,,essays ,,of ,,michel ,,de ,,montaigne ,translated by ,charles ,cotton ,edited by ,william ,carew ,hazilitt #ahgg ,,contents ,,of ,,volume #ag4 ,,ix4 ,of ,vanity ,,chapter ,,ix ,,of ,,vanity ,there is1 peradventure1 no more manifest vanity than to write of it so vainly4 ,that which divinity has so divinely expressed to us--,vanity of vanities3 all is vanity4--,eccles41 i4 #b4--ought to be carefully and continually meditated by men of understanding4 ,who does not see that ,i have taken a road1 in which1 incessantly and without labour1 ,i shall proceed so long as there shall be ink and paper in the world8 ,i can give no account of my life by my actions2 fortune has placed them too low3 ,i must do it by my fancies4 ,and yet ,i have seen a gentleman who only communicated his life by the workings of his belly3 you might see on his premises a show of a row of basins of seven or eight days' standing2 it was his study1 his discourse2 all other talk stank in his nostrils4 ,here1 but not so nauseous1 are the excrements of an old mind1 sometimes thick1 sometimes thin1 and always indigested4 ,and when shall ,i have done representing the continual agitation and mutation of my thoughts1 as they come into my head1 seeing that ,diomedes wrote six thousand books upon the sole subject of grammar8 ,it was not ,diomedes1 but ,didymus the grammarian1 who1 as ,seneca 7,ep41 #hh7 tells us1 wrote four not six thousand books on questions of vain literature1 which was the principal study of the ancient grammarian4--,coste4 ,but the number is probably exaggerated1 and for books we should doubtless read pamphlets or essays4 ,what1 then1 ought prating to produce1 since prattling and the first beginning to speak1 stuffed the world with such a horrible load of volumes8 ,so many words for words only4 ,o ,pythagoras1 why didst not thou allay this tempest8 ,they accused one ,galba of old for living idly2 he made answer1 ,that every one ought to give account of his actions1 but not of his home4 ,he was mistaken1 for justice also takes cognisance of those who glean after the reaper4 ,but there should be some restraint of law against foolish and impertinent scribblers1 as well as against vagabonds and idle persons2 which if there were1 both ,i and a hundred others would be banished from the reach of our people4 ,i do not speak this in jest3 scribbling seems to be a symptom of a disordered and licentious age4 ,when did we write so much as since our troubles8 when the ,romans so much1 as upon the point of ruin8 ,besides that1 the refining of wits does not make people wiser in a government3 this idle employment springs from this1 that every one applies himself negligently to the duty of his vocation1 and is easily debauched from it4 ,the corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual man2 some contribute treachery1 others injustice1 irreligion1 tyranny1 avarice1 cruelty1 according to their power2 the weaker sort contribute folly1 vanity1 and idleness2 of these ,i am one4 ,it seems as if it were the season for vain things1 when the hurtful oppress us2 in a time when doing ill is common1 to do but what signifies nothing is a kind of commendation4 ',tis my comfort1 that ,i shall be one of the last who shall be called in question2 and whilst the greater offenders are being brought to account1 ,i shall have leisure to amend3 for it would1 methinks1 be against reason to punish little inconveniences1 whilst we are infested with the greater4 ,as the physician ,philotimus said to one who presented him his finger to dress1 and who he perceived1 both by his complexion and his breath1 had an ulcer in his lungs3 ,friend1 it is not now time to play with your nails4 --,plutarch1 ,how we may distinguish a ,flatterer from a ,friend4 ,and yet ,i saw1 some years ago1 a person1 whose name and memory ,i have in very great esteem1 in the very height of our great disorders1 when there was neither law nor justice1 nor magistrate who performed his office1 no more than there is now1 publish ,i know not what pitiful reformations about cloths1 cookery1 and law chicanery4 ,those are amusements wherewith to feed a people that are ill-used1 to show that they are not totally forgotten4 ,those others do the same1 who insist upon prohibiting particular ways of speaking1 dances1 and games1 to a people totally abandoned to all sorts of execrable vices4 ',tis no time to bathe and cleanse one's self1 when one is seized by a violent fever2 it was for the ,spartans alone to fall to combing and curling themselves1 when they were just upon the point of running headlong into some extreme danger of their life4 ,for my part1 ,i have that worse custom1 that if my slipper go awry1 ,i let my shirt and my cloak do so too2 ,i scorn to mend myself by halves4 ,when ,i am in a bad plight1 ,i fasten upon the mischief2 ,i abandon myself through despair2 ,i let myself go towards the precipice1 and1 as they say1 throw the helve after the hatchet2 ,i am obstinate in growing worse1 and think myself no longer worth my own care2 ,i am either well or ill throughout4 ',t is a favour to me1 that the desolation of this kingdom falls out in the desolation of my age3 ,i better suffer that my ill be multiplied1 than if my well had been disturbed4--,that1 being ill1 ,i should grow worse1 than that1 being well1 ,i should grow ill4--,the words ,i utter in mishap are words of anger3 my courage sets up its bristles1 instead of letting them down2 and1 contrary to others1 ,i am more devout in good than in evil fortune1 according to the precept of ,xenophon1 if not according to his reason2 and am more ready to turn up my eyes to heaven to return thanks1 than to crave4 ,i am more solicitous to improve my health1 when ,i am well1 than to restore it when ,i am sick2 prosperities are the same discipline and instruction to me that adversities and rods are to others4 ,as if good fortune were a thing inconsistent with good conscience1 men never grow good but in evil fortune4 ,good fortune is to me a singular spur to modesty and moderation3 an entreaty wins1 a threat checks me2 favour makes me bend1 fear stiffens me4 ,amongst human conditions this is common enough3 to be better pleased with foreign things than with our own1 and to love innovation and change3 ,ipsa dies ideo nos grato perluit haustu1 ,quod permutatis hora recurrit equis3 ,the light of day itself shines more pleasantly upon us because it changes its horses every hour4 ,spoke of a water hour-glass1 adds ,cotton4 ,i have my share4 ,those who follow the other extreme1 of being quite satisfied and pleased with and in themselves1 of valuing what they have above all the rest1 and of concluding no beauty can be greater than what they see1 if they are not wiser than we1 are really more happy2 ,i do not envy their wisdom1 but their good fortune4 ,this greedy humour of new and unknown things helps to nourish in me the desire of travel2 but a great many more circumstances contribute to it2 ,i am very willing to quit the government of my house4 ,there is1 ,i confess1 a kind of convenience in commanding1 though it were but in a barn1 and in being obeyed by one's people2 but 'tis too uniform and languid a pleasure1 and is1 moreover1 of necessity mixed with a thousand vexatious thoughts3 one while the poverty and the oppression of your tenants3 another1 quarrels amongst neighbours3 another1 the trespasses they make upon you afflict you2 ,aut verberatae grandine vineae1 ,fundusque mendax1 arbore nunc aquas ,culpante1 nunc torrentia agros ,sidera1 nunc hyemes iniquas4 ,or hail-smitten vines and the deceptive farm2 now trees damaged by the rains1 or years of dearth1 now summer's heat burning up the petals1 now destructive winters4--,horatius1 ,od41 iii4 ,i1 #bi4 and that ,god scarce in six months sends a season wherein your bailiff can do his business as he should2 but that if it serves the vines1 it spoils the meadows3 ,aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol1 ,aut subiti perimunt imbres1 gelidoeque pruinae1 ,flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant2 ,either the scorching sun burns up your fields1 or sudden rains or frosts destroy your harvests1 or a violent wind carries away all before it4--,lucretius1 ,v4 #baf4 to which may be added the new and neat-made shoe of the man of old1 that hurts your foot1 ,leclerc maliciously suggests that this is a sly hit at ,montaigne's wife1 the man of old being the person mentioned in ,plutarch's ,life of ,paulus ,emilius1 c4 #c1 who1 when his friends reproached him for repudiating his wife1 whose various merits they extolled1 pointed to his shoe1 and said1 ,that looks a nice well-made shoe to you2 but ,i alone know where it pinches4 and that a stranger does not understand how much it costs you1 and what you contribute to maintain that show of order that is seen in your family1 and that peradventure you buy too dear4 ,i came late to the government of a house3 they whom nature sent into the world before me long eased me of that trouble2 so that ,i had already taken another bent more suitable to my humour4 ,yet1 for so much as ,i have seen1 'tis an employment more troublesome than hard2 whoever is capable of anything else1 will easily do this4 ,had ,i a mind to be rich1 that way would seem too long2 ,i had served my kings1 a more profitable traffic than any other4 ,since ,i pretend to nothing but the reputation of having got nothing or dissipated nothing1 conformably to the rest of my life1 improper either to do good or ill of any moment1 and that ,i only desire to pass on1 ,i can do it1 thanks be to ,god1 without any great endeavour4 ,at the worst1 evermore prevent poverty by lessening your expense2 'tis that which ,i make my great concern1 and doubt not but to do it before ,i shall be compelled4 ,as to the rest1 ,i have sufficiently settled my thoughts to live upon less than ,i have1 and live contentedly3 ,non aestimatione census1 verum victu atque cultu1 terminantur pecunix modus4 ',tis not by the value of possessions1 but by our daily subsistence and tillage1 that our riches are truly estimated4 --,cicero1 ,paradox1 vi4 #c4 ,my real need does not so wholly take up all ,i have1 that ,fortune has not whereon to fasten her teeth without biting to the quick4 ,my presence1 heedless and ignorant as it is1 does me great service in my domestic affairs2 ,i employ myself in them1 but it goes against the hair1 finding that ,i have this in my house1 that though ,i burn my candle at one end by myself1 the other is not spared4 ,journeys do me no harm but only by their expense1 which is great1 and more than ,i am well able to bear1 being always wont to travel with not only a necessary1 but a handsome equipage2 ,i must make them so much shorter and fewer2 ,i spend therein but the froth1 and what ,i have reserved for such uses1 delaying and deferring my motion till that be ready4 ,i will not that the pleasure of going abroad spoil the pleasure of being retired at home2 on the contrary1 ,i intend they shall nourish and favour one another4 ,fortune has assisted me in this1 that since my principal profession in this life was to live at ease1 and rather idly than busily1 she has deprived me of the necessity of growing rich to provide for the multitude of my heirs4 ,if there be not enough for one1 of that whereof ,i had so plentifully enough1 at his peril be it3 his imprudence will not deserve that ,i should wish him any more4 ,and every one1 according to the example of ,phocion1 provides sufficiently for his children who so provides for them as to leave them as much as was left him4 ,i should by no means like ,crates' way4 ,he left his money in the hands of a banker with this condition--that if his children were fools1 he should then give it to them2 if wise1 he should then distribute it to the most foolish of the people2 as if fools1 for being less capable of living without riches1 were more capable of using them4 ,at all events1 the damage occasioned by my absence seems not to deserve1 so long as ,i am able to support it1 that ,i should waive the occasions of diverting myself by that troublesome assistance4 ,there is always something that goes amiss4 ,the affairs1 one while of one house1 and then of another1 tear you to pieces2 you pry into everything too near2 your perspicacity hurts you here1 as well as in other things4 ,i steal away from occasions of vexing myself1 and turn from the knowledge of things that go amiss2 and yet ,i cannot so order it1 but that every hour ,i jostle against something or other that displeases me2 and the tricks that they most conceal from me1 are those that ,i the soonest come to know2 some there are that1 not to make matters worse1 a man must himself help to conceal4 ,vain vexations2 vain sometimes1 but always vexations4 ,the smallest and slightest impediments are the most piercing3 and as little letters most tire the eyes1 so do little affairs most disturb us4 ,the rout of little ills more offend than one1 how great soever4 ,by how much domestic thorns are numerous and slight1 by so much they prick deeper and without warning1 easily surprising us when least we suspect them4 ,now ,homer shews us clearly enough how surprise gives the advantage2 who represents ,ulysses weeping at the death of his dog2 and not weeping at the tears of his mother2 the first accident1 trivial as it was1 got the better of him1 coming upon him quite unexpectedly2 he sustained the second1 though more potent1 because he was prepared for it4 ',tis light occasions that humble our lives4 ,i am no philosopher2 evils oppress me according to their weight1 and they weigh as much according to the form as the matter1 and very often more4 ,if ,i have therein more perspicacity than the vulgar1 ,i have also more patience2 in short1 they weigh with me1 if they do not hurt me4 ,life is a tender thing1 and easily molested4 ,since my age has made me grow more pensive and morose1 ,nemo enim resistit sibi1 cum caeperit impelli1 ,for no man resists himself when he has begun to be driven forward4--,seneca1 ,ep41 #ac4 for the most trivial cause imaginable1 ,i irritate that humour1 which afterwards nourishes and exasperates itself of its own motion2 attracting and heaping up matter upon matter whereon to feed3 ,stillicidi casus lapidem cavat3 ,the ever falling drop hollows out a stone4--,lucretius1 i4 #cad4 these continual tricklings consume and ulcerate me4 ,ordinary inconveniences are never light2 they are continual and inseparable1 especially when they spring from the members of a family1 continual and inseparable4 ,when ,i consider my affairs at distance and in gross1 ,i find1 because perhaps my memory is none of the best1 that they have gone on hitherto improving beyond my reason or expectation2 my revenue seems greater than it is2 its prosperity betrays me3 but when ,i pry more narrowly into the business1 and see how all things go3 ,tum vero in curas animum diducimus omnes2 ,indeed we lead the mind into all sorts of cares4 --,a,eneid1 v4 #gbj4 ,i have a thousand things to desire and to fear4 ,to give them quite over1 is very easy for me to do3 but to look after them without trouble1 is very hard4 ',tis a miserable thing to be in a place where everything you see employs and concerns you2 and ,i fancy that ,i more cheerfully enjoy the pleasures of another man's house1 and with greater and a purer relish1 than those of my own4 ,diogenes answered according to my humour him who asked him what sort of wine he liked the best3 ,that of another1 said he4--,diogenes ,laertius1 vi4 #ed4 ,my father took a delight in building at ,montaigne1 where he was born2 and in all the government of domestic affairs ,i love to follow his example and rules1 and ,i shall engage those who are to succeed me1 as much as in me lies1 to do the same4 ,could ,i do better for him1 ,i would2 and am proud that his will is still performing and acting by me4 ,god forbid that in my hands ,i should ever suffer any image of life1 that ,i am able to render to so good a father1 to fail4 ,and wherever ,i have taken in hand to strengthen some old foundations of walls1 and to repair some ruinous buildings1 in earnest ,i have done it more out of respect to his design1 than my own satisfaction2 and am angry at myself that ,i have not proceeded further to finish the beginnings he left in his house1 and so much the more because ,i am very likely to be the last possessor of my race1 and to give the last hand to it4 ,for1 as to my own particular application1 neither the pleasure of building1 which they say is so bewitching1 nor hunting1 nor gardens1 nor the other pleasures of a retired life1 can much amuse me4 ,and 'tis what ,i am angry at myself for1 as ,i am for all other opinions that are incommodious to me2 which ,i would not so much care to have vigorous and learned1 as ,i would have them easy and convenient for life1 they are true and sound enough1 if they are useful and pleasing4 ,such as hear me declare my ignorance in husbandry1 whisper in my ear that it is disdain1 and that ,i neglect to know its instruments1 its seasons1 its order1 how they dress my vines1 how they graft1 and to know the names and forms of herbs and fruits1 and the preparing the meat on which ,i live1 the names and prices of the stuffs ,i wear1 because1 say they2 ,i have set my heart upon some higher knowledge2 they kill me in saying so4 ,it is not disdain2 it is folly1 and rather stupidity than glory2 ,i had rather be a good horseman than a good logician3 ,quin to aliquid saltem potius1 quorum indiget usus1 ,viminibus mollique paras detexere junco4 ',dost thou not rather do something which is required1 and make osier and reed basket4--,virgil1 ,eclog41 ii4 #ga4 ,we occupy our thoughts about the general1 and about universal causes and conducts1 which will very well carry on themselves without our care2 and leave our own business at random1 and ,michael much more our concern than man4 ,now ,i am1 indeed1 for the most part at home2 but ,i would be there better pleased than anywhere else3 ,sit meae sedes utinam senectae1 ,sit modus lasso maris1 et viarum1 ,militiaeque4 ,let my old age have a fixed seat2 let there be a limit to fatigues from the sea1 journeys1 warfare4--,horace1 ,od41 ii4 #f1 #f4 ,i know not whether or no ,i shall bring it about4 ,i could wish that1 instead of some other member