that are not very tedious to read, otherwise I should not have Patience to look in them. Such are Plutarch's Opufcula, and the Epittles of Seneca, which are the most beautiful and profitable of all their Writings. These I can take in Hand, and lay afide at Pleasure; for they have no Connection with, or Dependence upon one another. Thefe Authors generally concur in fuch Opinions as are useful and true, and there is this farther Comparison be Parallel betwixt them, that they happened twixt Plutarch to be born much about the fame Time, that and Seneca. they were both the Preceptors of two Roman Emperors, that both came from foreign Countries, and that both were Rich, and both Great Men. Their Leffons are the Cream of Philofophy, and delivered after a plain and pertinent manner. Plutarch is more uniform and conftant. Seneca more irregular and various. The latter toils with all his Might, to arm Virtue against Frailty, Fear, and vicious Appetites. The former feems not to think their Power fo great, and scorns to haften his Pace, and put himself upon his Guard. Plutarch's Opinions are Platonic, mild, and accommodated to Civil Society. The other's are Stoical and Epicurean, more remote from the common Ufage, but I think them more advantageous in particular, and more folid. It appears in Seneca, that he leans a little to the Tyranny of the Emperors of his Time, fince I take it for granted, that he spoke against his Judgment when he condemns the generous Deed of those who affaffinated Cafar. Plutarch is frank every-where. Seneca abounds with Flights and Sallies of Expreffion, Plutarch with Facts. Seneca warms and roufes you most but Plutarch gives you the most Satisfaction and Profit, This leads us, the other pushes us. Montaigne's As to Cicero, those Works of his that can be of any Use to me, are fuch as treat of Philofophy, especially Ethics or Moral Philofophy: But, not to mince the Matter, (for when a Man has paffed the Barriers of Impudence, he is not to be curbed) his Way of Writing feems 3 cero. to me tedious, as does every other Compofition of the like kind: For the greatest Part of his Work is taken up in Prefaces, Definitions, Divifions, and Etymologies: Whatever there is of Life and Marrow is fmothered by the long-winded Apparatus to it. After I have spent an Hour in reading him, (which is a great deal for me) and call to mind what Juice and Substance I have extracted from him, I find nothing in him but Wind for most Part of the Time; for he is not yet come to the Arguments that ferve for his Purpofe, and to the Reasons that are proper for loofing the Knot which I want to have untied. For my own Part, who only defire to become more Wife, not more Learned or Eloquent, thefe Logical and Ariftotelian Rules are of no Use to me; I am for an Author that comes at once to the main Point. I know fo much of Death and Pleasure, that no Man need be at the Trouble of anatomifing them to me. I look for good and folid Reasons at the Entrance, to inftruct me how to stand the Shock of them; to which Purpose neither grammarian Subtilties, nor the ingenious Contexture of Words and Argumentations are of any Ufe. I am for Discourses that enter immediately into the Heart of the Doubt, whereas Cicero's creep about the Bush. They are proper for the Schools, for the Bar, and the Pulpit, where we have Leifure to nod for a Quarter of an Hour, and to awake time enough to recover the Thread of the Difcourfe. 'Tis neceffary to talk after this manner to Judges whom a Man would gain over to his Side, be it Right or Wrong; to Children, and to the Vulgar, to whom a Man must fay all he can, and wait for the Event of it. I would not have an Author make it his Bufinefs to render me attentive, and call out fifty times to me, with an O yes, after the manner of our Heralds. The Romans faid, in their Religion, Hoc-age, as we do in ours, Surfum corda; but to me these are so many Words loft: I come thither quite prepared from my Lodging: I need no Allurement nor Sauce: I eat the Meat quite raw, and instead of whetting my Appetité by thefe Prefaces and Prologues, they overload and pall it, Will Will the License of this Age excufe my facrilegious Boldness to cenfure the Dialogues of Plato And of Plato's himself, as too long-winded, whilft his Sub- Dialogues. ject is too much stifled; and to complain of the Time fpent in fo many tedious and needlefs preliminary Interlocutions by a Man who had fo many better Things to fay? My Ignorance of the Greek, to fuch a Degree as not to perceive any Beauty in his Language, will be a better Excufe for me: I am generally for Books that make Ufe of the Sciences, not for those that set them off. Plutarch and Seneca, Pliny, and those of the fame Way of thinking, have no Hoc-age; they chufe to have to do with Men who are already inftructed; or, if they have a Hoc-age, 'tis a substantial one, and that has a Body by itself. A Commenda tion of the Epistles to Atti cus. I am alfo in love with the Epiftles to Atticus, not only because they contain a very ample Account of the Hiftory and Affairs of his own Time, but much more because I therein discover the particular Humours of the Writer: For I have a fingular Curiofity, as I have faid elsewhere, to know the Souls and genuine Opinions of my Authors. Their Abilities are to be judged of by the Writings which they publish to the World, but not their Manners nor their Perfons. I have a thousand times lamented the Lofs of the Treatife which Brutus wrote upon Virtue, for 