not our noble Practice of thefe Days equally to profecute to Death both him that has offended us, and him whom we have offended?

'Tis alfo a kind of Cowardife, that has introduced the Cuftom of Seconds, Thirds, and Fourths in Seconds introour Duels: They were formerly Duels, they duced, in Duels, are now Skirmishes and Battles. The firft by Cowardife. Inventors of this Practice feared to be alone. Quum in fe cuique minimum fiducia effet: They had little Confidencein themselves.' For, naturally, any Company whatever. is comfortable and affifting in Danger. Third Perfons were formerly called in to prevent Disorder and foul Play only, and to be Witneffes of the Success of the Combat. But fince they have brought it to this pass, that they themselves engage, whoever is invited cannot handfomely ftand by as an idle Spectator, for fear of being fufpected either of Want of Affection or Courage. Befides the Injustice and Unworthiness of fuch an Action, the engaging other Force and Valour, in the Protection of your Honour, than your own; I conceive it a Disadvantage to a brave Man, and who wholly relies upon himself, to fhuffle his Fortune with that of a Second, fince every one runs Hazard enough for himself, without running it for another, and has enough to do to depend on his own Valour for the Defence of his Life, without intrufting a Thing fo dear in a third Man's Hand: For, if it be not exprefly agreed on before to the contrary, 'tis a combined Party of all four, and, if your Second be killed, you have two to deal withal with good Reafon. And to fay, that it is foul Play; it is fo indeed, as it is for one, well-armed, to attack a Man that has but the Hilts of a broken Sword in his Hand, or for a Man clear, and in a whole Skin, to fall on a Man that is already defperately wounded; but, if these be Advantages you have got by fighting, you may make Ufe of them without Reproach: All that is weighed and confidered is the Difparity and Inequality of the Condition of the Combatants when they begun; as to the reft, you charge it upon Fortune: And though you had alone three Enemies upon you at once, your two Companions being killed, you have no more Wrong

3

done

Book II. done you, than I fhould do, in a Battle, by running a Man through, whom I fhould fee engaged with one of our own Men, at the like Advantage. The Nature of Society requires, that where there is Troop against Troop, (as where our Duke of Orleans' challenged Henry King of England, an Hundred against an Hundred, where the Argives challenged Three hundred against as many of the Lacedæmonians ", and Three to Three, as the Horatii against the Curiatii) the Multitude on either Side is confidered but as one fingle Man. Wherever there is Company, the Hazard is confufed and mixed.

A Story of a Duel between Some French Gentlemen, in

which a Brother of Montaigne was engaged.

I have a domeftic Intereft in this Difcourfe; for my Brother, the Sieur de Matecoulom, was, at Rome, intreated by a Gentleman, with whom he had no great Acquaintance, and who was Defendant, and challenged by another, to be his Second: In this Duel he found himself matched with a Gentleman, his Neighbour, much better known to him, where, after having dispatched his Man, feeing the two Principals ftill on Foot, and Sound, he ran in to difengage his Friend. What could he do lefs? Should he have ftood ftill, and, if Chance had ordered it fo, have seen him, he was come thither to defend, killed before his Face? What he had hitherto done fignified nothing to the Bufinefs, the Quarrel was yet undecided: The Courtesy that you may, and certainly ought to fhew to your Enemy, when you have reduced him to an ill Condition, and have a great Advantage over him, I do not fee how you can fhew it, where the Intereft of another is in the Cafe, where you are only called in as an Affiftant, and where the Quarrel is none of yours: He could neither be Juft nor Courteous at the Hazard of him he had agreed to fecond, and he was alfo inlarged from the Prifons of Italy, at the fpeedy and folemn Request of our King. Indifcreet Nation! We are not content to make our Vices and Follies known to the World by Report only, but we must go into Foreign Countries, there to fhew them what Fools we are. Put three Frenchmen into the Defarts of Lybia, they will

Monftrelet's Chronicle, Vol. I, c. 9.

u Herodot. lib. i. p. 37.

not

not live a Month together without quarrelling and fighting; fo that you would say, that this Peregrination were a Thing purposely defigned to give Strangers the Pleasure of our Tragedies, and often to fuch as rejoice and laugh at our Miseries. We go into Italy to learn to Fence, and fall to practise at the Expence of our Lives, before we have learned it: And yet, according to the Rule of Difcipline, the Theory fhould precede the Practice. We difcover ourselves to be but Learners.

Primitia juvenum miferæ, bellique futuri
Dura rudimenta ".

i. e.

Of Youth the firft Inftructions doleful are,
And hard the Rudiments of future War.

