But beware a fhock. There are a thousand that perish in the port. I am very easy as to what shall here happen when I fhall be gone. Present things take up enough of my thoughts. Fortunæ cætera mando. I leave the reft to Fortune. I He did not think himself a whit the more unhappy for having no children to bear his name. Befides, I have not that ftrong obligation, that which is faid to attach men to futurity by the iffue that fucceeds to their name and honour; and perhaps ought the lefs to covet them, if they are to be fo much defired. I am of myfelf but too much tied to the world, and to this life. I am content to be in Fortune's power by circumftances properly neceffary to my being, without otherwise extending her jurifdiction over me; and never thought, that to be without children was a defect that ought to render life lefs contented. The want of iffue has its conveniences too. Children are of the number of things that are not very much to be defired, efpecially now, when it would be fo hard to make them good. Bona jam nec nafci licet, ita corrupta funt femina*; "nor can any thing good fpring from feed fo corrupt." And yet they are juftly to be lamented by fuch as have loft them. Children not much to be co veted, and why. His houthold affairs not the worfe for being He who left me my houfe in charge prognofticated that I would ruin it, confidering my rambling humour: but he was mistaken, for I am in the fame condition now as when I first entered into it, or rather better; and yet without office, or any place of profit. Tertul. de pudicit. in his hands. As He received no fubftantial fa vours from Fortune but fuch only as were windy and ti tular. As to the reft, if Fortune has never done me any violent or extraordinary injury, neither has the favoured me. Whatever our family derives from her bounty, was there above an hundred years before my time. I have, as to my own particular, no effential and folid good, that I ftand indebted for to her liberality; fhe has indeed done me fome airy honours, and titulary favours that are not fubftantial; and those in truth fhe has not granted, but offered me, who, God knows, am all material, and like nothing but what is real and folid. And who, if I durft confefs fo much, would not think avarice much less excufable than ambition; nor pain less to be avoided than shame; nor health less to be coveted than learning, or riches than nobility. Amongft her empty favours there is none that fo much pleases the filly humour natural to my country, as an authentic bull of a Roman burgefs, that was granted me when I was last there, embellished with pompous feals and gilt letters; and granted in the most bountiful manner. And because it is couched in a mixt ftyle, more or less favourable, and that I could have been glad to have seen the copy of it before it had paffed the feal, I will, to fatisfy any one that may be fick of the fame curiofity I was, tranfcribe it here in its true form. Montaigne with the freedom of the city of Rome. A bull invefting Quod Horatius Maximus, Martius Cecius, Alexander Mutus,\almæ urbis confervatores, de illuftriffimo viro, Michaele Montano, equite Sancti Michaelis, & à cubiculo Regis Chriftianiffimi Romana civitate donando, ad Senatum retulerunt, S. P. 2. R. de ea re ita fieri cenfuit. CUM UM veteri more & inftituto cupide illi femper ftudiofeque fufcepti fint, qui virtute ac nobilitate præftantes, magno reip. noftræ ufui atque ornamento fuiffent, vel effe aliquando poffent nos majorum noftrorum exemplo, atque auctoritate per permoti, præclaram hanc confuetudinem nobis imitandam, ac fervandam fore cenfemus. Quamobrem cum illuftriffimus Michael Montanus eques San&ti Michaelis, & à cubiculo Regis Chriftianiffimi, Romani nominis ftudiofiffimus, & familiæ laude, atque fplendore, & propriis virtutum meritis digniffimus fit, qui fummo fenatus populique Romani judicio ac ftudio in Romanam civitatem adfcifcatur; placere fenatui P. 2. R. illuftriffimum Michaelem Montanum rebus omnibus ornatiffi mum, atque huic inclyto populo chariffimum, ipfum pofterofque in Romanam civitatem adfcribi, ornarique omnibus & præmiis & bonoribus, quibus illi fruuntur, qui cives patritiique Romani nati, aut jure optimo fatti funt. In quo cenfere fenatum P. 2. R. fe non tam illi jus civitatis largiri, quam debitum tribuere, neque magis beneficium dare quam ab ipfo accipere, qui hoc civitatis munere accipiendo, fingulari civitatem ipfam ornamento, atque honore affecerit. Quam quidem S. C. auctoritatem