'tis good to learn the Theory from thofe who understand the Practice. But, forafmuch as there is a wide Difference between the Preacher and the Sermon, I like as well to fee Brutus in Plutarch, as in a Book of his own writing. I would rather chufe to be truly informed of the Conference he had in his Tent with fome of his private Friends the Night before a Battle, than the Harangue he made to his Army the next Day; and of what he did in his Closet and his Chamber, rather than of his Actions in the Forum and the Senate. As for Cicero, I am of the common Opinion, that, fetting afide his Learning, he had no extraordi- Character of nary Genius. He was a good Citizen, and Cicero. of an affable Temper, as all fat Men, and fuch merry Souls as his was, generally are; but he loved his Eafe, and, 3 to His Poetry. to speak the real Truth, had a very great Share of Vanity and Ambition. Neither do I know how to excuse him for thinking his Poetry good enough to be publifhed. To make bad Verfes is no great Imperfection, but 'twas an Imperfection in him, that he did not judge how unworthy his Verses were of his glorious Character. As for his Eloquence, 'tis His Eloquence. beyond all Comparison, and I believe it will never be equalled. The younger Cicero, who resembled his Father in nothing but his Name, whilft a Commander in Afia, had feveral Strangers one Day at his Table, and in particular Ceftius, feated at the lower End, as the open Tables of the Great are generally crouded. Cicero afked one of his Waiters, Who that Man was, and he readily told him his Name; but Cicero, as one who had his Thoughts intent upon fomething else, and had forgot the Name, afked him the fame Question again two or three times: The Fellow, in order to be rid of the Trouble of making the fame Answer over and over again, and to imprint the Thing the more in his Memory by fome remarkable Circumftance, 'Tis that very Cestius, faid he, who, as you have been informed, makes no great Account of your Father's Eloquence in Comparison of his own. Cicero, being fuddenly nettled at this, ordered poor Ceftius to be feized, and caufed him to be well whipp'd in his Prefence. A very uncivil Hoft! Cenfurers of Cicero's Eloquence. Yet, even amongst those who, all Things confidered, have reckoned the Eloquence of Cicero incomparable, there have been fome who have. not scrupled to find Faults in it. As, for Example, his Friend, the great Brutus, who called his Eloquence, ▸ Every-body has not fuch a disadvantageous Opinion of Cicero's Poetry, there being, even at this Day, very good Judges who efteem it; and Plutarch fays exprefsly, that Cicero was not only accounted the best Orator, but alfo the best Poet of the Romans, his Cotemporaries. The Glory of Eloquence, adds he, and the Honour of Speaking well, has been ever afcribed to him to this very Day, though there has fince been a great Alteration in the Latin Tongue; but his Fame and Reputation for Poetry have been quite loft by the Appearance of others fince his Time, much more excellent than he was. Cicero's Life, chap. 1. of Amyot's Translation. 1 M. Senec. in fine Suaforiarum. Eloquence, fractam et elumbem, i. e. fhattered and feeble. The Orators alfo, in the next Age to his, found Fault with him for his Affectation of a certain long Cadence at the End of his Sentences, and particularly took Notice of the Words, Effe videatur, which he therein fo often makes Ufe of. For my own Part, I am for a fhorter Cadence, formed in the Iambic Stile; yet sometimes he fhuffles the Members of his Sentence together very roughly, though 'tis very feldom. One Inftance of this dwells upon my Ears, in the Phrafe, Ego verò me minùs diù fenem effe mallem, quàm effe fenem, antequàm effem, i. e. For my Part, I had rather be Old for a little Time, than to be Old before I am really fo. t Why Montaigne was be pleased with Hiftory. The Hiftorians are the Authors I am most used to, for they fare pleasant and easy; and the Knowledge of Mankind in general, which is what I feek for, appears more clear and perfect in Hiftory than any where elfe: There is to be seen the Variety and Reality of his internal Qualities, in General, and in Particular, with the Diversity of Methods contributing to his Compofition, and the Accidents that threaten him. But they who write Lives, by reason they take more Notice of Counfels than Events, more of what proceeds from within Doors than what happens without, are the fittest for my Perufal, and therefore, of all others, Plutarch is the Man for me. I am very forthat we have not a Dozen Laertius's, or that he was not more extensive, or better understood. For I am equally curious to know the Lives and Fortunes of thofe great Preceptors of the World, as to know the Diversity of their Doctrines and Opinions. In the Study of this kind of Hiftories a Man muft tumble over, without Diftinction, ry all See the Dialogue de Oratoribus five de Caufis corrupta Eloquentiæ, c. 18. I think this Criticism of Montaigne's a little too fevere; for, without confidering that Words of the fame Sound in the Latin are agreeable, these are not to be blamed because there is nothing in them that is quaint, or unfuitable to the Stile of Cicero's Conversation throughout his Work. Befides, if Montaigne was disgusted with the Sameness of Sound in those three Words that follow fo clofe to one another, mallem, fenem, efem, he had nothing to do but to separate ante from quam, as it is in Gronovius's Edition. Cicero de Senectute, C. 10. |