that proceeded from her Liberality was there before he came to it and above a hundred Years before his Time He never in his own particular had any solid and essential Advantages for which he stood indebted to her Bounty She shew'd him Airy Honorary and Titular Favours without Substance She procur'd for him the Collar of the Order of St. Michael which when young he covered above all other things it being at that time the utmost mark of Honour of the French Nobless and very Rare But of all her Favours there was none with which he was so well pleas'd as an Authentick Bull of a Roman Burgess that was granted to him with great civility and bounty in a Journey he made to Rome which is transcrib'd in Form in the sixth Chapter of the third Book of his Essays Messieurs de Bourdeax elected him Mayor of their City being then out of the Kingdom and at Rome and yet more Remote from any such Expectation which made him excuse himself but that would not serve his turn and moreover the King interpos'd his Command 'T is an Office that ought to be look'd upon with the greatest Esteem as it has no other Perquisits and Benefits belonging to it than the meer honour of its Execution It lasts but two years but may by a second Election be continued longer though that rarely happens It was to him and had been so twice before once some years since to Monsieur de Lausac and more lately to Monsieur de Byron Mareschal of France in whose place he succeeded and lest his to Monsieur de Matiguon also Mareschal of France proud of so noble a Fraternity His Father a Man of great Honour and Equity had formerly also had the same Dignity All the Children his Wife brought died at Nurse saving Leonor an only Daughter whom he dispos'd in marriage some two Years before his Death The first printing of his Essaies was in the Year 1580 at which time the publick Applause gave him as he says a little more assurance than he expected He has since added but corrected nothing His Book having been always the same saving that upon every new Impression he took the Privilege to add something that the Buyer might not go away with his Hands quite empty His Person was strong and well knit his Faâ—e not fat but full his Complexion betwixt Jovial and Melancholick moderately Sanguine and hot his Constitution healthful and spritely rarely troubled with Diseases till he grew into Years that he begun to be afflicted with the Cholick and Stone As to the rest very obstinate in his hatred and contempt of Physicians Prescriptions an hereditary Antipathy his Father having liv'd threescore and fourteen Years his Grand-father threescore and nine and his great Grandfather almost fourscore Years without having ever tasted any sort of Medicine He died in the Year 1592 the 13th of September a very constant and Philosophical Death being aged fifty nine Years six Months and eleven Days and was buried at Bourdeaux in the Church of a Commendary of St. Anthony now given to the Religious Feuillantines where his Wife Francoise de la Cassaigne and his Daughter have erected for him an honourable Monument having like his Ancestors past over his Life and Death in the Catholick Religion The Contents of the Chapters of the first Book Ch. 1. THat Men by various ways arrive at the same End Chap. 2. Of Sorrow Chap. 3. That our Affâ—â—ctions carry themselves beyond Us. Chap. 4. That the Soul discharges her Passions upon false Objects where the true are wanting Chap. 5. Whether the Governour of a Place besieg'd ought himself to go out to parley Chap. 6. That the Hour of Parley is dangerous Chap. 7. That the Intention is Iudge of our Actions Chap. 8. Of Idleness Chap. 9. Of Lyars Chap. 10. Of Quick or Slow Speech Chap. 11. Of Prognostication Chap. 12. Of Constancy Chap. 13. The Ceremony of the Interview of Princes Chap. 14. That men are justly punish'd for being obstinate in the Defence of a Fort that is not in reason to be defended Chap. 15. Of the Punishment of Cowardice Chap. 16. A Proceeding of some Ambassadours Chap. 17. Of Fear Chap. 18. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death Chap. 19. That to study Philosophy is to learn to Die Chap. 20. Of the Force of Imagination Chap. 21. That the Profit of one Man is the Inconvenience of another Chap. 22. Of Custom and that we should not easily change a Law received Chap. 23. Various Events from the same Counsel Chap. 24. Of Pedantry Chap. 25. Of the Education of Children To Madam Diana of Foix Countess of Gurson Chap. 26. That it is folly to measure Truth and Errour by our own capacity Chap. 27. Of Friendship Chap. 28. Nine and twenty Sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie to Madam de Grammont Countess of Guisson Chap. 29. Of Moderation Chap. 30. Of Cannibals Chap. 31. That a Man is soberly to judge of Divine Ordinances Chap. 32. That we are to avoid Pleasures even at the expence of Life Chap. 33. That fortune is oftentimes observed to act by the Rule of Reason Chap. 34. Of one Defect in one Government Chap. 35. Of the Custom of wearing Clothes Chap. 36. Of Cato the younger Chap. 37. That we laugh and Cry for the same thing Chap. 38. Of Solitude Chap. 39. A Consideration upon Cicero Chap. 40. That the Relish of Goods and Evils does in a great Measure depend upon the Opinion we have of them Chap. 41. Not to communicate a Man's Honour Chap. 42. Of the Inequality amongst us Chap. 43. Of Sumptuary Laws Chap. 44. Of Sleep Chap. 45. Of the Battel of Dreux Chap. 46. Of Names Chap. 47. Of the Incertainty of our Iudgment Chap. 48. Of Horses drest to the Menage call'd Destrials Chap. 49. Of Ancient Customs Chap. 50. Of Democritus and Heraclitus Chap. 51. Of the Vanity of Words Chap. 52. Of the Parcimony of the Ancients Chap. 53. Of a Saying of Caesar Chap. 54. Of Vain Subtilties Chap. 55. Of