speak well of good things1 and rather to interpret such things as fall out in the best sense than otherwise1 yet such is the strangeness of our condition1 that we are often pushed on to do well even by vice itself1 if well-doing were not judged by the intention only4 ,one gallant action1 therefore1 ought not to conclude a man valiant2 if a man were brave indeed1 he would be always so1 and upon all occasions4 ,if it were a habit of valour and not a sally1 it would render a man equally resolute in all accidents2 the same alone as in company2 the same in lists as in a battle3 for1 let them say what they will1 there is not one valour for the pavement and another for the field2 he would bear a sickness in his bed as bravely as a wound in the field1 and no more fear death in his own house than at an assault4 ,we should not then see the same man charge into a breach with a brave assurance1 and afterwards torment himself like a woman for the loss of a trial at law or the death of a child2 when1 being an infamous coward1 he is firm in the necessities of poverty2 when he shrinks at the sight of a barber's razor1 and rushes fearless upon the swords of the enemy1 the action is commendable1 not the man4 ,many of the ,greeks1 says ,cicero1--,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 ii4 #bg4-- cannot endure the sight of an enemy1 and yet are courageous in sickness2 the ,cimbrians and ,celtiberians quite contrary2 ,nihil enim potest esse aequabile1 quod non a certa ratione proficiscatur4 ,nothing can be regular that does not proceed from a fixed ground of reason4--,idem1 ibid41 c4 #bf4 ,no valour can be more extreme in its kind than that of ,alexander3 but it is of but one kind1 nor full enough throughout1 nor universal4 ,incomparable as it is1 it has yet some blemishes2 of which his being so often at his wits' end upon every light suspicion of his captains conspiring against his life1 and the carrying himself in that inquisition with so much vehemence and indiscreet injustice1 and with a fear that subverted his natural reason1 is one pregnant instance4 ,the superstition1 also1 with which he was so much tainted1 carries along with it some image of pusillanimity2 and the excess of his penitence for the murder of ,clytus is also a testimony of the unevenness of his courage4 ,all we perform is no other than a cento1 as a man may say1 of several pieces1 and we would acquire honour by a false title4 ,virtue cannot be followed but for herself1 and if one sometimes borrows her mask to some other purpose1 she presently pulls it away again4 ',tis a vivid and strong tincture which1 when the soul has once thoroughly imbibed it1 will not out but with the piece4 ,and1 therefore1 to make a right judgment of a man1 we are long and very observingly to follow his trace3 if constancy does not there stand firm upon her own proper base1 ,cui vivendi via considerata atque provisa est1 ,if the way of his life is thoroughly considered and traced out4 --,cicero1 ,paradox1 v4 #a4 if the variety of occurrences makes him alter his pace 7his path1 ,i mean1 for the pace may be faster or slower7 let him go2 such an one runs before the wind1 ,avau le dent1 as the motto of our ,talebot has it4 ',tis no wonder1 says one of the ancients1 that chance has so great a dominion over us1 since it is by chance we live4 ,it is not possible for any one who has not designed his life for some certain end1 it is impossible for any one to arrange the pieces1 who has not the whole form already contrived in his imagination4 ,of what use are colours to him that knows not what he is to paint8 ,no one lays down a certain design for his life1 and we only deliberate thereof by pieces4 ,the archer ought first to know at what he is to aim1 and then accommodate his arm1 bow1 string1 shaft1 and motion to it2 our counsels deviate and wander1 because not levelled to any determinate end4 ,no wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain1 port4 ,i cannot acquiesce in the judgment given by one in the behalf of ,sophocles1 who concluded him capable of the management of domestic affairs1 against the accusation of his son1 from having read one of his tragedies4 ,neither do ,i allow of the conjecture of the ,parians1 sent to regulate the ,milesians sufficient for such a consequence as they from thence derived coming to visit the island1 they took notice of such grounds as were best husbanded1 and such country-houses as were best governed2 and having taken the names of the owners1 when they had assembled the citizens1 they appointed these farmers for new governors and magistrates2 concluding that they1 who had been so provident in their own private concerns1 would be so of the public too4 ,we are all lumps1 and of so various and inform a contexture1 that every piece plays1 every moment1 its own game1 and there is as much difference betwixt us and ourselves as betwixt us and others3 ,magnam rem puta1 unum hominem agere4 ,esteem it a great thing always to act as one and the same man4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #aej4 ,since ambition can teach man valour1 temperance1 and liberality1 and even justice too2 seeing that avarice can inspire the courage of a shop-boy1 bred and nursed up in obscurity and ease1 with the assurance to expose himself so far from the fireside to the mercy of the waves and angry ,neptune in a frail boat2 that she further teaches discretion and prudence2 and that even ,venus can inflate boys under the discipline of the rod with boldness and resolution1 and infuse masculine courage into the heart of tender virgins in their mothers' arms3 ,hac duce1 custodes furtim transgressa jacentes1 ,ad juvenem tenebris sola puella venit3 ,she leading1 the maiden1 furtively passing by the recumbent guards1 goes alone in the darkness to the youth4 --,tibullus1 ii4 #b1 #ge4 'tis not all the understanding has to do1 simply to judge us by our outward actions2 it must penetrate the very soul1 and there discover by what springs the motion is guided4 ,but that being a high and hazardous undertaking1 ,i could wish that fewer would attempt it4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,of ,,drunkenness ,the world is nothing but variety and disemblance1 vices are all alike1 as they are vices1 and peradventure the ,stoics understand them so2 but although they are equally vices1 yet they are not all equal vices2 and he who has transgressed the ordinary bounds a hundred paces3 ,quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum1 ,beyond or within which the right cannot exist4 --,horace1 ,sat41 i1 #a1 #ajg4 should not be in a worse condition than he that has advanced but ten1 is not to be believed2 or that sacrilege is not worse than stealing a cabbage3 ,nec vincet ratio hoc1 tantumdem ut peccet1 idemque1 ,qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti1 ,et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit4 ,there is in this as great diversity as in anything whatever4 ,the confounding of the order and measure of sins is dangerous3 murderers1 traitors1 and tyrants get too much by it1 and it is not reasonable they should flatter their consciences1 because another man is idle1 lascivious1 or not assiduous at his devotion4 ,every one overrates the offence of his companions1 but extenuates his own4 ,our very instructors themselves rank them sometimes1 in my opinion1 very ill4 ,as ,socrates said that the principal office of wisdom was to distinguish good from evil1 we1 the best of whom are vicious1 ought also to say the same of the science of distinguishing betwixt vice and vice1 without which1 and that very exactly performed1 the virtuous and the wicked will remain confounded and unrecognised4 ,now1 amongst the rest1 drunkenness seems to me to be a gross and brutish vice4 ,the soul has greater part in the rest1 and there are some vices that have something1 if a man may so say1 of generous in them2 there are vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge1 diligence1 valour1 prudence1 dexterity1 and address2 this one is totally corporeal and earthly4 ,and the rudest nation this day in ,europe is that alone where it is in fashion4 ,other vices discompose the understanding3 this totally overthrows it and renders the body stupid3 ,cum vini vis penetravit 4 4 4 ,consequitur gravitas membrorum1 praepediuntur ,crura vacillanti1 tardescit lingua1 madet mens1 ,nant oculi2 clamor1 singultus1 jurgia1 gliscunt4 ,when the power of wine has penetrated us1 a heaviness of the limbs follows1 the legs of the tottering person are impeded2 the tongue grows torpid1 the mind is dimmed1 the eyes swim2 noise1 hiccup1 and quarrels arise4--,lucretius1 i4 #c1 #dge4 ,the worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and government of himself4 ,and 'tis said amongst other things upon this subject1 that1 as the must fermenting in a vessel1 works up to the top whatever it has in the bottom1 so wine1 in those who have drunk beyond measure1 vents the most inward secrets3 ,tu sapientum ,curas et arcanum jocoso ,consilium retegis ,lyaeo4 ,thou disclosest to the merry ,lyacus the cares and secret counsel of the wise4--,horace1 ,od41 xxi4 #a1 #aad4 ,lyacus1 a name given to ,bacchus4 ,josephus tells us that by giving an ambassador the enemy had sent to him his full dose of liquor1 he wormed out his secrets4 ,and yet1 ,augustus1 committing the most inward secrets of his affairs to ,lucius ,piso1 who conquered ,thrace1 never found him faulty in the least1 no more than ,tiberias did ,cossus1 with whom he intrusted his whole counsels1 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 ,senate3 ,hesterno inflatum venas ut semper1 ,lyaeo4 ,their veins full1 as usual1 of yesterday's wine4 --,virgil1 ,egl41 vi4 #ae4 ,and the design of killing ,caesar was as safely communicated to ,cimber1 though he would often be drunk1 as to ,cassius1 who drank nothing but water4 ,as to which ,cassius pleasantly said3 ,what1 shall ,i bear a tyrant1 ,i who cannot bear wine8 ,we see our ,germans1 when drunk as the devil1 know their post1 remember the word1 and keep to their ranks3 ,nec facilis victoria de madidis1 et ,blaesis1 atque mero titubantibus4 ,nor is a victory easily obtained over men so drunk1 they can scarce speak or stand4--,juvenal1 ,sat41 xv4 #dg4 ,i could not have believed there had been so profound1 senseless1 and dead a degree of drunkenness had ,i not read in history that ,attalus having1 to put a notable affront upon him1 invited to supper the same ,pausanias1 who upon the very same occasion afterwards killed ,philip of ,macedon1 a king who by his excellent qualities gave sufficient testimony of his education in the house and company of ,epaminondas1 made him drink to such a pitch that he could after abandon his beauty1 as of a hedge strumpet1 to the muleteers and servants of the basest office in the house4 ,and ,i have been further told by a lady whom ,i highly honour and esteem1 that near ,bordeaux and about ,castres where she lives1 a country woman1 a widow of chaste repute1 perceiving in herself the first symptoms of breeding1 innocently told her neighbours that if she had a husband she should think herself with child2 but the causes of suspicion every day more and more increasing1 and at last growing up to a manifest proof1 the poor woman was reduced to the necessity of causing it to be proclaimed in her parish church1 that whoever had done that deed and would frankly confess it1 she did not only promise to forgive1 but moreover to marry him1 if he liked the motion2 whereupon a young fellow that served her in the quality of a labourer1 encouraged by this proclamation1 declared that he had one holiday found her1 having taken too much of the bottle1 so fast asleep by the chimney and in so indecent a posture1 that he could conveniently do his business without waking her2 and they yet live together man and wife4 ,it is true that antiquity has not much decried this vice2 the writings even of several philosophers speak very tenderly of it1 and even amongst the ,stoics there are some who advise folks to give themselves sometimes the liberty to drink1 nay1 to drunkenness1 to refresh the soul3 ,hoc quoque virtutum quondam certamine1 magnum ,socratem palmam promeruisse ferunt4 ,in this trial of power formerly they relate that the great ,socrates deserved the palm4--,cornet4 ,gallus1 ,ep41 i4 #dg4 ,that censor and reprover of others1 ,cato1 was reproached that he was a hard drinker3 ,narratur et prisci ,catonis ,saepe mero caluisse virtus4 ,and of old ,cato it is said1 that his courage was often warmed with wine4--,horace1 ,od41 xxi4 #c1 #aa4--;,cato the ,elder4 ,cyrus1 that so renowned king1 amongst the other qualities by which he claimed to be preferred before his brother ,artaxerxes1 urged this excellence1 that he could drink a great deal more than he4 ,and in the