of his succession1 my father had resigned to me the passionate affection he had in his old age to his household affairs2 he was happy in that he could accommodate his desires to his fortune1 and satisfy himself with what he had2 political philosophy may to much purpose condemn the meanness and sterility of my employment1 if ,i can once come to relish it1 as he did4 ,i am of opinion that the most honourable calling is to serve the public1 and to be useful to many1 ,fructus enim ingenii et virtutis1 omnisque praestantiae1 tum maximus capitur1 quum in proximum quemque confertur3 ,for the greatest enjoyment of evil and virtue1 and of all excellence1 is experienced when they are conferred on some one nearest4--,cicero1 ,de ,amicil41 c4 for myself1 ,i disclaim it2 partly out of conscience 7for where ,i see the weight that lies upon such employments1 ,i perceive also the little means ,i have to supply it2 and ,plato1 a master in all political government himself1 nevertheless took care to abstain from it71 and partly out of cowardice4 ,i content myself with enjoying the world without bustle2 only-to live an excusable life1 and such as may neither be a burden to myself nor to any other4 ,never did any man more fully and feebly suffer himself to be governed by a third person than ,i should do1 had ,i any one to whom to entrust myself4 ,one of my wishes at this time should be1 to have a son-in-law that knew handsomely how to cherish my old age1 and to rock it asleep2 into whose hands ,i might deposit1 in full sovereignty1 the management and use of all my goods1 that he might dispose of them as ,i do1 and get by them what ,i get1 provided that he on his part were truly acknowledging1 and a friend4 ,but we live in a world where loyalty of one's own children is unknown4 ,he who has the charge of my purse in his travels1 has it purely and without control2 he could cheat me thoroughly1 if he came to reckoning2 and1 if he is not a devil1 ,i oblige him to deal faithfully with me by so entire a trust3 ,multi fallere do cuerunt1 dum timent falli2 et aliis jus peccandi suspicando fecerunt4 ,many have taught others to deceive1 while they fear to be deceived1 and1 by suspecting them1 have given them a title to do ill4--,seneca1 ,epist41 #c4 ,the most common security ,i take of my people is ignorance2 ,i never presume any to be vicious till ,i have first found them so2 and repose the most confidence in the younger sort1 that ,i think are least spoiled by ill example4 ,i had rather be told at two months' end that ,i have spent four hundred crowns1 than to have my ears battered every night with three1 five1 seven3 and ,i have been1 in this way1 as little robbed as another4 ,it is true1 ,i am willing enough not to see it2 ,i1 in some sort1 purposely1 harbour a kind of perplexed1 uncertain knowledge of my money3 up to a certain point1 ,i am content to doubt4 ,one must leave a little room for the infidelity or indiscretion of a servant2 if you have left enough1 in gross1 to do your business1 let the overplus of ,fortune's liberality run a little more freely at her mercy2 'tis the gleaner's portion4 ,after all1 ,i do not so much value the fidelity of my people as ,i contemn their injury4 ,what a mean and ridiculous thing it is for a man to study his money1 to delight in handling and telling it over and over again6 ',tis by this avarice makes its approaches4 ,in eighteen years that ,i have had my estate in my1 own hands1 ,i could never prevail with myself either to read over my deeds or examine my principal affairs1 which ought1 of necessity1 to pass under my knowledge and inspection4 ',tis not a philosophical disdain of worldly and transitory things2 my taste is not purified to that degree1 and ,i value them at as great a rate1 at least1 as they are worth2 but 'tis1 in truth1 an inexcusable and childish laziness and negligence4 ,what would ,i not rather do than read a contract8 or than1 as a slave to my own business1 tumble over those dusty writings8 or1 which is worse1 those of another man1 as so many do nowadays1 to get money8 ,i grudge nothing but care and trouble1 and endeavour nothing so much1 as to be careless and at ease4 ,i had been much fitter1 ,i believe1 could it have been without obligation and servitude1 to have lived upon another man's fortune than my own3 and1 indeed1 ,i do not know1 when ,i examine it nearer1 whether1 according to my humour1 what ,i have to suffer from my affairs and servants1 has not in it something more abject1 troublesome1 and tormenting than there would be in serving a man better born than myself1 who would govern me with a gentle rein1 and a little at my own case3 ,servitus obedientia est fracti animi et abjecti1 arbitrio carentis suo4 ,servitude is the obedience of a subdued and abject mind1 wanting its own free will4--,cicero1 ,paradox1 ,v4 ,i4 ,crates did worse1 who threw himself into the liberty of poverty1 only to rid himself of the inconveniences and cares of his house4 ,this is what ,i would not do2 ,i hate poverty equally with pain2 but ,i could be content to change the kind of life ,i live for another that was humbler and less chargeable4 ,when absent from home1 ,i divest myself of all these thoughts1 and should be less concerned for the ruin of a tower1 than ,i am1 when present1 at the fall of a tile4 ,my mind is easily composed at distance1 but suffers as much as that of the meanest peasant when ,i am at home2 the reins of my bridle being wrongly put on1 or a strap flapping against my leg1 will keep me out of humour a day together4 ,i raise my courage1 well enough against inconveniences3 lift up my eyes ,i cannot3 ,sensus1 o superi1 sensus4 ,the senses1 ,o ye gods1 the senses4 ,i am at home responsible for whatever goes amiss4 ,few masters 7,i speak of those of medium condition such as mine71 and if there be any such1 they are more happy1 can rely so much upon another1 but that the greatest part of the burden will lie upon their own shoulders4 ,this takes much from my grace in entertaining visitors1 so that ,i have1 peradventure1 detained some rather out of expectation of a good dinner1 than by my own behaviour2 and lose much of the pleasure ,i ought to reap at my own house from the visitation and assembling of my friends4 ,the most ridiculous carriage of a gentleman in his own house1 is to see him bustling about the business of the place1 whispering one servant1 and looking an angry look at another3 it ought insensibly to slide along1 and to represent an ordinary current2 and ,i think it unhandsome to talk much to our guests of their entertainment1 whether by way of bragging or excuse4 ,i love order and cleanliness-- ,et cantharus et lanx ,ostendunt mihi me-- ,the dishes and the glasses shew me my own reflection4 --,horace1 ,ep41 i4 #e1 #bc more than abundance2 and at home have an exact regard to necessity1 little to outward show4 ,if a footman falls to cuffs at another man's house1 or stumble and throw a dish before him as he is carrying it up1 you only laugh and make a jest on't2 you sleep whilst the master of the house is arranging a bill of fare with his steward for your morrow's entertainment4 ,i speak according as ,i do myself2 quite appreciating1 nevertheless1 good husbandry in general1 and how pleasant quiet and prosperous household management1 carried regularly on1 is to some natures2 and not wishing to fasten my own errors and inconveniences to the thing2 nor to give ,plato the lie1 who looks upon it as the most pleasant employment to every one to do his particular affairs without wrong to another4 ,when ,i travel ,i have nothing to care for but myself1 and the laying out my money2 which is disposed of by one single precept2 too many things are required to the raking it together2 in that ,i understand nothing2 in spending1 ,i understand a little1 and how to give some show to my expense1 which is indeed its principal use2 but ,i rely too ambitiously upon it1 which renders it unequal and difform1 and1 moreover1 immoderate in both the one and the other aspect2 if it makes a show1 if it serve the turn1 ,i indiscreetly let it run2 and as indiscreetly tie up my purse-strings1 if it does not shine1 and does not please me4 ,whatever it be1 whether art or nature1 that imprints in us the condition of living by reference to others1 it does us much more harm than good2 we deprive ourselves of our own utilities1 to accommodate appearances to the common opinion3 we care not so much what our being is1 as to us and in reality1 as what it is to the public observation4 ,even the properties of the mind1 and wisdom itself1 seem fruitless to us1 if only enjoyed by ourselves1 and if it produce not itself to the view and approbation of others4 ,there is a sort of men whose gold runs in streams underground imperceptibly2 others expose it all in plates and branches2 so that to the one a liard is worth a crown1 and to the others the inverse3 the world esteeming its use and value1 according to the show4 ,all over-nice solicitude about riches smells of avarice3 even the very disposing of it1 with a too systematic and artificial liberality1 is not worth a painful superintendence and solicitude3 he1 that will order his expense to just so much1 makes it too pinched and narrow4 ,the keeping or spending are1 of themselves1 indifferent things1 and receive no colour of good or ill1 but according to the application of the will4 ,the other cause that tempts me out to these journeys is1 inaptitude for the present manners in our state4 ,i could easily console myself for this corruption in regard to the public interest3 ,pejoraque saecula ferri ,temporibus1 quorum sceleri non invenit ipsa ,nomen1 et a nullo posuit natura metallo2 ,and1 worse than the iron ages1 for whose crimes there is no similitude in any of ,nature's metals4--,juvenal1 xiii4 #bh4 but not to my own4 ,i am1 in particular1 too much oppressed by them3 for1 in my neighbourhood1 we are1 of late1 by the long licence of our civil wars1 grown old in so riotous a form of state1 ,quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas1 ,where wrong and right have changed places4 --,virgil1 ,georg41 i4 #ejd4 that in earnest1 'tis a wonder how it can subsist3 ,armati terram exercent1 semperque recentes ,convectare juvat praedas2 et vivere rapto4 ,men plough1 girt with arms2 ever delighting in fresh robberies1 and living by rapine4--,a,eneid1 vii4 #gdh4 ,in fine1 ,i see by our example1 that the society of men is maintained and held together1 at what price soever2 in what condition soever they are placed1 they still close and stick together1 both moving and in heaps2 as ill united bodies1 that1 shuffled together without order1 find of themselves a means to unite and settle1 often better than they could have been disposed by art4 ,king ,philip mustered up a rabble of the most wicked and incorrigible rascals he could pick out1 and put them all together into a city he had caused to be built for that purpose1 which bore their name3 ,i believe that they1 even from vices themselves1 erected a government amongst them1 and a commodious and just society4 ,i see1 not one action1 or three1 or a hundred1 but manners1 in common and received use1 so ferocious1 especially in inhumanity and treachery1 which are to me the worst of all vices1 that ,i have not the heart to think of them without horror2 and almost as much admire as ,i detest them3 the exercise of these signal villainies carries with it as great signs of vigour and force of soul1 as of error and disorder4 ,necessity reconciles and brings men together2 and this accidental connection afterwards forms itself into laws3 for there have been such1 as savage as any human opinion could conceive1 who1 nevertheless1 have maintained their body with as much health and length of life as any ,plato or ,aristotle could invent4 ,and certainly1 all these descriptions of polities1 feigned by art1 are found to be ridiculous and unfit to be put in practice4 ,these great and tedious debates about the best form of society1 and the most commodious rules to bind us1 are debates only proper for the exercise of our wits2 as in the arts there are several subjects which have their being in agitation and controversy1 and have no life but there4 ,such an idea of government might be of some value in a new world2 but we take a world already made1 and formed to certain customs2 we do not beget it1 as ,pyrrha or ,cadmus did4 ,by what means soever we may have the privilege to redress and reform it anew1 we can hardly writhe it from its wonted bent1 but we shall break all4 ,solon being asked whether he had established the best laws he could for the ,athenians2 ,yes1 said he1 of those they would have received4 ,varro excuses himself after the same manner3 that if he were to begin to write of religion1 he would say what he believed2 but seeing it was already received1 he would write rather according to use than nature4 ,not according to opinion1 but in truth and reality1 the best and most excellent government for every nation is that under which it is maintained3 its form and essential convenience depend upon custom4 ,we are apt to be displeased at the present condition2 but ,i1 nevertheless1 maintain that to desire command in a few--an oligarchy4-- in a republic1 or another sort of government in monarchy than that already established1 is both vice and folly3 ,ayme l'estat1 tel que to le veois estre ,s'il est royal ayme la royaute2 ,s'il est de peu1 ou biers communaute1 ,ayme l'aussi2 car ,dieu t'y a faict naistre4 ,love the government1 such as you see it to be4 ,if it be royal1 love royalty2 if it is a republic of any sort1 still love it2 for ,god himself created thee therein4 ,so wrote the good ,monsieur de ,pibrac1 whom we have lately lost1 a man of so excellent a wit1 such sound opinions1 and such gentle manners4 ,this loss1 and that at the same time we have had of ,monsieur de ,foix1 are of so great importance to the crown1 that ,i do not know whether there is another couple in ,france worthy to supply the places of these two ,gascons in sincerity and wisdom in the council of our kings4 ,they were both variously great men1 and certainly1 according to the age1 rare and great1 each of them in his kind3 but what destiny was it that placed them in these times1 men so remote from and so disproportioned to our corruption and intestine tumults8 ,nothing presses so hard upon a state as innovation3 change only gives form to injustice and tyranny4 ,when any piece is loosened1 it may be proper to stay it2 one may take care that the alteration and corruption natural to all things do not carry us too far from our beginnings and principles3 but to undertake to found so great a mass anew1 and to change the foundations of so vast a building1 is for them to do1 who to make clean1 efface2 who reform particular defects by an universal confusion1 and cure diseases by death3 ,non tam commutandarum quam evertendarum rerum cupidi4 ,not so desirous of changing as of overthrowing things4 --,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 ii4 i4 ,the world is unapt to be cured2 and so impatient of anything that presses it1 that it thinks of nothing but disengaging itself at what price soever4 ,we see by a thousand examples1 that it ordinarily cures itself to its cost4 ,the discharge of a present evil is no cure1 if there be not a general amendment of condition4 ,the surgeon's end is not only to cut away the dead flesh2 that is but the progress of his cure2 he has a care1 over and above1 to fill up the wound with better and more natural flesh1 and to restore the member to its due state4 ,whoever only proposes to himself to remove that which offends him1 falls short3 for good does not necessarily succeed evil2 another evil may succeed1 and a worse1 as it happened to ,caesar's murderers1 who brought the republic to such a pass1 that they had reason to repent the meddling with the matter4 ,the same has since happened to several others1 even down to our own times3 the ,french1 my contemporaries1 know it well enough4 ,all great mutations shake and disorder a state4 ,whoever would look direct at a cure1 and well consider of it before he began1 would be very willing to withdraw his hands from meddling in it4 ,pacuvius ,calavius corrected the vice of this proceeding by a notable example4 ,his fellow-citizens were in mutiny against their magistrates2 he being a man of great authority in the city of ,capua1 found means one day to shut up the ,senators in the palace2 and calling the people together in the market-place1 there told them that the day was now come wherein at full liberty they might revenge themselves on the tyrants by whom they had been so long oppressed1 and whom he had now1 all alone and unarmed1 at his mercy4 ,he then advised that they should call these out1 one by one1 by lot1 and should individually determine as to each1 causing whatever should be decreed to be immediately executed2 with this proviso1 that they should1 at the same time1 depute some honest man in the place of him who was condemned1 to the end there might be no vacancy in the ,senate4 ,they had no sooner heard the name of one senator but a great cry of universal dislike was raised up against him4 ,i see1 says ,pacuvius1 that we must put him out2 he is a wicked fellow2 let us look out a good one in his room4 ,immediately there was a profound silence1 every one being at a stand whom to choose4 ,but one1 more impudent than the rest1 having named his man1 there arose yet a greater consent of voices against him1 an hundred imperfections being laid to his charge1 and as many just reasons why he should not stand4 ,these contradictory humours growing hot1 it fared worse with the second senator and the third1 there being as much disagreement in the election of the new1 as consent in the putting out of the old4 ,in the end1 growing weary of this bustle to no purpose1 they began1 some one way and some another1 to steal out of the assembly3 every one carrying back this resolution in his mind1 that the oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was1 new and untried4 ,seeing how miserably we are agitated 7for what have we not done67 ,eheu6 cicatricum1 et sceleris pudet1 ,fratrumque3 quid nos dura refugimus ,a,etas8 quid intactum nefasti ,liquimus8 ,unde manus inventus ,metu ,deorum continuit8 