Smells Chap. 56. Of Prayers Chap. 57. Of Age. A VINDICATION OF Montagne's Essays THe Essays of Michel de Montagne are justly ranked amongst Miscellaneous Books for they are on various subjects without order and connexion and the very body of the discourses has still a greater variety This sort of confusion does not however hinder people of all qualities to extol these Essays above all the Books that ever they read and they make them their chief study They think that other Miscellanies of ancient and modern Books are nothing but an unnecessary heap of quotations whereas we find in this authorities to the purpose intermixed with the Authors own thoughts which being bold and extraordinary are very effectual to cure men of their Weakness and Vanity and induce them to seek Virtue and Felicity by lawful means But because every body is not of this opinion we must take notice here of what is said against and
and I wonder that the Author of the Search after Truth should spend his time upon them in a manner so unbecoming his Character He tells us after Balzac and some others that Montagne's Vanity and Pride are not sutable to an Author and Philosopher that it was ridiculous and useless to keep a Page having hardly 6000 Livres a year and more ridiculous still to have so often mentioned it in his Writings but I may answer that it was very common in his time for Gentlemen of noble extraction to keep a Page to shew their quality tho their Estate could hardly afford them to keep a Footman and that the 6000 Livres a year were then more than 20000 now adays It was likewise very much uncoming the gravity of our famous Searcher after Truth to rail at Montagne because he does not mention in his Essays that he kept a Clerk when he was Councellor in the Parliament of Bourdeaux for Montagne having exercised that noble employment but for a short time in his youth he had no occasion to mention it and who shall believe that he has concealed it out of Vanity he who in the opinion of Malbranche himself talks of his imperfections and vices with too great a freedom It is likewise very ungenerous and ungentleman like to take noâ—ice that he did not very well succeed in his Mayoralty of Bourdeaux The times he lived in were very troublesome and supposing he committed some Error which they say without any Proof what is that to the merit of his Book Balzac introduces a Gentleman speaking thus to an admirer of Montagne You may praise your Author if you will more than our Cicero but I cannot fancy that a man who governed all the World was not at least equal to a Person who did not know how to govern Bourdeaux This may very well pass for a jest but is it a rational way for confuting an Author to have recourse unto personal Reflections or some incidents relating to his private Person or Quality This is so mean that I cannot fancy Balzac could be guilty of it and I wholly impute it to those who have published after his Death some loose discourses on several Subjects which they have intitled his Entretiens Notwithstanding these objections Montagne always had and is like to have Admirers as long as Sense and Reason have any credit in the World Justus Lipsius calls him the French Thales and Mezeray the Christian Seneca and the incomparable Thuanus has made an Eulogy of him which being very short I shall transcribe it here Michel de Montagne Chevalier was born in Perigord in a Castle which had the name of his Family He was made Councellor in the Parliament of Bourdeaux with Stephen de la Boetie with whom he contracted so great a Friendship that that dear Friend was even after his Death the object of his respect and veneration Montagne was extraordinary Free and Sincere as Posterity will see by his Essays for so he has intitled that Immortal Monument of his Genius While he was at Venice he was elected Mayor of Bourdeaux which place was only bestowed upon persons of the first quality and even the Governors of the Province thought it was an honor for them The Mareschal de Matignon who commanded the Kings Forces in that Province during the troubles of the State had such an esteem for him that he communicated unto him the most important affairs and admitted him into his Council As I had a correspondence with him while I was in his Country and since at Court the conformity of our Studies and Inclinations united us most intimately He dyed at Montagne in the 60th year of his Age. This testimony of Thuanus is sufficient to justify the memory of our Author for no body will believe that a man of that integrity would have been so great a Friend with so vicious a man as Malbranche has represented Montagne I shall therefore conclude this discourse with a very remarkable circumstance mentioned by Thuanus in his own Life lib. 3. which shew that Montagne was beloved by the greatest Princes in his time and honored with their confidence While the States of the Kingdom says he were sitting at Blois Montagne and I were discoursing of the division between the King of Navarre and the Duke of Guise whereupon he told me that he knew the most secret thoughts of those Princes as having been employed to compose their differences and that he was perswaded that neither of 'em was of the Religion he professed That the King of Navarr would have willingly embrac'd the Religion of his Predecessors if he had not feared that his Party had abandoned him and that the Duke of Guise would have declared himself for the confession of Augsburg which the Cardinal of Lorrain his Unkle had inspired him with if he could have done it without any prejudice to his Interests I thought this circumstance was not unworthy of being placed here but I must beg the Readers pardon for having been so long which must be attributed to the respect I have for the Memory of that