best governed nations this trial of skill in drinking is very much in use4 ,i have heard ,silvius1 an excellent physician of ,paris1 say that lest the digestive faculties of the stomach should grow idle1 it were not amiss once a month to rouse them by this excess1 and to spur them lest they should grow dull and rusty2 and one author tells us that the ,persians used to consult about their most important affairs after being well warmed with wine4 ,my taste and constitution are greater enemies to this vice than my discourse2 for besides that ,i easily submit my belief to the authority of ancient opinions1 ,i look upon it indeed as an unmanly and stupid vice1 but less malicious and hurtful than the others1 which1 almost all1 more directly jostle public society4 ,and if we cannot please ourselves but it must cost us something1 as they hold1 ,i find this vice costs a man's conscience less than the others1 besides that it is of no difficult preparation1 nor hard to be found1 a consideration not altogether to be despised4 ,a man well advanced both in dignity and age1 amongst three principal commodities that he said remained to him of life1 reckoned to me this for one1 and where would a man more justly find it than amongst the natural conveniences8 ,but he did not take it right1 for delicacy and the curious choice of wines is therein to be avoided4 ,if you found your pleasure upon drinking of the best1 you condemn yourself to the penance of drinking of the worst4 ,your taste must be more indifferent and free2 so delicate a palate is not required to make a good toper4 ,the ,germans drink almost indifferently of all wines with delight2 their business is to pour down and not to taste2 and it's so much the better for them3 their pleasure is so much the more plentiful and nearer at hand4 ,secondly1 to drink1 after the ,french fashion1 but at two meals1 and then very moderately1 is to be too sparing of the favours of the god4 ,there is more time and constancy required than so4 ,the ancients spent whole nights in this exercise1 and ofttimes added the day following to eke it out1 and therefore we are to take greater liberty and stick closer to our work4 ,i have seen a great lord of my time1 a man of high enterprise and famous success1 that without setting himself to't1 and after his ordinary rate of drinking at meals1 drank not much less than five quarts of wine1 and at his going away appeared but too wise and discreet1 to the detriment of our affairs4 ,the pleasure we hold in esteem for the course of our lives ought to have a greater share of our time dedicated to it2 we should1 like shopboys and labourers1 refuse no occasion nor omit any opportunity of drinking1 and always have it in our minds4 ,methinks we every day abridge and curtail the use of wine1 and that the after breakfasts1 dinner snatches1 and collations ,i used to see in my father's house1 when ,i was a boy1 were more usual and frequent then than now4 ,is it that we pretend to a reformation8 ,truly1 no3 but it may be we are more addicted to ,venus than our fathers were4 ,they are two exercises that thwart and hinder one another in their vigour4 ,lechery weakens our stomach on the one side2 and on the other sobriety renders us more spruce and amorous for the exercise of love4 ',tis wonderful what strange stories ,i have heard my father tell of the chastity of that age wherein he lived4 ,it was for him to say it1 being both by art and nature cut out and finished for the service of ladies4 ,he spoke well and little3 ever mixing his language with some illustration out of authors most in use1 especially in ,spanish1 and among the ,spanish he whom they called ,marcus ,aurelius-- ,guevara's ,golden ,book of ,marcus ,aurelius ,antoninus4--was ordinarily in his mouth4 ,his behaviour was gently grave1 humble1 and very modest2 he was very solicitous of neatness and propriety both in his person and clothes1 whether on horseback or afoot1 he was monstrously punctual in his word2 and of a conscience and religion generally tending rather towards superstition than otherwise4 ,for a man of little stature1 very strong1 well proportioned1 and well knit2 of a pleasing countenance inclining to brown1 and very adroit in all noble exercises4 ,i have yet in the house to be seen canes poured full of lead1 with which they say he exercised his arms for throwing the bar or the stone1 or in fencing2 and shoes with leaden soles to make him lighter for running or leaping4 ,of his vaulting he has left little miracles behind him3 ,i have seen him when past three score laugh at our exercises1 and throw himself in his furred gown into the saddle1 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 time4 ,but as to what ,i was speaking of before2 he said there was scarce one woman of quality of ill fame in the whole province3 he would tell of strange confidences1 and some of them his own1 with virtuous women1 free from any manner of suspicion of ill1 and for his own part solemnly swore he was a virgin at his marriage2 and yet it was after a long practice of arms beyond the mountains1 of which wars he left us a journal under his own hand1 wherein he has given a precise account from point to point of all passages1 both relating to the public and to himself4 ,and he was1 moreover1 married at a well advanced maturity1 in the year #aebh1 the three-and-thirtieth year of his age1 upon his way home from ,italy4 ,but let us return to our bottles4 ,the incommodities of old age1 that stand in need of some refreshment and support1 might with reason beget in me a desire of this faculty1 it being as it were the last pleasure the course of years deprives us of4 ,the natural heat1 say the good-fellows1 first seats itself in the feet3 that concerns infancy2 thence it mounts into the middle region1 where it makes a long abode and produces1 in my opinion1 the sole true pleasures of human life2 all other pleasures in comparison sleep2 towards the end1 like a vapour that still mounts upward1 it arrives at the throat1 where it makes its final residence1 and concludes the progress4 ,i do not1 nevertheless1 understand how a man can extend the pleasure of drinking beyond thirst1 and forge in his imagination an appetite artificial and against nature2 my stomach would not proceed so far2 it has enough to do to deal with what it takes in for its necessity4 ,my constitution is not to care for drink but as following eating and washing down my meat1 and for that reason my last draught is always the greatest4 ,and seeing that in old age we have our palate furred with phlegms or depraved by some other ill constitution1 the wine tastes better to us as the pores are cleaner washed and laid more open4 ,at least1 ,i seldom taste the first glass well4 ,anacharsis wondered that the ,greeks drank in greater glasses towards the end of a meal than at the beginning2 which was1 ,i suppose1 for the same reason the ,germans do the same1 who then begin the battle of drink4 ,plato forbids children wine till eighteen years of age1 and to get drunk till forty2 but1 after forty1 gives them leave to please themselves1 and to mix a little liberally in their feasts the influence of ,dionysos1 that good deity who restores to younger men their gaiety and to old men their youth2 who mollifies the passions of the soul1 as iron is softened by fire2 and in his ,lazes allows such merry meetings1 provided they have a discreet chief to govern and keep them in order1 as good and of great utility2 drunkenness being1 he says1 a true and certain trial of every one's nature1 and1 withal1 fit to inspire old men with mettle to divert themselves in dancing and music2 things of great use1 and that they dare not attempt when sober4 ,he1 moreover1 says that wine is able to supply the soul with temperance and the body with health4 ,nevertheless1 these restrictions1 in part borrowed from the ,carthaginians1 please him3 that men forbear excesses in the expeditions of war2 that every judge and magistrate abstain from it when about the administrations of his place or the consultations of the public affairs2 that the day is not to be employed with it1 that being a time due to other occupations1 nor the night on which a man intends to get children4 ',tis said that the philosopher ,stilpo1 when oppressed with age1 purposely hastened his end by drinking pure wine4 ,the same thing1 but not designed by him1 despatched also the philosopher ,arcesilaus4 ,but 'tis an old and pleasant question1 whether the soul of a wise man can be overcome by the strength of wine8 ,si munitae adhibet vim sapientiae4 ,to what vanity does the good opinion we have of ourselves push us8 ,the most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to keep itself upright1 and from being overthrown by its own weakness4 ,there is not one of a thousand that is right and settled so much as one minute in a whole life1 and that may not very well doubt1 whether according to her natural condition she ever can be2 but to join constancy to it is her utmost perfection2 ,i mean when nothing should jostle and discompose her1 which a thousand accidents may do4 ',tis to much purpose that the great poet ,lucretius keeps such a clatter with his philosophy1 when1 behold6 he goes mad with a love philtre4 ,is it to be imagined that an apoplexy will not stun ,socrates as well as a porter8 ,some men have forgotten their own names by the violence of a disease2 and a slight wound has turned the judgment of others topsy-turvy4 ,let him be as wise as he will1 after all he is but a man2 and than that what is there more frail1 more miserable1 or more nothing8 ,wisdom does not force our natural dispositions1 ,sudores itaque1 et pallorem exsistere toto ,corpore1 et infringi linguam1 vocemque aboriri1 ,caligare oculos1 sonere aures1 succidere artus1 ,demque concidere1 ex animi terrore1 videmus4 ,sweat and paleness come over the whole body1 the tongue is rendered powerless1 the voice dies away1 the eyes are darkened1 there is ringing in the ears1 the limbs sink under us by the influence of fear4--,lucretius1 iii4 #aee4 he must shut his eyes against the blow that threatens him2 he must tremble upon the margin of a precipice1 like a child2 nature having reserved these light marks of her authority1 not to be forced by our reason and the stoic virtue1 to teach man his mortality and our weakness2 he turns pale with fear1 red with shame1 and groans with the cholic1 if not with desperate outcry1 at least with hoarse and broken voice3 ,humani a se nihil alienum putet4 ,let him not think himself exempt from that which is incidental to men in general4--,terence1 ,heauton1 i4 #a1 #be4 ,the poets1 that feign all things at pleasure1 dare not acquit their greatest heroes of tears3 ,sic fatur lacrymans1 classique immittit habenas4 ,thus he speaks1 weeping1 and then sets sail with his fleet4 --,aeneid1 vi4 i4 ',tis sufficient for a man to curb and moderate his inclinations1 for totally to suppress them is not in him to do4 ,even our great ,plutarch1 that excellent and perfect judge of human actions1 when he sees ,brutus and ,torquatus kill their children1 begins to doubt whether virtue could proceed so far1 and to question whether these persons had not rather been stimulated by some other passion4--,plutarch1 ,life of ,publicola1 c4 #c4 --,all actions exceeding the ordinary bounds are liable to sinister interpretation1 for as much as our liking no more holds with what is above than with what is below it4 ,let us leave that other sect1 that sets up an express profession of scornful superiority--,the ,stoics4--3 but when even in that sect1 reputed the most quiet and gentle1 we hear these rhodomontades of ,metrodorus3 ,occupavi te1 ,fortuna1 atque cepi3 omnesque aditus tuos interclusi ut ad me aspirare non posses2 ,fortune1 ,i have got the better of thee1 and have made all the avenues so sure thou canst not come at me4 --,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 v4 #i4 when ,anaxarchus1 by command of ,nicocreon the tyrant of ,cyprus1 was put into a stone mortar1 and laid upon with mauls of iron1 ceases not to say1 ,strike1 batter1 break2 'tis not ,anaxarchus1 'tis but his sheath that you pound and bray so2 when we hear our martyrs cry out to the tyrant from the middle of the flame1 ,this side is roasted enough1 fall to and eat1 it is enough done2 fall to work with the other2 when we hear the child in ,josephus' torn piece-meal with pincers1 defying ,antiochus1 and crying out with a constant and assured voice3 ,tyrant1 thou losest thy labour1 ,i am still at ease2 where is the pain1 where are the torments with which thou didst so threaten me8 ,is this all thou canst do8 ,my constancy torments thee more than thy cruelty does me4 ,o pitiful coward1 thou faintest1 and ,i grow stronger2 make me complain1 make me bend1 make me yield if thou canst2 encourage