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Book II. others, as that of all other Books is. In giving fo continual, and fo curious an Account of myself, have I loft any Time? For he who fometimes curforily furveys himfelf only, doth not fo ftrictly examine himself, nor penetrate fo deep, as he who makes it his Bufinefs, his Study, and his whole Employment; who intends to give a lafting Record, with all his Fidelity, and with all his Force. The moft delicious Pleasures, however digefted internally, avoid leaving any Trace of themselves, and fhun the Sight not only of the People, but of any other Man. How oft has this Affair diverted me from uneafy Thoughts? And all that are frivolous fhould be reputed fo. Nature has prefented us with a large Faculty of entertaining ourselves apart; and oft calls us to it, to teach us, that we owe ourselves, in part, to Society, but chiefly to ourselves. In order to habituate my Fancy, even to meditate in fome Method, and to fome End, and to keep it from lofing itself, and roving at Random, 'tis but to give it a Body, and to register all the pretty Thoughts that present themfelves to it. I give Ear to my Whimfies, because I am to record them. How oft has it fallen out, that, being displeased at fome Actions which Civility and Reason did not permit me openly to reprove, I have here difgorged myself of them, not without Defign of public Inftruction : And yet these poetical Lashes,

Zon des fur l'ail, zon fur le groin,
Zon fur le dos du Sagoin ".

i. e.

A Jerk over the Eye, over the Snout,
Let Sagoin be jerk'd throughout.

imprint themselves better upon Paper, than upon the moft fenfible Flesh. What if I liften to Books a little more attentively than ordinary, fince I watch if I can purloin any Thing that may adorn, or fupport my own? I have not at all ftudied to make a Book; but I have, in fome fort, ftudied because I had made it, if it be Studying, to fcratch and pinch, now one Author, and then another, either by the Head or Foot; not with any De

m Marot contre Sagoin.

fign

fign to fteal Opinions from them, but to affift, fecond, and to fortify those I had before embraced.

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But who shall we believe in the Report he makes of himself, in fo corrupt an Age? Confidering The little Rethere are fo few, if any at all, whom we can gard paid to believe, when speaking of others, where there Truth, an odiis lefs Intereft to lye. The firft Step to the ous Vice. Corruption of Manners is Banifhing of Truth; for, as Pindar fays, To be fincerely true is the Beginning of a great Virtue,' and the firft Article that Plato requires in the Government of his Republic. The Truth of these Days is not that which really is fuch, but what every Man perfuades himself, or another to believe; as we generally give the Name of Money, not only to lawful Coin, but to the counterfeit also, if it be current. Our Nation has long been reproached with this Vice; for Salvianus Mafilienfis, who lived in the Time of the Emperor Valentinian, fays, That Lying and Perjury is not a Vice with the

French, but a Way of fpeaking.' He that would inhance upon this Teftimony, might fay, That it is now a Virtue with them.' Men form and fashion themselves to it, as to an Exercife of Honour; for Diffimulation is one of the most notable Qualities of this Age.

Whence comes

it that Men

are fo ftung with the Reproach of being Lyars.

I have often confidered, whence comes this Custom, that we fo religiously obferve, of being more highly offended with the Reproach of a Vice fo familiar to us than with any other, and that it should be the highest Injury that can, in Words, be done us, to reproach us with a Lye: Upon Examination, I find, that it is natural to disclaim thofe Faults moft, with which we are moft tainted: It feems as if, by refenting, and being moved at the Accufation, we, in fome fort, acquitted ourselves of the Fault; if we are guilty of it in Fact, we condemn it, at least, in Appearance: May it alfo not be, that this Reproach feems to imply Cowardice, and Meannefs of Spirit? Of which can there be a more manifeft Sign, than for a Man to eat his own Words? What, to lye against a Man's own Knowledge: Lying is a bafe Vice; a Vice that one of the Ancients paints in the most

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odious

Lying an Argument of the Contempt of God.

odious Colours, when he says,

That it is to

⚫ manifest a Contempt of God, and withal a • Fear of Man.', It is not poffible more copiously to represent the Horror, Baseness, and Irregularity of it; for, what can be imagined more vile, than a Man, who is a Coward towards Man, so courageous as to defy his Maker? Our Intelligence being by no other Canal to be conveyed to one another but by Words, he who falfifies them betrays public Society: 'Tis the only Tube through which we communicate our Thoughts and Wills to one another; 'tis the Interpreter of the Soul, and, if it fails us, we no longer know, nor have any farther Tie upon one another: If that deceive us, it breaks all our Correfpondence, and diffolves all the Bands of our Government. Certain Nations of the newdifcovered Indies (no Matter for naming them, fince they are no more; for, by a wonderful and unheard-of Example, the Defolation of that Conqueft extended to the utter Abolition of Names, and the ancient Knowledge of Places) offered to their Gods human Blood, but only fuch as was drawn from the Tongue and Ears, to at⚫ tone for the Sin of Lying, as well heard as pronounced.' The good Fellow of Greece was wont to fay, That • Children were amufed with Rattles, and Men with • Words.'

