of your Patronage, and I dare fay, you will be of my Opinion, that Gafcony never yielded any that had more Imagination, and Elegance, or that carry the Marks of a more copious Fancy. And do not be jealous that you have but the Remainder of what I published under the Patronage of M. de Foix, your worthy Kinfman; for, verily, these have fomething in them of more Life and Fire, forafmuch as he wrote them in his greener Years, and when he was inflamed with a certain noble ardour, which, one Day or other, I will whisper in your Ear. The others were writ afterwards, when he was making Courtship to his Wife, and favouring already of a certain matrimonial Coldnefs.. And, for my Part, I am of the fame Opinion with those who think that Poetry appears no where fo gay, as it does on a wanton and irregular Subject. Thefe twenty-nine Sonnets of Stephen de Boetius, which were inferted in this Letter for merly, have fince been printed with his Works.

T

CHA P. XXIX.

Of Moderation.

HINGS which are in themselves fair and good, are liable to be fpoilt by our handling, as if there was fomething infectious in our very Touch. Virtue itself will become Vice, if we clafp it. with a Defire too eager and violent. As for saying that there is never any Excefs of Virtue, because it is no longer Virtue, if there be Excefs in it, it is meer playing upon Words.

WhetherVirtue can be fought after with too much Vehemen

.

Infani fapiens nomen ferat, æquus iniqui,
Ultra quam fatis eft, virtutem fi petat ipfam †, i.e.

The

* They are inferted in Abel Angelier's Quarto Edition, printed at Paris in 1588. do not swell this Edition with them, because I do not find any Thing in them that is very affecting; for they scarce contain any Thing in them but amorous Complaints expreffed in a very rough Stile, difcovering the Follies and Outrages of a reftlefa Paffion, overgorged, as it were, with Jealoufies, Fears, and Sufpicions,

+ Hor. lib. i. ep. 6,

The Wife for Mad, the Juft for Unjuft pafs,

If more than need, e'en Virtue they embrace. This is a fubtle Confideration in Philofophy. A Man may both be too much in Love with Virtue, and carry himself to Excefs in a juft Action. Holy Writ agrees with this Way of thinking. St. Paul's Epiftle to the Romans, ch. xii. v. 3. No Man should think of himself more highly than he ought, but think foberly. I knew a great Man who blemished his Reputation for Religion, by making a Shew of greater Devotion than all Men of his Condition *. I love Natures that are temperate, and between the Extremes.

An immoderate An immoderate Zeal, even for that which is Zeal for that good, tho' it does not offend me, astonishes which is good. me; and I really am at a Loss what Name to give it. Neither the Mother of Paufanias †, who first pointed out the Way, and laid the first Stone for the De

ftruction

*It is like, that Montaigne meant Henry III. King of France. The Cardinal d'Offat, writing to Louifa, his Queen Dowager, told her, in his frank Manner, that he had lived as much, or more like a Monk than a Monarch. LETTER Xxiii. And Sextus Quintus, fpeaking of that Prince one Day to the Cardinal de Joyeuse, Protector of the Affairs of France, faid to him pleafantly, There is nothing that your King hath not done, and does not do ftill, to be a Mnk, nor any Thing that I have not done not to be a Monk. See the Note by Amelot de la Houffaye upon the Words of the Cardinal d'Offat juft now mentioned, p. 74, Tom. I. of the Cardinal d'Ojat's Letters, publifhed at Paris in 1698.

6

+ Montaigne would here give us to understand, upon the Authority of Diodorus of Sicily, that Paufanias's Mother gave the first Hint of the Punishment that was to be inflicted on her Son. Paufanias, fays this Hiftorian, perceiving that the Ephori, and fome other Lacedæmonians aimed at ⚫ apprehending him, got the Start of them, and went and took Sanctuary • in Minerva's Temple: And the Lacedæmonians, being doubtful whether they ought to take him from thence in Violation of the Franchise there, it is faid, that his own Mother came herfelf to the Temple, but faid, nor did any Thing there, more than laying a Piece of Brick, which fhe brought with her, on the Threshold of the Temple; which, when she had done, the returned home. The Lacedaemonians, taking the Hint from the Mother, caufed the Gate of the Temple to be walled up, and by this Means ftarved Paufanias, so that he died with Hunger, &c. lib. xi. ch 10. of Amyot's Tranflation. The Name of Paufanias's Mother was Al cithea, as we are informed by Thucydides's Scholiaft, who only fays, that it was reported, that when they fat about walling up the Gates of the Chapel in which Paufanias had taken Refuge, his Mother Alcithea laid the first. Stone.

ftruction of her Son; nor the Dictator Pofthumius, who put his Son to Death, whom the Heat of youthful Blood had pufh'd with Succefs upon the Enemy a little before the other Soldiers of his Rank *; neither of thefe Inftances, I fay, seem to me fo juft, as they are ftrange; and I should not like either to advise, or imitate a Virtue, fo favage, and fo expensive. The Archer that fhoots beyond the Mark, miffes it as much as he that comes fhort of it. And it offends my Sight as much to lift up my Eyes, on a fudden, towards a great Light, as to caft them down to a dark Cavern. Callicles, in Plato, fays, That the Extremity of Philofophy is hurtful, and advises not to dive deeper into it than what may turn to good Account; That, taken with Moderation, it is pleasant and profitable, but in the Extreme it renders a Man brutifh and vicious, a Contemner of Religion, and the common Laws, an Enemy to civil Conversation, and all human Pleafures, incapable of all political Administration, and of affifting others, or even himself, and a fit Object to be buffeted with Impunity. And he fays true; for in its Excefs it enflaves our natural Liberty, and, by an impertinent Curiofity, leads us out of the fair and smooth Path, which has been planned out for us by Nature.