thy guards1 cheer up thy executioners2 see1 see they faint1 and can do no more2 arm them1 flesh them anew1 spur them up2 truly1 a man must confess that there is some phrenzy1 some fury1 how holy soever1 that at that time possesses those souls4 ,when we come to these ,stoical sallies3 ,i had rather be mad than voluptuous1 a saying of ,antisthenes4 ,when ,sextius tells us1 he had rather be fettered with affliction than pleasure3 when ,epicurus takes upon him to play with his gout1 and1 refusing health and ease1 defies all torments1 and despising the lesser pains1 as disdaining to contend with them1 he covets and calls out for others sharper1 more violent1 and more worthy of him2 ,spumantemque dari1 pecora inter inertia1 votis ,optat aprum1 aut fulvum descendere monte leonem3 ,and instead of timid beasts1 wishes the foaming boar or tawny lion would come from the mountain4--,a,eneid1 iv4 #aeh4 who but must conclude that these are wild sallies pushed on by a courage that has broken loose from its place8 ,our soul cannot from her own seat reach so high2 'tis necessary she must leave it1 raise herself up1 and1 taking the bridle in her teeth1 transport her man so far that he shall afterwards himself be astonished at what he has done2 as1 in war1 the heat of battle impels generous soldiers to perform things of so infinite danger1 as afterwards1 recollecting them1 they themselves are the first to wonder at2 as it also fares with the poets1 who are often rapt with admiration of their own writings1 and know not where again to find the track through which they performed so fine a ,career2 which also is in them called fury and rapture4 ,and as ,plato says1 'tis to no purpose for a sober-minded man to knock at the door of poesy3 so ,aristotle says1 that no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness2 and he has reason to call all transports1 how commendable soever1 that surpass our own judgment and understanding1 madness2 forasmuch as wisdom is a regular government of the soul1 which is carried on with measure and proportion1 and for which she is to herself responsible4 ,plato argues thus1 that the faculty of prophesying is so far above us1 that we must be out of ourselves when we meddle with it1 and our prudence must either be obstructed by sleep or sickness1 or lifted from her place by some celestial rapture4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,a ,,custom ,,of ,,the ,,isle ,,of ,,cea ,cos4 ,cea is the form of the name given by ,pliny ,if to philosophise be1 as 'tis defined1 to doubt1 much more to write at random and play the fool1 as ,i do1 ought to be reputed doubting1 for it is for novices and freshmen to inquire and to dispute1 and for the chairman to moderate and determine4 ,my moderator is the authority of the divine will1 that governs us without contradiction1 and that is seated above these human and vain contestations4 ,philip having forcibly entered into ,peloponnesus1 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 favour3 ,why1 you pitiful fellow1 replied he1 what can they suffer who do not fear to die8 ,it being also asked of ,agis1 which way a man might live free8 ,why1 said he1 by despising death4 ,these1 and a thousand other sayings to the same purpose1 distinctly sound of something more than the patient attending the stroke of death when it shall come2 for there are several accidents in life far worse to suffer than death itself4 ,witness the ,lacedaemonian boy taken by ,antigonus1 and sold for a slave1 who being by his master commanded to some base employment3 ,thou shalt see1 says the boy1 whom thou hast bought2 it would be a shame for me to serve1 being so near the reach of liberty1 and having so said1 threw himself from the top of the house4 ,antipater severely threatening the ,lacedaemonians1 that he might the better incline them to acquiesce in a certain demand of his3 ,if thou threatenest us with more than death1 replied they1 we shall the more willingly die2 and to ,philip1 having written them word that he would frustrate all their enterprises3 ,what1 wilt thou also hinder us from dying8 ,this is the meaning of the sentence1 ,that the wise man lives as long as he ought1 not so long as he can2 and that the most obliging present ,nature has made us1 and which takes from us all colour of complaint of our condition1 is to have delivered into our own custody the keys of life2 she has only ordered1 one door into life1 but a hundred thousand ways out4 ,we may be straitened for earth to live upon1 but earth sufficient to die upon can never be wanting1 as ,boiocalus answered the ,romans4--,tacitus1 ,annal41 xiii4 #ef4--,why dost thou complain of this world8 it detains thee not2 thy own cowardice is the cause1 if thou livest in pain4 ,there needs no more to die but to will to die3 ,ubique mors est2 optime hoc cavit deus4 ,eripere vitam nemo non homini potest2 ,at nemo mortem2 mille ad hanc aditus patent4 ,death is everywhere3 heaven has well provided for that4 ,any one may deprive us of life2 no one can deprive us of death4 ,to death there are a thousand avenues4--,seneca1 ,theb31 i1 ,i1 #aea4 ,neither is it a recipe for one disease only2 death is the infallible cure of all2 'tis a most assured port that is never to be feared1 and very often to be sought4 ,it comes all to one1 whether a man give himself his end1 or stays to receive it by some other means2 whether he pays before his day1 or stay till his day of payment come2 from whencesoever it comes1 it is still his2 in what part soever the thread breaks1 there's the end of the clue4 ,the most voluntary death is the finest4 ,life depends upon the pleasure of others2 death upon our own4 ,we ought not to accommodate ourselves to our own humour in anything so much as in this4 ,reputation is not concerned in such an enterprise2 'tis folly to be concerned by any such apprehension4 ,living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting4 ,the ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life2 they torment us with caustics1 incisions1 and amputations of limbs2 they interdict aliment and exhaust our blood2 one step farther and we are cured indeed and effectually4 ,why is not the jugular vein as much at our disposal as the median vein8 ,for a desperate disease a desperate cure4 ,servius the grammarian1 being tormented with the gout1 could think of no better remedy than to apply poison to his legs1 to deprive them of their sense2 let them be gouty at their will1 so they were insensible of pain4 ,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 die4 ',tis weakness to truckle under infirmities1 but it's madness to nourish them4 ,the ,stoics say1 that it is living according to nature in a wise man to1 take his leave of life1 even in the height of prosperity1 if he do it opportunely2 and in a fool to prolong it1 though he be miserable1 provided he be not indigent of those things which they repute to be according to nature4 ,as ,i do not offend the law against thieves when ,i embezzle my own money and cut my own purse2 nor that against incendiaries when ,i burn my own wood2 so am ,i not under the lash of those made against murderers for having deprived myself of my own life4 ,hegesias said1 that as the condition of life did1 so the condition of death ought to depend upon our own choice4 ,and ,diogenes meeting the philosopher ,speusippus1 so blown up with an inveterate dropsy that he was fain to be carried in a litter1 and by him saluted with the compliment1 ,i wish you good health4 ,no health to thee1 replied the other1 who art content to live in such a condition4 ,and in fact1 not long after1 ,speusippus1 weary of so languishing a state of life1 found a means to die4 ,but this does not pass without admitting a dispute3 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 it2 and that it appertains to ,god who has placed us here1 not for ourselves only but for ,his ,glory and the service of others1 to dismiss us when it shall best please ,him1 and not for us to depart without ,his licence3 that we are not born for ourselves only1 but for our country also1 the laws of which require an account from us upon the score of their own interest1 and have an action of manslaughter good against us2 and if these fail to take cognisance of the fact1 we are punished in the other world as deserters of our duty3 ,proxima deinde tenent maesti loca1 qui sibi letum ,insontes peperere manu1 lucemque perosi ,proiecere animas4 ,thence the sad ones occupy the next abodes1 who1 though free from guilt1 were by their own hands slain1 and1 hating light1 sought death4--,a,eneid1 vi4 #dcd4 ,there is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied to than in breaking it1 and more pregnant evidence of fortitude in ,regulus than in ,cato2 'tis indiscretion and impatience that push us on to these precipices3 no accidents can make true virtue turn her back2 she seeks and requires evils1 pains1 and grief1 as the things by which she is nourished and supported2 the menaces of tyrants1 racks1 and tortures serve only to animate and rouse her3 ,duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus ,nigrae feraci frondis in ,algido1 ,per damma1 percmdes1 ab ipso ,ducit opes1 animumque ferro4 ,as in ,mount ,algidus1 the sturdy oak even from the axe itself derives new vigour and life4--,horace1 ,od41 iv4 #d1 #eg4 ,and as another says3 ,non est1 ut putas1 virtus1 pater1 ,timere vitam2 sed malis ingentibus ,obstare1 nec se vertere1 ac retro dare4 ,father1 'tis no virtue to fear life1 but to withstand great misfortunes1 nor turn back from them4--,seneca1 ,theb41 i4 #aij4 ,or as this3 ,rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem ,fortius ille facit1 qui miser esse potest4 ,it is easy in adversity to despise death2 but he acts more bravely1 who can live wretched4--,martial1 xi4 #ef1 #ae4 ',tis cowardice1 not virtue1 to lie squat in a furrow1 under a tomb1 to evade the blows of fortune2 virtue never stops nor goes out of her path1 for the greatest storm that blows3 ,si fractus illabatur orbis1 ,impavidum ferient ruinae4 ,should the world's axis crack1 the ruins will but crush a fearless head4--,horace1 ,od41 iii4 #c1 #g4 ,for the most part1 the flying from other inconveniences brings us to this2 nay1 endeavouring to evade death1 we often run into its very mouth3 ,hic1 rogo1 non furor est1 ne moriare1 mori8 ,tell me1 is it not madness1 that one should die for fear of dying8--,martial1 ii4 #hj1 #b4 like those who1 from fear of a precipice1 throw themselves headlong into it2 ,multos in summa pericula misfit ,venturi timor ipse mali3 fortissimus ille est1 ,qui promptus metuenda pati1 si cominus instent1 ,et differre potest4 ,the fear of future ills often makes men run into extreme danger2 he is truly brave who boldly dares withstand the mischiefs he apprehends1 when they confront him and can be deferred4 --,lucan1 vii4 #ajd4 ,usque adeo1 mortis formidine1 vitae ,percipit humanos odium1 lucisque videndae1 ,ut sibi consciscant moerenti pectore lethum ,obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem4 ,death to that degree so frightens some men1 that causing them to hate both life and light1 they kill themselves1 miserably forgetting that this same fear is the fountain of their cares4 --,lucretius1 iii4 #gi4 ,plato1 in his ,laws1 assigns an ignominious sepulture to him who has deprived his nearest and best friend1 namely himself1 of life and his destined course1 being neither compelled so to do by public judgment1 by any sad and inevitable accident of fortune1 nor by any insupportable disgrace1 but merely pushed on by cowardice and the imbecility of a timorous soul4 ,and the opinion that makes so little of life1 is ridiculous2 for it is our being1 'tis all we have4 ,things of a nobler and more elevated being may1 indeed1 reproach ours2 but it is against nature for us to contemn and make little account of ourselves2 'tis a disease particular to man1 and not discerned in any other creatures1 to hate and despise itself4 ,and it is a vanity of the same stamp to desire to be something else than what we are2 the effect of such a desire does not at all touch us1 forasmuch as it is contradicted and hindered in itself4 ,he that desires of a man to be made an angel1 does nothing for himself2 he would be never the better for it2 for1 being no more1 who shall rejoice or be sensible of this benefit for him4 ,debet enim1 misere cui forti1 aegreque futurum est1 ,ipse quoque esse in eo turn tempore1 cum male possit ,accidere4 ,for he to whom misery and pain are to be in the future1 must himself then exist1 when these ills befall him4 --,idem1 ibid41 #hgd4 ,security1 indolence1 impassability1 the privation of the evils of this life1 which we pretend to purchase at the price of dying1 are of no manner of advantage to us3 that man evades war to very little purpose