Tacitus, though

a fincere hifto

rian, and zealous for the public good, has cenfured Pompey too feverely.

more fharp. But Tacitus's history is the most proper for a troubled, fickly ftate, as ours is at prefent; and you would often fay, that he both paints and pinches us. They who doubt of his integrity, plainly enough confefs they do not like him in other refpects. His opinions are folid, and lean for the most part, towards the Roman affairs. Nevertheless, I am a little out of temper with him for judging more feverely of Pompey, than fuited with the opinion of thofe worthy men that lived in the fame time, and treated with him; and for thinking Pompey, in all refpects, like Marius and Sylla, excepting that he was more close. His intention, in the management of affairs, has not been exempted from ambition, nor revenge; and his very friends were afraid that his victory would have tranfported him beyond the bounds of reafon; but not a degree fo much beyond all restraint, There is nothing in Pompey's life that carries the marks of fuch exprefs cruelty and tyranny. Neither ought we to compare fufpicion to evidence; confequently I do not believe Tacitus in this matter. Suppofing his narratives to be genuine and right, it might, perhaps, be argued, even from hence, that they are not always exactly applied to the conclufions of his judgments, which he always follows, according to the bias he has taken, often beyond the fubject he opens to us, to which he has not deigned to give the leaft regard. He needs no excuse for having approved of the religion of his time, as it was enjoined by the laws, and for having been ignorant of the true religion. This was his misfortune, not his fault. I have principally confidered his judg- Whether he ment, and do not fully understand it every formed a right where; and these words, particularly in a judgment of a paragraph in a letter which Tiberius, when old and fick, letter from Tifent to the fenate, "+What fhall I write "to you, firs, or how fhall I write to you, or what fhall I not write to you at this juncture? May "the gods and goddeffes lay a worfe punishment upon

Tacit. Hift. lib. ii. cap. 38.

berius to the fe

nate.

Tacit, Annal. lib. ví. cap. 6.

"me, than what I feel every day, if I know." I do not fee why he should fo pofitively apply them to a ftinging remorfe of Tiberius's confcience. At leaft, when I was in the fame cafe, I perceived no fuch thing.

Blamed by MonThis is alfo deemed to me a little mean taigne for mak- in Tacitus, that, being to fay he had ing an apology exercised a certain § honourable office of for having spoke of himself in his the magiftracy, he excufed himself by fayhistory. ing that he did not mention it by way of oftentation. This feems a little too low an expreffion for fuch a genius as his was; fince for a man not to do himself justice, implies fome want of courage; one of a rough and lofty judgment, which is alfo fafe and found, makes use of his own example upon all occafions, as well as those of others; and gives evidence as freely of himfelf as of a third perfon. We are to fuperfede these common rules of civility in favour of truth and liberty. I prefume not only to fpeak of myself, but of myfelf alone. When I write of any think elfe, I mistake my way, and lofe my fubject: yet I am not fo indifcreetly enamoured with, or fo bigotted to, and inwrapped up in myself, that I cannot diftinguish, and confider myself apart, as I do a neighbour, or a tree. It is equally a failing for a man not to discern all his ability, or to fay more than he fees in himself. We owe more love to God than to our felves, and know him lefs; yet we speak of him as much as we please.

The character of
Tacitus to be

If the writings of Tacitus make any difcovery of his qualities, he was a great man, judged of by his upright and bold; not of a fuperftitious, writings. but of a philofophical, and generous virtue.

Tacitus, and all hiftorians are to

be commended for relating ex

A man may think him bold in his ftories; as where he fays that a foldier carrying a bundle of wood, his hands were fo frozen, and stuck fo faft to it, that they were fevered by it from his arms. I always, in fuch things, fubmit to fuch great authorities. What he fays alfo of Vefpafian ‡, that by

traordinary facts

and popular ru

mours.

§ "Domitianus edidit ludos feculares, iifque intentius affui, facerdo❝tio Quindecimvirali præditus, actum Prætor, quod non jactantia re"fero," &c. Tacit. Annal. lib xi. cap. 11.

† Tacit. Annal. xiii. cap. 35

Hift. lib. iv. cap. 81.

