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of Cruelty, did not we therewith confound Things which Nature has exempted from all Feeling and Pain, as the Reputation and the Inventions of our Understanding, and if we did not inflict corporeal Punishment on the Dif cipline and Monuments of the Mufes. Now Labienus could not bear this Lofs, nor furvive his Off-fpring of the Brain that was fo dear to him, but caufed himself to be conveyed to and fhut up alive in the Funeral Monument of his Ancestors, where he made Provision to kill and bury himself all at once: 'Tis not eafy to produce an Inftance of more vehement paternal Affection than this. Caffius Severus, a Man of great Eloquence, and his familiar Friend, feeing Labienus's Books committed to the Flames, cried out, that, by the fame Sentence, they might as well condemn him to be burnt alfo, because he carried and retained all the Contents thereof in his Memory'.

The like Accident happened to Cremutius Cordus, who And the Books was accufed of having, in his Books, comof Cremutius mended Brutus and Caffius. That bafe, ferCordus. vile, and corrupt Senate, worthy of a worse Mafter than Tiberius, condemned his Writings to the Flames. He was glad to die with them, and killed himfelf by Fafting".

Honeft Lucan being condemned to die by that MifLucan's Fond creant Nero, when he was in the Agonies of nefs for bis Death, most of his Blood being already run Poetry. out of the Veins of his Arms which he had caufed his Surgeon to open, and a Chilnefs having feized the Extremities of his Body, which began to approach to the vital Parts, the last Thing he had in his Memory was fome Verfes out of his Book of the Battle of Pharfalia, which he repeated, and they were the last Words he spoke ". What was this but a tender and paternal Leave which he took of his Off-fpring, reprefenting the Farewels and clofe Embraces which we give to our Children when we are dying, and an Effect of that natural Inclination which calls to our Remembrance, in this Extremity, thofe Things which we held most dear in our Life-time?

* M. Annæus Senec. Controv. lib. v. from the Beginning. Idem, ibid. Tacit. Annal. lib, iv.

I

at the Conclufion,

D

Can

Tacit. Annal. lib. xv.

Whether Epicurus would not have pre-' Writings to the ferred his Children defcended from

bis Loins.

Can we fuppofe, that Epicurus, who, when racked almost to Death, as he Jays, with extreme Pains of the Cholic, comforted himself, however, that he had left fuch fine Doctrine to Mankind, would have entertained fo much Satisfaction in a Number of Children never fo well born and bred, had he had any, as he did in the Production of his ineftimable Writings? And that if it had been put to his Choice to have left an illfavoured, untoward Child behind him, or a filly ridiculous Book, he would not have rather chofe, as any other Man of his Abilities would have done, to have incurred the firft Misfortune rather than the laft. It would, perhaps, have been Impiety in St. Auguftine, for Example, after it had been propofed to him, on the one Hand, to bury his Writings, from which our Religion has received great Benefit, or to bury his Children, in Cafe he had if he had not rather chofe to have buried his Children.

fo

any,

Book.

And, for my own Part, I know not whether I fhould not much rather have begot one perfectly of the Affec formed by my Converse with the Mules, than tion which by that with my Wife. To this, fuch as it Montaigne is, what I give, I give abfolutely and irre- had for his vocably, as Men do to the Fruit of their Bodies. That little Good which I have done for it, is no more at my own Difpofal. It may know many Things that I no longer know, and hold of me that which I have not retained; and, if I ftood in Need, I must borrow from thence, as much as a Stranger. If I am wifer than my Book, it is richer than me. There are few Men addicted to Poetry, who would not have been better pleased to be the Fathers of the Eneid, than of the fineft Youth in Rome, and who would not have borne the Lofs of the latter more calmly than that of the former: For, according to Ariftotle, the Poet especially, of all Workmen, is the fondeft of his own Performances.

'Tis fcarce to be believed, that Epaminondas, who boasted, that he had left to Pofterity two Daughters, that would, one Day, do an Honour to their Father,

The Fondness of Epaminondas for his two famous Victo

ries.

(viz. the two noble Victories which he had gained over the Lacedemonians) would have given his free Confent to exchange them for the most shining Beauties of all Greece; nor that Alexander and Cæfar ever wished to be deprived of the Grandeur of their glorious Exploits in War, for the Advantage of having Children and Heirs, how perfect and accomplished foever. Nay, I make a great And of Phidias Queftion, whether Phidias, or any other efor his fineft minent Statuary, would have been fo folliStatues. citous for the Prefervation and Continuance of his natural Children, as of an excellent Statue, which he had finished, according to Art, with long Labour and Study. And as to thofe vicious and furious Paffions of Love, that have fometimes flamed in the Breafts of Fathers to their Daughters, or of Mothers to their Sons, the like is alfo found in this other fort of Parentage; witness the Story of Pygmalion, who having made the Statue of a Woman of fingular Beauty, fell fo paffionately in Love with this Workmanship of his, that the Gods, for the fake of indulging his Paffion, were fain to put Life into it. Tentatum mollefcit ebur, pofitoque rigore

Subfidit digitis .

i. e.

