,,essays ,,of ,,michel ,,de ,,montaigne ,translated by ,charles ,cotton ,edited by ,william ,carew ,hazilitt #ahgg ,,contents ,,of ,,volume #ad4 ,i4 ,of ,profit and ,honesty4 ,,ii4 ,of ,repentance4 ,,iii4 ,of ,three ,commerces4 ,,iv4 ,of ,diversion4 ,,essays ,,of ,,montaigne ,,book ,,the ,,third ,,chapter ,i ,,of ,,profit ,,and ,,honesty ,no man is free from speaking foolish things2 but the worst on't is1 when a man labours to play the fool3 ,nae iste magno conatu magnas nugas dixerit4 ,truly he1 with a great effort will shortly say a mighty trifle4 ---,terence1 ,heaut41 act iii41 s4 #d4 ,this does not concern me2 mine slip from me with as little care as they are of little value1 and 'tis the better for them4 ,i would presently part with them for what they are worth1 and neither buy nor sell them1 but as they weigh4 ,i speak on paper1 as ,i do to the first person ,i meet2 and that this is true1 observe what follows4 ,to whom ought not treachery to be hateful1 when ,tiberius refused it in a thing of so great importance to him8 ,he had word sent him from ,germany that if he thought fit1 they would rid him of ,arminius by poison3 this was the most potent enemy the ,romans had1 who had defeated them so ignominiously under ,varus1 and who alone prevented their aggrandisement in those parts4 ,he returned answer1 that the people of ,rome were wont to revenge themselves of their enemies by open ways1 and with their swords in their hands1 and not clandestinely and by fraud3 wherein he quitted the profitable for the honest4 ,you will tell me that he was a braggadocio2 ,i believe so too3 and 'tis no great miracle in men of his profession4 ,but the acknowledgment of virtue is not less valid in the mouth of him who hates it1 forasmuch as truth forces it from him1 and if he will not inwardly receive it1 he at least puts it on for a decoration4 ,our outward and inward structure is full of imperfection2 but there is nothing useless in nature1 not even inutility itself2 nothing has insinuated itself into this universe that has not therein some fit and proper place4 ,our being is cemented with sickly qualities3 ambition1 jealousy1 envy1 revenge1 superstition1 and despair have so natural a possession in us1 that its image is discerned in beasts2 nay1 and cruelty1 so unnatural a vice2 for even in the midst of compassion we feel within1 ,i know not what tart-sweet titillation of ill-natured pleasure in seeing others suffer2 and the children feel it3 ,suave mari magno1 turbantibus aequora ventis1 ,e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem3 ,it is sweet1 when the winds disturb the waters of the vast sea1 to witness from land the peril of other persons4--,lucretius1 ii4 ,i4 of the seeds of which qualities1 whoever should divest man1 would destroy the fundamental conditions of human life4 ,likewise1 in all governments there are necessary offices1 not only abject1 but vicious also4 ,vices there help to make up the seam in our piecing1 as poisons are useful for the conservation of health4 ,if they become excusable because they are of use to us1 and that the common necessity covers their true qualities1 we are to resign this part to the strongest and boldest citizens1 who sacrifice their honour and conscience1 as others of old sacrificed their lives1 for the good of their country3 we1 who are weaker1 take upon us parts both that are more easy and less hazardous4 ,the public weal requires that men should betray1 and lie1 and massacre2 let us leave this commission to men who are more obedient and more supple4 ,in earnest1 ,i have often been troubled to see judges1 by fraud and false hopes of favour or pardon1 allure a criminal to confess his fact1 and therein to make use of cozenage and impudence4 ,it would become justice1 and ,plato himself1 who countenances this manner of proceeding1 to furnish me with other means more suitable to my own liking3 this is a malicious kind of justice1 and ,i look upon it as no less wounded by itself than by others4 ,i said not long since to some company in discourse1 that ,i should hardly be drawn to betray my prince for a particular man1 who should be much ashamed to betray any particular man for my prince2 and ,i do not only hate deceiving myself1 but that any one should deceive through me2 ,i will neither afford matter nor occasion to any such thing4 ,in the little ,i have had to mediate betwixt our princes--,between the ,king of ,navarre1 afterwards ,henry ,,iv41 and the ,duc de ,guise4 ,see ,de ,thou1 ,de ,vita ,sua1 iii4 #i4--;in the divisions and subdivisions by which we are at this time torn to pieces1 ,i have been very careful that they should neither be deceived in me nor deceive others by me4 ,people of that kind of trading are very reserved1 and pretend to be the most moderate imaginable and nearest to the opinions of those with whom they have to do2 ,i expose myself in my stiff opinion1 and after a method the most my own2 a tender negotiator1 a novice1 who had rather fail in the affair than be wanting to myself4 ,and yet it has been hitherto with so good luck 7for fortune has doubtless the best share in it71 that few things have passed from hand to hand with less suspicion or more favour and privacy4 ,i have a free and open way that easily insinuates itself and obtains belief with those with whom ,i am to deal at the first meeting4 ,sincerity and pure truth1 in what age soever1 pass for current2 and besides1 the liberty and freedom of a man who treats without any interest of his own is never hateful or suspected1 and he may very well make use of the answer of ,hyperides to the ,athenians1 who complained of his blunt way of speaking3 ,messieurs1 do not consider whether or no ,i am free1 but whether ,i am so without a bribe1 or without any advantage to my own affairs4 ,my liberty of speaking has also easily cleared me from all suspicion of dissembling by its vehemency1 leaving nothing unsaid1 how home and bitter soever 7so that ,i could have said no worse behind their backs71 and in that it carried along with it a manifest show of simplicity and indifference4 ,i pretend to no other fruit by acting than to act1 and add to it no long arguments or propositions2 every action plays its own game1 win if it can4 ,as to the rest1 ,i am not swayed by any passion1 either of love or hatred1 towards the great1 nor has my will captivated either by particular injury or obligation4 ,i look upon our kings with an affection simply loyal and respectful1 neither prompted nor restrained by any private interest1 and ,i love myself for it4 ,nor does the general and just cause attract me otherwise than with moderation1 and without heat4 ,i am not subject to those penetrating and close compacts and engagements4 ,anger and hatred are beyond the duty of justice2 and are passions only useful to those who do not keep themselves strictly to their duty by simple reason3 ,utatur motu animi1 qui uti ratione non potest4 ,he may employ his passion1 who can make no use of his reason4 --,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 iv4 #be4 ,all legitimate intentions are temperate and equable of themselves2 if otherwise1 they degenerate into seditious and unlawful4 ,this is it which makes me walk everywhere with my head erect1 my face and my heart open4 ,in truth1 and ,i am not afraid to confess it1 ,i should easily1 in case of need1 hold up one candle to ,st4 ,michael and another to his dragon1 like the old woman2 ,i will follow the right side even to the fire1 but exclusively1 if ,i can4 ,let ,montaigne be overwhelmed in the public ruin if need be2 but if there be no need1 ,i should think myself obliged to fortune to save me1 and ,i will make use of all the length of line my duty allows for his preservation4 ,was it not ,atticus who1 being of the just but losing side1 preserved himself by his moderation in that universal shipwreck of the world1 amongst so many mutations and diversities8 ,for private man1 as he was1 it is more easy2 and in such kind of work1 ,i think a man may justly not be ambitious to offer and insinuate himself4 ,for a man1 indeed1 to be wavering and irresolute1 to keep his affection unmoved and without inclination in the troubles of his country and public divisions1 ,i neither think it handsome nor honest3 ,ea non media1 sed nulla via est1 velut eventum exspectantium1 quo fortunae consilia sua applicent4 ,that is not a middle way1 but no way1 to await events1 by which they refer their resolutions to fortune4--,livy1 xxxii4 #ba4 ,this may be allowed in our neighbours' affairs2 and thus ,gelo1 the tyrant of ,syracuse1 suspended his inclination in the war betwixt the ,greeks and barbarians1 keeping a resident ambassador with presents at ,delphos1 to watch and see which way fortune would incline1 and then take fit occasion to fall in with the victors4 ,it would be a kind of treason to proceed after this manner in our own domestic affairs1 wherein a man must of necessity be of the one side or the other2 though for a man who has no office or express command to call him out1 to sit still ,i hold it more excusable 7and yet ,i do not excuse myself upon these terms7 than in foreign expeditions1 to which1 however1 according to our laws1 no man is pressed against his will4 ,and yet even those who wholly engage themselves in such a war may behave themselves with such temper and moderation1 that the storm may fly over their heads without doing them any harm4 ,had we not reason to hope such an issue in the person of the late ,bishop of ,orleans1 the ,sieur de ,morvilliers8 ,an able negotiator1 who1 though protected by the ,guises1 and strongly supporting them1 was yet very far from persecuting the ,reformists4 ,he died #aegg4 ,and ,i know1 amongst those who behave themselves most bravely in the present war1 some whose manners are so gentle1 obliging1 and just1 that they will certainly stand firm1 whatever event ,heaven is preparing for us4 ,i am of opinion that it properly belongs to kings only to quarrel with kings2 and ,i laugh at those spirits who1 out of lightness of heart1 lend themselves to so disproportioned disputes2 for a man has never the more particular quarrel with a prince1 by marching openly and boldly against him for his own honour and according to his duty2 if he does not love such a person1 he does better1 he esteems him4 ,and notably the cause of the laws and of the ancient government of a kingdom1 has this always annexed to it1 that even those who1 for their own private interest1 invade them1 excuse1 if they do not honour1 the defenders4 ,but we are not1 as we nowadays do1 to call peevishness and inward discontent1 that spring from private interest and passion1 duty1 nor a treacherous and malicious conduct1 courage2 they call their proneness to mischief and violence zeal2 'tis not the cause1 but their interest1 that inflames them2 they kindle and begin a war1 not because it is just1 but because it is war4 ,a man may very well behave himself commodiously and loyally too amongst those of the adverse party2 carry yourself1 if not with the same equal affection 7for that is capable of different measure71 at least with an affection moderate1 well tempered1 and such as shall not so engage you to one party1 that it may demand all you are able to do for that side1 content yourself with a moderate proportion of their1 favour and goodwill2 and to swim in troubled waters without fishing in them4 ,the other way1 of offering a man's self and the utmost service he is able to do1 both to one party and the other1 has still less of prudence in it than conscience4 ,does not he to whom you betray another1 to whom you were as welcome as to himself1 know that you will at another time do as much for him8 ,he holds you for a villain2 and in the meantime hears what you will say1 gathers intelligence from you1 and works his own ends out of your disloyalty2 double-dealing men are useful for bringing in1 but we must have a care they carry out as little as is possible4 ,i say nothing to one party that ,i may not1 upon occasion1 say to the other1 with a little alteration of accent2 and report nothing but things either indifferent or known1 or what is of common consequence4 ,i cannot permit myself1 for any consideration1 to tell them a lie4 ,what is intrusted to my secrecy1 ,i religiously conceal2 but ,i take as few trusts of that nature upon me as ,i can4 ,the secrets of princes are a troublesome burthen to such as are not interested in them4 ,i very willingly bargain that they trust me with little1 but confidently rely upon what ,i tell them4 ,i have ever known more than ,i desired4 ,one open way of speaking introduces another open way of speaking1 and draws out discoveries1 like wine and love4 ,philippides1 in my opinion1 answered ,king ,lysimachus very discreetly1 who1 asking him what of his estate he should bestow upon him8 ,what you will1 said he1 provided it be none of your secrets4 ,i see every one is displeased if the bottom of the affair be concealed from him wherein he is employed1 or that there be any reservation in the thing2 for my part1 ,i am content to know no more of the business than what they would have me employ myself in1 nor desire that my knowledge should exceed or restrict what ,i have to say4 ,if ,i must serve for an instrument of deceit1 let it be at least with a safe conscience3 ,i will not be reputed a servant either so affectionate or so loyal as to be fit to betray any one3 he who is unfaithful to himself1 is excusably so to his master4 ,but they are princes who do not accept men by halves1 and despise limited and conditional services3 ,i cannot help it3 ,i frankly tell them how far ,i can go2 for a slave ,i should not be1 but to reason1 and ,i can hardly submit even to that4 ,and they also are to blame to exact from a freeman the same subjection and obligation to their service that they do from him they have made and bought1 or whose fortune particularly and expressly depends upon theirs4 ,the laws have delivered me from a great anxiety2 they have chosen a side for me1 and given me a master2 all other superiority and obligation ought to be relative to that1 and cut1 off from all other4 ,yet this is not to say1 that if my affection should otherwise incline me1 my hand should presently obey it2 the will and desire are a law to themselves2 but actions must receive commission from the public appointment4 ,all this proceeding of mine is a little dissonant from the ordinary forms2 it would produce no great effects1 nor be of any long duration2 innocence itself could not1 in this age of ours1 either negotiate without dissimulation1 or traffic without lying2 and1 indeed1 public employments are by no means for my palate3 what my profession requires1 ,i perform after the most private manner that ,i can4 ,being young1 ,i was engaged up to the ears in business1 and it succeeded well2 but ,i disengaged myself in good time4 ,i have often since avoided meddling in it1 rarely accepted1 and never asked it2 keeping my back still turned to ambition2 but if not like rowers who so advance backward1 yet so1 at the same time1 that ,i am less obliged to my resolution than to my good fortune1 that ,i was not wholly embarked in it4 ,for there are ways less displeasing to my taste1 and more suitable to my ability1 by which1 if she had formerly called me to the public service1 and my own advancement towards the world's opinion1 ,i know ,i should1 in spite of all my own arguments to the contrary1 have pursued them4 ,such as commonly say1 in opposition to what ,i profess1 that what ,i call freedom1 simplicity1 and plainness in my manners1 is art and subtlety1 and rather prudence than goodness1 industry than nature1 good sense than good luck1 do me more honour than disgrace3 but1 certainly1 they make my subtlety too subtle2 and whoever has followed me close1 and pryed narrowly into me1 ,i will give him the victory1 if he does not confess that there is no rule in their school that could match this natural motion1 and maintain an appearance of liberty and licence1 so equal and inflexible1 through so many various and crooked paths1 and that all their wit and endeavour could never have led them through4 ,the way of truth is one and simple2 that of particular profit1 and the commodity of affairs a man is entrusted with1 is double1 unequal1 and casual4 ,i have often seen these counterfeit and artificial liberties practised1 but1 for the most part1 without success2 they relish of ,a,esop's ass who1 in emulation of the dog1 obligingly clapped his two fore-feet upon his master's shoulders2 but as many caresses as the