"the counsellor of life to me, and the witnefs of my "death. For my own part, as I have always had the "experience of the fimiles of fortune, for fear left the "defire of living too long may make her frown upon 66 me, I am going, by a happy period, to difmifs the re"mains of my foul, leaving behind me two daughters "of my body, and a legion of grand-children." Having faid this, and given fome exhortations to her family to live in peace and union, divided her estate amongst them, and recommended her eldest daughter to the protection of the domeftic gods; fhe boldly took the cup in her hand, in which was the poifon, and having made her vows to Mercury, accompanied with prayers that he would conduct her to fome happy feat in the other world, fhe drank off the mortal beverage. She then entertained the company with the progrefs of its operation; and as the parts of her body were feized with a chilness, one after another, she told them, at length, it had reached her heart and bowels; and then called her daughters to do the laft office for her, and to clofe her eyes. Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean country, where, by reafon of the mild temperature of the air, the inhabitants rarely end their lives but by the voluntary furrender of them; inafmuch, that, when they are weary and furfeited with life, it is ufual for them, after they have lived to a good old age, to make a fumptuous feaft, and then to throw themselves into the fea, from a certain rock deftined to that fervice. Pain, and the fear of a worse death, feem to me to be the most excufable inducements *. The voluntary death of the Hy perboreans. Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. iv. cap. 12. CHAP. F all our French writers, James Amiot, in my opi OF nion, deferves the palm*, not only for the propriety and purity of his language, in which An elogium on he furpaffes all others; nor for his conftant the language of perfeverance in fo long a labour; nor for Amiot, the tranfthe depth of his knowledge, having fo lator of Plutarch. happily unravelled the intricacies of fo difficult an author (for people may fay what they please, though I understand nothing of Greek, yet I perceive a fenfe fo well connected and maintained throughout his whole tranflation, that furely he must have perfectly known the author's true thoughts, or, by being long converfant with him, muft have had a general idea of Plutarch's mind ftrongly imprinted in his foul, forafmuch as he has delivered us nothing from him that in the least derogates from, or contradicts him); but, above all, I am pleafed with him for having fingled out a book fo proper, fo worthy for a prefent to his country. We dunces had been funk in the mire, had not this book lifted us out of it. By this favour of his we venture now both to speak and write. The very ladies read it to the fchool-mafters. It is our breviary. If this good man be yet living, I would recommend him to do as much by Xenophon. It is a more easy task than the other, and therefore more proper for a gentleman fo far advanced in years. And then I know not how it is, but methinks, though he very briskly and clearly recovers himself when he has made a trip, yet his ftyle is more his own, when it is not embarraffed, and runs fmoothly on. I was just now reading that paffage in Plutarch+,where he fays of himself, that Kufticus, while pre- Curiofity greedy fent at a declamation of his at Rome, re- alter news. To this, I think, fhould be added, that Amiot, by his translation of Plutarch, has not only polished, but even enriched our language. In the treatife of curiofity, ch. 14. Amiot's tranflation. ceived a pacquet from the emperor, but delayed to open it till all was ended; for which, faid he, the whole audience highly applauded this perfon's gravity. It is true, that as I am on the fubject of curiofity, and that eager and ravenous appetite for news, which makes us, with fo much indifcretion and impatience, abandon every thing to entertain a novelty, and, without any manner of refpect or civility, break open, in what company foever, all letters that are brought to us, he had reafon to applaud the gravity of Rufticus upon this occafion, and might likewife, have commended his civility and courtely in not interrupting the courfe of his declamation. But I doubt whether his prudence deferves to be praised; for, as the letters came to him unexpected, and efpecially from an emperor, it might have fallen out that the deferring to read them would have been very prejudicial. The vice oppofite to curiofity is negligence, Negligence the oppofite vice to or indifference, to which I certainly have a curiofity. natural propenfity by my conftitution, and to which I have feen fome men fo extremely addicted, that they