excellent Learning, of which I make the leaft Account, in which of thefe two do we furpafs him? And yet there is scarce a Pretender to Learning but will pronounce him a Liar, and pretend to instruct him in the Progress of the Works of Nature. When we read in Bouchet the Miracles performed by St. Hilary's Reliques, away with fuch Stuff, his Authority is not fufficient to reftrain us from the Liberty of contradicting him; but to condemn all fuch Stories in the Lump, is, I think, a fingular Piece of Impudence. The Great St. Austin says, he faw a blind Child recover its Sight by the Relicks of St. Gervafe, and St. Protafius at Milan*; and a Woman at Carthage cured of a Cancer, by the Sign of the Crofs made upon her by a Woman newly baptized; that Hefperius, a familiar Friend of his, drove away Spirits that haunted his Houfe with a little of the Earth of our Lord's Sepulchre; and that the fame Earth being afterwards carried to the Church, a Man afflicted with the Palfey was there fuddenly cured by it; that a Woman, in a Proceffion, having touched the Shrine of St. Stephen with a Nofegay, and therewith rubbed her Eyes, recovered her Sight, which he had been a long Time deprived of; .not to mention feveral other Miracles, at which, he fays, he was himself prefent. Of what fhall we accufe him and the two holy Bifhops, Aurelius and Maximin, whom he appeals to for his Vouchers? Shall it be of Ignorance, Simplicity, Credulity, or of Knavery and Impofture? Is there a Man in this Age fo impudent as to think himself comparable to them either in Virtue and Piety, or in Knowledge, Judgment and Capacity? Qui ut rationem * Auguftin. de Civitate Dei, lib. 22. c. 8. nullam +Montaigne is guilty here of a fmall Miftake. St. Auftin does not ascribe this Expulfion of the evil Spirits to that fmall Quantity of the Earth of our Lord's Sepulchre which Hefperius had in his Houfe; for, according to St. Auflin, one of his Priefts, having, at the Intreaty of Hefperius, repaired to his Houfe, and offered the Sacrifice of the Body of Chrift, and having prayed earnestly to God to put a Stop to this Disturbance, God did fo that very Inftant. As to the Earth taken from the Sepulchre of Jefus Chrift, Hefperius kept it fufpended in his own Bedchamber, to fecure him from the Infults of the Devils, who had been very mischievous to his Slaves and Cattle; for tho' he was protected against the evil Spirits by this Earth, yet its Influence did not extend to the reft of his Family. nullam afferent, ipfa authoritate me frangerent *; i. e. Who, though they fhould offer me no Reason, would convince me by their fingle Authority. It is a Prefumption of great Danger and Confequence, befides the abfurd Temerity it is attended with of contemning what we do not comprehend; for after that, according to your fine Understanding, you have fettled the Limits of Truth and Falfhood, and it fhould happen that you are under a Neceffity of believing ftranger Things than thofe you deny, you are actually obliged to recede from the Limits you have established. Now what I think fo much difquiets our Confciences in our Commotions on the Score of Religion, is the Catholicks Difpenfation of their Creed: They fancy they act with Moderation and Understanding, when they give up to their Adverfaries any of the Articles that are controverted; but, befides that they do not difcern of what Advantage it is to their Adverfaries to begin to yield to them, and to retire, and how much this animates the Adverfaries to follow the Blow, thofe Articles which they chofe as the most indifferent, are fometimes very important. We are either totally to fubmit to the Authority of our ecclefiaftical Polity, or be entirely difpenfed from it. It is not for us to determine what Share of Obedience we are to pay to it; and moreover, this I can say, as having myself formerly made Trial of it, that having ufed the Liberty of chufing particularly for myself, being indifferent as to certain Points of the Difcipline of our Church, which to me feemed to have an Afpect more vain, or more ftrange, coming after to dif course the Matter with fome Men of Learning, I found that those very Things had a fubftantial and very folid Basis; and that it is nothing but Brutality and Ignorance which makes us receive them with lefs Reverence than the reft. Why do not we recollect what Contradiction we find in our own Opinions? How many Things were Articles of Faith Yesterday, which To-day we treat as no other than Fables? Vain Glory and Curiofity are the Torments of our Mind. This laft prompts us to dive into Affairs with * Cic. Tufc. Quæft. lib. 1. c. 21. with which we have no Concern, the former forbids us to leave any Thing undetermined and undecided. H CHA P. XXVII. Of Friendship. WAVING obferved in what Manner a Painter who ferves me, difpofed of his Workmanship, I had a Fancy to imitate him. He chufes the faireft Part and the middle of a Wall or Partition, wherein he places a Picture, which he has finished, with the utmost Care and Art, and he fills up the Void Spaces that are about it, with Grotefque Figures, which are fanciful Strokes of the Pencil, without any Beauty but what they derive from their Variety and Oddnefs. And in Truth, what are thefe Effays of mine but Grotefques, and monftrous Pieces of Patch-Work put together without any certain Figure, or