Hard though it was, beginning to relent,.
The Iv'ry Breaft beneath his Fingers bent.

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CHAP. IX.

Of the Armour of the Parthians.

IS a vicious and a very effeminate Custom of the Gentry of our Time, not to take Arms but in a Cafe of extreme Neceffity, and to lay them down again upon ever fo little Appearance that the Danger is over. From hence arife many Disorders; for, every one crying out and running to his Arms just when he should take

The ill Custom of not being armed till the Enemy is at the Gates,

• Ovid. Metam. lib. x. Fab. viii. v. 41, 43.

take the Field, fome have their Armour still to buckle on when their Companions are already routed. Our Ancestors were wont to give their Head-piece, Lance, and Gantlet to be carried, and did not quit the rest of their Equipage as long as there was any Work to be done. Our Troops are, at this Time, all in Disorder, and make but a bad Appearance, by the Confufion of the Baggage and Servants, who can't be far from their Masters, because they carry their Arms. Titus Livy, fpeaking of our Countrymen, fays ", Intolerantiffima laboris corpora vix arma bumeris gerebant, i. e." Being most impatient of Labour, they had much ado to carry their Arms on their Shoulders. Several Nations do yet, as they did anciently, go to War without any manner of Covering, or such, at leaft, as was of little or no Defence.

Tegmina queis capitum raptus de fubere cortex.

i. e.

For Helmets they their Temples only bind
With a light Scull-cap made of Cork-tree Rind.

Alexander, the most adventurous Commander that ever was, very feldom wore Armour: And fuch, among us, as flight it, fare never the worse for it.

the French too cumbersome, by its Weight, to be proper for Defence.

The Armour of

Where one Man is killed for Want of Armour, another falls by the Cumberforenefs, Embarraffment, and Weight of it, or by being crushed and battered to Pieces by fome fhocking Repercuffion, or rude Encounter with another: For, in Truth, to confider the Weight and Thicknefs of what we wear, it feems as if Self-defence was our only Aim, and that it is rather a Load upon us than a Protection: We have enough to do to fupport the Weight of it, being fo fettered and manacled as if we had nothing to contend with. but our Armour, and as if we had not the fame Obligation to defend That, as That has to fhield us. Tacitus gives

P Tit. Liv. lib. x. c. 28.

Though Livy fays nothing of the Pains which the Gauls took to carry the Armour, yet this follows very naturally. Perhaps he has faid it elfewhere exprefsly, and that here Montaigne has joined the two Paffages in one, very often does. Æneid. lib. vii. v. 742

as he

Book II. gives 'a droll Description of the Soldiers among the ancient Gauls, who were thus armed for their own Defence only, without the Poffibility of hurting, or being hurt, nor of rifing again when they are once beat down.

The heavy and unealy Armour of the Medes.

Lucullus perceiving certain Soldiers of the Medes, that formed the Front of Tigranes's Army, who were fhut up in weighty and uneafy Armour, as if in Cages of Iron, imagined, from thence, that he fhould easily defeat them, and on them he began his Attack and Victory: And now that our Mufqueteers are come into Credit, I fancy fomething will be invented to immure us, for our Safety, from them, and to draw us to the War fhut up in little Caftles, like those which the Ancients put upon the Backs of Elephants This Humour is far different from that of young Scipio who severely chid his Soldiers for placing Chevaux de Frize under Water, in that Part of the Ditch where it was expected that the Garrison of a Town, which he had befieged, would fally out upon him, faying, That they who befieged a Town fhould think of attacking it, rather than of fecuring themselves; and he fufpected, with juft Reason, that this Stratagem would make his Soldiers not fo vigilant against a Surprize. He alfo faid to a young Fellow, who fhewed him a fine Target that he was very proud of, 'Tis really a fine Target, my Boy, but a Roman Soldier ought

• Tacit. Annal. lib. iii.

to

* Montaigne was wrong in his Conjecture, for now the Soldiers apparel themselves for an Attack, almost in the fame manner as if they were going to a Ball. The Fashion, which regulates every Thing in France, has introduced this Cuftom there; the Fantasticalness of which did not escape the Criticism of the judicious, Cenfor of this Age, the celebrated La Bruyere: How came Men, Jays he, to think, heretofore, that the End of going to War was efther to Attack or Defend? And, who advised them to the Ufe of Arms • both Offenfive and Defenfive? What is it obliges them now to lay these afide, and, whilft they put on Boots to go to a Ball, to fupport, without Armour, and in a Doublet, the Pioneers who are expofed to all the • Fire from a Counterfcarp? Were our Fathers, who did not think fuch • Conduct of Service to the Prince and the Country, Wife or Foolish? And what Heroes do we ourselves celebrate in our History? A Guefelin, a Cliffon, a Foix, a Boucicaut, who all wore Armour, and buckled on the Cuirass?" "Valer. Max. lib. iii. in Romanis, fect. 2. If Montaigne took this from that Author, he mistook him grofsly; for this Author does not fay that they put Chevaux de Frize under the Water, &c. but only that fome advised Scipia to do it,

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