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TH

CHA P. XVI.

Of GLORY.

HERE is the Name and the Thing; the Name is a Word, which denotes and fignifies the Thing; the Name is no Part of the Thing, or of the Substance; 'tis a foreign Piece joined to the Thing, and yet without it.

God, who is all Fulness in himself, and the Height of all Perfection, cannot augment or add any How the Name Thing to himself internally; but his Name of God may be may be augmented and increased by the increased. Bleffing and Praise we attribute to his exterior Works: Which Praife, feeing we cannot incorporate it in him, forafmuch as he can have no Acceffion of Good, we attribute to his Name; which is the Part out of him that is nearest to us. Thus is it, that to God alone Glory and Honour appertain; and there is nothing so remote from Reason, as that we should go in Queft of it for ourselves; for being Indigent and Neceffitous within, our Effence being imperfect, and having continual Need of Melioration, 'tis for that we ought to labour: We are all hollow and empty; 'tis not with Wind and Voice that we are to fill ourselves; we want a more folid Subftance to repair us. A Man, ftarved with Hunger, would be very simple to look out rather a gay Garment, than a good Meal: We are to look after that whereof we have moft Need: As we have it in our ordinary Prayers, Gloria in excelfis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus; "Glory be to God on High, and in Earth Peace, &c. We are in great Want of Beauty, Health, Wisdom, Virtue, and fuch-like effential Qualities: Exterior Ornaments fhould be looked after, when we have made Provifion for neceffary Things. Theology treats amply, and more pertinently of this Subject, but I am not much verfed in it.

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St. Luke, chap. ii. ver. 14.

Chryfippus

4

Philofophers who preached

up the Con

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Chryfippus and Diogenes were the first, and the ftouteft Champions for the Contempt of Glory; and maintained, That, of all Pleafures, there was none more dangerous, nor more to be tempt of Glory. avoided, than that which proceeds from the • Approbation of others.' And, in Truth, Experience makes us fenfible of its very hurtful Treachery. There is nothing that fo much poifons Princes, as Flattery, nor any Thing whereby wicked Men more easily obtain Credit with them: Nor is there any Pandarism so proper, and fo often made Ufe of, to corrupt the Chastity of Women, as to wheedle and entertain them with their own. Praises. The firft Charm the Syrens made use of to inveigle Ulyffes, is of this Nature.

? Deca vers nous, deca ò tres louable Ulyffe,
Et le plus grand honneur dont la Grece fleuriffe".

i. e.

To us, noble Ulyffes, this Way, this,
Thou greatest Ornament and Pride of Greece.

Those Philofophers faid, That all the Glory of the • World was not worth an understanding Man's holding "out his Finger to obtain it :

3

Gloria quantalibet quid erit, fi Gloria tantum eft?

i. e.

What's Glory in the high'ft Degree,

If it no more but Glory be?

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I fay, That alone: For it often brings feveral CommodiGlory to be ties along with it, for which it may be decourted for the fired: It acquires us Good-will, and renders Advantages it us lefs fubject and exposed to the Injuries of brings. others, and the like. It was also one of the principal Doctrines of Epicurus; for this Precept of his Sect, Live obfcurely, that forbids Men to incumber themfelves with Offices and public Negociations, does alfo, neceffarily, prefuppofe a Contempt of Glory, which is the World's

• Cic. de Finibus, lib. iii. c. 17. ? Petrarch. 9 Homer. Odyff. lib. xii. v. 184. Juv. Sat. vii, v. 81,

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399 World's Approbation of those Actions we produce to Light. He that bids us conceal ourselves, and to have no other Concern but for ourselves, and that will not have us known to others, would much less have us honoured and glorified. He advifes Idomeneus alfo, not, in any fort, to regulate his Actions by the common Reputation or Opinion, except it be to avoid the other • accidental Inconveniences, which the Contempt of Men might bring upon him.'

Those Discourses are, in my Opinion, very true and rational; but we are, I know not how, of a Proof that Etwofold Nature, which is the Cause, that picurus courted what we believe, we do not believe, and Glory, cannot difengage ourselves from what we condemn. Let us fee the last dying Words of Epicurus; they are great, and worthy of fuch a Philofopher, and yet they carry fome Marks of the Recommendation of his Name, and of that Humour he had decried by his Precepts. Here is a Letter that he dictated a little before his laft Gasp'.

EPICURUS to HERMACHUS, Greeting.