excellent author I designed to shew the reason why Montagne meets with a more favourable entertainment in England than in his Native Country but having been already too long I shall content my self to observe that an Author who talks freely of every thing is not suitable to the temper of a servile Nation who has lost all sence of Liberty Monsieur La Bruyere in his celebrated Book of the Characters or Manners of the Age gives another reason why some people condemn Montagne Two Writers says he meaning La Mothe Le Vayer and Malbranche have condemned Montagne I know that Author may be justly blamed in some things but neither of 'em will allow him to have any thing valuable One of 'em thinks too little to taste such an Author who thinks a great deal and the other thinks too subtilely to be pleased with what is natural This I believe is the general Character of Montagne's enemies ESSAYS OF Michael Seigneur de Montaigne The First BOOK CHAP. I. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same end THE most likely and most usual way in Practice of appeasing the Indignation of such as we have any way offended when we see them in Possession of the Power of Revenge and find that we absolutely lie at their Mercy Submission mollifies the Hearts of the offended is by Submission than which nothing more flatters the Glory of an Adversary to move them to Commiseration and Pity and yet Bravery Constancy and Resolution however quite contrary means have sometimes served to produce the same effect Edward the Black Prince of Wales the same who so long govern'd our Province of Guienne Edward the Black Prince a Person whose high Condition excellent Qualities and remarkable Fortune have in them a great deal of the most noble and most considerable Parts of Grandeur having through some Misdemeanours of theirs been highly incens'd
Cause by an impulse from Heaven so that whole Armies and Nations have been struck with it Such a one was that which brought so wonderful a Desolation upon Carthage where nothing was to be heard but Voices and Outcries of Fear where the Inhabitants were seen to sally out of their Houses as to an Alarm and there to charge wound and kill one another as if they had been Enemies come to surprize their City All things were in strange Disorder and Fury till with Prayers and Sacrifices they had appeas'd their Gods and this is that they call a Panick Terror CHAP. XVIII That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death Ouid. Met. l. 3. scilicet ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet Mens last days still to be expected are E're we of them our Judgments do declare Nor can't of any one be rightly said That he is happy till he first be dead EVery one is acquainted with the Story of King Croesus to this purpose who being taken Prisoner by Cyrus and by him condemn'd to die as he was going to Execution cry'd out O Solon Solon which being presently reported to Cyrus and he sending to enquire of him what it meant Croesus gave him to understand that he now found the Advertisement Solon had formerly given him true to his Cost which was That men however Fortune may smile upon them could never be said to be happy till they had been seen to pass over the last day of their Lives by reason of the uncertainty and mutability of Humane things which upon very light and trivial occasions are subject to be totally chang'd into a quite contrary condition And therefore it was that Agesilâ—us made answer to one that was saying what a happy young man the King of Persâ—â— was to come so young to so mighty a Kingdom 'T is true said he but neither was Priam unhappy at his years In a short time of Kings of Macedon Successors to that mighty Alâ—xander were made Joyneâ—â— and Scriveners at Rome of a Tyrant of Sicily a Pedant at Corinth of a Conquerour of one half of the World and General of so many Armies a miserable Suppliant to the rascally Officers of a King of Aegypt So much the prolongation of five or Six Months of Life cost the Great and Noble Pâ—mpey and no longer 〈◊〉 than our Fathers daâ—s Ludovico Forza the tenth Duke of Millan whom all Italy had so long truckled under was seen to die a wretched Prisoner at Loches but not till he had lived ten Years in Captivity which was the worst part of his Fortune The fairest of all Queens Mary Qu. of Scots Widow to the greatest King in Europe did she not come to die by the hand of an Executioner Unworthy and barbarous Cruelty and a thousand more Examples there are of the same kind for it seems that as Storms and Tempests have a Malice to the proud and overtow'ring heights of our lofty Buildings there are also Spirits above that are envious of the Grandeurs here below Lucret. l. 5. Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros Fasces saevasque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur By which it does appear a Power unseen Rome's awful Fasces and her Axes keen Spurns under foot and plainly does despise Of humane Power the vain Formalities And it should seem also that Fortune sometimes lies in wait to surprize the last Hour of our Lives to shew the Power she has in a Moment to overthrow what she was so many Years in building making us cry out with Laberius Macrob. l. 2. c. 2. Nimirum hac die una plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit I have livâ—d longer by this one day than I ought to have done And in this Sence this good Advice of Solon may reasonably be taken but he being a Philosopher with which sort of Men the Favours and Disgraces of Fortune stand for nothing either to the making a Man happy or unhappy and with home Grandeurs and Powers Accidents of Quality are upon the Matter indifferent I am apt to think that he had some farther Aim and that his meaning was that the very Felicity of Life it self which depends upon the Tranquility and Contentment of a well-descended Spirit and the Resolution and Assurance of a well-order'd Soul ought never to be attributed to any Man till he has first been seen to play the last and doubtless the hardest act of his Part because there may be Disguise and Dissimulation in all the rest where these fine Philosophical Discourses are only put on and where Accidents do not touch us to the Quick they give us leasure to maintain the same sober Gravity but in this last Scene of Death there is no more counterfeiting we must speak plain and must discover what there is of pure and clean in the bottom Lucret. l. 3. Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur persona manet res Then that at last Truth issues from the Heart The Vizor's gone we act our own true part Wherefore at this last all the other Actions of our Life ought to be tryed and sifted 'T is the Master-day 't is the day that is judge of all the rest 'T is the Day says one of the Ancients that ought to judge of all my foregoing Years To Death do I refer the Eisay of the Fruit of all my Studies We shall then see whether my Discourses came only from my Mouth or from my Heart I have seen many by their Death give a good or an ill Repute to their whole Life Scipio the Father-in-law of Pompey the great in dying well wip'd away the ill Opinion that till then every one had conceiv'd of him Epaminondas being ask'd which of the three he had in greatest esteem Chabrias Iphicrates or himself You must first see us die said he before that Question can be resolv'd and in truth he would infinitely wrong that great Man who would weigh him without the Honour and Grandeur of his End God Almighty has order'd all things as it has best pleas'd him But I have in my time seen three of the most execrable Persons that ever I knew in all manner of abominable living and the most infamous to boot who all dyed a very regular Death and in all Circumstances compos'd even to Perfection There are brave and fortunate Deaths I have seen Death cut the Thread of the Progress of a prodigious Advancement and in the height and Flower of its encrease of a certain Person with so glorious an end that in my Opinion his Ambitious and generous Designs had nothing in them so high and great as their Interruption and he arriv'd without compleating his course at the Place to which his Ambition pretended with greater Glory than he could himself either hope or desire and anticipated
the Crown where for the Regulation of Community in Goods and Estates observ'd in the Country certain Sovereign Magistrates have committed to them the universal Charge and over-seeing of the Agriculture and Distribution of the Fruits according to the Necessity of every one Where they lament the Death of Children and Feast at the Decease of old Men Where they lie ten or twelve in a Bed Men and their Wives together Where Women whose Husbands come to violent Ends may marry again and others not Where the servile Condition of Women is look'd upon with such Contempt that they kill all the native Females and buy Wives of their Neighbours to supply their Use Where Husbands may repudiate their Wives without shewing any Cause but Wives cannot part from their Husbands for what cause soever Where Husbands may sell their Wives in case of sterility Where they boyl the Bodies of their dead and afterwards pound them to a pulp which they mix with their Wine and drink it Where the most coveted Sepulture is to be eaten with Dogs and elsewhere by Birds Where they believe the Souls of the happy live in all manner of Liberty in delightful Fields furnish'd with all sorts of Delicacies and that it is those Souls repeating the words we utter which we call Echo Where they fight in the Water and shoot their Arrows with the most mortal aim swimming Where for a sign of Subjection they lift up their Shoulders and hang down their Heads and put off their shooes when they enter the King's Palace Where the Eunuchs who take charge of the Religious Women have moreover their Lips and Noses cut away and disguis'd that they may not be lov'd and the Priests put out their own Eyes to be better acquainted with their Daemons and the better to receive and retain their Oracles Where every one creates to himself a Deity of what he likes best according to his own Fancy the Hunter a Lyon or a Fox the Fisher some certain Fish and Idols of every Humane Action or Passion in which place the Sun the Moon and the Earth are the principal Deities and the form of taking an Oath is to touch the Earth looking up to Heaven and there both Flesh and Fish is eaten raw Where the greatest Oath they take is to swear by the Name of some dead Person of Reputation laying their hand upon his Tomb Where the New-years Gift the King sends every Year to the Princes his Subjects is Fire which being brought all the old Fire is put out and the neighbouring People are bound to fetch of the new every one for themselves upon pain of Treason Where when the King to betake himself wholly to Devotion retires from his Administration which often falls out his next Successor is oblig'd to do the same by which means the Right of the Kingdom devolves to the third in Succession Where they vary the Form of Government according to the seeming necessity of Affairs Depose the King when they think good substituting ancient men to govern in his stead and sometimes transferring it into the hands of the Common-People Where Men and Women are both Circumcis'd and also Baptiz'd Where the Souldier who in one or several Engagements has been so fortunate as to present seven of the Enemies Heads to the King is made noble where they live in that rare and singular Opinion of the Mortality of the Soul Where the Women are deliver'd without