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"to truft more to his right hand than to his left."
Now, it is only the not being used to wear it, that.
makes us think the weight of our armour infupportable.
L'bufbergo in doffo haveamo: et l'elmo in tefta,
Duc di quelli guerier dei quali io canto,
Ne notte ò di, doppo ch' entraro in questa
Stanza, gl' baveano mai mefi da canto,
Che facile a portar come la vesta.
Era lor, percha in ufo l'havean tanto *.

Two of thefe heroes †, whom I fing, had on
Each his bright helm, and ftrong habergeon;
And night nor day, nor one poor minute's space,
Once laid them by whilft they were in this place:
So long accustomed this weight to bear,
Their cloaths to them not lighter did appear.

The armour of

The emperor Caracalla used to march, on foot, thro' the country, at the head of his forces, and armed cap-a-pee. The Roman infantry the Roman innot only carried the helmet, fword, and fantry. fhield, (for as to armour, fays Cicero, they were fo accustomed to have it on, that it was no more troublesome to them than their limbs, Arma enim, membra militis effe dicunt), but also a fortnight's provifion, and a certain number of poles to make their ramparts, fo that each man carried fixty pounds weight to his own fhare. And Marius's foldiers, loaden in like manner, were forced to travel five leagues in five hours, and upon an urgent occafion fix. Their military discipline was much more fevere than ours, and accordingly produced quite different effects. When young Scipio difbanded his foldiers in Spain, he ordered them to eat always standing, and nothing that was dreffed . The reproach that was given to a Lacedæmonian foldier, that, when he was on a military expedition, he was feen under the roof of a house, is

Ariofto, cant. xii. stanz. 30.

+ Orlando and Sacrapante.

1 Cic. Tufc. Quæft. lib. ii. cap. 16. Plutarch in his notable fayings of the ancient kings, princes, and generals, in the article of Scipio the Younger.

VOL. II.

H

very

very pertinent to the purpofe; for they were fo inured to hardship, that it was a fhame for them to be feen under any roof but that of heaven, be the weather what it would. We would not be able to carry our men far upon thefe terms.

The Parthians in the field were

all covered with

iron.

Marcellinus, a man bred up in the Roman wars, makes a curious remark on the manner of the Parthians, and takes notice of it the rather for being fo different from that of the Romans. Their armour, fays "he was fo artfully connected, that the plates of iron "fell over one another like fo many fmall feathers, "which did not at all retard the motion of their bodies, "and yet they were fo rong that our darts, after striking their armour, rebounded upon us. Thefe were "the coats of mail which out ancestors ufed to wear." And, in another place, "They had ftrong hardy horfes, fays he, covered with thick leathes, and "themfelves were armed, cap-a-pee, with great fcaly plates of iron, fo artificially ranged, that, at the joints "of all the limbs, they yielded to their motion. One would have faid, that they were men of iron, having "the armour fo neatly fitted on the head, and fo natu

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rally reprefenting the form and parts of the face, that "there was no touching them but by little round holes "made for their eyes to receive the light, and by chinks about their noftrils, through which, with great difficulty, they drew their breath.""

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Flexilis inductis animatur lamina membris,
Horribilis vifu, credas fimulacra moveri
Ferrea, cognatoquè viros fpirare metallo z
Par veftitus equis, ferrata fronte minantur,
Ferratofque movent fecuri vulneris armos †.

Stiff plates of fteel, o'er all the body laid,.
By arm'rers kill fo flexible were made,

Ammianus Marcellinus, a Latin historian, though by birth a Greek, who bore arms under the emperors Conftance, Julian, &c. lib. xxiv. сар. 7.

Claudian in Ruff. lib. ii. ver. 358, &c.

That,

That, dreadful to be feen, you would them guess Not to be men, but moving images:

The horse, like arm'd, spikes bore in fronts above, And fearless they their iron fhoulders move. This defcription nearly anfwers to that of a Frenchman in armour, with all his horfe-accoutrements. Plutarch fays, that Demetrius caufed two complete fuits of armour to be made, for himself and for Alcimus*, the chief officer about him, of fixfcore pounds weight, whereas the common fuits weighed but half as much.

