Face before People. I know not whether the Gestures that were obferved in me, were of this firft Quality, and whether I had really any fecret Propenfion to this Vice, as it might well be; and I cannot be refponfible for the Swing of the Body. This Va Prefumption divided into two Parts. But, as to the Motions of the Soul, I must here confess what I am fenfible of there. This Vanity confifts of two Parts, the fetting too great a Value upon ourselves, and too little a Value upon others. Montaigne apt to undervalue his PerJon and Poffeffions. As to the one, methinks thefe Confiderations ought, in the first Place, to be of fome Weight. I feel myself importuned by an Error of the Soul, that displeases me, both as it is unjust, and the more, as it is troublesome: L attempt to correct it, but I cannot root it out; which is, that I leffen the juft Value of Things that I poffefs, and over-value others, because they are foreign, abfent, and none of mine: This Humour spreads very far: As the Prerogative of the Authority makes Hufbands to look upon their own Wives with a vicious Difdain, and many Fathers their Children, fo do I: And, betwixt two equal Merits, I fhould always be fwayed against my own: Not fo much that the Jealousy of my Preferment, and the bettering of my Affairs does trouble my Judgment, and hinders me from fatisfying myself, as because Dominion, of itself, begets a Contempt of what is our own, and over which we have an abfolute Command. Foreign Governments, Manners, and Languages infinuate themselves into my Efteem; and I am very fenfible, that Latin allures me, by the Favour of its Dignity, to value it above its Due, as happens to Children, and the common Sort of People. The Economy, House, and Horse of my Neighbour, though no better than my own, I prize above my own, because they are not mine: Besides that, I am very ignorant in my own Affairs; I admire at the Affurance that every one has of himself: Whereas there is not, almoft, any Thing that I am fure I know, or that I dare be refponfible to myself that I can VOL. II. E e do: Book II. do: I have not my Means of doing any Thing ftated and ready, and am only inftructed after the Effect, being as doubtful of my own Force, as I am of another's ; whence it comes to pafs, that, if I happen to do any Thing commendable, I attribute it more to my Fortune than Induftry; forafmuch as I defign every Thing by Chance, and in Fear. I have this alfo in general, that, of all the Opinions Antiquity has held of Men in grofs, I moft willingly embrace, and most adhere to thofe that moft contemn, vilify, and annihilate us. Methinks Philofophy has never fo fair a Game to play, as when it falls. upon our Vanity and Prefumption; when it discovers Man's Irrefolution, Weakness, and Ignorance. I look upon the too good Opinion, that Man has of himself, to be the Nurfing Mother of the falfeft Opinions, both public and private. Thofe People who ride aftride upon the Epicycle of Mercury, who fee fo far into the Heavens, are worfe to me than Pickpockets: For, in my Study, the Subject of which is Man, finding fo great a Variety of Judgments, fo profound a Labyrinth of Difficulties one upon another; fo great a Diversity and Uncertainty, even in the School of Wifdom itfelf; you may judge, feeing thofe People could not be certain of the Knowledge of themselves, and their own Condition, which is continually before their Eyes, and within them; feeing they do not know, how that moves, which they themselves move, nor how to give us a Defcription of the Springs they themfelves govern and make Ufe of, how can I believe them about the Ebbing and Flowing of the Nile? The Curiofity of knowing Things has been given to Man for a Scourge,' fays the Holy Scripture. But, to return to what concerns myfelf, I think it very hard, that any other fhould have a meaner Opinion of himself; nay, that any other should have a meaner Opinion of me, than I have of myself. I look upon myfelf as one of the common Sort, faving in what I am obliged for to myself; guilty of the meaneft and most popular Defects, but not difowned or excufed; and do not value myfelf upon any other Account, than because I know my own Value. 