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nating those that may hurt them, even fo much as the Women, for fear of a Scratch.

Cuneta ferit, dum cuneta timet.

i. e.

He ftrikes at all, who every one does fear.

One Act of Cruelty necef Jarily produces

others.

The first Cruelties are exercised for themselves: From thence fprings the Fear of a juft Revenge, which afterwards produces a Series of new Cruelties, to obliterate one by the other. Philip King of Macedon, who had fo much upon his Hands with the People of Rome, agitated with the Horror of fo many Murders committed by his Appointment, and doubting of being able to regain his Credit with fo many Families, whom he had, at diverfe Times, offended; refolved to feize all the Children of those he had caufed to be flain, to dispatch them daily one after ⚫ another, and thereby establish his own Repofe.' Good Subjects become any Place; and therefore I, who more confider the Weight and Utility of what I deliver, than its Order and Connexion, need not fear, in this Place, to bring in a fine Story, tho' it be a little by the bye; for when fuch Subjects are rich in their own native Beauty, and are able to justify themselves, the least End of a Hair will ferve to draw them into my Discourse.

• Amongst others condemned by Philip, Herodicus, A remarkable • Prince of Theffaly, had been one. He had, Story on this moreover, after him, caused his two SonsSubject. in-Law to be put to Death, who each left a Son, very Young, behind him. Theoxena and Archo • were the two Widows. Theoxena, tho' warmly courted to it, could not be perfuaded to marry again: Archo was married to Poris, the greatest Man of the Ænians, and by him had a great many great Children, which fhe, dying, left all Minors. Theoxena, moved with a • Maternal Charity towards her Nephews, that she might • have them under her own Conduct and Protection, married Poris: When prefently comes a Proclamation of the King's

Claud. in Eutrop. lib. i. v. 182.

The intire Story is taken from Titus Livy, lib. xi. c. 4.

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King's Edict. This bold-fpirited Mother, fufpecting the Cruelty of Philip, and afraid of the Infolence of the Soldiers towards thefe lovely young Children, was fo bold as to declare, that fhe would rather kill them with her own Hands, than deliver them up. Poris, startled at this Proteftation, promised her to fteal them away, and to transport them to Athens, and there commit them to the Cuftody of fome trufty Friends of his. They ⚫ took therefore the Opportunity of an annual Feast, which was celebrated at Enia, in Honour of Æneas, and thither they went. Having appeared by Day at the public Cere monies and Banquet, they ftole, the Night following, ⚫ into a Veffel laid ready for that Purpose, to make their escape by Sea. The Wind proved contrary, and finding themselves, in the Morning, within Sight of the • Land from whence they had launched over Night, were pursued by the Guards of the Port; which Poris perceiving, he laboured all he could to haften the Mariners to put off. But Theoxena, frantic with Affection and Revenge, in Pursuance of her former Refolution, prepared both Arms and Poison, and expofing them be⚫fore them; Go to, my Children, faid fhe, Death is now the only Means of your Defence and Liberty, and will adminifter Occafion to the Gods to exercise their facred Justice: These drawn Swords, thefe full Cups, will open you the Way to it: Be of good Courage; and thou, my Son, who art the Eldeft, take this Steel into thy Hand, that thou may'ft the more bravely die. The Children having, on one Side, fo hearty a Counsellor, and the Enemy at their Throats on the other, ran, all of them eagerly, to difpatch themselves with what was next to Hand; and, when half dead, were thrown into the Sea. Theoxena, proud of having fo gloriously pro⚫vided for the Safety of her Children, clasping her Arms, with great Affection, about her Hufband's Neck; Let us, my Dear, faid fhe, follow thefe Boys, and enjoy the fame Sepulchre they do And, thus embraced, they threw themselves headlong, overboard, into the Sea; fo that the Ship was carried back, without its Owners, into the Harbour.'

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Tyrants contrive to lengthen the Torments

of those they put to Death.

Tyrants, at once both to kill, and to make their Anger felt, have pumped their Wit to invent the most lingering Deaths: They will have their Enemies dispatched, but not fo fast that they may not have Leisure to taste their Vengeance: And herein they are mightily perplexed; for, if the Torments they inflict are violent, they are fhort; if long, they are not then fo painful as they defire; and thus torment themselves, in contriving how to torment others. Of this we have a thousand Examples in -Antiquity, and I know not whether we, unawares, do not retain fome Traces of this Barbarity.

Executions of Juftice beyond merely putting to Death, abfolute Cruelty.

