,,essays ,,of ,,michel ,,de ,,montaigne ,translated by ,charles ,cotton ,edited by ,william ,carew ,hazilitt #ahgg ,,contents ,,of ,,volume #af4 ,,vi4 ,of ,coaches4 ,,vii4 ,of the ,inconvenience of ,greatness4 ,,viii4 ,of the ,art of ,conference4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,of ,,coaches ,it is very easy to verify1 that great authors1 when they write of causes1 not only make use of those they think to be the true causes1 but also of those they believe not to be so1 provided they have in them some beauty and invention3 they speak true and usefully enough1 if it be ingeniously4 ,we cannot make ourselves sure of the supreme cause1 and therefore crowd a great many together1 to see if it may not accidentally be amongst them3 ,namque unam dicere causam ,non satis est1 verum plures1 unde una tamen sit4 ,lucretius1 vi4 #gjd4--,the sense is in the preceding passage4 ,do you ask me1 whence comes the custom of blessing those who sneeze8 ,we break wind three several ways2 that which sallies from below is too filthy2 that which breaks out from the mouth carries with it some reproach of gluttony2 the third is sneezing1 which1 because it proceeds from the head and is without offence1 we give it this civil reception3 do not laugh at this distinction2 they say 'tis ,aristotle's4 ,i think ,i have seen in ,plutarch' 7who of all the authors ,i know1 is he who has best mixed art with nature1 and judgment with knowledge71 his giving as a reason for the1 rising of the stomach in those who are at sea1 that it is occasioned by fear2 having first found out some reason by which he proves that fear may produce such an effect4 ,i1 who am very subject to it1 know well that this cause concerns not me2 and ,i know it1 not by argument1 but by necessary experience4 ,without instancing what has been told me1 that the same thing often happens in beasts1 especially hogs1 who are out of all apprehension of danger2 and what an acquaintance of mine told me of himself1 that though very subject to it1 the disposition to vomit has three or four times gone off him1 being very afraid in a violent storm1 as it happened to that ancient3 ,pejus vexabar1 quam ut periculum mihi succurreret2 ,i was too ill to think of danger4 7,or the reverse37 ,i was too frightened to be ill4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #ec4 #b ,i was never afraid upon the water1 nor indeed in any other peril 7and ,i have had enough before my eyes that would have sufficed1 if death be one71 so as to be astounded to lose my judgment4 ,fear springs sometimes as much from want of judgment as from want of courage4 ,all the dangers ,i have been in ,i have looked upon without winking1 with an open1 sound1 and entire sight2 and1 indeed1 a man must have courage to fear4 ,it formerly served me better than other help1 so to order and regulate my retreat1 that it was1 if not without fear1 nevertheless without affright and astonishment2 it was agitated1 indeed1 but not amazed or stupefied4 ,great souls go yet much farther1 and present to us flights1 not only steady and temperate1 but moreover lofty4 ,let us make a relation of that which ,alcibiades reports of ,socrates1 his fellow in arms3 ,i found him1 says he1 after the rout of our army1 him and ,lachez1 last among those who fled1 and considered him at my leisure and in security1 for ,i was mounted on a good horse1 and he on foot1 as he had fought4 ,i took notice1 in the first place1 how much judgment and resolution he showed1 in comparison of ,lachez1 and then the bravery of his march1 nothing different from his ordinary gait2 his sight firm and regular1 considering and judging what passed about him1 looking one while upon those1 and then upon others1 friends and enemies1 after such a manner as encouraged those1 and signified to the others that he would sell his life dear to any one who should attempt to take it from him1 and so they came off2 for people are not willing to attack such kind of men1 but pursue those they see are in a fright4 ,that is the testimony of this great captain1 which teaches us1 what we every day experience1 that nothing so much throws us into dangers as an inconsiderate eagerness of getting ourselves clear of them3 ,quo timoris minus est1 eo minus ferme periculi est4 ,when there is least fear1 there is for the most part least danger4--,livy1 xxii4 #e4 ,our people are to blame who say that such an one is afraid of death1 when they would express that he thinks of it and foresees it3 foresight is equally convenient in what concerns us1 whether good or ill4 ,to consider and judge of danger is1 in some sort1 the reverse to being astounded4 ,i do not find myself strong enough to sustain the force and impetuosity of this passion of fear1 nor of any other vehement passion whatever3 if ,i was once conquered and beaten down by it1 ,i should never rise again very sound4 ,whoever should once make my soul lose her footing1 would never set her upright again3 she retastes and researches herself too profoundly1 and too much to the quick1 and therefore would never let the wound she had received heal and cicatrise4 ,it has been well for me that no sickness has yet discomposed her3 at every charge made upon me1 ,i preserve my utmost opposition and defence2 by which means the first that should rout me would keep me from ever rallying again4 ,i have no after-game to play3 on which side soever the inundation breaks my banks1 ,i lie open1 and am drowned without remedy4 ,epicurus says1 that a wise man can never become a fool2 ,i have an opinion reverse to this sentence1 which is1 that he who has once been a very fool1 will never after be very wise4 ,god grants me cold according to my cloth1 and passions proportionable to the means ,i have to withstand them3 nature having laid me open on the one side1 has covered me on the other2 having disarmed me of strength1 she has armed me with insensibility and an apprehension that is regular1 or1 if you will1 dull4 ,i cannot now long endure 7and when ,i was young could much less7 either coach1 litter1 or boat1 and hate all other riding but on horseback1 both in town and country4 ,but ,i can bear a litter worse than a coach2 and1 by the same reason1 a rough agitation upon the water1 whence fear is produced1 better than the motions of a calm4 ,at the little jerks of oars1 stealing the vessel from under us1 ,i find1 ,i know not how1 both my head and my stomach disordered2 neither-can ,i endure to sit upon a tottering chair4 ,when the sail or the current carries us equally1 or that we are towed1 the equal agitation does not disturb me at all2 'tis an interrupted motion that offends me1 and most of all when most slow3 ,i cannot otherwise express it4 ,the physicians have ordered me to squeeze and gird myself about the bottom of the belly with a napkin to remedy this evil2 which however ,i have not tried1 being accustomed to wrestle with my own defects1 and overcome them myself4 ,would my memory serve me1 ,i should not think my time ill spent in setting down here the infinite variety that history presents us of the use of chariots in the service of war3 various1 according to the nations and according to the age2 in my opinion1 of great necessity and effect2 so that it is a wonder that we have lost all knowledge of them4 ,i will only say this1 that very lately1 in our fathers' time1 the ,hungarians made very advantageous use of them against the ,turks2 having in every one of them a targetter and a musketeer1 and a number of harquebuses piled ready and loaded1 and all covered with a pavesade like a galliot--,canvas spread along the side of a ship of war1 in action to screen the movements of those on board4--,they formed the front of their battle with three thousand such coaches1 and after the cannon had played1 made them all pour in their shot upon the enemy1 who had to swallow that volley before they tasted of the rest1 which was no little advance2 and that done1 these chariots charged into their squadrons to break them and open a way for the rest2 besides the use they might make of them to flank the soldiers in a place of danger when marching to the field1 or to cover a post1 and fortify it in haste4 ,in my time1 a gentleman on one of our frontiers1 unwieldy of body1 and finding no horse able to carry his weight1 having a quarrel1 rode through the country in a chariot of this fashion1 and found great convenience in it4 ,but let us leave these chariots of war4 ,as if their effeminacy--,which ,cotton translates3 as if the insignificancy of coaches4 --had not been sufficiently known by better proofs1 the last kings of our first race travelled in a chariot drawn by four oxen4 ,marc ,antony was the first at ,rome who caused himself to be drawn in a coach by lions1 and a singing wench with him4 ,cytheris1 the ,roman courtezan4--,plutarch's ,life of ,antony1 c4 #c4 ,this1 was the same person who is introduced by ,gallus under the name of ,lycoris4 ,gallus doubtless knew her personally4 ,heliogabalus did since as much1 calling himself ,cybele1 the mother of the gods2 and also drawn by tigers1 taking upon him the person of the god ,bacchus2 he also sometimes harnessed two stags to his coach1 another time four dogs1 and another four naked wenches1 causing himself to be drawn by them in pomp1 stark naked too4 ,the ,emperor ,firmus caused his chariot to be drawn by ostriches of a prodigious size1 so that it seemed rather to fly than roll4 ,the strangeness of these inventions puts this other fancy in my head3 that it is a kind of pusillanimity in monarchs1 and a testimony that they do not sufficiently understand themselves what they are1 when they study to make themselves honoured and to appear great by excessive expense3 it were indeed excusable in a foreign country1 but amongst their own subjects1 where they are in sovereign command1 and may do what they please1 it derogates from their dignity the most supreme degree of honour to which they can arrive3 just as1 methinks1 it is superfluous in a private gentleman to go finely dressed at home2 his house1 his attendants1 and his kitchen sufficiently answer for him4 ,the advice that ,isocrates gives his king seems to be grounded upon reason3 that he should be splendid in plate and furniture2 forasmuch as it is an expense of duration that devolves on his successors2 and that he should avoid all magnificences that will in a short time be forgotten4 ,i loved to go fine when ,i was a younger brother1 for want of other ornament2 and it became me well3 there are some upon whom their rich clothes weep3 ,we have strange stories of the frugality of our kings about their own persons and in their gifts3 kings who were great in reputation1 valour1 and fortune4 ,demosthenes vehemently opposes the law of his city that assigned the public money for the pomp of their public plays and festivals3 he would that their greatness should be seen in numbers of ships well equipped1 and good armies well provided for2 and there is good reason to condemn ,theophrastus1 who1 in his ,book on ,riches1 establishes a contrary opinion1 and maintains that sort of expense to be the true fruit of abundance4 ,they are delights1 says ,aristotle1 that a only please the baser sort of the people1 and that vanish from the memory as soon as the people are sated with them1 and for which no serious and judicious man can have any esteem4 ,this money would1 in my opinion1 be much more royally1 as more profitably1 justly1 and durably1 laid out in ports1 havens1 walls1 and fortifications2 in sumptuous buildings1 churches1 hospitals1 colleges1 the reforming of streets and highways3 wherein ,pope ,gregory ,,xiii4 will leave a laudable memory to future times3 and wherein our ,queen ,catherine would to long posterity manifest her natural liberality and munificence1 did her means supply her affection4 ,fortune has done me a great despite in interrupting the noble structure of the ,pont-,neuf of our great city1 and depriving me of the hope of seeing it finished before ,i die4 ,moreover1 it seems to subjects1 who are spectators of these triumphs1 that their own riches are exposed before them1 and that they are entertained at their own expense3 for the people are apt to presume of kings1 as we do of our servants1 that they are to take care to provide us all things necessary in abundance1 but not touch it themselves2 and therefore the ,emperor ,galba1 being pleased with a musician who played to him at supper1 called for his money-box1 and gave him a handful of crowns that he took out of it1 with these words3 ,this is not the public money1 but my own4 ,yet it so falls out that the people1 for the most part1 have reason on their side1 and that the princes feed their eyes with what they have need of to fill their bellies4 ,liberality itself is not in its true lustre in a sovereign hand3 private men have therein the most right2 for1 to take it exactly1 a king has nothing properly his own2 he owes himself to others3 authority is not given in favour of the magistrate1 but of the people2 a superior is never made so for his own profit1 but for the profit of the inferior1 and a physician for the sick person1 and not for himself3 all magistracy1 as well as all art1 has its end out of itself wherefore the tutors of young princes1 who make it their business to imprint in them this virtue of liberality1 and preach to them to deny nothing and to think nothing so well spent as what they give 7a doctrine that ,i have known in great credit in my time71 either have more particular regard to their own profit than to that of their master1 or ill understand to whom they speak4 ,it is too easy a thing to inculcate liberality on him who has as much as he will to practise it with at the expense of others2 and1 the estimate not being proportioned to the measure of the gift but to the measure of the means of him who gives it1 it comes to nothing in so mighty hands2 they find themselves prodigal before they can be reputed liberal4 ,and it is but a little recommendation1 in comparison with other royal virtues3 and the only one1 as the tyrant ,dionysius said1 that suits well with tyranny itself4 ,i should rather teach him this verse of the ancient labourer3 ,that whoever will have a good crop must sow with his hand1 and not pour out of the sack4--,plutarch1 ,apothegms1 ,whether the ,ancients were more excellent in ,arms than in ,learning4 he must scatter it abroad1 and not lay it on a heap in one place3 and that1 seeing he is to give1 or1 to say better1 to pay and restore to so many people according as they have deserved1 he ought to be a loyal and discreet disposer4 ,if the liberality of a prince be without measure or discretion1 ,i had rather he were covetous4 ,royal virtue seems most to consist in justice2 and of all the parts of justice that best denotes a king which accompanies liberality1 for this they have particularly reserved to be performed by themselves1 whereas all other sorts of justice they remit to the administration of others4 ,an immoderate bounty is a very weak means to acquire for them good will2 it checks more people than it allures3 ,quo in plures usus sis1 minus in multos uti