who can have no fruition of peace2 and as little to the purpose does he avoid trouble who cannot enjoy repose4 ,amongst those of the first of these two opinions1 there has been great debate1 what occasions are sufficient to justify the meditation of self-murder1 which they call ,a reasonable exit4-- ,diogenes ,laertius1 ,life of ,zeno4--,for though they say that men must often die for trivial causes1 seeing those that detain us in life are of no very great weight1 yet there is to be some limit4 ,there are fantastic and senseless humours that have prompted not only individual men1 but whole nations to destroy themselves1 of which ,i have elsewhere given some examples2 and we further read of the ,milesian virgins1 that by a frantic compact they hanged themselves one after another till the magistrate took order in it1 enacting that the bodies of such as should be found so hanged should be drawn by the same halter stark naked through the city4 ,when ,therykion tried to persuade ,cleomenes to despatch himself1 by reason of the ill posture of his affairs1 and1 having missed a death of more honour in the battle he had lost1 to accept of this the second in honour to it1 and not to give the conquerors leisure to make him undergo either an ignominious death or an infamous life2 ,cleomenes1 with a courage truly ,stoic and ,lacedaemonian1 rejected his counsel as unmanly and mean2 that1 said he1 is a remedy that can never be wanting1 but which a man is never to make use of1 whilst there is an inch of hope remaining3 telling him1 that it was sometimes constancy and valour to live2 that he would that even his death should be of use to his country1 and would make of it an act of honour and virtue4 ,therykion1 notwithstanding1 thought himself in the right1 and did his own business2 and ,cleomenes afterwards did the same1 but not till he had first tried the utmost malevolence of fortune4 ,all the inconveniences in the world are not considerable enough that a man should die to evade them2 and1 besides1 there being so many1 so sudden and unexpected changes in human things1 it is hard rightly to judge when we are at the end of our hope3 ,sperat et in saeva victus gladiator arena1 ,sit licet infesto pollice turba minax4 ,the gladiator conquered in the lists hopes on1 though the menacing spectators1 turning their thumb1 order him to die4 --,pentadius1 ,de ,spe1 ap4 ,virgilii ,catadecta4 ,all things1 says an old adage1 are to be hoped for by a man whilst he lives2 ay1 but1 replies ,seneca1 why should this rather be always running in a man's head that fortune can do all things for the living man1 than this1 that fortune has no power over him that knows how to die8 ,josephus1 when engaged in so near and apparent danger1 a whole people being violently bent against him1 that there was no visible means of escape1 nevertheless1 being1 as he himself says1 in this extremity counselled by one of his friends to despatch himself1 it was well for him that he yet maintained himself in hope1 for fortune diverted the accident beyond all human expectation1 so that he saw himself delivered without any manner of inconvenience4 ,whereas ,brutus and ,cassius1 on the contrary1 threw away the remains of the ,roman liberty1 of which they were the sole protectors1 by the precipitation and temerity wherewith they killed themselves before the due time and a just occasion4 ,monsieur d',anguien1 at the battle of ,serisolles1 twice attempted to run himself through1 despairing of the fortune of the day1 which went indeed very untowardly on that side of the field where he was engaged1 and by that precipitation was very near depriving himself of the enjoyment of so brave a victory4 ,i have seen a hundred hares escape out of the very teeth of the greyhounds3 ,aliquis carnifici suo superstes fuit4 ,some have survived their executioners4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #ac4 ,multa dies1 variusque labor mutabilis nevi ,rettulit in melius2 multos alterna revisens ,lusit1 et in solido rursus fortuna locavit4 ,length of days1 and the various labour of changeful time1 have brought things to a better state2 fortune turning1 shews a reverse face1 and again restores men to prosperity4--,a,eneid1 xi4 #dbe4 ,piny says there are but three sorts of diseases1 to escape which a man has good title to destroy himself2 the worst of which is the stone in the bladder1 when the urine is suppressed4 ,in the quarto edition of these essays1 in #aehh1 ,pliny is said to mention two more1 viz41 a pain in the stomach and a headache1 which1 he says 7lib4 xxv4 c4 #i471 were the only three distempers almost for which men killed themselves4 ,seneca says those only which for a long time are discomposing the functions of the soul4 ,and some there have been who1 to avoid a worse death1 have chosen one to their own liking4 ,democritus1 general of the ,a,etolians1 being brought prisoner to ,rome1 found means to make his escape by night3 but close pursued by his keepers1 rather than suffer himself to be retaken1 he fell upon his own sword and died4 ,antinous and ,theodotus1 their city of ,epirus being reduced by the ,romans to the last extremity1 gave the people counsel universally to kill themselves2 but1 these preferring to give themselves up to the enemy1 the two chiefs went to seek the death they desired1 rushing furiously upon the enemy1 with intention to strike home but not to ward a blow4 ,the ,island of ,gozzo being taken some years ago by the ,turks1 a ,sicilian1 who had two beautiful daughters marriageable1 killed them both with his own hand1 and their mother1 running in to save them1 to boot1 which having done1 sallying out of the house with a cross-bow and harquebus1 with two shots he killed two of the ,turks nearest to his door1 and drawing his sword1 charged furiously in amongst the rest1 where he was suddenly enclosed and cut to pieces1 by that means delivering his family and himself from slavery and dishonour4 ,the ,jewish women1 after having circumcised their children1 threw them and themselves down a precipice to avoid the cruelty of ,antigonus4 ,i have been told of a person of condition in one of our prisons1 that his friends1 being informed that he would certainly be condemned1 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 saint1 under such and such vows1 and to fast eight days together without taking any manner of nourishment1 what weakness or faintness soever he might find in himself during the time2 he followed their advice1 and by that means destroyed himself before he was aware1 not dreaming of death or any danger in the experiment4 ,scribonia advising her nephew ,libo to kill himself rather than await the stroke of justice1 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 execution1 and that it was to serve his enemies to keep his blood to gratify their malice4 ,we read in the ,bible that ,nicanor1 the persecutor of the law of ,god1 having sent his soldiers to seize upon the good old man ,razis1 surnamed in honour of his virtue the father of the ,jews3 the good man1 seeing no other remedy1 his gates burned down1 and the enemies ready to seize him1 choosing rather to die nobly than to fall into the hands of his wicked adversaries and suffer himself to be cruelly butchered by them1 contrary to the honour of his rank and quality1 stabbed himself with his own sword1 but the blow1 for haste1 not having been given home1 he ran and threw himself from the top of a wall headlong among them1 who separating themselves and making room1 he pitched directly upon his head2 notwithstanding which1 feeling yet in himself some remains of life1 he renewed his courage1 and starting up upon his feet all bloody and wounded as he was1 and making his way through the crowd to a precipitous rock1 there1 through one of his wounds1 drew out his bowels1 which1 tearing and pulling to pieces with both his hands1 he threw amongst his pursuers1 all the while attesting and invoking the ,divine vengeance upon them for their cruelty and injustice4 ,of violences offered to the conscience1 that against the chastity of woman is1 in my opinion1 most to be avoided1 forasmuch as there is a certain pleasure naturally mixed with it1 and for that reason the dissent therein cannot be sufficiently perfect and entire1 so that the violence seems to be mixed with a little consent of the forced party4 ,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 honour4 ,pelagia and ,sophronia1 both canonised1 the first of these precipitated herself with her mother and sisters into the river to avoid being forced by some soldiers1 and the last also killed herself to avoid being ravished by the ,emperor ,maxentius4 ,it may1 peradventure1 be an honour to us in future ages1 that a learned author of this present time1 and a ,parisian1 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 despair4 ,i am sorry he had never heard1 that he might have inserted it amongst his other stories1 the saying of a woman1 which was told me at ,toulouse1 who had passed through the handling of some soldiers3 ,god be praised1 said she1 that once at least in my life ,i have had my fill without sin4 ,in truth1 these cruelties are very unworthy the ,french good nature1 and also1 ,god be thanked1 our air is very well purged of them since this good advice3 'tis enough that they say no in doing it1 according to the rule of the good ,marot4 ,un doulx nenny1 avec un doulx sourire ,est tant honneste4--,marot4 ,history is everywhere full of those who by a thousand ways have exchanged a painful and irksome life for death4 ,lucius ,aruntius killed himself1 to fly1 he said1 both the future and the past4 ,granius ,silvanus and ,statius ,proximus1 after having been pardoned by ,nero1 killed themselves2 either disdaining to live by the favour of so wicked a man1 or that they might not be troubled1 at some other time1 to obtain a second pardon1 considering the proclivity of his nature to suspect and credit accusations against worthy men4 ,spargapises1 son of ,queen ,tomyris1 being a prisoner of war to ,cyrus1 made use of the first favour ,cyrus shewed him1 in commanding him to be unbound1 to kill himself1 having pretended to no other benefit of liberty1 but only to be revenged of himself for the disgrace of being taken4 ,boges1 governor in ,eion for ,king ,xerxes1 being besieged by the ,athenian army under the conduct of ,cimon1 refused the conditions offered1 that he might safe return into ,asia with all his wealth1 impatient to survive the loss of a place his master had given him to keep2 wherefore1 having defended the city to the last extremity1 nothing being left to eat1 he first threw all the gold and whatever else the enemy could make booty of into the river ,strymon1 and then causing a great pile to be set on fire1 and the throats of all the women1 children1 concubines1 and servants to be cut1 he threw their bodies into the fire1 and at last leaped into it himself4 ,ninachetuen1 an ,indian lord1 so soon as he heard the first whisper of the ,portuguese ,viceroy's determination to dispossess him1 without any apparent cause1 of his command in ,malacca1 to transfer it to the ,king of ,campar1 he took this resolution with himself3 he caused a scaffold1 more long than broad1 to be erected1 supported by columns royally adorned with tapestry and strewed with flowers and abundance of perfumes2 all which being prepared1 in a robe of cloth of gold1 set full of jewels of great value1 he came out into the street1 and mounted the steps to the scaffold1 at one corner of which he had a pile lighted of aromatic wood4 ,everybody ran to see to what end these unusual preparations were made2 when ,ninachetuen1 with a manly but displeased countenance1 set forth how much he had obliged the ,portuguese nation1 and with how unspotted fidelity he had carried himself in his charge2 that having so often1 sword in hand1 manifested in the behalf of others1 that honour was much more dear to him than life1 he was not to abandon the concern of it for himself3 that fortune denying him all means of opposing the affront designed to be put upon him1 his courage at least enjoined him to free himself from the sense of it1 and not to serve for a fable to the people1 nor for a triumph to men less deserving than himself2 which having said he leaped into the fire4 ,sextilia1 wife of ,scaurus1 and ,paxaea1 wife of ,labeo1 to encourage their husbands to avoid the dangers that pressed upon them1 wherein they had no other share than conjugal affection1 voluntarily sacrificed their own lives to serve them in this extreme necessity for company and example4 ,what they did for their husbands1 ,cocceius ,nerva did for his country1 with less utility though with equal affection3 this great lawyer1 flourishing in health1 riches1 reputation1 and favour with the ,emperor1 had no other cause to kill