Pain or Fear Where the Women wear Copper Fetters upon both their Legs and if a Louse bite them are bound in Magnanimity to bite them again and dare not marry till first they have made their King a Tender of their Virginity if he please to accept it Where the ordinary way of Salutation is by putting a Finger down to the Earth and then pointing it up towards Heaven Where Men carry Burthens upon their Heads and Women on their Shoulders the Women pissing standing and the Men cowring down Where they send their Blood in token of Friendship and cense the men they would honour like Gods Where not only to the fourth but in any other remote Degree Kindred are not permitted to marry Where the Children are four Years at Nurse and sometimes twelve in which Place also it is accounted mortal to give the Child suck the first day after it is born Where the Correction of the male Children is peculiarly design ' d to the Fathers and to the Mothers of the Females the Punishment being to hang them by the Heels in the Smoak Where they eat all sorts of Herbs without other Scruple than of the Illness of the Smell Where all things are open the finest Houses and that are furnish'd with the richest Furniture without Doors Windows Trunks or Chests to lock a Thief being there punish'd double to what they are in other Places Where they crack Lice with their Teeth like Monkeys and abhorr to see them kill'd with ones Nails Where in all their Lives they neither cut their Hair nor pare their Nails and in another Place pare those of the Right hand only letting the Left grow for Ornament and Bravery Where they suffer the Hair on the right side to grow as long as it will and shave the other and in the neighbâ—ring Provinces some let their Hair grow long before and some behind shaving close the rest Where Parents let out their Children and Husbands their Wives to their Guests to hire Where a man may get his own Mother with Child and Fathers make use of their own Daughters or their Sons without Scandal or Offence Where at their solemn Feasts they interchangeably lend their Children to one another without any consideration of Nearness of Blood In one Place Men feed upon Humane Flesh in another 't is reputed a charitable Office for a Man to kill his Father at a certain Age and elsewhere the Fathers dispose of their Children whilst yet in their Mothers Wombs some to be preserv'd and carefully brought up and others they proscribe either to be thrown off or made away Elsewhere the old Husbands lend their Wives to Young-men and in another place they are in common without offence in one place particularly the Women take it for a mark of Honour to have as many gay fring'd Tassels at the bottom of their Garment as they have lain with several men Moreover has not Custom made a Republick of Women separately by themselves Has it not put Arms into their Hands made them to raise Armies and fight Battels and does she not by her own Precept instruct the most ignorant Vulgar and make them perfect in things which all the Philosophy in the World could never beat into the Heads of the wisest men For we know entire Nations Where Death was not only despis'd but entertain'd with the greatest Triumph where Children of seven years old offer'd themselves to be whip'd to death without changing their Countenance where Riches were in such Contempt that the poorest and most wretched Citizen would
that would heartily wish the Estate his Ancestors have left him might be employ'd so long as it shall please Fortune to give him leave to enjoy it to secure rare and remarkable Persons of any kind whom Misfortune sometimes persecutes to the last degree from the danger of Necessity and at least place them in such a condition that they must be very hard to please if they were not contented My Father in his Oeconomical Government had this Order which I know how to commend but by no means imitate which was that besides the Day-book or Memorial of the Houshold Affairs where the small Accounts Payments and Disbursements which do not require a Secretaries hand were entred and which a Bayliff always had in Custody he Order'd him whom he kept to write for him to keep a Paper Journal and in it to set down all the remarkable Occurrences and Day by Day the Memoirs of the Histories of his House very pleasant to look over when time begins to wear things out of Memory and very useful sometimes to put us out of doubt when such a thing was begun when ended what courses were debated on what concluded our Voyages Absences Marriages and Deaths the reception of good or ill news the change of Principal Servants and the like An Ancient Custom which I think it would not be amiss for every one to revive in his own House and I find I did very foolishly in neglecting the same CHAP. XXXV Of the Custom of Wearing Cloaths WHatever I shall say upon this Subject I am of necessity to invade some of the bounds of Custom so careful has she been to shut up all the Avenues I was disputing with my self in this shivering season whether the fashion of going Naked in those Nations lately discover'd is impos'd upon them by the hot temperature of the Air as we say of the Moors and Indians or whether it be the Original fashion of Mankind Men of Understanding forasmuch as all things under the Sun as the Holy Writ declares are subject to the same Laws were wont in such Considerations as these where we are to distinguish the Natural Laws from those have been impos'd by Man's Invention to have recourse to the general Polity of the World where there can be nothing Counterfeited Now all other Creatures being sufficiently furnish'd with all things necessary for the support of their being it is not to be imagin'd that we only should be brought into the World in a defective and indigent Condition