them back to their private Apartments, that they might not participate in their immoderate Luft, and fent for other Women in their Stead, to whom they were not obliged to pay fo much Refpect. All Pleasures and Gratifications, do not fuit all Perfons. Epaminondas having caufed a debauched Youth to be imprifoned, Pelopidas begged that for his Sake, he would grant him his Liberty *. He refufed the Favour to Pelopidas, but granted it at the firft Word, to a Wench of his who made the fame Interceffion, faying, that it was a Gratification due to a Mistress, but not to a Captain. Sophocles paffing along by Accident cried out, Ob! what a delicate Boy is that, whereupon Pericles faid to him, this would do well for any Body but a Prætor, who ought not only to have clean Hands, but chafte Eyes t. Conjugal Love Elius Verus, the Emperor, when his Emprefs ought to be ac- reproached him with his Love to other Wocompanied with men, told her that a Principle of Confcience Refpect. was his Motive for it, forafmuch as Marriage was a State of Honour and Dignity, and not of toying and lafcivious Concupifcence. And our Church History hold the Memory of that Wife in great Veneration, who parted with her Hufband, rather than comply with and bear his indecent and inordinate Dalliances.. In fhort, there is no Pleasure how juftifiable foever, wherein we are not blameable for taking it with Excefs and Intemperance. able Creature. But to fpeak the Truth, is not Man a Man a mifer- wretched Animal. It is fcarce, in his Power, by his State of Nature to taste a fingle Pleafure pure and intire; and yet he is labouring for Arguments, to curtail that imperfect Pleasure he has: He is not yet wretched enough, unless by Art and Study he increases his own Mifery. Fortunæ miferas auximus arte vias . i. e. We *Plutarch in his Inftructions to those who manage state Affairs, c. 9. Amyott's Tranflation. + Cic. de Offic. lib. i. c. 40. Elij Spartiani Ælius Verus p. 15, 16. Hift. Auguft in Folio, printed at Paris, Anno 1620. Propert. lib. iii. Eleg. 2. v. 32. We with Misfortune 'gainst ourselves take Part, Human Wisdom makes a very foolish Ufe of its Talents, by exercifing them in abating the Number and Relifh of thofe Pleafures which we have a Right to, as on the other hand it acts favourably and industriously in employing its Skill, to put a Glofs and Difguife upon the Misfortunes of Life, to alleviate the sense of them. Had I been the chief Manager, I fhould have taken an-` other more natural Courfe, which, to fay the Truth, is convenient and facred, and perhaps, I fhould have been able to fet limits to it; altho' our Phyficians, both fpiritual and temporal, as if they had combined together, can find no other Method of cure, or Remedy for the Difeafes of the Body and Soul, than by Torment, Sorrow and Pain. To this End Watchings, Faftings, Penances, far diftant and folitary Banifhments, perpetual Imprifonments, Scourgings, and other Afflictions, have been introduced into the World: Yea, And on fuch a Condition, that they should be real Afflictions and carry a Sting in their Tails, and that the Confequence thereof fhould not be as happened to one Gallio*, who having been banished. to the Ile of Lefbos, News was brought to Rome, that he lived as merry there as the Day was long, and that his Banishment did not prove his Punishment but his Pleasure: For this Reason they thought fit to recal him to his Wife and Family, and confined him to his own House, to make him more fenfible of their Punishments. For to the Person whom Falting would make more healthful and fprightly, and to whofe Palate Fish would be more agreeable than Flesh, the Prefcription of either, medicinally,, would be of no falutary Effect, no more than Drugs in the other Sort of Phyfick, which have no Effect with him who takes them with an Appetite and Pleafure. The Bitterness of the Potion, and the Averfion of the Patient * A Roman Senator banished for having offended Tiberius, as may be feen in Tacit. Annals, lib. vi. c. 3. + According to Tacitus, he was recalled to Rome, to be kept there in the Cuftody of the Magiftrates, ibid. · Book I. to it, are Circumftances that conduce to the Operation. Rhubarb itself would be of no Virtue to the Conftitution which is used to it. It must be fomething which offends the Stomach, that must cure it: And here the common Rule, that Things are cured by their Contraries, fails; for in this, one Evil is cured by another. The Sacrifice of buman Flea Practice for merly in almoft all Religions. World. This Notion has fome Refemblance with that fo univerfally embraced anciently by all Religions and Sects, that Maffacre