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difplayed in all other Things, appeared particularly in the Number of coftly Monuments erected to this very Purpofe, which remained for a Shew feveral Ages after. The Egyptians interred Wolves, Bears, Crocodiles, Dogs, and Cats in facred Places, embalmed their Bodies, and wore Mourning at their Death. Cimen gave an honourable

k

m

Burial to the Mares with which he had won three Prizes at the Olympic Races. Old Xanthippus caufed his Dog to be buried on a Promontory, near the Sea-fide, which has, ever fince, retained its Name. And Plutarch says, that he made Confcience of felling and fending to the Shambles, for a fmall Profit, an Ox that had served him a good while.

L

CHAP. XII.

An Apology for RAIMOND DE SE BONDE.

EARNING is, in Truth, a Poffeffion of very great Importance and Utility, and they who defpife it, plainly discover their Stupidity; yet I don't Learning, its prize it at that exceffive Rate as fome Men Usefulness. do, particularly Herillus the Philofopher, who therein placed the Sovereign Good, and maintained, that it was alone fufficient to make us Wife and Happy; which I do not believe, nor what has been faid by others, that Learning is the Mother of all Virtue, and that all Vice is produced from Ignorance. If this be true, 'tis a Point liable to a tedious Difcuffion. My House has been, a long Time, open to Men of Learning, and is very well known by them; for my Father, who was the Mafter of it fifty Years, and more, being warmed with that Zeal with which King Francis I. had newly embraced Literature, and brought it into Efteem, fpared no Pains nor Expence to get an Acquaintance with Men of Learning, treating them, at his Houfe, as Perfons facred, who had Divine

h Diodorus of Sicily, lib. xiii. c. 17. i Father of Miltiades, Herodot. lib. vi. p. 419. k Herodot. lib. ii. p. 129. 1 Plutarch's Cata

the Cenfor.

Ibid.

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Book II. Divine Wisdom by fome fpecial Infpiration, collecting their Sentences and Sayings as fo many Oracles, and with the more Veneration and Religion, as he was the lefs qualified to judge of them; for he had no Knowledge of Letters any more than his Predeceffors had. For my Part, I love them very well, but don't adore them. Amongst others, Peter Bunel, a Man of great Reputation for Learning, in his Time, having, with others of his Class, spent fome Days at Montaigne with my Father, prefented him, at his Departure, with a Book, intitled Theologia NaturaThe Work of lis, five Liber Creaturarum Magiftri Raimondi Raimond de de Sebonde, i. e. Natural Theology, or a TreaSebonde. tife of the Animal Creation, by Mafter Raimond de Sebonde. And, becaufe both the Italian and Spanish Languages were familiar to my Father, and it being a Book writ in Spanish, fuftianed with Latin Terminations, M. Bunel hoped, that, with a very little Affiftance, my Father would make it turn out to his Account; and he recommended it to him as a very ufeful Book, and proper for the Juncture of Time in which he gave it to him, which was when the Innovations of Luther began to be in Vogue, and in many Places to ftagger our ancient Faith. And herein he judged very right, forefeeing plainly, by the Dictates of Reafon, that, as the Diftemper appeared at its breaking out, it would easily turn into execrable Atheifm: For the Vulgar, not being qualified to judge of Things as they are in themfelves, but being governed by Accidents and Appearances, after they have been once infpired with the Boldnefs to contemn and controul those Opinions which they had before in extreme Reverence, as thofe, particularly, which concern their Salvation, and, after any of the Articles of their Religion are brought into Doubt and Difpute, are foon apt to reject all the other Articles of their Belief, as equally uncertain, and having no other Authority or Foundation than those in which they have been already puzzled; and shake off all the Impreffions they had received from the Authority of the Laws, or the Reverence of ancient Cuftom, as a tyrannical Yoke;

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Nam

Nam cupidè conculcatur nimis antè metutum ".

i. e.

For with most Eagerness they spurn the Law,
By which they were before most kept in Awe.

refolving to admit nothing, for the future, without the Interpofition of their own Decree and particular Confent.

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Tranflated from the Spanifh, into French, by Montaigne.

My Father, a few Days before his Death, happening to meet with this Book under a Heap of other Papers that were laid by, commanded me to tranflate it for him into French. 'Tis good to tranflate fuch Authors as this, wherein there's scarce any Thing to represent, except the Matter; but as for thofe Books wherein the Grace and Elegancy of Language are mainly affected, they are dangerous to undertake, for fear of tranflating them into a weaker Idiom. It was an Undertaking new, and quite ftrange to me; but happening, at that Time, to have Leifure, and not being able to refift the Command of the best Father that ever was, I did it as well as I could, and fo much to his Satisfaction, that he ordered it to be printed, which alfo, after his Death, was performed ". I was charmed with the Author's fine Imagination, the regular Contexture of his Work, and the extraordinary Piety of his Defign. Because many People take a Pleasure in reading it, particularly the Ladies, to whom we owe most Service,

m Lucret. lib. v. v. 1139.

