I care not fo much what I am in the Opinion of others, as what I am in my own: I would be Rich of myself, and not by borrowing. Strangers fee nothing but Events and outward Appearances; every-body can fet a good Face on the Matter, when they have Trembling and Terror within. They do not fee my Heart, they only fee my Countenance. 'Tis with good Reason that Men decry the Hypocrify that is in War; for what is more easy to an old Soldier, than to ftep afide from Dangers, and to blufter, when he has no more Heart than a Chicken? There are so many Ways to avoid hazarding a Man's own Person, that Men have deceived the World a thousand times, before they are engaged in a real Danger: And, even then, finding themselves at a Nonplus, they can make Shift, for that Time, to conceal their Apprehenfions, by fetting a good Face on the Bufinefs, tho' the Heart beats within; and whoever had the Use of the Platonic Ring, which renders those invisible that wear it, if turned inward towards the Palm of the Hand, a great many would, very often, hide themselves when they ought moft to appear; and would repent being placed in fo honourable a Poft, where, of Neceffity, they must be bold. Falfus bonor juvat, et mendax infamia terret, i. e. False Honour pleases, falfe Rumours do disgrace Thus we see how uncertain and doubtful are all the Judgments that are founded upon external Appearances, and that there's not fo fure a Teftimony as every Man is to himself: In those others, how many Powder-monkeys have we Companions of our Glory? He that ftands firm in an open Trench, what does he, in that, more than what fifty poor Pioneers, who open the Way for him, and cover it with their own Bodies, for Five-pence a Day, have done before him? D d 4 Hor. lib. i. Epift. 16. v. 39, 40. non quicquid turbida Roma Elevet, accedas, examenque improbum in illa i. e. -Whatever muddy-headed Rome The extending and fcattering our Names into many Mouths, we call aggrandifing them; we would have them there well received, and that this Increase turn to their Advantage, which is all that can be excufable in this Design; but the Excefs of this Disease proceeds fo far, that many covet to have a Name, be it what it will. Trogus Pompeius fays of Heroftratus, and " Titus Livius of Manlius Capitolinus, That they were more ambitious of a great Re putation, than a good one.' This Vice is very common : We are more follicitous that Men fpeak of us, than how they speak; and 'tis enough, for us, that our Names are often mentioned, be it after what manner it will. It should seem, that to be known, is, in fome fort, to have a Man's Life, and its Duration, in another's Keeping. I, for my Part, hold, that I am not but in myself, and of · that other Life of mine, which lies in the Knowledge of my Friends, to confider it naked and simply in itself, I know, very well, that I am fenfible of no Fruit nor Enjoyment of it, but by the Vanity of a fantastic Opinion; and, when I fhall be dead, I fhall be much lefs fenfible of it; and if I fhall, withal, abfolutely lose the Ufe of those real Advantages that, fometimes, accidentally follow it, I fhall have no more Handle whereby to take hold of Reputation; neither shall it have any whereby to take hold of, or to reach to me: For, to expect that my Name fhould be advanced by it, in the first Place, I have no Name that is enough my own; of two that I have, one is com Perfius Sat. i. v. 5, &c. n Tit. Liv. lib. vi. c. 11. mon mon to all my Race, and even to others alfo: There is one Family at Paris and Montpelier, whofe Surname is Montaigne; another in Brittany, and another Montaigne in Xaintonge. The Tranfpofition of one Syllable only will fo confound our Affairs, that I fhall, peradventure, share in their Glory, and they, perhaps, in my Shame; and, moreover, my Ancestors have, formerly, been furnamed Eyquem, a Name that borders on that of a Family well known in England: As to my other Name, every one may take it that will: And fo, perhaps, I may honour a Porter in my own Stead: And, befides, though I had a particular Diftinction by myself, what can it diftinguish when I am no more? Can it point out, and favour Annihilation? nunc levior cippus non imprimit offa, Laudat pofteritas, nunc non è manibus illis, Nunc non è tumulo fortunataque favilla Nafcuntur viole° ?. i. e. } As to what re Will, after this, thy monumental Stones, Prefs with lefs Weight upon thy rotted Bones? Pofterity commends Thee: Happy Thou! Will not thy Manes fuch a Gift bestow, As to make Violets from thy Ashes