dog had for such an expression of kindness1 twice so many blows with a cudgel had the poor ass for his compliment3 ,id maxime quemque decet1 quod est cujusque suum maxime4 ,that best becomes every man which belongs most to him2 --,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 i4 #ca4 ,i will not deprive deceit of its due2 that were but ill to understand the world3 ,i know it has often been of great use1 and that it maintains and supplies most men's employment4 ,there are vices that are lawful1 as there are many actions1 either good or excusable1 that are not lawful in themselves4 ,the justice which in itself is natural and universal is otherwise and more nobly ordered than that other justice which is special1 national1 and constrained to the ends of government1 ,veri juris germanaeque justitiae solidam et expressam effigiem nullam tenemus2 umbra et imaginibus utimur2 ,we retain no solid and express portraiture of true right and germane justice2 we have only the shadow and image of it4 --,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 iii4 #ag4 insomuch that the sage ,dandamis1 hearing the lives of ,socrates1 ,pythagoras1 and ,diogenes read1 judged them to be great men every way1 excepting that they were too much subjected to the reverence of the laws1 which1 to second and authorise1 true virtue must abate very much of its original vigour2 many vicious actions are introduced1 not only by their permission1 but by their advice3 ,ex senatus consultis plebisquescitis scelera exercentur4 ,crimes are committed by the decrees of the ,senate and the popular assembly4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #ie4 ,i follow the common phrase that distinguishes betwixt profitable and honest things1 so as to call some natural actions1 that are not only profitable but necessary1 dishonest and foul4 ,but let us proceed in our examples of treachery two pretenders to the kingdom of ,thrace--,rhescuporis and ,cotys4 ,tacitus1 ,annal41 ii4 #fe-- were fallen into dispute about their title2 the emperor hindered them from proceeding to blows3 but one of them1 under colour of bringing things to a friendly issue by an interview1 having invited his competitor to an entertainment in his own house1 imprisoned and killed him4 ,justice required that the ,romans should have satisfaction for this offence2 but there was a difficulty in obtaining it by ordinary ways2 what1 therefore1 they could not do legitimately1 without war and without danger1 they resolved to do by treachery2 and what they could not honestly do1 they did profitably4 ,for which end1 one ,pomponius ,flaccus was found to be a fit instrument4 ,this man1 by dissembled words and assurances1 having drawn the other into his toils1 instead of the honour and favour he had promised him1 sent him bound hand and foot to ,rome4 ,here one traitor betrayed another1 contrary to common custom3 for they are full of mistrust1 and 'tis hard to overreach them in their own art3 witness the sad experience we have lately had4--,montaigne here probably refers to the feigned reconciliation between ,catherine de ,medici and ,henri1 ,duc de ,guise1 in #aehh4 ,let who will be ,pomponius ,flaccus1 and there are enough who would3 for my part1 both my word and my faith are1 like all the rest1 parts of this common body3 their best effect is the public service2 this ,i take for presupposed4 ,but should one command me to take charge of the courts of law and lawsuits1 ,i should make answer1 that ,i understood it not2 or the place of a leader of pioneers1 ,i would say1 that ,i was called to a more honourable employment2 so likewise1 he that would employ me to lie1 betray1 and forswear myself1 though not to assassinate or to poison1 for some notable service1 ,i should say1 ,if ,i have robbed or stolen anything from any man1 send me rather to the galleys4 ,for it is permissible in a man of honour to say1 as the ,lacedaemonians did1--,plutarch1 ,difference between a ,flatterer and a ,friend1 c4 #ba4--;having been defeated by ,antipater1 when just upon concluding an agreement3 ,you may impose as heavy and ruinous taxes upon us as you please1 but to command us to do shameful and dishonest things1 you will lose your time1 for it is to no purpose4 ,every one ought to make the same vow to himself that the kings of ,egypt made their judges solemnly swear1 that they would not do anything contrary to their consciences1 though never so much commanded to it by themselves4 ,in such commissions there is evident mark of ignominy and condemnation2 and he who gives it at the same time accuses you1 and gives it1 if you understand it right1 for a burden and a punishment4 ,as much as the public affairs are bettered by your exploit1 so much are your own the worse1 and the better you behave yourself in it1 'tis so much the worse for yourself2 and it will be no new thing1 nor1 peradventure1 without some colour of justice1 if the same person ruin you who set you on work4 ,if treachery can be in any case excusable1 it must be only so when it is practised to chastise and betray treachery4 ,there are examples enough of treacheries1 not only rejected1 but chastised and punished by those in favour of whom they were undertaken4 ,who is ignorant of ,fabricius sentence against the physician of ,pyrrhus8 ,but this we also find recorded1 that some persons have commanded a thing1 who afterward have severely avenged the execution of it upon him they had employed1 rejecting the reputation of so unbridled an authority1 and disowning so abandoned and base a servitude and obedience4 ,jaropelk1 ,duke of ,russia1 tampered with a gentleman of ,hungary to betray ,boleslaus1 king of ,poland1 either by killing him1 or by giving the ,russians opportunity to do him some notable mischief4 ,this worthy went ably to work3 he was more assiduous than before in the service of that king1 so that he obtained the honour to be of his council1 and one of the chiefest in his trust4 ,with these advantages1 and taking an opportune occasion of his master's absence1 he betrayed ,vislicza1 a great and rich city1 to the ,russians1 which was entirely sacked and burned1 and not only all the inhabitants of both sexes1 young and old1 put to the sword1 but moreover a great number of neighbouring gentry1 whom he had drawn thither to that end4 ,jaropelk1 his revenge being thus satisfied and his anger appeased1 which was not1 indeed1 without pretence 7for ,boleslaus had highly offended him1 and after the same manner71 and sated with the fruit of this treachery1 coming to consider the fulness of it1 with a sound judgment and clear from passion1 looked upon what had been done with so much horror and remorse that he caused the eyes to be bored out and the tongue and shameful parts to be cut off of him who had performed it4 ,antigonus persuaded the ,argyraspides to betray ,eumenes1 their general1 his adversary1 into his hands2 but after he had caused him1 so delivered1 to be slain1 he would himself be the commissioner of the divine justice for the punishment of so detestable a crime1 and committed them into the hands of the governor of the province1 with express command1 by whatever means1 to destroy and bring them all to an evil end1 so that of that great number of men1 not so much as one ever returned again into ,macedonia3 the better he had been served1 the more wickedly he judged it to be1 and meriting greater punishment4 ,the slave who betrayed the place where his master1 ,p4 ,sulpicius1 lay concealed1 was1 according to the promise of ,sylla's proscription1 manumitted for his pains2 but according to the promise of the public justice1 which was free from any such engagement1 he was thrown headlong from the ,tarpeian rock4 ,our ,king ,clovis1 instead of the arms of gold he had promised them1 caused three of ,cararie's servants to be hanged after they had betrayed their master to him1 though he had debauched them to it3 he hanged them with the purse of their reward about their necks2 after having satisfied his second and special faith1 he satisfied the general and first4 ,mohammed ,,ii4 having resolved to rid himself of his brother1 out of jealousy of state1 according to the practice of the ,ottoman family1 he employed one of his officers in the execution1 who1 pouring a quantity of water too fast into him1 choked him4 ,this being done1 to expiate the murder1 he delivered the murderer into the hands of the mother of him he had so caused to be put to death1 for they were only brothers by the father's side2 she1 in his presence1 ripped up the murderer's bosom1 and with her own hands rifled his breast for his heart1 tore it out1 and threw it to the dogs4 ,and even to the worst people it is the sweetest thing imaginable1 having once gained their end by a vicious action1 to foist1 in all security1 into it some show of virtue and justice1 as by way of compensation and conscientious correction2 to which may be added1 that they look upon the ministers of such horrid crimes as upon men who reproach them with them1 and think by their deaths to erase the memory and testimony of such proceedings4 ,or if1 perhaps1 you are rewarded1 not to frustrate the public necessity for that extreme and desperate remedy1 he who does it cannot for all that1 if he be not such himself1 but look upon you as an accursed and execrable fellow1 and conclude you a greater traitor than he does1 against whom you are so3 for he tries the malignity of your disposition by your own hands1 where he cannot possibly be deceived1 you having no object of preceding hatred to move you to such an act2 but he employs you as they do condemned malefactors in executions of justice1 an office as necessary as dishonourable4 ,besides the baseness of such commissions1 there is1 moreover1 a prostitution of conscience4 ,seeing that the daughter of ,sejanus could not be put to death by the law of ,rome1 because she was a virgin1 she was1 to make it lawful1 first ravished by the hangman and then strangled3 not only his hand but his soul is slave to the public convenience4 ,when ,amurath ,i41 more grievously to punish his subjects who had taken part in the parricide rebellion of his son1 ordained that their nearest kindred should assist in the execution1 ,i find it very handsome in some of them to have rather chosen to be unjustly thought guilty of the parricide of another than to serve justice by a parricide of their own4 ,and where ,i have seen1 at the taking of some little fort by assault in my time1 some rascals who1 to save their own lives1 would consent to hang their friends and companions1 ,i have looked upon them to be of worse condition than those who were hanged4 ',tis said1 that ,witold1 ,prince of ,lithuania1 introduced into the nation the practice that the criminal condemned to death should with his own hand execute the sentence1 thinking it strange that a third person1 innocent of the fault1 should be made guilty of homicide4 ,a prince1 when by some urgent circumstance or some impetuous and unforeseen accident that very much concerns his state1 compelled to forfeit his word and break his faith1 or otherwise forced from his ordinary duty1 ought to attribute this necessity to a lash of the divine rod3 vice it is not1 for he has given up his own reason to a more universal and more powerful reason2 but certainly 'tis a misfortune3 so that if any one should ask me what remedy8 ,none1 say ,i1 if he were really racked between these two extremes3 'sed videat1 ne quoeratur latebya perjurio'1 he must do it3 but if he did it without regret1 if it did not weigh on him to do it1 'tis a sign his conscience is in a sorry condition4 ,if there be a person to be found of so tender a conscience as to think no cure whatever worth so important a remedy1 ,i shall like him never the worse2 he could not more excusably or more decently perish4 ,we cannot do all we would1 so that we must often1 as the last anchorage1 commit the protection of our vessels to the simple conduct of heaven4 ,to what more just necessity does he reserve himself8 ,what is less possible for him to do than what he cannot do but at the expense of his faith and honour1 things that1 perhaps1 ought to be dearer to him than his own safety1 or even the safety of his people4 ,though he should1 with folded arms1 only call ,god to his assistance1 has he not reason to hope that the divine goodness will not refuse the favour of an extraordinary arm to just and pure hands8 ,these are dangerous examples1 rare and sickly exceptions to our natural rules3 we must yield to them1 but with great moderation and circumspection3 no private utility is of such importance that we should upon that account strain our consciences to such a degree3 the public may be1 when very manifest and of very great concern4 ,timoleon made a timely expiation for his strange exploit by the tears he shed1 calling to mind that it was with a fraternal hand that he had slain the tyrant2 and it justly pricked his conscience that he had been necessitated to purchase the public utility at so great a price as the violation of his private morality4 ,even the ,senate itself1 by his means delivered from slavery1 durst not positively determine of so high a fact1 and divided into two so important and contrary aspects2 but the ,syracusans1 sending at the same time to the ,corinthians to solicit their protection1 and to require of them a captain fit to re-establish their city in its former dignity and to clear ,sicily of several little tyrants by whom it was oppressed1 they deputed ,timoleon for that service1 with this cunning declaration2 that according as he should behave himself well or ill in his employment1 their sentence should incline either to favour the deliverer of his country1 or to disfavour the murderer of his brother4 ,this fantastic conclusion carries along with it some excuse1 by reason of the danger of the example1 and the importance of so strange an action3 and they did well to discharge their own judgment of it1 and to refer it to others who were not so much concerned4 ,but ,timoleon's comportment in this expedition soon made his cause more clear1 so worthily and virtuously he demeaned himself upon all occasions2 and the good fortune that accompanied him in the difficulties he had to overcome in this noble employment1 seemed to be strewed in his way by the gods1 favourably conspiring for his justification4 ,the end of this matter is excusable1 if any can be so2 but the profit of the augmentation of the public revenue1 that served the ,roman ,senate for a pretence to the foul conclusion ,i am going to relate1 is not sufficient to warrant any such injustice4 ,certain cities had redeemed themselves and their liberty by money1 by the order and consent of the ,senate1 out of the hands of ,l4 ,sylla3 the business coming again in question1 the ,senate condemned them to be taxable as they were before1 and that the money they had disbursed for their redemption should be lost to them4 ,civil war often produces such villainous examples2 that we punish private men for confiding in us when we were public ministers3 and the self-same magistrate makes another man pay the penalty of his change that has nothing to do with it2 the pedagogue whips his scholar for his docility2 and the guide beats the blind man whom he leads by the hand2 a horrid image of justice4 ,there are rules in philosophy that are both false and weak4 ,the example that is proposed to us for preferring private utility before faith given1 has not weight enough by the circumstances they put to it2 robbers have seized you1 and after having made you swear to pay them a certain sum of money1 dismiss you4 ',tis not well done to say1 that an honest man can be quit of his oath without payment1 being out of their hands4 ',tis no such thing3 what fear has once made me willing to do1 ,i am obliged to do it when ,i am no longer in fear2 and though that fear only prevailed with my tongue without forcing my will1 yet am ,i bound to keep my word4 ,for my part1 when my tongue has sometimes inconsiderately said something that ,i did not think1 ,i have made a conscience of disowning it3 otherwise1 by degrees1 we shall abolish all the right another derives from our promises and oaths3 ,quasi vero forti viro vis possit adhiberi4 ,as though a man of true courage could be compelled4 --,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 iii4 #cj4 ,and 'tis only lawful1 upon the account of private interest1 to excuse breach of promise1 when we have promised something that is unlawful and wicked in itself2 for the right of virtue ought to take place of the right