himself but the sole compassion of the miserable state of the ,roman ,republic4 ,nothing can be added to the beauty of the death of the wife of ,fulvius1 a familiar favourite of ,augustus3 ,augustus having discovered that he had vented an important secret he had entrusted him withal1 one morning that he came to make his court1 received him very coldly and looked frowningly upon him4 ,he returned home1 full of1 despair1 where he sorrowfully told his wife that1 having fallen into this misfortune1 he was resolved to kill himself3 to which she roundly replied1 'tis but reason you should1 seeing that having so often experienced the incontinence of my tongue1 you could not take warning3 but let me kill myself first1 and without any more saying ran herself through the body with a sword4 ,vibius ,virrius1 despairing of the safety of his city besieged by the ,romans and of their mercy1 in the last deliberation of his city's senate1 after many arguments conducing to that end1 concluded that the most noble means to escape fortune was by their own hands3 telling them that the enemy would have them in honour1 and ,hannibal would be sensible how many faithful friends he had abandoned2 inviting those who approved of his advice to come to a good supper he had ready at home1 where after they had eaten well1 they would drink together of what he had prepared2 a beverage1 said he1 that will deliver our bodies from torments1 our souls from insult1 and our eyes and ears from the sense of so many hateful mischiefs1 as the conquered suffer from cruel and implacable conquerors4 ,i have1 said he1 taken order for fit persons to throw our bodies into a funeral pile before my door so soon as we are dead4 ,many enough approved this high resolution1 but few imitated it2 seven-and-twenty senators followed him1 who1 after having tried to drown the thought of this fatal determination in wine1 ended the feast with the mortal mess2 and embracing one another1 after they had jointly deplored the misfortune of their country1 some retired home to their own houses1 others stayed to be burned with ,vibius in his funeral pyre2 and were all of them so long in dying1 the vapour of the wine having prepossessed the veins1 and by that means deferred the effect of poison1 that some of them were within an hour of seeing the enemy inside the walls of ,capua1 which was taken the next morning1 and of undergoing the miseries they had at so dear a rate endeavoured to avoid4 ,jubellius ,taurea1 another citizen of the same country1 the ,consul ,fulvius returning from the shameful butchery he had made of two hundred and twenty-five senators1 called him back fiercely by name1 and having made him stop3 ,give the word1 said he1 that somebody may dispatch me after the massacre of so many others1 that thou mayest boast to have killed a much more valiant man than thyself4 ,fulvius1 disdaining him as a man out of his wits1 and also having received letters from ,rome censuring the inhumanity of his execution which tied his hands1 ,jubellius proceeded3 ,since my country has been taken1 my friends dead1 and having with my own hands slain my wife and children to rescue them from the desolation of this ruin1 ,i am denied to die the death of my fellow-citizens1 let me borrow from virtue vengeance on this hated life1 and therewithal drawing a short sword he carried concealed about him1 he ran it through his own bosom1 falling down backward1 and expiring at the consul's feet4 ,alexander1 laying siege to a city of the ,indies1 those within1 finding themselves very hardly set1 put on a vigorous resolution to deprive him of the pleasure of his victory1 and accordingly burned themselves in general1 together with their city1 in despite of his humanity3 a new kind of war1 where the enemies sought to save them1 and they to destroy themselves1 doing to make themselves sure of death1 all that men do to secure life4 ,astapa1 a city of ,spain1 finding itself weak in walls and defence to withstand the ,romans1 the inhabitants made a heap of all their riches and furniture in the public place2 and1 having ranged upon this heap all the women and children1 and piled them round with wood and other combustible matter to take sudden fire1 and left fifty of their young men for the execution of that whereon they had resolved1 they made a desperate sally1 where for want of power to overcome1 they caused themselves to be every man slain4 ,the fifty1 after having massacred every living soul throughout the whole city1 and put fire to this pile1 threw themselves lastly into it1 finishing their generous liberty1 rather after an insensible1 than after a sorrowful and disgraceful manner1 giving the enemy to understand1 that if fortune had been so pleased1 they had as well the courage to snatch from them victory as they had to frustrate and render it dreadful1 and even mortal to those who1 allured by the splendour of the gold melting in this flame1 having approached it1 a great number were there suffocated and burned1 being kept from retiring by the crowd that followed after4 ,the ,abydeans1 being pressed by ,king ,philip1 put on the same resolution2 but1 not having time1 they could not put it 'in effect4 ,the king1 who was struck with horror at the rash precipitation of this execution 7the treasure and movables that they had condemned to the flames being first seized71 drawing off his soldiers1 granted them three days' time to kill themselves in1 that they might do it with more order and at greater ease3 which time they filled with blood and slaughter beyond the utmost excess of all hostile cruelty1 so that not so much as any one soul was left alive that had power to destroy itself4 ,there are infinite examples of like popular resolutions which seem the more fierce and cruel in proportion as the effect is more universal1 and yet are really less so than when singly executed2 what arguments and persuasion cannot do with individual men1 they can do with all1 the ardour of society ravishing particular judgments4 ,the condemned who would live to be executed in the reign of ,tiberius1 forfeited their goods and were denied the rites of sepulture2 those who1 by killing themselves1 anticipated it1 were interred1 and had liberty to dispose of their estates by will4 ,but men sometimes covet death out of hope of a greater good4 ,i desire1 says ,st4 ,paul1 to be with ,christ1 and who shall rid me of these bands8 ,cleombrotus of ,ambracia1 having read ,plato's ,pheedo1 entered into so great a desire of the life to come that1 without any other occasion1 he threw himself into the sea4 ,by which it appears how improperly we call this voluntary dissolution1 despair1 to which the eagerness of hope often inclines us1 and1 often1 a calm and temperate desire proceeding from a mature and deliberate judgment4 ,jacques du ,chastel1 bishop of ,soissons1 in ,st4 ,louis's foreign expedition1 seeing the king and whole army upon the point of returning into ,france1 leaving the affairs of religion imperfect1 took a resolution rather to go into ,paradise2 wherefore1 having taken solemn leave of his friends1 he charged alone1 in the sight of every one1 into the enemy's army1 where he was presently cut to pieces4 ,in a certain kingdom of the new discovered world1 upon a day of solemn procession1 when the idol they adore is drawn about in public upon a chariot of marvellous greatness2 besides that many are then seen cutting off pieces of their flesh to offer to him1 there are a number of others who prostrate themselves upon the place1 causing themselves to be crushed and broken to pieces under the weighty wheels1 to obtain the veneration of sanctity after death1 which is accordingly paid them4 ,the death of the bishop1 sword in hand1 has more of magnanimity in it1 and less of sentiment1 the ardour of combat taking away part of the latter4 ,there are some governments who have taken upon them to regulate the justice and opportunity of voluntary death4 ,in former times there was kept in our city of ,marseilles a poison prepared out of hemlock1 at the public charge1 for those who had a mind to hasten their end1 having first1 before the six hundred1 who were their senate1 given account of the reasons and motives of their design1 and it was not otherwise lawful1 than by leave from the magistrate and upon just occasion to do violence to themselves4--,valerius ,maximus1 ii4 #f1 #g4--,the same law was also in use in other places4 ,sextus ,pompeius1 in his expedition into ,asia1 touched at the isle of ,cea in ,negropont3 it happened whilst he was there1 as we have it from one that was with him1 that a woman of great quality1 having given an account to her citizens why she was resolved to put an end to her life1 invited ,pompeius to her death1 to render it the more honourable1 an invitation that he accepted2 and having long tried in vain by the power of his eloquence1 which was very great1 and persuasion1 to divert her from that design1 he acquiesced in the end in her own will4 ,she had passed the age of four score and ten in a very happy state1 both of body and mind2 being then laid upon her bed1 better dressed than ordinary and leaning upon her elbow1 ,the gods1 said she1 ,o ,sextus ,pompeius1 and rather those ,i leave than those ,i go to seek1 reward thee1 for that thou hast not disdained to be both the counsellor of my life and the witness of my death4 ,for my part1 having always experienced the smiles of fortune1 for fear lest the desire of living too long may make me see a contrary face1 ,i am going1 by a happy end1 to dismiss the remains of my soul1 leaving behind two daughters of my body and a legion of nephews2 which having said1 with some exhortations to her family to live in peace1 she divided amongst them her goods1 and recommending her domestic gods to her eldest daughter1 she boldly took the bowl that contained the poison1 and having made her vows and prayers to ,mercury to conduct her to some happy abode in the other world1 she roundly swallowed the mortal poison4 ,this being done1 she entertained the company with the progress of its operation1 and how the cold by degrees seized the several parts of her body one after another1 till having in the end told them it began to seize upon her heart and bowels1 she called her daughters to do the last office and close her eyes4 ,pliny tells us of a certain ,hyperborean nation where1 by reason of the sweet temperature of the air1 lives rarely ended but by the voluntary surrender of the inhabitants1 who1 being weary of and satiated with living1 had the custom1 at a very old age1 after having made good cheer1 to precipitate themselves into the sea from the top of a certain rock1 assigned for that service4 ,pain and the fear of a worse death seem to me the most excusable incitements4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,to-,,morrow',s ,a ,,new ,,day ,i give1 as it seems to me1 with good reason the palm to ,jacques ,amyot of all our ,french writers1 not only for the simplicity and purity of his language1 wherein he excels all others1 nor for his constancy in going through so long a work1 nor for the depth of his knowledge1 having been able so successfully to smooth and unravel so knotty and intricate an author 7for let people tell me what they will1 ,i understand nothing of ,greek2 but ,i meet with sense so well united and maintained throughout his whole translation1 that certainly he either knew the true fancy of the author1 or having1 by being long conversant with him1 imprinted a vivid and general idea of that of ,plutarch in his soul1 he has delivered us nothing that either derogates from or contradicts him71 but above all1 ,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 country4 ,we ignorant fellows had been lost1 had not this book raised us out of the dirt2 by this favour of his we dare now speak and write2 the ladies are able to read to schoolmasters2 'tis our breviary4 ,if this good man be yet living1 ,i would recommend to him ,xenophon1 to do as much by that2 'tis a much more easy task than the other1 and consequently more proper for his age4 ,and1 besides1 though ,i know not how1 methinks he does briskly--and clearly enough trip over steps another would have stumbled at1 yet nevertheless his style seems to be more his own where he does not encounter those difficulties1 and rolls away at his own ease4 ,i was just now reading this passage where ,plutarch says of himself1 that ,rusticus being present at a declamation of his at ,rome1 there received a packet from the emperor1 and deferred to open it till all was done3 for which1 says he1 all the company highly applauded the gravity of this person4 ',tis true1 that being upon the subject of curiosity and of that eager passion for news1 which makes us with so much indiscretion and impatience leave all to entertain a newcomer1 and without