have kept letters in their pockets, unopened, for three or four days together. I never open any letters, neither thofe committed to my care, nor those which pass through my hands by accident; and I am uneafy with myself, if my eyes inadvertently catch any contents of letters of importance that a great man is reading when I am clofe by him. Never was a man lefs inquifitive, or less prying into other people's affairs. In our father's days, M. de Boutieres had like to have loft Turin, becaufe, being in good company at fupper, he deferred to read an advertisement which was fent him of the treafon that was plotted against the faid city, of which he was governor. And this very Plutarch has given us to understand, that Julius Cæfar had faved himfelf, if he had read a paper that was prefented to him as he went to the fenate, on that very day he was killed by the confpirators. He alfo tells the story of Archias, the tyrant of Thebes, that, the night before Pelopidas put his In the life of Julius Cæfar, cap. 17. The reading of letters ought not to be deferred. plat plot into execution for killing him in order to reftore his country's liberty, he had a circumftantial account of the whole confpiracy fent him in writing by another Archias, an Athenian, and that the pacquet having been delivered to him while he fat at fupper, he deferred the opening of it, faying, what afterwards turned to a proverb in Greece, "To-morrow is a new day." A wife man may, in my opinion, for the fake of another perfon, either for fear, like Rufticus, of indecently difturbing the company, or of breaking off another affair of importance, put off the reading or hearing any new thing that is brought to him; but if a man, for his own particular intereft or pleasure, even though he holds a public office, will not interrupt his dinner, nor be awaked out of his nap, he is inexcufable. confular place, The confular place at table the moft acceffible. And there was anciently, at Rome, the which they called the most honourable, at table, for being a feat which had moft fcope, and was of the eafieft access to those who came to fpeak with him who was placed in it; which is a proof that though they were at table they did not abandon the concern for other affairs and incidents But, when all is faid that can be faid, it is very difficult, in human actions, to prefcribe fo just a rule, by rational arguments, that fortune will not maintain her right in them. A CHA P. V. SI was travelling one day, during the civil wars, with my brother the Sieur de la Brouffe, we met a gentleman of good fafhion, who was of the of the power of contrary party to us, though I knew nothing confcience. of it, for he pretended to be of ours: and the mischief of it is, that, in wars of this fort, the cards are fo fhuffiled, your enemy not being diftinguished from yourself * In his treatife of Socrates's dæmon, ch. xxvii. by by any apparent mark, either of language or carriage, being bred up under the fame laws, air, and manners, that it is difficult to avoid diforder and confufion. This made me afraid myfelf, of meeting with any of our troops in a place where I was not known, that I might not be forced to tell my name, and for fear of fomething worse, perhaps, as happened to me once, when, by fuch a mistake, I foft both men and horfes; and, amongst others, an Italian, my page, whom I had bred up with care, was miferably killed; a fine lad, and one that was very promifing. But the gentleman we met had fo frange a terror upon him, and was fo mortified at the meeting with any horfemen, and travelling through towns which held out for the king, that I, at length, gueffed he was alarmed by his confcience. The poor man feemed to be in fuch a condition, that, through his vizor, and the croffes on his caffock, one might have penetrated into his bofom, and read his fecret intentions. So wonderful is the force of conscience, that it makes ús betray, accufe, and fight with ourfelves; and, for want of other evidence, to give teftimony against ourfelves: Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum *. Tormenting confcience shakes the foul within. The tale that follows is in the mouths of children: Beffus, a Pæonian, being reproached with having wantonly pulled down a fparrow'st neft, and killed the young ones, faid he had reason for it, because those little Strange difcovery of a parricide. birds were continually chattering a falfhood, that he had murdered his father. This parricide had, till then, been undif covered and unknown, but the revengeful furies of his confcience caused it to be difcovered by himself, who was juftly to suffer for it. • Juv. Sat. xiii. ver. 195. + See Plutarch's treatife, Why the divine juftice fometimes defers the punishment of crimes, ch. 8, |