Tho' the Love we bear to our Wives is very Love to Wives lawful, yet Divinity curbs and restrains it. I reftrained by think I have formerly met with a Paffage in Divinity. St. Thomas Aquinas, where he condemns Marriages within the prohibited Degrees of Confanguinity, for this, among VOL. I.

Q

other

* Opinions differ as to the Truth of this Fact. Titus Livy thinks he has good Authority for rejecting it, because it does not appear in History that Pofthumius was branded with it, as Titus Manlius was, about 100 Years after his Time: For Manlius having put his Son to Death for the like Cause, obtained the odious Name of Imperiofus, and fince that Time Manliana Imperia, has been used as a Term to fignify Orders that are too fevere; Manliana Imperia, says Titu Livy, were not only horrible for the Time prefent, but of a bad Example to Pofterity. And this Hiftorian makes no doubt but fuch Commands would have been actually filed Pofthumiana Imperia, if Pofthumius had been the first who fet fo barbarous an Example, Titus Livy, lib. iv. c. 29. and lib. viii. c. 7. But, however, Montaigne has Valer. Maximus on his fide, who fays, expressly that Pofibumius caufed his Son to be put to Death, lib, ii, c. 766, and Diodorous of Sicily, lib. xii. c. 19.

other Reasons, viz. the Danger there is left the Love a Hulband bears to fuch a Wife should be immoderate, for if the conjugal Affection be as entire and perfect as it ought, and it be increased, moreover, by that which is due to Confanguinity, there is no Doubt but fuch an Addition would carry the Husband beyond the Bounds of Reafon.

Thing.

Divinity and The Sciences which regulate the Manners Philofophy dic of Mankind, viz. Theology and Philosophy tate in every dictate in every Thing. There is no Action be it ever fo private and fecret, that can escape their Cognifance and Jurifdiction. This Liberty affumed by Philofophy and Theology*, is what none but the Ignorant and the Vulgar take it in their Heads to find fault with: And in this, they are like the Wives who expose their Parts freely enough to their Gallants, but are shy of discovering them to the Phyfician or the Surgeon. I will† therefore on the Part of Philofophy and Divinity, give this Leffon to the Hufbands, if fuch there be who are too libidinous in the conjugal State, viz. That the very Pleasures they enjoy in their Converfe with their Wives, are blameable if immoderate, and that a licentious and intemperate abuse of it is as great an Error with a Legitimate Subject, as with one that is Illegitimate. As for the immodeft Careffes which the firft Ardour fuggefts to us in this Affair, there is not only an Indecency in employing them with out Wives, but a Detriment. Let them at leaft learn Impudence from another Hand. They are always alert enough for our Occafions. The Inftruction I have made ufe of is perfectly natural and plain.

Marriage, what it is.

Marriage is a folemn and facred Tie: Therefore the Pleasure we extract from it, fhould be temperate and ferious with a Mixture of Gravity.

If this be the Senfe of Montaigne's Words as I think it to be, Mr. Cotton's English Tranflation of it, has very much mistaken it, where he fays, But they are beft taught, who are beft able to cenfure and curb their own Liberty. This is a Conftruction which does not tally at all with what goes before, and much lefs with what follows.

+ Here the English Tranflator is likewise mistaken, where he says, 1 will on the behalf of the Wives teach the Hufband &c. Few Wives would think themselves obliged to thank Montaigne, for fuch a Leffon to their Hufbands.

Gravity. It ought to be a Pleasure in fome Sort difcreet and confcientious.

bited.

And because the chief End of it is Gene- Congress with ration, it is a Matter of Doubt with fome pregnant WoPeople, whether when we are no Hopes of men probiIffue, as when Women are paft the Age of Child-bearing, or when they are actually pregnant, it is lawful to court their Embraces. It is Homicide, according to Plato, (De Legibus lib. viii. p. 912. C. Francofurti, apud Claudium Maraium, &c. Anno 1602) certain Nations (and particularly the Mahometans) abominate Conjunction with Women that are already with Child: And many alfo with thofe that are in the menftruous Terms.

Conjugal Continency.

Zenobia would never admit her Hufband for more than one Encounter, after which fhe left him to take his Range abroad, during the whole Time of her Conception, and only allowed him to come to her Bed again after fhe was delivered. A noble* and generous Example this, in the married State+! It must certainly be from fome poor but very lafcivious Poet, that Plato borrowed the following Story, viz. That Jupiter was one Day fo hot upon his Wife, that not having Patience to ftay till fhe was in Bed, he threw her down upon the Floor, where, fo vehement was his Pleafure that he forgot the great and important Refolutions which he had juft entered into with the other Gods, in his celeftial Court, and boasted that he had as much Pleasure in that Bout, as when he first got her Maiden-head unknown to their Parents.

The Perfian Monarchs invited their Wives to their Feafts, but when the Wine began to operate in good Earnest, and that they could not help giving a Loose to Pleasure, they fent

Q 2

Wives of the Kings of Perfia bowreceived at their Festivals.

them

Montaigne has taken this Paffage from Trebellius Pollio's Zenobia p. 199 Hift. Auguft.

+ Plutarch in his matrimonial Precepts, fet. 14.

Montaigne here ridicules Homer without thinking of it, for this Fiction is undoubtedly taken from the Iliad, lib. xiv. v. 194 353. See Plato's Republick, lib. iii. 433. printed at Lyons by William Lecmar, in 1590. If Montaigne had looked into Homer, he would not have been fo miftaken as he has been in fome Circumstances of this Affair.