of any obligation of ours4 ,i have formerly placed ,epaminondas in the first rank of excellent men1 and do not repent it4 ,how high did he stretch the consideration of his own particular duty8 he who never killed a man whom he had overcome2 who1 for the inestimable benefit of restoring the liberty of his country1 made conscience of killing a tyrant or his accomplices without due form of justice3 and who concluded him to be a wicked man1 how good a citizen soever otherwise1 who amongst his enemies in battle spared not his friend and his guest4 ,this was a soul of a rich composition3 he married goodness and humanity1 nay1 even the tenderest and most delicate in the whole school of philosophy1 to the roughest and most violent human actions4 ,was it nature or art that had intenerated that great courage of his1 so full1 so obstinate against pain and death and poverty1 to such an extreme degree of sweetness and compassion8 ,dreadful in arms and blood1 he overran and subdued a nation invincible by all others but by him alone2 and yet in the heat of an encounter1 could turn aside from his friend and guest4 ,certainly he was fit to command in war who could so rein himself with the curb of good nature1 in the height and heat of his fury1 a fury inflamed and foaming with blood and slaughter4 ',tis a miracle to be able to mix any image of justice with such violent actions3 and it was only possible for such a steadfastness of mind as that of ,epaminondas therein to mix sweetness and the facility of the gentlest manners and purest innocence4 ,and whereas one told the ,mamertini that statutes were of no efficacy against armed men2 and another told the tribune of the people that the time of justice and of war were distinct things2 and a third said that the noise of arms deafened the voice of laws1 this man was not precluded from listening to the laws of civility and pure courtesy4 ,had he not borrowed from his enemies the custom of sacrificing to the ,muses when he went to war1 that they might by their sweetness and gaiety soften his martial and rigorous fury8 ,let us not fear1 by the example of so great a master1 to believe that there is something unlawful1 even against an enemy1 and that the common concern ought not to require all things of all men1 against private interest3 ,manente memoria1 etiam in dissidio publicorum foederum1 privati juris3 ,the memory of private right remaining even amid public dissensions4--,livy1 xxv4 #ah4 ,et nulla potentia vires ,praestandi1 ne quid peccet amicus1 habet2 ,no power on earth can sanction treachery against a friend4 --,ovid1 ,de ,ponto1 i4 #g1 #cg4 and that all things are not lawful to an honest man for the service of his prince1 the laws1 or the general quarrel3 ,non enim patria praestat omnibus officiis4444 et ipsi conducit pios habere cives in parentes4 ,the duty to one's country does not supersede all other duties4 ,the country itself requires that its citizens should act piously toward their parents4--,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 iii4 #bc4 ,tis an instruction proper for the time wherein we live3 we need not harden our courage with these arms of steel2 'tis enough that our shoulders are inured to them3 'tis enough to dip our pens in ink without dipping them in blood4 ,if it be grandeur of courage1 and the effect of a rare and singular virtue1 to contemn friendship1 private obligations1 a man's word and relationship1 for the common good and obedience to the magistrate1 'tis certainly sufficient to excuse us1 that 'tis a grandeur that can have no place in the grandeur of ,epaminondas' courage4 ,i abominate those mad exhortations of this other discomposed soul1 ,dum tela micant1 non vos pietatis imago ,ulla1 nec adversa conspecti fronte parentes ,commoveant2 vultus gladio turbate verendos4 ,while swords glitter1 let no idea of piety1 nor the face even of a father presented to you1 move you3 mutilate with your sword those venerable features --,lucan1 vii4 #cbj4 ,let us deprive wicked1 bloody1 and treacherous natures of such a pretence of reason3 let us set aside this guilty and extravagant justice1 and stick to more human imitations4 ,how great things can time and example do6 ,in an encounter of the civil war against ,cinna1 one of ,pompey's soldiers having unawares killed his brother1 who was of the contrary party1 he immediately for shame and sorrow killed himself3 and some years after1 in another civil war of the same people1 a soldier demanded a reward of his officer for having killed his brother4 ,a man but ill proves the honour and beauty of an action by its utility3 and very erroneously concludes that every one is obliged to it1 and that it becomes every one to do it1 if it be of utility3 ,omnia non pariter rerum sunt omnibus apta4 ,all things are not equally fit for all men4 --,propertius1 iii4 #i1 #g4 ,let us take that which is most necessary and profitable for human society2 it will be marriage2 and yet the council of the saints find the contrary much better1 excluding from it the most venerable vocation of man3 as we design those horses for stallions of which we have the least esteem4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,of ,,repentance ,others form man2 ,i only report him3 and represent a particular one1 ill fashioned enough1 and whom1 if ,i had to model him anew1 ,i should certainly make something else than what he is but that's past recalling4 ,now1 though the features of my picture alter and change1 'tis not1 however1 unlike3 the world eternally turns round2 all things therein are incessantly moving1 the earth1 the rocks of ,caucasus1 and the pyramids of ,egypt1 both by the public motion and their own4 ,even constancy itself is no other but a slower and more languishing motion4 ,i cannot fix my object2 'tis always tottering and reeling by a natural giddiness2 ,i take it as it is at the instant ,i consider it2 ,i do not paint its being1 ,i paint its passage2 not a passing from one age to another1 or1 as the people say1 from seven to seven years1 but from day to day1 from minute to minute1 ,i must accommodate my history to the hour3 ,i may presently change1 not only by fortune1 but also by intention4 ',tis a counterpart of various and changeable accidents1 and of irresolute imaginations1 and1 as it falls out1 sometimes contrary3 whether it be that ,i am then another self1 or that ,i take subjects by other circumstances and considerations3 so it is that ,i may peradventure contradict myself1 but1 as ,demades said1 ,i never contradict the truth4 ,could my soul once take footing1 ,i would not essay but resolve3 but it is always learning and making trial4 ,i propose a life ordinary and without lustre3 'tis all one2 all moral philosophy may as well be applied to a common and private life1 as to one of richer composition3 every man carries the entire form of human condition4 ,authors communicate themselves to the people by some especial and extrinsic mark2 ,i1 the first of any1 by my universal being2 as ,michel de ,montaigne1 not as a grammarian1 a poet1 or a lawyer4 ,if the world find fault that ,i speak too much of myself1 ,i find fault that they do not so much as think of themselves4 ,but is it reason that1 being so particular in my way of living1 ,i should pretend to recommend myself to the public knowledge8 ,and is it also reason that ,i should produce to the world1 where art and handling have so much credit and authority1 crude and simple effects of nature1 and of a weak nature to boot8 ,is it not to build a wall without stone or brick1 or some such thing1 to write books without learning and without art8 ,the fancies of music are carried on by art2 mine by chance4 ,i have this1 at least1 according to discipline1 that never any man treated of a subject he better understood and knew than ,i what ,i have undertaken1 and that in this ,i am the most understanding man alive3 secondly1 that never any man penetrated farther into his matter1 nor better and more distinctly sifted the parts and sequences of it1 nor ever more exactly and fully arrived at the end he proposed to himself4 ,to perfect it1 ,i need bring nothing but fidelity to the work2 and that is there1 and the most pure and sincere that is anywhere to be found4 ,i speak truth1 not so much as ,i would1 but as much as ,i dare2 and ,i dare a little the more1 as ,i grow older2 for1 methinks1 custom allows to age more liberty of prating1 and more indiscretion of talking of a man's self4 ,that cannot fall out here1 which ,i often see elsewhere1 that the work and the artificer contradict one another3 ,can a man of such sober conversation have written so foolish a book8 ,or ,do so learned writings proceed from a man of so weak conversation8 ,he who talks at a very ordinary rate1 and writes rare matter1 'tis to say that his capacity is borrowed and not his own4 ,a learned man is not learned in all things3 but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout1 even to ignorance itself2 here my book and ,i go hand in hand together4 ,elsewhere men may commend or censure the work1 without reference to the workman2 here they cannot3 who touches the one1 touches the other4 ,he who shall judge of it without knowing him1 will more wrong himself than me2 he who does know him1 gives me all the satisfaction ,i desire4 ,i shall be happy beyond my desert1 if ,i can obtain only thus much from the public approbation1 as to make men of understanding perceive that ,i was capable of profiting by knowledge1 had ,i had it2 and that ,i deserved to have been assisted by a better memory4 ,be pleased here to excuse what ,i often repeat1 that ,i very rarely repent1 and that my conscience is satisfied with itself1 not as the conscience of an angel1 or that of a horse1 but as the conscience of a man2 always adding this clause1 not one of ceremony1 but a true and real submission1 that ,i speak inquiring and doubting1 purely and simply referring myself to the common and accepted beliefs for the resolution4 ,i do not teach2 ,i only relate4 ,there is no vice that is absolutely a vice which does not offend1 and that a sound judgment does not accuse2 for there is in it so manifest a deformity and inconvenience1 that peradventure they are in the right who say that it is chiefly begotten by stupidity and ignorance3 so hard is it to imagine that a man can know without abhorring it4 ,malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom1 and poisons itself4 ,vice leaves repentance in the soul1 like an ulcer in the flesh1 which is always scratching and lacerating itself3 for reason effaces all other grief and sorrows1 but it begets that of repentance1 which is so much the more grievous1 by reason it springs within1 as the cold and heat of fevers are more sharp than those that only strike upon the outward skin4 ,i hold for vices 7but every one according to its proportion71 not only those which reason and nature condemn1 but those also which the opinion of men1 though false and erroneous1 have made such1 if authorised by law and custom4 ,there is likewise no virtue which does not rejoice a well-descended nature3 there is a kind of1 ,i know not what1 congratulation in well-doing that gives us an inward satisfaction1 and a generous boldness that accompanies a good conscience3 a soul daringly vicious may1 peradventure1 arm itself with security1 but it cannot supply itself with this complacency and satisfaction4 ',tis no little satisfaction to feel a man's self preserved from the contagion of so depraved an age1 and to say to himself3 ,whoever could penetrate into my soul would not there find me guilty either of the affliction or ruin of any one1 or of revenge or envy1 or any offence against the public laws1 or of innovation or disturbance1 or failure of my word2 and though the licence of the time permits and teaches every one so to do1 yet have ,i not plundered any ,frenchman's goods1 or taken his money1 and have lived upon what is my own1 in war as well as in peace2 neither have ,i set any man to work without paying him his hire4 ,these testimonies of a good conscience please1 and this natural rejoicing is very beneficial to us1 and the only reward that we can never fail of4 ,to ground the recompense of virtuous actions upon the approbation of others is too uncertain and unsafe a foundation1 especially in so corrupt and ignorant an age as this1 wherein the good opinion of the vulgar is injurious3 upon whom do you rely to show you what is recommendable8 ,god defend me from being an honest man1 according to the descriptions of honour ,i daily see every one make of himself3 ,quae fuerant vitia1 mores sunt4 ,what before had been vices are now manners4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #ci4 ,some of my friends have at times schooled and scolded me with great sincerity and plainness1 either of their own voluntary motion1 or by me entreated to it as to an office1 which to a well-composed soul surpasses not only in utility1 but in kindness1 all other offices of friendship3 ,i have always received them with the most open arms1 both of courtesy and acknowledgment2 but to say the truth1 ,i have often found so much false measure1 both in their reproaches and praises1 that ,i had not done much amiss1 rather to have done ill1 than to have done well according to their notions4 ,we1 who live private lives1 not exposed to any other view than our own1 ought chiefly to have settled a pattern within ourselves by which to try our actions3 and according to that1 sometimes to encourage and sometimes to correct ourselves4 ,i have my laws and my judicature to judge of myself1 and apply myself more to these than to any other rules3 ,i do1 indeed1 restrain my actions according to others2 but extend them not by any other rule than my own4 ,you yourself only know if you are cowardly and cruel1 loyal and devout3 others see you not1 and only guess at you by uncertain conjectures1 and do not so much see your nature as your art2 rely not therefore upon their opinions1 but stick to your own3 ,tuo tibi judicio est utendum4444 ,virtutis et vitiorum grave ipsius conscientiae pondus est3 qua sublata1 jacent omnia4 ,thou must employ thy own judgment upon thyself2 great is the weight of thy own conscience in the discovery of virtues and vices3 which taken away1 all things are lost4 --,cicero1 ,de ,nat4 ,dei1 iii4 #ce2 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 i4 #be4 ,but the saying that repentance immediately follows the sin seems not to have respect to sin in its high estate1 which is lodged in us as in its own proper habitation4 ,one may disown and retract the vices that surprise us1 and to which we are hurried by passions2 but those which by a long habit are rooted in a strong and vigorous will are not subject to contradiction4 ,repentance is no other but a recanting of the will and an opposition to our fancies1 which lead us which way they please4 ,it makes this person disown his former virtue and continency3 ,quae mens est hodie1 cur eadem non puero fait8 ,vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae8 ,what my mind is1 why was it not the same1 when ,i was a boy8 or why do not the cheeks return to these feelings8 --,horace1 ,od41 v4 #aj1 #g4 ',tis an exact life that maintains itself in due order in private4 ,every one may juggle his part1 and represent an honest man upon the stage3 but within1 and in his own bosom1 where all may do as they list1 where all is concealed1 to be regular1 there's the point4 ,the next degree is to be so in his house1 and in his ordinary actions1 for which we are accountable to none1 and where there is no study nor artifice4 ,and therefore ,bias1 setting forth the excellent state of a private family1 says3 of which a the master is the same within1 by his own virtue and temper1 that he is abroad1 for fear of the laws and report of men4 ,and it was a worthy saying of ,julius ,drusus1 to the masons who offered him1 for three thousand crowns1 to put his house in such a posture that his neighbours should no longer have the same inspection into it as before2 ,i will give you1 said he1 six thousand to make it so that everybody may see into every room4 ',tis honourably recorded of ,agesilaus1 that he used in his journeys always to take up his lodgings in temples1 to the end that the people and the gods themselves might pry into his most private actions4 ,such a one has been a miracle to the world1 in whom neither his wife nor servant has ever seen anything so much as remarkable2 few men have been admired by their own domestics2 no one was ever a prophet1 not merely in his own house1 