grow ? But of this I have fpoken elfewhere. mains, in a great Battle, where Ten thousand Men are maimed or killed, there are not Fifteen that are taken Notice of It must be some very eminent Greatness, or fome Confequence of great Importance, which Fortune has tacked to it, that must signalise a private Action, not of a Mufqueteer only, but of a great Captain; for, to kill a Man, or two, or ten, to expofe a Man's Self bravely to Death, is, indeed, fomething to every one of us, because we all run the Hazard; but, as for the World in the general, they are Things fo common, fo many of them are every Day feen, and there muft, of Neceffity, be fo many, of the fame Kind, to produce any notable Effect, that we cannot expect any particular Renown. 3 • Perf. Sat. i. v. 37, &c. - cafus. cafus multis bic cognitus, ac jam Tritus, et è medio fortune ductus acervo ". i. e. Many have known this Cafe, which now, worn old, With common Acts of Fortune is inroll'd. Of fo many Thousands of valiant Men that have died, within these Fifteen hundred Years, in France, with their Swords in their Hands, not a hundred have come to our Knowledge: The Memory, not of the Commanders only, but of the Battles and Victories, is buried. The Fortunes of above half of the World, for want of a Record, ftir not from their Place, and vanish without Duration. If I had unknown Events in my Poffeffion, I fhould think, with great Eafe, to out-do thofe that are recorded in Examples of every kind. Is it not ftrange, that, even of the Greeks and Romans, amongst so many Writers and Witneffes, and so many rare and noble Exploits, fo few are arrived at our Knowledge? Ad nos vix tenuis fame perlabitur aura". i. e. Which Fame to thefe our Times has fcarce brought down. It will be much, if, a hundred Years hence, it be remembered, in Grofs, that, in our Times, there were Civil Wars in France. The Lacedæmonians, entering into Battle, facrificed to the Muses, to the End that their Actions The Mufes fa- might be well and worthily writ; looking upon it as a divine, and no ordinary Favour, that brave Acts should find Witneffes that could give them Life and Remembrance. Do we expect, that, at every Mufquetfhot we receive, and at every Hazard we run, there muft be a Regifter ready to record them? And, befides, a hundred Regifters may inrol them, whofe Commentaries will not laft above three Days, and never come to the Sight of any Reader. We have not the thousandth Part of the ancient P Juv. Sat, xii. v. 9, 10. 9 Æneid. lib. vii. v. 646. ancient Writings; 'tis Fortune that gives them a fhorter or longer Life, according to her Favour; and we may well doubt, whether those we have be not the worst, having not feen the reft. Men do not write Histories of Things of fo little Moment: A Man must have been General in the Conquest of an Empire, or a Kingdom; he must have won two and fifty fet Battles, and always the weakeft in Number of Men, as Cafar did. Ten thousand brave Fellows, and feveral great Captains loft their Lives, gallantly and courageously, in his Service, whofe Names lafted no longer than their Wives and Children lived. Quos fama obfcura recondit'. i. e. Whom Time has not deliver'd o'er to Fame. What Sort of Glory that is, the Rememwhich is preJerved in brance of Even of those we fee behave the best; three Months, or three Years after they have been knocked on the Head, they are no more spoken of, than if they had never been. Whoever will justly confider, with due Proportion, what Kind of Men, and what Sort of Actions are recorded, with Honour, in Hiftory, will find, that there are very few Actions, and very few Perfons, of our Times, who can there pretend any Right. How many worthy Men have we seen furvive their own Reputation, Bucks. who have seen and suffered the Honour and Glory, most justly acquired in their Youth, extinguished in their own Prefence? And, for three Years of this fantastic and imaginary Life, we go and throw away our true and effential Life, and engage ourselves to a perpetual Death? The Sages propofe to themselves a nobler and more just End to fo important an Enterprise. Recte facti, feciffe merces eft: Officii fructus, ipfum officium eft. The Reward of a Thing well done is to have done it: The Fruit of a good Office is the Office itself. It were, peradventure, excufable in a Painter, or any other Artifan, or even in a Rhetorician, or a Grammarian, to endeavour to raise themfelves a Name by their Works; but the Actions of Virque are too Noble in themfelves, to feek any other Reward |