and in such an estate as cannot subsist without Foreign assistance and therefore it is that I believe that as Plants Trees and Animals and all things that have Life are seen to be by Nature sufficiently Cloath'd and Cover'd to defend them from the Injuries of Weather Lucret. l. 4. Proptereaque fere res omnes aut corio sunt Aut seta aut conchis aut callo aut cortice tectae Moreover all things or with Skin or Hair Or Shell or Bark or Callus cloathed are so were we But as those who by Artificial Light put out that of the Day so we by borrowed Forms and Fashions have destroy'd our own And 't is plain enough to be seen that 't is Custom only which renders that impossible that otherwise is nothing so for of those Nations who have no manner of knowledge of Cloathing some are situated under the same Temperature that we are and some in much Colder Climates And besides our most tender Parts are always expos'd to the Air as the Eyes Mouth Nose and Ears and our Country Labourers like our Ancestors in former times go with their Breasts and Bellies open Had we been Born with a necessity upon us of wearing Petticoats and Breeches there is no doubt but Nature would have Fortified those Parts she intended should be exposed to the Fury of the Seasons with a thicker Skin as she has done the Finger ends and the Soles of the Feet And why should this seem hard to believe I Observe much greater distance betwixt my Habit and that of one of our Country Boors than betwixt his and a Man that has no other Covering but his Skin How many Men especially in Turky go naked upon the account of Devotion I know not who would ask a Beggar whom he should see in his Shirt in the depth of Winter as Brisk and Frolick as he who goes Muffled up to the Ears in Furs how he is able to endure to go so Why Sir he might Answer you go with your Face bare and I am all Face The Italians have a Story of the Duke of Florence his Fool whom his Master Asking How being so thin Clad he was able to support the Cold when he himself warm wrapt as he was was hardly able to do it Why reply'd the Fool use my Receipt to put on all your Cloths you have at once and you 'll feel no more Cold than I. King Massinissa to an extream Old Age could never be prevail'd upon to go with his Head cover'd how Cold Stormy or Rainy soever the Weather might be Which also is reported of the Emperour Severus Herodotus tells us that in the Battels fought betwixt the Aegyptians and the Persians it was Observ'd both by himself and others that of those who were left Dead upon the place the Heads of the Aegytians were found to be without comparison harder than those of the Persians by reason that the last had gone with their Heads always cover'd from their Infancy first with Biggins and then with Turbans and the others always shav'd and open And King Agesilaus observ'd to a decrepit Age to wear always the same Cloaths in Winter that he did in Summer Caesar says Suetonius March'd always at the Head of his Army for the most part on foot with his Head bare whether it was Rain or Sunshine and as much is said of Hannibal Silius It. li. 6. 1. Tum vertice nudo Excipere insanos imbres Coelique ruinam Bare Head to March in Snow and when it pours Whole Cataracts of cold unwholsome showers A Venetian who has long Liv'd in Pegu and is lately return'd from thence writes that the Men and Women of that Kingdom though they cover all their other Parts go always Barefoot and Ride so too And Plato does very earnestly advise for the health of the whole Body to give the Head and the Feet no other Cloathing than what Nature has bestow'd He whom the Polacks have Elected for their King since ours came thence who is indeed one of the greatest Princes of this Age never wears any Gloves and for Winter or whatever Weather can come never wears other Cap abroad than the same he wears at home Whereas I cannot endure to go unbutton'd or unti'd our Neighbouring Labourers would think themselves in Chains if they were so brac'd Varro is of Opinion that when it was Ordain'd we should be bare in the presence of the Gods and before the Magistrate it was rather so Order'd upon
mistaken nor omitted without offence I find the same fault likewise with charging the fronts and Title Pages of the Books we commit to the Press with such a clutter of Titles CHAP. XL. That the Relish of Goods and Evils does in a great measure depend upon the opinion we have of them MEN says an ancient Greek Sentence are tormented with the Opinions they have of things and not by the things themselves It were a great Victory obtain'd for the relief of our miserable Humane Condition could this proposition be establish'd for certain and true throughout For if evils have no admission into us but by the judgment we our selves make of them it should seem that it is then in our own power to despise them or to turn them to good If things surrender themselves to our mercy why do we not convert and accommodate them to our advantage If what we call Evil and Torment is neither Evil nor Torment of it self but only that our Fancy gives it that Quality and makes it so it is in us to change and alter it and it being in our own choice if there be no constraint upon us we must certainly be very strange Fools to take Arms for that side which is most offensive to us and to give Sickness Want and Contempt a nauseous taste if it be in our power to give them a more grateful Relish and if Fortune simply provide the matter 't is for us to give it the form Now that which we call Evil is not so of it self or at least to that degree that we make it and that it depends upon us to give it another taste or complexion for all comes to one let us examine how that can be maintain'd If the original being of those things we fear had power to lodge themselves