quibus ,pepercit aris4 ,alas6 our crimes and our fratricides are a shame to us6 ,what crime does this bad age shrink from8 ,what wickedness have we left undone8 ,what youth is restrained from evil by the fear of the gods8 ,what altar is spared8--,horace1 ,od41 i4 #cc1 #ce ,i do not presently conclude1 ,ipsa si velit ,salus1 ,servare prorsus non potest hanc familiam2 ,if the goddess ,salus herself wish to save this family1 she absolutely cannot--,terence1 ,adelph41 iv4 #g1 #dc4 we are not1 peradventure1 at our last gasp4 ,the conservation of states is a thing that1 in all likelihood1 surpasses our understanding2--a civil government is1 as ,plato says1 a mighty and puissant thing1 and hard to be dissolved2 it often continues against mortal and intestine diseases1 against the injury of unjust laws1 against tyranny1 the corruption and ignorance of magistrates1 the licence and sedition of the people4 ,in all our fortunes1 we compare ourselves to what is above us1 and still look towards those who are better3 but let us measure ourselves with what is below us3 there is no condition so miserable wherein a man may not find a thousand examples that will administer consolation4 ',tis our vice that we more unwillingly look upon what is above1 than willingly upon what is below2 and ,solon was used to say1 that whoever would make a heap of all the ills together1 there is no one who would not rather choose to bear away the ills he has than to come to an equal division with all other men from that heap1 and take his share4 ,our government is1 indeed1 very sick1 but there have been others more sick without dying4 ,the gods play at ball with us and bandy us every way3 ,enimvero ,dii nos homines quasi pilas habent4 ,the stars fatally destined the state of ,rome for an example of what they could do in this kind3 in it are comprised all the forms and adventures that concern a state3 all that order or disorder1 good or evil fortune1 can do4 ,who1 then1 can despair of his condition1 seeing the shocks and commotions wherewith ,rome was tumbled and tossed1 and yet withstood them all8 ,if the extent of dominion be the health of a state 7which ,i by no means think it is1 and ,isocrates pleases me when he instructs ,nicocles not to envy princes who have large dominions1 but those who know how to preserve those which have fallen into their hands71 that of ,rome was never so sound1 as when it was most sick4 ,the worst of her forms was the most fortunate2 one can hardly discern any image of government under the first emperors2 it is the most horrible and tumultuous confusion that can be imagined2 it endured it1 notwithstanding1 and therein continued1 preserving not a monarchy limited within its own bounds1 but so many nations so differing1 so remote1 so disaffected1 so confusedly commanded1 and so unjustly conquered3 ,nec gentibus ullis ,commodat in populum1 terra pelagique potentem1 ,invidiam fortuna suam4 ,fortune never gave it to any nation to satisfy its hatred against the people1 masters of the seas and of the earth4--,lucan1 i4 #cb4 ,everything that totters does not fall4 ,the contexture of so great a body holds by more nails than one2 it holds even by its antiquity1 like old buildings1 from which the foundations are worn away by time1 without rough-cast or mortar1 which yet live and support themselves by their own weight3 ,nec jam validis radicibus haerens1 ,pondere tuta suo est4 ,moreover1 it is not rightly to go to work1 to examine only the flank and the foss1 to judge of the security of a place2 we must observe which way approaches can be made to it1 and in what condition the assailant is3 few vessels sink with their own weight1 and without some exterior violence4 ,now1 let us everyway cast our eyes2 everything about us totters2 in all the great states1 both of ,christendom and elsewhere1 that are known to us1 if you will but look1 you will there see evident menace of alteration and ruin3 ,et sua sunt illis incommoda2 parque per omnes ,tempestas4 ,they all share in the mischief2 the tempest rages everywhere4--,a,eneid1 ii4 ,astrologers may very well1 as they do1 warn us of great revolutions and imminent mutations3 their prophecies are present and palpable1 they need not go to heaven to foretell this4 ,there is not only consolation to be extracted from this universal combination of ills and menaces1 but1 moreover1 some hopes of the continuation of our state1 forasmuch as1 naturally1 nothing falls where all falls3 universal sickness is particular health3 conformity is antagonistic to dissolution4 ,for my part1 ,i despair not1 and fancy that ,i discover ways to save us3 ,deus haec fortasse benigna ,reducet in sedem vice4 ,the deity will perchance by a favourable turn restore us to our former position4--,horace1 ,epod41 xiii4 #g4 ,who knows but that ,god will have it happen1 as in human bodies that purge and restore themselves to a better state by long and grievous maladies1 which render them more entire and perfect health than that they took from them8 ,that which weighs the most with me is1 that in reckoning the symptoms of our ill1 ,i see as many natural ones1 and that ,heaven sends us1 and properly its own1 as of those that our disorder and human imprudence contribute to it4 ,the very stars seem to declare that we have already continued long enough1 and beyond the ordinary term4 ,this also afflicts me1 that the mischief which nearest threatens us1 is not an alteration in the entire and solid mass1 but its dissipation and divulsion1 which is the most extreme of our fears4 ,i1 moreover1 fear1 in these fantasies of mine1 the treachery of my memory1 lest1 by inadvertence1 it should make me write the same thing twice4 ,i hate to examine myself1 and never review1 but very unwillingly1 what has once escaped my pen4 ,i here set down nothing new4 ,these are common thoughts1 and having1 peradventure1 conceived them an hundred times1 ,i am afraid ,i have set them down somewhere else already4 ,repetition is everywhere troublesome1 though it were in ,homer2 but 'tis ruinous in things that have only a superficial and transitory show4 ,i do not love over-insisting1 even in the most profitable things1 as in ,seneca2 and the usage of his stoical school displeases me1 to repeat1 upon every subject1 at full length and width the principles and presuppositions that serve in general1 and always to realledge anew common and universal reasons4 ,my memory grows cruelly worse every day3 ,pocula ,lethaeos ut si ducentia somnos1 ,arente fauce traxerim2 ,as if my dry throat had drunk seducing cups of ,lethaean oblivion4--,horace1 ,epod41 xiv4 #c4 ,i must be fain for the time to come 7for hitherto1 thanks be to ,god1 nothing has happened much amiss71 whereas others seek time and opportunity to think of what they have to say1 to avoid all preparation1 for fear of tying myself to some obligation upon which ,i must insist4 ,to be tied and bound to a thing puts me quite out1 and to depend upon so weak an instrument as my memory4 ,i never read this following story that ,i am not offended at it with a personal and natural resentment3 ,lyncestes1 accused of conspiracy against ,alexander1 the day that he was brought out before the army1 according to the custom1 to be heard as to what he could say for himself1 had learned a studied speech1 of which1 hesitating and stammering1 he pronounced some words4 ,whilst growing more and more perplexed1 whilst struggling with his memory1 and trying to recollect what he had to say1 the soldiers nearest to him charged their pikes against him and killed him1 looking upon him as convict2 his confusion and silence served them for a confession2 for having had so much leisure to prepare himself in prison1 they concluded that it was not his memory that failed him1 but that his conscience tied up his tongue and stopped his mouth4 ,and1 truly1 well said2 the place1 the assembly1 the expectation1 astound a man1 even when he has but the ambition to speak well2 what can a man do when 'tis an harangue upon which his life depends8 ,for my part1 the very being tied to what ,i am to say is enough to loose me from it4 ,when ,i wholly commit and refer myself to my memory1 ,i lay so much stress upon it that it sinks under me3 it grows dismayed with the burden4 ,so much as ,i trust to it1 so much do ,i put myself out of my own power1 even to the finding it difficult to keep my own countenance2 and have been sometimes very much put to it to conceal the slavery wherein ,i was engaged2 whereas my design is to manifest1 in speaking1 a perfect calmness both of face and accent1 and casual and unpremeditated motions1 as rising from present occasions1 choosing rather to say nothing to purpose than to show that ,i came prepared to speak well1 a thing especially unbecoming a man of my profession1 and of too great obligation on him who cannot retain much4 ,the preparation begets a great deal more expectation than it will satisfy4 ,a man often strips himself to his doublet to leap no farther than he would have done in his gown3 ,nihil est his1 qui placere volunt1 turn adversarium1 quam expectatio4 ,nothing is so adverse to those who make it their business to please as expectation--,cicero1 ,acad41 ii4 #d ,it is recorded of the orator ,curio1 that when he proposed the division of his oration into three or four parts1 or three or four arguments or reasons1 it often happened either that he forgot some one1 or added one or two more4 ,i have always avoided falling into this inconvenience1 having ever hated these promises and prescriptions1 not only out of distrust of my memory1 but also because this method relishes too much of the artist3 ,simpliciora militares decent4 ,simplicity becomes warriors4--,quintilian1 ,instit4 ,orat41 xi4 ,i4 ',tis enough that ,i have promised to myself never again to take upon me to speak in a place of respect1 for as to speaking1 when a man reads his speech1 besides that it is very absurd1 it is a mighty disadvantage to those who naturally could give it a grace by action2 and to rely upon the mercy of my present invention1 ,i would much less do it2 'tis heavy and perplexed1 and such as would never furnish me in sudden and important necessities4 ,permit1 reader1 this essay its course also1 and this third sitting to finish the rest of my picture3 ,i add1 but ,i correct not4 ,first1 because ,i conceive that a man having once parted with his labours to the world1 he has no further right to them2 let him do better if he can1 in some new undertaking1 but not adulterate what he has already sold4 ,of such dealers nothing should be bought till after they are dead4 ,let them well consider what they do before they1 produce it to the light who hastens them8 ,my book is always the same1 saving that upon every new edition 7that the buyer may not go away quite empty7 ,i take the liberty to add 7as 'tis but an ill jointed marqueterie7 some supernumerary emblem2 it is but overweight1 that does not disfigure the primitive form of the essays1 but1 by a little artful subtlety1 gives a kind of particular value to every one of those that follow4 ,thence1 however1 will easily happen some transposition of chronology1 my stories taking place according to their opportuneness1 not always according to their age4 ,secondly1 because as to what concerns myself1 ,i fear to lose by change3 my understanding does not always go forward1 it goes backward too4 ,i do not much less suspect my fancies for being the second or the third1 than for being the first1 or present1 or past2 we often correct ourselves as foolishly as we do others4 ,i am grown older by a great many years since my first publications1 which were in the year #aehj2 but ,i very much doubt whether ,i am grown an inch the wiser4 ,i now1 and ,i anon1 are two several persons2 but whether better1 ,i cannot determine4 ,it were a fine thing to be old1 if we only travelled towards improvement2 but 'tis a drunken1 stumbling1 reeling1 infirm motion3 like that of reeds1 which the air casually waves to and fro at pleasure4 ,antiochus had in his youth strongly written in favour of the ,academy2 in his old age he wrote as much against it2 would not1 which of these two soever ,i should follow1 be still ,antiochus8 ,after having established the uncertainty1 to go about to establish the certainty of human opinions1 was it not to establish doubt1 and not certainty1 and to promise1 that had he had yet another age to live1 he would be always upon terms of altering his judgment1 not so much for the better1 as for something else8 ,the public favour has given me a little more confidence than ,i expected2 but what ,i 'most fear is1 lest ,i should glut the world with my writings2 ,i had rather1 of the two1 pique my reader than tire him1 as a learned man of my time has done4 ,praise is always pleasing1 let it come from whom1 or upon what account it will2 yet ought a man to understand why he is commended1 that he may know how to keep up the same reputation still3 imperfections themselves may get commendation4 ,the vulgar and common estimation is seldom happy in hitting2 and ,i am much mistaken if1 amongst the writings of my time1 the worst are not those which have most gained the popular applause4 ,for my part1 ,i return my thanks to those good-natured men who are pleased to take my weak endeavours in good part2 the faults of the workmanship are nowhere so apparent as in a matter which of itself has no recommendation4 ,blame not me1 reader1 for those that slip in here by the fancy or inadvertency of others2 every hand1 every artisan1 contribute their own materials2 ,i neither concern myself with orthography 7and only care to have it after the old way7 nor pointing1 being very inexpert both in the one and the other4 ,where they wholly break the sense1 ,i am very little concerned1 for they at least discharge me2 but where they substitute a false one1 as they so often do1 and wrest me to their conception1 they ruin me4 ,when the sentence1 nevertheless1 is not strong enough for my proportion1 a civil person ought to reject it as spurious1 and none of mine4 ,whoever shall know how lazy ,i am1 and how indulgent to my own humour1 will easily believe that ,i had rather write as many more essays1 than be tied to revise these over again for so childish a correction4 ,i said elsewhere1 that being planted in the very centre of this new religion1 ,i am not only deprived of any great familiarity with men of other kind of manners than my own1 and of other opinions1 by which they hold together1 as by a tie that supersedes all other obligations2 but moreover ,i do not live without danger1 amongst men to whom all things are equally lawful1 and of whom the most part cannot offend the laws more than they have already done2 from which the extremist degree of licence proceeds4 ,all the particular being summed up together1 ,i do not find one man of my country1 who pays so dear for the defence of our laws both in loss and damages 7as the lawyers say7 as myself2 and some there are who vapour and brag of their zeal and constancy1 that if things were justly weighed1 do much less than ,i4 ,my house1 as one that has ever been open and free to all comers1 and civil to all 7for ,i could never persuade myself to make it a garrison of war1 war being a thing that ,i prefer to see as remote as may be71 has sufficiently merited popular kindness1 and so that it would be a hard matter justly to insult over me upon my own dunghill2 and ,i look upon it as a wonderful and exemplary thing that it yet continues a virgin from blood and plunder during so long a storm1 and so many neighbouring revolutions and tumults4 ,for to confess the truth1 it had been possible enough for a man of my complexion to have shaken hands with any one constant and continued form whatever2 but the contrary invasions and incursions1 alternations and vicissitudes of fortune round about me1 have hitherto more exasperated than calmed and mollified the temper of the country1 and involved me1 over and over again1 with invincible difficulties and dangers4 ,i escape1 'tis true1 but am troubled that it is more by chance1 and something of my own prudence1 than by justice2 and am not satisfied to be out of the protection of the laws1 and under any other safeguard than theirs4 ,as matters stand1 ,i live1 above one half1 by the favour of others1 which is an untoward obligation4 ,i do not like to owe my safety either to the generosity or affection of great persons1 who allow me my legality and my liberty1 or to the obliging manners of my predecessors1 or my own3 for what if ,i were another kind of man8 ,if my deportment1 and the frankness of my conversation or relationship1 oblige my neighbours1 'tis that that they should acquit themselves of obligation in only permitting me to live1 and they may say1 ,we allow him the free liberty of having divine service read in his own private chapel1 when it is interdicted in all churches round about1 and allow him the use of his goods and his life1 as one who protects our wives and cattle in time of need4 ,for my house has for many descents shared in the reputation of ,lycurgus the ,athenian1 who was the general depository and guardian of the purses of his fellow-citizens4 ,now ,i am clearly of opinion that a man should live by right and by authority1 and not either by recompense or favour4 ,how many gallant men have rather chosen to lose their lives than to be debtors for them8 ,i hate to subject myself to any sort of obligation1 but above all1 to that which binds me by the duty of honour4 ,i think nothing so dear as what has been given me1 and this because my will lies at pawn under the title of gratitude1 and more willingly accept of services that are to be sold2 ,i feel that for the last ,i give nothing but money1 but for the other ,i give myself4 ,the knot that binds me by the laws of courtesy binds me more than that of civil constraint2 ,i am much more at ease when bound by a scrivener1 than by myself4 ,is it not reason that my conscience should be much more engaged when men simply rely upon it8 ,in a bond1 my faith owes nothing1 because it has nothing lent it2 let them trust to the security they have taken without me4 ,i had much rather break the wall of a prison and the laws themselves than my own word4 ,i am nice1 even to superstition1 in keeping my