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ties proposed to him? The first Thing he calls to the Confultation of his Judgment is his own Example; and as Matters go with him fo they must of Neceffity do with all the World befides. O dangerous and intolerable Folly! For my Part I confider fome Men as very far beyond me, especially among the Ancients; and yet, though I clearly difcern my Inability to, come near them by a Mile, I do not forbear to keep them in Sight, and to judge of what does elevate them fo, of which I alfo perceive fome Seeds in myself; as I alfo do of the extreme Meannefs of fome other Minds, which I neither am, aftonished at, nor yet do misbelieve. I very well perceive the Turns those great Souls take to raise themselves, and I admire their Grandeur; and those Flights that I think the braveft I am glad to imitate, where, though I want Wing, yet my Judg ment goes along with them.

The other Example he introduces of Things incredible, and wholly fabulous, delivered by Plutarch, is, That Agefilaus was fined by the Ephori for having too far engroffed the Hearts and Affections. Agefilaus of the Citizens to himself alone.' And herein Ephori for in muleted by the I do not fee what Sign of Falfity is to be finuating him found: But fo it is that Plutarch there fpeaks Jelf into the Hearts of the of Things that must needs be better known People to him, than to us, and it was no new Thing in Greece to fee Men punished and exiled only for being too acceptable to the People, witness, the Oftracism and Petalifm,

There is yet in this Place another Accufation laid against Plutarch, which I cannot well digeft; where

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he fays,
That he has faithfully matched
Romans with Romans, and Greeks with
• Greeks, but not the Romans with the Greeks,
witness, fays he, Demofthenes and Cicero,

Whether Plixtarch, in his Parallel of the Romans, was Greeks and unjust in giv

• Gato and Ariftides, Sylla and Lyfander, Mar- ing Preference cellus and Pelopidas, and Pompey and Agefi

to the latter. laus. Suppofing that he has favoured the Greeks in giving them Companions fo unequal, which is really to attack what in Plutarch is moft excellent, and most to be com

1

Mm 2 i

In the Life of Agefilaus, c. 1.

mended

Book II. mended; for in his Parallels (which is the most admirable Piece of all his Works, and with which, in my Opinion, he was himself the most pleased) the Fidelity and Sincerity of his Judgments equal their Depth and Weight. He is a Philofopher that teaches us Virtue: Let us fee whether we cannot defend him from this Reproach of Prevarication and Falfity. All that I can imagine could give Occafion to this Cenfure, is the great and fhining Luftre of the Roman Names, with which we are captivated : It does not seem likely to us that Demofthenes could rival the Glory of a Conful, Proconful, and Queftor of that great Republic; but, if a Man confider the Truth of the Fact, and the Men in themfelves, which is Plutarch's chiefeft Aim, and more to balance their Manners, their Natures, and Parts, than their Fortunes, I think, contrary to Bodinus, that Cicero and the elder Cato come fhort of the Men with whom they are compared, I fhould fooner, for his Purpose, have chofen the Example of the younger Cato compared with Phocion, for in this Couple there would have been a more likely Difparity to the Roman's Advantage. As to Marcellus, Sylla, and Pompey, I very well difcern that their Exploits of War are greater and more full of Pomp and Glory than thofe of the Greeks whom Plutarch compares with them; but the bravest and most virtuous Actions, no more in War than elsewhere, are not always the most renowned: I often fee the Names of Captains obfcured by the Splendor of other Names of lefs Merit, witnefs Labienus, Ventidius, Telefinus, and feveral others; And, to take it that Way, were I to complain, on the Behalf of the Greeks, might I not fay, that Camillus was much lefs comparable to Themistocles, the Gracchi to Agis, and Cleomenes and Numa to Lycurgus? But 'tis Folly to judge of Things that have fo many Afpects at one View.

Plutarch did

not mean an

When Plutarch compares them, he does not for all that make them equal. Who could more elegantly and fincerely have marked their Diftinction? Does he parallel the Victories, martial Atchievements, the Power of the Armies conducted by Pompey, and his Triumphs, with

Equality between.thofe whom he compared together.

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thofe

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thofe of Agefilaus; I do not believe, fays he, that Xenophon himself, if he were now living, though he was allowed to write whatever pleafed him, to the Advantage of Agefilaus, would dare to bring them into Comparifon.' Where he speaks of comparing Lyfander to Sylla, There is, fays be, no Comparifon, either in the Num⚫ber of Victories, or in the Hazard of Battles; for Lyfander only won two Naval Victories, &c. This is not to derogate from the Romans; for, having only fimply named them with the Greeks, he can have done them no Injury, whatever Disparity foever there may be betwixt them: And Plutarch does not weigh them intirely one against another; there is no Preference in the main; he only compares the Pieces and Circumftances one after another, and judges of every one feparately; wherefore, if any one would convince him of Partiality, he ought to pick out fome one of thofe particular Judgments, or fay, in general, that he was mistaken in comparing fuch a Greek to fuch a Roman, when there were others more fit, and better refembling to be parallelled.

