ward than from their own value, and efpecially to feek it in the vanity of human judgment. Why the public approbation ought to be courted. If this falfe opinion, nevertheless, be of that ufe to the public, as to keep men in their duty; if the people are thereby ftirred up to virtue; if princes are touched to fee the world blefs the memory of Trajan, and abominate that of Nero; if it moves them to fee the name of that great beaft, once fo terrible, and dreaded, fo freely curfed and reviled by every fchool boy, let it, in the name of God, increafe, and be, as much as poffibly, cherished among us. And Plato, bending his whole endeavour to make his citizens virtuous, alfo advises them, not to defpife the good esteem of the people; and says, "that it falls out, by a certain divine infpiration, that "even the wicked themfelves, oft-times, as well by "word as opinion, can rightly diftinguish the virtuous from the wicked." This perfon, and his tutor, are marvellous bold artificers, to add divine operations and revelations wherever human force is wanting and, perhaps, for this reafon it was, that Timon, railing at him, called him, "the great forger of miracles." * Ut tragici poeta confugiunt ad deum, cum explicare argumenti exitum non poffunt:" as tragic poets fly to fome God, "when they are at a lofs to wind up their piece." Seeing that men, by their infufficiency, cannot pay themfelves well enough with current money, let the counterfeit be fuperadded: it is a way that has been practifed by all the legiflators; and there is no government that has not fome mixture, either of ceremonial vanity, or of falfe opinion, which ferves for a curb to keep people in their duty: it is for this that most of them have their fabulous originals and beginnings, and fo enriched with fupernatural myfteries: it is this that has given credit to falfe religions, and caufed them to be countenanced by men of understanding; and for this that Numa and Sertorius, to poffefs their men with a better opinion of them, pretended, one, that the nymph Egeria, the other, that his white hind brought them all their • Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib, i, cap, 20. refolutions refolutions from the Gods. The authority that Numa: gave to his laws, under the fanction of this goddess's patronage, Zoroafter, legiflator of the Bactrians and Perfians, gave to his, under the name of the god Oromazis; Trifinegiftus, legiflator of the Egyptians, under that of Mercury; Zambooxis, legislator of the Scythians, under that of Vesta; Charondas, legiflator of the Chalcedonians, under that of Saturn; Minos, legiflator of the Cretans, under that of Jupiter; Lycurgus, legiflator of the Lacedæmonians, under that of Apollo; and Draco and Solon, legiflators of the Athenians, under that of Minerva. And every government has a god at the head of it; others falfely, that truly which Mofes fet over the Jews at their departure out of Egypt. The religion of the Bedoins, as the Seur de Joinville reports, amongit other things, enjoined a belief" that the foul of him, "amongst them, who died for his prince, went into "another more happy body, more beautiful and more "robuft than the former;" by which means they much more willingly ventured their lives: * In ferrum mens prona viris, animæque capaces Eager for wounds, with thirst of death they burn, This is a very comfortable belief, however erroneous it is. Every nation has many fuch examples of its own: but this fubject would require a treatife by itself. betwixt that which the la-7 dies term hoduty. The difference To add one word more to my former difcourfe, I would advife the ladies no more to call that honour, which is but their duty, Ut enim confuetudo loquitur, id folum dicitur boneflum, quod eft populari fama gloriofum: "according to the vulgar ftyle, that "only is honourable, which has the pub"lic applaufe:" their duty is the grape, their honour but the outward hufk. Neither would I advise them to give nour, and their In his Memoirs, chap. 57. P. 357, 358. + Lucan. lib. i. ver. 46. that that excufe as payment for their denial: for I fuppofe, that their intentions, their defire, and will, which are things wherein their honour is not at all concerned, as nothing of it appears externally, are much better regulated than the effects. Quæ quia non liceat, non facit, illa facit *. She, who fins not, because 'tis against law, The offence both towards God, and in the confcience, would be as great to defire, as to do it: and, befides, they are actions fo fecret of themfelves, as would be very easily kept from the knowledge of others, wherein the honour confifts; if they had no other refpect to their duty, and to the affection they bear to chastity for its own fake: every