this unsteadiness and discordance in himself, even by his own judgment. I have nothing to say of myself entirely, fimply, and folidly; or, in one word, without mixture and confufion. Diftinguo is the most universal member of my logic. A good action to be judged of by the intention only. Though I always intend to speak well of that which is good, and rather to put the best conftruction upon fuch things as may fall out; yet fuch is the ftrangeness of our condition, that we are often prompted, even by vice itself, to do well, if well-doing were not judged by the intention only. A man therefore ought not to be deemed valiant from one gallant action fingly, for the truly brave man would be fo always, and upon all occafions. If it were a habit of valour, and not a Hash or fally, it would render a man equally refolute in every accident; the fame alone, and in company; the fame in the lifts as in the field of battle: for let them fay what they will, the valour in the tilt-yard and in the field, is one and the fame. The man of true valour would bear a fit of fickness, in his bed, with the fame courage as a wound in battle, and no more fear death in his own house than in an attack, or ftorming of a caftle. The man who enters the breach with a gallant refolution, would not vex himself, at another time, like a woman, for the lofs of a law-fuit, or the death of a child. When a man bears poverty with courage, though he is infamous for cowardice; when he ftands intrepid against the fword of the enemy, while he trembles at the fight of a barber's razor; the action is commendable, not the man. "There are many Grecians, fays Cicero, that cannot face an enemy, who bear fickness with fortitude *: the Cimbrians and Celtiberians are "noted for quite the contrary. Nihil enim poteft eft æquabile quod non a certa ratione proficifcatur; i. e. Nothing can be uniform which does not proceed from folid reafon." τε • Tufc. Quæst. lib. ii. cap. 27. B 4 There The valour of Alexander, tho extraordinary in its kind, yet not perfect and univerfal. There is no valour more extraordinary, in its kind, than that of Alexander; but it is only in its kind, not perfect enough in every particular, nor univerfal. Incomparable as it is, it has, neverthelefs, fome blemishes. On this account it happened that he was fo often in a defperate rage, upon the flighteft fufpicions of confpiracies by his own foldiers, against his life; and that he behaved, in the detection of them, with so much vehemence and indifcreet injuftice, and with a timidity that fubverted his natural reafon. The fuperftition alfo, with which he was fo much tainted, favours a little of pufillanimity; and his exceffive penitence, for the murder of Clytus, is likewife a teftimony that his courage was not always the fame. All we perform is no other than patch-work, and we aim at acquiring honour by falfe tokens. Virtue only to be courted for its own fake. Virtue does not require to be courted but for its own fake, and, if it fometimes lends its mafk for another occafion, it prefently plucks it again from the borrower's face. It is a ftrong and lively dye, with which when the foul is once tinctured, it never goes off but with the piece. Therefore, in order to make a judgment of a man, we muft trace his life critically for a long while paft. If conftancy has not therein kept its ground on its own bafis, Cui vivendi via confiderata atque provifa eft, fo that he be refolutely determined to a certain courfe of life; if the variety of occurrences makes him alter his pace, (his path I mean, for the pace may be either fafter or flower) let him go; fuch a one, according to the motto of our Talbot, is driven with the wind." It is no wonder, fays one of the ancients †, that chance has fo great a power over us, fince it is by chance that we live. It is not poffible for any one, who has not directed his life, in the general, to fome certain aim, regularly to difpofe of its particular actions. It is impoffible for any one to fit the parts together, who has not the Cicero Paradoxon. v. cap. 1. Senec. Epift. 