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and defirable Qualities, all Things confidered, is, in my Opinion, that of Alcibiades.

But, as to Epaminondas, I will here, for the Example of an exceffive Goodness, add fome of his Opi- Humanity, &c. nions. He declared, That the greatest Sa- of Epaminontisfaction he ever had in his whole Life, das.

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was, the Pleasure he gave his Father and Mother by his Victory at Leutra' wherein his Complaifance is great, preferring their Pleasure before his own, fo juft, and fo full of fo glorious an Action: He did not think it lawful to kill any Man for no Crime, even tho' it were to reftore the Liberty of his Country: Which made him fo cool in the Enterprise of his Companion Pelopidas for the Relief of Thebes. He was alfo of Opinion, That • Men in Battle ought to avoid attacking a Friend that ⚫ was on the contrary Side, and to fpare him. And his Humanity, even towards his Enemies themfelves, having rendered him fufpected to the Baotians; for that, after he had miraculously forced the Lacedæmonians to open to him the Pass, which they had undertaken to defend at the Entrance of the Morea, near Corinth, he contented himself with having charged thro' them, without pursuing them to the utmoft: For this he had his Commiffion of General taken from him, which was very honourable for fuch an Account, and for the Shame it was to them, upon Neceffity, afterwards to restore him to his Command, and to own how much depended their Safety and Honour upon him: Victory, like a Shadow, attending him wherever he went; and, indeed, the Profperity of his Country, as being from him derived, died with him ".

Plutarch in the Life of Coriolanus, c. 2. And in his Treatise, to prove that there can be no merry Life, according to Epicurus.

• Plutarch of Socrates's Damon, c. 4.

Idem, ibid. c. 17.

"Corn, Nepos in the Life of Epimonondas.

.

CHAP.

CHAP. XXXVII.

Of the Refemblance of CHILDREN to their FATHERS.

N compounding this Farrago of fo many different

Pieces, I never fet Pen to Paper, but when I have too much idle Time, and never any where but at home; fo that it is the Work of feveral Paufes and Intervals, as Occafions keep me fometimes many Months abroad. As to the rest, I never correct my first by any second Conceptions; I peradventure may alter a Word or fo, but 'tis only to vary the Phrafe, and not to cancel my Meaning: I have a mind to reprefent the Progress of my Humours, that every Piece, as it comes from the Brain, may be feen: I could wish I had begun fooner, and taken Notice of the Courfe of my Mutations. A Servant of mine, that I imployed to transcribe for me, thought he had got a Prize by stealing several Pieces from me, which beft pleased his Fancy; but it is my Comfort, that he will be no greater a Gainer, than I fhall be a Lofer by the Theft.

Montaigne's Patience in the Difeafe which be always dreaded.

I am grown older, by feven or eight Years, fince I began, neither has it been without fome new Acquifition: I have, in that Time, been acquainted with the Cholic, and a long Course of Years hardly wears off without fome fuch Inconvenience. I could have been glad, that, of other Infirmities Age has to prefent long-lived Men, it had chofen fome one that would have been more welcome to me, for it could not poffibly have laid upon me a Disease, for which, even from my Infancy, I have had a greater Horror; and it is, in Truth, of all the Accidents of Old-age, the very Diftemper of which I have ever been most afraid. I have often thought with myself, that I went on too far, and that, in fo long a Voyage, I fhould infallibly, at laft, meet with fome fcurvy Shock; I perceived, and oft enough declared, that it was Time to knock off, and that Life was to be cut to the Quick, according to the Surgeons Rule in the Amputation of a Limb;

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Limb; and that Nature ufually made him pay very dear Intereft, who did not, in due Time, restore the Principal: And yet I was fo far from being then ready, that in eighteen Months Time, or thereabouts, that I have been in this uneafy Condition, I have inured myself to it, I have compounded with this Cholic, and have found therein to comfort myself, and to hope: So much are Men enslaved to their miferable Being, that there is no Condition fo wretched that they will not accept, for preferving it, according to that of Mecenas.

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Maim both my Hands and Feet, break Legs and
Thighs,

Knock out my Teeth, and bore out both my Eyes;
Let me but live, all's well enough, he cries.