possis4444 ,quid autem est stultius1 quam1 quod libenter facias1 curare ut id diutius facere non possis2 ,by how much more you use it to many1 by so much less will you be in a capacity to use it to many more4 ,and what greater folly can there be than to order it so that what you would willingly do1 you cannot do longer4--,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 ii4 #ae4 and if it be conferred without due respect of merit1 it puts him out of countenance who receives it1 and is received ungraciously4 ,tyrants have been sacrificed to the hatred of the people by the hands of those very men they have unjustly advanced2 such kind of men as buffoons1 panders1 fiddlers1 and such ragamuffins1 thinking to assure to themselves the possession of benefits unduly received1 if they manifest to have him in hatred and disdain of whom they hold them1 and in this associate themselves to the common judgment and opinion4 ,the subjects of a prince excessive in gifts grow excessive in asking1 and regulate their demands1 not by reason1 but by example4 ,we have1 seriously1 very often reason to blush at our own impudence3 we are over-paid1 according to justice1 when the recompense equals our service2 for do we owe nothing of natural obligation to our princes8 ,if he bear our charges1 he does too much2 'tis enough that he contribute to them3 the overplus is called benefit1 which cannot be exacted3 for the very name ,liberality sounds of ,liberty4 ,in our fashion it is never done2 we never reckon what we have received2 we are only for the future liberality2 wherefore1 the more a prince exhausts himself in giving1 the poorer he grows in friends4 ,how should he satisfy immoderate desires1 that still increase as they are fulfilled8 ,he who has his thoughts upon taking1 never thinks of what he has taken2 covetousness has nothing so properly and so much its own as ingratitude4 ,the example of ,cyrus will not do amiss in this place1 to serve the kings of these times for a touchstone to know whether their gifts are well or ill bestowed1 and to see how much better that emperor conferred them than they do1 by which means they are reduced to borrow of unknown subjects1 and rather of them whom they have wronged than of them on whom they have conferred their benefits1 and so receive aids wherein there is nothing of gratuitous but the name4 ,croesus reproached him with his bounty1 and cast up to how much his treasure would amount if he had been a little closer-handed4 ,he had a mind to justify his liberality1 and therefore sent despatches into all parts to the grandees of his dominions whom he had particularly advanced1 entreating every one of them to supply him with as much money as they could1 for a pressing occasion1 and to send him particulars of what each could advance4 ,when all these answers were brought to him1 every one of his friends1 not thinking it enough barely to offer him so much as he had received from his bounty1 and adding to it a great deal of his own1 it appeared that the sum amounted to a great deal more than ,croesus' reckoning4 ,whereupon ,cyrus3 ,i am not1 said he1 less in love with riches than other princes1 but rather a better husband2 you see with how small a venture ,i have acquired the inestimable treasure of so many friends1 and how much more faithful treasurers they are to me than mercenary men without obligation1 without affection2 and my money better laid up than in chests1 bringing upon me the hatred1 envy1 and contempt of other princes4 ,the emperors excused the superfluity of their plays and public spectacles by reason that their authority in some sort 7at least in outward appearance7 depended upon the will of the people of ,rome1 who1 time out of mind1 had been accustomed to be entertained and caressed with such shows and excesses4 ,but they were private citizens1 who had nourished this custom to gratify their fellow-citizens and companions 7and chiefly out of their own purses7 by such profusion and magnificence it had quite another taste when the masters came to imitate it3 ,pecuniarum translatio a justis dominis ad alienos non debet liberalis videri4 ,the transferring of money from the right owners to strangers ought not to have the title of liberality4 --,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 i4 #ad4 ,philip1 seeing that his son went about by presents to gain the affection of the ,macedonians1 reprimanded him in a letter after this manner3 ,what6 hast thou a mind that thy subjects shall look upon thee as their cash-keeper and not as their king8 ,wilt thou tamper with them to win their affections8 ,do it1 then1 by the benefits of thy virtue1 and not by those of thy chest4 ,and yet it was1 doubtless1 a fine thing to bring and plant within the amphitheatre a great number of vast trees1 with all their branches in their full verdure1 representing a great shady forest1 disposed in excellent order2 and1 the first day1 to throw into it a thousand ostriches and a thousand stags1 a thousand boars1 and a thousand fallow-deer1 to be killed and disposed of by the people3 the next day1 to cause a hundred great lions1 a hundred leopards1 and three hundred bears to be killed in his presence2 and for the third day1 to make three hundred pair of gladiators fight it out to the last1 as the ,emperor ,probus did4 ,it was also very fine to see those vast amphitheatres1 all faced with marble without1 curiously wrought with figures and statues1 and within glittering with rare enrichments3 ,baltheus en6 gemmis1 en illita porticus auro3 ,a belt glittering with jewels1 and a portico overlaid with gold4 --,calpurnius1 ,eclog41 vii4 #dg4 ,a baltheus was a shoulder-belt or baldric4 all the sides of this vast space filled and environed1 from the bottom to the top1 with three or four score rows of seats1 all of marble also1 and covered with cushions3 ,exeat1 inquit1 ,si pudor est1 et de pulvino surgat equestri1 ,cujus res legi non sufficit2 ,let him go out1 he said1 if he has any sense of shame1 and rise from the equestrian cushion1 whose estate does not satisfy the law4 --,juvenal1 iii4 #aec4 ,the ,equites were required to possess a fortune of #djj sestertia1 and they sat on the first fourteen rows behind the orchestra4 where a hundred thousand men might sit at their ease3 and1 the place below1 where the games were played1 to make it1 by art1 first open and cleave in chasms1 representing caves that vomited out the beasts designed for the spectacle2 and then1 secondly1 to be overflowed by a deep sea1 full of sea monsters1 and laden with ships of war1 to represent a naval battle2 and1 thirdly1 to make it dry and even again for the combat of the gladiators2 and1 for the fourth scene1 to have it strown with vermilion grain and storax1--,a resinous gum4--instead of sand1 there to make a solemn feast for all that infinite number of people3 the last act of one only day3 ,quoties nos descendentis arenae ,vidimus in partes1 ruptaque voragine terrae ,emersisse feras1 et eisdem saepe latebris ,aurea cum croceo creverunt arbuta libro64444 ,nec solum nobis silvestria cernere monstra ,contigit2 aequoreos ego cum certantibus ursis ,spectavi vitulos1 et equorum nomine dignum1 ,sen deforme pecus1 quod in illo nascitur amni4444 ,how often have we seen the stage of the theatre descend and part asunder1 and from a chasm in the earth wild beasts emerge1 and then presently give birth to a grove of gilded trees1 that put forth blossoms of enamelled flowers4 ,nor yet of sylvan marvels alone had we sight3 ,i saw sea-calves fight with bears1 and a deformed sort of cattle1 we might call sea-horses4--,calpurnius1 ,eclog41 vii4 #fd4 ,sometimes they made a high mountain advance itself1 covered with fruit-trees and other leafy trees1 sending down rivulets of water from the top1 as from the mouth of a fountain3 otherwhiles1 a great ship was seen to come rolling in1 which opened and divided of itself1 and after having disgorged from the hold four or five hundred beasts for fight1 closed again1 and vanished without help4 ,at other times1 from the floor of this place1 they made spouts of perfumed water dart their streams upward1 and so high as to sprinkle all that infinite multitude4 ,to defend themselves from the injuries of the weather1 they had that vast place one while covered over with purple curtains of needlework1 and by-and-by with silk of one or another colour1 which they drew off or on in a moment1 as they had a mind3 ,quamvis non modico caleant spectacula sole1 ,vela reducuntur1 cum venit ,hermogenes4 ,the curtains1 though the sun should scorch the spectators1 are drawn in1 when ,hermogenes appears4-,martial1 xii4 #bi1 #ae4 ,m4 ,tigellius ,hermogenes1 whom ,horace and others have satirised4 ,one editor calls him a noted thief1 another3 ,he was a literary amateur of no ability1 who expressed his critical opinions with too great a freedom to please the poets of his day4 ,d4,w4 ,the network also that was set before the people to defend them from the violence of these turned-out beasts was woven of gold3 ,auro quoque torts refulgent ,retia4 ,the woven nets are refulgent with gold4 --,calpurnius1 ubi supra4 ,if there be anything excusable in such excesses as these1 it is where the novelty and invention create more wonder than the expense2 even in these vanities we discover how fertile those ages were in other kind of wits than these of ours4 ,it is with this sort of fertility1 as with all other products of nature3 not that she there and then employed her utmost force3 we do not go2 we rather run up and down1 and whirl this way and that2 we turn back the way we came4 ,i am afraid our knowledge is weak in all senses2 we neither see far forward nor far backward2 our understanding comprehends little1 and lives but a little while2 'tis short both in extent of time and extent of matter3 ,vixere fortes ante ,agamemnona ,mufti1 sed omnes illacrymabiles ,urgentur1 ignotique longs ,nocte4 ,many brave men lived before ,agamemnon1 but all are pressed by the long night unmourned and unknown4--,horace1 ,od41 iv4 #i1 #be4 ,et supra bellum ,thebanum et funera ,trojae ,non alias alii quoque res cecinere poetae8 ,why before the ,theban war and the destruction of ,troy1 have not other poets sung other events8--,lucretius1 v4 #cbg4 ,montaigne here diverts himself m giving ,lucretius' words a construction directly contrary to what they bear in the poem4 ,lucretius puts the question1 ,why if the earth had existed from all eternity1 there had not been poets1 before the ,theban war1 to sing men's exploits4 --,coste4 ,and the narrative of ,solon1 of what he had learned from the ,egyptian priests1 touching the long life of their state1 and their manner of learning and preserving foreign histories1 is not1 methinks1 a testimony to be refused in this consideration3 ,si interminatam in omnes partes magnitudinem regionum videremus et temporum1 in quam se injiciens animus et intendens1 ita late longeque peregrinatur1 ut nullam oram ultimi videat1 in qua possit insistere3 in haec immensitate 4 4 4 infinita vis innumerabilium appareret fomorum4 ,could we see on all parts the unlimited magnitude of regions and of times1 upon which the mind being intent1 could wander so far and wide1 that no limit is to be seen1 in which it can bound its eye1 we should1 in that infinite immensity1 discover an infinite force of innumerable atoms4 ,here also ,montaigne puts a sense quite different from what the words bear in the original2 but the application he makes of them is so happy that one would declare they were actually put together only to express his own sentiments4 ,et temporum is an addition by ,montaigne4--,coste4 ,though all that has arrived1 by report1 of our knowledge of times past should be true1 and known by some one person1 it would be less than nothing in comparison of what is unknown4 ,and of this same image of the world1 which glides away whilst we live upon it1 how wretched and limited is the knowledge of the most curious2 not only of particular events1 which fortune often renders exemplary and of great concern1 but of the state of great governments and nations1 a hundred more escape us than ever come to our knowledge4 ,we make a mighty business of the invention of artillery and printing1 which other men at the other end of the world1 in ,china1 had a thousand years ago4 ,did we but see as much of the world as we do not see1 we should perceive1 we may well believe1 a perpetual multiplication and vicissitude of forms4 ,there is nothing single and rare in respect of nature1 but in respect of our knowledge1 which is a wretched foundation whereon to ground our rules1 and that represents to us a very false image of things4 ,as we nowadays vainly conclude the declension and decrepitude of the world1 by the arguments we extract from our own weakness and decay3 ,jamque adeo est affecta aetas effoet aque tellus2 ,our age is feeble1 and the earth less fertile4 --,lucretius1 ii4 #aaea4 so did he vainly conclude as to its birth and youth1 by the vigour he observed in the wits of his time1 abounding in novelties and the invention of divers arts3 ,verum1 ut opinor1 habet novitatem summa1 recensque ,natura est mundi1 neque pridem exordia coepit ,quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur1 ,nunc etiam augescunt2 nunc addita navigiis sunt ,multa4 ,but1 as ,i am of opinion1 the whole of the world is of recent origin1 nor had its commencement in remote times2 wherefore it is that some arts are still being refined1 and some just on the increase2 at present many additions are being made to shipping4 --,lucretius1 v4 #cca4 ,our world has lately discovered another 7and who will assure us that it is the last of its brothers1 since the ,daemons1 the ,sybils1 and we ourselves have been ignorant of this till now871 as large1 well-peopled1 and fruitful as this whereon we live and yet so raw and childish1 that we are still teaching it it's a ,b ,c3 'tis not above fifty years since it knew neither letters1 weights1 measures1 vestments1 corn1 nor vines3 it was then quite naked in the mother's lap1 and only lived upon what she gave it4 ,if we rightly conclude of our end1 and this poet of the youthfulness of that age of his1 that other world will only enter into the light when this of ours shall make its exit2 the universe will fall into paralysis2 one member will be useless1 the other in vigour4 ,i am very much afraid that we have greatly precipitated its declension and ruin by our contagion2 and that we have sold it opinions and our arts at a very dear rate4 ,it was an infant world1 and yet we have not whipped and subjected it to our discipline by the advantage of our natural worth and force1 neither have we won it by our justice and goodness1 nor subdued it by our magnanimity4 ,most of their answers1 and the negotiations we have had with them1 witness that they were nothing behind us in pertinency and clearness of natural understanding4 ,the astonishing magnificence of the cities of ,cusco and ,mexico1 and1 amongst many other things1 the garden of the king1 where all the trees1 fruits1 and plants1 according to the order and stature they have in a garden1 were excellently