71, from whence this whole paragraph is taken. form Whether the judgment in favour of Sacertain Milefians, was well founded. form of the whole already in his head. To what pur pofe does the man provide colours, who knows not what he is to paint? No one lays down a certain plan for his life; and we deliberate only by a little and a little at a time. The archer ought, in the first place, to know at what he is to take aim, and then to accommodate his hand, bow-string, his arrow, and the motions to it. Our counfels err, because they have no end nor direction. No wind ferves him who is bound to no certain port. I cannot acquiefce in the judgment paffed in favour of Sophocles, by the perfon, who, because he had feen one of his tragedies, argued from thence, that he was capable of the management of domestic affairs, against the accufation of his fon. Neither do I think the conjecture of the Parians *, who were fent to regulate the Milefians, could warrant the confequence which they inferred from it. Upon their vifit to the island they took notice of the lands that were beft cultivated, and the country farms that were best managed and having registered the names of their occupiers, as foon as they had affembled the citi zens together, they nominated thefe farmers for their governors and magiftrates, imagining, that they who were fo careful in the management of their private affairs, would be fo of the public. We are all fuch a rude medley of compounds, and thofe of fo various a contexture, that every piece plays every moment its own game; and we are as different from our own felves as we are from each other: Magnam rem puta, unum homiņem agere; i. e. it is no little matter to act the part of one man only well. Since ambition can teach men valcur, temperance, and liberality, nay, and justice too: fince avarice can infpire the courage of a 'prenticeboy, the fondling of his mother, with the affurance to expofe himself, fo far from home, to the mercy of the waves, and the wrath of Neptune, in a frail boat, and that it also teaches difcretion and prudence; and fince Venus even infpires boys, under the difcipline of the Cic. de Senec. cap. 7. Herod. lib. v. p.339. + Senec. Ep. 120. rod, rod, with refolution and audaciousnefs, and makes vira goes of virgins while in their mother's laps. Hac duce cuftodes furtim tranfgreffa jacentes, Ad juvenem tenebris fola puella venit *: With Venus' aid, while fleep the guard difarms, She stole by night to her young lover's arms. It is not in the fphere of the matureft understanding to judge of us fimply by our external actions; it must fathom the very foul, and find out the fprings that give it motion; but, as this is a dangerous and fublime undertaking, I wish that fewer perfons would attempt it. TH CHA P. IL Of Drunkenness, Hroughout the whole world there is nothing but variety and difparity: vices are all alike, as There are fome they are vices, and the Stoics, perhaps, are of the fame opinion; but though they are equally vices, yet they are not fuch in an equal degree; and that he who has gone a hundred yards beyond the limits, 'vices more enormous than others. Quos ultra citraque nequit confiftere rellum +, is not in a worfe ftate, or more out of the way, than he Both acts are theft, yet fure the guilt is more • Tibul. lib. ii. Eleg. 1. ver. 75, 76. Horat. lib. i. Sat. 1. ver. 107. The con founding of fins is a dangerous thing, In this there is as wide a difference as in any other thing, To confound the degree and measure of fins is dangerous; murderers, traitors, and tyrants are too great gainers by it. 'Tis not right,that they fhould quiet their confciences, becaufe fuch a person is idle, another lafcivious, or not fo affiduous in his devotions: every one aggravates the guilt of his companion, and extenuates his own. Our inftructors themselves, in my opinion, often confound the degrees of it. As Socrates faid, that the principal office of wifdom was to diftinguish good from evil; fo we, of whom the best of us are always vicious, ought to say the fame of the knowledge of distinguishing vices, without which, and that very perfect too, the virtuous and the wicked remain confounded and unknown. tish vice. Now, among the reft, drunkenness seems to me a ftupid, brutal vice. The understanding has a Drunkenness greater fhare in other vices, and there are fome a ftupid, bruwhich, if a man may fay it, have fomething generous in them. There are fome in which there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence, valour, prudence, dexterity, and cunning; whereas this is altogether corporeal and terreftrial: and the moft ftupid of all *nations exifting at this day is the only one that keeps it in countenance. Other vices, indeed, disturb the underftanding, but this totally overthrows it, and locks up all the fenfes : Cum vini vis penetravit, Confequitur gravitas membrorum, præped iuntur The particular nation, here pointed at by Montaigne, might easily tofs back the ball. Lucret. lib. iii, ver. 475, &c. The |