in us by their own authority it would then lodge it self alike and in like manner in all for Men are all of the same kind and saving in greater and less proportions are all provided with the same untensils and instruments to conceive and to judge but the diversity of opinions we have or those things does clearly evidence that they only enter us by composition One particular Person peradventure admits them in their true being but a thousand others give them a new and contrary being in them We hold Death Poverty and Grief for our principal Enemies but this Death which some repute the most dreadful of all dreadful things who does not know that others call it the only secure Harbour from the Storms and Tempests of Life The Soveraign good of Nature The sole Support of Liberty and the common and sudden Remedy of all Evils And as the one expect it with Fear and Trembling the other support it with greater Ease than Life That Blade complains of its facility Luc. l. 4. Mors utinam pavidos vitae subducere nolles Sed virtus te sola daret O Death I would thou wouldst the Coward spare That but the daring none might thee conferr But let us leave these Glorious Courages Theodorus answer'd Lysimachus who threatned to Kill him Thou wilt do a brave thing said he to arrive at the force of a Cantharides The greatest part of Philosophers are observ'd to have either purposely prevented or hastned and assisted their own Death How many ordinary people do we see led to Execution and that not to a simple Death but mixt with Shame and sometimes with grievous Torments appear with such assurance what through obstinacy or natural simplicity that a Man can discover no change from their ordinary condition Setling their Domestick Affairs recommending them to their Friends Singing Preaching and Diverting the People so much as sometimes to Sally into Jests and to Drink to their Companions as well as Socrates One that they were leading to the Gallows told them they must not carry him through such a Street lest a Merchant that liv'd there should arrest him by the way for an old Debt Another told the Hangman he must not touch his Neck for fear of making him Laugh he was so Ticklish Another answer'd his Confessor who promised him he should that day Sup with our Lord. Do you go then said he in my Room for I for my part keep fast to day Another having call'd for Drink and the Hangman having Dranâ— first said he would not Drink after him for fear of catching the Pox. Every body has heard the Tale of the Picard to whom being upon the Ladder they presented a Whore telling him as our I aw does sometimes permit that if he would Marry her they would save his Life he having a while considered her and perceiving that she Halted Come tye up tye up said he she limps And they tell another Story of the same kind of a fellow in Denmark who being condemn'd to lose his Head and the like condition being propos'd to him upon the Scaffold refus'd it by reason the Maid they offer'd him had hollow Cheeks and too sharp a Nose A Servant at Tholouse being accus'd of Heresie for the summ of his Belief referr'd himself to that of his Master a young Student Prisoner with him choosing rather to die than suffer himself to be persuaded that his Master could erre We read that of the Inhabitants of Arras when Lewis the eleventh took that City a great many let themselves be Hang'd rather than they would say God save the King And amongst that mean-soul'd race of Men the Buffoons there having been some who would not leave their Fooling at the very moment of Death He that the Hangman turn'd off the Ladder cry'd Launch the Galley an ordinary foolish saying of his and the other whom at the point of Death his Friends having laid upon a Pallet before the Fire the Physician asking him where his Pain lay betwixt the Bench and the Fire said he and the Priest to give him the extream Unction Groping for his Feet which his Pain had made him pull up to him you will find them said he at the end of my Legs To one that being present exhorted him to recommend himself to God why who goes thither said he and the other replying it will presently be your self if it be his good pleasure would I were sure to be there by to Morrow Night said he do but recommend your self to him said the other and you will soon be there I were best then said he to carry my recommendations my self In the Kingdom of Narsingua to this day the Wives of their Priests are buried alive with the Bodies of their Husbands all other Wives are burnt at their Husbands Funerals which also they do not only constantly but chearfully undergo At the death of their King his Wives and Concubines his Favourites all his Officers and Domestick servants which make up a great number of people present themselves so chearfully to the Fire where his Body is burnt that they seem to take it for a singular honour to accompany their Master in Death During
Meat and Cloaths seems to be quite contrary to the end design'd The true way would be to beget in men a contempt of Silks and Gold as vain frivolous and useless whereas we augment to them the Honours and enhance the value of such things which sure is a very improper way to create a disgust For to enact the none but Princes shall eat Turbes shall weaâ— Velvet or Gold-Lace and interdict these things to the people what is it but to bring them into a greater esteem and to set every one more agog to eat and wear them Lâ—â— Kings a Gods name leave of their Ensignâ— of Grandeur they have others enough besides those excesses are more excusable in any other than a Prince We may learn by the Example of several Nations better ways of exteriour distinction of quality which truly I conceive to be very requisite in a State enow without fostering up this corruption and manifest in