any manner of respect or outcry1 tear open on a sudden1 in what company soever1 the letters that are delivered to us1 he had reason to applaud the gravity of ,rusticus upon this occasion2 and might moreover have added to it the commendation of his civility and courtesy1 that would not interrupt the current of his declamation4 ,but ,i doubt whether any one can commend his prudence2 for receiving unexpected letters1 and especially from an emperor1 it might have fallen out that the deferring to read them might have been of great prejudice4 ,the vice opposite to curiosity is negligence1 to which ,i naturally incline1 and wherein ,i have seen some men so extreme that one might have found letters sent them three or four days before1 still sealed up in their pockets4 ,i never open any letters directed to another2 not only those intrusted with me1 but even such as fortune has guided to my hand2 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 man4 ,never was man less inquisitive or less prying into other men's affairs than ,i4 ,in our fathers' days1 ,monsieur de ,boutieres had like to have lost ,turin from having1 while engaged in good company at supper1 delayed to read information that was sent him of the treason plotted against that city where he commanded4 ,and this very ,plutarch has given me to understand1 that ,julius ,caesar had preserved himself1 if1 going to the ,senate the day he was assassinated by the conspirators1 he had read a note which was presented to him by1 the way4 ,he tells also the story of ,archias1 the tyrant of ,thebes1 that the night before the execution of the design ,pelopidas had plotted to kill him to restore his country to liberty1 he had a full account sent him in writing by another ,archias1 an ,athenian1 of the whole conspiracy1 and that1 this packet having been delivered to him while he sat at supper1 he deferred the opening of it1 saying1 which afterwards turned to a proverb in ,greece1 ,business to-morrow4 ,a wise man may1 ,i think1 out of respect to another1 as not to disturb the company1 as ,rusticus did1 or not to break off another affair of importance in hand1 defer to read or hear any new thing that is brought him2 but for his own interest or particular pleasure1 especially if he be a public minister1 that he will not interrupt his dinner or break his sleep is inexcusable4 ,and there was anciently at ,rome1 the consular place1 as they called it1 which was the most honourable at the table1 as being a place of most liberty1 and of more convenient access to those who came in to speak to the person seated there2 by which it appears1 that being at meat1 they did not totally abandon the concern of other affairs and incidents4 ,but when all is said1 it is very hard in human actions to give so exact a rule upon moral reasons1 that fortune will not therein maintain her own right4 ,,chapter ,v ,,of ,,conscience ,the ,sieur de la ,brousse1 my brother1 and ,i1 travelling one day together during the time of our civil wars1 met a gentleman of good sort4 ,he was of the contrary party1 though ,i did not know so much1 for he pretended otherwise3 and the mischief on't is1 that in this sort of war the cards are so shuffled1 your enemy not being distinguished from yourself by any apparent mark either of language or habit1 and being nourished under the same law1 air1 and manners1 it is very hard to avoid disorder and confusion4 ,this made me afraid myself of meeting any of our troops in a place where ,i was not known1 that ,i might not be in fear to tell my name1 and peradventure of something worse2 as it had befallen me before1 where1 by such a mistake1 ,i lost both men and horses1 and amongst others an ,italian gentleman my page1 whom ,i bred with the greatest care and affection1 was miserably slain1 in whom a youth of great promise and expectation was extinguished4 ,but the gentleman my brother and ,i met had so desperate1 half-dead a fear upon him at meeting with any horse1 or passing by any of the towns that held for the ,king1 that ,i at last discovered it to be alarms of conscience4 ,it seemed to the poor man as if through his visor and the crosses upon his cassock1 one would have penetrated into his bosom and read the most secret intentions of his heart2 so wonderful is the power of conscience4 ,it makes us betray1 accuse1 and fight against ourselves1 and for want of other witnesses1 to give evidence against ourselves3 ,occultum quatiens animo tortore flagellum4 ,the torturer of the soul brandishing a sharp scourge within4 --,juvenal1 iii4 #aie4 ,this story is in every child's mouth3 ,bessus the ,paeonian1 being reproached for wantonly pulling down a nest of young sparrows and killing them1 replied1 that he had reason to do so1 seeing that those little birds never ceased falsely to accuse him of the murder of his father4 ,this parricide had till then been concealed and unknown1 but the revenging fury of conscience caused it to be discovered by him himself1 who was to suffer for it4 ,hesiod corrects the saying of ,plato1 that punishment closely follows sin1 it being1 as he says1 born at the same time with it4 ,whoever expects punishment already suffers it1 and whoever has deserved it expects it4 ,wickedness contrives torments against itself3 ,malum consilium consultori pessimum4 ,ill designs are worst to the contriver4 --,apud ,aul4 ,gellium1 iv4 #e4 as the wasp stings and hurts another1 but most of all itself1 for it there loses its sting and its use for ever1 ,vitasque in vulnere ponunt4 ,and leave their own lives in the wound4 --,virgil1 ,geo41 iv4 #bch4 ,cantharides have somewhere about them1 by a contrariety of nature1 a counterpoison against their poison4 ,in like manner1 at the same time that men take delight in vice1 there springs in the conscience a displeasure that afflicts us sleeping and waking with various tormenting imaginations3 ,quippe ubi se multi1 per somnia saepe loquentes1 ,aut morbo delirantes1 protraxe ferantur1 ,et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse4 ,surely where many1 often talking in their sleep1 or raving in disease1 are said to have betrayed themselves1 and to have given publicity to offences long concealed4--,lucretius1 v4 #aaeg4 ,apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the ,scythians and afterwards boiled in a cauldron1 and that his heart muttered these words ,i am the cause of all these mischiefs that have befallen thee4 ,epicurus said that no hiding-hole could conceal the wicked1 since they could never assure themselves of being hid whilst their conscience discovered them to themselves4 ,prima est haec ultio1 quod se ,judice nemo nocens absohitur4 ,tis the first punishment of sin that no man absolves himself4 or3 ,this is the highest revenge1 that by its judgment no offender is absolved4--,juvenal1 xiii4 #b4 ,as an ill conscience fills us with fear1 so a good one gives us greater confidence and assurance2 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 intentions3 ,conscia mens ut cuique sua est1 ita concipit intra ,pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo4 ,as a man's conscience is1 so within hope or fear prevails1 suiting to his design4--,ovid1 ,fast41 i4 #dhe4 ,of this are a thousand examples2 but it will be enough to instance three of one and the same person4 ,scipio1 being one day accused before the people of ,rome of some crimes of a very high nature1 instead of excusing himself or flattering his judges3 ,it will become you well1 said he1 to sit in judgment upon a head1 by whose means you have the power to judge all the world4 ,another time1 all the answer he gave to several impeachments brought against him by a tribune of the people1 instead of making his defence3 ,let us go1 citizens1 said he1 let us go render thanks to the gods for the victory they gave me over the ,carthaginians as this day1 and advancing himself before towards the ,temple1 he had presently all the assembly and his very accuser himself following at his heels4 ,and ,petilius1 having been set on by ,cato to demand an account of the money that had passed through his hands in the province of ,antioch1 ,scipio being come into the senate to that purpose1 produced a book from under his robe1 wherein he told them was an exact account of his receipts and disbursements2 but being required to deliver it to the prothonotary to be examined1 he refused1 saying1 he would not do himself so great a disgrace2 and in the presence of the whole senate tore the book with his own hands to pieces4 ,i do not believe that the most seared conscience could have counterfeited so great an assurance4 ,he had naturally too high a spirit and was accustomed to too high a fortune1 says ,titius ,livius1 to know how to be criminal1 and to lower himself to the meanness of defending his innocence4 ,the putting men to the rack is a dangerous invention1 and seems to be rather a trial of patience than of truth4 ,both he who has the fortitude to endure it conceals the truth1 and he who has not3 for why should pain sooner make me confess what really is1 than force me to say what is not8 ,and1 on the contrary1 if he who is not guilty of that whereof he is accused1 has the courage to undergo those torments1 why should not he who is guilty have the same1 so fair a reward as life being in his prospect8 ,i believe the ground of this invention proceeds from the consideration of the force of conscience3 for1 to the guilty1 it seems to assist the rack to make him confess his fault and to shake his resolution2 and1 on the other side1 that it fortifies the innocent against the torture4 ,but when all is done1 'tis1 in plain truth1 a trial full of uncertainty and danger what would not a man say1 what would not a man do1 to avoid so intolerable torments8 ,etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor4 ,pain will make even the innocent lie4--,publius ,syrus1 ,de ,dolore4 ,whence it comes to pass1 that him whom the judge has racked that he may not die innocent1 he makes him die both innocent and racked4 ,a thousand and a thousand have charged their own heads by false confessions1 amongst whom ,i place ,philotas1 considering the circumstances of the trial ,alexander put upon him and the progress of his torture4 ,but so it is that some say it is the least evil human weakness could invent2 very inhumanly1 notwithstanding1 and to very little purpose1 in my opinion4 ,many nations less barbarous in this than the ,greeks and ,romans who call them so1 repute it horrible and cruel to torment and pull a man to pieces for a fault of which they are yet in doubt4 ,how can he help your ignorance8 ,are not you unjust1 that1 not to kill him without cause1 do worse than kill him8 ,and that this is so1 do but observe how often men prefer to die without reason than undergo this examination1 more painful than execution itself2 and that oft-times by its extremity anticipates execution1 and perform it4 ,i know not where ,i had this story1 but it exactly matches the conscience of our justice in this particular4 ,a country-woman1 to a general of a very severe discipline1 accused one of his soldiers that he had taken from her children the little soup meat she had left to nourish them withal1 the army having consumed all the rest2 but of this proof there was none4 ,the general1 after having cautioned the woman to take good heed to what she said1 for that she would make herself guilty of a false accusation if she told a lie1 and she persisting1 he presently caused the soldier's belly to be ripped up to clear the truth of the fact1 and the woman was found to be right4 ,an instructive sentence4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,use ,,makes ,,perfect ',tis not to be expected that argument and instruction1 though we never so voluntarily surrender our belief to what is read to us1 should be of force to lead us on so far as to action1 if we do not1 over and above1 exercise and form the soul by experience to the course for which we design it2 it will1 otherwise1 doubtless find itself at a loss when it comes to the pinch of the business4 ,this is the reason why those amongst the philosophers who were ambitious to attain to a greater excellence1 were not contented to await the severities of fortune in the retirement and repose of their own habitations1 lest he should have surprised them raw and inexpert in the combat1 but sallied out to meet her1 and purposely threw themselves into the proof of difficulties4 ,some of them abandoned riches to exercise themselves in a voluntary poverty2 others sought out labour and an austerity of life1 to inure them to hardships and inconveniences2 others have deprived themselves of their dearest members1 as of sight1 and of the instruments of generation1 lest their too delightful and effeminate service should soften and debauch the stability of their souls4 ,but