The common foundation of the courage of the Turks. certain very important change in his faith, by a strange, whimifical incitation, and alfo fo very abfurd, that I thought it much ftronger, being taken the contrary way: he called it a miracle, I look upon it quite otherwife. The Turkish hiftorians fay, "that the perfuafion, root"ed in thofe of their nation, of the fatal and "unalterable prefcription of their days, does "manifeftly conduce to the giving them great affurance in dangers;" and I know a great prince, who makes very fuccefsful ufe of it; whether it be, that he does really believe it, or that he makes it his excufe for fo wonderfully hazarding himself; provided fortune be not too foon weary of her favour to him. There has not happened, in our memory, a more adAffaffination of mirable effect of refolution, than in those the prince of two who confpired the death of the prince Orange. of Orange *. It is to be wondered, how the fecond, that executed it, could ever be animated to an attempt, wherein his companion, who had done his utmoft, had proved fo unfuccessful; and, after the fame method, and with the fame arms, to go and attack a nobleman, armed with fo fresh a handle for diftrüft, powerful in followers, and of bodily ftrength, in his own hall, amidft his guards, and in a city wholly at his devotion. He, doubtlefs, employed a very refolute arm, and courage inflamed with a furious paffion: a dagger is furer for ftriking home, but by reafon that more motion, and a ftronger arm is required, than with a piftol, the blow is more fubject to be put by, or hindered. That this man ran upon certain death, I make no great doubt; for the hopes any one could flatter him with, could not find place in any calm mind, and the conduct of his exploit fufficiently manifefts, that he had no want of that, any more than of courage. The motives of fo powerful a perfuafion may be diverfe, for our fancy does what it will both with itfelf and us. The duke of The execution near Orleans, was nothing like this; there was in that more of chance than vigour, the wound was not The founder of the republic of Holland. mortal, mortal, if fortune had not made it fo. To attempt to fhoot on horfeback, and at a great diftance, and at one whole body was in motion by the moving of his horse, was the attempt of a man who had rather mifs his blow, than fail of faving himfelf, as was apparent by what followed after; for he was fo aftonifhed and ftupified with the thought of so defperate an execution, that he totally loft his judgment, both to find his way to efcape, and how to govern his tongue in his anfwers. What needed he to have done more than to fly back to his friends cross a river? It is what I have done in lefs dangers, and what I think of very little hazard, how broad foever the river may be, provided your horfe have good going in, and that you fee, on the other fide, good landing. The other, (viz. the prince of Orange's affaffin) when they pronounced his dreadful fentence: "I was prepared for this, faid he, beforehand, and I will make you won"der at my patience." 66 A people who The Affaffins, a nation dependant upon Phoenicia, are reputed, amongst the Mahometans, a people of great devotion, and purity of manners. They hold, "that the nearest way "to gain paradise, is to kill fome one of a "contrary religion;" which is the reason they have often been feen, being but one or two, without arms, run madly against powerful enemies, at the price of certain death, and without any confideration of their own danger. So was our count Raimond, of Tripoli, affaffinated (which word is derived from their name) in the heart of his city, during our enterprises of the holy war; and likewife Conrade, marquis of Montferrat, the murderers going to their execution with great pride and g'ory, that they had performed fo brave an exploit. I CHA P. XXX. Of a monstrous Child. SHALL tell the ftory fimply, and leave it to the phyficians to reafon upon it. Two days ago, I faw a child, which two men and a nurfe, who called themfelves the father, the uncle, and the aunt of it, carried about to get money by fhewing it, because it was for frange a creature. It was, as to all the reft, of a common form, and could ftand upon its feet, walk and gabble much like other children of the fame age; it had never, as yet, taken any other nourishment but from the nurfe's breafts, and what, in my prefence, they tried to put into its mouth, it only chewed a little, and fpit out again