Dionyfius, the Tyrant, offered Plato a Robe of the PerJian Fashion, long, damasked, and perfumed. A perfumed Plato refufed it, faying, That, being born 6 Robe refused by Plato, and accepted by Aristippus. His • a Man, he would not willingly drefs him⚫ felf in Woman's Cloaths; but Ariftippus accepted it, with this Anfwer, That no Accoutrement could corrupt a chafte Courage.' Friends reproaching him with Meannefs of Spirit, for laying it no more to Heart, that Dionyfius had fpit in his Face: Fishermen, faid he, fuffer themselves to be dash<ed with the Waves of the Sea, from Head to Foot, to catch a Gudgeon.' Diogenes was washing Cabbages, and, feeing him pafs by, If thou couldft live on Cabbage, faid be, thou wouldst not fawn upon a Tyrant '.' To whom Ariftippus replied, And, if thou knewest how to live amongft Men, thou wouldst not be washing Cabbages.' Thus Reafon finds a Colour for diverfe Effects: Tis a Pot with two Ears, that a Man may take by the right or left. ، bellum, ô terra hofpita, portas, Bello armantur equi; bellum hæc armenta minantur : Spes eft pacis 2. i. e. A War this foreign Land feems to declare, Solon, being importuned, by his Friends, not to fhed powerlefs and unprofitable Tears for the Death of his Son: It is for that Reafon Solon's Tears for the Death of his Son. because they are unavailing and unprofitable.' So that I the more juftly fhed them, faid he, W a Diog. Laert. in the Life of Ariftippus, lib. ii. fect, 78. * Idem, ibid. fect. 67. y Idem, ibid. fect. 68. and Hor. lib. i. Ep. 17. v. 13, &c. z Æneid. lib. iii. v. 539, &c. a Diog. Laert. in the Life of Solen, lib. i. fect. 63. crates's crates's Wife exafperated her Grief by this Circumstance, The Mourning of Socrates's Wife. 6 c b Oh, how unjustly do these wicked Judges put him to Death! Why, replied be, • hadft thou rather they should justly execute me?' We have our Ears bored; the Greeks looked upon that as a Mark of Slavery: We retire in private to enjoy our Wives; the Indians do it in public": The Scythians facrificed Strangers in their Temples; elfewhere Temples are a Refuge. Inde furor vulgi, quòd numina vicinorum, Odit quifque locus, cùm folos credat babendos i. e. This 'tis that Spite and vulgar Spleen creates, That all their Neighbours Gods each City hates; Each calls the other's God a fenfelefs Stock; Its own Divine, tho' carv'd from the fame Block." I have heard of a Judge, that where he read a fharp Conflict betwixt Bartolus and Baldus, and fome Point controverted with many Contrarieties, he wrote in the Margin of his Book, A Question for a Friend; that is to fay, that Truth was there fo perplexed and difputed, that, in such a Cause, he might favour which of the Parties he thought fit: 'Twas only for Want of Wit and Capacity, that he did not write, A Question for a Friend, throughout. The Advocates and Judges of our Times find Biafs enough, in all Causes, to accommodate them to what they themfelves think fit: In fo infinite a Science, depending upon the Authority of fo many Opinions, and fo arbitrary a Subject, it cannot be, but that, of Neceffity, an extreme b Diog. Laert. in the Life of Socrates, lib. ii. fect. 35. Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. Hypot. lib. iii. c. 24. p. 152. Idem, ibid. lib. i. c. 14. p. 30. • Idem, ibid. f Juv. Sat. xv. V. 37. Con Juvenal fpeaks here of Egypt, where, he fays, the People were inraged against one another, to the last Degree, because fome worshipped Deities, whom others abhorred, &c. And do we not fee, that the Chriftians, tho' they worship but one and the fame only God, the Creator of the Heavens, and the Earth, are no lefs inraged one against another, because fome of them believe in certain Things, which others of them cannot. Confufion of Judgments must arife. There is also hardly any Suit fo clear, wherein Opinions do not differ; what one Court has determined, another determines quite contrary, and itself contrary to that at another Time: Of which we fee very frequent Examples, by this License, which is a marvellous Blemish to the ceremonious Authority and Luftre of our Juftice, not to stick to Sentences, but to run from Judge to Judge, to decide one and the fame Cause. As to the Liberty of philofophical Opinions concerning Vice and Virtue, 'tis a Subject not neceffary to be expatiated upon, and wherein are found many Opinions, that are better concealed, than published to weak Minds: Arcefilaus faid, that, in Fornication, it was no • Matter where, or with whom, it was committed '.' Es ob obfcanas voluptates, fi natura requirit, non genere, aus loco, aut ordine, sed formâ, ætate, figurâ metiendas Epicurus putat-Ne amores quidem fan&tos à fapiente alienos effe arbitrantur ;-Quæramus ad quam ufque ætatem juvenes amandi fint. And obfcene Pleasures, if Nature requires, Epicurus thinks are not to be measured, either by Race, Place, or Rank, but by Age, Shape, and Beauty.Neither are Sacred Amours thought to be foreign to wife Men ;-We are to inquire till what Age young Men are to be loved. Thefe two laft Stoical Quotations, and the Reproach that Dicearchus threw in the Teeth of Plato himself, upon this Account, fhew how much the foundest Philosophy indulges Licenses that are exceffive, and very remote from the common Ufance. Laws derive their Authority from Poffeffion and Ufance: 'Tis dangerous to trace them backward to Laws_authotheir Beginning; they grow great, and en- rifed by Cufnoble themselves, like our Rivers, by running: But follow them upward to their Source, 'tis but toms. b Plutarch's Dialogue of the Rules and Maxims of Health, c. 5. i Cic. Tufc. lib. v. c. 33. k. Cic. de Fin. Bon. et Mal. lib. iii. c. 2. Senec. Epift. 