vant finding the Money, which he carried after him, too heavy a Load for him ", he ordered him to pour it out in the Road, and there leave the Quantity that incumbered him. And Epicurus, whofe Doctrines were fo irreligious and effeminate, was, in his Life, very devout and laborious He wrote to a Friend of his, that he lived upon nothing but Biscuit and Water, and desired him to fend him a little Cheese, to reserve it till he had a mind to make a sumptuous Feast. Muft it be true, that, in order to be perfect, we must be fo by an occult, natural, and univerfal Propriety, without Law, Reafon, or Example? The Irregularities of which I have been guilty, are not, I thank God, of the worst fort, and I have condemned myself for them, in Proportion to the Guilt of them, for they never infected my Judgment. On the contrary, I accuse them more severely in myfelf than in another; but that is all, for, as to the reft, I oppofe too little Refiftance, and too eafily fuffer myfelf to incline to the other Scale of the Balance, only I moderate and prevent them from mixing with other Vices, which are apt to intwine with, and hang to one another, if a Man does not take Care. I have contracted and curtailed mine, to make them as fimple and uncompounded as I could. Nec ultra

That

The being addicted to one Vice does not render a Man liable to all the

For as to the Opinion of the Stoics, who fay, the Wife Man, when he works, operates by all the Virtues together, tho' one be moft apparent, according to the Nature of the • Action,' (and, as to this, the Similitude of the human Body might be of fome Service to them, because Choler cannot operate without the Affistance of all the Humours, though Choler be predominant) if from thence they would likewise infer,

Vices.

that,

Diog. Laert. in the Life of Aristippus, lib. ii. fect. 67, -77. and Hor. lib. Sat. iii. v. 100, &c. Juv. Sat. viii. v. 194.

D

that, when the wicked Man acts wickedly, he acts by all the Vices together, I do not believe it to be merely fo, or elfe I do not understand them, for, indeed, I find the contrary. These are some of those acute but trifling Subtilties which Philofophy fometimes infifts on. I am addicted to fome Vices, but I fly from others, as much as a Saint would do. The Peripatetics also disown this indiffoluble Connection and Complication; and Ariftotle is of Opinion, that a Man may be prudent and juft, and at the fame time intemperate and incontinent. Socrates confeffed to fome who had difcovered, in his Phyfiognomy, an Inclination to a certain Vice, that he had, indeed, a natural Propenfion to it, but that he had, by Difcipline, corrected it And Stilpo, the Philofopher's familiar Friend, used to fay, that he was born with an Appetite both to Wine and Women, but that, by Study, he had learned to abftain from both P.

What Mon

What I have, in me, that is Good, I afcribe it, on the contrary, to the Lot of my Birth, and am taigne's Good- not beholden for it either to Law, Precept, nes confifted in. or any other Inftruction: My Innocence is perfectly fimple, with little Affurance, and lefs Art. Among all the Vices I mortally hate Cruelty, both by Nature and Judgment, as the very Extreme of all Vices: But, withal, I am fo tender-hearted, that it grieves me to fee the Throat of a Fowl cut, nor can I bear to hear the Cry of a Hare in the Teeth of my Dogs, tho' Hunting is my most favourite Diverfion. Such as have fenfual Pleafure to encounter with, willingly make Ufe of this Argument, to fhew that it is altogether vicious and unreafonable; that, when it is at the Height, it mafters us to fuch a Degree, that Reafon can haye no Accefs to it; and they inftance, in our own Experience, in our Commerce with the Fair Sex,

-cum jam præfagit gaudia corpus,

Atque in eo eft Venus, ut muliebria conferat arvaa.

when they think that the Pleasure does tranfport us to fuch

Cic. Tufc. Quæft. lib. iv. c. 37. • Lucret. lib. iv. v. 1099, e.

Cic. Lib. de Fato, c. 5.

a Degree, that our Reafon cannot perform its Office while we are in fuch an Extafy and Rapture of Pleasure.

I know, however, that it may be otherwife, and that, fometimes, a Man has it in his Power, if he He could resist will, to turn his Mind, even in the critical the frongeft Minute, to other Thoughts; but then it muft Impreffions of be bent to it deliberately, and of fet Purpose. Pleafure. I know that a Man may triumph over the utmost Effort of Pleasure. I have experienced this myfelf, and have not found Venus fo imperious a Goddefs, as many, and fome more reformed than myself, declare her to be. I do not think it a Miracle, as the Queen of Navarre does, in one of the Tales of her Heptameron, (which is a very pretty Book for her Subject) nor a Thing of extreme Difficulty, to spend whole Nights, where a Man has all the Conveniency and Liberty he can defire, with a long wifhed-for Mistress, and yet be true to the Promise he may have made, to fatisfy himself with Kiffes and gentle Squeezes of the Hand. I fancy, that the Diverfion of Hunting would be more proper for the Experiment, in which though the Pleafure be lefs, yet the Rapture and Surprise are the greater, when our Reafon, being astonished, has not fuch Leisure to prepare itself for the Encounter, when, after a long Search, the Beast starts up on a fudden, and, perhaps, in a Place where we leaft of all expected it. This Shock, and the Shouts of the Hunters, ftrike us to fuch a Degree, that it would be difficult, for fuch as are fond of this kind of Chace, to think of any. Thing else at that very Inftant: Alfo the Poets make Diana triumphant over the Torch and Arrows of Cupid. Quis non malarum quas amor curas habet,

Hec inter oblivifcitur?

i. e.

