faces, countenances, the ordinary words and fortunes of my ancestors? How attentively fhould I liften to it! In truth, it would be ill-nature to defpife even the pictures of our friends and predeceffors, the fafhion of their cloaths, and of their arms. I preferve my father's writings, his feal, and one particular fword of his, and have not thrown the long flaves he ufed to carry in his hand, out of my closet. Paterna veftis, et annulus, tanto charior eft pofteris, quanto erga parentes major affe&us * ; "a father's robe and ring are fo much the dearer to his "pofterity, in proportion to the affection they retain for "him." If my posterity, nevertheless, fhall be of an other mind, I fhall be even with them; for they cannot care lefs for me, than I fhall then do for them. All the traffic that I have, in this, with the public, is, that I borrow their writing tackle, as it is more eafy, and at hand; and, in recompence, fhall, perhaps, keep a difh of butter from melting in the market. + Ne toga cordyllis, ne penula defit olivis, Et laxas fcombris fæpe dabo tunicas ‡. I'll furnish plaice and olives with a coat, And cover mack'rel when the fun fhines hot. I Montaigne talks fo much of himself, that he might the better know himself, and give his own true character. And though no-body fhould read me, have I loft my time in entertaining myself fo many idle hours, in thoughts fo pleafing and ufeful? In moulding this figure upon myself, have been so oft constrained to curry and turn myself, as it were, infide out, that the copy is truly taken, and has, in fome fort, formed itself. But, as I paint for others, I reprefent myself in more exquifite colouring than in my own natural complexion. I am as much formed by my book, as my book is by me: it is a book confubftantial with the author; of a peculiar tenor; a member of my life, and whose business is not defigned for • Aug. de Civitate Dei, lib. i. cap. 13. Catullus, ep. 92. ver. 8. ver. I. † Mart. lib. xiii. Ep. 1. others, others, as that of all other book is. In giving fo continual, and fo curious an account of myfelf, have I loft any time? for he who fometimes curforily furveys himfelf only, doth not fo ftrictly examine himself, nor penetrate fo deep, as he who makes it his bufinefs, his ftudy, and his whole employment; who intends to give a lafting record, with all his fidelity, and with all his force. The most delicious pleasures, however digefted internally, avoid leaving any trace of themselves, and fhun the fight not only of the people, but of any other man. How oft has this affair diverted me from uneafy thoughts? And all that are frivolous fhould be reputed fo. Nature has presented us with a large faculty of entertaining ourselves apart; and oft call us to it, to teach us, that we owe ourselves, in part, to fociety, but chiefly to ourselves. In order to habituate my fancy, even to meditate in fome method, and to fome end, and to keep it from lofing itfelf, and roving at random, it is but to give it a body, and to register all the pretty thoughts that prefent themfelves to it. I give ear to my whimfies, because I am to record them. How oft has it fallen out, that, being displeased at fome action which civility and reafon did not permit me openly to reprove, I have here difgorged myfelf of them, not without defign of public inftruction; and yet these poetical lashes, Zon des fur l'ail, zon fur le groin, A jerk over the eye, over the fnout, imprint themselves better upon paper, that upon the moft fenfible flesh. What if I liften to books a little more attentively than ordinary, fince I watch if I can purloin any thing that may adorn or fupport my own? I have not at all studied to make a book; but I have, in fome fort, ftudied because I had made it, if it be studying, to scratch and pinch, now one author, and then another, either by the head or foot; not with any de * Marot contre Sagoin. fign to fteal opinions from them, but to affist, second, and to fortify those I had before embraced. The little re gard paid to truth, an odi ous vice. But who fhall we believe in the report he makes of himself, in fo corrupt an age? Confidering there are fo few, if any at all, whom we can believe when fpeaking of others, where there is lefs intereft to lye. The first step to the corruption of manners is banishing of truth; for, as Pindar fays, "to be fincerely true is the beginning of "a great virtue," and the first article that Plato requires in the government of his republic. The truth of these days is not that which really is fuch, but what every man perfuades himself, or another to believe; as we generally give the name of money, not only to lawful coin, but to the counterfeit alfo, if it be current. Our nation has long been reproached with this vice; for Salvianus Maffilienfis, who lived in the time of the emperor Valentinian, fays, "that lying and perjury is not a vice with the "French, but a way of fpeaking." He that