but in his own country1 says the experience of histories3 --,no man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre1 said ,marshal ,catinat--'tis the same in things of nought1 and in this low example the image of a greater is to be seen4 ,in my country of ,gascony1 they look upon it as a drollery to see me in print2 the further off ,i am read from my own home1 the better ,i am esteemed4 ,i purchase printers in ,guienne2 elsewhere they purchase me4 ,upon this it is that they lay their foundation who conceal themselves present and living1 to obtain a name when they are dead and absent4 ,i had rather have a great deal less in hand1 and do not expose myself to the world upon any other account than my present share2 when ,i leave it ,i quit the rest4 ,see this functionary whom the people escort in state1 with wonder and applause1 to his very door2 he puts off the pageant with his robe1 and falls so much the lower by how much he was higher exalted3 in himself within1 all is tumult and degraded4 ,and though all should be regular there1 it will require a vivid and well-chosen judgment to perceive it in these low and private actions2 to which may be added1 that order is a dull1 sombre virtue4 ,to enter a breach1 conduct an embassy1 govern a people1 are actions of renown2 to reprehend1 laugh1 sell1 pay1 love1 hate1 and gently and justly converse with a man's own family and with himself2 not to relax1 not to give a man's self the lie1 is more rare and hard1 and less remarkable4 ,by which means1 retired lives1 whatever is said to the contrary1 undergo duties of as great or greater difficulty than the others do2 and private men1 says ,aristotle1' serve virtue more painfully and highly than those in authority do3 we prepare ourselves for eminent occasions1 more out of glory than conscience4 ,the shortest way to arrive at glory1 would be to do that for conscience which we do for glory3 and the virtue of ,alexander appears to me of much less vigour in his great theatre1 than that of ,socrates in his mean and obscure employment4 ,i can easily conceive ,socrates in the place of ,alexander1 but ,alexander in that of ,socrates1 ,i cannot4 ,who shall ask the one what he can do1 he will answer1 ,subdue the world3 and who shall put the same question to the other1 he will say1 ,carry on human life conformably with its natural condition2 a much more general1 weighty1 and legitimate science than the other4--,montaigne added here1 ,to do for the world that for which he came into the world1 but he afterwards erased these words from the manuscript4--,naigeon4 ,the virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high1 but in walking orderly2 its grandeur does not exercise itself in grandeur1 but in mediocrity4 ,as they who judge and try us within1 make no great account of the lustre of our public actions1 and see they are only streaks and rays of clear water springing from a slimy and muddy bottom so1 likewise1 they who judge of us by this gallant outward appearance1 in like manner conclude of our internal constitution2 and cannot couple common faculties1 and like their own1 with the other faculties that astonish them1 and are so far out of their sight4 ,therefore it is that we give such savage forms to demons3 and who does not give ,tamerlane great eyebrows1 wide nostrils1 a dreadful visage1 and a prodigious stature1 according to the imagination he has conceived by the report of his name8 ,had any one formerly brought me to ,erasmus1 ,i should hardly have believed but that all was adage and apothegm he spoke to his man or his hostess4 ,we much more aptly imagine an artisan upon his close-stool1 or upon his wife1 than a great president venerable by his port and sufficiency3 we fancy that they1 from their high tribunals1 will not abase themselves so much as to live4 ,as vicious souls are often incited by some foreign impulse to do well1 so are virtuous souls to do ill2 they are therefore to be judged by their settled state1 when they are at home1 whenever that may be2 and1 at all events1 when they are nearer repose1 and in their native station4 ,natural inclinations are much assisted and fortified by education2 but they seldom alter and overcome their institution3 a thousand natures of my time have escaped towards virtue or vice1 through a quite contrary discipline3 ,sic ubi1 desuetae silvis1 in carcere clausae ,mansuevere ferx1 et vultus posuere minaces1 ,atque hominem didicere pati1 si torrida parvus ,venit in ora cruor1 redeunt rabiesque fororque1 ,admonitaeque tument gustato sanguine fauces ,fervet1 et a trepido vix abstinet ira magistro2 ,so savage beasts1 when shut up in cages and grown unaccustomed to the woods1 have become tame1 and have laid aside their fierce looks1 and submit to the rule of man2 if again a slight taste of blood comes into their mouths1 their rage and fury return1 their jaws are erected by thirst of blood1 and their anger scarcely abstains from their trembling masters4--,lucan1 iv4 #bcg4 these original qualities are not to be rooted out2 they may be covered and concealed4 ,the ,latin tongue is as it were natural to me2 ,i understand it better than ,french2 but ,i have not been used to speak it1 nor hardly to write it1 these forty years4 ,unless upon extreme and sudden emotions which ,i have fallen into twice or thrice in my life1 and once seeing my father in perfect health fall upon me in a swoon1 ,i have always uttered from the bottom of my heart my first words in ,latin2 nature deafened1 and forcibly expressing itself1 in spite of so long a discontinuation2 and this example is said of many others4 ,they who in my time have attempted to correct the manners of the world by new opinions1 reform seeming vices2 but the essential vices they leave as they were1 if indeed they do not augment them1 and augmentation is therein to be feared2 we defer all other well doing upon the account of these external reformations1 of less cost and greater show1 and thereby expiate good cheap1 for the other natural1 consubstantial1 and intestine vices4 ,look a little into our experience3 there is no man1 if he listen to himself1 who does not in himself discover a particular and governing form of his own1 that jostles his education1 and wrestles with the tempest of passions that are contrary to it4 ,for my part1 ,i seldom find myself agitated with surprises2 ,i always find myself in my place1 as heavy and unwieldy bodies do2 if ,i am not at home1 ,i am always near at hand2 my dissipations do not transport me very far2 there is nothing strange or extreme in the case2 and yet ,i have sound and vigorous turns4 ,the true condemnation1 and which touches the common practice of men1 is that their very retirement itself is full of filth and corruption2 the idea of their reformation composed1 their repentance sick and faulty1 very nearly as much as their sin4 ,some1 either from having been linked to vice by a natural propension or long practice1 cannot see its deformity4 ,others 7of which constitution ,i am7 do indeed feel the weight of vice1 but they counterbalance it with pleasure1 or some other occasion2 and suffer and lend themselves to it for a certain price1 but viciously and basely4 ,yet there might1 haply1 be imagined so vast a disproportion of measure1 where with justice the pleasure might excuse the sin1 as we say of utility2 not only if accidental and out of sin1 as in thefts1 but in the very exercise of sin1 or in the enjoyment of women1 where the temptation is violent1 and1 'tis said1 sometimes not to be overcome4 ,being the other day at ,armaignac1 on the estate of a kinsman of mine1 ,i there saw a peasant who was by every one nicknamed the thief4 ,he thus related the story of his life3 that1 being born a beggar1 and finding that he should not be able1 so as to be clear of indigence1 to get his living by the sweat of his brow1 he resolved to turn thief1 and by means of his strength of body had exercised this trade all the time of his youth in great security2 for he ever made his harvest and vintage in other men's grounds1 but a great way off1 and in so great quantities1 that it was not to be imagined one man could have carried away so much in one night upon his shoulders2 and1 moreover1 he was careful equally to divide and distribute the mischief he did1 that the loss was of less importance to every particular man4 ,he is now grown old1 and rich for a man of his condition1 thanks to his trade1 which he openly confesses to every one4 ,and to make his peace with ,god1 he says1 that he is daily ready by good offices to make satisfaction to the successors of those he has robbed1 and if he do not finish 7for to do it all at once he is not able71 he will then leave it in charge to his heirs to perform the rest1 proportionably to the wrong he himself only knows he has done to each4 ,by this description1 true or false1 this man looks upon theft as a dishonest action1 and hates it1 but less than poverty1 and simply repents2 but to the extent he has thus recompensed he repents not4 ,this is not that habit which incorporates us into vice1 and conforms even our understanding itself to it2 nor is it that impetuous whirlwind that by gusts troubles and blinds our souls1 and for the time precipitates us1 judgment and all1 into the power of vice4 ,i customarily do what ,i do thoroughly and make but one step on't2 ,i have rarely any movement that hides itself and steals away from my reason1 and that does not proceed in the matter by the consent of all my faculties1 without division or intestine sedition2 my judgment is to have all the blame or all the praise2 and the blame it once has1 it has always2 for almost from my infancy it has ever been one3 the same inclination1 the same turn1 the same force2 and as to universal opinions1 ,i fixed myself from my childhood in the place where ,i resolved to stick4 ,there are some sins that are impetuous1 prompt1 and sudden2 let us set them aside3 but in these other sins so often repeated1 deliberated1 and contrived1 whether sins of complexion or sins of profession and vocation1 ,i cannot conceive that they should have so long been settled in the same resolution1 unless the reason and conscience of him who has them1 be constant to have them2 and the repentance he boasts to be inspired with on a sudden1 is very hard for me to imagine or form4 ,i follow not the opinion of the ,pythagorean sect1 that men take up a new soul when they repair to the images of the gods to receive their oracles1 unless he mean that it must needs be extrinsic1 new1 and lent for the time2 our own showing so little sign of purification and cleanness1 fit for such an office4 ,they act quite contrary to the stoical precepts1 who do indeed command us to correct the imperfections and vices we know ourselves guilty of1 but forbid us therefore to disturb the repose of our souls3 these make us believe that they have great grief and remorse within3 but of amendment1 correction1 or interruption1 they make nothing appear4 ,it cannot be a cure if the malady be not wholly discharged2 if repentance were laid upon the scale of the balance1 it would weigh down sin4 ,i find no quality so easy to counterfeit as devotion1 if men do not conform their manners and life to the profession2 its essence is abstruse and occult2 the appearance easy and ostentatious4 ,for my own part1 ,i may desire in general to be other than ,i am2 ,i may condemn and dislike my whole form1 and beg of ,almighty ,god for an entire reformation1 and that ,he will please to pardon my natural infirmity3 but ,i ought not to call this repentance1 methinks1 no more than the being dissatisfied that ,i am not an angel or ,cato4 ,my actions are regular1 and conformable to what ,i am and to my condition2 ,i can do no better2 and repentance does not properly touch things that are not in our power2 sorrow does44 ,i imagine an infinite number of natures more elevated and regular than mine2 and yet ,i do not for all that improve my faculties1 no more than my arm or will grow more strong and vigorous for conceiving those of another to be so4 ,if to conceive and wish a nobler way of acting than that we have should produce a repentance of our own1 we must then repent us of our most innocent actions1 forasmuch as we may well suppose that in a more excellent nature they would have been carried on with greater dignity and perfection2 and we would that ours were so4 ,when ,i reflect upon the deportment of my youth1 with that of my old age1 ,i find that ,i have commonly behaved myself with equal order in both according to what ,i understand3 this is all that my resistance can do4 ,i do not flatter myself2 in the same circumstances ,i should do the same things4 ,it is not a patch1 but rather an universal tincture1 with which ,i am stained4 ,i know no repentance1 superficial1 half-way1 and ceremonious2 it must sting me all over before ,i can call it so1 and must prick my bowels as deeply and universally as ,god sees into me4 ,as to business1 many excellent opportunities have escaped me for want of good management2 and yet my deliberations were sound enough1 according to the occurrences presented to me3 'tis their way to choose always the easiest and safest course4 ,i find that1 in my former resolves1 ,i have proceeded with discretion1 according to my own rule1 and according to the state of the subject proposed1 and should do the same a thousand years hence in like occasions2 ,i do not consider what it is now1 but what it was then1 when ,i deliberated on it3 the force of all counsel consists in the time2 occasions and things eternally shift and change4 ,i have in my life committed some important errors1 not for want of good understanding1 but for want of good luck4 ,there are secret1 and not to be foreseen1 parts in matters we have in hand1 especially in the nature of men2 mute conditions1 that make no show1 unknown sometimes even to the possessors themselves1 that spring and start up by incidental occasions2 if my prudence could not penetrate into nor foresee them1 ,i blame it not3 'tis commissioned no further than its own limits2 if the event be too hard for me1 and take the side ,i have refused1 there is no remedy2 ,i do not blame myself1 ,i accuse my fortune1 and not my work2 this cannot be called repentance4 ,phocion1 having given the ,athenians an advice that was not followed1 and the affair nevertheless succeeding contrary to his opinion1 some one said to him1 ,well1 ,phocion1 art thou content that matters go so well8--,i am very well content1 replied he1 that this has happened so well1 but ,i do not repent that ,i counselled the other4 ,when any of my friends address themselves to me for advice1 ,i give it candidly and clearly1 without sticking1 as almost all other men do1 at the hazard of the thing's falling out contrary to my opinion1 and that ,i may be reproached for my counsel2 ,i am very indifferent as to that1 for the fault will be theirs for having consulted me1 and ,i could not refuse them that office4 --,we may give advice to others1 says ,rochefoucauld1 but we cannot supply them with the wit to profit by it4 ,i1 for my own part1 can rarely blame any one but myself for my oversights and misfortunes1 for indeed ,i seldom solicit the advice of another1 if not by honour of ceremony1 or excepting where ,i stand in need of information1 special science1 or as to matter of fact4 ,but in things wherein ,i stand in need of nothing but judgment1 other men's reasons may serve to fortify my own1 but have little power to dissuade me2 ,i hear them all with civility and patience2 but1 to my recollection1 ,i never made use of any but my own4 ,with me1 they are but flies and atoms1 that confound and distract my will2 ,i lay no great stress upon my opinions2 but ,i lay as little upon those of others1 and fortune rewards me accordingly3 if ,i receive but little advice1 ,i also give but little4 ,i am seldom consulted1 and still more seldom believed1 and know no concern1 either public or private1 that has been mended or bettered by my advice4 ,even they whom fortune had in some sort tied to my direction1 have more willingly suffered themselves to be governed by any other counsels than mine4 ,and as a man who am as jealous of my repose as of my authority1 ,i am better pleased that it should be so2 in leaving me there1 they humour what ,i profess1 which is to settle and wholly contain myself within myself4 ,i take a pleasure in being uninterested in other men's affairs1 and disengaged from being their warranty1 and responsible for what they do4 ,in all affairs that are past1 be it how it will1 ,i have very little regret2 for this imagination puts me out of my pain1 that they were so to fall out they are in the great revolution of the world1 and in the chain of stoical 'causes3 your fancy cannot1 by wish and imagination1 move one tittle1 but that the great current of things will not reverse both the past and the future4 ,as to the rest1 ,i abominate that incidental repentance which old age brings along with it4 ,he1 who said of old1 that he was obliged to his age for having weaned him from pleasure1 was of another opinion than ,i am2 ,i can never think myself beholden to impotency for any good it can do to me3 ,nec tam aversa unquam videbitur ab opere suo providentia1 ut debilitas inter optima inventa sit4 ,nor can ,providence ever seem so averse to her own work1 that debility should be found to be amongst the best things4 --,quintilian1 ,instit4 ,orat41 v4 #ab4 ,our appetites are rare in old age2 a profound satiety seizes us after the act2 in this ,i see nothing of conscience2 chagrin and weakness imprint in us a drowsy and rheumatic virtue4 ,we must not suffer ourselves to be so wholly carried away by natural alterations as to suffer our judgments to be imposed upon by them4 ,youth and pleasure have not formerly so far prevailed with me1 that ,i did not well enough discern the face of vice in pleasure2 neither does the distaste that years have brought me1 so far prevail with me now1 that ,i cannot discern pleasure in vice4 ,now that ,i am no more in my flourishing age1 ,i judge as well of these things as if ,i were4 ,old though ,i am1 for ladies' love unfit1 ,the power of beauty ,i remember yet4--,chaucer4 ,i1 who narrowly and strictly examine it1 find my reason the very same it was in my most licentious age1 except1 perhaps1 that 'tis weaker and more decayed by being grown older2 and ,i find that the pleasure it refuses me upon the account of my bodily health1 it would no more refuse now1 in consideration of the health of my soul1 than at any time heretofore4 ,i do not repute it the more valiant for not being able to combat2 my temptations are so broken and mortified1 that they are not worth its opposition2 holding but out my hands1 ,i repel them4 ,should one present the old concupiscence before it1 ,i fear it would have less power to resist it than heretofore2 ,i do not discern that in itself it judges anything otherwise now than it formerly did1 nor that it has acquired any new light3 wherefore1 if there be convalescence1 'tis an enchanted one4 ,miserable kind of remedy1 to owe one's health to one's disease6 ,tis not that our misfortune should perform this office1 but the good fortune of our judgment4 ,i am not to be made to do anything by persecutions and afflictions1 but to curse them3 that is1 for people who cannot be roused but by a whip4 ,my reason is much more free in prosperity1 and much more distracted1 and put to't to digest pains than pleasures3 ,i see best in a clear sky2 health admonishes me more cheerfully1 and to better purpose1 than sickness4 ,i did all that in me lay to reform and regulate myself from pleasures1 at a time when ,i had health and vigour to enjoy them2 ,i should be ashamed and envious that the misery and misfortune of my old age should have credit over my good healthful1 sprightly1 and vigorous years1 and that men should estimate me1 not by what ,i have been1 but by what ,i have ceased to be4 ,in my opinion1 'tis the happy living1 and not 7as ,antisthenes' said7 the happy dying1 in which human felicity consists4 ,i have not made it my business to make a monstrous addition of a philosopher's tail to the head and body of a libertine2 nor would ,i have this wretched remainder give the lie to the pleasant1 sound1 and long part of my life3 ,i would present myself uniformly throughout4 ,were ,i to live my life over again1 ,i should live it just as ,i have lived it2 ,i neither complain of the past1 nor do ,i fear the future2 and if ,i am not much deceived1 ,i am the same within that ,i am without4 ',tis one main obligation ,i have to my fortune1 that the succession of my bodily estate has been carried on according to the natural seasons2 ,i have seen the grass1 the blossom1 and the fruit1 and now see the withering2 happily1 however1 because naturally4 ,i bear the infirmities ,i have the better1 because they came not till ,i had reason to expect them1 and because also they make me with greater pleasure remember that long felicity of my past life4 ,my wisdom may have been just the same in both ages1 but it was more active1 and of better grace whilst young and sprightly1 than now it is when broken1 peevish1 and uneasy4 ,i repudiate1 then1 these casual and painful reformations4 ,god must touch our hearts2 our consciences must amend of themselves1 by the aid of our reason1 and not by the decay of our appetites2 pleasure is1 in itself1 neither pale nor discoloured1 to be discerned by dim and decayed eyes4 ,we ought to love temperance for itself1 and because ,god has commanded that and chastity2 but that which we are reduced to by catarrhs1 and for which ,i am indebted to the stone1 is neither chastity nor temperance2 a man cannot boast that he despises and resists pleasure if he cannot see it1 if he knows not what it is1 and cannot discern its graces1 its force1 and most alluring beauties2 ,i know both the one and the other1 and may therefore the better say it4 ,but2 methinks1 our souls in old age are subject to more troublesome maladies and imperfections than in youth2 ,i said the same when young and when ,i was reproached with the want of a beard2 and ,i say so now that my grey hairs give me some authority4 ,we call the difficulty of our humours and the disrelish of present things wisdom2 but1 in truth1 we do not so much forsake vices as we change them1 and in my opinion1 for worse4 ,besides a foolish and feeble pride1 an impertinent prating1 froward and insociable humours1 superstition1 and a ridiculous desire of riches when we have lost the use of them1 ,i find there more envy1 injustice1 and malice4 ,age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face2 and souls are never1 or very rarely seen1 that1 in growing old1 do not smell sour and musty4 ,man moves all together1 both towards his perfection and decay4 ,in observing the wisdom of ,socrates1 and many circumstances of his condemnation1 ,i should dare to believe that he in some sort himself purposely1 by collusion1 contributed to it1 seeing that1 at the age of seventy years1 he might fear to suffer the lofty motions of his mind to be cramped and his wonted lustre obscured4 ,what strange metamorphoses do ,i see age every day make in many of my acquaintance6 ',tis a potent malady1 and that naturally and imperceptibly steals into us2 a vast provision of study and great precaution are required to evade the imperfections it loads us with1 or at least to weaken their progress4 ,i find that1 notwithstanding all my entrenchments1 it gets foot by foot upon me3 ,i make the best resistance ,i can1 but ,i do not know to what at last it will reduce me4 ,but fall out what will1 ,i am content the world may know1 when ,i am fallen1 from what ,i fell4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,of ,,three ,,commerces ,we must not rivet ourselves so fast to our humours and complexions3 our chiefest sufficiency is to know how to apply ourselves to divers employments4 ',tis to be1 but not to live1 to keep a man's self tied and bound by necessity to one only course2 those are the bravest souls that have in them the most variety and pliancy4 ,of this here is an honourable testimony of the elder ,cato3 ,huic versatile ingenium sic pariter ad omnia fuit1 ut natum ad id unum diceres1 quodcumque ageret4 ,his parts were so pliable to all uses1 that one would say he had been born only to that which he was doing4--,livy1 xxxix4 #di4 ,had ,i liberty to set myself forth after my own mode1 there is no so graceful fashion to which ,i would be so fixed as not to be able to disengage myself from it2 life is an unequal1 irregular and multiform motion4 ',tis not to be a friend to one's self1 much less a master 'tis to be a slave1 incessantly to be led by the nose by one's self1 and to be so fixed in one's previous inclinations1 that one cannot turn aside nor writhe one's neck out of the collar4 ,i say this now in this part of my life1 wherein ,i find ,i cannot easily disengage myself from the importunity of my soul1 which cannot ordinarily amuse itself but in things of limited range1 nor employ itself otherwise than entirely and with all its force2 upon the lightest subject offered it expands and stretches it to that degree as therein to employ its utmost power2 wherefore it is that idleness is to me a very painful labour1 and very prejudicial to my health4 ,most men's minds require foreign matter to exercise and enliven them2 mine has rather need of it to sit still and repose itself1 ,vitia otii negotio discutienda sunt1 ,the vices of sloth are to be shaken off by business4 --,seneca1 ,ep4 #ef4 for its chiefest and hardest study is to study itself4 ,books are to it a sort of employment that debauch it from its study4 ,upon the first thoughts that possess it1 it begins to bustle and make trial of its vigour in all directions1 exercises its power of handling1 now making trial of force1 now fortifying1 moderating1 and ranging itself by the way of grace and order4 ,it has of its own wherewith to rouse its faculties3 nature has given to it1 as to all others1 matter enough of its own to make advantage of1 and subjects proper enough where it may either invent or judge4 ,meditation is a powerful and full study to such as can effectually taste and employ themselves2 ,i had rather fashion my soul than furnish it4 ,there is no employment1 either more weak or more strong1 than that of entertaining a man's own thoughts1 according as the soul is2 the greatest men make it their whole business1 ,quibus vivere est cogitare2 ,to whom to live is to think4--,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 v4 #bh4 nature has therefore favoured it with this privilege1 that there is nothing we can do so long1 nor any action to which we more frequently and with greater facility addict ourselves4 ',tis the business of the gods1 says ,aristotle1' and from which both their beatitude and ours proceed4 ,the principal use of reading to me is1 that by various objects it rouses my reason1 and employs my judgment1 not my memory4 ,few conversations detain me without force and effort2 it is true that beauty and elegance of speech take as much or more with me than the weight and depth of the subject2 and forasmuch as ,i am apt to be sleepy in all other communication1 and give but the rind of my attention1 it often falls out that in such poor and pitiful discourses1 mere chatter1 ,i either make drowsy1 unmeaning answers1 unbecoming a child1 and ridiculous1 or more foolishly and rudely still1 maintain an obstinate silence4 ,i have a pensive way that withdraws me into myself1 and1 with that1 a heavy and childish ignorance of many very ordinary things1 by which two qualities ,i have earned this1 that men may truly relate five or six as ridiculous tales of me as of any other man whatever4 ,but1 to proceed in my subject1 this difficult complexion of mine renders me very nice in my conversation with men1 whom ,i must cull and pick out for my purpose2 and unfits me for common society4 ,we live and negotiate with the people2 if their conversation be troublesome to us1 if we disdain to apply ourselves to mean and vulgar souls 7and the mean and vulgar are often as regular as those of the finest thread1 and all wisdom is folly that does not accommodate itself to the common ignorance71 we must no more intermeddle either with other men's affairs or our own2 for business1 both public and private1 has to do with these people4 ,the least forced and most natural motions of the soul are the most beautiful2 the best employments1 those that are least strained4 ,my ,god6 how good an office does wisdom to those whose desires it limits to their power6 that is the most useful knowledge3 according to what a man can1 was the favourite sentence and motto of ,socrates4 ,a motto of great solidity4 ,we must moderate and adapt our desires to the nearest and easiest to be acquired things4 ,is it not a foolish humour of mine to separate myself from a thousand to whom my fortune has conjoined me1 and without whom ,i cannot live1 and cleave to one or two who are out of my intercourse2 or rather a fantastic desire of a thing ,i cannot obtain8 ,my gentle and easy manners1 enemies of all sourness and harshness1 may easily enough have secured me from envy and animosities2 to be beloved1 ,i do not say1 but never any man gave less occasion of being hated2 but the coldness of my conversation has1 reasonably enough1 deprived me of the goodwill of many1 who are to be excused if they interpret it in another and worse sense4 ,i am very capable of contracting and maintaining rare and exquisite friendships2 for by reason that ,i so greedily seize upon such acquaintance as fit my liking1 ,i throw myself with such violence upon them that ,i hardly fail to stick1 and to make an impression where ,i hit2 as ,i have often made happy proof4 ,in ordinary friendships ,i am somewhat cold and shy1 for my motion is not natural1 if not with full sail3 besides which1 my fortune having in my youth given me a relish for one sole and perfect friendship1 has1 in truth1 created in me a kind of distaste to others1 and too much imprinted in my fancy that it is a beast of company1 as the ancient said1 but not of the herd4--,plutarch1 ,on the ,plurality of ,friends1 c4 #b4--;,and also ,i have a natural difficulty of communicating myself by halves1 with the modifications and the servile and jealous prudence required in the conversation of numerous and imperfect friendships3 and we are principally enjoined to these in this age of ours1 when we cannot talk of the world but either with danger or falsehood4 ,yet do ,i very well discern that he who has the conveniences 7,i mean the essential conveniences7 of life for his end1 as ,i have1 ought to fly these difficulties and delicacy of humour1 as much as the plague4 ,i should commend a soul of several stages1 that knows both how to stretch and to slacken itself2 that finds itself at ease in all conditions whither fortune leads it2 that can discourse with a neighbour1 of his building1 his hunting1 his quarrels2 that can chat with a carpenter or a gardener with pleasure4 ,i envy those who can render themselves familiar with the meanest of their followers1 and talk with them in their own way2 and dislike the advice of ,plato1 that men should always speak in a magisterial tone to their servants1 whether men or women1 without being sometimes facetious and familiar2 for besides the reasons ,i have given1 'tis inhuman and unjust to set so great a value upon this pitiful prerogative of fortune1 and the polities wherein less disparity is permitted betwixt masters and servants seem to me the most equitable4 ,others study how to raise and elevate their minds2 ,i1 how to humble mine and to bring it low2 'tis only vicious in extension3 ,narras et genus ,a,eaci1 ,et pugnata sacro bella sub ,ilio ,quo ,chium pretio cadum ,mercemur1 quis aquam temperet ignibus1 ,quo praebente domum1 et quota1 ,pelignis caream frigoribus1 taces4 ,you tell us long stories about the race of ,a,eacus1 and the battles fought under sacred ,ilium2 but what to give for a cask of ,chian wine1 who shall prepare the warm bath1 and in whose house1 and when ,i may escape from the ,pelignian cold1 you do not tell us4 --,horace1 ,od41 iii4 #ai1 #c4 ,thus1 as the ,lacedaemonian valour stood in need of moderation1 and of the sweet and harmonious sound of flutes to soften it in battle1 lest they should precipitate themselves into temerity and fury1 whereas all other nations commonly make use of harsh and shrill sounds1 and of loud and imperious cries1 to incite and heat the soldier's courage to the last degree2 so1 methinks1 contrary to the usual method1 in the practice of our minds1 we have for the most part more need of lead than of wings2 of temperance and composedness than of ardour and agitation4 ,but1 above all things1 'tis in my opinion egregiously to play the fool1 to put on the grave airs of a man of lofty mind amongst those who are nothing of the sort3 ever to speak in print 7by the book71 ,favellare in puma di forchetta4 ,to talk with the point of a fork1 7affectedly7 ,you must let yourself down to those with whom you converse2 and