T

CHA P. XVI.

Of Glory.

HERE is the name and the thing; the name

is a word, which denotes and fignifies the thing; the name is no part of the thing, or of the fubftance; it is a foreign piece joined to the thing, and yet without it.

How the name

increased.

God, who is all fulness in himfelf, and the height of all perfection, cannot augment or add any thing to himself intrinfically; but his of God may be name may be augmented and increased by the bleffing and praise we attribute to his exterior works : which praise, feeing we cannot incorporate it in him, as he can have no acceffion of good, we attribute to his name; which is the part out of him that is nearest to us. Thus is it, that to God alone glory and honour appertain; and there is nothing fo remote from reason, as that we should go in queft of it for ourselves; for being indigent and neceffitous within, our effence being imperfect, and having continual need of melioration, it is for that we ought to labour: we are all hollow and empty; it is not with wind and voice that are to fill ourselves; we want a more folid fubftance to repair us. A man, ftarved with hunger, would be very fimple to look out rather a gay garment, than a good meal: we are to look after that whereof we have most need: as we have it in our ordinary prayers, Gloria in excelfis Deo, et in terrâ pax bominibus; " * Glory be to God on

high, and in earth peace, &c." We are in great want of beauty, health, wifdom, virtue, and fuch like effential qualities: exterior ornaments fhould be looked after, when we have made provifion for neceffary things. Theology treats amply, and more pertinently of this fubject, but I am not much verfed in it.

St. Luke, chap. ii. ver. 14.

Chryfippus

Chryfippus and Diogenes

Philofophers

who preached up the con

were the firft, and the ftouteft champions for the contempt of glory; and maintained, "that, of all "pleasures, there was none more dantempt of glory. 66 gerous, nor more to be avoided, than "that which proceeds from the approbation of others." And, in truth, experience make us fenfible of its very hurtful treachery. There is nothing that fo much poifons princes, as flattery, nor any thing whereby wicked men more eafily obtain credit with them: nor is there any pandarism fo proper, and so often made ufe of, to corrupt the chastity of women, as to wheedle and entertain them with their own praises. The firft charm the Syrens made use of to inveigle Ulyffes, is of this nature.

+ Deca vers nous, deca ò tres louable Ulyffe, Et le plus grand honneur dont la Grece fleuriffe

Noble Ulyffes, turn thee to this fide,

Thou Greece's greatest ornament and pride.

Those philofophers faid, "that all the glory of the "world was not worth an understanding man's holding "out his finger to obtain it:

Gloria quantalibet quid erit, fi gloria tantum eft §?

What more than glory is the greatest fame ?

I fay, that alone: for it often brings feveral commodities along with it, for which it may be deGlory to be courted for the fired: it acquires us good-will, and renders advantages it us less subject and exposed to the injuries brings. of others, and the like. It was also one of the principal doctrines of Epicurus; for this precept of his fect, Live obfcurely, that forbids men to incumber themselves with offices and public negociations, does alfo, neceffarily, prefuppofe a contempt of glory, which is the

• Cic. de Finibus, lib. iii. cap. 17. + Petrarch. ↑ Homer. Odyff. lib. xii. ver. 184. § Juv. Sat vii. ver, 8 r.

world's

world's approbation of those actions we produce to light. He that bids us conceal ourfelves, and to have no other concern but for ourselves, and that will not have us known to others, would much lefs have us honoured and glorified. He advifes Idomeneus alfo, "not, "in any fort, to regulate his actions by the common "reputation or opinion, except it be to avoid the other "accidental inconveniences, which the contempt of men might bring upon him."

very just and Proof that Epi

curus courted

Thofe difcourfes are, in my opinion, rational; but we are, I know not how, of a twofold nature, which is the cause, that what we believe, we do not believe, and glory. cannot difengage ourselves from what we condemn. Let us fee the last dying words of Epicurus; they are great, and worthy of fuch a philofopher, and yet they carry fome marks of the recommendation of his name, and of that humour he had decried by his precepts. Here is a letter that he dictated a little before his last gasp *.

EPICURUS to HERMACHUS, Greeting.