the

the favour of the god Serapis, he cured a blind woman in Alexandria, by anointing her eyes with his spittle, and I know not what other miracles; he does it by the example and duty of all good hiftorians, who keep regifters of fuch events as are of importance. Among public accidents are alfo common rumours and opinions. It is their part to relate the things commonly believed, not to regulate them. This is the province of the divines and the philofophers, who are the guides of men's confciences. Therefore it was that this companion of his, and as great a man as himself, very wifely said, Equidem plura tranfcribo quàm credo: nam nec affirmare fuftineo, de quibus dubito, nec fubducere quæ accepi, "in"deed I fet down more things than I believe; for as I "cannot endure to affirm things whereof I doubt, so I "cannot fmother what I have heard." And this other; Hæc neque affirmare neque refellere opera pretium eft-fame rerum ftandum eft, it is not worth while to affirm, or "to confute thefe matters." We must stand to report: and as he wrote in an age when the belief of prodigies began to decline, he fays, he would not, nevertheless, omit to infert in his annals, and to give a place to things received by fo many worthy men, and with fo great a reverence of antiquity. This was well faid. Let them deliver us hiftory more as they receive, than believe it. I, who am a monarch of the fubject I treat of, and who am accountable to nobody, do not, however, believe every thing I write. I often hazard the fallies of my fancy, of which I am very diffident, as well as certain quibbles, at which I fhake my ears; but I let them take their chance. I fee that by fuch things fome get reputation it is not for me alone to judge. I prefent myfelf ftanding, and lying on my face, my back, my right fide and my left, and in all my natural poftures. Wits, though equal in force, are not always equal in taste and application. This is what my memory has furnifhed me with in grofs, and with uncertainty enough. All judgments in the grofs are weak and imperfect.

Q. Curtius, lib. ix. chap. 1. tranflated by Vaugelas ↑ Tit. Liv. lib.i. in the preface, and lib. viii. cap. 6.

P

CHAP.

Montaigne's pleafant apology for his undertaking this regifter of his own humours.

СНАР.

Of Vanity.

TH

IX.

HERE is not perhaps any vanity more exprefs, than to write of it fo vainly. That which the Divinity has fo divinely delivered of it to us, ought to be carefully and continually meditated by men of understanding. Who fees not that I have taken a road, in which I fhall inceffantly and eafily jog on, so long as I can come at ink and paper? I can give no account of my life by my actions; fortune has placed them too low: I must do it by my fancies. And yet I have feen a gentleman who only communicated his life by the workings of his belly: you might fee in his house a regular range of clofeftool-pans of feven or eight days. ftanding that was all his ftudy, all his difcourfe; all other talk ftunk in his noftrils. Thefe here, but a little more decent, are the excrements of an old mind, fometimes hard, fometimes loofe, and always indigefted; and when fhall I have done reprefenting the continual agitation and mutation of my thoughts, on whatever fubject comes into my head, feeing that Diomedes * wrote fix thousand books upon the fole fubject of Grammar? What then must be the product of loquacity, if the world was stuffed with fuch a horrible load of volumes to facilitate pronunciation and free ut terance? So many words about words only. Ó Pythagoras, why did'ft not thou lay this tempeft! They

* Here Montaigne feems to have relied fimply upon his memory, and to have mistaken Diomedes for Dydimus the grammarian, who, as Seneca fays, wrote four thousand books on questions of vain literature, which was the principal study of the ancient grammarians. In fome of thefe books was an enquiry into Homer's native country; in others, who was the true mother of Æneas; in fome, whether Anacreon was the greater whore-master, or drunkard; in others, whether Sappho was a common ftrumpet; and the like things, which were better unlearnt, if you knew them. Seneca, epist. 88.

accufed

accufed one Galba of old for living idly; he made anfwer," that every one ought to give account of his ac❝tions, but not of his leifure *." He was mistaken, for juftice takes cognizance of, and paffes cenfure even upon those that pick straws.

Sorry fcribblers ought to be fuppreffed by the

laws, and
why.

But there should be fome restraint of law against foolish and impertinent fcribblers, as well as against vagabonds and idle perfons; which, if there was, both I and an hundred others would be banished the kingdom. I do not speak this in jeft: fcribbling feems to be a fymptom of a licentious age. When did we write fo much as fince our civil wars? When the Romans fo much, as when their commonwealth was running to ruin? Befides that the refining of wits does not make people wifer in ftate policy. This idle employment fprings from hence, that every one applies himself negligently to the duty of his vocation, and is diverted from it. The corruption of the age is a fund to which each of us contribute. Some treachery, others injustice, irreligion, tyranny, avarice, and cruelty, according as they are in power; and the weaker fort, of which I am one, contribute folly, vanity, and idleness. It seems as if it were the season for vain things when the hurtful opprefs us. In a time when doing ill is fo common, to do nothing but what fignifies nothing is a kind of commendation. It is my comfort, that I fhall be one of the laft that fhall be called to account; and whilft the greater offenders are taken to task, I fhall have leifure to amend; for, it would, methinks be against reafon to profecute little inconveniences, whilft we are infected with the greater. As the phyfician, Philotimus, faid

This was a faying of the emperor Galba, in his life by Suetonius, f. 9. It must be allowed here, either that Montaigne did not quote this from the original, or that his memory failed him; for, if he had meant the emperor Galba, he would not have called him, as he here does, one Galba of old. This is fo palpable, that in the edition of his Effays, printed at Paris in 1602, by Abel l'Angelier, in that part of the index referring to this paffage, care is taken to point out exprefsly, that the Galba here mentioned is to be distinguished from the emperor of this name.