in dying1 which is the greatest work we have to do1 practice can give us no assistance at all4 ,a man may by custom fortify himself against pain1 shame1 necessity1 and such-like accidents1 but as to death1 we can experiment it but once1 and are all apprentices when we come to it4 ,there have1 anciently1 been men so excellent managers of their time that they have tried even in death itself to relish and taste it1 and who have bent their utmost faculties of mind to discover what this passage is1 but they are none of them come back to tell us the news3 ,nemo expergitus exstat1 ,frigida quern semel est vitai pausa sequuta4 ,no one wakes who has once fallen into the cold sleep of death4 --,lucretius1 iii4 #idb ,julius ,canus1 a noble ,roman1 of singular constancy and virtue1 having been condemned to die by that worthless fellow ,caligula1 besides many marvellous testimonies that he gave of his resolution1 as he was just going to receive the stroke of the executioner1 was asked by a philosopher1 a friend of his3 ,well1 ,canus1 whereabout is your soul now8 what is she doing8 ,what are you thinking of8--,i was thinking1 replied the other1 to keep myself ready1 and the faculties of my mind full settled and fixed1 to try if in this short and quick instant of death1 ,i could perceive the motion of the soul when she parts from the body1 and whether she has any sentiment at the separation1 that ,i may after come again if ,i can1 to acquaint my friends with it4 ,this man philosophises not unto death only1 but in death itself4 ,what a strange assurance was this1 and what bravery of courage1 to desire his death should be a lesson to him1 and to have leisure to think of other things in so great an affair3 ,jus hoc animi morientis habebat4 ,this mighty power of mind he had dying4-,lucan1 viii4 #fcf4 ,and yet ,i fancy1 there is a certain way of making it familiar to us1 and in some sort of making trial what it is4 ,we may gain experience1 if not entire and perfect1 yet such1 at least1 as shall not be totally useless to us1 and that may render us more confident and more assured4 ,if we cannot overtake it1 we may approach it and view it1 and if we do not advance so far as the fort1 we may at least discover and make ourselves acquainted with the avenues4 ,it is not without reason that we are taught to consider sleep as a resemblance of death3 with how great facility do we pass from waking to sleeping1 and with how little concern do we lose the knowledge of light and of ourselves4 ,peradventure1 the faculty of sleeping would seem useless and contrary to nature1 since it deprives us of all action and sentiment1 were it not that by it nature instructs us that she has equally made us to die as to live2 and in life presents to us the eternal state she reserves for us after it1 to accustom us to it and to take from us the fear of it4 ,but such as have by violent accident fallen into a swoon1 and in it have lost all sense1 these1 methinks1 have been very near seeing the true and natural face of death2 for as to the moment of the passage1 it is not to be feared that it brings with it any pain or displeasure1 forasmuch as we can have no feeling without leisure2 our sufferings require time1 which in death is so short1 and so precipitous1 that it must necessarily be insensible4 ,they are the approaches that we are to fear1 and these may fall within the limits of experience4 ,many things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect2 ,i have passed a good part of my life in a perfect and entire health2 ,i say1 not only entire1 but1 moreover1 sprightly and wanton4 ,this state1 so full of verdure1 jollity1 and vigour1 made the consideration of sickness so formidable to me1 that when ,i came to experience it1 ,i found the attacks faint and easy in comparison with what ,i had apprehended4 ,of this ,i have daily experience2 if ,i am under the shelter of a warm room1 in a stormy and tempestuous night1 ,i wonder how people can live abroad1 and am afflicted for those who are out in the fields3 if ,i am there myself1 ,i do not wish to be anywhere else4 ,this one thing of being always shut up in a chamber ,i fancied insupportable3 but ,i was presently inured to be so imprisoned a week1 nay a month together1 in a very weak1 disordered1 and sad condition2 and ,i have found that1 in the time of my health1 ,i much more pitied the sick1 than ,i think myself to be pitied when ,i am so1 and that the force of my imagination enhances near one-half of the essence and reality of the thing4 ,i hope that when ,i come to die ,i shall find it the same1 and that1 after all1 it is not worth the pains ,i take1 so much preparation and so much assistance as ,i call in1 to undergo the stroke4 ,but1 at all events1 we cannot give ourselves too much advantage4 ,in the time of our third or second troubles 7,i do not well remember which71 going one day abroad to take the air1 about a league from my own house1 which is seated in the very centre of all the bustle and mischief of the late civil wars in ,france2 thinking myself in all security and so near to my retreat that ,i stood in need of no better equipage1 ,i had taken a horse that went very easy upon his pace1 but was not very strong4 ,being upon my return home1 a sudden occasion falling out to make use of this horse in a kind of service that he was not accustomed to1 one of my train1 a lusty1 tall fellow1 mounted upon a strong ,german horse1 that had a very ill mouth1 fresh and vigorous1 to play the brave and set on ahead of his fellows1 comes thundering full speed in the very track where ,i was1 rushing like a ,colossus upon the little man and the little horse1 with such a career of strength and weight1 that he turned us both over and over1 topsy-turvy with our heels in the air3 so that there lay the horse overthrown and stunned with the fall1 and ,i ten or twelve paces from him stretched out at length1 with my face all battered and broken1 my sword which ,i had had in my hand1 above ten paces beyond that1 and my belt broken all to pieces1 without motion or sense any more than a stock4 ',twas the only swoon ,i was ever in till that hour in my life4 ,those who were with me1 after having used all the means they could to bring me to myself1 concluding me dead1 took me up in their arms1 and carried me with very much difficulty home to my house1 which was about half a ,french league from thence4 ,on the way1 having been for more than two hours given over for a dead man1 ,i began to move and to fetch my breath2 for so great abundance of blood was fallen into my stomach1 that nature had need to rouse her forces to discharge it4 ,they then raised me upon my feet1 where ,i threw off a whole bucket of clots of blood1 as this ,i did also several times by the way4 ,this gave me so much ease1 that ,i began to recover a little life1 but so leisurely and by so small advances1 that my first sentiments were much nearer the approaches of death than life3 ,perche1 dubbiosa ancor del suo ritorno1 ,non s'assicura attonita la mente4 ,for the soul1 doubtful as to its return1 could not compose itself --,tasso1 ,gierus4 ,lib41 xii4 #gd4 ,the remembrance of this accident1 which is very well imprinted in my memory1 so naturally representing to me the image and idea of death1 has in some sort reconciled me to that untoward adventure4 ,when ,i first began to open my eyes1 it was with so perplexed1 so weak and dead a sight1 that ,i could yet distinguish nothing but only discern the light3 ,come quel ch'or apre1 or'chiude ,gli occhi1 mezzo tra'l sonno e l'esser desto4 ,as a man that now opens1 now shuts his eyes1 between sleep and waking4--,tasso1 ,gierus4 ,lib41 viii41 #bf4 ,as to the functions of the soul1 they advanced with the same pace and measure with those of the body4 ,i saw myself all bloody1 my doublet being stained all over with the blood ,i had vomited4 ,the first thought that came into my mind was that ,i had a harquebuss shot in my head1 and indeed1 at the time there were a great many fired round about us4 ,methought my life but just hung upon my1 lips3 and ,i shut my eyes1 to help1 methought1 to thrust it out1 and took a pleasure in languishing and letting myself go4 ,it was an imagination that only superficially floated upon my soul1 as tender and weak as all the rest1 but really1 not only exempt from anything displeasing1 but mixed with that sweetness that people feel when they glide into a slumber4 ,i believe it is the very same condition those people are in1 whom we see swoon with weakness in the agony of death we pity them without cause1 supposing them agitated with grievous dolours1 or that their souls suffer under painful thoughts4 ,it has ever been my belief1 contrary to the opinion of many1 and particularly of ,la ,boetie1 that those whom we see so subdued and stupefied at the approaches of their end1 or oppressed with the length of the disease1 or by accident of an apoplexy or falling sickness1 ,vi morbi saepe coactus ,ante oculos aliquis nostros1 ut fulminis ictu1 ,concidit1 et spumas agit2 ingemit1 et tremit artus2 ,desipit1 extentat nervos1 torquetur1 anhelat1 ,inconstanter1 et in jactando membra fatigat2 ,often1 compelled by the force of disease1 some one as thunderstruck falls under our eyes1 and foams1 groans1 and trembles1 stretches1 twists1 breathes irregularly1 and in paroxysms wears out his strength4--,lucretius1 iii4 #dhe4 or hurt in the head1 whom we hear to mutter1 and by fits to utter grievous groans2 though we gather from these signs by which it seems as if they had some remains of consciousness1 and that there are movements of the body2 ,i have always believed1 ,i say1 both the body and the soul benumbed and asleep1 ,vivit1 et est vitae nescius ipse suae1 ,he lives1 and does not know that he is alive4 --,ovid1 ,trist41 i4 #c1 #ab4 and could not believe that in so great a stupefaction of the members and so great a defection of the senses1 the soul could maintain any force within to take cognisance of herself1 and that1 therefore1 they had no tormenting reflections to make them consider and be sensible of the misery of their condition1 and consequently were not much to be pitied4 ,i can1 for my part1 think of no state so insupportable and dreadful1 as to have the soul vivid and afflicted1 without means to declare itself2 as one should say of such as are sent to execution with their tongues first cut out 7were it not that in this kind of dying1 the most silent seems to me the most graceful1 if accompanied with a grave and constant countenance72 or if those miserable prisoners1 who fall into the hands of the base hangman soldiers of this age1 by whom they are tormented with all sorts of inhuman usage to compel them to some excessive and impossible ransom2 kept1 in the meantime1 in such condition and place1 where they have no means of expressing or signifying their thoughts and their misery4 ,the poets have feigned some gods who favour the deliverance of such as suffer under a languishing death3 ,hunc ego ,diti ,sacrum jussa fero1 teque isto corpore solvo4 ,i bidden offer this sacred thing to ,pluto1 and from that body dismiss thee4--,a,eneid1 iv4 #ghb4 both the interrupted words1 and the short and irregular answers one gets from them sometimes1 by bawling and keeping a clutter about them2 or the motions which seem to yield some consent to what we would have them do1 are no testimony1 nevertheless1 that they live1 an entire life at least4 ,so it happens to us in the yawning of sleep1 before it has fully possessed us1 to perceive1 as in a dream1 what is done about us1 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 soul2 and to make answers to the last words that have been spoken to us1 which have more in them of chance than sense4 ,now seeing ,i have in effect tried it1 ,i have no doubt but ,i have hitherto made a right judgment2 for first1 being in a swoon1 ,i laboured to rip open the buttons of my doublet with my nails1 for my sword was gone2 and yet ,i felt nothing in my imagination that hurt me2 for we have many motions in us that do not proceed from our direction2 ,semianimesque micant digiti1 ferrumque retractant2 ,half-dead fingers grope about1 and grasp again the sword4 --,a,eneid1 x4 #cif4 so falling people extend their arms before them by a natural impulse1 which prompts our limbs to offices and motions without any commission from our reason4 ,falciferos memorant currus abscindere membra 4 4 4 ,ut tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod ,decidit abscissum2 cum mens tamen atque hominis vis ,mobilitate mali1 non quit sentire dolorem4 ,they relate that scythe-bearing chariots mow off limbs1 so that they quiver on the ground2 and yet the mind of him from whom the limb is taken by the swiftness of the blow feels no pain4 --,lucretius1 iii4 #fdb4 ,my stomach was so oppressed with the coagulated