formed in gold2 as1 in his cabinet1 were all the animals bred upon his territory and in its seas2 and the beauty of their manufactures1 in jewels1 feathers1 cotton1 and painting1 gave ample proof that they were as little inferior to us in industry4 ,but as to what concerns devotion1 observance of the laws1 goodness1 liberality1 loyalty1 and plain dealing1 it was of use to us that we had not so much as they2 for they have lost1 sold1 and betrayed themselves by this advantage over us4 ,as to boldness and courage1 stability1 constancy against pain1 hunger1 and death1 ,i should not fear to oppose the examples ,i find amongst them to the most famous examples of elder times that we find in our records on this side of the world4 ,far as to those who subdued them1 take but away the tricks and artifices they practised to gull them1 and the just astonishment it was to those nations to see so sudden and unexpected an arrival of men with beards1 differing in language1 religion1 shape1 and countenance1 from so remote a part of the world1 and where they had never heard there was any habitation1 mounted upon great unknown monsters1 against those who had not only never seen a horse1 but had never seen any other beast trained up to carry a man or any other loading2 shelled in a hard and shining skin1 with a cutting and glittering weapon in his hand1 against them1 who1 out of wonder at the brightness of a looking glass or a knife1 would exchange great treasures of gold and pearl2 and who had neither knowledge1 nor matter with which1 at leisure1 they could penetrate our steel3 to which may be added the lightning and thunder of our cannon and harquebuses1 enough to frighten ,caesar himself1 if surprised1 with so little experience1 against people naked1 except where the invention of a little quilted cotton was in use1 without other arms1 at the most1 than bows1 stones1 staves1 and bucklers of wood2 people surprised under colour of friendship and good faith1 by the curiosity of seeing strange and unknown things2 take but away1 ,i say1 this disparity from the conquerors1 and you take away all the occasion of so many victories4 ,when ,i look upon that in vincible ardour wherewith so many thousands of men1 women1 and children so often presented and threw themselves into inevitable dangers for the defence of their gods and liberties2 that generous obstinacy to suffer all extremities and difficulties1 and death itself1 rather than submit to the dominion of those by whom they had been so shamefully abused2 and some of them choosing to die of hunger and fasting1 being prisoners1 rather than to accept of nourishment from the hands of their so basely victorious enemies3 ,i see1 that whoever would have attacked them upon equal terms of arms1 experience1 and number1 would have had a hard1 and1 peradventure1 a harder game to play than in any other war we have seen4 ,why did not so noble a conquest fall under ,alexander1 or the ancient ,greeks and ,romans2 and so great a revolution and mutation of so many empires and nations1 fall into hands that would have gently levelled1 rooted up1 and made plain and smooth whatever was rough and savage amongst them1 and that would have cherished and propagated the good seeds that nature had there produced2 mixing not only with the culture of land and the ornament of cities1 the arts of this part of the world1 in what was necessary1 but also the ,greek and ,roman virtues1 with those that were original of the country8 ,what a reparation had it been to them1 and what a general good to the whole world1 had our first examples and deportments in those parts allured those people to the admiration and imitation of virtue1 and had begotten betwixt them and us a fraternal society and intelligence8 ,how easy had it been to have made advantage of souls so innocent1 and so eager to learn1 leaving1 for the most part1 naturally so good inclinations before8 ,whereas1 on the contrary1 we have taken advantage of their ignorance and inexperience1 with greater ease to incline them to treachery1 luxury1 avarice1 and towards all sorts of inhumanity and cruelty1 by the pattern and example of our manners4 ,who ever enhanced the price of merchandise at such a rate8 ,so many cities levelled with the ground1 so many nations exterminated1 so many millions of people fallen by the edge of the sword1 and the richest and most beautiful part of the world turned upside down1 for the traffic of pearl and pepper8 ,mechanic victories6 ,never did ambition1 never did public animosities1 engage men against one another in such miserable hostilities1 in such miserable calamities4 ,certain ,spaniards1 coasting the sea in quest of their mines1 landed in a fruitful and pleasant and very well peopled country1 and there made to the inhabitants their accustomed professions3 that they were peaceable men1 who were come from a very remote country1 and sent on the behalf of the ,king of ,castile1 the greatest prince of the habitable world1 to whom the ,pope1 ,god's vicegerent upon earth1 had given the principality of all the ,indies2 that if they would become tributaries to him1 they should be very gently and courteously used2 at the same time requiring of them victuals for their nourishment1 and gold whereof to make some pretended medicine2 setting forth1 moreover1 the belief in one only ,god1 and the truth of our religion1 which they advised them to embrace1 whereunto they also added some threats4 ,to which they received this answer3 ,that as to their being peaceable1 they did not seem to be such1 if they were so4 ,as to their king1 since he was fain to beg1 he must be necessitous and poor2 and he who had made him this gift1 must be a man who loved dissension1 to give that to another which was none of his own1 to bring it into dispute against the ancient possessors4 ,as to victuals1 they would supply them2 that of gold they had little2 it being a thing they had in very small esteem1 as of no use to the service of life1 whereas their only care was to pass it over happily and pleasantly3 but that what they could find excepting what was employed in the service of their gods1 they might freely take4 ,as to one only ,god1 the proposition had pleased them well2 but that they would not change their religion1 both because they had so long and happily lived in it1 and that they were not wont to take advice of any but their friends1 and those they knew3 as to their menaces1 it was a sign of want of judgment to threaten those whose nature and power were to them unknown2 that1 therefore1 they were to make haste to quit their coast1 for they were not used to take the civilities and professions of armed men and strangers in good part2 otherwise they should do by them as they had done by those others1 showing them the heads of several executed men round the walls of their city4 ,a fair example of the babble of these children4 ,but so it is1 that the ,spaniards did not1 either in this or in several other places1 where they did not find the merchandise they sought1 make any stay or attempt1 whatever other conveniences were there to be had2 witness my ,,cannibals4 --,chapter ,,xxx4 of ,book ,i4 ,of the two most puissant monarchs of that world1 and1 peradventure1 of this1 kings of so many kings1 and the last they turned out1 he of ,peru1 having been taken in a battle1 and put to so excessive a ransom as exceeds all belief1 and it being faithfully paid1 and he having1 by his conversation1 given manifest signs of a frank1 liberal1 and constant spirit1 and of a clear and settled understanding1 the conquerors had a mind1 after having exacted one million three hundred and twenty-five thousand and five hundred weight of gold1 besides silver1 and other things which amounted to no less 7so that their horses were shod with massy gold71 still to see1 at the price of what disloyalty and injustice whatever1 what the remainder of the treasures of this king might be1 and to possess themselves of that also4 ,to this end a false accusation was preferred against him1 and false witnesses brought to prove that he went about to raise an insurrection in his provinces1 to procure his own liberty2 whereupon1 by the virtuous sentence of those very men who had by this treachery conspired his ruin1 he was condemned to be publicly hanged and strangled1 after having made him buy off the torment of being burnt alive1 by the baptism they gave him immediately before execution2 a horrid and unheard of barbarity1 which1 nevertheless1 he underwent without giving way either in word or look1 with a truly grave and royal behaviour4 ,after which1 to calm and appease the people1 aroused and astounded at so strange a thing1 they counterfeited great sorrow for his death1 and appointed most sumptuous funerals4 ,the other king of ,mexico1--,guatimosin--having for a long time defended his beleaguered city1 and having in this siege manifested the utmost of what suffering and perseverance can do1 if ever prince and people did1 and his misfortune having delivered him alive into his enemies' hands1 upon articles of being treated like a king1 neither did he in his captivity discover anything unworthy of that title4 ,his enemies1 after their victory1 not finding so much gold as they expected1 when they had searched and rifled with their utmost diligence1 they went about to procure discoveries by the most cruel torments they could invent upon the prisoners they had taken3 but having profited nothing by these1 their courage being greater than their torments1 they arrived at last to such a degree of fury1 as1 contrary to their faith and the law of nations1 to condemn the king himself1 and one of the principal noblemen of his court1 to the rack1 in the presence of one another4 ,this lord1 finding himself overcome with pain1 being environed with burning coals1 pitifully turned his dying eyes towards his master1 as it were to ask him pardon that he was able to endure no more2 whereupon the king1 darting at him a fierce and severe look1 as reproaching his cowardice and pusillanimity1 with a harsh and constant voice said to him thus only3 ,and what dost thou think ,i suffer8 am ,i in a bath8 am ,i more at ease than thou8 ,whereupon the other immediately quailed under the torment and died upon the spot4 ,the king1 half roasted1 was carried thence2 not so much out of pity 7for what compassion ever touched so barbarous souls1 who1 upon the doubtful information of some vessel of gold to be made a prey of1 caused not only a man1 but a king1 so great in fortune and desert1 to be broiled before their eyes71 but because his constancy rendered their cruelty still more shameful4 ,they afterwards hanged him for having nobly attempted to deliver himself by arms from so long a captivity and subjection1 and he died with a courage becoming so magnanimous a prince4 ,another time1 they burnt in the same fire four hundred and sixty men alive at once1 the four hundred of the common people1 the sixty the principal lords of a province1 simply prisoners of war4 ,we have these narratives from themselves for they not only own it1 but boast of it and publish it4 ,could it be for a testimony of their justice or their zeal to religion8 ,doubtless these are ways too differing and contrary to so holy an end4 ,had they proposed to themselves to extend our faith1 they would have considered that it does not amplify in the possession of territories1 but in the gaining of men2 and would have more than satisfied themselves with the slaughters occasioned by the necessity of war1 without indifferently mixing a massacre1 as upon wild beasts1 as universal as fire and sword could make it2 having only1 by intention1 saved so many as they meant to make miserable slaves of1 for the work and service of their mines2 so that many of the captains were put to death upon the place of conquest1 by order of the kings of ,castile1 justly offended with the horror of their deportment1 and almost all of them hated and disesteemed4 ,god meritoriously permitted that all this great plunder should be swallowed up by the sea in transportation1 or in the civil wars wherewith they devoured one another2 and most of the men themselves were buried in a foreign land without any fruit of their victory4 ,that the revenue from these countries1 though in the hands of so parsimonious and so prudent a prince1--,phillip ,,ii4--so little answers the expectation given of it to his predecessors1 and to that original abundance of riches which was found at the first landing in those new discovered countries 7for though a great deal be fetched thence1 yet we see 'tis nothing in comparison of that which might be expected71 is that the use of coin was there utterly unknown1 and that consequently their gold was found all hoarded together1 being of no other use but for ornament and show1 as a furniture reserved from father to son by many puissant kings1 who were ever draining their mines to make this vast heap of vessels and statues for the decoration of their palaces and temples2 whereas our gold is always in motion and traffic2 we cut it into a thousand small pieces1 and cast it into a thousand forms1 and scatter and disperse it in a thousand ways4 ,but suppose our kings should thus hoard up all the gold they could get in several ages and let it lie idle by them4 ,those of the kingdom of ,mexico were in some sort more civilised and more advanced in arts than the other nations about them4 ,therefore did they judge1 as we do1 that the world was near its period1 and looked upon the desolation we brought amongst them as a certain sign of it4 ,they believed that the existence of the world was divided into five ages1 and in the life of five successive suns1 of which four had already ended their time1 and that this which gave them light was the fifth4 ,the first perished1 with all other creatures1 by an universal inundation of water2 the second by the heavens falling upon us and suffocating every living thing to which age they assigned the giants1 and showed bones to the ,spaniards1 according to the proportion of which the stature of men amounted to twenty feet2 the third by fire1 which burned and consumed all2 the fourth by an emotion of the air and wind1 which came with such violence as to beat down even many mountains1 wherein the men died not1 but were turned into baboons4 ,what impressions will not the weakness of human belief admit8 ,after the death of this fourth sun1 the world was twenty-five years in perpetual darkness3 in the fifteenth of which a man and a woman were created1 who restored the human race3 ten years after1 upon a certain day1 the sun appeared newly created1 and since the account of their year takes beginning from that day3 the third day after its creation the ancient gods died1 and the new ones were since born daily4 ,after what manner they think this last sun shall perish1 my author knows not2 but their number of this fourth change agrees with the great conjunction of stars which eight hundred and odd years ago1 as astrologers suppose1 produced great alterations and novelties in the world4 ,as to pomp and magnificence1 upon the account of which ,i engaged in this discourse1 