66 him as one man does to another, and thinks it fufficient if his reasons are as probable as another man's, for the exact reafons were neither in his hand, nor that of any mortal whatsoever; which one of his followers has thus imitated, ut potero, explicabo: nec tamen, ut Pythius Apollo, certa ut fint et fixa, quæ dixero; fed ut homunculus, probabilia conjecturâ fequens : " I will explain things in the best manner I can, yet not, as the oracle of Delphos, pronouncing them as fixed and certain, but like a mere "man, who adheres to probabilities by conjecture." And that other upon the natural and popular topic of the contempt of death, as he has elfewhere tranflated it from the very differtation of Plato ; Si fortè, de deorum naturâ ortúque mundi differentes, minus id quod habemus in animo confequemur, haud erit mirum. Æquum eft meminisse, et me, qui differam, hominum effe, et vos qui judicetis, ut fi probabilia dicentur, nihil ultra requiratis; " if, in dif"courfing of the nature of the Gods, and the origin of the "world, we should happen not to exprefs all that we con"ceive in our minds, it will be no wonder: for it is but "just that we should remember, that both I who argue, "and you who are my judges, are but men: fo that, if "probable things are delivered, ye are to require nothing "more." Ariftotle commonly heaps up a great number of the opinions and beliefs of other men, for the fake of comparing them with his own, and to fhew us how far he has gone beyond them, and how much nearer he approaches to probability for truth is not to be judged by the authority and teftimony of others: and therefore Epicurus was very careful not to quote them in his writings. Ariftotle was the prince of all Dogmatifts, and yet we are told by him, that much knowledge administers occafion of doubting the more. In fact, we often find him wrapped up in obfcurity, fo thick and impenetrable, that we know not, by his opinion, what to chufe. It is, in effect, Pyrrhonifin under the form of determination. Hear Cicero's proteftation, who expounds another's fancy to us by his own: Qui requirunt, quid de quaque re ipfi fentiamus, • Cic. Tufc. Quæft. lib. i. cap. 9. verfo Fragmentum, cap. 3. + Cicero's Timæus, feu de UniCic. de Natura Deorum, lib. i. cap. 5. curiofius curiofius id faciunt, quam neceffe eft.-Haec in philofophia ratio, contra omnia differendi, nullamque rem apertè judicandi, perfeita à Socrate, repetita ab Arcefilâ, confirmata à Carneade, ufque ad noftram viget ætatem. Hi fumus, qui omnibus veris falfa quædam adjun&ta effe dicamus, tantâ fimilitudine, ut in iis nulla infit certè judicandi et effentiendi nota; "they who "defire to know what we think of every thing, are too in"quifitive. This rule in philofophy, of difputing against "every thing, and of explicitly determining nothing, which "was founded by Socrates, re-eftablifhing by Arcefilaus, "and confirmed by Carneades, has continued in ufe even "to our times. We are they who declare, that in every "truth there is fuch a mixture of falfhood, and that fo re"fembling the truth, that there is no mark in them where"by to judge of, or affent to either with certainty." Why has not only Ariftotle, but most of the philofophers, affected obfcurity, but to enhance the value of the fubject, and to amuse the curiofity of our minds by furnishing them with this bone to pick, on which there is no flesh? Clitomachus affirmed, that by the writings of Car * Montaigne has fuppofed this to be the meaning of Cicero, whofe words are thefe: "the opinion of which Calliphon Carneades fo ftu "diously defended, that he even seemed to approve of it, although Clito"machus affirmed, that he never could understand what was approved " by Carneades." Acad. Quæft. lib. x. cap. 45. But this is not faying, "That Clitomachus afferted, that by the writings of Carneades, he "could never difcover his opinion." The difpute is not, what were the pinions of Carneades in the general, but what he used to say in defence of Calliphon's private opinion concerning what conftitutes man's chief good. Forafmuch as Carneades was an Academician, he could not advance any thing pofitive or clearly decifive upon this important question, which was the reafon that Clitomachus never could understand what was the opinion of Carneades in this matter. Calliphon made the chief good confift in pleafure and virtue both together, which, fays Cicero, CarReades alfo was not willing to contradict, "not that he aproved it, but "that he might oppose the Stoics; not to decide the thing, but to em"barrass the Stoics." Acad. Quæft. lib. iv. cap. 42. In this fame book Cicero explains to us feveral of Carneades's opinions; and, what is very remarkable is, that he only does it as they are fet forth by Clitomachus. "Having, fays he, explained all that Carneades fays upon this fubject, "all thofe opinions of Antiochus (the Stoic) will fall to the ground. "But, for fear left I fhould be fufpected of making him fay what "I think, I fhall deliver nothing but what I collect from Clitomachus, "who paffed his life with Carneades till he was an old man, and, being Carthaginian, was a man of great penetration, very ftudious more66 over, and very exact." Acad. Quæst. lib. iv. cap. 31. "I have, fays a neades he could never difcover what opinion he was of Why did Epicurus affect to be abftrufe, and what else procured Heraclitus the furname of exoTeo's, or obfcure? Obfcurity is a coin which the learned make use of, like jugglers, to conceal the vanity of their art, and which the ftupidity of mankind takes for current pay. Clarus ob obfcuram linguam, magis inter inanes: Bombaft and riddle always puppies please, The liberal arts despised Cicero reproves fome of his friends for having fpent