blood1 that my hands moved to that part1 of their own voluntary motion1 as they frequently do to the part that itches1 without being directed by our will4 ,there are several animals1 and even men1 in whom one may perceive the muscles to stir and tremble after they are dead4 ,every one experimentally knows that there are some members which grow stiff and flag without his leave4 ,now1 those passions which only touch the outward bark of us1 cannot be said to be ours3 to make them so1 there must be a concurrence of the whole man2 and the pains which are felt by the hand or the foot while we are sleeping1 are none of ours4 ,as ,i drew near my own house1 where the alarm of my fall was already got before me1 and my family were come out to meet me1 with the hubbub usual in such cases1 not only did ,i make some little answer to some questions which were asked me2 but they moreover tell me1 that ,i was sufficiently collected to order them to bring a horse to my wife whom on the road1 ,i saw struggling and tiring herself which is hilly and rugged4 ,this should seem to proceed from a soul its functions2 but it was nothing so with me4 ,i knew not what ,i said or did1 and they were nothing but idle thoughts in the clouds1 that were stirred up by the senses of the eyes and ears1 and proceeded not from me4 ,i knew not for all that1 whence ,i came or whither ,i went1 neither was ,i capable to weigh and consider what was said to me3 these were light effects1 that the senses produced of themselves as of custom2 what the soul contributed was in a dream1 lightly touched1 licked and bedewed by the soft impression of the senses4 ,notwithstanding1 my condition was1 in truth1 very easy and quiet2 ,i had no affliction upon me1 either for others or myself2 it was an extreme languor and weakness1 without any manner of pain4 ,i saw my own house1 but knew it not4 ,when they had put me to bed ,i found an inexpressible sweetness in that repose2 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 way1 and had in so doing all quite tired out themselves1 twice or thrice one after another4 ,they offered me several remedies1 but ,i would take none1 certainly believing that ,i was mortally wounded in the head4 ,and1 in earnest1 it had been a very happy death1 for the weakness of my understanding deprived me of the faculty of discerning1 and that of my body of the sense of feeling2 ,i was suffering myself to glide away so sweetly and after so soft and easy a manner1 that ,i scarce find any other action less troublesome than that was4 ,but when ,i came again to myself and to resume my faculties3 ,ut tandem sensus convaluere mei1 ,when at length my lost senses again returned4 --,ovid1 ,trist41 i4 #c1 #ad4 which was two or three hours after1 ,i felt myself on a sudden involved in terrible pain1 having my limbs battered and ground with my fall1 and was4 so ill for two or three nights after1 that ,i thought ,i was once more dying again1 but a more painful death1 having concluded myself as good as dead before1 and to this hour am sensible of the bruises of that terrible shock4 ,i will not here omit1 that the last thing ,i could make them beat into my head1 was the memory of this accident1 and ,i had it over and over again repeated to me1 whither ,i was going1 from whence ,i came1 and at what time of the day this mischance befell me1 before ,i could comprehend it4 ,as to the manner of my fall1 that was concealed from me in favour to him who had been the occasion1 and other flim-flams were invented4 ,but a long time after1 and the very next day that my memory began to return and to represent to me the state wherein ,i was1 at the instant that ,i perceived this horse coming full drive upon me 7for ,i had seen him at my heels1 and gave myself for gone1 but this thought had been so sudden1 that fear had had no leisure to introduce itself7 it seemed to me like a flash of lightning that had pierced my soul1 and that ,i came from the other world4 ,this long story of so light an accident would appear vain enough1 were it not for the knowledge ,i have gained by it for my own use2 for ,i do really find1 that to get acquainted with death1 needs no more but nearly to approach it4 ,every one1 as ,pliny says1 is a good doctrine to himself1 provided he be capable of discovering himself near at hand4 ,here1 this is not my doctrine1 'tis my study2 and is not the lesson of another1 but my own2 and if ,i communicate it1 it ought not to be ill taken1 for that which is of use to me1 may also1 peradventure1 be useful to another4 ,as to the rest1 ,i spoil nothing1 ,i make use of nothing but my own2 and if ,i play the fool1 'tis at my own expense1 and nobody else is concerned in't2 for 'tis a folly that will die with me1 and that no one is to inherit4 ,we hear but of two or three of the ancients1 who have beaten this path1 and yet ,i cannot say if it was after this manner1 knowing no more of them but their names4 ,no one since has followed the track3 'tis a rugged road1 more so than it seems1 to follow a pace so rambling and uncertain1 as that of the soul2 to penetrate the dark profundities of its intricate internal windings2 to choose and lay hold of so many little nimble motions2 'tis a new and extraordinary undertaking1 and that withdraws us from the common and most recommended employments of the world4 ',tis now many years since that my thoughts have had no other aim and level than myself1 and that ,i have only pried into and studied myself3 or1 if ,i study any other thing1 'tis to apply it to or rather in myself4 ,and yet ,i do not think it a fault1 if1 as others do by other much less profitable sciences1 ,i communicate what ,i have learned in this1 though ,i am not very well pleased with my own progress4 ,there is no description so difficult1 nor doubtless of so great utility1 as that of a man's self3 and withal1 a man must curl his hair and set out and adjust himself1 to appear in public3 now ,i am perpetually tricking myself out1 for ,i am eternally upon my own description4 ,custom has made all speaking of a man's self vicious1 and positively interdicts it1 in hatred to the boasting that seems inseparable from the testimony men give of themselves3 ,in vitium ducit culpae fuga4 ,the avoiding a mere fault often leads us into a greater4 ,or3 ,the escape from a fault leads into a vice --,horace1 ,de ,arte ,poetics1 verse #ca4 ,instead of blowing the child's nose1 this is to take his nose off altogether4 ,i think the remedy worse than the disease4 ,but1 allowing it to be true that it must of necessity be presumption to entertain people with discourses of one's self1 ,i ought not1 pursuing my general design1 to forbear an action that publishes this infirmity of mine1 nor conceal the fault which ,i not only practise but profess4 ,notwithstanding1 to speak my thought freely1 ,i think that the custom of condemning wine1 because some people will be drunk1 is itself to be condemned2 a man cannot abuse anything but what is good in itself2 and ,i believe that this rule has only regard to the popular vice4 ,they are bits for calves1 with which neither the saints whom we hear speak so highly of themselves1 nor the philosophers1 nor the divines will be curbed2 neither will ,i1 who am as little the one as the other1 ,if they do not write of it expressly1 at all events1 when the occasions arise1 they don't hesitate to put themselves on the public highway4 ,of what does ,socrates treat more largely than of himself8 ,to what does he more direct and address the discourses of his disciples1 than to speak of themselves1 not of the lesson in their book1 but of the essence and motion of their souls8 ,we confess ourselves religiously to ,god and our confessor2 as our neighbours1 do to all the people4 ,but some will answer that we there speak nothing but accusation against ourselves2 why then1 we say all2 for our very virtue itself is faulty and penetrable4 ,my trade and art is to live2 he that forbids me to speak according to my own sense1 experience1 and practice1 may as well enjoin an architect not to speak of building according to his own knowledge1 but according to that of his neighbour2 according to the knowledge of another1 and not according to his own4 ,if it be vainglory for a man to publish his own virtues1 why does not ,cicero prefer the eloquence of ,hortensius1 and ,hortensius that of ,cicero8 ,peradventure they mean that ,i should give testimony of myself by works and effects1 not barely by words4 ,i chiefly paint my thoughts1 a subject void of form and incapable of operative production2 'tis all that ,i can do to couch it in this airy body of the voice2 the wisest and devoutest men have lived in the greatest care to avoid all apparent effects4 ,effects would more speak of fortune than of me2 they manifest their own office and not mine1 but uncertainly and by conjecture2 patterns of some one particular virtue4 ,i expose myself entire2 'tis a body where1 at one view1 the veins1 muscles1 and tendons are apparent1 every of them in its proper place2 here the effects of a cold2 there of the heart beating1 very dubiously4 ,i do not write my own acts1 but myself and my essence4 ,i am of opinion that a man must be very cautious how he values himself1 and equally conscientious to give a true report1 be it better or worse1 impartially4 ,if ,i thought myself perfectly good and wise1 ,i would rattle it out to some purpose4 ,to speak less of one's self than what one really is is folly1 not modesty2 and to take that for current pay which is under a man's value is pusillanimity and cowardice1 according to1 ,aristotle4 ,no virtue assists itself with falsehood2 truth is never matter of error4 ,to speak more of one's self than is really true is not always mere presumption2 'tis1 moreover1 very often folly2 to1 be immeasurably pleased with what one is1 and to fall into an indiscreet self-love1 is in my opinion the substance of this vice4 ,the most sovereign remedy to cure it1 is to do quite contrary to what these people direct who1 in forbidding men to speak of themselves1 consequently1 at the same time1 interdict thinking of themselves too4 ,pride dwells in the thought2 the tongue can have but a very little share in it4 ,they fancy that to think of one's self is to be delighted with one's self2 to frequent and converse with one's self1 to be overindulgent2 but this excess springs only in those who take but a superficial view of themselves1 and dedicate their main inspection to their affairs2 who call it mere reverie and idleness to occupy one's self with one's self1 and the building one's self up a mere building of castles in the air2 who look upon themselves as a third person only1 a stranger4 ,if any one be in rapture with his own knowledge1 looking only on those below him1 let him but turn his eye upward towards past ages1 and his pride will be abated1 when he shall there find so many thousand wits that trample him under foot4 ,if he enter into a flattering presumption of his personal valour1 let him but recollect the lives of ,scipio1 ,epaminondas2 so many armies1 so many nations1 that leave him so far behind them4 ,no particular quality can make any man proud1 that will at the same time put the many other weak and imperfect ones he has in the other scale1 and the nothingness of human condition to make up the weight4 ,because ,socrates had alone digested to purpose the precept of his god1 to know himself1 and by that study arrived at the perfection of setting himself at nought1 he only was reputed worthy the title of a sage4 ,whosoever shall so know himself1 let him boldly speak it out4 ,,etext ,,editor',s ,,bookmarks3 ,addresses his voyage to no certain1 port ,all apprentices when we come to it 7death7 ,any one may deprive us of life2 no one can deprive us of death ,business to-morrow ,condemning wine1 because some people will be drunk ,conscience makes us betray1 accuse1 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 health4 ,no health to thee1 replied the other ,if to philosophise be1 as 'tis defined1 to doubt ,improperly we call this voluntary dissolution1 despair ,it's madness to nourish infirmity ,let him be as wise as he will1 after all he is but a man ,living is slavery if the liberty of dying be wanting4 ,look upon themselves as a third person only1 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 life1 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 serve1 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 commendable1 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 cause1 if thou livest in pain ,tis evil counsel that will admit no change ,torture3 rather a trial of patience than of truth ,we do not go1 we are driven ,what can they suffer who do not fear to die8 ,whoever expects punishment already suffers it ,wise man lives as long as he ought1 not so long as he can