promises1 and1 therefore1 upon all occasions have a care to make them uncertain and conditional4 ,to those of no great moment1 ,i add the jealousy of my own rule1 to make them weight2 it wracks and oppresses me with its own interest4 ,even in actions wholly my own and free1 if ,i once say a thing1 ,i conceive that ,i have bound myself1 and that delivering it to the knowledge of another1 ,i have positively enjoined it my own performance4 ,methinks ,i promise it1 if ,i but say it3 and therefore am not apt to say much of that kind4 ,the sentence that ,i pass upon myself is more severe than that of a judge1 who only considers the common obligation2 but my conscience looks upon it with a more severe and penetrating eye4 ,i lag in those duties to which ,i should be compelled if ,i did not go3 ,hoc ipsum ita justum est1 quod recte fit1 si est voluntarium4 ,this itself is so far just1 that it is rightly done1 if it is voluntary4--,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 i4 #i4 ,if the action has not some splendour of liberty1 it has neither grace nor honour3 ,quod vos jus cogit1 vix voluntate impetrent3 ,that which the laws compel us to do1 we scarcely do with a will4 --,terence1 ,adelph41 iii4 #c1 #dd4 where necessity draws me1 ,i love to let my will take its own course3 ,quia quicquid imperio cogitur1 exigenti magis1 quam praestanti1 acceptum refertur4 ,for whatever is compelled by power1 is more imputed to him that exacts than to him that performs4--,valerius ,maximus1 ii4 #b1 #f4 ,i know some who follow this rule1 even to injustice2 who will sooner give than restore1 sooner lend than pay1 and will do them the least good to whom they are most obliged4 ,i don't go so far as that1 but ,i'm not far off4 ,i so much love to disengage and disobligate myself1 that ,i have sometimes looked upon ingratitudes1 affronts1 and indignities which ,i have received from those to whom either by nature or accident ,i was bound in some way of friendship1 as an advantage to me2 taking this occasion of their ill-usage1 for an acquaintance and discharge of so much of my debt4 ,and though ,i still continue to pay them all the external offices of public reason1 ,i1 notwithstanding1 find a great saving in doing that upon the account of justice which ,i did upon the score of affection1 and am a little eased of the attention and solicitude of my inward will3 ,est prudentis sustinere1 ut currum1 sic impetum benevolentia2 ',tis the part of a wise man to keep a curbing hand upon the impetus of friendship1 as upon that of his horse4 --,cicero1 ,de ,amicit41 c4 #ag4 'tis in me1 too urging and pressing where ,i take2 at least1 for a man who loves not to be strained at all4 ,and this husbanding my friendship serves me for a sort of consolation in the imperfections of those in whom ,i am concerned4 ,i am very sorry they are not such as ,i could wish they were1 but then ,i also am spared somewhat of my application and engagement towards them4 ,i approve of a man who is the less fond of his child for having a scald head1 or for being crooked2 and not only when he is ill-conditioned1 but also when he is of unhappy disposition1 and imperfect in his limbs 7,god himself has abated so much from his value and natural estimation71 provided he carry himself in this coldness of affection with moderation and exact justice3 proximity1 with me1 lessens not defects1 but rather aggravates them4 ,after all1 according to what ,i understand in the science of benefit and acknowledgment1 which is a subtle science1 and of great use1 ,i know no person whatever more free and less indebted than ,i am at this hour4 ,what ,i do owe is simply to foreign obligations and benefits2 as to anything else1 no man is more absolutely clear3 ,nec sunt mihi nota potentum ,munera4 ,the gifts of great men are unknown to me4--,a,eneid1 xii4 #ebi4 ,princes give me a great deal if they take nothing from me2 and do me good enough if they do me no harm2 that's all ,i ask from them4 ,o how am ,i obliged to ,god1 that he has been pleased ,i should immediately receive from his bounty all ,i have1 and specially reserved all my obligation to himself4 ,how earnestly do ,i beg of his holy compassion that ,i may never owe essential thanks to any one4 ,o happy liberty wherein ,i have thus far lived4 ,may it continue with me to the last4 ,i endeavour to have no express need of any one3 ,in me omnis spec est mihi4 ,all my hope is in myself4--,terence1 ,adelph41 iii4 #e1 #i4 ',tis what every one may do in himself1 but more easily they whom ,god has placed in a condition exempt from natural and urgent necessities4 ,it is a wretched and dangerous thing to depend upon others2 we ourselves1 in whom is ever the most just and safest dependence1 are not sufficiently sure4 ,i have nothing mine but myself1 and yet the possession is1 in part1 defective and borrowed4 ,i fortify myself both in courage1 which is the strongest assistant1 and also in fortune1 therein wherewith to satisfy myself1 though everything else should forsake me4 ,hippias of ,elis not only furnished himself with knowledge1 that he might1 at need1 cheerfully retire from all other company to enjoy the ,muses3 nor only with the knowledge of philosophy1 to teach his soul to be contented with itself1 and bravely to subsist without outward conveniences1 when fate would have it so2 he was1 moreover1 so careful as to learn to cook1 to shave himself1 to make his own clothes1 his own shoes and drawers1 to provide for all his necessities in himself1 and to wean himself from the assistance of others4 ,a man more freely and cheerfully enjoys borrowed conveniences1 when it is not an enjoyment forced and constrained by need2 and when he has1 in his own will and fortune1 the means to live without them4 ,i know myself very well2 but 'tis hard for me to imagine any so pure liberality of any one towards me1 any so frank and free hospitality1 that would not appear to me discreditable1 tyrannical1 and tainted with reproach1 if necessity had reduced me to it4 ,as giving is an ambitious and authoritative quality1 so is accepting a quality of submission2 witness the insulting and quarrelsome refusal that ,bajazet made of the presents that ,tamerlane sent him2 and those that were offered on the part of the ,emperor ,solyman to the ,emperor of ,calicut1 so angered him1 that he not only rudely rejected them1 saying that neither he nor any of his predecessors had ever been wont to take1 and that it was their office to give2 but1 moreover1 caused the ambassadors sent with the gifts to be put into a dungeon4 ,when ,thetis1 says ,aristotle1 flatters ,jupiter1 when the ,lacedaemonians flatter the ,athenians1 they do not put them in mind of the good they have done them1 which is always odious1 but of the benefits they have received from them4 ,such as ,i see so frequently employ every one in their affairs1 and thrust themselves into so much obligation1 would never do it1 did they but relish as ,i do the sweetness of a pure liberty1 and did they but weigh1 as wise3 men should1 the burden of obligation3 'tis sometimes1 peradventure1 fully paid1 but 'tis never dissolved4 ',tis a miserable slavery to a man who loves to be at full liberty in all reapects4 ,such as know me1 both above and below me in station1 are able to say whether they have ever known a man less importuning1 soliciting1 entreating1 and pressing upon others than ,i4 ,if ,i am so1 and a degree beyond all modern example1 'tis no great wonder1 so many parts of my manners contributing to it3 a little natural pride1 an impatience at being refused1 the moderation of my desires and designs1 my incapacity for business1 and my most beloved qualities1 idleness and freedom2 by all these together ,i have conceived a mortal hatred to being obliged to any other1 or by any other than myself4 ,i leave no stone unturned1 to do without it1 rather than employ the bounty of another in any light or important occasion or necessity whatever4 ,my friends strangely trouble me when they ask me to ask a third person2 and ,i think it costs me little less to disengage him who is indebted to me1 by making use of him1 than to engage myself to him who owes me nothing4 ,these conditions being removed1 and provided they require of me nothing if any great trouble or care 7for ,i have declared mortal war against all care71 ,i am very ready to do every one the best service ,i can4 ,i have been very willing to seek occasion to do people a good turn1 and to attach them to me2 and methinks there is no more agreeable employment for our means4 ,but ,i have yet more avoided receiving than sought occasions of giving1 and moreover1 according to ,aristotle1 it is more easy41 ,my fortune has allowed me but little to do others good withal1 and the little it can afford1 is put into a pretty close hand4 ,had ,i been born a great person1 ,i should have been ambitious to have made myself beloved1 not to make myself feared or admired3 shall ,i more plainly express it8 ,i should more have endeavoured to please than to profit others4 ,cyrus very wisely1 and by the mouth of a great captain1 and still greater philosopher1 prefers his bounty and benefits much before his valour and warlike conquests2 and the elder ,scipio1 wherever he would raise himself in esteem1 sets a higher value upon his affability and humanity1 than on his prowess and victories1 and has always this glorious saying in his mouth3 ,that he has given his enemies as much occasion to love him as his friends4 ,i will then say1 that if a man must1 of necessity1 owe something1 it ought to be by a more legitimate title than that whereof ,i am speaking1 to which the necessity of this miserable war compels me2 and not in so great a debt as that of my total preservation both of life and fortune3 it overwhelms me4 ,i have a thousand times gone to bed in my own house with an apprehension that ,i should be betrayed and murdered that very night2 compounding with fortune1 that it might be without terror and with quick despatch2 and1 after my ,paternoster1 ,i have cried out1 ,impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit6 ,shall impious soldiers have these new-ploughed grounds8 --,virgil1 ,ecl41 i4 #ga4 ,what remedy8 'tis the place of my birth1 and that of most of my ancestors2 they have here fixed their affection and name4 ,we inure ourselves to whatever we are accustomed to2 and in so miserable a condition as ours is1 custom is a great bounty of nature1 which benumbs out senses to the sufferance of many evils4 ,a civil war has this with it worse than other wars have1 to make us stand sentinels in our own houses4 ,quam miserum1 porta vitam muroque tueri1 ,vixque suae tutum viribus esse domus6 ',tis miserable to protect one's life by doors and walls1 and to be scarcely safe in one's own house4--,ovid1 ,trist41 iv4 ,i1 #fi4 ',tis a grievous extremity for a man to be jostled even in his own house and domestic repose4 ,the country where ,i live is always the first in arms and the last that lays them down1 and where there is never an absolute peace3 ,tunc quoque1 cum pax est1 trepidant formidine belli4444 ,quoties ,romam fortuna lacessit2 ,hac iter est bellis4444 ,melius1 ,fortuna1 dedisses ,orbe sub ,eco sedem1 gelidaque sub ,arcto1 ,errantesque domos4 ,even when there's peace1 there is here still the dear of war when ,fortune troubles peace1 this is ever the way by which war passes4 --,ovid1 ,trist41 iii4 #aj1 #fg4 ,we might have lived happier in the remote ,east or in the icy ,north1 or among the wandering tribes4--,lucan1 i4 #bee4 ,i sometimes extract the means to fortify myself against these considerations from indifference and indolence1 which1 in some sort1 bring us on to resolution4 ,it often befalls me to imagine and expect mortal dangers with a kind of delight3 ,i stupidly plunge myself headlong into death1 without considering or taking a view of it1 as into a deep and obscure abyss which swallows me up at one leap1 and involves me in an instant in a profound sleep1 without any sense of pain4 ,and in these short and violent deaths1 the consequence that ,i foresee administers more consolation to me than the effect does fear4 ,they say1 that as life is not better for being long1 so death is better for being not long4 ,i do not so much evade being dead1 as ,i enter into confidence with dying4 ,i wrap and shroud myself into the storm that is to blind and carry me away with the fury of a sudden and insensible attack4 ,moreover1 if it should fall out that1 as some gardeners say1 roses and violets spring more odoriferous near garlic and onions1 by reason that the last suck and imbibe all the ill odour of the earth2 so1 if these depraved natures should also attract all the malignity of my air and climate1 and render it so much better and purer by their vicinity1 ,i should not lose all4 ,that cannot be3 but there may be something in this1 that goodness is more beautiful and attractive when it is rare2 and that contrariety and diversity fortify and consolidate well-doing within itself1 and inflame it by the jealousy of opposition and by glory4 ,thieves and robbers1 of their special favour1 have no particular spite at me2 no more have ,i to them3 ,i should have my hands too full4 ,like consciences are lodged under several sorts of robes2 like cruelty1 disloyalty1 rapine2 and so much the worse1 and more falsely1 when the more secure and concealed under colour of the laws4 ,i less hate an open professed injury than one that is treacherous2 an enemy in arms1 than an enemy in a gown4 ,our fever has seized upon a body that is not much the worse for it2 there was fire before1 and now 'tis broken out into a flame2 the noise is greater1 not the evil4 ,i ordinarily answer such as ask me the reason of my travels1 ,that ,i know very well what ,i fly from1 but not what ,i seek4 ,if they tell me that there may be as little soundness amongst foreigners1 and that their manners are no better than ours3 ,i first reply1 that it is hard to be believed2 ,tam multa3 scelerum facies6 ,there are so many forms of crime4--,virgil1 ,georg41 i4 #ejf4 secondly1 that it is always gain to change an ill condition for one that is uncertain2 and that the ills of others ought not to afflict us so much as our own4 ,i will not here omit1 that ,i never mutiny so much against ,france1 that ,i am not perfectly friends with ,paris2 that city has ever had my heart from my infancy1 and it has fallen out1 as of excellent things1 that the more beautiful cities ,i have seen since1 the more the beauty of this still wins upon my affection4 ,i love her for herself1 and more in her own native being1 than in all the pomp of foreign and acquired embellishments4 ,i love her tenderly1 even to her warts and blemishes4 ,i am a ,frenchman only through this great city1 great in people1 great in the felicity of her situation2 but1 above all1 great and incomparable in variety and diversity of commodities3 the glory of ,france1 and one of the most noble ornaments of the world4 ,may ,god drive our divisions far from her4 ,entire and united1 ,i think her sufficiently defended from all other violences4 ,i give her caution that1 of all sorts of people1 those will be the worst that shall set her in discord2 ,i have no fear for her1 but of herself1 and1 certainly1 ,i have as much fear for her as for any other part of the kingdom4 ,whilst she shall continue1 ,i shall never want a retreat1 where ,i may stand at bay1 sufficient to make me amends for parting with any other retreat4 ,not because ,socrates has said so1 but because it is in truth my own humour1 and peradventure not without some excess1 ,i look upon all men as my compatriots1 and embrace a ,polander as a ,frenchman1 preferring the universal and common tie to all national ties whatever4 ,i am not much taken with the sweetness of a native air3 acquaintance wholly new and wholly my own appear to me full as good as the other common and fortuitous ones with ,four neighbours3 friendships that are purely of our own acquiring ordinarily carry it above those to which the communication of climate or of blood oblige us4 ,nature has placed us in the world free and unbound2 we imprison ourselves in certain straits1 like the kings of ,persia1 who obliged themselves to drink no other water but that of the river ,choaspes1 foolishly quitted claim to their right in all other streams1 and1 so far as concerned themselves1 dried up all the other rivers of the world4 ,what ,socrates did towards his end1 to look upon a sentence of banishment as worse than a sentence of death against him1 ,i shall1 ,i think1 never be either so decrepid or so strictly habituated to my own country to be of that opinion4 ,these celestial lives have images enough that ,i embrace more by esteem than affection2 and they have some also so elevated and extraordinary that ,i cannot embrace them so much as by esteem1 forasmuch as ,i cannot conceive them4 ,that fancy was singular in a man who thought the whole world his city2 it is true that he disdained travel1 and had hardly ever set his foot out of the ,attic territories4 ,what say you to his complaint of the money his friends offered to save his life1 and that he refused to come out of prison by the mediation of others1 in order not to disobey the laws in a time when they were otherwise so corrupt8 ,these examples are of the first kind for me2 of the second1 there are others that ,i could find out in the same person3 many of these rare examples surpass the force of my action1 but some of them1 moreover1 surpass the force of my judgment4 ,besides these reasons1 travel is in my opinion a very profitable exercise2 the soul is there continually employed in observing new and unknown things1 and ,i do not know1 as ,i have often said a better school wherein to model life than by incessantly exposing to it the diversity of so many other lives1 fancies1 and usances1 and by making it relish a perpetual variety of forms of human nature4 ,the body is1 therein1 neither idle nor overwrought2 and that moderate agitation puts it in breath4 ,i can keep on horseback1 tormented with the stone as ,i am1 without alighting or being weary1 eight or ten hours together3 ,vires ultra sorternque senectae4 ,beyond the strength and lot of age4--,a,eneid1 vi4 #aad4 ,no season is enemy to me but the parching heat of a