sometimes affect ignorance3 lay aside power and subtilty in common conversation2 to preserve decorum and order 'tis enough-nay1 crawl on the earth1 if they so desire it4 ,the learned often stumble at this stone2 they will always be parading their pedantic science1 and strew their books everywhere2 they have1 in these days1 so filled the cabinets and ears of the ladies with them1 that if they have lost the substance1 they at least retain the words2 so as in all discourse upon all sorts of subjects1 how mean and common soever1 they speak and write after a new and learned way1 ,hoc sermone pavent1 hoc iram1 gaudia1 curas1 ,hoc cuncta effundunt animi secreta2 quid ultra8 ,concumbunt docte2 ,in this language do they express their fears1 their anger1 their joys1 their cares2 in this pour out all their secrets2 what more8 they lie with their lovers learnedly4--,juvenal1 vi4 #ahi4 and quote ,plato and ,aquinas in things the first man they meet could determine as well2 the learning that cannot penetrate their souls hangs still upon the tongue4 ,if people of quality will be persuaded by me1 they shall content themselves with setting out their proper and natural treasures2 they conceal and cover their beauties under others that are none of theirs3 'tis a great folly to put out their own light and shine by a borrowed lustre3 they are interred and buried under 'de capsula totae--,painted and perfumed from head to foot4 7,or37 as if they were things carefully deposited in a band-box4--,seneca1 ,ep4 #aae--;,it is because they do not sufficiently know themselves or do themselves justice3 the world has nothing fairer than they2 'tis for them to honour the arts1 and to paint painting4 ,what need have they of anything but to live beloved and honoured8 ,they have and know but too much for this3 they need do no more but rouse and heat a little the faculties they have of their own4 ,when ,i see them tampering with rhetoric1 law1 logic1 and other drugs1 so improper and unnecessary for their business1 ,i begin to suspect that the men who inspire them with such fancies1 do it that they may govern them upon that account2 for what other excuse can ,i contrive8 ,it is enough that they can1 without our instruction1 compose the graces of their eyes to gaiety1 severity1 sweetness1 and season a denial with asperity1 suspense1 or favour3 they need not another to interpret what we speak for their service2 with this knowledge1 they command with a switch1 and rule both the tutors and the schools4 ,but if1 nevertheless1 it angers them to give place to us in anything whatever1 and will1 out of curiosity1 have their share in books1 poetry is a diversion proper for them2 'tis a wanton1 subtle1 dissembling1 and prating art1 all pleasure and all show1 like themselves4 ,they may also abstract several commodities from history4 ,in philosophy1 out of the moral part of it1 they may select such instructions as will teach them to judge of our humours and conditions1 to defend themselves from our treacheries1 to regulate the ardour of their own desires1 to manage their liberty1 to lengthen the pleasures of life1 and gently to bear the inconstancy of a lover1 the rudeness of a husband2 and the importunity of years1 wrinkles1 and the like4 ,this is the utmost of what ,i would allow them in the sciences4 ,there are some particular natures that are private and retired3 my natural way is proper for communication1 and apt to lay me open2 ,i am all without and in sight1 born for society and friendship4 ,the solitude that ,i love myself and recommend to others1 is chiefly no other than to withdraw my thoughts and affections into myself2 to restrain and check1 not my steps1 but my own cares and desires1 resigning all foreign solicitude1 and mortally avoiding servitude and obligation1 and not so much the crowd of men as the crowd of business4 ,local solitude1 to say the truth1 rather gives me more room and sets me more at large2 ,i more readily throw myself upon affairs of state and the world when ,i am alone4 ,at the ,louvre and in the bustle of the court1 ,i fold myself within my own skin2 the crowd thrusts me upon myself2 and ,i never entertain myself so wantonly1 with so much licence1 or so especially1 as in places of respect and ceremonious prudence3 our follies do not make me laugh1 it is our wisdom which does4 ,i am naturally no enemy to a court1 life2 ,i have therein passed a part of my own1 and am of a humour cheerfully to frequent great company1 provided it be by intervals and at my own time3 but this softness of judgment whereof ,i speak ties me perforce to solitude4 ,even at home1 amidst a numerous family1 and in a house sufficiently frequented1 ,i see people enough1 but rarely such with whom ,i delight to converse2 and ,i there reserve both for myself and others an unusual liberty3 there is in my house no such thing as ceremony1 ushering1 or waiting upon people down to the coach1 and such other troublesome ceremonies as our courtesy enjoins 7,o the servile and importunate custom674 ,every one there governs himself according to his own method2 let who will speak his thoughts1 ,i sit mute1 meditating and shut up in my closet1 without any offence to my guests4 ,the men whose society and familiarity ,i covet are those they call sincere and able men2 and the image of these makes me disrelish the rest4 ,it is1 if rightly taken1 the rarest of our forms1 and a form that we chiefly owe to nature4 ,the end of this commerce is simply privacy1 frequentation and conference1 the exercise of souls1 without other fruit4 ,in our discourse1 all subjects are alike to me2 let there be neither weight1 nor depth1 'tis all one3 there is yet grace and pertinency2 all there is tinted with a mature and constant judgment1 and mixed with goodness1 freedom1 gaiety1 and friendship4 ',tis not only in talking of the affairs of kings and state that our wits discover their force and beauty1 but every whit as much in private conferences4 ,i understand my men even by their silence and smiles2 and better discover them1 perhaps1 at table than in the council4 ,hippomachus said1 very well1 that he could know the good wrestlers by only seeing them walk in the street4 ,if learning please to step into our talk1 it shall not be rejected1 not magisterial1 imperious1 and importunate1 as-it commonly is1 but suffragan and docile itself2 we there only seek to pass away our time2 when we have a mind to be instructed and preached to1 we will go seek this in its throne2 please let it humble itself to us for the nonce2 for1 useful and profitable as it is1 ,i imagine that1 at need1 we may manage well enough without it1 and do our business without its assistance4 ,a well-descended soul1 and practised in the conversation of men1 will of herself render herself sufficiently agreeable2 art is nothing but the counterpart and register of what such souls produce4 ,the conversation also of beautiful and honourable women is for me a sweet commerce3 ,nam nos quoque oculos eruditos habemus4 ,for we also have eyes that are versed in the matter4 --,cicero1 ,paradox1 v4 #b4 ,if the soul has not therein so much to enjoy1 as in the first the bodily senses1 which participate more of this1 bring it to a proportion next to1 though1 in my opinion1 not equal to the other4 ,but 'tis a commerce wherein a man must stand a little upon his guard1 especially those1 where the body can do much1 as in me4 ,i there scalded myself in my youth1 and suffered all the torments that poets say befall those who precipitate themselves into love without order and judgment4 ,it is true that that whipping has made me wiser since3 ,quicumque ,argolica de classe ,capharea fugit1 ,semper ab ,euboicis vela retorquet aquis4 ,whoever of the ,grecian fleet has escaped the ,capharean rocks1 ever takes care to steer from the ,euboean sea4--,ovid1 ,trist41 i4 i1 #hc4 ',tis folly to fix all a man's thoughts upon it1 and to engage in it with a furious and indiscreet affection2 but1 on the other hand1 to engage there without love and without inclination1 like comedians1 to play a common part1 without putting anything to it of his own but words1 is indeed to provide for his safety1 but1 withal1 after as cowardly a manner as he who should abandon his honour1 profit1 or pleasure for fear of danger4 ,for it is certain that from such a practice1 they who set it on foot can expect no fruit that can please or satisfy a noble soul4 ,a man must have1 in good earnest1 desired that which he1 in good earnest1 expects to have a pleasure in enjoying2 ,i say1 though fortune should unjustly favour their dissimulation2 which often falls out1 because there is none of the sex1 let her be as ugly as the devil1 who does not think herself well worthy to be beloved1 and who does not prefer herself before other women1 either for her youth1 the colour of her hair1 or her graceful motion 7for there are no more women universally ugly1 than there are women universally beautiful1 and such of the ,brahmin virgins as have nothing else to recommend them1 the people being assembled by the common crier to that effect1 come out into the market-place to expose their matrimonial parts to public view1 to try if these at least are not of temptation sufficient to get them a husband74 ,consequently1 there is not one who does not easily suffer herself to be overcome by the first vow that they make to serve her4 ,now from this common and ordinary treachery of the men of the present day1 that must fall out which we already experimentally see1 either that they rally together1 and separate themselves by themselves to evade us1 or else form their discipline by the example we give them1 play their parts of the farce as we do ours1 and give themselves up to the sport1 without passion1 care1 or love2 ,neque afl'ectui suo1 aut alieno1 obnoxiae2 ,neither amenable to their own affections1 nor those of others4 --,tacitus1 ,annal41 xiii4 #de4 believing1 according to the persuasion of ,lysias in ,plato1 that they may with more utility and convenience surrender themselves up to us the less we love them2 where it will fall out1 as in comedies1 that the people will have as much pleasure or more than the comedians4 ,for my part1 ,i no more acknowledge a ,venus without a ,cupid than1 a mother without issue3 they are things that mutully lend and owe their essence to one another4 ,thus this cheat recoils upon him who is guilty of it2 it does not cost him much1 indeed1 but he also gets little or nothing by it4 ,they who have made ,venus a goddess have taken notice that her principal beauty was incorporeal and spiritual2 but the ,venus whom these people hunt after is not so much as human1 nor indeed brutal2 the very beasts will not accept it so gross and so earthly2 we see that imagination and desire often heat and incite them before the body does2 we see in both the one sex and the other1 they have in the herd choice and particular election in their affections1 and that they have amongst themselves a long commerce of good will4 ,even those to whom old age denies the practice of their desire1 still tremble1 neigh1 and twitter for love2 we see them1 before the act1 full of hope and ardour1 and when the body has played its game1 yet please themselves with the sweet remembrance of the past delight2 some that swell with pride after they have performed1 and others who1 tired and sated1 still by vociferation express a triumphing joy4 ,he who has nothing to do but only to discharge his body of a natural necessity1 need not trouble others with so curious preparations3 it is not meat for a gross1 coarse appetite4 ,as one who does not desire that men should think me better than ,i am1 ,i will here say this as to the errors of my youth4 ,not only from the danger of impairing my health 7and yet ,i could not be so careful but that ,i had two light mischances71 but moreover upon the account of contempt1 ,i have seldom given myself up to common and mercenary embraces3 ,i would heighten the pleasure by the difficulty1 by desire1 and a certain kind of glory1 and was of ,tiberius's mind1 who in his amours was as much taken with modesty and birth as any other quality1 and of the courtesan ,flora's humour1 who never lent herself to less than a dictator1 a consul1 or a censor1 and took pleasure in the dignity of her lovers4 ,doubtless pearls and gold tissue1 titles and train1 add something to it4 ,as to the rest1 ,i had a great esteem for wit1 provided the person was not exceptionable2 for1 to confess the truth1 if the one or the other of these two attractions must of necessity be wanting1 ,i should rather have quitted that of the understanding1 that has its use in better things2 but in the subject of love1 a subject principally relating to the senses of seeing and touching1 something may be done without the graces of the mind3 without the graces of the body1 nothing4 ,beauty is the true prerogative of women1 and so peculiarly their own1 that ours1 though naturally requiring another sort of feature1 is never in its lustre but when youthful and beardless1 a sort of confused image of theirs4 ',tis said that such as serve the ,grand ,signior upon the account of beauty1 who are an infinite number1 are1 at the latest1 dismissed at two-and-twenty years of age4 ,reason1 prudence1 and the offices of friendship are better found amongst men1 and therefore it is that they govern the affairs of the world4 ,these two engagements are fortuitous1 and depending upon others2 the one is troublesome by its rarity1 the other withers with age1 so that they could never have been sufficient for the business of my life4 ,that of books1 which is the third1 is much more certain1 and much more our own4 ,it yields all other advantages to the two first1 but has the constancy and facility of its service for its own share4 ,it goes side by side with me in my whole course1 and everywhere is assisting me3 it comforts me in old age and solitude2 it eases me of a troublesome weight of idleness1 and delivers me at all hours from company that ,i dislike3 it blunts the point of griefs1 if they are not extreme1 and have not got an entire possession of my soul4 ,to divert myself from a troublesome fancy1 'tis but to run to my books2 they presently fix me to them and drive the other out of my thoughts1 and do not mutiny at seeing that ,i have only recourse to them for want of other more real1 natural1 and lively commodities2 they always receive me with the same kindness4 ,he may well go a foot1 they say1 who leads his horse in his hand2 and our ,james1 ,king of ,naples and ,sicily1 who1 handsome1 young and healthful1 caused himself to be carried about on a barrow1 extended upon a pitiful mattress in a poor robe of grey cloth1 and a cap of the same1 yet attended withal by a royal train1 litters1 led horses of all sorts1 gentlemen and officers1 did yet herein represent a tender and unsteady authority3 ,the sick man has not to complain who has his cure in his sleeve4 ,in the experience and practice of this maxim1 which is a very true one1 consists all the benefit ,i reap from books4 ,as a matter of fact1 ,i make no more use of them1 as it were1 than those who know them not4 ,i enjoy them as misers do their money1 in knowing that ,i may enjoy them when ,i please3 my mind is satisfied with this right of possession4 ,i never travel without books1 either in peace or war2 and yet sometimes ,i pass over several days1 and sometimes months1 without looking on them4 ,i will read by-and-by1 say ,i to myself1 or to-morrow1 or when ,i please2 and in the interim1 time steals away without any inconvenience4 ,for it is not to be imagined to what degree ,i please myself and rest content in this consideration1 that ,i have them by me to divert myself with them when ,i am so disposed1 and to call to mind what a refreshment they are to my life4 ',tis the best viaticum ,i have yet found out for this human journey1 and ,i very much pity those men of understanding who are unprovided of it4 ,i the rather accept of any other sort of diversion1 how light soever1 because this can never fail me4 ,when at home1 ,i a little more frequent my library1 whence ,i overlook at once all the concerns of my family4 ',tis situated at the entrance into my house1 and ,i thence see under me my garden1 court1 and base-court1 and almost all parts of the building4 ,there ,i turn over now one book1 and then another1 on various subjects1 without method or design4 ,one while ,i meditate1 another ,i record and dictate1 as ,i walk to and fro1 such whimsies as these ,i present to you here4 ',tis in the third storey of a tower1 of which