neither ,greece1 ,rome1 nor ,egypt1 whether for utility1 difficulty1 or state1 can compare any of their works with the highway to be seen in ,peru1 made by the kings of the country1 from the city of ,quito to that of ,cusco 7three hundred leagues71 straight1 even1 five-and-twenty paces wide1 paved1 and provided on both sides with high and beautiful walls2 and close by them1 and all along on the inside1 two perennial streams1 bordered with beautiful plants1 which they call moly4 ,in this work1 where they met with rocks and mountains1 they cut them through1 and made them even1 and filled up pits and valleys with lime and stone to make them level4 ,at the end of every day's journey are beautiful palaces1 furnished with provisions1 vestments1 and arms1 as well for travellers as for the armies that are to pass that way4 ,in the estimate of this work ,i have reckoned the difficulty which is especially considerable in that place2 they did not build with any stones less than ten feet square1 and had no other conveniency of carriage but by drawing their load themselves by force of arm1 and knew not so much as the art of scaffolding1 nor any other way of standing to their work1 but by throwing up earth against the building as it rose higher1 taking it away again when they had done4 ,let us here return to our coaches4 ,instead of these1 and of all other sorts of carriages1 they caused themselves to be carried upon men's shoulders4 ,this last king of ,peru1 the day that he was taken1 was thus carried betwixt two upon staves of gold1 and set in a chair of gold in the middle of his army4 ,as many of these sedan-men as were killed to make him fall 7for they would take him alive71 so many others 7and they contended for it7 took the place of those who were slain1 so that they could never beat him down1 what slaughter soever they made of these people1 till a horseman1 seizing upon him1 brought him to the ground4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,of ,,the ,,inconvenience ,,of ,,greatness ,since we cannot attain unto it1 let us revenge our selves by railing at it2 and yet it is not absolutely railing against anything to proclaim its defects1 because they are in all things to be found1 how beautiful or how much to be coveted soever4 ,greatness has1 in general1 this manifest advantage1 that it can lower itself when it pleases1 and has1 very near1 the choice of both the one and the other condition2 for a man does not fall from all heights2 there are several from which one may descend without falling down4 ,it does1 indeed1 appear to me that we value it at too high a rate1 and also overvalue the resolution of those whom we have either seen or heard have contemned it1 or displaced themselves of their own accord3 its essence is not so evidently commodious that a man may not1 with out a miracle1 refuse it4 ,i find it a very hard thing to undergo misfortunes1 but to be content with a moderate measure of fortune1 and to avoid greatness1 ,i think a very easy matter4 ',tis1 methinks1 a virtue to which ,i1 who am no conjuror1 could without any great endeavour arrive4 ,what1 then1 is to be expected from them that would yet put into consideration the glory attending this refusal1 wherein there may lurk worse ambition than even in the desire itself1 and fruition of greatness8 ,forasmuch as ambition never comports itself better1 according to itself1 than when it proceeds by obscure and unfrequented ways4 ,i incite my courage to patience1 but ,i rein it as much as ,i can towards desire4 ,i have as much to wish for as another1 and allow my wishes as much liberty and indiscretion2 but yet it never befell me to wish for either empire or royalty1 or the eminency of those high and commanding fortunes3 ,i do not aim that way2 ,i love myself too well4 ,when ,i think to grow greater1 'tis but very moderately1 and by a compelled and timorous advancement1 such as is proper for me in resolution1 in prudence1 in health1 in beauty1 and even in riches too2 but this supreme reputation1 this mighty authority1 oppress my imagination2 and1 quite contrary to that other1--,julius ,caesar4--,i should1 peradventure1 rather choose to be the second or third in ,perigord than the first at ,paris at least1 without lying1 rather the third at ,paris than the first4 ,i would neither dispute with a porter1 a miserable unknown1 nor make crowds open in adoration as ,i pass4 ,i am trained up to a moderate condition1 as well by my choice as fortune2 and have made it appear1 in the whole conduct of my life and enterprises1 that ,i have rather avoided than otherwise the climbing above the degree of fortune wherein ,god has placed me by my birth2 all natural constitution is equally just and easy4 ,my soul is such a poltroon1 that ,i measure not good fortune by the height1 but by the facility4 ,but if my heart be not great enough1 'tis open enough to make amends1 at any one's request1 freely to lay open its weakness4 ,should any one put me upon comparing the life of ,l4 ,thorius ,balbus1 a brave man1 handsome1 learned1 healthful1 understanding1 and abounding in all sorts of conveniences and pleasures1 leading a quiet life1 and all his own1 his mind well prepared against death1 superstition1 pain1 and other incumbrances of human necessity1 dying1 at last1 in battle1 with his sword in his hand1 for the defence of his country1 on the one part2 and on the other part1 the life of ,m4 ,regulus1 so great and high as is known to every one1 and his end admirable2 the one without name and without dignity1 the other exemplary and glorious to a wonder4 ,i should doubtless say1 as ,cicero did1 could ,i speak as well as he4 ,cicero1 ,de ,finibus1 ii4 #bj1 gives the preference to ,regulus1 and proclaims him the happier man4 ,but if ,i was to compare them with my own1 ,i should then also say that the first is as much according to my capacity1 and from desire1 which ,i conform to my capacity1 as the second is far beyond it2 that ,i could not approach the last but with veneration1 the other ,i could readily attain by use4 ,let us return to our temporal greatness1 from which we are digressed4 ,i disrelish all dominion1 whether active or passive4 ,otanes1 one of the seven who had right to pretend to the kingdom of ,persia1 did as ,i should willingly have done1 which was1 that he gave up to his competitors his right of being promoted to it1 either by election or by lot1 provided that he and his might live in the empire out of all authority and subjection1 those of the ancient laws excepted1 and might enjoy all liberty that was not prejudicial to these1 being as impatient of commanding as of being commanded4 ,the most painful and difficult employment in the world1 in my opinion1 is worthily to discharge the office of a king4 ,i excuse more of their mistakes than men commonly do1 in consideration of the intolerable weight of their function1 which astounds me4 ',tis hard to keep measure in so immeasurable a power2 yet so it is that it is1 even to those who are not of the best nature1 a singular incitement to virtue to be seated in a place where you cannot do the least good that shall not be put upon record1 and where the least benefit redounds to so many men1 and where your talent of administration1 like that of preachers1 principally addresses itself to the people1 no very exact judge1 easy to deceive1 and easily content4 ,there are few things wherein we can give a sincere judgment1 by reason that there are few wherein we have not1 in some sort1 a private interest4 ,superiority and inferiority1 dominion and subjection are bound to a natural envy and contest1 and must of necessity perpetually intrench upon one another4 ,i believe neither the one nor the other touching the rights of the other party2 let reason therefore1 which is inflexible and without passion1 determine when we can avail ourselves of it4 ',tis not above a month ago that ,i read over1 two ,scottish authors contending upon this subject1 of whom he who stands for the people makes the king to be in a worse condition than a carter2 he who writes for monarchy places him some degrees above ,god in power and sovereignty4 ,now1 the incommodity of greatness that ,i have taken to remark in this place1 upon some occasion that has lately put it into my head1 is this3 there is not1 peradventure1 anything more pleasant in the commerce of many than the trials that we make against one another1 out of emulation of honour and worth1 whether in the exercises of the body or in those of the mind1 wherein sovereign greatness can have no true part4 ,and1 in earnest1 ,i have often thought that by force of respect itself men use princes disdainfully and injuriously in that particular2 for the thing ,i was infinitely offended at in my childhood1 that they who exercised with me forbore to do their best because they found me unworthy of their utmost endeavour1 is what we see happen to them daily1 every one finding himself unworthy to contend with them4 ,if we discover that they have the least desire to get the better of us1 there is no one who will not make it his business to give it them1 and who will not rather betray his own glory than offend theirs2 and will therein employ so much force only as is necessary to save their honour4 ,what share have they1 then1 in the engagement1 where every one is on their side8 ,methinks ,i see those paladins of ancient times presenting themselves to jousts and battle with enchanted arms and bodies4 ,brisson1 ,plutarch1 ,on ,satisfaction or ,tranquillity of the ,mind4 ,but in his essay1 ,how a ,man may ,distinguish a ,flatterer from a ,friend1 he calls him ,chriso4 running against ,alexander1 purposely missed his blow1 and made a fault in his career2 ,alexander chid him for it1 but he ought to have had him whipped4 ,upon this consideration ,carneades said1 that the sons of princes learned nothing right but to manage horses2 by reason that1 in all their other exercises1 every one bends and yields to them2 but a horse1 that is neither a flatterer nor a courtier1 throws the son of a king with no more ceremony than he would throw that of a porter4 ,homer was fain to consent that ,venus1 so sweet and delicate a goddess as she was1 should be wounded at the battle of ,troy1 thereby to ascribe courage and boldness to her qualities that cannot possibly be in those who are exempt from danger4 ,the gods are made to be angry1 to fear1 to run away1 to be jealous1 to grieve1 to be transported with passions1 to honour them with the virtues that1 amongst us1 are built upon these imperfections4 ,who does not participate in the hazard and difficulty1 can claim no interest in the honour and pleasure that are the consequents of hazardous actions4 ',tis pity a man should be so potent that all things must give way to him2 fortune therein sets you too remote from society1 and places you in too great a solitude4 ,this easiness and mean facility of making all things bow under you1 is an enemy to all sorts of pleasure3 'tis to slide1 not to go2 'tis to sleep1 and not to live4 ,conceive man accompanied with omnipotence3 you overwhelm him2 he must beg disturbance and opposition as an alms3 his being and his good are in indigence4 ,evil to man is in its turn good1 and good evil4 ,neither is pain always to be shunned1 nor pleasure always to be pursued4 ,their good qualities are dead and lost2 for they can only be perceived by comparison1 and we put them out of this3 they have little knowledge of true praise1 having their ears deafened with so continual and uniform an approbation4 ,have they to do with the stupidest of all their subjects8 they have no means to take any advantage of him2 if he but say3 ',tis because he is my king1 he thinks he has said enough to express that he therefore suffered himself to be overcome4 ,this quality stifles and consumes the other true and essential qualities3 they are sunk in the royalty1 and leave them nothing to recommend themselves with but actions that directly concern and serve the function of their place2 'tis so much to be a king1 that this alone remains to them4 ,the outer glare that environs him conceals and shrouds him from us2 our sight is there repelled and dissipated1 being filled and stopped by this prevailing light4 ,the senate awarded the prize of eloquence to ,tiberius2 he refused it1 esteeming that though it had been just1 he could derive no advantage from a judgment so partial1 and that was so little free to judge4 ,as we give them all advantages of honour1 so do we soothe and authorise all their vices and defects1 not only by approbation1 but by imitation also4 ,every one of ,alexander's followers carried his head on one side1 as he did2 and the flatterers of ,dionysius ran against one another in his presence1 and stumbled at and overturned whatever was under foot1 to shew they were as purblind as he4 ,hernia itself has also served to recommend a man to favour2 ,i have seen deafness affected2 and because the master hated his wife1 ,plutarch--who1 however1 only gives one instance2 and in this he tells us that the man visited his wife privately4--has seen his courtiers repudiate theirs1 whom they loved2 and1 which is yet more1 uncleanliness and all manner of dissoluteness have so been in fashion2 as also disloyalty1 blasphemy1 cruelty1 heresy1 superstition1 irreligion1 effeminacy1 and worse1 if worse there be2 and by an example yet more dangerous than that of ,mithridates' flatterers1 who1 as their master pretended to the honour of a good physician1 came to him to have incisions and cauteries made in their limbs2 for these others suffered the soul1 a more delicate and noble part1 to be cauterised4 ,but to end where ,i began3 the ,emperor ,adrian1 disputing with the philosopher ,favorinus about the interpretation of some word1 ,favorinus soon yielded him the victory2 for which his friends rebuking him1 ,you talk simply1 said he2 would you not have him wiser than ,i1 who commands thirty legions8 ,augustus wrote verses against ,asinius ,pollio1 and ,i1 said ,pollio1 say nothing1 for it is not prudence to write in contest with him who has power to proscribe4 ,and they were right4 ,for ,dionysius1 because he could not equal ,philoxenus in poesy and ,plato in discourse1 condemned the one to the quarries1 and sent the other to be sold for a slave into the island of ,a,egina4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,of ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,conference ',tis a custom of our justice to condemn some for a warning to others4 ,to condemn them for having done amiss1 were folly1 as ,plato says1 ,diogenes ,laertius1 however1 in his ,life of ,plato1 iii4 #aha1 says that ,plato's offence was the speaking too freely to the tyrant4 for what is done can never be undone2 but 'tis to the end they may offend no more1 and that others may avoid the example of their offence3 we do not correct the man we hang2 we correct others by him4 ,i do the same2 my errors are sometimes natural1 incorrigible1 and irremediable3 but the good which virtuous men do to the public1 in making themselves imitated1 ,i1 peradventure1 may do in making my manners avoided3 ,nonne