scorching sun2 for the umbrellas made use of in ,italy1 ever since the time of the ancient ,romans1 more burden a man's arm than they relieve his head4 ,i would fain know how it was that the ,persians1 so long ago and in the infancy of luxury1 made ventilators where they wanted them1 and planted shades1 as ,xenophon reports they did4 ,i love rain1 and to dabble in the dirt1 as well as ducks do4 ,the change of air and climate never touches me2 every sky is alike2 ,i am only troubled with inward alterations which ,i breed within myself1 and those are not so frequent in travel4 ,i am hard to be got out1 but being once upon the road1 ,i hold out as well as the best4 ,i take as much pains in little as in great attempts1 and am as solicitous to equip myself for a short journey1 if but to visit a neighbour1 as for the longest voyage4 ,i have learned to travel after the ,spanish fashion1 and to make but one stage of a great many miles2 and in excessive heats ,i always travel by night1 from sun set to sunrise4 ,the other method of baiting by the way1 in haste and hurry to gobble up a dinner1 is1 especially in short days1 very inconvenient4 ,my horses perform the better2 never any horse tired under me that was able to hold out the first day's journey4 ,i water them at every brook ,i meet1 and have only a care they have so much way to go before ,i come to my inn1 as will digest the water in their bellies4 ,my unwillingness to rise in a morning gives my servants leisure to dine at their ease before they set out2 for my own part1 ,i never eat too late2 my appetite comes to me in eating1 and not else2 ,i am never hungry but at table4 ,some of my friends blame me for continuing this travelling humour1 being married and old4 ,but they are out in't2 'tis the best time to leave a man's house1 when he has put it into a way of continuing without him1 and settled such order as corresponds with its former government4 ',tis much greater imprudence to abandon it to a less faithful housekeeper1 and who will be less solicitous to look after your affairs4 ,the most useful and honourable knowledge and employment for the mother of a family is the science of good housewifery4 ,i see some that are covetous indeed1 but very few that are good managers4 ',tis the supreme quality of a woman1 which a man ought to seek before any other1 as the only dowry that must ruin or preserve our houses4 ,let men say what they will1 according to the experience ,i have learned1 ,i require in married women the economical virtue above all other virtues2 ,i put my wife to't1 as a concern of her own1 leaving her1 by my absence1 the whole government of my affairs4 ,i see1 and am vexed to see1 in several families ,i know1 ,monsieur about noon come home all jaded and ruffled about his affairs1 when ,madame is still dressing her hair and tricking up herself1 forsooth1 in her closet3 this is for queens to do1 and that's a question1 too3 'tis ridiculous and unjust that the laziness of our wives should be maintained with our sweat and labour4 ,no man1 so far as in me lie1 shall have a clearer1 a more quiet and free fruition of his estate than ,i4 ,if the husband bring matter1 nature herself will that the wife find the form4 ,as to the duties of conjugal friendship1 that some think to be impaired by these absences1 ,i am quite of another opinion4 ,it is1 on the contrary1 an intelligence that easily cools by a too frequent and assiduous companionship4 ,every strange woman appears charming1 and we all find by experience that being continually together is not so pleasing as to part for a time and meet again4 ,these interruptions fill me with fresh affection towards my family1 and render my house more pleasant to me4 ,change warms my appetite to the one and then to the other4 ,i know that the arms of friendship are long enough to reach from the one end of the world to the other1 and especially this1 where there is a continual communication of offices that rouse the obligation and remembrance4 ,the ,stoics say that there is so great connection and relation amongst the sages1 that he who dines in ,france nourishes his companion in ,egypt2 and that whoever does but hold out his finger1 in what part of the world soever1 all the sages upon the habitable earth feel themselves assisted by it4 ,fruition and possession principally appertain to the imagination2 it more fervently and constantly embraces what it is in quest of1 than what we hold in our arms4 ,cast up your daily amusements2 you will find that you are most absent from your friend when he is present with you2 his presence relaxes your attention1 and gives you liberty to absent yourself at every turn and upon every occasion4 ,when ,i am away at ,rome1 ,i keep and govern my house1 and the conveniences ,i there left2 see my walls rise1 my trees shoot1 and my revenue increase or decrease1 very near as well as when ,i am there3 ,ante oculos errat domus1 errat forma locorum4 ,my house and the forms of places float before my eyes --,ovid1 ,trist1 iii4 #d1 #eg4 ,if we enjoy nothing but what we touch1 we may say farewell to the money in our chests1 and to our sons when they are gone a hunting4 ,we will have them nearer to us3 is the garden1 or half a day's journey from home1 far8 ,what is ten leagues3 far or near8 ,if near1 what is eleven1 twelve1 or thirteen1 and so by degrees4 ,in earnest1 if there be a woman who can tell her husband what step ends the near and what step begins the remote1 ,i would advise her to stop between2 ,excludat jurgia finis 4 4 4 4 ,utor permisso2 caudaeque pilos ut equinae ,paulatim vello1 et demo unum1 demo etiam unum ,dum cadat elusus ratione ruentis acervi3 ,let the end shut out all disputes 4 4 4 4 ,i use what is permitted2 ,i pluck out the hairs of the horse's tail one by one2 while ,i thus outwit my opponent4--,horace1 ,ep41 ii1 ,i1 #ch1 #de and let them boldly call philosophy to their assistance2 in whose teeth it may be cast that1 seeing it neither discerns the one nor the other end of the joint1 betwixt the too much and the little1 the long and the short1 the light and the heavy1 the near and the remote2 that seeing it discovers neither the beginning nor the end1 it must needs judge very uncertainly of the middle3 ,rerum natura nullam nobis dedit cognitionem finium4 ,nature has green to us no knowledge of the end of things4 --,cicero1 ,acad41 ii4 #bi4 ,are they not still wives and friends to the dead who are not at the end of this but in the other world8 ,we embrace not only the absent1 but those who have been1 and those who are not yet4 ,we do not promise in marriage to be continually twisted and linked together1 like some little animals that we see1 or1 like the bewitched folks of ,karenty1--,karantia1 a town in the isle of ,rugen4 ,see ,saxo-,grammaticus1 ,hist4 of ,denmark1 book xiv4--tied together like dogs2 and a wife ought not to be so greedily enamoured of her husband's foreparts1 that she cannot endure to see him turn his back1 if occasion be4 ,but may not this saying of that excellent painter of woman's humours be here introduced1 to show the reason of their complaints8 ,uxor1 si cesses1 aut to amare cogitat1 ,aut tete amari1 aut potare1 aut animo obsequi2 ,et tibi bene esse soli1 cum sibi sit male2 ,your wife1 if you loiter1 thinks that you love or are beloved2 or that you are drinking or following your inclination2 and that it is well for you when it is ill for her 7all the pleasure is yours and hers all the care74 --,terence1 ,adelph41 act i41 sc4 ,i1 v4 #g4 or may it not be1 that of itself opposition and contradiction entertain and nourish them1 and that they sufficiently accommodate themselves1 provided they incommodate you8 ,in true friendship1 wherein ,i am perfect1 ,i more give myself to my friend1 than ,i endeavour to attract him to me4 ,i am not only better pleased in doing him service than if he conferred a benefit upon me1 but1 moreover1 had rather he should do himself good than me1 and he most obliges me when he does so2 and if absence be either more pleasant or convenient for him1 'tis also more acceptable to me than his presence2 neither is it properly absence1 when we can write to one another3 ,i have sometimes made good use of our separation from one another3 we better filled and further extended the possession of life in being parted4 ,he--,la ,boetie4--lived1 enjoyed1 and saw for me1 and ,i for him1 as fully as if he had himself been there2 one part of us remained idle1 and we were too much blended in one another when we were together2 the distance of place rendered the conjunction of our wills more rich4 ,this insatiable desire of personal presence a little implies weakness in the fruition of souls4 ,as to what concerns age1 which is alleged against me1 'tis quite contrary2 'tis for youth to subject itself to common opinions1 and to curb itself to please others2 it has wherewithal to please both the people and itself2 we have but too much ado to please ourselves alone4 ,as natural conveniences fail1 let us supply them with those that are artificial4 ',tis injustice to excuse youth for pursuing its pleasures1 and to forbid old men to seek them4 ,when young1 ,i concealed my wanton passions with prudence2 now ,i am old1 ,i chase away melancholy by debauch4 ,and thus do the platonic laws forbid men to travel till forty or fifty years old1 so that travel might be more useful and instructive in so mature an age4 ,i should sooner subscribe to the second article of the same ,laws1 which forbids it after threescore4 ,but1 at such an age1 you will never return from so long a journey4 ,what care ,i for that8 ,i neither undertake it to return1 nor to finish it my business is only to keep myself in motion1 whilst motion pleases me2 ,i only walk for the walk's sake4 ,they who run after a benefit or a hare1 run not2 they only run who run at base1 and to exercise their running4 ,my design is divisible throughout3 it is not grounded upon any great hopes3 every day concludes my expectation3 and the journey of my life is carried on after the same manner4 ,and yet ,i have seen places enough a great way off1 where ,i could have wished to have stayed4 ,and why not1 if ,chrysippus1 ,cleanthes1 ,diogenes1 ,zeno1 ,antipater1 so many sages of the sourest sect1 readily abandoned their country1 without occasion of complaint1 and only for the enjoyment of another air4 ,in earnest1 that which most displeases me in all my travels is1 that ,i cannot resolve to settle my abode where ,i should best like1 but that ,i must always propose to myself to return1 to accommodate myself to the common humour4 ,if ,i feared to die in any other place than that of my birth2 if ,i thought ,i should die more uneasily remote from my own family1 ,i should hardly go out of ,france2 ,i should not1 without fear1 step out of my parish2 ,i feel death always pinching me by the throat or by the back4 ,but ,i am otherwise constituted2 'tis in all places alike to me4 ,yet1 might ,i have my choice1 ,i think ,i should rather choose to die on horseback than in bed2 out of my own house1 and far from my own people4 ,there is more heartbreaking than consolation in taking leave of one's friends2 ,i am willing to omit that civility1 for that1 of all the offices of friendship1 is the only one that is unpleasant2 and ,i could1 with all my heart1 dispense with that great and eternal farewell4 ,if there be any convenience in so many standers-by1 it brings an hundred inconveniences along with it4 ,i have seen many dying miserably surrounded with all this train3 'tis a crowd that chokes them4 ',tis against duty1 and is a testimony of little kindness and little care1 to permit you to die in repose2 one torments your eyes1 another your ears1 another your tongue2 you have neither sense nor member that is not worried by them4 ,your heart is wounded with compassion to hear the mourning of friends1 and1 perhaps with anger1 to hear the counterfeit condolings of pretenders4 ,who ever has been delicate and sensitive1 when well1 is much more so when ill4 ,in such a necessity1 a gentle hand is required1 accommodated to his sentiment1 to scratch him just in the place where he itches1 otherwise scratch him not at all4 ,if we stand in need of a wise woman--midwife1 ,fr4 'sage femme'4--to bring us into the world1 we have much more need of a still wiser man to help us out of it4 ,such a one1 and a friend to boot1 a man ought to purchase at any cost for such an occasion4 ,i am not yet arrived to that pitch of disdainful vigour that is fortified in itself1 that nothing can assist or disturb2 ,i am of a lower form2 ,i endeavour to hide myself1 and to escape from this passage1 not by fear1 but by art4 ,i do not intend in this act of dying to make proof and show of my constancy4 ,for whom should ,i do it8 all the right and interest ,i have in reputation will then cease4 ,i content myself with a death involved within itself1 quiet1 solitary1 and all my own1 suitable to my retired and private life2 quite contrary to the ,roman superstition1 where a man was looked upon as unhappy who died without speaking1 and who had not his nearest relations to close his eyes4 ,i have enough to do to comfort myself1 without having to console others2 thoughts enough in my head1 not to need that circumstances should possess me with new2 and matter enough to occupy me without borrowing4 ,this affair is out of the part of society2 'tis the act of one single person4 ,let us live and be merry amongst our friends2 let us go repine and die amongst strangers2 a man may find those1 for his money1 who will shift his pillow and rub his feet1 and will trouble him no more than he would have them2 who will present to him an indifferent countenance1 and suffer him to govern himself1 and to complain according to his own method4 ,i wean myself daily by my reason from this childish and inhuman humour1 of desiring by our sufferings to move the compassion and mourning of our friends3 we stretch our own incommodities beyond their just extent when we extract tears from others2 and the constancy which we commend in every one in supporting his adverse fortune1 we accuse and reproach in our friends when the evil is our own2 we are not satisfied that they should be sensible of our condition only1 unless they be1 moreover1 afflicted4 ,a man should diffuse joy1 but1 as much as he can1 smother grief4 ,he who makes himself lamented without reason is a man not to be lamented when there shall be real cause3 to be always complaining is the way never to be lamented2 by making himself always in so pitiful a taking1 he is never commiserated by any4 ,he who makes himself out dead when he is alive1 is subject to be thought living when he is dying4 ,i have seen some who have taken it ill when they have been told that they looked well1 and that their pulse was good2 restrain their smiles1 because they betrayed a recovery1 and be angry1 at their health because it was not to be lamented3 and1 which is a great deal more1 these were not women4 ,i describe my infirmities1 such as they really are1 at most1 and avoid all expressions of evil prognostic and composed exclamations4 ,if not mirth1 at least a temperate countenance in the standers-by1 is proper in the presence of a wise sick man3 he does not quarrel with health1 for1 seeing himself in a contrary condition1 he is pleased to contemplate it sound and entire in others1 and at least to enjoy it for company3 he does not1 for feeling himself melt away1 abandon all living thoughts1 nor avoid ordinary discourse4 ,i would study sickness whilst ,i am well2 when it has seized me1 it will make its impression real enough1 without the help of my imagination4 ,we prepare ourselves beforehand for the journeys we undertake1 and resolve upon them2 we leave the appointment of the hour when to take horse to the company1 and in their favour defer it4 ,i find this unexpected advantage in the publication of my manners1 that it in some sort serves me for a rule4 ,i have1 at times1 some consideration of not betraying the history of my life3 this public declaration obliges me to keep my way1 and not to give the lie to the image ,i have drawn of my qualities1 commonly less deformed and contradictory than consists with the malignity and infirmity of the judgments of this age4 ,the uniformity and simplicity of my manners produce a face of easy interpretation2 but because the fashion is a little new and not in use1 it gives too great opportunity to slander4 ,yet so it is1 that whoever would fairly assail me1 ,i think ,i so sufficiently assist his purpose in my known and avowed imperfections1 that he may that way satisfy his ill-nature without fighting with the wind4 ,if ,i myself1 to anticipate accusation and discovery1 confess enough to frustrate his malice1 as he conceives1 'tis but reason that he make use of his right of amplification1 and to wire-draw my vices as far as he can2 attack has its rights beyond justice2 and let him make the roots of those errors ,i have laid open to him shoot up into trees3 let him make his use1 not only of those ,i am really affected with1 but also of those that only threaten me2 injurious vices1 both in quality and number2 let him cudgel me that way4 ,i should willingly follow the example of the philosopher ,bion3 ,antigonus being about to reproach him with the meanness of his birth1 he presently cut him short with this declaration3 ,i am1 said he1 the son of a slave1 a butcher1 and branded1 and of a strumpet my father married in the lowest of his fortune2 both of them were whipped for offences they had committed4 ,an orator bought me1 when a child1 and finding me a pretty and hopeful boy1 bred me up1 and when he died left me all his estate1 which ,i have transported into this city of ,athens1 and here settled myself to the study of philosophy4 ,let the historians never trouble themselves with inquiring about me3 ,i will tell them about it4 ,a free and generous confession enervates reproach and disarms slander4 ,so it is that1 one thing with another1 ,i fancy men as often commend as undervalue me beyond reason2 as1 methinks also1 from my childhood1 in rank and degree of honour1 they have given me a place rather above than below my right4 ,i should find myself more at ease in a country where these degrees were either regulated or not regarded4 ,amongst