The Greeks and Romans not fo delicate in the Article of Lying, as we

are.

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As to the various Ufages of our giving the Lye, and the Laws of Honour in that Cafe, and the Alterations they have received, I fhall refer faying what I know of them to another Time, and hall learn, if I can, in the mean while, at what Time the Cuftom took Beginning, of fo exactly weighing and measuring Words, and of engaging our Honour to them; for it is eafy to judge, that it was not anciently amongst the Greeks and Romans; and I have often thought it ftrange to fee them rail at, and give one another the Lye, without any farther Quarrel The Laws of their Duty fteered fome other Course than ours. Cæfar is fometimes called Thief, and fometimes Drunkard, to his Teeth. We fee the Liberty

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of Invectives, which they practised upon one another, I mean the greatest Chiefs of War of both Nations, where Words were only revenged with Words, without any other Confequence.

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CHAP. XIX.

Of Liberty of CONSCIENCE.

1

IS ufual to fee good Intentions, if pursued without Moderation, push Men on to ve- Religious Zeal ry vicious Effects. In this Difpute, which often extravahas now engaged France in a Civil War, the gant, and conbest and the foundest Cause, no Doubt, is Jequently unjust. that which maintains the ancient Religion and Government of the Kingdom. Nevertheless, amongst the good Men of that Party (for I do not fpeak of thofe that make à Pretence of it, either to execute their own particular Revenge, or to gratify their Avarice, or to court the Favour of Princes; but of those who engage in the Quarrel out of true Zeal to Religion, and a pious Affection to maintain the Peace and Government of their Country) of thefe, I say, we see many whom Paffion transports beyond the Bounds of Reason, and sometimes infpires with Counfels that are unjust and violent, and alfo rafh.

when our

This Zeal. induced the

Chriftians, when they became Mafters, to deftroy Pagan Books

It is true, that, in thofe primitive Times, Religion began to gain Authority with the Laws, Zeal armed many against all Sorts of Pagan Books, by which the Learned fuffered an exceeding great Lofs; which, I conceive, did more Prejudice to Letters, than all the Flames kindled by the Barbarians. Of this Cornelius Tacitus is a very good Witness; for though the Emperor Tacitus, his Kinfman, had, by exprefs Order, furnished all the Libraries in the World with his Book, nevertheless, one intire Copy could not escape the curious Search of those who defired to abolish it, for only

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1

only five or fix idle Clauses in it, that were contrary to

our Belief.

And to praife bad Emperors, who favoured

Christianity, and to blame Julian, and others, who oppofed it. The Character of the Emperor Julian the A

postate.

he has not His Chastity

They were alfo very ready to lend undue Praises to all the Emperors who did any Thing for us, and univerfally to condemn all the Actions of those who were our Adverfaries, as is evidently manifeft in the Emperor Julian, furnamed the Apoftate; who was, in Truth, a very great and rare Man, a Man in whofe Soul that Philofophy was imprinted in lively Characters, by which he profeffed to govern all his Actions; and, in Truth, there is no fort of Virtue, of which left behind him very notable Examples. In Chastity (of which the whole Course of his Life has given manifeft Proof) we read the like of him, as was faid of Alexander and Scipio, that, being in the Flower of his Age (for he was flain by the Parthians at one and thirty) of a great many very beautiful Captives, he would not touch, nor fo much as look upon one. As to his Juftice P, he took himself the Pains to hear the Parties, and although he would, out of Curiofity, enquire what Religion they were of, nevertheless the Hatred he had to ours, never turned the Balance. He made feveral good Laws, and cut off a great Part of the Subfidies and Taxes levied by his Predeceffors ". We have two good Hiftorians, who were Eye-witnesses of his Actions; one of whom, Marcellinus, Julian blamed by two Hiftoin feveral Places of his Hiftory, sharply rerians, Eye- proves an Edict of his, whereby he interwitneffes of his

Actions.

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dicted all Chriftian Rhetoricians and Grammarians to keep School, or to teach'; and fays, he could wish that Act of his had been buried in • Silence. It is very likely, that, had he done any more fevere Things against us, the Hiftorian, who was so affectionate to our Party, would not have paffed it over in Silence.

• Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxiv. c. 8. • Idem, lib. xxv. c. 5, 6.

He

Idem, ibid. lib. xxii. c. 10.

Idem, lib. xxii. c. 10.

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