W

HILST I was paffing over the happy, and the last Day of my Life, I writ this; but, at the fame Time, was afflicted with fuch a Pain in my Bladder and Bowels, that nothing can be greater: But it was recompenfed with the Pleasure, which the Remembrance of my Inventions and Doctrines fuggested ' to my Soul. Now, as the Affection thou hast ever had, from thy Infancy, for me, and Philosophy does require; take upon thee the Protection of Metrodorus's • Children.

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So much for his Letter. And that which makes me interpret, that the Pleasure, be fays, he felt in his Soul, concerning his Inventions, has fome Reference to the Reputation he hoped for after his Death, is the Difpofition of his Will. In which he gives Order, That Amino• machus and Timocrates, his Heirs, fhould, every January, defray

• Cic. de Fin. lib. ii. c. 30.

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Idem, ibid. lib. ii. c. 31.

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defray the Expence for the Celebration of his Nativity, • which Hermachus fhould appoint; and also the Expence • that should be made, the twentieth Day of every Moon, ⚫ in entertaining the Philofophers, his Friends, who should • affemble in Honour of the Memory of him and Me• trodorus.'

Carneades was Head of the contrary Opinion; and maintained, That" Glory was to be de

Glory defirable

for itself.

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fired for itself, even as we embrace our pofthumous Iffue for themselves, without 6 any Knowledge or Enjoyment of them.' This Opinion was more univerfally followed, as thofe readily are, that are most suitable to our Inclinations. Ariftotle gives it the first Place amongst external Goods; and avoids, as two vicious Extremes, the immoderate Pursuit of it, or Running from it.

The Miftake
of those who
thought that
Virtue was on-

ly defirable for
the Glory that
accompanied it.

Cicero very defirous of Glory.

I believe, that, if we had the Books Cicero has writ upon this Subject, we should there read fine Stories of it; for he was fo poffeffed with this Paffion, that, if he had dared, I think he would willingly have fallen into the Excess that others did, viz. That Virtue • itself was only to be coveted, upon the • Account of the Honour that always at • tends it.".

Paulum fepulta diftat inertia
Celata virtus

W

i. e.

Virtue, if concealed, doth

Little differ from dead Sloth.

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Which is an Opinion fo false, that I am vexed it could ever enter into the Understanding of a Man that was honoured with the Name of a Philofopher. If this was true, Men need not be virtuous but in Public, nor be any further concerned to keep the Operations of the Soul, which is the true Seat of Virtue, regular, and in Order, than as

they

"Cic. de Finibus, lib. iii. c. 17. Here Montaigne is guilty of a Mistake, for Cicero did not charge Carneades with this Opinion, but other Philofophers of Zeno's Sect.

w Hor, lib. iv. Od. 9. v. 29.

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they are to arrive at the Knowledge of others. Is there no more in it than doing an ill Thing flily, and craftily do Ill? If thou knoweft *, fays Carneades, of a Serpent lurking in a Place, where, without Sufpicion, a Perfon is going to fit down, by whofe Death thou expectest an Advantage, thou doft ill, if thou doft not give him • Caution of his Danger; and fo much the more, be• cause the Action is to be known by none but thyself.' If we do not take up ourselves a Rule of Well-doing; if Impunity paffes with us for Juftice; to how many Sorts of Wickedness shall we, every Day, abandon ourselves? I do not find what Sext. Peduceus did, in faithfully reftoring the Treasure that C. Plotius had committed to his fole Confidence (a Thing that I have often done myself) so commendable, as I fhould think it execrable, had he done otherwise: And think it of good Ufe, in our Days, to call to mind the Example of P. Sextilius Rufus', whom Cicero accufes to have entered upon an Inheritance contrary to his Confcience, not only not against Law, but even by the Determination of the Laws themselves.' And M. Craffus and Q. Hortenfius, who, by reafon of their Authority and Power, having been called in, by a Stranger, to share in a Succeffion, by virtue of a forged Will, that so he might fecure his own Part, fatisfied themselves with having no Hand in the Forgery, and refused not to make their Advantage of it; thinking themselves fafe enough, if they could fhroud themfelves from Accufations, Witneffes, and the Cognifance of the Laws. Meminerint Deum fe habere teftem, id eft (ut ego arbitror) mentem fuam. Let them confider, they have God to witness, that is, (as I interpret it) their own Confciences.

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2

Virtue is a very vain and frivolous Thing, if it derives its Recommendation from Glory And 'tis to no Purpose, that we endeavour to give it a Station by itself, and feparate it from Fortune; for what is more accidental than Reputation? Profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur: Ea res cunctas ex libidine, magis quàm

a

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Virtue would be a frivolous Thing, if it derived its Recommendation from Glory.

y Idem, ibid. c. 17. Salluft. in Catalin. p. 5. Mattaire.,

ex

Cic. de

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