any Order, Connection or Proportion, but what is accidental? As the Mermaid. Definit in pifcem mulier formofa fuperne*. Which a fair Woman's Face above doth fhow; In the latter Part I go Hand in Hand with my Painter, but fall very fhort of him in the former, and the better Part, for I have not so much Skill, as to pretend to give a fine Picture performed according to Art. I have therefore thought fit to borrow one from † Stephen de Boetius, which will be an honour to all the reft of this Work. It is a Difcourfe, which he has intitled La Servitude volontaire i. e. voluntary Slavery, but fome who did not know what he intended by that Title, have fince, very properly given Hor. de Arte Poetica v. 4. +Yet it is not here, and why Montaigne has not inferted it, he tells us at the End of this Chapter. given it another viz. Contre-un *. It is a Piece, which he wrote in his younger Years, by way of Effay, for the Honour of Liberty against Tyrants. It has paffed through the Hands of Men of the beft Understanding, with very great Recommendations as it highly deferved, for it is elegantly writ, and as full as any Thing can be on the Subject. Yet it may truly be faid, that he was capable of a better Performance; and if in that riper Age, wherein I had the Happiness to be acquainted with him, he had entered upon an undertaking like this of mine, to commit his Fancies to Writing, we fhould have seen many uncommon Things, and fuch as would have gone very near to have rivalled the best Writings of the Ancients: For in this Branch of natural Endowments efpecially, I know no Man comparable to him. But we have nothing of his left, fave only this Tract; (and that even by Chance, for I believe he never faw it after he let it go out of his Hands) and fome Memoirs concerning that t Edict of January, made famous by our Civil Wars, which perhaps may find a Place elfewhere. This is all that I have been able to recover of what he has left behind him, (tho' with fuch an affectionate Remembrance on his Death-bed, he did, by his Will, bequeath his Library and Papers to me) except the little Volume of his Works, which I committed to the Prefs $; and to which I am particularly obliged, becaufe it was the Introduction of our firft Acquaintance; for it had been fhewn to me, long before I knew his Perfon, and as it gave me the first Knowledge of his Name; it confequently laid the Foundation of that Friendship which we mutually cultivated, fo long as it pleafed God to fpare his Life, a Friendship fo intire, and fo perfect, that certainly the like is hardly to * This if I am not mistaken means a Difcourfe against Monarchy or Government by one Perfon alone, agreeably to what Montaigne fays, at the End of this Chapter, That if Boetius could have made his Option, he would rather have been born at Venice, than at Sarlat. + It was iffued in 1562, in the Reign of Charles IX. yet a Minor. See the Difcourfe upon the Death of Stephen de la Boetius, compofed by Montaigne, and publifhed at the End of this Edition. § Printed at aris by Frederick Marel in 1571. I fhall speak of it more particularly, in another Place. most happy ConFriendship the Sequence of Sa to be found in Story, nor is there the leaft Trace of it to be seen in the Practice of the Moderns: And indeed there must be fuch a Concurrence of Circumftances, to the perfecting of fuch a Friendship, that it is very much if Fortune brings it to pafs once in three Years. There is nothing to which Nature feems to have more inclined us than Society: And Ariftotle fays, that the good Legiflators were more tender of Friendship, than of Juftice. ciety. Now this is the utmost Point of the Perfection of Society: For generally all thofe Friendships, that are created and cultivated by Pleafure, Profit, publick or private Necesfity, are so much the lefs amiable and generous, and so much the lefs Friendships, as they have another Motive and Defign, and Confequence, than pure Friendship itself. Friendship does not tally properly with the Connection, difur forts of ftinguished by Neither are thofe four ancient Kinds, viz. Natural, Social, Hofpitable and Venerean, either separately or jointly correfpondent with, or do they conftitute true Friendship. That of Children to Parents is rather Refpect; Friendship being nourished by a Communication, which the Ancients. cannot be formed betwixt them, by Reafon of the too great Disparity of Age, and would perhaps violate the Obligations of Nature; for neither are all the fecret Thoughts of the Parents communicable to their Children, for fear creating an unfuitable Familiarity betwixt them, nor could Admonitions and Corrections, one of the principal Offices of Friendship, be exercifed by Children to their Parents. There are fome Countries, where it is the Cuftom for Children to kill their Fathers, and others where the Fathers kill their Children, to avoid their being fometimes an Impediment to their Defigns, and naturally the Hopes of the one, are founded in the Deftruction of the other. There have been Philofophers who have defpifed this Tie of Nature, witnefs Arifippus, who when he was seriously told of the Affection he owed to his Children, as they were defcended from his Loins, fell a Spitting, and faid, that, alfo came from him, and that Diog. Laert, in the Life of Ariftippus lib. ii. fect. 81. we |