123. a In all the Editions of Montaigne, as well as in Mr. Cotton's Translation, 'tis printed Diogarchus, instead of Dicæarchus, which, undoubtedly, is the right Name, as appears from the Paffage of Cicero, Tufc. Qurft. lib. iv. c. 33 and 34. where he fays, that the Philofophers, and particularly Plato, were juftly blamed, by Dicaarchus, for approving of Amours with Boys. a little Spring, fcarce difcernible, that thus fwells, and fortifies itself by growing old. Do but confult the ancient Confiderations, that gave the first Motion to this famous Torrent, fo full of Dignity, Horror, and Reverence, you will find them so flight and delicate, that it is no Wonder, if these People, who weigh and reduce every Thing to Reason, and who admit nothing by Authority, or upon Trust, have their Judgments very remote from those of the Public. It is no Wonder, if People, who take their Pattern from the first Image of Nature, should, in most of their Opinions, fwerve from the common Path: As for Example, few, amongst them, approved of the ftrict Conditions of our Marriages, and mosft of them were for having Wives in common, and without Obligation: They refused our Ceremonies. Chryfippus faid, That a certain • Philofopher would have made a dozen Somerfaults, and • turned up his Tail, without his Breeches, for a Dozen of Olives.' That Philofopher would hardly have advised Callifthenes to have refused Hippoclides the fair Agarifta, his Daughter", for having feen him ftand on his Head upon a Table. Metrocles let a Fart, a little indifcreetly, in Difputation, in the Prefence of his Scholars, and kept himself hid in his own House for Shame, till Crates came to vifit him ", who, adding to his Confola tions and Reasons the Example of his own Liberty, fell to fart with him, who should let moft; by which Means he cured him of that Scruple, and withal drew him to his own Stoical Sect, from that more polite one of the Peripatetics, of which he had been till then. That which we call Decency, to be afraid to do that in public, which it is decent enough to do in private, the Stoics call Folly, and to be fo modeft as to conceal and difown what Na ture, Custom, and our Defires publish and proclaim of our Actions, they reputed a Vice. The other thought it was undervaluing the Myfteries of Venus, to draw them out of her private Oratory, to expofe them to the View of the People; and that to bring her Sports out from behind the Curtain, was to fpoil them: Modesty is a Thing of Weight: Herodot. lib. vi. p. 428, 429, 430. " See the Life of Metrocles, in Ding, Laert. lib. vi. fect. 94. Weight: Secrecy, Refervation, and Circumfcription are Qualities to be esteemed; and Pleasure did very ingenioufly, when, under the Visor of Virtue, fhe fued not to be prostituted in the open Streets, trodden under Foot, and exposed to the public View, being deftitute of the Dignity and Convenience of her private Cabinets. Hence fome fay, that to put down public Stews is not only to difperfe the Fornication into all Places that was confined to one, but, moreover, to incite wild and idle People to this Vice, by the Difficulty of coming at it. -Machus es Aufidia qui vir, Cervine, fuifti ; Cur aliena placet tibi, quæ tua non placet Uxor? This Experience is diverfified in a thousand Examples. Nullus in Urbe totâ, qui tangere vellet Dum licuit: fed nunc pofitis cuftodibus, ingens A Philofopher, being taken in the very Act, and asked what he was doing, coldly replied, I am planting Man; no more blushing to be fo caught, than if they had found him planting Garlic. It is, I fuppofe, out of a tender and respectful Opinion, that a great and religious Author thinks, this Act is fo neceffarily bound to Privacy and Shame, that he cannot perfuade himself there could be any abfolute PerformC ance in thofe licentious Embraces of the The Impudence Cynics, but that they only made it their of the Cynics. Bufinefs to reprefent lafcivious Gestures; to maintain the Impudence of their Schools Profeffion : and that, to eject what Shame had with-held and confined, it was afterwards neceffary for them to withdraw into the Shade. But he had not feen far enough into their Debauches; for Diogenes, defiling himself in public, wished, in the Hearing of all that saw him, that he could fatiate • himself • Mart. lib. iii. Epig. 70. P Mart. lib. i. Epig. 74. • St. Austin, de Civit. Dei, lib. xiv. c. 20. |