Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Learned, Ignorant, Covetous, Liberal, and Prodigal: Al thefe I perceive within me, more or lefs, according as I turn myself; and whoever studies himself attentively, finds. this Unfteadiness and Difcordance in himself, even by his own Judgment. I have nothing to fay of myself intirely, fimply, and folidly; or, in one Word, without Mixture and Confufion. Diftinguo is the most universal Member of my Logic.

A good Action to be judged of by the Intention

only.

Tho' I always intend to speak well of that which is Good, and rather to put the best Conftruction upon fuch Things as may fall out; yet fuch is the Strangeness of our Condition; that we are often prompted, even by Vice itself, to do well, if Well-doing were not judged by the Intention only. A Man therefore ought not to be deemed valiant from one gallant Action fingly, for the truly brave Man would be fo always, and upon all Occafions. If it were a Habit of Valour, and not a Flash or Salley, it would render a Man equally refolute in every Accident; the fame alone, and in Company; the fame in the Lifts as in the Field of Battle: For, let them fay what they will, the Valour in the Tiltyard and in the Field, is one and the fame. The Man of true Valour would bear a Fit of Sickness, in his Bed, with the fame Courage as a Wound in Battle, and no more fear Death in his own House than in an Attack, or Storming of a Caftle. The Man who enters the Breach with à gallant Refolution, would not vex himself, at another Time, like a Woman, for the Lofs of a Law-fuit, or the Death of a Child. When a Man bears Poverty with Courage, tho' he is infamous for Cowardife; when he ftands intrepid against the Sword of the Enemy, while he trembles at the Sight of a Barber's Razor; the Action is commendable, not the Man. There are many Grecians, fays Cicero, that cannot face an Enemy, who bear Sickness with Fortitude: The Cimbrians and Celtiberians are noted for quite the contrary. Nihil enim poteft eft æquabile quod non a certa ratione proficifcatur; i. e. Nothing can be uniform which does not proceed from folid Reason.' →

[ocr errors]

B 4

There

Tufc. Quæft. lib. ii, c. 27.

The Valour of Alexander, the extraordinary in its kind, yet not perfect, and univerfal.

There is no Valour more extraordinary, in its kind, than that of Alexander; but 'tis only in its kind, not perfect enough in every Particular, nor univerfal. As incomparable as it is, it has, nevertheless, fome Blemishes. Therefore it was, that he was fo often in a defperate Rage, upon the flightest Sufpicions of Confpiracies by his own Soldiers, against his Life; and that he behaved, in the Detection of them, with fo much Vehemence and indifcreet Injustice, and with a Timidity that fubverted his natural Reason. The Superftition alfo, with which he was fo much tainted, favours a little of Pufillanimity; and his exceffive Penitency, for the Murder of Clytus, is likewise a Teftimony that his Courage was not always the fame. All we perform is no other than Patch-work, and we aim at acquiring Honour by falfe Tokens.

Virtue does not require to be courted but for its own Virtue only to fake, and, if it fometimes lends its Mafk for be courted for another Occafion, it prefently plucks it again, its own fake. from the Borrower's Face. 'Tis a strong and, lively Dye, with which when the Soul is once tinctured, it never goes off but with the Piece. Therefore, in order to make a Judgment of a Man, we must trace his Life critically for a long While paft. If Conftancy has not therein. kept its Ground on its own Bafis, Cui vivendi via confiderata atque provifa eft, fo that he be refolutely determined to a certain Course of Life; if the Variety of Occurrences makes him alter his Pace, (his Path I mean, for the Pace may be either fafter or flower) let him go; fuch a one, according to the Motto of our Talbot, is driven with the Wind.

[ocr errors]

'Tis no Wonder, fays one of the Ancients †, that Chance has fo great a Power over us, fince it is by Chance that we live. Tis not poffible for any one, who has not directed his Life, in the general, to fome certain Aim, regularly to difpofe of its particular Actions. 'Tis impoffible for any one to fit the Parts together, who has not the Form of the Whole already in his Head. To what Purpose does the

Cicero Paradoxon v, c. 1. whole Paragraph is taken.

Man

+ Senec. Epift. 71, from whence this

Man provide Colours, who knows not what he is to paint? No one lays down a certain Plan for his Life, and we deliberate only by a little and a little at a time. The Archer ought, in the first Place, to know at what he is to take Aim, and then to accommodate his Hand, Bow-ftring, his Arrow, and the Motions to it. Our Counfels err, because they have no End nor Direction. No Wind ferves him who is bound to no certain Port.

