Book II. as having been very near alike. Herein, I think, he does the faid Lord Cardinal a great Honour; for, though I am one of thofe who have a great Efteem for his Wit, Eloquence, and Zeal for Religion, and for the Service of his King, and reckon it was his Happiness to be born in an Age wherein it was a Thing fo new, fo rare, and also fo neceffary for the public Weal, to have an Ecclefiaftical Perfon, of fo high Birth and Dignity, and fo fufficient and capable for his Place; yet, to confefs the Truth, I do not think his Capacity by many Degrees equal to Seneca's, nor his Virtue either fo pure, intire, or steady. Now this Book whereof I am speaking, to bring about The malicious and unfair Chara&er which Dion gives of Se-.. neca, quite contrary to what is reported of him by Tacitus. its Design, gives a very injurious Description of Seneca, by Reproaches borrowed from Dion the Hiftorian whofe Teftimony I do not at all believe; for, fetting afide the Inconfiftency of this Writer, who, after having called Seneca in one Place very wife, and in another a mortal Enemy to Nero's Vices, makes him elsewhere avaricious, an Ufurer, ambitious, effeminate, voluptuous, and a falfe Pretender to Philofophy. Seneca's Virtue appears fo lively and vigorous in his Writings, and his Vindication is fo clear against any of thefe Imputations, and particularly as to his Riches and extraordinary Expences, that I cannot believe any Testimony to the Contrary. And, befides, it is much more reasonable to believe the Roman Historians in fuch Things than the Greeks and Foreigners. Now Tacitus and the others speak very honourably both of his Life and Death, and reprefent him to us a very excellent and virtuous Perfonage in all Things; and I will alledge no other Reproach againft Dion's Report but this, which I cannot avoid, namely, that he has fo crazy a Judgment in the Roman Affairs, that he dares to maintain Julius Cafar's Caufe against Pompey, and that of Anthony against Cicero. Let us now come to Plutarch: John Bodinus is a good Bodinus, a good Author, vilifies Plu 3 read read and confidered. I find him, though a tarch, whom little bold in that Paffage of his Method of Montaigne Hiftory, where he accufes Plutarch not only vindicates. of Ignorance (wherein I would have let him alone, this not being a Subject for me to speak to) but That he oft • writes Things incredible and abfolutely fabulous,' which are his own Words: If he had fimply faid, That he 6 t The Bowels of a Lacedæmonian Boy torn out by a Fox cub. Whether writes Things otherwise than they really are,' it had been no great Reproach; for what we have not seen we receive from other Hands, and take upon Truft; and I fee he purposely, fometimes, variously relates the fame Story; as the Judgment of the three beft Captains that ever were, formed by Hannibal, which is given otherwise in the Life of Flaminius, and another Way in that of Pyrrhus: But to charge him with having believed Things incredible and impoffible, is to accuse the most judicious Author in the World of Want of Difcernment. And this is his Example: As, fays he, when he relates that a Lacede monian Boy fuffered his Bowels to be torn out by a Fox-cub, which he had stolen, and kept it concealed under his Coat till he fell ' down dead, rather than he would difcover • his Theft.' In the firft Place, I find this Example ill chofen, forafmuch as it is very hard to limit the Efforts of the Faculties of the Soul, whereas we have better Authority to limit and know the Strength of the Body; and therefore, if I had been as he, I fhould rather have chofen an Example of this fecond Sort; and there are some that are incredible: Amongst others, that which he relates of Pyrrhus, "That, all over wounded as he was, he ftruck one of his Enemies, who was armed from Head to Foot, fo great a Blow with his Sword, that he clave him down from his 'Crown to his Seat, whereby the Body was divided into two Parts.' In this Example I find no great Miracle; nor do I admit of the Excufe he makes for Plutarch, by his having added the Words as 'tis faid', by Way of Caution to fufpend our Belief; for, unless it be in Things receiv In the Life of Lycurgus, c. 14, of Amyand's Tranflation. it be an abfurd and incredible Story? ed The Patience of the Lacedæ monian Chil dren. ، W Book II. ed by Authority, and from a Reverence to Antiquity or Religion, he would never have himself admitted, nor proposed to us to believe, Things incredible in themselves; and that the Words as 'tis faid' are not put by him in this Place to that Effect, is easy to be feen, because he elsewhere relates to us, upon this Subject, of the Patience of the Lacedæmonian Children, Examples happening in his Time, more unlikely to prevail upon our Faith; as what Cicero has teftified before him, who, he fays, was upon the Spot, That, even to their Times, there were Children found, who, in the Trial of Patience which they were put to before the Altar of Diana, fuffered themselves to be there whipped till the Blood ran down their Bodies, not only without crying out, but without fo much as a • Groan; and fome till they there voluntarily loft their • Lives' And that which Plutarch alfo, amongst an Hundred other Witneffes relates, viz. That, at a Sacrifice, • a burning Coal being fallen into the Sleeve of a Lacedæmonian Boy, as he was cenfing, he suffered his whole Arm to be burned, till the Smell of the broiling Flesh was perceived by the