vides1 ,albi ut male vivat filius8 utque ,barrus inops8 magnum documentum1 ne patriam rein ,perdere guis velit2 ,dost thou not see how ill the son of ,albus lives8 and how the indigent ,barrus8 a great warning lest any one should incline to dissipate his patrimony4--,horace1 ,sat41 i4 #d1 #aji4 publishing and accusing my own imperfections1 some one will learn to be afraid of them4 ,the parts that ,i most esteem in myself1 derive more honour from decrying1 than for commending myself which is the reason why ,i so often fall into1 and so much insist upon that strain4 ,but1 when all is summed up1 a man never speaks of himself without loss2 a man's accusations of himself are always believed2 his praises never3 ,there may1 peradventure1 be some of my own complexion who better instruct myself by contrariety than by similitude1 and by avoiding than by imitation4 ,the elder ,cato was regarding this sort of discipline1 when he said1 that the wise may learn more of fools1 than fools can of the wise2 and ,pausanias tells us of an ancient player upon the harp1 who was wont to make his scholars go to hear one who played very ill1 who lived over against him1 that they might learn to hate his discords and false measures4 ,the horror of cruelty more inclines me to clemency1 than any example of clemency could possibly do4 ,a good rider does not so much mend my seat1 as an awkward attorney or a ,venetian1 on horseback2 and a clownish way of speaking more reforms mine than the most correct4 ,the ridiculous and simple look of another always warns and advises me2 that which pricks1 rouses and incites much better than that which tickles4 ,the time is now proper for us to reform backward2 more by dissenting than by agreeing2 by differing more than by consent4 ,profiting little by good examples1 ,i make use of those that are ill1 which are everywhere to be found3 ,i endeavour to render myself as agreeable as ,i see others offensive2 as constant as ,i see others fickle2 as affable as ,i see others rough2 as good as ,i see others evil3 but ,i propose to myself impracticable measures4 ,the most fruitful and natural exercise of the mind1 in my opinion1 is conversation2 ,i find the use of it more sweet than of any other action of life2 and for that reason it is that1 if ,i were now compelled to choose1 ,i should sooner1 ,i think1 consent to lose my sight1 than my hearing and speech4 ,the ,athenians1 and also the ,romans1 kept this exercise in great honour in their academies2 the ,italians retain some traces of it to this day1 to their great advantage1 as is manifest by the comparison of our understandings with theirs4 ,the study of books is a languishing and feeble motion that heats not1 whereas conversation teaches and exercises at once4 ,if ,i converse with a strong mind and a rough disputant1 he presses upon my flanks1 and pricks me right and left2 his imaginations stir up mine2 jealousy1 glory1 and contention1 stimulate and raise me up to something above myself2 and acquiescence is a quality altogether tedious in discourse4 ,but1 as our mind fortifies itself by the communication of vigorous and regular understandings1 'tis not to be expressed how much it loses and degenerates by the continual commerce and familiarity we have with mean and weak spirits2 there is no contagion that spreads like that2 ,i know sufficiently by experience what 'tis worth a yard4 ,i love to discourse and dispute1 but it is with but few men1 and for myself2 for to do it as a spectacle and entertainment to great persons1 and to make of a man's wit and words competitive parade is1 in my opinion1 very unbecoming a man of honour4 ,folly is a bad quality2 but not to be able to endure it1 to fret and vex at it1 as ,i do1 is another sort of disease little less troublesome than folly itself2 and is the thing that ,i will now accuse in myself4 ,i enter into conference1 and dispute with great liberty and facility1 forasmuch as opinion meets in me with a soil very unfit for penetration1 and wherein to take any deep root2 no propositions astonish me1 no belief offends me1 though never so contrary to my own2 there is no so frivolous and extravagant fancy that does not seem to me suitable to the production of human wit4 ,we1 who deprive our judgment of the right of determining1 look indifferently upon the diverse opinions1 and if we incline not our judgment to them1 yet we easily give them the hearing3 ,where one scale is totally empty1 ,i let the other waver under an old wife's dreams2 and ,i think myself excusable1 if ,i prefer the odd number2 ,thursday rather than ,friday2 if ,i had rather be the twelfth or fourteenth than the thirteenth at table2 if ,i had rather1 on a journey1 see a hare run by me than cross my way1 and rather give my man my left foot than my right1 when he comes to put on my stockings4 ,all such reveries as are in credit around us1 deserve at least a hearing3 for my part1 they only with me import inanity1 but they import that4 ,moreover1 vulgar and casual opinions are something more than nothing in nature2 and he who will not suffer himself to proceed so far1 falls1 peradventure1 into the vice of obstinacy1 to avoid that of superstition4 ,the contradictions of judgments1 then1 neither offend nor alter1 they only rouse and exercise1 me4 ,we evade correction1 whereas we ought to offer and present ourselves to it1 especially when it appears in the form of conference1 and not of authority4 ,at every opposition1 we do not consider whether or no it be dust1 but1 right or wrong1 how to disengage ourselves3 instead of extending the arms1 we thrust out our claws4 ,i could suffer myself to be rudely handled by my friend1 so much as to tell me that ,i am a fool1 and talk ,i know not of what4 ,i love stout expressions amongst gentle men1 and to have them speak as they think2 we must fortify and harden our hearing against this tenderness of the ceremonious sound of words4 ,i love a strong and manly familiarity and conversation3 a friendship that pleases itself in the sharpness and vigour of its communication1 like love in biting and scratching3 it is not vigorous and generous enough1 if it be not quarrelsome1 if it be civilised and artificial1 if it treads nicely and fears the shock3 ,neque enim disputari sine reprehensione potest4 ,neither can a man dispute1 but he must contradict4 7,or37 ,nor can people dispute without reprehension4 --,cicero1 ,de ,finib41 i4 #h4 ,when any one contradicts me1 he raises my attention1 not my anger3 ,i advance towards him who controverts1 who instructs me2 the cause of truth ought to be the common cause both of the one and the other4 ,what will the angry man answer8 ,passion has already confounded his judgment2 agitation has usurped the place of reason4 ,it were not amiss that the decision of our disputes should pass by wager3 that there might be a material mark of our losses1 to the end we might the better remember them2 and that my man might tell me3 ,your ignorance and obstinacy cost you last year1 at several times1 a hundred crowns4 ,i hail and caress truth in what quarter soever ,i find it1 and cheerfully surrender myself1 and open my conquered arms as far off as ,i can discover it2 and1 provided it be not too imperiously1 take a pleasure in being reproved1 and accommodate myself to my accusers1 very often more by reason of civility than amendment1 loving to gratify and nourish the liberty of admonition by my facility of submitting to it1 and this even at my own expense4 ,nevertheless1 it is hard to bring the men of my time to it3 they have not the courage to correct1 because they have not the courage to suffer themselves to be corrected2 and speak always with dissimulation in the presence of one another3 ,i take so great a pleasure in being judged and known1 that it is almost indifferent to me in which of the two forms ,i am so3 my imagination so often contradicts and condemns itself1 that 'tis all one to me if another do it1 especially considering that ,i give his reprehension no greater authority than ,i choose2 but ,i break with him1 who carries himself so high1 as ,i know of one who repents his advice1 if not believed1 and takes it for an affront if it be not immediately followed4 ,that ,socrates always received smilingly the contradictions offered to his arguments1 a man may say arose from his strength of reason2 and that1 the advantage being certain to fall on his side1 he accepted them as a matter of new victory4 ,but we see1 on the contrary1 that nothing in argument renders our sentiment so delicate1 as the opinion of pre-eminence1 and disdain of the adversary2 and that1 in reason1 'tis rather for the weaker to take in good part the oppositions that correct him and set him right4 ,in earnest1 ,i rather choose the company of those who ruffle me than of those who fear me2 'tis a dull and hurtful pleasure to have to do with people who admire us and approve of all we say4 ,antisthenes commanded his children never to take it kindly or for a favour1 when any man commended them4 ,i find ,i am much prouder of the victory ,i obtain over myself1 when1 in the very ardour of dispute1 ,i make myself submit to my adversary's force of reason1 than ,i am pleased with the victory ,i obtain over him through his weakness4 ,in fine1 ,i receive and admit of all manner of attacks that are direct1 how weak soever2 but ,i am too impatient of those that are made out of form4 ,i care not what the subject is1 the opinions are to me all one1 and ,i am almost indifferent whether ,i get the better or the worse4 ,i can peaceably argue a whole day together1 if the argument be carried on with method2 ,i do not so much require force and subtlety as order2 ,i mean the order which we every day observe in the wranglings of shepherds and shop-boys1 but never amongst us3 if they start from their subject1 'tis out of incivility1 and so 'tis with us2 but their tumult and impatience never put them out of their theme2 their argument still continues its course2 if they interrupt1 and do not stay for one another1 they at least understand one another4 ,any one answers too well for me1 if he answers what ,i say3 when the dispute is irregular and disordered1 ,i leave the thing itself1 and insist upon the form with anger and indiscretion2 falling into wilful1 malicious1 and imperious way of disputation1 of which ,i am afterwards ashamed4 ',tis impossible to deal fairly with a fool3 my judgment is not only corrupted under the hand of so impetuous a master1 but my conscience also4 ,our disputes ought to be interdicted and punished as well as other verbal crimes3 what vice do they not raise and heap up1 being always governed and commanded by passion8 ,we first quarrel with their reasons1 and then with the men4 ,we only learn to dispute that we may contradict2 and so1 every one contradicting and being contradicted1 it falls out that the fruit of disputation is to lose and annihilate truth4 ,therefore it is that ,plato in his ,republic prohibits this exercise to fools and ill-bred people4 ,to what end do you go about to inquire of him1 who knows nothing to the purpose8 ,a man does no injury to the subject1 when he leaves it to seek how he may treat it2 ,i do not mean by an artificial and scholastic way1 but by a natural one1 with a sound understanding4 ,what will it be in the end8 ,one flies to the east1 the other to the west2 they lose the principal1 dispersing it in the crowd of incidents after an hour of tempest1 they know not what they seek3 one is low1 the other high1 and a third wide4 ,one catches at a word and a simile2 another is no longer sensible of what is said in opposition to him1 and thinks only of going on at his own rate1 not of answering you3 another1 finding himself too weak to make good his rest1 fears all1 refuses all1 at the very beginning1 confounds the subject2 or1 in the very height of the dispute1 stops short and is silent1 by a peevish ignorance affecting a proud contempt or a foolishly modest avoidance of further debate3 provided this man strikes1 he cares not how much he lays himself open2 the other counts his words1 and weighs them for reasons2 another only brawls1 and uses the advantage of his lungs4 ,here's one who learnedly concludes against himself1 and another who deafens you with prefaces and senseless digressions3 an other falls into downright railing1 and seeks a quarrel after the ,german fashion1 to disengage himself from a wit that presses too hard upon him3 and a last man sees nothing into the reason of the thing1 but draws a line of circumvallation about you of dialectic clauses1 and the formulas of his art4 ,now1 who would not enter into distrust of sciences1 and doubt whether he can reap from them any solid fruit for the service of life1 considering the use we put them to8 ,nihil sanantibus litteris4 ,letters which cure nothing4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #ei4 ,who has got understanding by his logic8 ,where are all her fair promises8 ,nec ad melius vivendum1 nec ad commodius disserendum4 ,it neither makes a man live better nor talk better4 --,cicero1 ,de ,fin41 i4 #ai4 ,is there more noise or confusion in the scolding of herring-wives than in the public disputes of men of this profession8 ,i had rather my son should learn in a tap-house to speak1 than in the schools to prate4 ,take a master of arts1 and confer with him3 why does he not make us sensible of this artificial excellence8 and why does he not captivate women and ignoramuses1 as we are1 with admiration at the steadiness of his reasons and the beauty of his order8 why does he not sway and persuade us to what he will8 why does a man1 who has so much advantage in matter and treatment1 mix railing1 indiscretion1 and fury in his disputations8 ,strip him of his gown1 his hood1 and his ,latin1 let him not batter our ears with ,aristotle1 pure and simple1 you will take him for one of us1 or worse4 ,whilst they torment us with this complication and confusion of words1 it fares with them1 methinks1 as with jugglers2 their dexterity imposes upon our senses1 but does not at all work upon our belief this legerdemain excepted1 they perform nothing that is not very ordinary and mean3 for being the more learned1 they are none the less fools4 ,so ,hobbes said that if he had read as much as the academical pedants he should have known as little4 ,i love and honour knowledge as much as they that have it1 and in its true use 'tis the most noble and the greatest acquisition of men2 but in such as ,i speak of 7and the number of them is infinite71 who build their fundamental sufficiency and value upon it1 who appeal from their understanding to their memory3 ,sub aliena umbra latentes1 ,sheltering under the shadow of others4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #cc4 and who can do nothing but by book1 ,i hate it1 if ,i dare to say so1 worse than stupidity4 ,in my country1 and in my time1 learning improves fortunes enough1 but not minds2 if it meet with those that are dull and heavy1 it overcharges and suffocates them1 leaving them a crude and undigested mass2 if airy and fine1 it purifies1 clarifies1 and subtilises them1 even to