Whether the Judgment in favour of Sophocles, and.

certain Mile

fians, as well

I cannot acquiefce in the Judgment paffed in favour of Sophocles, by the Perfon, who, because he had seen one of his Tragedies, argued from thence, that he was capable of the Management of domeftic Affairs, against the Accufation of his Son. Neither do I think the Conjecture of the Parians*, who were sent to regulate the Mile- founded. fians, could warrant the Confequence which they inferred from it. Upon their Visit to the Island they took Notice of the Lands that were beft cultivated, and the Country Farms that were beft managed: And having registered the Names of their Occupiers, as foon as they had affembled the Citizens together, they nominated thefe Farmers for their Governors and Magiftrates, imagining, that they who were fo careful in the Management of their private Affairs, would be fo of the Public +. We are all fuch a rude Medley of Compounds, and thofe of fo various a Contexture, that every Piece plays every Moment its own Game; and we are as different from our own felves as we are from another: Magnam rem puta, unum hominem agere, i. e. 'Tis no little Matter to act the Part of one Man only well. Since Ambition can teach Men Valour, Temperance, and Liberality, nay, and Juftice too: Since Avarice can infpire the Courage of a 'Prentice-boy, the Fondling of his Mother, with the Affurance to expose himself, fo far from Home, to the Mercy of the Waves, and the Wrath of Neptune, in a frail Boat, and that it also teaches Discretion and Prudence; and fince Venus even inspires Boys, under the Discipline of the Rod, with Resolution and Audaciousness, and makes Viragoes of Virgins while in their Mother's Laps,

Cic. de Senectute, c. 7. Herodot. lib. v. p. 339.

Hac

+ Senec. Ep. 120,

Hac duce cuftodes furtim tranfgreffa jacentes,
Ad juvenem tenebris fola puella venit

i. e.

With Venus' Aid, while Sleep the Guard difarms, She stole by Night to her young Lover's Arms. "Tis not in the Sphere of the matureft Understanding to judge of us fimply by our external Actions; it must fathom the very Soul, and find out the Springs that give it Motion; but, as this is a dangerous and fublime Undertaking, I wish that fewer Perfons would attempt it.

T

CHA P. II,

Of DRUNKENNESS.

Hroughout the whole World there is nothing but Variety and Disparity: Vices are all alike, as they There are fome are Vices, and the Stoics, perhaps, are of the Fices more enor- fame Opinion; but though they are equally Vices, yet they are not equal Vices; and that he who has gone a hundred Yards beyond the

mous than o

thers.

Limits,

Quos ultra citraque nequit confiftere rectum †,

is not in a worfe State, or more out of the Way, than he who has gone but ten Yards from the faid Limits, is a Thing not to be believed, nor that Sacrilege is not a worfe Crime than stealing a Cabbage out of a Garden,

Nec vincet ratio tantundem ut peccet, idemque,

Ut teneros caules alieni fregerit borti,

Et qui nocturnus Divûm facra legerit ¶.

i. e.

Nor can right Reason prove the Crime the fame
To rob a Garden, or, by Fear unaw'd,
To fteal by Night the facred Things of God.

Tibul. lib. ii. Eleg. 1. v. 75, 76, Horat. lib. i. Sat. 3. v. 114, &c.

In

+ Horat. lib. i. Sat. 1, v. 197.

In this there is as wide a Difference as in any other Thing. To confound the Degree and Measure of Sins The Confoundis dangerous; Murderers, Traitors, and Ty-ing of Sins is rants are too great Gainers by it. 'Tis not a dangerous right, that they fhould quiet their Confciences, Thing, because fuch a Perfon is idle, another lafcivious, or not fo affiduous in his Devotions: Every one aggravates the Guilt of his Companion, and extenuatęs his own. Our Inftructors themselves, in my Opinion, often confound the Degrees of it. As Socrates faid, that the principal Office of Wisdom was to distinguish Good from Evil; fo We, of whom the Best of Us are always vicious, ought to say the fame of the Knowledge of diftinguifhing Vices, without which, and that very perfect too, the Virtuous and the Wicked remain confounded and unknown.

Now, among the reft, Drunkennefs feems to me a ftupid, brutal Vice. The Understanding has a Drunkenness a greater Share in other Vices, and there are some stupid, brutish which, if a Man may fay it, have fomething Vice.

generous in them. There are fome in which there is a Mix-
ture of Knowledge, Diligence, Valour, Prudence, Dexteri-
ty, and Cunning; whereas this is altogether corporeal and
terrestrial: And the most stupid of all * Nations existing
at this Day is the only one that keeps it in Countenance.
Other Vices, indeed, disturb the Understanding, but this
totally overthrows it, and locks up all the Senses;
Cum vini vis penetravit,

Confequitur gravitas membrorum, præpediuntur
Crura vacillanti, tardefcit lingua, madet mens,
Nant oculi, clamor, fingultus, jurgia glifcunt†,

i. e.

When Fumes of Wine do once the Brain poffefs,
The Body fuffers an Unweildiness

Throughout; the Legs, fo nimble at the Race,
Now cannot with the reeling Trunk keep Pace;
The Tongue trips, Mind droops, Eyes ftand full of Water,
Noife, Hiccoughs, Brawls, and Quarrels follow after.

The.

The particular Nation, here pointed at by Montaigne, might eafily tofs back the Ball. Lucret. lib. iii. v. 475, c.

« AnteriorContinuar »