I

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Make no doubt but I often happen to speak of things that are much better and more truly handled by those who are mafters of the profeffion. This is purely an effay of my natural parts, and not of thofe which are acquired: and whoever fhall catch me tripping in my ignorance, will do me no manner of harm; for I, who am not refponfible to myself for my writings, nor pleased with them, fhould be loth to be anfwerable for them to another. He that feeks after knowledge, let him fifh for it where it is to be found; there being nothing which I fo little profefs. Thefe are fancies of my own, by which I do not aim to discover things, but myfelf. They will, perhaps, be known to me one day or other, or have formerly been fo, according as my fortune brought me to the places where they were manifefted, but now I have forgot them: and, though I am a man of fome reading, yet I am a man of no retention; fo that I can promife nothing certain, unless it be to difcover at what degree the barometer of my knowledge now ftands. Let not the fubjects I write on be fo much attended to,

In all Montaigne's editions, and in Mr. Cotton's tranflation it is Ipelt Alcinus, whereas the true reading is Alcimus. See Plutarch's life of Demetrius, chap. 6.

as my manner of treating them. Let it be obferved, whether, in what I borrow from others, I have chofen what tends to fet off or fupport the invention, which is always my own: for I make others fay for me what, either for want of language, or of fenfe, I cannot, myfelf, fo well exprefs. I do not count what I borrow, but I weigh it. And, if I had aimed to make a merit by the quantity, I fhould have borrowed twice as much as I have. They are all, or within a few, fuch celebrated ancient authors, as, I think, are too well known for me to mention them*.

did not chute to name the authors from

whom he quoted.

In reafons, comparifons, and arguments, if I tranfWhy Montaigne plant any, from elfewhere, into my foil, and confound them with my own, I purpofely conceal the author, to check the prefumption of thofe hafty cenfures that are caft upon all kind of writings, particularly the juvenile, of men yet living, and compofed in the vulgar tongue, which capacitates every man to fpeak of them, and feems to intimate, that there is nothing but what is vulgar, both as to defign and concep tion, in those works. I am content that they give Plutarch a rap upon my knuckles, and that they burn their fingers by lafhing Seneca through my fides. There was a neceffity of fcreening my weaknefs by thofe great characters. I fhall love the man that can ftrip me of my plumage, I mean, by the clearness of difcernment, and by the strength and beauty of the arguments. For I who, for want of memory, at, every now and then, at a lofs to chufe them by an exact knowledge of the places where they are to be found in the originals, am yet wife enough to know, by the measure of my own abilities, that my foil is incapable of producing any of thofe rich flowers that I fee planted there, and that they are worth more than all the fruits of my own growth. For this I hold

It was not till after Montaigne's death, that his editors undertook to name the authors whofe words he had quoted. But I will prefume to fay, this was rather attempted than executed before this edition; which not only thews the places from whence Montaigne quoted thofe paffages, but allo many others, which he had only referred to in a very loofe manner, though he had inferted the fenfe of them in his work.

myfelf

myfelf refponfible, though the confeffion makes against me, if there be any vanity and vice in my difcourfes, which I do not of myfelf perceive, or which I am not capable of perceiving when pointed out to me by an other for many faults efcape our eye, but the infirmity of judgment confifts in not being able to difcern them when detected to us by another. We may poffefs knowledge and truth without judgment, and judgment without them; nay, the confeffion of ignorance is one of the fairest and foreft teftimonies of judgment that I know of. I have no herald to marfhal my effays but chance. As faft as thoughts come into my head, which fometimes they do in whole bodies, and fometimes in fingle files, I pile them one upon another. I am content that every one fhould fee my natural and ordinary pace, be it ever fo much out of the way. I fuffer myfelf to jog on in my old track: nor are thefe fuch fub. jects that a man fhall be condemned for being ignorant of them, and for treating them cafually and prefumptuoufly. I could wish to have a more perfect knowledge of things, but I do not care to purchase it at fo dear a rate. I would fain pafs the remainder of my days eafily and not laboriously. There is nothing that I chufe to cudgel my brains about, no, not for fcience, how valuable foever.

What he aimed

All that I read books for, is to divert myfelf by an ho neft amusement; or, if I ftudy, it is for no other fcience than what teaches me to know myself, and how to live and die well.

Has meus ad metas fudet oportet equus".

This is the only course

to find in books.

In which I think I ought to breathe my horse.

If any difficulties occur in reading, I do not bite my nails about them, but after an effay or two to explain them, I give them over: were I to infift upon them, 1 would lofe both myfelf and my time, for I have a genius that is extremely volatile; and what I don't difcern at the first effay, becomes the more obfcure to me the Propert. lib. iv. eleg. 1. H 3

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