exinanition4 ',tis a thing of almost indifferent quality2 a very useful accession to a well-born soul1 but hurtful and pernicious to others2 or rather a thing of very precious use1 that will not suffer itself to be purchased at an under rate2 in the hand of some 'tis a sceptre1 in that of others a fool's bauble4 ,but let us proceed4 ,what greater victory do you expect than to make your enemy see and know that he is not able to encounter you8 ,when you get the better of your argument2 'tis truth that wins2 when you get the advantage of form and method1'tis then you who win4 ,i am of opinion that in1 ,plato and ,xenophon ,socrates disputes more in favour of the disputants than in favour of the dispute1 and more to instruct ,euthydemus and ,protagoras in the1 knowledge of their impertinence1 than in the impertinence of their art4 ,he takes hold of the first subject like one who has a more profitable end than to explain it--namely1 to clear the understandings that he takes upon him to instruct and exercise4 ,to hunt after truth is properly our business1 and we are inexcusable if we carry on the chase impertinently and ill2 to fail of seizing it is another thing1 for we are born to inquire after truth3 it belongs to a greater power to possess it4 ,it is not1 as ,democritus said1 hid in the bottom of the deeps1 but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge4 ,the world is but a school of inquisition3 it is not who shall enter the ring1 but who shall run the best courses4 ,he may as well play the fool who speaks true1 as he who speaks false1 for we are upon the manner1 not the matter1 of speaking4 ',tis my humour as much to regard the form as the substance1 and the advocate as much as the cause1 as ,alcibiades ordered we should3 and every day pass away my time in reading authors without any consideration of their learning2 their manner is what ,i look after1 not their subject3 ,and just so do ,i hunt after the conversation of any eminent wit1 not that he may teach me1 but that ,i may know him1 and that knowing him1 if ,i think him worthy of imitation1 ,i may imitate him4 ,every man may speak truly1 but to speak methodically1 prudently1 and fully1 is a talent that few men have4 ,the falsity that proceeds from ignorance does not offend me1 but the foppery of it4 ,i have broken off several treaties that would have been of advantage to me1 by reason of the impertinent contestations of those with whom ,i treated4 ,i am not moved once in a year at the faults of those over whom ,i have authority1 but upon the account of the ridiculous obstinacy of their allegations1 denials1 excuses1 we are every day going together by the ears2 they neither understand what is said1 nor why1 and answer accordingly2 'tis enough to drive a man mad4 ,i never feel any hurt upon my head but when 'tis knocked against another1 and more easily forgive the vices of my servants than their boldness1 importunity1 and folly2 let them do less1 provided they understand what they do3 you live in hope to warm their affection to your service1 but there is nothing to be had or to be expected from a stock4 ,but what1 if ,i take things otherwise than they are8 ,perhaps ,i do2 and therefore it is that ,i accuse my own impatience1 and hold1 in the first place1 that it is equally vicious both in him that is in the right1 and in him that is in the wrong2 for 'tis always a tyrannic sourness not to endure a form contrary to one's own3 and1 besides1 there cannot1 in truth1 be a greater1 more constant1 nor more irregular folly than to be moved and angry at the follies of the world1 for it principally makes us quarrel with ourselves2 and the old philosopher never wanted an occasion for his tears whilst he considered himself4 ,miso1 one of the seven sages1 of a ,timonian and ,democritic humour1 being asked1 what he laughed at1 being alone8--,that ,i do laugh alone1 answered he4 ,how many ridiculous things1 in my own opinion1 do ,i say and answer every day that comes over my head8 and then how many more1 according to the opinion of others8 ,if ,i bite my own lips1 what ought others to do8 ,in fine1 we must live amongst the living1 and let the river run under the bridge without our care1 or1 at least1 without our interference4 ,in truth1 why do we meet a man with a hunch-back1 or any other deformity1 without being moved1 and cannot endure the encounter of a deformed mind without being angry8 this vicious sourness sticks more to the judge than to the crime4 ,let us always have this saying of ,plato in our mouths3 ,do not ,i think things unsound1 because ,i am not sound in myself8 ,am ,i not myself in fault8 may not my observations reflect upon myself8--a wise and divine saying1 that lashes the most universal and common error of mankind4 ,not only the reproaches that we throw in the face of one another1 but our reasons also1 our arguments and controversies1 are reboundable upon us1 and we wound ourselves with our own weapons3 of which antiquity has left me enough grave examples4 ,it was ingeniously and home-said by him1 who was the inventor of this sentence3 ,stercus cuique suum bene olet4 ,to every man his own excrements smell well4--,erasmus ,we see nothing behind us2 we mock ourselves an hundred times a day2 when we deride our neighbours2 and we detest in others the defects which are more manifest in us1 and which we admire with marvellous inadvertency and impudence4 ,it was but yesterday that ,i heard a man of understanding and of good rank1 as pleasantly as justly scoffing at the folly of another1 who did nothing but torment everybody with the catalogue of his genealogy and alliances1 above half of them false 7for they are most apt to fall into such ridiculous discourses1 whose qualities are most dubious and least sure71 and yet1 would he have looked into himself1 he would have discerned himself to be no less intemperate and wearisome in extolling his wife's pedigree4 ,o importunate presumption1 with which the wife sees herself armed by the hands of her own husband4 ,did he understand ,latin1 we should say to him3 ,age1 si hic non insanit satis sua sponte1 instiga4 ,come6 if of himself he is not mad enough1 urge him on4 --,terence1 ,and41 iv4 #b1 #i4 ,i do not say that no man should accuse another1 who is not clean himself1--for then no one would ever accuse1--clean from the same sort of spot2 but ,i mean that our judgment1 falling upon another who is then in question1 should not1 at the same time1 spare ourselves1 but sentence us with an inward and severe authority4 ',tis an office of charity1 that he who cannot reclaim himself from a vice1 should1 nevertheless1 endeavour to remove it from another1 in whom1 peradventure1 it may not have so deep and so malignant a root2 neither do him who reproves me for my fault that he himself is guilty of the same4 ,what of that8 ,the reproof is1 notwithstanding1 true and of very good use4 ,had we a good nose1 our own ordure would stink worse to us1 forasmuch as it is our own3 and ,socrates is of opinion that whoever should find himself1 his son1 and a stranger guilty of any violence and wrong1 ought to begin with himself1 present himself first to the sentence of justice1 and implore1 to purge himself1 the assistance of the hand of the executioner2 in the next place1 he should proceed to his son1 and lastly1 to the stranger4 ,if this precept seem too severe1 he ought at least to present himself the first1 to the punishment of his own conscience4 ,the senses are our first and proper judges1 which perceive not things but by external accidents2 and 'tis no wonder1 if in all the parts of the service of our society1 there is so perpetual and universal a mixture of ceremonies and superficial appearances2 insomuch that the best and most effectual part of our polities therein consist4 ',tis still man with whom we have to do1 of whom the condition is wonderfully corporal4 ,let those who1 of these late years1 would erect for us such a contemplative and immaterial an exercise of religion1 not wonder if there be some who think it had vanished and melted through their fingers had it not more upheld itself among us as a mark1 title1 and instrument of division and faction1 than by itself4 ,as in conference1 the gravity1 robe1 and fortune of him who speaks1 ofttimes gives reputation to vain arguments and idle words1 it is not to be presumed but that a man1 so attended and feared1 has not in him more than ordinary sufficiency2 and that he to whom the king has given so many offices and commissions and charges1 he so supercilious and proud1 has not a great deal more in him1 than another who salutes him at so great a distance1 and who has no employment at all4 ,not only the words1 but the grimaces also of these people1 are considered and put into the account2 every one making it his business to give them some fine and solid interpretation4 ,if they stoop to the common conference1 and that you offer anything but approbation and reverence1 they then knock you down with the authority of their experience3 they have heard1 they have seen1 they have done so and so3 you are crushed with examples4 ,i should willingly tell them1 that the fruit of a surgeon's experience1 is not the history of his practice and his remembering that he has cured four people of the plague and three of the gout1 unless he knows how thence to extract something whereon to form his judgment1 and to make us sensible that he has thence become more skillful in his art4 ,as in a concert of instruments1 we do not hear a lute1 a harpsichord1 or a flute alone1 but one entire harmony1 the result of all together4 ,if travel and offices have improved them1 'tis a product of their understanding to make it appear4 ',tis not enough to reckon experiences1 they must weigh1 sort and distil them1 to extract the reasons and conclusions they carry along with them4 ,there were never so many historians3 it is1 indeed1 good and of use to read them1 for they furnish us everywhere with excellent and laudable instructions from the magazine of their memory1 which1 doubtless1 is of great concern to the help of life2 but 'tis not that we seek for now3 we examine whether these relaters and collectors of things are commendable themselves4 ,i hate all sorts of tyranny1 both in word and deed4 ,i am very ready to oppose myself against those vain circumstances that delude our judgments by the senses2 and keeping my eye close upon those extraordinary greatnesses1 ,i find that at best they are men1 as others are3 ,rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa ,fortuna4 ,for in those high fortunes1 common sense is generally rare4 --,juvenal1 viii4 #gc4 ,peradventure1 we esteem and look upon them for less than they are1 by reason they undertake more1 and more expose themselves2 they do not answer to the charge they have undertaken4 ,there must be more vigour and strength in the bearer than in the burden2 he who has not lifted as much as he can1 leaves you to guess that he has still a strength beyond that1 and that he has not been tried to the utmost of what he is able to do2 he who sinks under his load1 makes a discovery of his best1 and the weakness of his shoulders4 ,this is the reason that we see so many silly souls amongst the learned1 and more than those of the better sort3 they would have made good husbandmen1 good merchants1 and good artisans3 their natural vigour was cut out to that proportion4 ,knowledge is a thing of great weight1 they faint under it3 their understanding has neither vigour nor dexterity enough to set forth and distribute1 to employ or make use of this rich and powerful matter2 it has no prevailing virtue but in a strong nature2 and such natures are very rare--and the weak ones1 says ,socrates1 corrupt the dignity of philosophy in the handling1 it appears useless and vicious1 when lodged in an ill-contrived mind4 ,they spoil and make fools of themselves3 ,humani qualis simulator simius oris1 ,quern puer arridens pretioso stamine serum ,velavit1 nudasque nates ac terga reliquit1 ,ludibrium mensis4 ,just like an ape1 simulator of the human face1 whom a wanton boy has dizened up in rich silks above1 but left the lower parts bare1 for a laughing-stock for the tables4 --,claudian1 in ,eutrop41 i #cjc4 ,neither is it enough for those who govern and command us1 and have all the world in their hands1 to have a common understanding1 and to be able to do the same that we can2 they are very much below us1 if they be not infinitely above us3 as they promise more1 so they are to perform more4 ,and yet silence is to them1 not only a countenance of respect and gravity1 but very often of good advantage too3 for ,megabyzus1 going 'to see ,apelles in his painting-room1 stood a great while without speaking a word1 and at last began to talk of his paintings1 for which he received this rude reproof3 ,whilst thou wast silent1 thou seemedst to be some great thing1 by reason of thy chains and rich habit2 but now that we have heard thee speak1 there is not the meanest boy in my workshop that does not despise thee4 ,those princely ornaments1 that mighty state1 did not permit him to be ignorant with a common ignorance1 and to speak impertinently of painting2 he ought to have kept this external and presumptive knowledge by silence4 ,to how many foolish fellows of my time has a sullen and silent mien procured the credit of prudence and capacity6 ,dignities and offices are of necessity conferred more by fortune than upon the account of merit2 and we are often to blame1 to condemn kings when these are misplaced3 on the contrary1 'tis a wonder they should have so good luck1 where there is so little skill3 ,principis est virtus maxima nosse suos2 ',tis the chief virtue of a prince to know his people4 --,martial1 viii4 #ae4 for nature has not given them a sight that can extend to so many people1 to discern which excels the rest1 nor to penetrate into our bosoms1 where the knowledge of our wills and best value lies they must choose us by conjecture and by groping2 by the family1 wealth1 learning1 and the voice of the people1 which are all very feeble arguments4 ,whoever could find out a way by which they might judge by justice1 and choose men by reason1 would1 in this one thing1 establish a perfect form of government4 ,ay1 but he brought that great affair to a very good pass4 ,this is1 indeed1 to say something1 but not to say enough3 for this sentence is justly received1 ,that we are not to judge of counsels by events4 ,the ,carthaginians punished the ill counsels of their captains1 though they were rectified by a successful issue2 and the ,roman people often denied a triumph for great and very advantageous victories because the conduct of their general was not answerable to his good fortune4 ,we ordinarily see1 in the actions of the world1 that ,fortune1 to shew us her power in all things1 and who takes a pride in abating our presumption1 seeing she could not make fools wise1 has made them fortunate in emulation of virtue2 and most favours those operations the web of which is most purely her own2 whence it is that the simplest amongst us bring to pass great business1 both public and private2 and1 