CHA P. XXXIII.

The Story of SPURINA.

Whether the amorous Appetites are the moft violent.

her Talent, when she has given the Sovereignty of the Soul, and the Authority of checking our Appetites to Reason. Of these, they who judge, that there are none more violent than thofe which Love breeds, are of the Opinion, that they feize both Body and Soul, and poffefs the whole Man;' so that Health itself depends upon them, and is the Medicine fometimes constrained to pimp for them: But it might be faid, on the contrary, that the Mixture of the Body brings an Abatement and WeakenM m 3

In the Comparison of Pompey with Agefilans.
In his Comparison of Sylla and Lyfander,

ing

Means used to mortify them.

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ing to them, for fuch Defires are fubject to Satiety, and capable of material Remedies. Many being determined to rid their Souls from the continual Alarms of this Appetite, have made Ufe of Incifion and Amputation of the restlefs and unruly Members: Others have subdued their Force and Ardour, by the frequent Application of cold Things, as Snow and Vinegar: The SackCloths of our Ancestors were used for this Purpose, which was a Cloth woven of Horfe-hair, whereof some made Shirts, and others Girdles to torture their Reins. A Prince, not long ago, told me, That, in his Youth, upon a folemn Festival in the Court of King Francis I, where every-body was finely dreffed, he would needs put on his Father's Hair Shirt, which was ftill kept in the Houfe; but, how great foever his Devotion was, he had not Patience to wear it till Night, and was fick long Time after; adding withal,That he did not think there could be any youthful Heat fo fierce, that the Ufe of this Receipt would not mortify; and yet, perhaps, he never tried the most violent; for Experience Thews us, that fuch Emotions often happen under coarse beggarly Cloaths, and that a Hair Shirt does not always render those innocent that wear it.

How Xeno

mency:

Xenocrates proceeded with greater Severity in this Affair; for his Difciples, to make trial of his crates preferu. Continency, having flipped Lais, that beaued his Conti- tiful and famous Courtezan, into his Bed, quite naked, Xenocrates finding, without the Charms of her Beauty, and her alluring Philtres, that, in Spite of his Reason, and philofophical Rules, there was a War ring in his Flefh, he caufed thofe Members of his to be burned, that he found confenting to this Rebellion; Whereas the Paffions, which wholly refide in the Soul, as Ambition, Avarice, and the reft, find the Reafon much more to do, because it cannot there be relieved but by its own Means; neither are thofe Appetites capable of Sa tiety, but grow fharper, and increase by Fruition,

Diog, Lacrt, in the Life of Xengcrates, lib, iv, fet, 71

The

Cæfar's Example a Proof that Ambition is harder to be tamed than

Love.

The fole Example of Julius Cæfar may fuffice to domonftrate to us the Difparity of those Appetites; for never was Man more addicted to amorous Delights: Of which one Proof; the delicate Care he took of his Perfon, to that Degree as to use the most lascivious Means to that End, which were then practised, viz. to have the Hairs of his Body twitched off by Pincers, and to be daubed all over with Perfumes of the extremeft Curiofity; and he was a beautiful Perfon in himself, of a fair Complexion, Tall and Sprightly, Full-faced, with brisk hazle Eyes, if we may believe Suetonius; for the Statues, that we fee at Rome, do not, in all Points, answer this Defcription. Befides his Wives, which he four Times changed, without reckoning the Amours of his Childhood with Nicomedes, King of Bithynia, he had the Maidenhead of the renowned Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, witness the little Cafario that he had by her. He alfo made love to Eunoe, Queen of Mauritania; and, at Rome, to Pofthumia, the Wife of Servius Sulpitius; to Lollia, the Wife of Gabinius; to Tortulla, the Wife of Craffus; and even to Mutia, Wife to the Great Pompey; which was the Reafon, the Roman Hiftorians fay, that fhe was repudiated by her Husband, which Plutarch owns he did not know: And the Curio's, both Father and Son, afterwards reproached Pompey, when he married Cæfar's Daughter, That he had made himself Son-in-Law to a Man who had made ⚫ him a Cuckold, and one that he himself was wont to call Egyftus. Befides all thefe, he kept Servilia, Cato's Sifter, and Mother to Marcus Brutus, from whence every one believes the great Affection he had to Brutus did proceed, by reason that he was born at a Time when his Birth was likely to happen. So that I have Reason, methinks, to take him for a Man extremely given to this Debauch, and of a very amorous Conftitution: But the other Paf fion of Ambition, with which he was alfo exceedingly inM m 4 fected,

f In the Life of Julius Cæfar, fe&t. 45.
& Plutarch in the Life of Cæfar, c. 13. fect, 50.
Suetonius's in Cafar's Life, fect. 250.

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