Thus happy, who is there does not forget

The Cares and Wrongs of Love's uneafy State? To return to my Subject: I have a very tender Compaffion for the Afflictions of other Perfons, His Tenderand should readily cry, for Company, if, heartedness. VOL. II.

K

Hor. Epod. Od. lib. ii. v. 37, 38.

upon

Book II. upon any Occafion whatsoever, I could cry at all. No thing tempts my Tears but to fee Tears fhed by others, whether they are real, or only feigned or counterfeit. I do not much lament the Dead, and fhould rather envy them, but I very much lament those who are dying. The Savages don't fo much offend me in roafting and eating the Bodies of the Dead, as those who torment and perfecute the Living. I don't like to be a Spectator of Executions, how juft foever they are. A Perfon having undertaken to set forth the Clemency of Julius Cæfar: He was, faid he, moderate in his Revenge; for having forced the Pirates to furrender to him, those very Pi• rates who had before taken him Prisoner, and put him to Ranfor, and having fworn to hang them on a Gibbet, he did, indeed, condemn them to it, but it was after he had caufed them to be ftrangled: Nor did he punish his Secretary Philemon, who had attempted to poifon him, with any greater Severity than merely putting him to Death.' Without naming the Latin Author, who durft alledge, as a Mark of Clemency, the killing of those by whom we have been offended, 'tis eafy to guess that he was ftruck with the horrid and inhuman Examples of Cruelty practifed by the Roman Ty

rants.

The Executions of Justice ought to be fimple, and to carry no Marks of Severity.

My Opinion is, that, even in the Executions of Juftice, whatever exceeds fimple Death, is mere Cruelty, and especially in us, who ought to have fo much Refpect to the Souls, as to dif mifs them in a good State, which cannot be when they are difcompofed and rendered de fperate by intolerable Torments. Not long fince, a Soldier, who was imprisoned for fome Crime, perceiving from the Tower wherein he was confined, that the People were affembling at the Place of Execution, and that the Carpenters were very bufy, he thought that all their Preparation was for his Execution, and "therefore

• This Author was Suetonius, wherein I remember to have read this Pa fage, though Montaigne chofe to conceal his Name; and, upon confulting it, was enabled to correct a fmall Error I found in all the Editions of thefe Essays that I have seen, which write Philemon for Philemon.

therefore refolved to kill himself, but could find nothing to do it withal except an old rufty Cart-nail which he chanced to light upon: With this he first gave himfelf two great Wounds in his Throat, but, finding this was not fufficient, he foon after gave himself a third Wound in the Belly, where he left the Nail stuck up to the Head. The firit of his Keepers that came into his Room, found him thus mangled, and though ftill alive, yet fallen on the Floor, near expiring by his Wounds. They therefore made hafte to país Sentence on him be fore he should die, and thereby defeat the Law. When he heard his Sentence, and that it was only to be beheaded, he feemed to take fresh Courage, accepted of a Glafs of Wine which he had before refufed, and thanked his Judges for the unexpected Mildness of their Sentence, faying, That he had taken a Refolution to dispatch himself, for Fear of being put to a kind of Death more fevere and infupportable, having entertained an Opinion from the Preparations he had feen making in the : Place of Execution, that he was to be put to fome horrible Torture.' And the Man feemed to be, as it were, delivered from Death by the Change of it from the manner in which he apprehended it. I would advife, that thefe Examples of Severity, which are with a Design to keep People in their Duty, might be exercised upon the dead Bodies of the Criminals; for depriving them of Burial, and quartering and boiling them, which would imprefs the Vulgar almost as much as the Pains they see inAlicted upon the Living; though, in Effect, this is next to nothing, as God fays, They kill the Body, but after that have nothing more that they can do, Luke xii. ver. 4. One Day, while I was at Rome, I happened to be going by juft as they were executing Catena, a notorious Robber. The Spectators faw him ftrangled with Indifference, but when they proceeded to quarter him, at every Blow ftruck by the Executioner, they gave a doleful Groan, and made fuch an Outcry, as if every one had lent his Senfe of Feeling to the miferable Carcafs. Thefe inhuman Exceffes ought to be exercised upon the Bark, and not upon the Pith. Thus, in a Cafe much of the fame Nature, Ar