as ,seiramnes1 the ,persian1 answered those who wondered that his affairs succeeded so ill1 considering that his deliberations were so wise1 that he was sole master of his designs1 but that success was wholly in the power of fortune2 these may answer the same1 but with a contrary turn4 ,most worldly affairs are performed by themselves ,fata viam inveniunt2 ,the destinies find the way4--,a,eneid1 iii4 #cie the event often justifies a very foolish conduct2 our interposition is little more than as it were a running on by rote1 and more commonly a consideration of custom and example1 than of reason4 ,being formerly astonished at the greatness of some affair1 ,i have been made acquainted with their motives and address by those who had performed it1 and have found nothing in it but very ordinary counsels2 and the most common and usual are indeed1 perhaps1 the most sure and convenient for practice1 if not for show4 ,what if the plainest reasons are the best seated8 the meanest1 lowest1 and most beaten more adapted to affairs8 ,to maintain the authority of the counsels of kings1 it needs not that profane persons should participate of them1 or see further into them than the outmost barrier2 he who will husband its reputation must be reverenced upon credit and taken altogether4 ,my consultation somewhat rough-hews the matter1 and considers it lightly by the first face it presents3 the stress and main of the business ,i have been wont to refer to heaven2 ,permitte divis caetera4 ,leave the rest to the gods4--,horace1 ,od41 i4 #i1 #i4 ,good and ill fortune are1 in my opinion1 two sovereign powers2 'tis folly to think that human prudence can play the part of ,fortune2 and vain is his attempt who presumes to comprehend both causes and consequences1 and by the hand to conduct the progress of his design2 and most especially vain in the deliberations of war4 ,there was never greater circumspection and military prudence than sometimes is seen amongst us3 can it be that men are afraid to lose themselves by the way1 that they reserve themselves to the end of the game8 ,i moreover affirm that our wisdom itself and consultation1 for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance2 my will and my reason are sometimes moved by one breath1 and sometimes by another2 and many of these movements there are that govern themselves without me3 my reason has uncertain and casual agitations and impulsions3 ,vertuntur species animorum1 et pectora motus ,nunc alios1 alios1 dum nubila ventus agebat1 ,concipiunt4 ,the aspects of their minds change2 and they conceive now such ideas1 now such1 just so long as the wind agitated the clouds4 --,virgil1 ,georg41 i4 #db4 ,let a man but observe who are of greatest authority in cities1 and who best do their own business2 we shall find that they are commonly men of the least parts3 women1 children1 and madmen have had the fortune to govern great kingdoms equally well with the wisest princes1 and ,thucydides says1 that the stupid more ordinarily do it than those of better understandings2 we attribute the effects of their good fortune to their prudence3 ,ut quisque ,fortuna utitur1 ,ita praecellet2 atque exinde sapere illum omnes dicimus2 ,he makes his way who knows how to use ,fortune1 and thereupon we all call him wise4--,plautus1 ,pseudol41 ii4 #c1 #ac4 wherefore ,i say unreservedly1 events are a very poor testimony of our worth and parts4 ,now1 ,i was upon this point1 that there needs no more but to see a man promoted to dignity2 though we knew him but three days before a man of little regard1 yet an image of grandeur of sufficiency insensibly steals into our opinion1 and we persuade ourselves that1 being augmented in reputation and train1 he is also increased in merit2 we judge of him1 not according to his worth1 but as we do by counters1 according to the prerogative of his place4 ,if it happen so that he fall again1 and be mixed with the common crowd1 every one inquires with amazement into the cause of his having been raised so high4 ,is this he1 say they1 was he no wiser when he was there8 ,do princes satisfy themselves with so little8 ,truly1 we were in good hands4 ,this is a thing that ,i have often seen in my time4 ,nay1 even the very disguise of grandeur represented in our comedies in some sort moves and gulls us4 ,that which ,i myself adore in kings is the crowd of their adorers2 all reverence and submission are due to them1 except that of the understanding3 my reason is not obliged to bow and bend2 my knees are4 ,melanthius being asked what he thought of the tragedy of ,dionysius1 ,i could not see it1 said he1 it was so clouded with language2 so most of those who judge of the discourses of great men ought to say1 ,i did not understand his words1 they were so clouded with gravity1 grandeur1 and majesty4 ,antisthenes one day tried to persuade the ,athenians to give order that their asses might be employed in tilling the ground as well as the horses were2 to which it was answered that that animal was not destined for such a service3 ,that's all one1 replied he1 you have only to order it3 for the most ignorant and incapable men you employ in the commands of your wars incontinently become worthy enough1 because you employ them2 to which the custom of so many people1 who canonise the king they have chosen out of their own body1 and are not content only to honour1 but must adore them1 comes very near4 ,those of ,mexico1 after the ceremonies of their king's coronation are over1 dare no more look him in the face2 but1 as if they had deified him by his royalty4 ,amongst the oaths they make him take to maintain their religion1 their laws1 and liberties1 to be valiant1 just1 and mild1 he moreover swears to make the sun run his course in his wonted light1 to drain the clouds at fit seasons1 to make rivers run their course1 and to cause the earth to bear all things necessary for his people4 ,i differ from this common fashion1 and am more apt to suspect the capacity when ,i see it accompanied with that grandeur of fortune and public applause2 we are to consider of what advantage it is to speak when a man pleases1 to choose his subject1 to interrupt or change it1 with a magisterial authority2 to protect himself from the oppositions of others by a nod1 a smile1 or silence1 in the presence of an assembly that trembles with reverence and respect4 ,a man of a prodigious fortune coming to give his judgment upon some slight dispute that was foolishly set on foot at his table1 began in these words3 ,it can be no other but a liar or a fool that will say otherwise than so and so4 ,pursue this philosophical point with a dagger in your hand4 ,there is another observation ,i have made1 from which ,i draw great advantage2 which is1 that in conferences and disputes1 every word that seems to be good1 is not immediately to be accepted4 ,most men are rich in borrowed sufficiency3 a man may say a good thing1 give a good answer1 cite a good sentence1 without at all seeing the force of either the one or the other4 ,that a man may not understand all he borrows1 may perhaps be verified in myself4 ,a man must not always presently yield1 what truth or beauty soever may seem to be in the opposite argument2 either he must stoutly meet it1 or retire1 under colour of not understanding it1 to try1 on all parts1 how it is lodged in the author4 ,it may happen that we entangle ourselves1 and help to strengthen the point itself4 ,i have sometimes1 in the necessity and heat of the combat1 made answers that have gone through and through1 beyond my expectation or hope2 ,i only gave them in number1 they were received in weight4 ,as1 when ,i contend with a vigorous man1 ,i please myself with anticipating his conclusions1 ,i ease him of the trouble of explaining himself1 ,i strive to forestall his imagination whilst it is yet springing and imperfect2 the order and pertinency of his understanding warn and threaten me afar off3 ,i deal quite contrary with the others2 ,i must understand1 and presuppose nothing but by them4 ,if they determine in general words1 this is good1 that is naught1 and that they happen to be in the right1 see if it be not fortune that hits it off for them3 let them a little circumscribe and limit their judgment2 why1 or how1 it is so4 ,these universal judgments that ,i see so common1 signify nothing2 these are men who salute a whole people in a crowd together2 they1 who have a real acquaintance1 take notice of and salute them individually and by name4 ,but 'tis a hazardous attempt2 and from which ,i have1 more than every day1 seen it fall out1 that weak understandings1 having a mind to appear ingenious1 in taking notice1 as they read a book1 of what is best and most to be admired1 fix their admiration upon some thing so very ill chosen1 that instead of making us discern the excellence of the author2 they make us very well see their own ignorance4 ,this exclamation is safe1 ,that is fine1 after having heard a whole page of ,virgil2 by that the cunning sort save themselves2 but to undertake to follow him line by line1 and1 with an expert and tried judgment1 to observe where a good author excels himself1 weighing the words1 phrases1 inventions1 and his various excellences1 one after another2 keep aloof from that3 ,videndum est1 non modo quid quisque loquatur1 sed etiam quid quisque sentiat1 atque etiam qua de causa quisque sentiat4 ,a man is not only to examine what every one says1 but also what every one thinks1 and from what reason every one thinks4 --,cicero1 ,de ,offic31 i4 #da4 ,i every day hear fools say things that are not foolish3 they say a good thing2 let us examine how far they understand it1 whence they have it1 and what they mean by it4 ,we help them to make use of this fine expression1 of this fine sentence1 which is none of theirs2 they only have it in keeping2 they have bolted it out at a venture2 we place it for them in credit and esteem4 ,you lend them your hand4 ,to what purpose8 they do not think themselves obliged to you for it1 and become more inept still4 ,don't help them2 let them alone2 they will handle the matter like people who are afraid of burning their fingers2 they dare change neither its seat nor light1 nor break into it2 shake it never so little1 it slips through their fingers2 they give it up1 be it never so strong or fair they are fine weapons1 but ill hafted3 ,how many times have ,i seen the experience of this8 ,now1 if you come to explain anything to them1 and to confirm them1 they catch at it1 and presently rob you of the advantage of your interpretation2 ,it was what ,i was about to say2 it was just my idea2 if ,i did not express it so1 it was for want of language4 ,mere wind6 ,malice itself must be employed to correct this arrogant ignorance4 ,the dogma of ,hegesias1 that we are neither to hate nor accuse1 but instruct1 is correct elsewhere2 but here 'tis injustice and inhumanity to relieve and set him right who stands in no need on't1 and is the worse for't4 ,i love to let them step deeper into the mire2 and so deep1 that1 if it be possible1 they may at last discern their error4 ,folly and absurdity are not to be cured by bare admonition2 and what ,cyrus answered to him1 who importuned him to harangue his army1 upon the point of battle1 that men do not become valiant and warlike upon a sudden1 by a fine oration1 no more than a man becomes a good musician by hearing a fine song1 may properly be said of such an admonition as this4 ,these are apprenticeships that are to be served beforehand1 by a long and continued education4 ,we owe this care and this assiduity of correction and instruction to our own people2 but to go preach to the first passer-by1 and to become tutor to the ignorance and folly of the first we meet1 is a thing that ,i abhor4 ,i rarely do it1 even in private conversation1 and rather give up the whole thing than proceed to these initiatory and school instructions2 my humour is unfit either to speak or write for beginners2 but for things that are said in common discourse1 or amongst other things1 ,i never oppose them either by word or sign1 how false or absurd soever4 ,as to the rest1 nothing vexes me so much in folly as that it is more satisfied with itself than any reason can reasonably be4 ',tis unfortunate that prudence forbids us to satisfy and trust ourselves1 and always dismisses us timorous and discontented2 whereas obstinacy and temerity fill those who are possessed with them with joy and assurance4 ',tis for the most ignorant to look at other men over the shoulder1 always returning from the combat full of joy and triumph4 ,and moreover1 for the most part1 this arrogance of speech and gaiety of countenance gives them the better of it in the opinion of the audience1 which is commonly weak and incapable of well judging and discerning the real advantage4 ,obstinacy of opinion and heat in argument are the surest proofs of folly2 is there anything so assured1 resolute1 disdainful1 contemplative1 serious and grave as the ass8 ,may we not include under the title of conference and communication the quick and sharp repartees which mirth and familiarity introduce amongst friends1 pleasantly and wittily jesting and rallying with one another8 ',tis an exercise for which my natural gaiety renders me fit enough1 and which1 if it be not so tense and serious as the other ,i spoke of but now1 is1 as ,lycurgus thought1 no less smart and ingenious1 nor of less utility4 ,for my part1 ,i contribute to it more liberty than wit1 and have therein more of luck than invention2 but ,i am perfect in suffering1 for ,i endure a retaliation that is not only tart1 but indiscreet to boot1 without being moved at all2 and whoever attacks me1 if ,i have not a brisk answer immediately ready1 ,i do not study to pursue the point with a tedious and impertinent contest1 bordering upon obstinacy1 but let it pass1 and hanging down cheerfully my ears1 defer my revenge to another and better time3 there is no merchant that always gains3 ,most men change their countenance and their voice where their wits fail1 and by an unseasonable anger1 instead of revenging themselves1 accuse at once their own folly and impatience4 ,in this jollity1 we sometimes pinch the secret strings of our imperfections which1 at another and graver time1 we cannot touch without offence1 and so profitably give one another a hint of our defects4 ,there are other jeux de main1--practical jokes--rude and indiscreet1 after the ,french manner1 that ,i mortally hate2 my skin is very tender and sensible3 ,i have in my time seen two princes of the blood buried upon that very account4 ',tis unhandsome to fight in play4 ,as to the rest1 when ,i have a mind to judge of any one1 ,i ask him how far he is contented with himself2 to what degree his speaking or his work pleases him4 ,i will none of these fine excuses1 ,i did it only in sport1 ',ablatum mediis opus est incudibus istud4' ,that work was taken from the anvil half finished4 --,ovid1 ,trist41 i4 #f1 #bi4 ,i was not an hour about it3 ,i have never looked at it since4 ,well1 then1 say ,i1 lay these aside1 and give me a perfect one1 such as you would be measured by4 ,and