without fwallowing; the cry of it feemed, indeed, a little odd and particular, and it was just fourteen months old. Under the breast it was joined to another child, that had no head, and that had the spine of the back ftopped up, the reft entire; it had one arm fhorter than the other, because it had been broken, by accident, at their birth; they were joined breaft to breaft, as if a Jeffer child was to clafp its arms about the neck of one fomewhat bigger. The part where they were joined together, was not above four fingers broad; or thereabouts, fo that if you turned up the imperfect child, you might fee the navel of the other below it, and the joining was betwixt the paps and the navel. The navel of the imperfect child could not be feen, but all the reft of the belly; fo that all the reft that was not joined of the imperfect one, as arms, buttocks, thighs, and legs, hung dangling upon the other, and might reach to the mid-legThe nurfe, morcover, told us, that it urined at both bodies, and alfo that the members of the other were nourifhc;l, fenfible, and in the fame plight with that she gave fuck to, excepting that they were fhorter, and lefs. This double body, and the feveral limbs relating to one head, might be interpreted as a favourable prognoftic to the Whether there are monsters king, of maintaining thofe various parts of our ftate under the union of his laws; but left the event fhould prove otherwife, it is better to let it alone, for in things already paft, there is no divination; * Ut quum facta funt, tum ad conjecturam aliqua interpretatione revocantur; "fo "as when they are come to pass, they fhould then, by "fome interpretation, be recalled to conjecture." As it is faid of Epimenides, " that he always prophefied of things "paft" I have lately feen a herdfman, in Medoc, of about thirty years of age, who has no fign A man who of any genital parts; he has three holes by had no gewhich he inceffantly voids his water; he is nitals. bearded, has defire, and loves to ftroke the women. Thofe that we call monsters, are not fo to God, who fees, in the immenfity of his work, the infinite forms that he has therein comprehended: and it is to be believed, that properly fo this figure, which aftonishes us, has relation to fome other of the fame kind, unknown to man. From a God of all wifdom nothing but what is good and regular proceeds; but we do not difcern the difpofition and relation of things. Quod crebro videt, non miratur, etiamfi, cur fiat, nefcit: quod antè non videt, id, fi evenerit, ftentum effe cenfet; "what man often fees, he does "not admire, though he be ignorant how it comes to "pafs: but, when a thing happens he never faw before, "that he looks upon as a prodigy." What falls out contrary to custom, we fay is contrary to nature; but nothing, whatever it be, is contrary to her. therefore, this univerfal and natural reafon expel from us the error and aftonifhment which novelty brings along with it. called. Let, Cic. de Divin. lib. ii. cap. 31. † Aristotle's Rhetoric, lib. iii. cap. 12 ‡ Cic. de Divin. lib. ii. cap. 22. PL Children indifcreetly aban. doned to the government of their parents. CHAP. XXXI. Of Anger. LUTARCH is admirable throughout, but ef pecially where he judges of human actions: what fine things does he fay in the comparison of Lycurgus and Numa, upon the subject of our great folly in abandoning children to the care and government of their fathers!" the most of our civil govern- . "ments, as Ariftotle fays, leave, to every one, after the "manner of the Cyclops, the ordering of their wives "and children, according to their own foolish and in"difcreet fancy; and the Lacedæmonian and Cretenfian "are almoft the only governments that have committed "the difcipline of children to the laws." Who does not fee, that, in a state, all depends upon their nurture and education? And yet they are indifcreetly left to the mercy of the parents, let them be as foolish and ill-natured as they will. Amongst other things, how oft have I, as I have paffed along the streets, had a good mind to write a farce, to revenge the poor boys, whom I have feen flead, knocked down, and almost murdered, by fome father or mother, when in their fury, and mad with rage? You fee them come out with fire and fury fparkling in their eyes. Of the indifcretion of parents, who punith their children in the madness of paffion. rabie jer incendente feruntur Præcipites, ut faxa jugis abrupta, quibus mons With rapid fury they are headlong borne, |