more time in aftrology, law, logic, and geometry, than thofe arts deferved,faying, that the ftudy of thefe diverted them from the more useful and honourable duties of life. The Cyrenaic philofophers equally defpifed natural philofophy and logic. Zeno beginning of the books of the commonwealth, declared all the liberal arts unprofitable. Chryfippus faid, that what Plato and Ariftotle had wrote concerning logic, they only composed for diverfion, and by way of ex in the very "Cicero a little before explained to you from the words of Clitomachus, "in what fenfe Carneades declared these matters." Thefe very things Cicero repeats afterwards, where he tranfcribes them from a book which Clitomachus had compofed and addreffed to the poet Lucilius. After this, how could Cicero make Clitomachus fay, that by the writings of Carneades in general, he could never difcover what were his fentiments? The truth is, that Clitomachus had not read the writings of Carneades; for, except fome letters that he wrote to Anarathes, king of Cappadocia, which ran in his name, the rest of his opinions, as Diogenes Laertius fays expressly, were preferved in the books of his difciples. In Vita Carneadis, lib. iv. fect. 65. The fame historian tell us, that Clitomachus, who compofed above 400 volumes, applied himself above all things, to illustrate the fentiments of Carheades, whom he fucceded. Diogenus Laertius, in the life of Clitomachus, lib. iv. fect. 67. Lucret. lib. i. ver. 640, &c. Diog. Laert, in the life of Zeno, lib. vii. fect. 32. ercife; ercife; and he could not believe that they spoke of fo vaint a thing in earnest. Plutarch fays the fame of metaphyfics: Epicurus had alfo faid as much of rhetoric, grammar, poetry, mathematics, and (natural philofophy excepted) of all the other fciences: and Socrates fays the fame of all, except ethics and the fcience of life. Whatever inftruction any man applied to him for, he always, in the first place, defired him to give him an account of the conditions of his life paft and prefent, which he examined and judged, efteeming all other learning as fupernumerary. Parum mihi placent ea litera que ad virtutem doctoribus nihil profuerunt; "that learning is in "fmall repute with me, which did not contribute to the "virtue of the teachers as well as learners." Moft of the arts have been difparaged in like manner by the fame knowledge. But they did not confider that it was foreign to the purpose to exercise their understanding on those very fubjects, wherein there was no folid advantage. What were Plato's real fentiments. As for the reft, fome have reckoned Plato a Dogmatift; others a doubter; others in fome things the former, and in others the latter. Socrates, who conducted his dialogues, is continually starting queries and stirring up difputes, never determining, never fatisfying, and profeffes to have no other science but that of oppofition. Homer, their author, has equally laid the foundations of all the fects of philofophy, to fhew how indifferent it was to which of them we inclined. To how many fects Plato gave birth. Socrates Socrates com It is faid, that ten feveral fects sprung from Plato; and, in my opinion, never did any instruction totter and waver, if his does not. faid," that midwives, while they make it their "bufinefs to affift others in bringing forth, lay afide the mifery of their own gene"ration that, by the title of the Sage, "which the Gods had conferred upon him, he was alfo difabled in his virile and mental love pared himself to midwives. Salluft. p. 94. Mattaire's edit. London, 1713. "of "of the faculty of bringing forth, contenting himself to help and affift thofe that were pregnant, to open their "nature, lubicrate their paffages, facilitate the birth of "the iffue of their brains; to pafs judgment on it; to baptize, nourish, fortify it; to fwathe and circumcife "it; exercifing and employing his understanding in the ἐσ perils and fortunes of others." The fame thing may be faid of many great philofophers writers. and famous The cafe is the fame with the generality of the authors of this third clafs, as the ancients have obferved of the writings of Anaxagoras, Democritus,. Parmenides, Xenophon, and others. They have a manner of writing doubtful, both in substance and defign, rather inquiring than teaching, though they intermix fome dogmatical periods in their compofitions. Is not this alfo vifible in Seneca and Plu-. tarch? How felf-contradictory do they appear to fuch as pry narrowly into them? And the reconcilers of the lawyers ought first to reconcile them every one to them felves. Plato feems to me to have affected this form of philofophizing by dialogues, to the end that he might with greater decency from feveral mouths deliver the diverfity and variety of his own fancies. To treat of matters variously is altogether as well as to treat of them conformably, and indeed better; that is to fay, more copioufly, and with greater profit. Let us only look at home; fentences or decrees are the utmoft period of alk dogmatical and determinative fpeaking: and yet those arrets which our parliaments make, thofe that are the moft exemplary, and that are moft proper to cultivate the reverence due from the people to that dignity chiefly, confidering the ability of the perfons vélted with it, derive their beauty not fo much from the conclufions, which are what they pafs every day, and are common to every judge, as from the difcuffion and debating of the differing and contrary arguments which the matter of law admits of. And the largeft field for the cenfures, which fome philofophers pafs upon others, is owing to the contradictions and variety of opinions, wherein every one of them finds himself intangled, VOL. II. R either |