men1 when an altercation about the precedence either of walking or sitting exceeds three replies1 'tis reputed uncivil4 ,i never stick at giving or taking place out of rule1 to avoid the trouble of such ceremony2 and never any man had a mind to go before me1 but ,i permitted him to do it4 ,besides this profit ,i make of writing of myself1 ,i have also hoped for this other advantage1 that if it should fall out that my humour should please or jump with those of some honest man before ,i die1 he would then desire and seek to be acquainted with me4 ,i have given him a great deal of made-way2 for all that he could have1 in many years1 acquired by close familiarity1 he has seen in three days in this memorial1 and more surely and exactly4 ,a pleasant fancy3 many things that ,i would not confess to any one in particular1 ,i deliver to the public1 and send my best friends to a bookseller's shop1 there to inform themselves concerning my most secret thoughts2 ,excutienda damus praecordia4 ,we give our hearts to be examined4--,persius1 ,v4 #bb4 ,did ,i1 by good direction1 know where to seek any one proper for my conversation1 ,i should certainly go a great way to find him out3 for the sweetness of suitable and agreeable company cannot2 in my opinion1 be bought too dear4 ,o what a thing is a true friend6 how true is that old saying1 that the use of a friend is more pleasing and necessary than the elements of water and fire6 ,to return to my subject3 there is1 then1 no great harm in dying privately and far from home2 we conceive ourselves obliged to retire for natural actions less unseemly and less terrible than this4 ,but1 moreover1 such as are reduced to spin out a long languishing life1 ought not1 perhaps1 to wish to trouble a great family with their continual miseries2 therefore the ,indians1 in a certain province1 thought it just to knock a man on the head when reduced to such a necessity2 and in another of their provinces1 they all forsook him to shift for himself as well as he could4 ,to whom do they not1 at last1 become tedious and insupportable8 the ordinary offices of fife do not go that length4 ,you teach your best friends to be cruel perforce2 hardening wife and children by long use neither to regard nor to lament your sufferings4 ,the groans of the stone are grown so familiar to my people1 that nobody takes any notice of them4 ,and though we should extract some pleasure from their conversation 7which does not always happen1 by reason of the disparity of conditions1 which easily begets contempt or envy toward any one whatever71 is it not too much to make abuse of this half a lifetime8 ,the more ,i should see them constrain themselves out of affection to be serviceable to me1 the more ,i should be sorry for their pains4 ,we have liberty to lean1 but not to lay our whole weight upon others1 so as to prop ourselves by their ruin2 like him who caused little children's throats to be cut to make use of their blood for the cure of a disease he had1 or that other1 who was continually supplied with tender young girls to keep his old limbs warm in the night1 and to mix the sweetness of their breath with his1 sour and stinking4 ,i should readily advise ,venice as a retreat in this decline of life4 ,decrepitude is a solitary quality4 ,i am sociable even to excess1 yet ,i think it reasonable that ,i should now withdraw my troubles from the sight of the world and keep them to myself4 ,let me shrink and draw up myself in my own shell1 like a tortoise1 and learn to see men without hanging upon them4 ,i should endanger them in so slippery a passage3 'tis time to turn my back to company4 ,but1 in these travels1 you will be taken ill in some wretched place1 where nothing can be had to relieve you4 ,i always carry most things necessary about me2 and besides1 we cannot evade ,fortune if she once resolves to attack us4 ,i need nothing extraordinary when ,i am sick4 ,i will not be beholden to my bolus to do that for me which nature cannot4 ,at the very beginning of my fevers and sicknesses that cast me down1 whilst still entire1 and but little1 disordered in health1 ,i reconcile myself to ,almighty ,god by the last ,christian1 offices1 and find myself by so doing less oppressed and more easy1 and have got1 methinks1 so much the better of my disease4 ,and ,i have yet less need of a notary or counsellor than of a physician4 ,what ,i have not settled of my affairs when ,i was in health1 let no one expect ,i should do it when ,i am sick4 ,what ,i will do for the service of death is always done2 ,i durst not so much as one day defer it2 and if nothing be done1 'tis as much as to say either that doubt hindered my choice 7and sometimes 'tis well chosen not to choose71 or that ,i was positively resolved not to do anything at all4 ,i write my book for few men and for few years4 ,had it been matter of duration1 ,i should have put it into firmer language4 ,according to the continual variation that ours has been subject to1 up to this day1 who can expect that its present form should be in use fifty years hence8 ,it slips every day through our fingers1 and since ,i was born1 it is altered above one-half4 ,we say that it is now perfect2 and every age says the same of its own4 ,i shall hardly trust to that1 so long as it varies and changes as it does4 ',tis for good and useful writings to rivet it to them1 and its reputation will go according to the fortune of our state4 ,for which reason ,i am not afraid to insert in it several private articles1 which will spend their use amongst the men that are now living1 and that concern the particular knowledge of some who will see further into them than every common reader4 ,i will not1 after all1 as ,i often hear dead men spoken of1 that men should say of me3 ,he judged1 he lived so and so2 he would have done this or that2 could he have spoken when he was dying1 he would have said so or so1 and have given this thing or t'other2 ,i knew him better than any4 ,now1 as much as decency permits1 ,i here discover my inclinations and affections2 but ,i do more willingly and freely by word of mouth to any one who desires to be informed4 ,so it is that in these memoirs1 if any one observe1 he will find that ,i have either told or designed to tell all2 what ,i cannot express1 ,i point out with my finger3 ,verum animo satis haec vestigia parva sagaci ,sunt1 per quae possis cognoscere caetera tute ,by these footsteps a sagacious mind many easily find all other matters 7are sufficient to enable one to learn the rest well47 --,lucretius1 i4 #djc4 ,i leave nothing to be desired or to be guessed at concerning me4 ,if people must be talking of me1 ,i would have it to be justly and truly2 ,i would come again1 with all my heart1 from the other world to give any one the lie who should report me other than ,i was1 though he did it to honour me4 ,i perceive that people represent1 even living men1 quite another thing than what they really are2 and had ,i not stoutly defended a friend whom ,i have lost1--,de la ,boetie4--they would have torn him into a thousand contrary pieces4 ,to conclude the account of my poor humours1 ,i confess that in my travels ,i seldom reach my inn but that it comes into my mind to consider whether ,i could there be sick and dying at my ease4 ,i desire to be lodged in some private part of the house1 remote from all noise1 ill scents1 and smoke4 ,i endeavour to flatter death by these frivolous circumstances2 or1 to say better1 to discharge myself from all other incumbrances1 that ,i may have nothing to do1 nor be troubled with anything but that which will lie heavy enough upon me without any other load4 ,i would have my death share in the ease and conveniences of my life2 'tis a great part of it1 and of great importance1 and ,i hope it will not in the future contradict the past4 ,death has some forms that are more easy than others1 and receives divers qualities1 according to every one's fancy4 ,amongst the natural deaths1 that which proceeds from weakness and stupor ,i think the most favourable2 amongst those that are violent1 ,i can worse endure to think of a precipice than of the fall of a house that will crush me in a moment1 and of a wound with a sword than of a harquebus shot2 ,i should rather have chosen to poison myself with ,socrates1 than stab myself with ,cato4 ,and1 though it1 be all one1 yet my imagination makes as great a difference as betwixt death and life1 betwixt throwing myself into a burning furnace and plunging into the channel of a river3 so idly does our fear more concern itself in the means than the effect4 ,it is but an instant1 'tis true1 but withal an instant of such weight1 that ,i would willingly give a great many days of my life to pass it over after my own fashion4 ,since every one's imagination renders it more or less terrible1 and since every one has some choice amongst the several forms of dying1 let us try a little further to find some one that is wholly clear from all offence4 ,might not one render it even voluptuous1 like the ,commoyientes of ,antony and ,cleopatra8 ,i set aside the brave and exemplary efforts produced by philosophy and religion2 but1 amongst men of little mark there have been found some1 such as ,petronius and ,tigellinus at ,rome1 condemned to despatch themselves1 who have1 as it were1 rocked death asleep with the delicacy of their preparations2 they have made it slip and steal away in the height of their accustomed diversions amongst girls and good fellows2 not a word of consolation1 no mention of making a will1 no ambitious affectation of constancy1 no talk of their future condition2 amongst sports1 feastings1 wit1 and mirth1 common and indifferent discourses1 music1 and amorous verses4 ,were it not possible for us to imitate this resolution after a more decent manner8 ,since there are deaths that are good for fools1 deaths good for the wise1 let us find out such as are fit for those who are betwixt both4 ,my imagination suggests to me one that is easy1 and1 since we must die1 to be desired4 ,the ,roman tyrants thought they did1 in a manner1 give a criminal life when they gave him the choice of his death4 ,but was not ,theophrastus1 that so delicate1 so modest1 and so wise a philosopher1 compelled by reason1 when he durst say this verse1 translated by ,cicero3 ,vitam regit fortuna1 non sapientia8 ,fortune1 not wisdom1 sways human life4 --,cicero1 ,tusc4 ,quaes41 ,v4 #ca4 ,fortune assists the facility of the bargain of my life1 having placed it in such a condition that for the future it can be neither advantage nor hindrance to those who are concerned in me2 'tis a condition that ,i would have accepted at any time of my life2 but in this occasion of trussing up my baggage1 ,i am particularly pleased that in dying ,i shall neither do them good nor harm4 ,she has so ordered it1 by a cunning compensation1 that they who may pretend to any considerable advantage by my death will1 at the same time1 sustain a material inconvenience4 ,death sometimes is more grievous to us1 in that it is grievous to others1 and interests us in their interest as much as in our own1 and sometimes more4 ,in this conveniency of lodging that ,i desire1 ,i mix nothing of pomp and amplitude--,i hate it rather2 but a certain plain neatness1 which is oftenest found in places where there is less of art1 and that ,nature has adorned with some grace that is all her own3 ,non ampliter1 sea munditer convivium4 ,to eat not largely1 but cleanly4--,nepos1 ,life of ,atticus1 c4 #ac ,plus salis quam sumptus4 ,rather enough than costly 7,more wit than cost7--,nonius1 xi4 #ai4 ,and besides1 'tis for those whose affairs compel them to travel in the depth of winter through the ,grisons country to be surprised upon the way with great inconveniences4 ,i1 who1 for the most part1 travel for my pleasure1 do not order my affairs so ill4 ,if the way be foul on my right hand1 ,i turn on my left2 if ,i find myself unfit to ride1 ,i stay where ,i am2 and1 so doing1 in earnest ,i see nothing that is not as pleasant and commodious as my own house4 ',tis true that ,i always find superfluity superfluous1 and observe a kind of trouble even in abundance itself4 ,have ,i left anything behind me unseen1 ,i go back to see it2 'tis still on my way2 ,i trace no certain line1 either straight or crooked4--,rousseau has translated this passage in his ,emile1 book v4--,do ,i not find in the place to which ,i go what was reported to me--as it often falls out that the judgments of others do not jump with mine1 and that ,i have found their reports for the most part false--,i never complain of losing my labour3 ,i have1 at least1 informed myself that what was told me was not true4 ,i have a constitution of body as free1 and a palate as indifferent1 as any man living3 the diversity of manners of several nations only affects me in the pleasure of variety3 every usage has its reason4 ,let the plate and dishes be pewter1 wood1 or earth2 my meat be boiled or roasted2 let them give me butter or oil1 of nuts or olives1 hot or cold1 'tis all one to me2 and so indifferent1 that growing old1 ,i accuse this generous faculty1 and would wish that delicacy and choice should correct the indiscretion of my appetite1 and sometimes soothe my stomach4 ,when ,i have been abroad out of ,france and that people1 out of courtesy1 have asked me if ,i would be served after the ,french manner1 ,i laughed at the question1 and always frequented tables the most filled with foreigners4 ,i am ashamed to see our countrymen besotted with this foolish humour of quarrelling with forms contrary to their own2 they seem to be out of their element when out of their own village3 wherever they go1 they keep to their own fashions and abominate those of strangers4 ,do they meet with a compatriot in ,hungary8 ,o the happy chance6 ,they are henceforward inseparable2 they cling together1 and their whole discourse is to condemn the barbarous manners they see about them4 ,why barbarous1 because they are not ,french8 ,and those have made the best use of their travels who have observed most to speak against4 ,most of them go for no other end but to come back again2 they proceed in their travel with vast gravity and circumspection1 with a silent and incommunicable prudence1 preserving themselves from the contagion of an unknown air4 ,what ,i am saying of them puts me in mind of something like it ,i have at times observed in some of our young courtiers2 they will not mix with any but men of their own sort1 and look upon us as men of another world1 with disdain or pity4 ,put them upon any discourse but the intrigues of the court1 and they are utterly at a loss2 as very owls and novices to us as we are to them4 ',tis truly said that a well-bred man is a compound man4 ,i1 on the contrary1 travel very much sated with our own fashions2 ,i do not look for ,gascons in ,sicily2 ,i have left enough of them at home2 ,i rather seek for ,greeks and ,persians2 they are the men ,i endeavour to be acquainted with and the men ,i study2 'tis there that ,i bestow and employ myself4 ,and which is more1 ,i fancy that ,i have met but with few customs that are not as good as our own2 ,i have not1 ,i confess1 travelled very far2 scarce out of the sight of the vanes of my own house4 ,as to the rest1 most of the accidental company a man falls into upon the road beget him more trouble than pleasure2 ,i waive them as much as ,i civilly can1 especially now that age seems in some sort to privilege and sequester me from the common forms4 ,you suffer for others or others suffer for you2 both of them inconveniences of importance enough1 but the latter appears to me the greater4 ',tis a rare fortune1 but of inestimable solace2 to have a worthy man1 one of a sound judgment and of manners conformable to your own1 who takes a delight to bear you company4 ,i have been at an infinite loss for such upon my travels4 ,but such a companion should be chosen and acquired from your first setting out4 ,there can be no pleasure to me without communication3 there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind1 that it does not grieve me to have produced alone1 and that ,i have no one to communicate it to3 ,si cum hac exceptione detur sapientia1 ut illam inclusam teneam1 nec enuntiem1 rejiciam4 ,if wisdom be conferred with this reservation1 that ,i must keep it to myself1 and not communicate it to others1 ,i would none of it4 --,seneca1 ,ep41 #f4 ,this other has strained it one note higher3 ,si contigerit ea vita sapienti1 ut ommum rerum afliuentibus copiis1 quamvis omnia1 quae cognitione digna sunt1 summo otio secum ipse consideret et contempletur1 tamen1 si solitudo tanta sit1 ut hominem videre non possit1 excedat a vita4 ,if such a condition of life should happen to a wise man1 that in the greatest plenty of all conveniences he might1 at the most undisturbed leisure1 consider and contemplate all things worth the knowing1 yet if his solitude be such that he must not see a man1 let him depart from life4--,cicero1 ,de ,offic41 i4 #dc4 ,architas pleases me when he says1 that it would be unpleasant1 even in heaven itself1 to wander in those great and divine celestial bodies without a companion4 ,but yet 'tis much better to be alone than in foolish and troublesome company4 ,aristippus loved to live as a stranger in all places3 ,me si fata meis paterentur ducere vitam ,auspiciis1 ,if the fates would let me live in my own way4--,a,eneid1 iv4 #cdj4 ,i should choose to pass away the greatest part of my life on horseback3 ,visere gestiens1 ,qua pane debacchentur ignes1 ,qua nebula1 pluviique rores4 ,visit the regions where the sun burns1 where are the thick rain-clouds and the frosts4--,horace1 ,od41 iii4 #c1 #ed4 ,have you not more easy diversions at home8 ,what do you there want8 ,is not your house situated in a sweet and healthful air1 sufficiently furnished1 and more than sufficiently large8 ,has not the royal majesty been more than once there entertained with all its train8 ,are there not more below your family in good ease than there are above it in eminence8 ,is there any local1 extraordinary1 indigestible thought that afflicts you8 ,qua to nunc coquat1 et vexet sub pectore fixa4 ,that may now worry you1 and vex1 fixed in your breast4 --,cicero1 ,de ,senect1 c4 #a1 ,ex ,ennio4 ,where do you think to live