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voluptatem caftrati funt quidam, fed nemo fibi, ne vir effet, jubente Domino, manus intulit. How are they afraid of the Anger of the Gods, who think to merit their Favour at that Rate? Some, indeed, have been made Eunuchs for the Luft of Princes: But no Man, at his Mafter's Command, has put his own Hand to unman himself: So did they fill their Religion with feveral ill Effects.

-fæpiùs olim

Religio peperit fcelerofa, atque impia falla*.

i. e.

Too true it is, that oft in elder Times
Religion did produce notorious Crimes.

The Folly of judging of the Power and

Perfections of God according to our Concep

tions.

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Now nothing of ours can in any Sort be compared or likened unto the Divine Nature, which will not blemish and smut it with much Imperfection. How can that infinite Beauty, Power and Bounty, admit of any Correfpondence, or Similitude, to fuch abject Things as we are, without extreme Detriment and Dishonour to his Divine Greatnefs? Infirmum Dei fortius eft hominibus: Et ftultum Dei fapientius eft hominibus. For the Foolishness of God is wifer than Men, and the Weaknefs of God is stronger than Men. Stilpo the Philofopher, being asked, Whether the Gods were delighted with our Adorations and Sacrifices: You are indifcreet, anfwered he, let us withdraw apart, if you talk of fuch Things. Nevertheless, we prescribe him Bounds, we keep his Power befieged by our Reafoning, (I call our Ravings and Dreams Reafon, with the Difpenfation of Philofophy, which fays, both the Fool and the Knave run mad by Reason; but by a particular Form of Reason) we endeavour to fubject him to the vain and feeble Appearances of our Understandings; him, who has made both us and our Knowledge. Because that nothing is made of nothing, God therefore could not make the World without Matter. What, has God put into our Hands the Keys

× Lucr. lib. i. ver. 83, 84. Y 1 Cor. i. 25. 2 Diog. Laert; in the Life of Stilpo, lib. ii. fect. 117.

Keys and most secret Springs of his Power? Is he ob liged not to exceed the Limits of our Knowledge? Put the Cafe, O Man, that thou haft been able here to mark fome Footsteps of his Performances: Doft thou therefore think, that he has therein done all he could do, and has crowded all his Forms and Ideas in this Work? Thou feeft nothing, but the Order and Government of this little Vault, in which thou art lodged, if thou doft fee fo much: Whereas his Divinity has an infinite Jurlfdiction beyond: This Part has nothing in Comparison, of the Whole.

omnia cum cælo, terraque marique, Nil funt ad fummam fummaï totius omnem*.

i. e.

The Earth, the Sea and Skies, from Pole to Pole, Are small, nay nothing to the Mighty WHOLE. 'Tis a municipal Law that thou alledgeft, thou knowest not what is the Univerfal. Tie thyself to that to which thou art fubject, but not him; he is not of thy Bro-: therhood, thy Fellow-Citizen, or Companion: If he has in fome Sort communicated himself unto thee, 'tis not to debafe himself to thy Littleness, nor to make thee... Comptroller of his Power. A human Body cannot fly. to the Clouds: The Sun runs every Day his ordinary Course without ever Refting: The Bounds of the Sea and the Earth cannot be confounded: The Water is unftable, and without Firmness: A Wall, unless it has a Breach in it, is impenetrable to a folid Body: A Man cannot preserve his Life in the Flames; he cannot be both in Heaven and upon Earth, and in a thousand Places at once corporally. 'Tis for thee, that he has made these Regulations; 'tis thee, that they concern. He has manifefted to Chriftians, that he has exceeded them all, when-. ever it pleased him. And, in Truth, why, Almighty as he is, fhould he have limited his Power within any certain Measure? In whofe Favour fhould he have renounced his Privilege? Thy Reafon has in no other Thing more of Probability and Foundation, than where it perS 4 fuades

Lucr. lib. vi. v. 678, .

fuades thee that there is a Plurality of Worlds.

Terramque et folem, lunam, mare, cætera quæ funt,
Non effe unica fed numero magis innumerali.

i. e.

That Earth, Sun, Moon, Sea, and the reft that are,
Not fingle, but innumerable were.

The Plurality of the Worlds

no new Opini

on.

The moft eminent Wits of the elder Times
believed it; as do fome of this Age of ours,
compelled by the Appearances of human Rea-
fon Forafmuch as in this Fabric, that we
behold, there is nothing fingle and one,

- cum in fummâ res nulla fit una,
Unica que gignatur: Et unica folaque crefcat.

i. e.

Since nothing's fingle in this mighty Mass,
That can alone beget, alone increase.

and that all the Kinds are multiplied in fome Number:
By which it seems not to be likely, that God fhould have
made this Work only without a Companion, and that the
Matter of this Form fhould have been totally drained in
this fole Individual.