convenience to this effect 'T is strange how suddenly and with how much ease custom in these indifferent things establishes it self and becomes authority We had scarce worn Cloath a year in compliance with the Court for the Mourning of Henry the Second but that Silks were already grown into such contempt with every one that a man so clad was presently Concluded a Citizen The Silks were divided betwixt the Physicians and Chirurgeons and though all other people almost went in the same habit there was notwithstanding in one thing or other sufficient distinction of the calling and conditions of men How suddenly do greasy Chamois Doublets become the fashion in our Armies whilst all neatness and riches of habit fall into contempt Let Kings but lead the dance and begin to leave off this expence and in a Month the business will be done throughout the Kingdom without an Edict we shall all follow It sould be rather proclaim'd on the contrary that no one should wear Scarlet or Goldsmiths work but Whores and Tumblers Zeleucus with the like invention reclaim'd the corrupted manners of the Locrians Whose Laws were That no free Woman should be allow'd any more than one Maid to follow her unless she was drunk nor was to stir out of the City by night wear Jewels of Gold about her or go in an Embroidered Robe unless she was a profest and publick Whore The Bravo's and Russians excepted no man was to wear a Gold Ring nor be seen in one of those effeminate Vests woven in the City of Miletum By which infamous exceptions he discreetly diverted his Citizens from Superfluities and pernicious pleasures and it was a project of great Utility to attract men by honour and Ambition to their Duty and Obedience Our Kings may do what they please in such external Reformations their own inclinations stand in this case for a Law Quicquid Principes faciunt Quinct Decla 4. praecipere videntur What Princes themselves do they seem to enjoyn others Whatever is done at Court passes for a rule through the rest of France Let the Courtiers but fall out with these abominable Breeches that discover so much of those parts should be concealed These great Bellied Doublets that make us look like I know not what and are so unfit to admit of Arms these long effeminate Locks of Hair This foolish Custom of Kissing what we present to our equals and our Hands in saluting them a ceremony in former times only due to Princes And that a Gentleman shall appear in place of respect without his Sword unbuttoned and untrust as though he came from the House of Office and that contrary to the custom of our Fore-fathers and the particular privilege of the Nobless of this Kingdom we shall stand a long time bare to them in what place soever and the same to a hundred others so many Tierces and Quarts of Kings we have got now a days and also other the like innovations and degenerate customs they will see them all presently Vanish'd and Cry'd down These are 't is true but superficial Errours but however of ill consequence and 't is enough to inform us that the whole Fabrick is Crazy and Tottering when we see the rough-cast of our Walls to cleave and split Plato in his Laws esteems nothing of more pestiferous consequence to his City than to give Young-Men the liberty of introducing any change in their Habits Gestures Dances Songs and Exercises from one form to another shifting from this to that Hunting after Novelties and applauding the Inventors by which means Manners are corrupted and the old Institutions come to be nauseated and despised In all things saving only in those that are evil a change is to be fear'd even the change of Seasons Winds Viands and Humours And no Laws are in their true credit but such to which God has given so long a continuance that no one knows their beginning or that there ever was any other CHAP. XLIV Of Sleep REason directs that we should always go the same way but not always the same pace And consequently though a wise-Man ought not so much to give the Reins to humane Passions as to let them deviate him from the right Path he may notwithstanding without prejudice to his Duty leave it to them to hasten or to slack his speed and not fix himself like a motionless and insensible Coloss Could Vertue it self put on Flesh and Blood I believe the Pulse would Beat faster going on to an Assault than in going to Dinner That is to say there is a necessity she should Heat and be mov'd upon this account I have taken notice as of an extraordinary thing of some great Men who in the highest Enterprises and greatest Dangers have detain'd themselves in so settled and serene a Calm as not at all to hinder their usual Gayety or break their Sleep Alexander the Great on the Day assigned for that furious Battle betwixt him and Darius slept so profoundly and so long in the Morning that Barmenio was forc'd to enter his Chamber and coming to his Bed-side to call him several times by his Name the time to go to Fight compelling him so to do The Emperour Otho having put on a resolution to Kill himself the same night after having settled his Domestick affairs divided his Money amongst his Servants and set a good edge upon a Sword he had made choice of for the purpose and now staying only to be satisfied whether all his friends were retir'd in safety he fell into so sound a sleep that the Gentlemen of he Chamber heard him Snore The death of this Emperour has in its circumstances parallelling that of the great Cato and particularly this before related For Cato being ready to dispatch himself whilst he only staid his hand in expectation of the return of a messenger he had sent to bring him news whether the Senators he had sent away were put out from the Port of Utica he fell into so found a sleep that they had him into the next Room and he whom he