the ground-room is my chapel1 the second storey a chamber with a withdrawing-room and closet1 where ,i often lie1 to be more retired2 and above is a great wardrobe4 ,this formerly was the most useless part of the house4 ,i there pass away both most of the days of my life and most of the hours of those days4 ,in the night ,i am never there4 ,there is by the side of it a cabinet handsome enough1 with a fireplace very commodiously contrived1 and plenty of light2 and were ,i not more afraid of the trouble than the expense--the trouble that frights me from all business--,i could very easily adjoin on either side1 and on the same floor1 a gallery of an hundred paces long and twelve broad1 having found walls already raised for some other design to the requisite height4 ,every place of retirement requires a walk3 my thoughts sleep if ,i sit still3 my fancy does not go by itself1 as when my legs move it3 and all those who study without a book are in the same condition4 ,the figure of my study is round1 and there is no more open wall than what is taken up by my table and my chair1 so that the remaining parts of the circle present me a view of all my books at once1 ranged upon five rows of shelves round about me4 ,it has three noble and free prospects1 and is sixteen paces in diameter4 ,i am not so continually there in winter2 for my house is built upon an eminence1 as its name imports1 and no part of it is so much exposed to the wind and weather as this1 which pleases me the better1 as being of more difficult access and a little remote1 as well upon the account of exercise1 as also being there more retired from the crowd4 ',tis there that ,i am in my kingdom1 and there ,i endeavour to make myself an absolute monarch1 and to sequester this one corner from all society1 conjugal1 filial1 and civil2 elsewhere ,i have but verbal authority only1 and of a confused essence4 ,that man1 in my opinion1 is very miserable1 who has not at home where to be by himself1 where to entertain himself alone1 or to conceal himself from others4 ,ambition sufficiently plagues her proselytes1 by keeping them always in show1 like the statue of a public1 square3 ,magna servitus est magna fortuna4 ,a great fortune is a great slavery4 --,seneca1 ,de ,consol4 ad4 ,polyb41 c4 #bf4 ,they cannot so much as be private in the watercloset4 ,i have thought nothing so severe in the austerity of life that our monks affect1 as what ,i have observed in some of their communities2 namely1 by rule1 to have a perpetual society of place1 and numerous persons present in every action whatever2 and think it much more supportable to be always alone than never to be so4 ,if any one shall tell me that it is to undervalue the ,muses to make use of them only for sport and to pass away the time1 ,i shall tell him1 that he does not know so well as ,i the value of the sport1 the pleasure1 and the pastime2 ,i can hardly forbear to add that all other end is ridiculous4 ,i live from day to day1 and1 with reverence be it spoken1 ,i only live for myself2 there all my designs terminate4 ,i studied1 when young1 for ostentation2 since1 to make myself a little wiser2 and now for my diversion1 but never for any profit4 ,a vain and prodigal humour ,i had after this sort of furniture1 not only for the supplying my own need1 but1 moreover1 for ornament and outward show1 ,i have since quite cured myself of4 ,books have many charming qualities to such as know how to choose them2 but every good has its ill2 'tis a pleasure that is not pure and clean1 no more than others3 it has its inconveniences1 and great ones too4 ,the soul indeed is exercised therein2 but the body1 the care of which ,i must withal never neglect1 remains in the meantime without action1 and grows heavy and sombre4 ,i know no excess more prejudicial to me1 nor more to be avoided in this my declining age4 ,these have been my three favourite and particular occupations2 ,i speak not of those ,i owe to the world by civil obligation4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,of ,,diversion ,i was once employed in consoling a lady truly afflicted4 ,most of their mournings are artificial and ceremonious3 ,uberibus semper lacrymis1 semperque paratis1 ,in statione subatque expectantibus illam1 ,quo jubeat manare modo4 ,a woman has ever a fountain of tears ready to gush up whenever she requires to make use of them4--,juvenal1 vi4 #bgb4 ,a man goes the wrong way to work when he opposes this passion2 for opposition does but irritate and make them more obstinate in sorrow2 the evil is exasperated by discussion4 ,we see1 in common discourse1 that what ,i have indifferently let fall from me1 if any one takes it up to controvert it1 ,i justify it with the best arguments ,i have2 and much more a thing wherein ,i had a real interest4 ,and besides1 in so doing you enter roughly upon your operation2 whereas the first addresses of a physician to his patient should be gracious1 gay1 and pleasing2 never did any ill-looking1 morose physician do anything to purpose4 ,on the contrary1 then1 a man should1 at the first approaches1 favour their grief and express some approbation of their sorrow4 ,by this intelligence you obtain credit to proceed further1 and by a facile and insensible gradation fall into discourses more solid and proper for their cure4 ,i1 whose aim it was principally to gull the company who had their eyes fixed upon me1 took it into my head only to palliate the disease4 ,and indeed ,i have found by experience that ,i have an unlucky hand in persuading4 ,my arguments are either too sharp and dry1 or pressed too roughly1 or not home enough4 ,after ,i had some time applied myself to her grief1 ,i did not attempt to cure her by strong and lively reasons1 either because ,i had them not at hand1 or because ,i thought to do my business better another way2 neither did ,i make choice of any of those methods of consolation which philosophy prescribes3 that what we complain of is no evil1 according to ,cleanthes2 that it is a light evil1 according to the ,peripatetics2 that to bemoan one's self is an action neither commendable nor just1 according to ,chrysippus2 nor this of ,epicurus1 more suitable to my way1 of shifting the thoughts from afflicting things to those that are pleasing2 nor making a bundle of all these together1 to make use of upon occasion1 according to ,cicero2 but1 gently bending my discourse1 and by little and little digressing1 sometimes to subjects nearer1 and sometimes more remote from the purpose1 according as she was more intent on what ,i said1 ,i imperceptibly led her from that sorrowful thought1 and kept her calm and in good-humour whilst ,i continued there4 ,i herein made use of diversion4 ,they who succeeded me in the same service did not1 for all that1 find any amendment in her1 for ,i had not gone to the root4 ,i1 peradventure1 may elsewhere have glanced upon some sort of public diversions2 and the practice of military ones1 which ,pericles made use of in the ,peloponnesian war1 and a thousand others in other places1 to withdraw the adverse forces from their own countries1 is too frequent in history4 ,it was an ingenious evasion whereby ,monseigneur d',hempricourt saved both himself and others in the city of ,liege1 into which the ,duke of ,burgundy1 who kept it besieged1 had made him enter to execute the articles of their promised surrender2 the people1 being assembled by night to consider of it1 began to mutiny against the agreement1 and several of them resolved to fall upon the commissioners1 whom they had in their power2 he1 feeling the gusts of this first popular storm1 who were coming to rush into his lodgings1 suddenly sent out to them two of the inhabitants of the city 7of whom he had some with him7 with new and milder terms to be proposed in their council1 which he had then and there contrived for his need3 ,these two diverted the first tempest1 carrying back the enraged rabble to the town-hall to hear and consider of what they had to say4 ,the deliberation was short2 a second storm arose as violent as the other1 whereupon he despatched four new mediators of the same quality to meet them1 protesting that he had now better conditions to present them with1 and such as would give them absolute satisfaction1 by which means the tumult was once more appeased1 and the people again turned back to the conclave4 ,in fine1 by this dispensation of amusements1 one after another1 diverting their fury and dissipating it in frivolous consultations1 he laid it at last asleep till the day appeared1 which was his principal end4 ,this other story that follows is also of the same category4 ,atalanta1 a virgin of excelling beauty and of wonderful disposition of body1 to disengage herself from the crowd of a thousand suitors who sought her in marriage1 made this proposition1 that she would accept of him for her husband who should equal her in running1 upon condition that they who failed should lose their lives4 ,there were enough who thought the prize very well worth the hazard1 and who suffered the cruel penalty of the contract4 ,hippomenes1 about to make trial after the rest1 made his address to the goddess of love1 imploring her assistance2 and she1 granting his request1 gave him three golden apples1 and instructed him how to use them4 ,the race beginning1 as ,hippomenes perceived his mistress to press hard up to him2 he1 as it were by chance1 let fall one of these apples2 the maid1 taken with the beauty of it1 failed not to step out of her way to pick it up3 ,obstupuit ,virgo1 nitidique cupidine pomi ,declinat cursus1 aurumque volubile tollit4 ,the virgin1 astonished and attracted by the glittering apple1 stops her career1 and seizes the rolling gold4 --,ovid1 ,metam41 x4 #fff4 ,he did the same1 when he saw his time1 by the second and the third1 till by so diverting her1 and making her lose so much ground1 he won the race4 ,when physicians cannot stop a catarrh1 they divert and turn it into some other less dangerous part4 ,and ,i find also that this is the most ordinary practice for the diseases of the mind3 ,abducendus etiam nonnunquam animus est ad alia studia1 sollicitudines1 curas1 negotia3 loci denique mutatione1 tanquam aegroti non convalescentes1 saepe curandus est4 ,the mind is sometimes to be diverted to other studies1 thoughts1 cares1 business3 in fine1 by change of place1 as where sick persons do not become convalescent4--,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 iv4 #ce4 ',tis to little effect directly to jostle a man's infirmities2 we neither make him sustain nor repel the attack2 we only make him decline and evade it4 ,this other lesson is too high and too difficult3 'tis for men of the first form of knowledge purely to insist upon the thing1 to consider and judge it2 it appertains to one sole ,socrates to meet death with an ordinary countenance1 to grow acquainted with it1 and to sport with it2 he seeks no consolation out of the thing itself2 dying appears to him a natural and indifferent accident2 'tis there that he fixes his sight and resolution1 without looking elsewhere4 ,the disciples of ,hegesias1 who starved themselves to death1 animated thereunto by his fine lectures1 and in such numbers that ,king ,ptolemy ordered he should be forbidden to entertain his followers with such homicidal doctrines1 did not consider death in itself1 neither did they judge of it2 it was not there they fixed their thoughts2 they ran towards and aimed at a new being4 ,the poor wretches whom we see brought upon the scaffold1 full of ardent devotion1 and therein1 as much as in them lies1 employing all their senses1 their ears in hearing the instructions given them1 their eyes and hands lifted up towards heaven1 their voices in loud prayers1 with a vehement and continual emotion1 do doubtless things very commendable and proper for such a necessity3 we ought to commend them for their devotion1 but not properly for their constancy2 they shun the encounter1 they divert their thoughts from the consideration of death1 as children are amused with some toy or other when the surgeon is going to give them a prick with his lancet4 ,i have seen some1 who1 casting their eyes upon the dreadful instruments of death round about1 have fainted1 and furiously turned their thoughts another way2 such as are to pass a formidable precipice are advised either to shut their eyes or to look another way4 ,subrius ,flavius1 being by ,nero's command to be put to death1 and by the hand of ,niger1 both of them great captains1 when they lead him to the place appointed for his execution1 seeing the grave that ,niger had caused to be hollowed to put him into ill-made3 ,neither is this1 said he1 turning to the soldiers who guarded him1 according to military discipline4 ,and to ,niger1 who exhorted him to keep his head firm3 ,do but thou strike as firmly1 said he4 ,and he very well foresaw what would follow when he said so2 for ,niger's arm so trembled that he had several blows at his head before he could cut it off4 ,this man seems to have had his thoughts rightly fixed upon the subject4 ,he who dies in a battle1 with his sword in his hand1 does not then think of death2 he feels or considers it not2 the ardour of the fight diverts his thought another way4 ,a worthy man of my acquaintance1 falling as he was fighting a duel1 and feeling himself nailed to the earth by nine or ten thrusts of his enemy1 every one present called to him to think of his conscience2 but he has since told me1 that though he very well heard what they said1 it nothing moved him1 and that he never thought of anything but how to disengage and revenge himself4 ,he afterwards killed his man in that very duel4 ,he who brought to ,l4 ,silanus the sentence of death1 did him a very great kindness1 in that1 having received his answer1 that he was well prepared to die1 but not by base hands1 he ran upon him with his soldiers to force him1 and as he1 unarmed as he was1 obstinately defended himself with his fists and feet1 he made him lose his life in the contest1 by that means dissipating and diverting in a sudden and furious rage the painful apprehension of the lingering death to which he was designed4 ,we always think of something else2 either the hope of a better life comforts and supports us1 or the hope of our children's worth1 or the future glory of our name1 or the leaving behind the evils of this life1 or the vengeance that threatens those who are the causes of our death1 administers consolation to us3 ,spero equidem mediis1 si quid pia numina possunt1 ,supplicia hausurum scopulis1 et nomine ,dido ,saepe vocaturum 4 4 4 4 ,audiam2 et haec ,manes veniet mihi fama sub imos4 ,i hope1 however1 if the pious gods have any power1 thou wilt feel thy punishment amid the rocks1 and will call on the name of ,dido2 ,i shall hear1 and this report will come to me below4--,a,eneid1 iv4 #chb1 #chg4 ,xenophon was sacrificing with a crown upon his head when one came to bring him news of the death of his son ,gryllus1 slain in the battle of ,mantinea3 at the first surprise of the news1 he threw his crown to the ground2 but understanding by the sequel of the narrative the manner of a most brave and valiant death1 he took it up and replaced it upon his head4 ,epicurus himself1 at his death1 consoles himself upon the utility and eternity of his writings3 ,omnes clari et nobilitati labores fiunt tolerabiles2 ,all labours that are illustrious and famous become supportable4 --,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 ii4 #bf4 and the same wound1 the same fatigue1 is not1 says ,xenophon1 so intolerable to a general of an army as to a common soldier4 ,epaminondas took his death much more cheerfully1 having been informed that the victory remained to him3 ,haec sunt solatia1 haec fomenta summorum dolorum2 ,these are sedatives and alleviations to the greatest pains4 --,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 ii4 #bc4 and such like circumstances amuse1 divert1 and turn our thoughts from the consideration of the thing in itself4 ,even the arguments of philosophy are always edging and glancing on the matter1 so as scarce to rub its crust2 the greatest man of the first philosophical school1 and superintendent over all the rest1 the great ,zeno1 forms this syllogism against death3 ,no evil is honourable2 but death is honourable2 therefore death is no evil2 against drunkenness this3 ,no one commits his secrets to a drunkard2 but every one commits his secrets to a wise man3 therefore a wise man is no drunkard4 ,is this to hit the white8 ,i love to see that these great and