CHAPTER XVIII. Cowardice the Mother of Cruelty. Cruelty the I HAVE often heard it said, fect of cow HAVE often heard it said, "That cowardice is common ef- the mother of cruelty:" yet I have found, by exardice. perience, that that malicious and inhumane animosity and fierceness is usually accompanied with a feminine faintness. I have seen the most cruel people, and upon frivolous occasions, very apt to cry. Alexander, the tyrant of Pheres, durst not be a spectator of tragedies on the theatre, lest his subjects should see him weep at the misfortunes of Hecuba and Andromache:*" Though he himself caused so many people every day to be cruelly murdered.” Is it not meanness of spirit, that renders them so pliable to all extremities? Valour (whose effect is only to be exercised against resistance, 66 Nec nisi bellantis gaudet cervice juvenci.† Neither, unless it fight, In conquering a bull does he delight.) stops when it sees the enemy at its mercy; but pusillanimity, to say that it was also in the action, not having courage to meddle in the first act, rushes into the second, of blood and massacre. The murders in victories are commonly performed by the rascality, and officers of the baggage; and that which causes so many unheard of cruelties, in domestic wars, is, That the dregs of the people are "flushed in being up to the elbows in blood, and ripping up bodies that lie prostrate at their feet. having no sense of any other valour." 66 * Plutarch, in the Life of Pelopidas, ch. xv. Et lupus, et turpes instant morientibus ursi, None but the wolves, the filthy bears, and all Like cowardly curs, that, in the house, worry and is rendered an enemy. Every one is sensible, that there is more bravery Revenge and disdain in subduing an enemy, than in cutting of no effect his throat; and in making him yield, than in putting by killing him to the sword: besides that, the appetite of revenge is better assuaged and gratified, because its only aim is to make itself felt: and this is the reason why we do not fall upon a block or a stone when they hurt us, because they are not capable of feeling our revenge; and to kill a man is to shelter him from the hurt we intend him. And as Bias cried out to a wicked fellow, "I know "that, sooner or later, thou wilt have thy reward, "but I am afraid I shall not see it.". And as the Orchomenians complained, "That the penitence of 66 Lyciscus, for the treason committed against them, "came at a time when there was no one remaining "alive of those who had been concerned in it, and "whom the pleasure of this penitency must have af"fected;" so revenge is to be repented of, when the person on whom it is executed loses the means of suffering it for as the avenger desires to see and enjoy the pleasure of his revenge, so the person on whom he takes revenge, should be a spectator too, to be mortified by it, and brought to repentance. He shall repent it, we say, and, because we have given him a pistol-shot through the head, do we authorised dom of Narsingua. imagine he will repent? On the contrary, if we but observe, we shall find, that he makes a mouth at us in falling; and is so far from repenting, that he does not so much as repine at us and we do him the kindest office of life, which is to make him die speedily and insensibly: we are afterwards to hide ourselves, and to shift and fly from the officers of justice, who pursue us; and all the while he is at rest. Killing is good to frustrate a future injury, not to revenge one that is already past; and it is more an act of fear than bravery, of precaution than courage, and of defence than of offence; it is manifest that by it we abandon both the true end of revenge, and the care of our reputation; we are afraid, if he lives, he will do us such another injury. It is not out of animosity to him, but care of thyself, that thou riddest him out of the way. Duels com- In the kingdom of Narsingua, this expedient mon, and would be useless to us: there not only soldiers, but in the king- tradesmen also end their differences by the sword. "The king never denies the field to any one that "will fight; and, when they are persons of quality, "he looks on, rewarding the victor with a chain of "gold; for which any one that will, may fight with "him who wears it: thus, by coming off from one "combat, he is engaged in many." If we thought, by valour, to be always masters of our enemies, and to triumph over them, at pleasure, we would be sorry they should escape from us as they do, by dying; but we have a mind to conquer more with safety than honour, and, in our quarrel, pursue more the end than the glory. Pollio's li Plancus. Asinius Pollio, who, for being a worthy man, was bel against less to be excused, committed a like error, who, having wrote a libel against Plancus, " Deferred to pub“lish it, till he was long dead :"* which is to make mouths at a blind man, to rail at one that is deaf, and to wound a man that has no feeling, rather than *Pliny's Preface to Vespasian. to run the hazard of his resentment. And Plancus 9 with a box Our fathers contented themselves to revenge an The lie re injury with the lie, the lie with a box on the ear, and venged so forth; they were valiant enough not to fear their on the ear. adversary, both living and provoked: we tremble for fear, so long as we see them on foot. And, that this is so, is it not our noble practice of these days equally to prosecute to death both him that has offended us, and him whom we have offended? Seconds in in duels, It is also a kind of cowardice, that has introduced the custom of seconds, thirds, and fourths in our troduced, duels they were formerly duels, they are now skir- by cowardmishes and battles. The first inventors of this prac-ice. tice feared to be alone: Quum in se cuique minimum fiducia esset; "They had little confidence in them"selves." For, naturally, any company whatever is comfortable and assisting in danger. Third persons were formerly called in to prevent disorder and foul play only, and to be witnesses of the success of the combat. But since they have brought it to this pass, that they themselves engage, whoever is invited cannot handsomely stand by as an idle spectator, for fear of being suspected either of want of affection or courage. Besides the injustice and unworthiness of such an action, the engaging other force and valour, in the protection of your honour, than your own; I conceive it a disadvantage to a brave man, and who wholly relies upon himself, to shuffle his fortune with that of a second, since every one runs hazard enough for himself, without running it for another, and has enough to do to depend on his own valour for the defence of his life, without intrusting a thing so dear in a third man's hand: for, A story of a duel be French ; if it be not expressly agreed on before to the contrary, it is a combined party of all four, and, if your second be killed, you have two to deal withal with good reason. And to say, that it is foul play; it is so indeed, as it is for one, well-armed, to attack a man that has but the hilts of a broken sword in his hand, or for a man clear, and in a whole skin, to fall on a man that is already desperately wounded but, if these be advantages you have got by fighting, you may make use of them without reproach: all that is weighed and considered is the disparity and inequality of the condition of the combatants when they begun; as to the rest, you charge it upon fortune and though you had alone three enemies upon you at once, your two companions being killed, you have no more wrong done you, than I should do, in a battle, by running a man through, whom I should see engaged with one of our men, at the like advantage. The nature of society requires, that where there is troop against troop (as where_our duke of Orleans challenged Henry king of England, a hundred against a hundred; where the Argives challenged three hundred against as many of the Lacedæmonians,t and three to three, as the Horatii against the Curatii), the multitude on either side is considered but as one single man. Wherever there is company, the hazard is confused and mixed. * I have a domestic interest in this discourse; for tween some my brother the Sieur de Matecoulom, was at Rome entreated by a gentleman, with whom he had no gentlemen, in which a great acquaintance, and who was defendant, and brother of challenged by another, to be his second; in this was engag- duel he found himself matched with a gentleman, Montaigne ed, his neighbour, much better known to him, where, after having dispatched his man, seeing the two principals still on foot, and sound, he ran in to disengage his friend. What could he do less? Should * Monstrelet's Chronicle, vol. i. chap. 9. |