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And Tamerlane, with a foolish Humanity, pallated the fantastic Cruelty he exercised upon Lepers, when he put all he could hear of to Death, by pretending to deliver them from a painful Life: For there was not one of them who would not rather have undergone a triple Leprofy, than to be deprived of their Being. And Antifthenes, the Stoic, being very fick; and crying out, Who will de• liver me from thefe Evils?' Diogenes, who was come to vifit him, This, faid be, prefenting him a Knife, presently, if thou wilt: I do not fay, from my Life, be replied, but from my Disease. The Sufferings that only attack the Mind, I am not so fenfible of, as most other Men, and that partly out of Judgment: For the World looks upon feveral Things as dreadful, or to be avoided at the Expence of Life, that are almoft indifferent to me; partly thro' a ftupid and infenfible Complexion I have in Accidents which do not hit me point-blank; and that Infenfibility I

* Senec. Epift. 101.

look

y Or rather, the Cynic, of which Sect he was the Head, tho', in the main, there's no great Difference betwixt the two Sects, as to their Doctrine. * Diog. Laertius in the Life of Antifthenes, lib. v. fect. 18, 19.

look upon as one of the best Parts of my natural Conftitution; but effential and corporeal Sufferings I am very fenfible of: And yet having, long fince, forefeen them, though with a Sight weak and delicate, and foftened with the long and happy Health and Quiet that God has been pleased to give me the greatest Part of my Time, I had, in my Imagination, fancied them fo infupportable, that, in truth, I was more afraid than I have fince found I had Cause, by which I am still more fortified in this Belief, that most of the Faculties of the Soul, as we imploy them, more disturb the Repofe of Life, than any way promote it.

The StoneCholic the most painful of all Difeafes.

I am in Conflict with the worst, the moft fudden, the most painful, the moft mortal, and the most incurable of all Diseases: I have already had five or fix very long and painful Fits, and yet I either Яatter myself, or there is even, in this Eftate, what is very well to be endured by a Man who has his Soul free from the Fear of Death, and from the Menaces, Conclufions, and Confequences, which we are alarmed with by Phyfic. But the Effect of the Pain itself is not fo very acute and intolerable as to drive a solid Man into Fury and Despair. I have, at leaft, this Advantage by my Cholic, that what I could not hitherto wholly prevail upon myfelf to refolve upon, as to reconciling and acquainting myself with Death, it will perfect; for, the more it preffes upon and importunes me, I fhall be fo much the lefs afraid to die. I have already gone fo far as only to love Life for Life's fake, but my Pain will alfo diffolve this Correfpondence; and God grant, that, in the End, fhould the Sharpness of it prove greater than I shall be able to bear, it may not throw me into the other not lefs vicious Extreme, to defire and wifh to die.

Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes ".

i. e.

Neither to wifh, nor fear to die.

They are two Paffions to be feared, but the one has its Remedy much nearer at hand than the other. As to the

Mart. lib. x. Epig. 47. v. ult.

reft;

rest, I have always found the Precept, which Complaint may fo ftrictly enjoins a conftant good Counte- freely be in nance, and a difdainful and ferene Comport- dulged in the ment in the Toleration of Pain, to be mere- Agony of Pain. ly ceremonial. Why fhould Philofophy, which only has refpect to Life and its Effects, trouble itself about these external Appearances? Let it leave that Care to Stageplayers, and Mafters of Rhetoric, fo much practifed in our Gestures. Let it, in God's Name, allow this vocal Frailty, if it be neither cordial nor ftomachical, to the Difeafe; and permit the ordinary Ways of expreffing Grief by Sighs, Sobs, Palpitations, and turning pale, that Nature has put out of our Power to hinder: And provided the Courage be undaunted, and the Expreffions not founding of Despair, let it be fatisfied: What matters it though we wring our Hands, if we do not wring our Thoughts? Philofophy forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to feem: Let it be fatisfied with governing our Understandings, which it has taken the Care of inftructing; that, in the Fury of the Cholic, it may maintain the Soul in a Condition to examine itself, and to follow its accustomed Way: Contending with, and fupporting, not meanly crouching under the Pain; moved and heated by the Struggle, not dejected and demolished, but capable of Converfation, and other Amusements, to a certain Degree. In Accidents fo extreme, 'tis Cruelty to require of us a Frame so very compofed: 'Tis no great Matter what Faces we make, if we find any Eafe by it: If the Body find itfelf relieved by complaining, well and good: If Agitation eafes it, let it tumble and tofs at Pleafure; if it finds the Disease evaporate (as fome Phyficians hold, that it helps Women in Delivery) by crying out extremely, or if it amufes its Torment, let it roar aloud: Let us not command the Voice to fally, but permit it. Epicurus does not only forgive his Wife Man for crying out in Torments, but advifes him to it. Pugiles etiam quum feriunt adverfarium, in jactandis cæftibus ingemifcunt, quia profundenda voce omne corpus intenditur, venitque plaga vehementior. • When Men fight with Clubs, they groan in lay

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