without disturbance8 ,nunquam simpliciter ,fortuna indulget4 ,fortune is never simply complaisant 7unmixed74 --,quintus ,curtius1 iv4 #ad ,you see1 then1 it is only you that trouble yourself2 you will everywhere follow yourself1 and everywhere complain2 for there is no satisfaction here below1 but either for brutish or for divine souls4 ,he who1 on so just an occasion1 has no contentment1 where will he think to find it8 ,how many thousands of men terminate their wishes in such a condition as yours8 ,do but reform yourself2 for that is wholly in your own power6 whereas you have no other right but patience towards fortune3 ,nulla placida quies est1 nisi quam ratio composuit4 ,there is no tranquillity but that which reason has conferred4 --,seneca1 ,ep41 #ef4 ,i see the reason of this advice1 and see it perfectly well2 but he might sooner have done1 and more pertinently1 in bidding me in one word be wise2 that resolution is beyond wisdom2 'tis her precise work and product4 ,thus the physician keeps preaching to a poor languishing patient to be cheerful2 but he would advise him a little more discreetly in bidding him be well4 ,for my part1 ,i am but a man of the common sort4 ',tis a wholesome precept1 certain and easy to be understood1 ,be content with what you have1 that is to say1 with reason3 and yet to follow this advice is no more in the power of the wise men of the world than in me4 ',tis a common saying1 but of a terrible extent3 what does it not comprehend8 ,all things fall under discretion and qualification4 ,i know very well that1 to take it by the letter1 this pleasure of travelling is a testimony of uneasiness and irresolution1 and1 in sooth1 these two are our governing and predominating qualities4 ,yes1 ,i confess1 ,i see nothing1 not so much as in a dream1 in a wish1 whereon ,i could set up my rest3 variety only1 and the possession of diversity1 can satisfy me2 that is1 if anything can4 ,in travelling1 it pleases me that ,i may stay where ,i like1 without inconvenience1 and that ,i have a place wherein commodiously to divert myself4 ,i love a private life1 because 'tis my own choice that ,i love it1 not by any dissenting from or dislike of public life1 which1 peradventure1 is as much according to my complexion4 ,i serve my prince more cheerfully because it is by the free election of my own judgment and reason1 without any particular obligation2 and that ,i am not reduced and constrained so to do for being rejected or disliked by the other party2 and so of all the rest4 ,i hate the morsels that necessity carves me2 any commodity upon which ,i had only to depend would have me by the throat2 ,alter remus aquas1 alter mihi radat arenas2 ,let me have one oar in the water1 and with the other rake the shore4--,propertius1 iii4 #c1 #bc4 one cord will never hold me fast enough4 ,you will say1 there is vanity in this way of living4 ,but where is there not8 ,all these fine precepts are vanity1 and all wisdom is vanity3 ,dominus novit cogitationes sapientum1 quoniam vanae sunt4 ,the ,lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise1 that they are vain4 --,ps4 xciii4 ,,ii2 or ,i ,cor4 iii4 #bj4 ,these exquisite subtleties are only fit for sermons2 they are discourses that will send us all saddled into the other world4 ,life is a material and corporal motion1 an action imperfect and irregular of its own proper essence2 ,i make it my business to serve it according to itself3 ,quisque suos patimur manes4 ,we each of us suffer our own particular demon4--,a,eneid1 vi4 #gdc4 ,sic est faciendum1 ut contra naturam universam nihil contendamus2 ea tamen conservata propriam sequamur4 ,we must so order it as by no means to contend against universal nature2 but yet1 that rule being observed1 to follow our own4 --,cicero1 ,de ,offcc41 i4 #ca4 ,to what end are these elevated points of philosophy1 upon which no human being can rely8 and those rules that exceed both our use and force8 ,i see often that we have theories of life set before us which neither the proposer nor those who hear him have any hope1 nor1 which is more1 any inclination to follow4 ,of the same sheet of paper whereon the judge has but just written a sentence against an adulterer1 he steals a piece whereon to write a love-letter to his companion's wife4 ,she whom you have but just now illicitly embraced will presently1 even in your hearing1 more loudly inveigh against the same fault in her companion than a ,portia would do2--,the chaste daughter of ,cato of ,utica4--and men there are who will condemn others to death for crimes that they themselves do not repute so much as faults4 ,i have1 in my youth1 seen a man of good rank with one hand present to the people verses that excelled both in wit and debauchery1 and with the other1 at the same time1 the most ripe and pugnacious theological reformation that the world has been treated withal these many years4 ,and so men proceed2 we let the laws and precepts follow their way2 ourselves keep another course1 not only from debauchery of manners1 but ofttimes by judgment and contrary opinion4 ,do but hear a philosophical lecture2 the invention1 eloquence1 pertinency immediately strike upon your mind and move you2 there is nothing that touches or stings your conscience2 'tis not to this they address themselves4 ,is not this true8 ,it made ,aristo say1 that neither a bath nor a lecture did aught unless it scoured and made men clean4 ,one may stop at the skin2 but it is after the marrow is picked out as1 after we have swallowed good wine out of a fine cup1 we examine the designs and workmanship4 ,in all the courts of ancient philosophy1 this is to be found1 that the same teacher publishes rules of temperance and at the same time lessons in love and wantonness2 ,xenophon1 in the very bosom of ,clinias1 wrote against the ,aristippic virtue4 ',tis not that there is any miraculous conversion in it that makes them thus wavering2 'tis that ,solon represents himself1 sometimes in his own person1 and sometimes in that of a legislator2 one while he speaks for the crowd1 and another for himself2 taking the free and natural rules for his own share1 feeling assured of a firm and entire health3 ,curentur dubii medicis majoribus aegri4 ,desperate maladies require the best doctors4 --,juvenal1 xiii4 #abd4 ,antisthenes allows a sage to love1 and to do whatever he thinks convenient1 without regard to the laws1 forasmuch as he is better advised than they1 and has a greater knowledge of virtue4 ,his disciple ,diogenes said1 that men to perturbations were to oppose reason3 to fortune1 courage3 to the laws1 nature4 ,for tender stomachs1 constrained and artificial recipes must be prescribed3 good and strong stomachs serve themselves simply with the prescriptions of their own natural appetite2 after this manner do our physicians proceed1 who eat melons and drink iced wines1 whilst they confine their patients to syrups and sops4 ,i know not1 said the courtezan ,lais1 what they may talk of books1 wisdom1 and philosophy2 but these men knock as often at my door as any others4 ,at the same rate that our licence carries us beyond what is lawful and allowed1 men have1 often beyond universal reason1 stretched the precepts and rules of our life3 ,nemo satis credit tantum delinquere1 quantum ,permittas4 ,no one thinks he has done ill to the full extent of what he may4 --,juvenal1 xiv4 #bcc4 ,it were to be wished that there was more proportion betwixt the command and the obedience2 and the mark seems to be unjust to which one cannot attain4 ,there is no so good man1 who so squares all his thoughts and actions to the laws1 that he is not faulty enough to deserve hanging ten times in his life2 and he may well be such a one1 as it were great injustice and great harm to punish and ruin3 ,ole1 quid ad te ,de cute quid faciat ille vel ille sua8 ,olus1 what is it to thee what he or she does with their skin8 --,martial1 vii4 #i1 ,i4 and such an one there may be1 who has no way offended the laws1 who1 nevertheless1 would not deserve the character of a virtuous man1 and whom philosophy would justly condemn to be whipped2 so unequal and perplexed is this relation4 ,we are so far from being good men1 according to the laws of ,god1 that we cannot be so according to our own human wisdom never yet arrived at the duties it had itself prescribed2 and could it arrive there1 it would still prescribe to itself others beyond1 to which it would ever aspire and pretend2 so great an enemy to consistency is our human condition4 ,man enjoins himself to be necessarily in fault3 he is not very discreet to cut out his own duty by the measure of another being than his own4 ,to whom does he prescribe that which he does not expect any one should perform8 is he unjust in not doing what it is impossible for him to do8 ,the laws which condemn us not to be able1 condemn us for not being able4 ,at the worst1 this difform liberty of presenting ourselves two several ways1 the actions after one manner and the reasoning after another1 may be allowed to those who only speak of things2 but it cannot be allowed to those who speak of themselves1 as ,i do3 ,i must march my pen as ,i do my feet4 ,common life ought to have relation to the other lives3 the virtue of ,cato was vigorous beyond the reason of the age he lived in2 and for a man who made it his business to govern others1 a man dedicated to the public service1 it might be called a justice1 if not unjust1 at least vain and out of season4 ,even my own manners1 which differ not above an inch from those current amongst us1 render me1 nevertheless1 a little rough and unsociable at my age4 ,i know not whether it be without reason that ,i am disgusted with the world ,i frequent2 but ,i know very well that it would be without reason1 should ,i complain of its being disgusted with me1 seeing ,i am so with it4 ,the virtue that is assigned to the affairs of the world is a virtue of many wavings1 corners1 and elbows1 to join and adapt itself to human frailty1 mixed and artificial1 not straight1 clear1 constant1 nor purely innocent4 ,our annals to this very day reproach one of our kings for suffering himself too simply to be carried away by the conscientious persuasions of his confessor3 affairs of state have bolder precepts2 ,exeat aula1 ,qui vult esse pius4 ,let him who will be pious retire from the court4 --,lucan1 viii4 #dic ,i formerly tried to employ in the service of public affairs opinions and rules of living1 as rough1 new1 unpolished or unpolluted1 as they were either born with me1 or brought away from my education1 and wherewith ,i serve my own turn1 if not so commodiously1 at least securely1 in my own particular concerns3 a scholastic and novice virtue2 but ,i have found them unapt and dangerous4 ,he who goes into a crowd must now go one way and then another1 keep his elbows close1 retire or advance1 and quit the straight way1 according to what he encounters2 and must live not so much according to his own method as to that of others2 not according to what he proposes to himself1 but according to what is proposed to him1 according to the time1 according to the men1 according to the occasions4 ,plato says1 that whoever escapes from the world's handling with clean breeches1 escapes by miracle3 and says withal1 that when he appoints his philosopher the head of a government1 he does not mean a corrupt one like that of ,athens1 and much less such a one as this of ours1 wherein wisdom itself would be to seek4 ,a good herb1 transplanted into a soil contrary to its own nature1 much sooner conforms itself to the soil than it reforms the soil to it4 ,i found that if ,i had wholly to apply myself to such employments1 it would require a great deal of change and new modelling in me before ,i could be any way fit for it3 ,and though ,i could so far prevail upon myself 7and why might ,i not with time and diligence work such a feat71 ,i would not do it4 ,the little trial ,i have had of public employment has been so much disgust to me2 ,i feel at times temptations toward ambition rising in my soul1 but ,i obstinately oppose them3 ,at tu1 ,catulle1 obstinatus obdura4 ,but thou1 ,catullus1 be obstinately firm4--,catullus1 viii4 #ai4 ,i am seldom called to it1 and as seldom offer myself uncalled2 liberty and laziness1 the qualities most predominant in me1 are qualities diametrically contrary to that trade4 ,we cannot well distinguish the faculties of men2 they have divisions and limits hard and delicate to choose2 to conclude from the discreet conduct of a private life a capacity for the management of public affairs is to conclude ill2 a man may govern himself well who cannot govern others so1 and compose ,essays who could not work effects3 men there may be who can order a siege well1 who would ill marshal a battle2 who can speak well in private1 who would ill harangue a people or a prince2 nay1 'tis peradventure rather a testimony in him who can do the one that he cannot do the other1 than otherwise4 ,i find that elevated souls are not much more proper for mean things than mean souls are for high ones4 ,could it be imagined that ,socrates should have administered occasion of laughter1 at the expense of his own reputation1 to the ,athenians for3 having never been able to sum up the votes of his tribe1 to deliver it to the council8 ,truly1 the veneration ,i have for the perfections of this great man deserves that his fortune should furnish1 for the excuse of my principal imperfections1 so magnificent an example4 ,our sufficiency is cut out into small parcels2 mine has no latitude1 and is also very contemptible in number4 ,saturninus1 to those who had conferred upon him the command in chief3 ,companions1 said he1 you have lost a good captain1 to make of him a bad general4 ,whoever boasts1 in so sick a time as this1 to employ a true and sincere virtue in the world's service1 either knows not what it is1 opinions growing corrupt with manners 7and1 in truth1 to hear them describe it1 to hear the most of them glorify themselves in their deportments1 and lay down their rules2 instead of painting virtue1 they paint pure vice and injustice1 and so represent it false in the education of princes72 or if he does know it1 boasts unjustly and let him say what he will1 does a thousand things of which his own conscience must necessarily accuse him4 ,i should willingly take ,seneca's word on the experience he made upon the like occasion1 provided he would deal sincerely with me4 ,the most honourable mark of goodness in such a necessity is freely to confess both one's own faults and those of others2 with the power of its virtue to stay one's inclination towards evil2 unwillingly to follow this propension2 to hope better1 to desire better4 ,i perceive that in these divisions wherein we are involved in ,france1 every one labours to defend his cause2 but even the very best of them with dissimulation and disguise3 he who would write roundly of the true state of the quarrel1 would write rashly and wrongly4 ,the most just party is at best but a member of a decayed and worm-eaten body2 but of such a body1 the member that is least affected calls itself sound1 and with good reason1 forasmuch as our qualities have no title but in comparison2 civil innocence is measured according to times and places4 ,imagine this in ,xenophon1 related as a fine commendation of ,agesilaus3 that1 being entreated by a neighbouring prince with whom he had formerly had war1 to permit him to pass through his country1 he granted his request1 giving him free passage through ,peloponnesus2 and not only did not imprison or poison him1 being at his mercy1 but courteously received him according to the obligation of his promise1 without doing him the least injury or offence4 ,to such ideas as theirs this were an act of no especial note2 elsewhere and in another age1 the frankness and unanimity of such an action would be thought wonderful2 our monkeyish capets ,capets1 so called from their short capes1 were the students of ,montaigne ,college at ,paris1 and were held in great contempt4 would have laughed at it1 so little does the ,spartan innocence resemble that of ,france4 ,we are not without virtuous men1 but 'tis according to our notions of virtue4 ,whoever has his manners established in regularity above the standard of the age he lives in1 let him either wrest or blunt his rules1 or1 which ,i would rather advise him to1 let him retire1 and not meddle with us at all4 ,what will he get by it8 ,egregium sanctumque virum si cerno1 bimembri ,hoc monstrum puero1 et miranti jam sub aratro ,piscibus inventis1 et foetae comparo mulae4 ,if ,i see an exemplary and good man1 ,i liken it to a two-headed boy1 or a fish turned up by the plough1 or a teeming mule4 --,juvenal1 xiii4 #fd4 ,one may regret better times1 but cannot fly from the present2 we may wish for other magistrates1 but we must1 notwithstanding1 obey those we have2 and1 peradventure1 'tis more laudable to obey the bad than the good4 ,so long as the image of the ancient and received laws of this monarchy shall shine in any corner of the kingdom1 there will ,i be4 ,if they unfortunately happen to thwart and contradict one another1 so as to produce two parts1 of doubtful and difficult choice1 ,i will willingly choose to withdraw and escape the tempest2 in the meantime nature or the hazards of war may lend me a helping hand4 ,betwixt ,caesar and ,pompey1 ,i should frankly have declared myself2 but1 as amongst the three robbers who came after1--,octavius1 ,mark ,antony1 and ,lepidus4--a man must have been necessitated either to hide himself1 or have gone along with the current of the time1 which ,i think one may fairly do when reason no longer guides3 ,quo diversus abis8 ,whither dost thou run wandering8--,a,eneid1 v4 #aff4 ,this medley is a little from my theme2 ,i go out of my way2 but 'tis rather by licence than oversight2 my fancies follow one another1 but sometimes at a great distance1 and look towards one another1 but 'tis with an oblique glance4 ,i have read a dialogue of ,plato1--,the ,phaedrus4--of the like motley and fantastic composition1 the beginning about love1 and all the rest to the end about rhetoric2 they fear not these variations1 and have a marvellous grace in letting themselves be carried away at the pleasure of the wind1 or at least to