3 If Montaigne always difpleased with his own Writ ings, and efpetical Ejays. cially his Poe If I have any Vanity, 'tis fuperficially infufed into me by the Treachery of my Constitution, and has no Body that my Judgment can difcern. I am sprinkled, but not dyed: For, in truth, as to the Productions of the Mind, no Part of them, be it what it will, ever fatified me, and the Approbation of others is no Coin for me; my Judgment is tender and nice, efpecially in my own Concern; I feel myself float and waver by reason of my Weakness. I have nothing of my own that fatisfies my Judgment: My Sight is clear and regular enough, but, in opening it, 'tis apt to dazzle, as I most manifeftly find in Poefy: I love it infinitely, and am able to give a tolerable Judgment of other Men's Works: But, in good Earneft, when I apply myself to it, 'tis fo puerile, that I cannot endure myself. A Man may play the Fool in every Thing elfe, but not in Poetry. Mediocribus effe Poetis Non homines, non dii, non conceffere columnæ . i. e. But neither Men, nor Gods, nor Pillars meant I would to God this Sentence was writ over the Doors of all our Printers, to forbid the Entrance of fo many Rhimers. verum Nibil fecurius eft malo Poeta. i. e. But the Truth is, and all the Critics fhew it, None's more conceited than a forry Poet. Have not we fuch People? Dionyfius, the lued himself so much upon nothing as his Poetry. At the Olympic Games, with Chariots furpaffing all others in Magnificence, he fent alfo Poets and Muficians to prefent his Verfes, with Tents and Pavilions royally gilt, and hung with Tapestry. When his E e 2 Horat. de Art. Poet. v. 372, 373. Father, vaThe public Notice which the People took of Poetry, he who Dionyfius's was the Tyrant of Sicily. Verfes e Mart. lib. xii. Epig. 64. g f Verfes came to be recited, the Grace and Excellency of the Pronunciation did, at firft, attract the Attention of the People; but when they, afterwards, came to pause on the Meanness of the Compofition, they firft difdained it, and their Judgments, being more and more nettled, prefently proceeded to Fury, and ran to pull down, and tear all his Pavilions to pieces. And forafmuch as his Chariots neither performed any Thing to Purpose in the Race, and as the Ship, which brought back his People, failed of making Sicily, and was, by the Tempest, driven and wrecked upon the Coast of Tarentum, they did certainly believe the Gods were incenfed, as they themselves were, against that paltry Poem; and even the Mariners, who efcaped from the Wreck, feconded this Opinion of the People; to which the Oracle, that foretold his Death, also feemed, in fome measure, to fubfcribe; which was, 'That • Dionyfius fhould be near his End, when he should have • overcome thofe who were better than himfelf:' This he interpreted of the Carthaginians, who furpaffed him in Power; and, having War with them, often declined and moderated Victory, left he fhould incur the Sense of this Prediction: But he misunderstood it; for the God' pointed at the Time of the Advantage, that, by Favour and Injustice, he obtained, at Athens, over the Tragic Poets, better than himself, having caufed his own Play, called the Leneians, to be acted in Emulation: Presently after this Victory he died, and partly, of the exceffive Joy he conceived at the Succefs of it. What I find tolerable of mine, is not fo really, and in itself; but in Comparison of other worfe Things, that, I fee, are well enough received: I envy the Happiness of thofe that can please and hug themselves in what they do, for 'tis a very eafy Thing to be so pleased, because a Man extracts that Pleasure from himself, especially if he be constant in his Self-conceit. } know a Poet, against whom both the Intelligent in. Poetry, and the Ignorant, Abroad and at Home, both Heaven and Earth, exclaim, that he has no Notion of it; and yet, for all that, he has never a whit the worse Opinion of himself, but is always falling upon some new Piece, f Diodorus of Sicily, lib. xiv. c. 28. Idem, ibid. lib. xv. e. 20. Piece, always contriving fome new Invention, and still perfifts, with so much the more Obstinacy, as it only concerns himself to fstand up in his own Defence. My Works are fo far from pleafing me, that, as oft as I review them, they difguft me: Cum relego, fcripfiffe pudet, quia plurima cerno, i. e. When I perufe, I blush at what I've writ, What Notion I have always an Idea, in my Mind, of a better Form Si quid dulce hominum fenfibus influit, i. e. If any Thing does please, that I do write, They abandon me throughout: All I write is rude, Ovid. de Ponto, lib. i. Eleg. 6. v. 15, 16. own |