I know Fencing is an Art very useful to its End, and have
experimentally found, that Skill in it hath Fencing hath
infpired fome with Courage above their na- nothing Noble
tural Talent: But this is not properly Va- in it.
lour, because it supports itself by Skill, and is founded
upon fomething befides itself: The Honour of Combat
confifts in the Emulation of Courage, and not of Skill;
and therefore I have known a Friend of mine, famed for a
great Master of this Exercife, make choice of fuch Arms,
in his Quarrels, as might deprive him of the Means of this
Advantage, and wholly depended upon Fortune and Assu-
rance, to the End that they might not attribute his Victo-
ry rather to his Skill in Fencing than his Valour. When I
was Young, Gentlemen avoided the Reputation of good
Fencers, as injurious to them; and learned to fence, with
all imaginable Privacy, as a Trade of Subtlety, derogat-
ing from true and native Virtue.

Non fchivar, non parar, non ritirarfi,

Voglion coftor, ne qui deftrezza ha parte, Non danno i colpi finti hor pieni, bor fcarfi, Toglie l'ira e il furor l'ufo de l'arte.

w Æneid. lib. xi. v. 156.

* In a Duel betwixt two Princes, Coufins German, in Spain, the Elder (fays Pliny) by his Craft and Dexterity in Arms, eafily furmounted the aukward Strength of the Younger, lib. xxviii. c. 21.

O di le fpade horribilmente urtarfi

Amezzo il ferro, il pie d'orma non parte: Sempre è il pie fermo, è la man fempre in moto; Ne fcende taglio in van ne punta à voto.

i. e.

They neither shrank, nor Vantage fought of Ground, They travers'd not, nor fkipp'd from Part to Part Their Blows were neither falfe, nor feigned found, Their Wrath, their Rage would let them ufe no Art. Their Swords together clash with dreadful Sound, Their Feet stand faft, and neither ftir nor ftart; They move their Hands, ftedfaft their Feet remain, Nor Blow, nor Foin they ftruck, or thrust in vain 2. Butts, Tilts, and Tournaments, the Images of warlike Fights, were the Exercifes of our Forefathers.

An indecent Art, because it induces us to break the Laws.

a

This other Exercise is so much the lefs Noble, as it only respects a private End; as it teaches us to ruin one another, against Law and Justice, and as it always produces mifchievous Effects. It is much more worthy and becoming to exercise ourselves in Things that ftrengthen, than that weaken our Governments, and that tend to the public Safety, and common Glory. Publius Rutilius Confus was the first that taught the Soldiers to handle their Arms with Skill, and joined Art to Va⚫lour; not for the Ufe of private Quarrel, but for War, and the Quarrels of the People of Rome: A popular and civil Art of Fencing. And, befides the Example of Cæfar, who commanded his Men to fhoot chiefly at the • Faces of Pompey's Gens-d'Armes, in the Battle of Pharfalia; a thoufand other Commanders have also bethought them to invent new Forms of Weapons, and new Ways of striking and defending, according as Occafion fhould require.

6

'Tis ufelefs and detrimental in Military Combats.

But as Philopemen condemned Wrestling, wherein be excelled, because the Preparatives, that were therein imployed, were different 'from those that appertain to Military Dif

cipline, to which alone he conceived Men of Honour ⚫ought to apply themselves;' fo it feems to me, that this Addrefs, to which we form our Limbs, thofe Writhings and Motions young Men are taught in this new School, are not only of no Use, but rather contrary and hurtful to the manner of Fight in Battle: And alfo our People commonly make Ufe of particular Weapons, peculiarly defigned for Duel. And I have known, when it has been difapproved, that a Gentleman, challenged to fight with Rapier and Poniard, should appear in the Equipage of a Man at Arms; or that another fhould go thither with his Cloak instead of a Poniard. It is worthy of Confideration, that Lachez in Plato, fpeaking of learning to fence after our manner, fays, That he never knew any great Soldier come out of that School, especially the Masters of it! And, indeed, as to them, our own Experience tells us as much. As to the reft, we may, at least, conclude, that they are Abilities of no Relation nor Correfpondence. And, in the Education of the Children of his Government, Plato prohibits the Art of The Art of Boxing, introduced by Amicus and Epeius, and Boxing probithat of Wrestling, by Anteus and Cecyo, be- bited by Plato. cause they have another End, than to render Youth fit for the Service of the War, and contribute nothing to it.' But I fee I am too far ftrayed from my Theme. The Emperor Maurice, being advertised, by Dreams and feveral Prognoftics, that one Phocas, an obfcure Soldier, fhould kill him, queftioned his Son-in-Law, Philip, who this Phocas was, and what was his Nature, Qualities, and Manners; and as foon as Philip, amongst other Things, had told him, That he was Cruel and bloocowardly and timorous,' the Emperor im- dy Men natumediately thence concluded, That he was fally Cowards.

'

こ

a Murderer and Cruel.' What is it that makes Tyrants fo bloody? 'Tis only the Sollicitude for their own Safety, and that their faint. Hearts can furnish them with no other Means of fecuring themselves, than in extermiVOL. II. hating

K k

b Plato's Dialogue, intitled, Lachez, p. 247.

De Legibus, lib. vii. p. 630.

Or rather Cercyo, Keeuw, Plato de Legib. lib. vii. ibid.