then1 what do you think is the best thing in your work8 is it this part or that8 is it grace or the matter1 the invention1 the judgment1 or the learning8 ,for ,i find that men are1 commonly1 as wide of the mark in judging of their own works1 as of those of others2 not only by reason of the kindness they have for them1 but for want of capacity to know and distinguish them3 the work1 by its own force and fortune1 may second the workman1 and sometimes outstrip him1 beyond his invention and knowledge4 ,for my part1 ,i judge of the value of other men's works more obscurely than of my own2 and place the ,essays1 now high1 or low1 with great doubt and inconstancy4 ,there are several books that are useful upon the account of their subjects1 from which the author derives no praise2 and good books1 as well as good works1 that shame the workman4 ,i may write the manner of our feasts1 and the fashion of our clothes1 and may write them ill2 ,i may publish the edicts of my time1 and the letters of princes that pass from hand to hand2 ,i may make an abridgment of a good book 7and every abridgment of a good book is a foolish abridgment71 which book shall come to be lost2 and so on3 posterity will derive a singular utility from such compositions3 but what honour shall ,i have unless by great good fortune8 ,most part of the famous books are of this condition4 ,when ,i read ,philip de ,commines1 doubtless a very good author1 several years ago1 ,i there took notice of this for no vulgar saying1 ,that a man must have a care not to do his master so great service1 that at last he will not know how to give him his just reward2 but ,i ought to commend the invention1 not him1 because ,i met with it in ,tacitus1 not long since3 ,beneficia ea usque lxta sunt1 dum videntur exsolvi posse2 ubi multum antevenere1 pro gratis odium redditur2 ,benefits are so far acceptable as they appear to be capable of recompense2 where they much exceed that point1 hatred is returned instead of thanks4--,tacitus1 ,annal41 iv4 #ah4 and ,seneca vigorously says3 ,nam qui putat esse turpe non reddere1 non vult esse cui reddat3 ,for he who thinks it a shame not to requite1 does not wish to have the man live to whom he owes return4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #ha4 ,q4 ,cicero says with less directness43 ,qui se non putat satisfacere1 amicus esse nullo modo potest4 ,who thinks himself behind in obligation1 can by no means be a friend4--,q4 ,cicero1 ,de ,petitione ,consul1 c4 #i4 ,the subject1 according to what it is1 may make a man looked upon as learned and of good memory2 but to judge in him the parts that are most his own and the most worthy1 the vigour and beauty of his soul1 one must first know what is his own and what is not2 and in that which is not his own1 how much we are obliged to him for the choice1 disposition1 ornament1 and language he has there presented us with4 ,what if he has borrowed the matter and spoiled the form1 as it often falls out8 ,we1 who are little read in books1 are in this strait1 that when we meet with a high fancy in some new poet1 or some strong argument in a preacher1 we dare not1 nevertheless1 commend it till we have first informed ourselves1 through some learned man1 if it be the writer's wit or borrowed from some other2 until that ,i always stand upon my guard4 ,i have lately been reading the history of ,tacitus quite through1 without interrupting it with anything else 7which but seldom happens with me1 it being twenty years since ,i have kept to any one book an hour together71 and ,i did it at the instance of a gentleman for whom ,france has a great esteem1 as well for his own particular worth1 as upon the account of a constant form of capacity and virtue which runs through a great many brothers of them4 ,i do not know any author in a public narrative who mixes so much consideration of manners and particular inclinations3 and ,i am of a quite contrary opinion to him1 holding that1 having especially to follow the lives of the emperors of his time1 so various and extreme in all sorts of forms1 so many notable actions as their cruelty especially produced in their subjects1 he had a stronger and more attractive matter to treat of than if he had had to describe battles and universal commotions2 so that ,i often find him sterile1 running over those brave deaths as if he feared to trouble us with their multitude and length4 ,this form of history is by much the most useful2 public movements depend most upon the conduct of fortune1 private ones upon our own4 ',tis rather a judgment than a narration of history2 there are in it more precepts than stories3 it is not a book to read1 'tis a book to study and learn2 'tis full of sententious opinions1 right or wrong2 'tis a nursery of ethic and politic discourses1 for the use and ornament of those who have any place in the government of the world4 ,he always argues by strong and solid reasons1 after a pointed and subtle manner1 according to the affected style of that age1 which was so in love with an inflated manner1 that where point and subtlety were wanting in things it supplied these with lofty and swelling words4 ',tis not much unlike the style of ,seneca3 ,i look upon ,tacitus as more sinewy1 and ,seneca as more sharp4 ,his pen seems most proper for a troubled and sick state1 as ours at present is2 you would often say that he paints and pinches us4 ,they who doubt his good faith sufficiently accuse themselves of being his enemy upon some other account4 ,his opinions are sound1 and lean to the right side in the ,roman affairs4 ,and yet ,i am angry at him for judging more severely of ,pompey than consists with the opinion of those worthy men who lived in the same time1 and had dealings with him2 and to have reputed him on a par with ,marius and ,sylla1 excepting that he was more close4 ,other writers have not acquitted his intention in the government of affairs from ambition and revenge2 and even his friends were afraid that victory would have transported him beyond the bounds of reason1 but not to so immeasurable a degree as theirs2 nothing in his life threatened such express cruelty and tyranny4 ,neither ought we to set suspicion against evidence2 and therefore ,i do not believe ,plutarch in this matter4 ,that his narrations were genuine and straightforward may1 perhaps1 be argued from this very thing1 that they do not always apply to the conclusions of his judgments1 which he follows according to the bias he has taken1 very often beyond the matter he presents us withal1 which he has not deigned to alter in the least degree4 ,he needs no excuse for having approved the religion of his time1 according as the laws enjoined1 and to have been ignorant of the true2 this was his misfortune1 not his fault4 ,i have principally considered his judgment1 and am not very well satisfied therewith throughout2 as these words in the letter that ,tiberius1 old and sick1 sent to the senate4 ,what shall ,i write to you1 sirs1 or how should ,i write to you1 or what should ,i not write to you at this time8 ,may the gods and goddesses lay a worse punishment upon me than ,i am every day tormented with1 if ,i know6 ,i do not see why he should so positively apply them to a sharp remorse that tormented the conscience of ,tiberius2 at least1 when ,i was in the same condition1 ,i perceived no such thing4 ,and this also seemed to me a little mean in him that1 having to say that he had borne an honourable office in ,rome1 he excuses himself that he does not say it out of ostentation2 this seems1 ,i say1 mean for such a soul as his2 for not to speak roundly of a man's self implies some want of courage2 a man of solid and lofty judgment1 who judges soundly and surely1 makes use of his own example upon all occasions1 as well as those of others2 and gives evidence as freely of himself as of a third person4 ,we are to pass by these common rules of civility1 in favour of truth and liberty4 ,i dare not only speak of myself1 but to speak only of myself3 when ,i write of anything else1 ,i miss my way and wander from my subject4 ,i am not so indiscreetly enamoured of myself1 so wholly mixed up with1 and bound to myself1 that ,i cannot distinguish and consider myself apart1 as ,i do a neighbour or a tree3 'tis equally a fault not to discern how far a man's worth extends1 and to say more than a man discovers in himself4 ,we owe more love to ,god than to ourselves1 and know ,him less2 and yet speak of ,him as much as we will4 ,if the writings of ,tacitus indicate anything true of his qualities1 he was a great personage1 upright and bold1 not of a superstitious but of a philosophical and generous virtue4 ,one may think him bold in his relations2 as where he tells us1 that a soldier carrying a burden of wood1 his hands were so frozen and so stuck to the load that they there remained closed and dead1 being severed from his arms4 ,i always in such things bow to the authority of so great witnesses4 ,what also he says1 that ,vespasian1 by the favour of the god ,serapis1 cured a blind woman at ,alexandria by anointing her eyes with his spittle1 and ,i know not what other miracle1 he says by the example and duty of all his good historians4 ,they record all events of importance2 and amongst public incidents are the popular rumours and opinions4 ',tis their part to relate common beliefs1 not to regulate them3 that part concerns divines and philosophers1 directors of consciences2 and therefore it was that this companion of his1 and a great man like himself1 very wisely said3 ,equidem plura transcribo1 quam credo3 nam nec affirmare sustineo1 de quibus dubito1 nec subducere quae accepi2 ,truly1 ,i set down more things than ,i believe1 for ,i can neither affirm things whereof ,i doubt1 nor suppress what ,i have heard4 --,quintus ,curtius1 ix4 and this other3 ,haec neque affirmare neque refellere operae pretium est2 famae rerum standum est4 ',tis neither worth the while to affirm or to refute these things2 we must stand to report--,livy1 i41 ,praef41 and viii4 #f4 ,and writing in an age wherein the belief of prodigies began to decline1 he says he would not1 nevertheless1 forbear to insert in his ,annals1 and to give a relation of things received by so many worthy men1 and with so great reverence of antiquity2 'tis very well said4 ,let them deliver to us history1 more as they receive it than as they believe it4 ,i1 who am monarch of the matter whereof ,i treat1 and who am accountable to none1 do not1 nevertheless1 always believe myself2 ,i often hazard sallies of my own wit1 wherein ,i very much suspect myself1 and certain verbal quibbles1 at which ,i shake my ears2 but ,i let them go at a venture4 ,i see that others get reputation by such things3 'tis not for me alone to judge4 ,i present myself standing and lying1 before and behind1 my right side and my left1 and1 in all my natural postures4 ,wits1 though equal in force1 are not always equal in taste and application4 ,this is what my memory presents to me in gross1 and with uncertainty enough2 all judgments in gross are weak and imperfect4 ,,etext ,,editor',s ,,bookmarks3 ,a hundred more escape us than ever come to our knowledge ,a man must have courage to fear ,a man never speaks of himself without loss ,a man's accusations of himself are always believed ,agitation has usurped the place of reason ,all judgments in gross are weak and imperfect ,any argument if it be carried on with method ,apprenticeships that are to be served beforehand ,arrogant ignorance ,avoid all magnificences that will in a short time be forgotten ,being as impatient of commanding as of being commanded ,defer my revenge to another and better time ,desires1 that still increase as they are fulfilled ,detest in others the defects which are more manifest in us ,disdainful1 contemplative1 serious and grave as the ass ,do not1 nevertheless1 always believe myself ,events are a very poor testimony of our worth and parts4 ,every abridgment of a good book is a foolish abridgment ,fault not to discern how far a man's worth extends ,folly and absurdity are not to be cured by bare admonition ,folly satisfied with itself than any reason can reasonably be ,folly than to be moved and angry at the follies of the world ,give us history1 more as they receive it than as they believe it ,i every day hear fools say things that are not foolish ,i hail and caress truth in what quarter soever ,i find it ,i hate all sorts of tyranny1 both in word and deed ,i love stout expressions amongst gentle men ,i was too frightened to be ill ,if it be the writer's wit or borrowed from some other ,ignorance does not offend me1 but the foppery of it4 ,it is not a book to read1 'tis a book to study and learn ,it was what ,i was about to say2 it was just my idea1 ,judge by justice1 and choose men by reason ,knock you down with the authority of their experience ,learning improves fortunes enough1 but not minds ,liberality at the expense of others ,malice must be employed to correct this arrogant ignorance ,man must have a care not to do his master so great service ,mix railing1 indiscretion1 and fury in his disputations ,most men are rich in borrowed sufficiency ,my humour is unfit either to speak or write for beginners ,my reason is not obliged to bow and bend2 my knees are ,never oppose them either by word or sign1 how false or absurd ,new ,world3 sold it opinions and our arts at a very dear rate ,obstinancy and heat in argument are the surest proofs of folly ,one must first know what is his own and what is not ,our knowledge1 which is a wretched foundation ,passion has already confounded his judgment ,pinch the secret strings of our imperfections ,practical ,jokes3 ,tis unhandsome to fight in play ,presumptive knowledge by silence ,silent mien procured the credit of prudence and capacity ,spectators can claim no interest in the honour and pleasure ,study of books is a languishing and feeble motion ,the cause of truth ought to be the common cause ,the event often justifies a very foolish conduct ,the ignorant return from the combat full of joy and triumph ,the very name ,liberality sounds of ,liberty4 ,there are some upon whom their rich clothes weep ,there is no merchant that always gains ,there is nothing single and rare in respect of nature ,they have heard1 they have seen1 they have done so and so ,they have not the courage to suffer themselves to be corrected ,tis impossible to deal fairly with a fool ,to fret and vex at folly1 as ,i do1 is folly itself ,transferring of money from the right owners to strangers ,tutor to the ignorance and folly of the first we meet ,tyrannic sourness not to endure a form contrary to one's own ,universal judgments that ,i see so common1 signify nothing ,what he laughed at1 being alone8--,that ,i do laugh alone1 ,we are not to judge of counsels by events ,we do not correct the man we hang2 we correct others by him ,we neither see far forward nor far backward ,whilst thou wast silent1 thou seemedst to be some great thing ,who has once been a very fool1 will never after be very wise ,wide of the mark in judging of their own works ,wise may learn more of fools1 than fools can of the wise