Quare etiam atque etiam tales fateare necesse eft,
Effe alios alibi congreffus materiaï,

Qualis hic eft avido complexu quem tenet æther.

i. e.

Wherefore 'tis neceffary to confess,

That there must elsewhere be the like Congress
Of the like Matter which the airy Space

Holds faft within its infinite Embrace.

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Especially if it be a living Creature, which its Motions render fo credible, that Plato affirms it, and that many of our People either confirm, or dare not deny it. No more than that ancient Opinion, that the Heavens, the Stars,

be Lucret. lib. ii. v. 1084. In his Timaus, p. 527.

‹ Id. ibid. v. 1076.

Id. ibid. v 1063.

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Stars, and other Members of the World, are Creatures compofed of Body and Soul: Mortal in refpect of their Compofition, but Immortal by the Determination of the Creator. Now if there be many Worlds, as Democritus, Epicurus, and almost all Philofophy has believed, what do we know, but that the Principles and Rules of this of ours may in like manner concern the reft? They may peradventure have another Form, and another Polity. Epicurus fuppofes them either like or unlike.

Extraordinary Difference between the dif tant Parts of the Earth.

We fee in this World an infinite Difference and Variety according to the Distance of Places. Neither the Corn, Wine, nor any of our Animals are to be seen in that new Corner of the World discovered by our Fathers; 'tis all there another Thing. And, in Times paft, do but confider in how many Parts of the World they had no Knowledge either of Bacchus or Ceres. If Pliny or Herodotus are to be believed, there are in certain Places a kind of Men very little refembling us. And there are mungrel and ambiguous Forms, betwixt the human and brutal Natures. There are Countries, where Men are born without Heads, having their Mouth and Eyes in their Breast": Where they are all Hermaphrodites; where they go on all four; where they have but one Eye in their Forehead, and a Head more like a Dog than one of us : Where they are half Fish, the lower Part, `and live in the Water: Where the Women bear at five Years old, and live but eight *: Where the Head and Skin of the Forehead are so hard, that a Sword will not touch them, but rebounds again: Where Men have no Beards: Nations that know not the Ufe of Fire, and others that eject Seed of a black Colour. What fhall we fay of those that naturally

f Diog. Laert. in the Life of Epicurus, lib. x. fect. 85. Herod. lib. iv. p. 324, where are faid to be fome with Heads like thofe of Dogs.

h Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. viii. c. 2. He took thofe for a fort of Apes.
i Herod. lib. iii. p. 234.
* Plin. Nat. Hiit. lib. vi. c. 30. et lib. vii.

C. 2.

false.

Herod. lib. iii. p. 229. A very able Anatomist has affured me that this is

m

naturally change themselves into Wolves, Mares, and then into Men again? And if it be true, as" Plutarch fays, that, in fome Place of the Indies, there are Men without Mouths, who nourish themselves with the Smell of certain Odours, how many of our Defcriptions are falfe? Man is no more risible, nor, peradventure, capable of Reason and Society. The Difpofition and Caufe of our internal Composition would for the most Part be to no purpose.

in Nature contrary to the Rules we bave prefcribed to Nature.

Moreover, how many Things are there in our own Many Things Knowledge, that oppose those fine Rules we have cut out for, and prescribe to Nature? And yet we undertake to bring God himself into them! How many Things do we call miraculous and contrary to Nature? This is done by every Nation, and by every Man, in Proportion to their Share of Ignorance. How many occult Properties and Quinteffences do we difcover? For our going according to Nature is no more than going according to what we understand, as far as that is able to follow, and as far as we fee into it: All beyond that is monftrous and irregular. Now, by this Account, all Things will be monftrous to the wifeft and most understanding Men; for human Reafon has perfuaded them, that it had no manner of Ground or Foundation, not fo much as to be fure that Snow is white; for Anaxagoras affirmed it to be black; if there

be

Here Montaigne feems not to have rightly attended to his Pliny, who ays, That a Perfon who can be perfuaded that Men were ever metamorphofed into Wolves, and afterwards into Men again, will be ready to give his Credit to all the Fables that have been invented for fo many Ages paft. Pliny, having there quoted fome Stories of fuch pretended Metamorphofes, cries out, 'Tis aftonishing, how far the Greeks have extended their Credulity. There is no Lye ever fo impudent that wants a Witness to prove it. Pliny, lib. viii. c. 22.

n I cannot find the Paffage in Plutarch from whence Montaigne took this; but Pliny, in his Nat. Hift. lib. vii. c. 2, relates that at the Extremity of the Indies, near the Source of the Ganges, there is a Nation of Aftomes, i. e. a People without Mouths, all whofe Bodies are covered with a fhag Hair, and dreffed in the Down of Leaves, and who live only by the Scents they draw in through their Noftrils.

Cic. Acad. Quæft. lib. iv. c. 23. Sextus Empiricus also puts Metrodorus of Chios in the Number of Sceptics, Ei is xgiingon abrías, P. 146.

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