leading souls cannot rid themselves of our company3 perfect men as they are1 they are yet simply men4 ,revenge is a sweet passion1 of great and natural impression2 ,i discern it well enough1 though ,i have no manner of experience of it4 ,from this not long ago to divert a young prince1 ,i did not tell him that he must1 to him that had struck him upon the one cheek1 turn the other1 upon account of charity2 nor go about to represent to him the tragical events that poetry attributes to this passion4 ,i left that behind2 and ,i busied myself to make him relish the beauty of a contrary image3 and1 by representing to him what honour1 esteem1 and goodwill he would acquire by clemency and good nature1 diverted him to ambition4 ,thus a man is to deal in such cases4 ,if your passion of love be too violent1 disperse it1 say they1 and they say true2 for ,i have often tried it with advantage3 break it into several desires1 of which let one be regent1 if you will1 over the rest2 but1 lest it should tyrannise and domineer over you1 weaken and protract1 by dividing and diverting it3 ,cum morosa vago singultiet inguine vena1 ,when you are tormented with fierce desire1 satisfy it with the first person that presents herself4--,persius1 ,sat41 vi4 #gc4 ,conjicito humorem collectum in corpora quaeque1 ,lucretius1 vi4 #ajfb1 to the like effect4 and provide for it in time1 lest it prove troublesome to deal with1 when it has once seized you3 ,si non prima novis conturbes vulnera plagis1 ,volgivagaque vagus venere ante recentia cures4 ,unless you cure old wounds by new4-,lucretius1 iv4 #ajfd4 ,i was once wounded with a vehement displeasure1 and withal1 more just than vehement2 ,i might peradventure have lost myself in it1 if ,i had merely trusted to my own strength4 ,having need of a powerful diversion to disengage me1 by art and study ,i became amorous1 wherein ,i was assisted by my youth3 love relieved and rescued me from the evil wherein friendship had engaged me4 ',tis in everything else the same2 a violent imagination hath seized me3 ,i find it a nearer way to change than to subdue it3 ,i depute1 if not one contrary1 yet another at least1 in its place4 ,variation ever relieves1 dissolves1 and dissipates4 ,if ,i am not able to contend with it1 ,i escape from it2 and in avoiding it1 slip out of the way1 and make1 my doubles2 shifting place1 business1 and company1 ,i secure myself in the crowd of other thoughts and fancies1 where it loses my trace1 and ,i escape4 ,after the same manner does nature proceed1 by the benefit of inconstancy2 for time1 which she has given us for the sovereign physician of our passions1 chiefly works by this1 that supplying our imaginations with other and new affairs1 it loosens and dissolves the first apprehension1 how strong soever4 ,a wise man little less sees his friend dying at the end of five-and-twenty years than on the first year2 and according to ,epicurus1 no less at all2 for he did not attribute any alleviation of afflictions1 either to their foresight or their antiquity2 but so many other thoughts traverse this1 that it languishes and tires at last4 ,alcibiades1 to divert the inclination of common rumours1 cut off the ears and tail of his beautiful dog1 and turned him out into the public place1 to the end that1 giving the people this occasion to prate1 they might let his other actions alone4 ,i have also seen1 for this same end of diverting the opinions and conjectures of the people and to stop their mouths1 some women conceal their real affections by those that were only counterfeit2 but ,i have also seen some of them1 who in counterfeiting have suffered themselves to be caught indeed1 and who have quitted the true and original affection for the feigned3 and so have learned that they who find their affections well placed are fools to consent to this disguise3 the public and favourable reception being only reserved for this pretended lover1 one may conclude him a fellow of very little address and less wit1 if he does not in the end put himself into your place1 and you into his2 this is precisely to cut out and make up a shoe for another to draw on4 ,a little thing will turn and divert us1 because a little thing holds us4 ,we do not much consider subjects in gross and singly2 they are little and superficial circumstances1 or images that touch us1 and the outward useless rinds that peel off from the subjects themselves3 ,folliculos ut nunc teretes aestate cicadae ,linquunt4 ,as husks we find grasshoppers leave behind them in summer4 --,lucretius1 v4 #hja4 ,even ,plutarch himself laments his daughter for the little apish tricks of her infancy4--,consolation to his ,wife on the ,death of their ,daughter1 c4 ,i4--,the remembrance of a farewell1 of the particular grace of an action1 of a last recommendation1 afflict us4 ,the sight of ,caesar's robe troubled all ,rome1 which was more than his death had done4 ,even the sound of names ringing in our ears1 as my poor master1--my faithful friend1--alas1 my dear father1 or1 my sweet daughter1 afflict us4 ,when these repetitions annoy me1 and that ,i examine it a little nearer1 ,i find 'tis no other but a grammatical and word complaint2 ,i am only wounded with the word and tone1 as the exclamations of preachers very often work more upon their auditory than their reasons1 and as the pitiful eyes of a beast killed for our service2 without my weighing or penetrating meanwhile into the true and solid essence of my subject3 ,his se stimulis dolor ipse lacessit4 ,with these incitements grief provokes itself4 --,lucretius1 ii4 #db4 ,these are the foundations of our mourning4 ,the obstinacy of my stone to all remedies especially those in my bladder1 has sometimes thrown me into so long suppressions of urine for three or four days together1 and so near death1 that it had been folly to have hoped to evade it1 and it was much rather to have been desired1 considering the miseries ,i endure in those cruel fits4 ,oh1 that good emperor1 who caused criminals to be tied that they might die for want of urination1 was a great master in the hangman's' science6 ,finding myself in this condition1 ,i considered by how many light causes and objects imagination nourished in me the regret of life2 of what atoms the weight and difficulty of this dislodging was composed in my soul2 to how many idle and frivolous thoughts we give way in so great an affair2 a dog1 a horse1 a book1 a glass1 and what not1 were considered in my loss2 to others their ambitious hopes1 their money1 their knowledge1 not less foolish considerations in my opinion than mine4 ,i look upon death carelessly when ,i look upon it universally as the end of life4 ,i insult over it in gross1 but in detail it domineers over me3 the tears of a footman1 the disposing of my clothes1 the touch of a friendly hand1 a common consolation1 discourages and softens me4 ,so do the complaints in tragedies agitate our souls with grief2 and the regrets of ,dido and ,ariadne1 impassionate even those who believe them not in ,virgil and ,catullus4 ',tis a symptom of an obstinate and obdurate nature to be sensible of no emotion1 as 'tis reported for a miracle of ,polemon2 but then he did not so much as alter his countenance at the biting of a mad dog that tore away the calf of his leg2 and no wisdom proceeds so far as to conceive so vivid and entire a cause of sorrow1 by judgment that it does not suffer increase by its presence1 when the eyes and ears have their share2 parts that are not to be moved but by vain accidents4 ,is it reason that even the arts themselves should make an advantage of our natural stupidity and weakness8 ,an orator1 says rhetoric in the farce of his pleading1 shall be moved with the sound of his own voice and feigned emotions1 and suffer himself to be imposed upon by the passion he represents2 he will imprint in himself a true and real grief1 by means of the part he plays1 to transmit it to the judges1 who are yet less concerned than he3 as they do who are hired at funerals to assist in the ceremony of sorrow1 who sell their tears and mourning by weight and measure2 for although they act in a borrowed form1 nevertheless1 by habituating and settling their countenances to the occasion1 'tis most certain they often are really affected with an actual sorrow4 ,i was one1 amongst several others of his friends1 who conveyed the body of ,monsieur de ,grammont to ,spissons from the siege of ,la ,fere1 where he was slain2 ,i observed that in all places we passed through we filled the people we met with lamentations and tears by the mere solemn pomp of our convoy1 for the name of the defunct was not there so much as known4 ,quintilian reports as to have seen comedians so deeply engaged in a mourning part1 that they still wept in the retiring room1 and who1 having taken upon them to stir up passion in another1 have themselves espoused it to that degree as to find themselves infected with it1 not only to tears1 but1 moreover1 with pallor and the comportment of men really overwhelmed with grief4 ,in a country near our mountains the women play ,priest ,martin1 for as they augment the regret of the deceased husband by the remembrance of the good and agreeable qualities he possessed1 they also at the same time make a register of and publish his imperfections2 as if of themselves to enter into some composition1 and divert themselves from compassion to disdain4 ,yet with much better grace than we1 who1 when we lose an acquaintance1 strive to give him new and false praises1 and to make him quite another thing when we have lost sight of him than he appeared to us when we did see him2 as if regret were an instructive thing1 or as if tears1 by washing our understandings1 cleared them4 ,for my part1 ,i henceforth renounce all favourable testimonies men would give of me1 not because ,i shall be worthy of them1 but because ,i shall be dead4 ,whoever shall ask a man1 ,what interest have you in this siege8 --,the interest of example1 he will say1 and of the common obedience to my prince3 ,i pretend to no profit by it2 and for glory1 ,i know how small a part can affect a private man such as ,i3 ,i have here neither passion nor quarrel4 ,and yet you shall see him the next day quite another man1 chafing and red with fury1 ranged in battle for the assault2 'tis the glittering of so much steel1 the fire and noise of our cannon and drums1 that have infused this new rigidity and fury into his veins4 ,a frivolous cause1 you will say4 ,how a cause8 ,there needs none to agitate the mind2 a mere whimsy without body and without subject will rule and agitate it4 ,let me thing of building castles in ,spain1 my imagination suggests to me conveniences and pleasures with which my soul is really tickled and pleased4 ,how often do we torment our mind with anger or sorrow by such shadows1 and engage ourselves in fantastic passions that impair both soul and body8 ,what astonished1 fleeting1 confused grimaces does this raving put our faces into6 what sallies and agitations both of members and voices does it inspire us with6 ,does it not seem that this individual man has false visions amid the crowd of others with whom he has to do1 or that he is possessed with some internal demon that persecutes him8 ,inquire of yourself where is the object of this mutation8 is there anything but us in nature which inanity sustains1 over which it has power8 ,cambyses1 from having dreamt that his brother should be one day king of ,persia1 put him to death3 a beloved brother1 and one in whom he had always confided4 ,aristodemus1 king of the ,messenians1 killed himself out of a fancy of ill omen1 from ,i know not what howling of his dogs2 and ,king ,midas did as much upon the account of some foolish dream he had dreamed4 ',tis to prize life at its just value1 to abandon it for a dream4 ,and yet hear the soul triumph over the miseries and weakness of the body1 and that it is exposed to all attacks and alterations2 truly1 it has reason so to speak6 ,o prima infelix finger ti terra ,prometheo6 ,ille parum cauti pectoris egit opus ,corpora disponens1 mentem non vidit in arte2 ,recta animi primum debuit esse via4 ,o wretched clay1 first formed by ,prometheus4 ,in his attempt1 what little wisdom did he shew6 ,in framing bodies1 he did not apply his art to form the mind1 which should have been his first care4--,propertius1 iii4 #e1 #g4 ,,etext ,,editor',s ,,bookmarks3 ,a little thing will turn and divert us ,abominate that incidental repentance which old age brings ,age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face ,always be parading their pedantic science ,am as jealous of my repose as of my authority ,anger and hatred are beyond the duty of justice ,beast of company1 as the ancient said1 but not of the herd ,books go side by side with me in my whole course ,books have many charming qualities to such as know how to choose ,but ill proves the honour and beauty of an action by its utility ,childish ignorance of many very ordinary things ,common consolation1 discourages and softens me ,consoles himself upon the utility and eternity of his writings ,deceit maintains and supplies most men's employment ,diverting the opinions and conjectures of the people ,dying appears to him a natural and indifferent accident ,every place of retirement requires a walk ,fault will be theirs for having consulted me ,few men have been admired by their own domestics ,follies do not make me laugh1 it is our wisdom which does ,folly to put out their own light and shine by a borrowed lustre ,for fear of the laws and report of men ,gently to bear the inconstancy of a lover ,give but the rind of my attention ,grief provokes itself ,he may employ his passion1 who can make no use of his reason ,he may well go a foot1 they say1 who leads his horse in his hand ,i do not consider what it is now1 but what it was then ,i find no quality so easy to counterfeit as devotion ,i lay no great stress upon my opinions2 or of others ,i look upon death carelessly when ,i look upon it universally ,i receive but little advice1 ,i also give but little ,i speak truth1 not so much as ,i would1 but as much as ,i dare ,i understand my men even by their silence and smiles ,idleness is to me a very painful labour ,imagne the mighty will not abase themselves so much as to live ,in ordinary friendships ,i am somewhat cold and shy ,leaving nothing unsaid1 how home and bitter soever ,library3 ,tis there that ,i am in my kingdom ,malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom ,malicious kind of justice ,miserable kind of remedy1 to owe one's health to one's disease6 ,miserable1 who has not at home where to be by himself ,more supportable to be always alone than never to be so4 ,my fancy does not go by itself1 as when my legs move it ,my thoughts sleep if ,i sit still ,nearest to the opinions of those with whom they have to do ,no evil is honourable2 but death is honourable ,no man is free from speaking foolish things ,noise of arms deafened the voice of laws ,none of the sex1 let her be as ugly as the devil thinks lovable ,obliged to his age for having weaned him from pleasure ,open speaking draws out discoveries1 like wine and love ,perfect men as they are1 they are yet simply men4 ,preachers very often work more upon their auditory than reasons ,public weal requires that men should betray1 and lie ,ridiculous desire of riches when we have lost the use of them ,rowers who so advance backward ,season a denial with asperity1 suspense1 or favour ,so that ,i could have said no worse behind their backs ,socrates3 ,according to what a man can ,studied1 when young1 for ostentation1 now for diversion ,swim in troubled waters without fishing in them ,take a pleasure in being uninterested in other men's affairs ,the good opinion of the vulgar is injurious ,the sick man has not to complain who has his cure in his sleeve ,the virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high ,tis an exact life that maintains itself in due order in private ,tis not the cause1 but their interest1 that inflames them ,titillation of ill-natured pleasure in seeing others suffer ,to be a slave1 incessantly to be led by the nose by one's self ,truly he1 with a great effort will shortly say a mighty trifle ,we do not so much forsake vices as we change them ,we much more aptly imagine an artisan upon his close-stool ,what more8 they lie with their lovers learnedly ,what need have they of anything but to live beloved and honoured ,wisdom is folly that does not accommodate itself to the common ,you must let yourself down to those with whom you converse