woman of honour rather chufes to wound her honour, than her confcience. TH CHAP. XVII. Of Prefumption. HERE is another fort of glory, which is the having too good an opinion of our own merit. It is an inconfiderate affection, with which we flatter ourfelves, and that reprefents us to ourselves other than what we truly are: like the paffion of love, that lends beauties and graces to the object of it; and makes those who are caught with it, by a depraved and corrupt judgment, confider the thing they love other and more perfect than it is. I would not, nevertheless, that a man, for fear of failing in this point, fhould mistake himself, or think himfelf less than he is; the judgment ought, in all things, • Ovid. Amor, lib. iii, el. 4. ver. 4. to us away, The fear of being guilty of prefumption ought not to give us too nion of ourmean an opi. felves, nor to hinder us from making our felves known. to keep its prerogative: it is all the reafon in the world. he fhould difcern, in himself, as well as in others, what truth fets before him; if he be Cæfar, let him boldly think himself the greatest captain in the world. We are nothing but ceremony; ceremony carries and we leave the fubftance of things; we hold by the branches, and quit the trunk. We have taught the ladies to blufh, when they hear but that named, which they are not at all afraid to do: we dare not call our members by their right names, and yet are not afraid to employ them in all forts of debauchery. Ceremony forbids us to exprefs, by words, things, that are lawful and natural, and we obey it: reafon forbids us to do things unlawful and ill, and no-body obeys it. I find myself here fettered by the laws of ceremony; for it neither permits a man to fpeak well of himself, nor ill. We will leave her there for this time. They whom fortune (call it good or ill) has made to pafs their lives in fome eminent degree, may, by their public actions, manifeft what they are: but they whom The has only employed in the croud, and of whom nobody will speak, if they do not speak for themselves, are to be excufed, if they take courage to talk of themfelves, to fuch who are concerned to know them, by the example of Lucilius, Ille velut fidis arcana fodalibus olim Credebat libris, neque fi malè cefferat, ufquam Vita fenis His fecrets to his books he did commend, Whether he wrote with, or against the grain, The old man's life his verfes do explain. He committed to paper his actions and thoughts, and there pourtrayed himself fuch as he found himself to Hor. lib. ii, fat. 1. ver. 30, &c. be. Nec id Rutilio, et Scauro citra fidem, aut obtrectationi fuit: "nor were Rutilius or Scaurus mifbelieved or " condemned for fo doing." Montaigne's particular gef. ture a plain token of his filly pride. I remember then, that, from my infancy, there was obferved in me I know not what kind of carriage and gesture, that feemed to relifh of foolish pride. I will fay this, in the first place, that it is not unlikely, that there are qualities and propenfities fo deeply implanted in us, that we have not the means. to feel and know them: and of fuch natural inclinations the body is apt to retain a certain bent, without our knowledge or confent. It was affectation that made Alexander carry his head on one fide, and Alcibiades to lifp; Julius Cæfar fcratched his head with one finger, which is the mark of a man poffeffed with uneafy thoughts; and Cicero, as I remember, was wont to turn up his nofe, a fign of a man given to fcoffing: fuch motions as thefe may, imperceptibly, happen There are other artificial ones, which I meddle not with; as falutations and congees, by which men, for the most part, unjustly acquire the reputation of being humble and courteous; or, perhaps, humble out of pride. I am prodigal enough of my hat, efpecially in fummer, and never am fo faluted, but I pay it again, from perfons of what quality foever, unless they be in my pay. I fhould be glad, that fome princes, whom I know, would be more fparing of that ceremony, and beftow that courtefy where it is more due; for, being fo indifcreetly profufe of it, it is thrown away to no purpose, if it be without refpect of perfons: amongst irregular countenances, let us not forget that fevere one of the emperor Conftantius, who always, in public, held his head upright and straight, without bending or turning it on either fide, not fo much as to look upon thofe who faluted him on one fide, planting his body in a ftiff immoveable pofture, without fuffering it to yield to the motion of his coach; not daring fo much as to fpit, blow his nofe, or wipe his Tacit. in Vita Agricolæ, cap. 1. Cæfar, cap. 1. + Plutarch, in the life of Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxi. cap. 14. face |