iidem confervatores per fenatus P. 2. R. feribas in acta referri atque in Capitolii curiâ fervari, privilegiumque bujufmodi fieri, folitoque urbis figillo communiri curarunt. Anno ab urbe condita cxJCCCXXXI. Poft Chriftum natum MDLXXXI. III. idus Martii. Horatius Fufcus Sacri S. P. 2. R. fcriba. Being before burgefs of no city at all, I was glad to be created free of the most noble city that ever was, or ever will be. If other men would confider themselves, as attentively as I do, they would, as I do, difcover themfelves to be full of vanity and foppery; and rid myself of it I cannot, without making myself away. We are all leavened with it, as well one as another; but they who are fenfible of it, have the better bargain, and yet I know not whether they have or no. Why man does not love to ferve himself. This opinion, and common cuftom to obferve others more than ourselves, has very much relieved us. It is a very dif- know and obpleafing object we fee nothing in it but mifery and vanity. Nature, that we may not be dejected with the fight of our own deformities, has wifely pro jected jected our optic organ outward. We go forward with the current, but to turn back towards ourfelves is a painful motion; thus is the fea agitated and troubled when the waves are repelled against one another. Observe, says every one, the motion of the heavens; the revolution of public affairs; obferve the quarrel of fuch a person; feel fuch a one's pulfe; mind another's laft will and testament; in fhort, be always looking high or low, or on one fide, or before or behind you. It was a paradoxical command anciently given us by the god at Delphos : "Look into yourfelf, difcover yourself, keep close to "yourself; call back your mind and will, that elsewhere "confume themselves, into yourself; you run out, you "wafte yourself; collect yourself; fupport yourself; "men betray you, men fpoil you, men fteal you from "yourself." Doft not thou fee that this world keeps all its views confined within, and its eyes open to contemplate itself? It is always vanity for thee, both within and without; but it is lefs vanity when lefs extended. Excepting thee, (O man) faid that god, every thing studies itself firft, and has bounds to its labours and defires, according to its need. There is nothing fo empty and neceffitous as thou who embraceft the univerfe; thou art the explorator without knowledge, the magiftrate without jurifdiction; and after all, the fool in the play. Montaigne kept his affections in CHA P. X. Of managing the Will. FE EW things in comparison of what commonly affect other men, move, or a moderate ftate. to speak more properly, captivate me: for it is but reason they should concern a man, provided they do not wholly engrofs him. I am very folicitous, both by study and argument, to enlarge this privilege of infenfibility, which in me is naturally far advanced, fo that I espouse, and am confequently moved with few things. I have a clear fight, but I fix it upon very few objects; have a fenfe delicate and tender, but an appre henfion and application hard and dull; I am very unwilling to engage myself. As much as in me lies, Í employ myfelf wholly for myfelf; and in this very fubje&t, would rather chufe to curb and reftrain my affection from plunging entirely into it, it being a fubject that I poffefs at the mercy of others, and over which fortune has more right than I. Even fo far as to health, which I fo much value, it were neceffary for me, not fo paffionately to covet and defire it, as to think difeafes infupportable. There ought to be a medium betwixt the hatred of pain, and love of pleasure. And Plato prefcribes the very thing. why he ftrove against those which attached him to what was foreign to himself. But against fuch affections as carry me away from myself, and fix me elsewhere, against thofe, I fay, I oppofe myself with all my force. It is my opinion, that a man fhould lend himself to others, and only give himself to himself. Were my will eafy to be engaged and fwayed, I would not stick there I am too tender both by nature and habit, -Fugax rerüm, fecüraque in otia natus *. I fly from business as from a disease ; for hot and obftinate difputes wherein my adverfary would at last have the better; and the iffue, which would fender my heat of argument difgraceful, would perhaps vex me to the laft degree. Should I fet myself to it as earnestly as others do, my foul would never be able to • Ovid. de Trift. lib. iii. eleg. z. ver.ĝi VOL. III. bear |