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Montaigne, fpeaking of this firft Edition of it in the firft Edition of his Elays, at Bourdeaux, in 1580, and that of 1588, in Quarto, fays, it appears to have been carelessly printed, by reafon of the infinite Number of Errors of the Press, committed by the Printer, who had the fole Care of it. This Tranflation was reprinted, aud, no doubt, more correctly, becaufe Mon taigne has purged it of the Printer's Errors in the former. I have an Edition printed at Paris in 1611, and said to be tranflated by Michael Seigneur de Montaigne, Knight of the King's Orders, and a Gentleman of his Chamber in Ordinary; the laft Edition, revifed and corrected. And, indeed, this is a very correct Edition. There is fuch a Perfpicuity, Spirit, and natural Vivacity in this Tranflation, that it has all the Air of an Original. Montaigne has added nothing of his own to it, but a fhort Dedication of it to his Father, wherein he owns, that he undertook this Work by his Order... The Reader will find this Dedication at the End of the third Volume of this Edition of the Elays.

Book II. Service, I have often been ready to affift them, in defeating two main Objections to this their favourite Author. His Defign is bold and courageous; for he undertakes to establish and verify all the Articles of the Chriftian Religion, against the Atheists, from Reasons that are human and natural; wherein, to fay the Truth, he is fo fo-. lid and fuccefsful, that I do not think it poffible to do better upon that Subject, and do believe that he has been equalled by none o. This Work feeming to me too fublime and too elegant for an Author whofe Name is fo little known, and of whom all that we learn, is that he was a Spaniard, who profeffed Phyfic at Tholoufe, about two hundred Years ago, I once afked Adrian Turnebus, a Man of univerfal Knowledge, what he thought of this Treatife. The Anfwer he made to me, was, that he be-, lieved it to be fome Extract from Thomas Aquinas; for that, in Truth, none but a Genius like his, accompanied with infinite Learning, and wonderful Subtilty, was capable of fuch Ideas. So it is, that, be the Author and Inventor who he will, (though, without greater Reason than has yet appeared, it would not be right to strip Sebonde of this Title) he was a Man of great Sufficiency, and of very fine Parts.

made to the
Book; and
Montaigne's
Anfower.

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The first Fault they find with his Work is his affert-, The Objection ing, That Chriftians are in the Wrong to endeavour to make human Reasoning the Bafis of their Belief, fince the Object of it is only conceived by Faith, and by a spe'cial Inspiration of the Divine Grace.' In this Objection there feems to be a pious Zeal, and, for this Reafon, 'tis abfolutely neceffary that we fhould endeavour, with the greater Mildness and Refpect, to satisfy those who have advanced it. This were a Task more proper for a Man well verfed in Divinity, than for me who know nothing of it. Nevertheless, this is my Judgment, that, in a Point of fo divine and fublime a Nature,' and fo far tranfcending human Understanding, as this Truth,

• Grotius's Treatife of the Truth of the Chriftian Religion was not yet publifhed, wherein that great Man exprefsly fays, that this Subject had been before treated by Raimond de Sebonde, Philofophicâ Subtilitate.

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Truth, with which it has pleafed the Divine Goodness to enlighten us, there is great Need that he fhould alfo lend us the Affiftance, in the Way of an extraordinary Favour and Privilege, to enable us to conceive and imprint it in our Understandings, of which I don't think Means merely human are, in any fort, capable of doing; for, if they were, fo many Men, of rare and excellent Talents, fo abundantly furnished with natural Abilities, in former Ages, had not failed to attain to this Knowledge by the Light of Reafon. 'Tis by Faith alone that we have a lively and certain Comprehenfion of the fublime Myfteries of our Religion; not but that 'tis a very brave and laudable Attempt to accommodate alfo the natural and human Talents, which God has given us, to the Service of our Faith: 'Tis not to be doubted, that this is the moft noble Use that we can put them to, and that there is no Employment nor Design more worthy of a Chriftian, than to aim, by all his Studies and Meditations, to illuftrate, extend, and amplify the Truth of his Belief. We do not content ourfelves by ferving God with our Hearts and Understandings; we, moreover, owe and render him corporeal Reverence; we apply our very Limbs, and our external Motions, &c. to do him Honour: We must here do the fame, and accompany our Faith with all the Reafon we have, but always with this Referve, not to fancy that it depends upon us, nor that our Efforts and Arguments can attain to Knowledge fo fupernatural and divine. If it enter not into us by an extraordinary Infufion; if it only enters by Reafon, and by human Means, it does not enter us in its Dignity and Splendor; and yet I really am afraid that we only poffefs it by this Canal. If we laid hold upon God by the Mediation of a lively Faith; if we laid hold upon God through Him, and not through ourselves; if we had a Divine Footing and Foundation, human Accidents would not have the Power to shake us as they do; our Fortrefs would not be the Conqueft of fo weak a Battery: The Love of Novelty, the Constraint of Princes, the Succefs of a Party, the rafh and fortuitous Change of our Opinions would not have Power to ftagger and alter, our Faith: We should not

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