would improve upon this teftimony, might fay, "that it is now 66 a virtue with them." Men form and fashion themselves to it, as to an exercife of honour; for diffimulation is one of the most notable qualities of this age. Whence comes it that men are fo ftung proach of be. I have often confidered, whence comes this cuftom, that we fo religioufly obferve, of being more highly offended with the reproach of a vice fo familiar to us than with any other, and that it fhould be the higheft injury that can, in words, be done us, to reproach us with a lye: upon examination, I find, that it is natural to difclaim those faults moft, with which we are most tainted: it seems as if, by refenting, and being moved at the accufation, we, in fome fort, acquitted ourfelves of the fault; if we are guilty of it in fact, we condemn it, at least in appearance: may it alfo not be, that this reproach feems to imply cowardice, and meannefs of fpirit? Of wnich can there be a more manifeft fign, than for a man to eat his own words? What, to lye against a man's own knowledge: lying is a base vice; a vice that one of the ancients Lying an ar gument of the contempt of God. paints in the most odious colours, when he fays, "that it is too manifeft a contempt "of God, and a fear of man." It is not poffible more copioufly to represent the horror, bafenefs, and irregularity of it; for, what can be imagined more vile, than a man, who is a coward towards man, fo courageous as to defy his Maker? Our intelligence being by no other canal to be conveyed to one another but by words, he who falfifies them betrays public fociety: it is the only tube through which we communicate our thoughts and wills to one another; it is the interpreter of the foul, and, if it fails us, we no longer know, nor have any farther tie upon another: if that deceive us, it breaks all our correfpondence, and diffolves all the bands of our government. Certain nations of the new-difcovered Indies (no matter for naming them, fince they are no more; for, by wonderful and unheard of example, the defolation of that conqueft extended to the utter abolition of names, and the ancient knowledge of places) offered to their Gods human blood, "but only fuch as was drawn from the tongue and "ears, to atone for the fin of lying, as well heard as "pronounced." The good fellow of Greece was wont to fay, "that children were amufed with rattles, "and men with words." The Greeks and Romans not fo delicate in the article of lying, as we are. As to the various ufages of our giving the lye, and the laws of honour in that cafe, and the alterations they have received, I fhall refer faying what I know of them to another time, and fhall learn, if I can, in the mean while, at what time the custom took beginning, of fo exactly weighing and meafuring words, and of engaging our honour to them; for it is eafy to judge, that it was not anciently amongst the Greeks and Romans; and I have often thought it ftrange to see them rail at, and give one another the lye, without any farther quarrel. The laws of their duty fteered fome other courfe than ours. Cæfar is fometimes called thief, and fometimes drunkard, to his teeth. • Lyfander, in Plutarch's life of him, chap. 4. We fee fee the liberty of invectives, which they practifed upon one another, I mean the greatest chiefs of war of both nations, where words were only revenged with words, without any other confequence. I Religious zeal often extrava gant and confequently unjust. Tis ufual to see good intentions, if purfued without moderation, pufh men on to very vicious effects. In the difpute, which has now engaged France in a civil war, the beft and the foundeft caufe, no doubt, is that which maintains the ancient religion and government of the kingdom. Nevertheless, amongst the good men of that party (for I do not speak of those that make a pretence of it, either to execute their own particular revenge, or to gratify their avarice, or to court the favour of princes; but of thofe who engage in the quarrel out of true zeal to religion, and a regard to the peace and government of their country) of thefe, I fay, we fee many whom paffion tranfports beyond the bounds of reafon, and fometimes infpires with counfels that are unjuft and violent, and also rash. when our re This zeai in duced the when they be came matters, to destroy Pagan books. It is true, that in thofe primitive times, ligion began to gain authority with the laws, zeal armed many against all forts of Pagan books, by which the learned fuffered an exceeding great lofs; which, I conceive, did more prejudice to letters, than all the flames kindled by the barbarians. Of this Cornelius Tacitus is a very good witnefs; for though the emperor Tacitus his kinfman, had by exprefs order, furnished all the libraries in the world with his book, nevertheless, one entire copy could not escape the curious fearch of thofe who defired to abolish it, for only |