"WHILST I was paffing over the happy, and "the last day of my life, I writ this; but, at the "fame time, was afflicted with fuch a pain in my "bladder and bowels, that nothing can be greater: but "it was recompenfed with the pleasure, which the re"membrance of my inventions and doctrines fuggefted "to my foul. Now, as the affection thou haft ever

had, from thy infancy, for me, and philofophy does "require; take upon thee the protection of Metro"dorus's children.'

So much for his letter. And that which makes me interpret, that the pleasure he fays he felt in his foul, concerning his inventions, has fome reference to the re putation he hoped for after his death, is the difpofition of his will. In which he gives order, "that † Amino"machus and Timocrates, his heirs, fhould every Ja + Idem. ibid. lib. ii. cap. 31. nuary,

Cic. de Fin. lib. ii. cap. 30.

"nuary, defray the expence for the celebration of his nativity, which Hermachus fhould appoint; and alfo the "expence that would be incurred, the twentieth day of "every moon, in entertaining the philofophers, his friends, who fhould affemble in honour of the memory of him and Metrodorus."

'66

Glory defirable for itself.

Carneades was head of the contrary opinion; and maintained, "that glory was to be de"fired for itself, even as we embrace our "pofthumous iffue for themselves, with"out any knowledge or enjoyment of them." This opinion was more univerfally followed, as thofe readily are, that are moft fuitable to our inclinations. Ariftotle gives it the first place amongst external goods; and avoids, as two vicious extremes, the immoderate purfuit of it, or running from it.

The mistake of those who thought that virtue was only defirable for the glory that accompanied it.

Cicero very defirous of

glory.

I believe, that had we the books which Cicero wrote upon this fubject, we would there read fine ftories of it; for he was fo poffeffed with this paffion, that, if he had dared, I think he would willingly have fallen into the excefs that others did, viz. "that virtue itself was only to be co"veted on account of the honour that "always attends it."

Paulum fepulta diftat inertia

Celata virtus-

Inactive virtue is the fame as none.

Which is an opinion fo falfe, that I am furprised it could ever enter into the understanding of a man who was honoured with the name of a philofopher. If this was true, men need not be virtuous but in public, nor be any further concerned to keep the operations of the foul, which is the true feat of virtue, regular, and in order, than as

• Cic de Finibus, lib. iii. cap. 17. mistake, for Cicero did not charge other philofophers of Zeno's fect.

Here Montaigne is guilty of a Carneades with this opinion, but + Hor. lib. iv. od. 9. ver. 29.

they

they are to arrive at the knowledge of others. Is there no more in it than doing an ill thing flily? If thou "knoweft, fays Carneades, of a ferpent lurking in

a place, where, without fufpicion, a perfon is going "to fit down, by whofe death thou expecteft an ad"vantage, thou doft ill, if thou doft not give him caution of his danger; and fo much the more, be caufe the action is to be known by none but thyfelf." If we do not ourselves maintain a rule of well-doing; if impunity paffes with us for juftice; to how many forts of wickednefs fhall we, every day, abandon ourCelves? I do not find what Sext. Peduceus did, in faithfully reftoring the treasure that C. Plotius had committed to his fole confidence (a thing that I have often done myself), fo commendable, as I fhould think it execrable, had he done otherwife: and think it of good ufe, in our days, to call to mind the example of P. Sextilius Rufus †, whom Cicero accufes of "having en

tered upon an inheritance contrary to his confcience, "not only not against law, but even by the determina

tion of the laws themfelves." And M. Craffus and and Q. Hortenfius, who, from their authority and power, having been called in, by a ftranger, to fhare in a fucceffion, by virtue of a forged will, that fo he might fecure his own part, fatisfied themfelves with having no hand in the forgery, and refufed not to make their advantage of it; thinking themfelves fafe enough, if they could fhroud themfelves from accufations, wit-. neffes, and the cognizance of the laws. Meminerint Deum fe habere teftem, id eft (ut ego arbitror) mentem Juam: let them confider, they have God to witness, "that is, (as I interpret it) their own confciences."

Virtue would

Virtue is a very vain and frivolous thing, if it derives its recommendation from glory and it is to no purpofe, that we endeavour to give it a ftation by itfelf, and feparate it from fortune; for what is more accidental than reputation? § Profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur: ea res cunctas ex libidine,

• Cic. de Fin. lib. ii. cap. 18. de Ofic. lib. iii. cap. 10.

VOL. II.

be a frivolous thing, if it derived its recommendation from glory.