seem as if they were4 ,the titles of my chapters do not always comprehend the whole matter2 they often denote it by some mark only1 as these others1 ,andria1 ,eunuchus2 or these1 ,sylla1 ,cicero1 ,toyquatus4 ,i love a poetic progress1 by leaps and skips2 'tis an art1 as ,plato says1 light1 nimble1 demoniac4 ,there are pieces in ,plutarch where he forgets his theme2 where the proposition of his argument is only found by incidence1 stuffed and half stifled in foreign matter4 ,observe his footsteps in the ,daemon of ,socrates4 ,o ,god6 how beautiful are these frolicsome sallies1 those variations and digressions1 and all the more when they seem most fortuitous and careless4 ',tis the indiligent reader who loses my subject1 and not ,i2 there will always be found some word or other in a corner that is to the purpose1 though it lie very close4 ,i ramble indiscreetly and tumultuously2 my style and my wit wander at the same rate4 ,he must fool it a little who would not be deemed wholly a fool1 say both the precepts1 and1 still more1 the examples of our masters4 ,a thousand poets flag and languish after a prosaic manner2 but the best old prose 7and ,i strew it here up and down indifferently for verse7 shines throughout with the lustre1 vigour1 and boldness of poetry1 and not without some air of its fury4 ,and certainly prose ought to have the pre-eminence in speaking4 ,the poet1 says ,plato1 seated upon the muses tripod1 pours out with fury whatever comes into his mouth1 like the pipe of a fountain1 without considering and weighing it2 and things escape him of various colours1 of contrary substance1 and with an irregular torrent4 ,plato himself is throughout poetical2 and the old theology1 as the learned tell us1 is all poetry2 and the first philosophy is the original language of the gods4 ,i would have my matter distinguish itself2 it sufficiently shows where it changes1 where it concludes1 where it begins1 and where it rejoins1 without interlacing it with words of connection introduced for the relief of weak or negligent ears1 and without explaining myself4 ,who is he that had not rather not be read at all than after a drowsy or cursory manner8 ,nihil est tam utile1 quod intransitu prosit4 ,nothing is so useful as that which is cursorily so4 --,seneca1 ,ep41 #b4 ,if to take books in hand were to learn them3 to look upon them were to consider them3 and to run these slightly over were to grasp them1 ,i were then to blame to make myself out so ignorant as ,i say ,i am4 ,seeing ,i cannot fix the attention of my reader by the weight of what ,i write1 'manco male'1 if ,i should chance to do it by my intricacies4 ,nay1 but he will afterwards repent that he ever perplexed himself about it4 ',tis very true1 but he will yet be there perplexed4 ,and1 besides1 there are some humours in which comprehension produces disdain2 who will think better of me for not understanding what ,i say1 and will conclude the depth of my sense by its obscurity2 which1 to speak in good sooth1 ,i mortally hate1 and would avoid it if ,i could4 ,aristotle boasts somewhere in his writings that he affected it3 a vicious affectation4 ,the frequent breaks into chapters that ,i made my method in the beginning of my book1 having since seemed to me to dissolve the attention before it was raised1 as making it disdain to settle itself to so little1 ,i1 upon that account1 have made them longer1 such as require proposition and assigned leisure4 ,in such an employment1 to whom you will not give an hour you give nothing2 and you do nothing for him for whom you only do it whilst you are doing something else4 ,to which may be added that ,i have1 peradventure1 some particular obligation to speak only by halves1 to speak confusedly and discordantly4 ,i am therefore angry at this trouble-feast reason1 and its extravagant projects that worry one's life1 and its opinions1 so fine and subtle1 though they be all true1 ,i think too dear bought and too inconvenient4 ,on the contrary1 ,i make it my business to bring vanity itself in repute1 and folly too1 if it produce me any pleasure2 and let myself follow my own natural inclinations1 without carrying too strict a hand upon them4 ,i have seen elsewhere houses in ruins1 and statues both of gods and men3 these are men still4 ',tis all true2 and yet1 for all that1 ,i cannot so often revisit the tomb of that so great and so puissant city1--,rome-- that ,i do not admire and reverence it4 ,the care of the dead is recommended to us2 now1 ,i have been bred up from my infancy with these dead2 ,i had knowledge of the affairs of ,rome long before ,i had any of those of my own house2 ,i knew the ,capitol and its plan before ,i knew the ,louvre1 and the ,tiber before ,i knew the ,seine4 ,the qualities and fortunes of ,lucullus1 ,metellus1 and ,scipio have ever run more in my head than those of any of my own country2 they are all dead2 so is my father as absolutely dead as they1 and is removed as far from me and life in eighteen years as they are in sixteen hundred3 whose memory1 nevertheless1 friendship and society1 ,i do not cease to embrace and utilise with a perfect and lively union4 ,nay1 of my own inclination1 ,i pay more service to the dead2 they can no longer help themselves1 and therefore1 methinks1 the more require my assistance3 'tis there that gratitude appears in its full lustre4 ,the benefit is not so generously bestowed1 where there is retrogradation and reflection4 ,arcesilaus1 going to visit ,ctesibius1 who was sick1 and finding him in a very poor condition1 very finely conveyed some money under his pillow1 and1 by concealing it from him1 acquitted him1 moreover1 from the acknowledgment due to such a benefit4 ,such as have merited from me friendship and gratitude have never lost these by being no more2 ,i have better and more carefully paid them when gone and ignorant of what ,i did2 ,i speak most affectionately of my friends when they can no longer know it4 ,i have had a hundred quarrels in defending ,pompey and for the cause of ,brutus2 this acquaintance yet continues betwixt us2 we have no other hold even on present things but by fancy4 ,finding myself of no use to this age1 ,i throw myself back upon that other1 and am so enamoured of it1 that the free1 just1 and flourishing state of that ancient ,rome 7for ,i neither love it in its birth nor its old age7 interests and impassionates me2 and therefore ,i cannot so often revisit the sites of their streets and houses1 and those ruins profound even to the ,antipodes1 that ,i am not interested in them4 ,is it by nature1 or through error of fancy1 that the sight of places which we know to have been frequented and inhabited by persons whose memories are recommended in story1 moves us in some sort more than to hear a recital of their--acts or to read their writings8 ,tanta vis admonitionis inest in locis4444,et id quidem in hac urbe infinitum2 quacumque enim ingredimur1 in aliquam historiam vestigium ponimus4 ,so great a power of reminiscence resides in places2 and that truly in this city infinite1 for which way soever we go1 we find the traces of some story4--,cicero1 ,de ,fin41 v4 ,i1 #b4 ,it pleases me to consider their face1 bearing1 and vestments3 ,i pronounce those great names betwixt my teeth1 and make them ring in my ears3 ,ego illos veneror1 et tantis nominibus semper assurgo4 ,i reverence them1 and always rise to so great names4 --,seneca1 ,ep41 #fd4 ,of things that are in some part great and admirable1 ,i admire even the common parts3 ,i could wish to see them in familiar relations1 walk1 and sup4 ,it were ingratitude to contemn the relics and images of so many worthy and valiant men as ,i have seen live and die1 and who1 by their example1 give us so many good instructions1 knew we how to follow them4 ,and1 moreover1 this very ,rome that we now see1 deserves to be beloved1 so long and by so many titles allied to our crown2 the only common and universal city2 the sovereign magistrate that commands there is equally acknowledged elsewhere 'tis the metropolitan city of all the ,christian nations the ,spaniard and ,frenchman is there at home3 to be a prince of that state1 there needs no more but to be of ,christendom wheresoever4 ,there is no place upon earth that heaven has embraced with such an influence and constancy of favour2 her very ruins are grand and glorious1 ,laudandis pretiosior ruinis4 ,more precious from her glorious ruins4 --,sidonius ,apollinaris1 ,carm41 xxiii42 ,narba1 v4 #fb4 she yet in her very tomb retains the marks and images of empire3 ,ut palam sit1 uno in loco gaudentis opus esse naturx4 ,that it may be manifest that there is in one place the work of rejoicing nature4--,pliny1 ,nat4 ,hist41 iii4 #e4 ,some would blame and be angry at themselves to perceive themselves tickled with so vain a pleasure our humours are never too vain that are pleasant let them be what they may1 if they constantly content a man of common understanding1 ,i could not have the heart to blame him4 ,i am very much obliged to ,fortune1 in that1 to this very hour1 she has offered me no outrage beyond what ,i was well able to bear4 ,is it not her custom to let those live in quiet by whom she is not importuned8 ,quanto quisque sibi plum negaverit1 ,a diis plum feret3 nil cupientium ,nudus castra peto 4 4 4 4 ,multa petentibus ,desunt multa4 ,the more each man denies himself1 the more the gods give him4 ,poor as ,i am1 ,i seek the company of those who ask nothing2 they who desire much will be deficient in much4 --,horace1 ,od41 iii4 #af1ba1db4 ,if she continue her favour1 she will dismiss me very well satisfied3 ,nihil supra ,deos lacesso4 ,i trouble the gods no farther4--,horace1 ,od41 ii4 #ah1 #aa4 ,but beware a shock3 there are a thousand who perish in the port4 ,i easily comfort myself for what shall here happen when ,i shall be gone1 present things trouble me enough3 ,fortunae caetera mando4 ,i leave the rest to fortune4--,ovid1 ,metam41 ii4 #adj4 ,besides1 ,i have not that strong obligation that they say ties men to the future1 by the issue that succeeds to their name and honour2 and peradventure1 ought less to covet them1 if they are to be so much desired4 ,i am but too much tied to the world1 and to this life1 of myself3 ,i am content to be in ,fortune's power by circumstances properly necessary to my being1 without otherwise enlarging her jurisdiction over me2 and have never thought that to be without children was a defect that ought to render life less complete or less contented3 a sterile vocation has its conveniences too4 ,children are of the number of things that are not so much to be desired1 especially now that it would be so hard to make them good3 ,bona jam nec nasci licet1 ita corrupta ,bunt semina2 ,nothing good can be born now1 the seed is so corrupt4 --,tertullian1 ,de ,pudicita4 and yet they are justly to be lamented by such as lose them when they have them4 ,he who left me my house in charge1 foretold that ,i was like to ruin it1 considering my humour so little inclined to look after household affairs4 ,but he was mistaken2 for ,i am in the same condition now as when ,i first entered into it1 or rather somewhat better2 and yet without office or any place of profit4 ,as to the rest1 if ,fortune has never done me any violent or extraordinary injury1 neither has she done me any particular favour2 whatever we derive from her bounty1 was there above a hundred years before my time3 ,i have1 as to my own particular1 no essential and solid good1 that ,i stand indebted for to her liberality4 ,she has1 indeed1 done me some airy favours1 honorary and titular favours1 without substance1 and those in truth she has not granted1 but offered me1 who1 ,god knows1 am all material1 and who take nothing but what is real1 and indeed massive too1 for current pay3 and who1 if ,i durst confess so much1 should not think avarice much less excusable than ambition3 nor pain less to be avoided than shame2 nor health less to be coveted than learning1 or riches than nobility4 ,amongst those empty favours of hers1 there is none that so much pleases vain humour natural to my country1 as an authentic bull of a ,roman burgess-ship1 that was granted me when ,i was last there1 glorious in seals and gilded letters1 and granted with all gracious liberality4 ,and because 'tis couched in a mixt style1 more or less favourable1 and that ,i could have been glad to have seen a copy of it before it had passed the seal4 ,being before burgess of no city at all1 ,i am glad to be created one of the most noble that ever was or ever shall be4 ,if other men would consider themselves at the rate ,i do1 they would1 as ,i do1 discover themselves to be full of inanity and foppery2 to rid myself of it1 ,i cannot1 without making myself away4 ,we are all steeped in it1 as well one as another2 but they who are not aware on't1 have somewhat the better bargain2 and yet ,i know not whether they have or no4 ,this opinion and common usage to observe others more than ourselves has very much relieved us that way3 'tis a very displeasing object3 we can there see nothing but misery and vanity3 nature1 that we may not be dejected with the sight of our own deformities1 has wisely thrust the action of seeing outward4 ,we go forward with the current1 but to turn back towards ourselves is a painful motion2 so is the sea moved and troubled when the waves rush against one another4 ,observe1 says every one1 the motions of the heavens1 of public affairs2 observe the quarrel of such a person1 take notice of such a one's pulse1 of such another's last will and testament2 in sum1 be always looking high or low1 on one side1 before or behind you4 ,it was a paradoxical command anciently given us by that god of ,delphos3 ,look into yourself2 discover yourself2 keep close to yourself2 call back your mind and will1 that elsewhere consume themselves into yourself2 you run out1 you spill yourself2 carry a more steady hand3 men betray you1 men spill you1 men steal you from yourself4 ,dost thou not see that this world we live in keeps all its sight confined within1 and its eyes open to contemplate itself8 ',tis always vanity for thee1 both within and without2 but 'tis less vanity when less extended4 ,excepting thee1 ,o man1 said that god1 everything studies itself first1 and has bounds to its labours and desires1 according to its need4 ,there is nothing so empty and necessitous as thou1 who embracest the universe2 thou art the investigator without knowledge1 the magistrate without jurisdiction1 and1 after all1 the fool of the farce4 ,,etext ,,editor',s ,,bookmarks3 ,a man may govern himself well who cannot govern others so ,a man should diffuse joy1 but1 as much as he can1 smother grief ,a well-bred man is a compound man ,all over-nice solicitude about riches smells of avarice ,always complaining is the way never to be lamented ,appetite comes to me in eating ,better to be alone than in foolish and troublesome company ,by suspecting them1 have given them a title to do ill ,change only gives form to injustice and tyranny ,civil innocence is measured according to times and places ,conclude the depth of my sense by its obscurity ,concluding no beauty can be greater than what they see ,confession enervates reproach and disarms slander ,counterfeit condolings of pretenders ,crates did worse1 who threw himself into the liberty of poverty ,desire of travel ,enough to do to comfort myself1 without having to console others ,friend1 it is not now time to play with your nails ,gain to change an ill condition for one that is uncertain ,giving is an ambitious and authoritative quality ,good does not necessarily succeed evil2 another evil may succeed ,greedy humour of new and unknown things ,he must fool it a little who would not be deemed wholly a fool ,i always find superfluity superfluous ,i am disgusted with the world ,i frequent ,i am hard to be got out1 but being once upon the road ,i am very willing to quit the government of my house ,i content myself with enjoying the world without bustle ,i enter into confidence with dying ,i grudge nothing but care and trouble ,i hate poverty equally with pain ,i scorn to mend myself by halves ,i write my book for few men and for few years ,justice als takes cognisance of those who glean after the reaper ,known evil was ever more supportable than one that was1 new ,laws 7of ,plato on travel71 which forbids it after threescore4 ,liberty and laziness1 the qualities most predominant in me ,liberty of poverty ,liberty to lean1 but not to lay our whole weight upon others ,little affairs most disturb us ,men as often commend as undervalue me beyond reason ,methinks ,i promise it1 if ,i but say it ,my mind is easily composed at distance ,neither be a burden to myself nor to any other ,no use to this age1 ,i throw myself back upon that other ,nothing falls where all falls ,nothing presses so hard upon a state as innovation ,obstinate in growing worse ,occupy our thoughts about the general1 and about universal cause ,one may regret better times1 but cannot fly from the present ,opposition and contradiction entertain and nourish them ,our qualities have no title but in comparison ,preferring the universal and common tie to all national ties ,proceed so long as there shall be ink and paper in the world ,satisfied and pleased with and in themselves ,settled my thoughts to live upon less than ,i have ,some wives covetous indeed1 but very few that are good managers ,that looks a nice well-made shoe to you ,there can be no pleasure to me without communication ,think myself no longer worth my own care ,tis for youth to subject itself to common opinions ,tis more laudable to obey the bad than the good ,titles of my chapters do not always comprehend the whole matter ,travel with not only a necessary1 but a handsome equipage ,turn up my eyes to heaven to return thanks1 than to crave ,weigh1 as wise3 men should1 the burden of obligation ,what sort of wine he liked the best3 ,that of another1 ,what step ends the near and what step begins the remote ,when ,i travel ,i have nothing to care for but myself ,wise man to keep a curbing hand upon the impetus of friendship ,world where loyalty of one's own children is unknown ,wretched and dangerous thing to depend upon others ,you have lost a good captain1 to make of him a bad general