All that exceeds a fimple Death, appears to me mere Cruelty; neither can our Juftice expect, that he, whom the Fear of Death, by being beheaded or hanged, will not reftrain, should be any more awed by the Imagination of a flow Fire, burning Pincers, or the Wheel: And I know not, in the mean Time, whether we do not drive them into Defpair; for in what Condition can the -Soul of a Man be, who expects Death four and twenty Hours together, whether he is broke upon a Wheel, or, after the old Way, nailed to a Crofs? Jofephus relates, That, in the Time of the War which the Romans made in Judea, happening to pafs by where they had, three Days before, crucified certain Jews, he knew three of his own Friends amongst them, and obtained the Favour of having them taken down. Two of them, be fays, died, the third lived a great while after.'

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nishments inflicted by the Emperor 'Mechmed.

1 Chacondilas, a Writer of good Credit, in the Records Barbarous Pu- he has left behind him of Things that happened in his Time, and near him, tells us, as one of the most exceffive Torments, of what the Emperor Mechmed often practifed, viz.cutting off Men in the Middle, by the Diaphragma, with one Blow of a Scýmeter; by which it followed, that they died, as it were, two Deaths at once, and both the one Part, fays be, and the other were seen to stir, a great while after, with the Torment.' I do not think there was any great Suffering in this Mo

tion:

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tion The Torments that are most dreadful to look on, are not always the greateft to endure; and, I think, thofe that other Hiftorians relate to have been practifed upon the Epirot Lords, to be more cruel, who were con'demned to be flead alive, by piece-meal, in so mali cious a manner, that they continued in this Misery a Fortnight: As alfo these other two that follow.

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Two more Inftances of exceffive Cruelty.

Crafus, having caufed a Gentleman, the Favourite of his Brother Pantaleon, to be feized on, carried him into a Fuller's Shop, where he caufed him to be scratched and carded with • Cards and Combs belonging to that Craft, till he died.. George Sechel, chief Commander of the Peasants of Poland, who committed fo many Mischiefs, under the Ti⚫tle of the Crufade, being defeated in Battle, and taken by the Vayvod of Transylvania, was three Days bound naked upon the Rack, expofed to all forts of Torments that any one could inflict upon him; during which Time, many other Prifoners were kept fafting. At laft, while he was living, and looking on, they made his beloved Brother Lucat, for whofe Safety alone he intreated, by taking upon himfelf the Blame of all their evil Actions, to drink his Blood, and caufed twenty of his most favoured Captains to feed upon him, tearing his Flesh in pieces with their Teeth, and fwallowing the Morfels: The Remainder of his Body and Bowels, as foon as he was dead, were boiled, and others of his Followers compelled to eat them.'

S

CHAP. XXVIII.

All Things have their SEASON,

UCH as compare Cato the Cenfor with the younger Cato that killed himself, compare two beautiful Natures, and Forms much refembling one another. The firft acquired his Reputation feveral Ways, and excelled

Kk 3

& Herodot. lib. i. p. 44.

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The Virtue of
Cato of Uti-
ca preferable
to that of Cato
the Cenfor.

in Military Exploits, and the Utility of his public Vocations; but the Virtue of the Younger, befides, that it were Blafphemy to compare any to him in Vigour, was much more pure, For who can acquit the Cenfor of Envy and Ambition, after he had dared to offend the Honour of Scipio, a Man, in Goodness and all excellent • Qualities, infinitely beyond him, or any other of his • Time?'

Cato the Cenfor took to learn Greek

That which they report of him, amongst other Things, that, in his extreme Old-age, he fet himfelf to learn the Greek Tongue, with fo greedy an Appetite, as if he was to quench a long Thirit,' does not feem to make for his Honour; it being properly what we call being twice a Child.

too late in Life.

All Things have their Seafon, Good and Bad, and a Man may fay his Pater-nofter out of Time; as they accused T. Quintus Flaminius", that, being General of an Army, he was feen praying apart in the Time of a Battle that

he won.'

Imponet finem fapiens, et rebus honeftis *.

i. e.

The wife Man limits event decent Things. Eudemonidas, feeing Xenocrates, when very Old, ftill very intent upon his School Lectures, When will this Man

1

be Wife, faid he, if he yet learn?' And Philopamon, to those who cried up King Ptolemy, for inuring his Perfon, every Day, to the Exercife of Arms: It is not, faid

be, commendable in a King of his Age to exercise him• self in those Things, he ought now really to imploy them. The Young are to make their Preparations, the Old to enjoy them, fay the Sages;' and the greatest Vice they obferve in us is, That our Defires inceffantly grow young again; we are always beginning again to live.

See Plutarch's Comparison of him to Philopamon, fe&t. 2.
Juv. Sat. vi. v. 344.

Our

* The Words which Montaigne applies here to his own Defign, have another Meaning in the Original.

Plutarch's Notable Sayings of the Lacedæmonians,

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