Affiftants.' There was nothing, according Thievery odi- to their Cuftom, wherein their Reputation ous to the Spar- was more concerned, nor which would expofe them to more Blame and Disgrace, than the being taken in Theft. I am fo fully fatisfied of the Magnanimity of thofe People, that Plutarch's Account does not only not appear to me, as it has to Bodinus, incredible, but I do not think it fo much as rare and ftrange. The Spartan Hiftory is full of a Thousand more cruel and rare Examples, and is indeed all Miracles in this View. Marcellinus reports, concerning Theft, That, in his Time, ⚫ there were no Sort of Torments which could compel the Egyptians, when taken in this • Misdemeanor, though a People very much addicted to it', fo much as to tell their Name. A Spa tans. Thievery very much practifed by the Egyp tians. Tufc. Quæft. lib. ii. c. 14.. We have, fays Cicero, feen Numbers of their Lads fighting with incredible Fury, with their Fifts, Heels, Nails, and Teeth, till they died, before they would own they were conquered. Life of Pyrrhus, lib. v. c. 27. › Amm. Marcell. lib. 22. c. 16. Fortitude of a Spanish Peafant put to the Torture. A Spanish Peafant, being put to the Rack about the Accomplices of the Murder of the Prætor Lucius Pifo, cried out, in the Height of the Torment, That his Friends fhould not leave him, but look on without any Sort of Fear, forafmuch as no Pain had Power to force one Word of Confeffion from him: This was all they could get from him the firft Day. The next Day, as they were leading him a fecond Time to the Torture, rufhing with Violence out of the Hands of his Guards, he furiously ran his Head against a Wall, and beat out his Brains. Epicbaris, having tired and glutted the Cruelty of Nero's Guards, and undergone their Burnings, Death of Epi their Baftinadoes, and their Engines a whole charis on the Day together, without one Syllable of Con- Rack. feffion of her Confpiracy; being the next Day brought again to the Rack, with her Limbs all bruifed fo that the could not ftand, fhe put the Lace of her Robe, with a running Noofe, over one of the Arms of her Chair, and, fuddenly flipping her Head into it, with the Weight of her own Body, hanged herself: As fhe had the Courage to die after that Manner, is it not to be prefumed that the purpofely lent her Life to the Trial of her Fortitude the Day before, purely to mock the Tyrant, and encourage others to the like Attempt? And whoever will enquire of our Light-horsemen what Experiences they have had, in these our Civil Wars, will find Examples of Suffering and Obftinacy in this miferable Age of ours, and amongst the foft and effeminate Crew, worthy to be compared with those we have now related of the Spartan Virtue. Wonderful Conftancy of certain Peafants, during Wars, in Montaigne's the Civil I know there have been fimple Perfons amongst us, who have endured the Soles of their Feet to be broiled upon a Gridiron, their Fingers-ends fmafhed to Pieces with the Cock of a Piftol, and their bloody Eyes fqueefed out of their Heads, by Force of a Cord twisted about their Brows, before they would fo much as confent to ranfom. I faw one left ftark naked for dead in a Ditch, his Neck black and fwelled, with VOL. II. Time. a Halter M m Tacit. Annal. lib. iv. c. 45 a Idem. lib. xv, c. 57, Book II. a Halter yet about it, with which they had dragged him all Night at a Horfe's Tail; his Body pinked in a hundred Places with Stabs of Daggers which had been given him, not to kill him, but to put him to Pain, and to terrify him: Having endured all this, and even to being speechlefs and infenfible, he refolved, as he himfelf told me, rather to die a thousand Deaths (one of which indeed, as to Matter of Suffering, he had already fuffered) before he would promise any Thing; and yet he was one of the richest Husbandmen of all the Country. How many have been seen patiently to fuffer themselves to be burnt and roafted, for Opinions taken upon Truft from others, and by them not at all understood! I have known a hundred and a hundred Women (for Gascony, they Women ob- fay, has a certain Prerogative for Obftinacy) whom you might fooner have made to eat Fire than quit an Opinion they had conceived in Anger. They are more exafperated by Blows and Conftraint. And he that forged the Story of the Woman, who, in defiance of all Correction, Threats, and Baftinadoes, ceafed. not to call her Husband lousy Knave; and, when the was plunged over Head and Ears in Water, and durft not open her Mouth for Fear of being choaked, could yet lift her Hands above her Head and make a Sign of cracking Lice; feigned a Tale, of which in Truth we every Day fee a manifeft Image in the Obftinacy of Women; and Obftinacy is the Sifter of Conftancy, at leaft in Vigour and Stability. ftinate. We are not to judge what is poffible and what is not, The falfe Mea- according to what is credible and incredible fure of Poffibi to our Apprehenfion, as I have faid elsewhere: Lity and Impof- And it is a great Fault, yet a Fault moft fibility. Men are guilty of (which nevertheless I do not mention in Regard to Bodinus) to make a Difficulty of believing that in another, which they could not, or would not do themselves. Every one thinks that the fovereign Stamp of human Nature is imprinted in him, and that from him all others must take their Rule; and that all Proceedings, which are not like his, are feigned and falfe. Is any Thing of another's Actions or Facul ties |