and Homicide were acceptable to the Gods and to Nature. Even in the Time of our Forefathers, Amurath facrificed 600 young Greeks to the Manes of his Father, with a View that their Blood might ferve as a propitiatory Atonement for the Sins of his deceafed Parent. How practifed And in thofe new Countries difcovered in in the New this Age of ours, which are pure as yet, and Virgins, in Comparison of ours, this Practice is in fome Degree received every where. All their Idols reek with human Blood, not without fundry Examples of horrid Cruelty. Some they put alive into a Fire, and take them half roafted out of it, to tear out their Hearts and Bowels: Others, even Women, they flea alive, and put their bloody Skins on the Bodies of others. And there Wonderful Con- are great Inftances among them of Conftancy fancy of thofe and Refolution. For thefe poor Victims, old who are facri- Men, Women, and Children, go out fome ficed there. Days before, to beg Alms for the Offering of their Sacrifice, and prefent themselves to the Slaughter, finging and dancing. CO. The prodigious The King of Mexico's Ambaffador repreNumber facri fenting the great Power of their Master to ficed by the Fernando Cortez, after having told him that King of Mexi- he had 30 Vaffals, each of whom could affemble 100,000 fighting Men, and that he kept his Court in the fairest and beft fortified City under the Sun, added that he had 50000 Men to fpare, every Year, for a Sacrifice to the Gods. They actually affirm that he maintained a War with fome great neighbouring Nations, not only for the Exercife of the Youths of the Country, Country, but chiefly to have Prifoners of War enough for his Sacrifices. Compliment paid by the Americans to Fernando Cortez. At a certain Town moreover they facrificed 50 Men at one Time for the Welcome of Cortez, to which I will add this Story. Some of thefe Nations being defeated by him fent to compliment him and to court his Friendfhip; and the Meffenger carried him three Sorts of Prefents, which they delivered him in this Manner. Behold, Lord, here are five Slaves: If thou art a fierce God whofe Diet is Flesh and Blood, eat thefe, and we will bring thee more. If thou art a gracious God, here are plumes of Feathers, and Incenfe; but if thou art a Man, take thefe Fowls and Fruits that we have brought thee. W CHA P. XXX. of Cannibals. HEN King Pyrrhus, upon his Entrance into Italy, faw the Order of the Roman Army, that was fent to meet him*. I know not, faid he, what kind of Barbarians (for fo the Greeks call other Nations) these may be; but the Difpofition of the Army, which I now fee, has nothing of the Barbarian in it. The fame was faid by the Greeks concerning the Army which Flaminius fent into their Country; and by Philip, when he difcovered, from an Eminence, the Order and Diftribution of the Roman Camp, in his Kingdom under Publius Sulpitius Galba. By this it appears, how cautious Men ought to be, of taking Things upon Truft, from vulgar Opinion, and that we are to judge by the Eye of Reason, and not from common Report. I had a Man with me a long Time, who had lived ten or twelve Years in that other World, lately discovered, in that Part of it, which Velegaignon went after, which he furnamed Antarctick France. This Difcovery of fo vaft a Country seems to be of very great Importance; and we Q4 *Plutarch in the Life of Pyrrhus. Reflections on the Discovery of the New World. are Atlantis. Book I. are not fure, that there may not be another discovered hereafter, fo many greater Men than we having been deceived in this. I am afraid that our Eyes are bigger than our Bellies, and that our Curiofity is greater than our Capacity. We grafp at every Thing, and catch nothing but Air. Plato introduces Solon*, telling a Story The Iland of which he had heard from the Pricfts of Sais in Egypt, that in the old Times, even before the Flood, there was a great Inland called Atlantis, directly at the Mouth of the Streight of Gibraltar, which was bigger than Africa and Afia both together, and that the Kings of this fame Country, who not only poffeffed this Inland, but had extended themfelves fo far into the Continent, that it extended the Breadth of Africa as far as Egypt, and the Length of Europe as far as Tuscany, attempted to incroach even upon Afia, and to fubdue all the Nations bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, as far as the Gulph of the Black Sea, and for this Purpofe traversed Spain, Gaul, and Italy, even to Greece, where they were checked by the Athenians: But that fome Time after, both the Athenians, and they, with their Island, were fwallowed by the Deluge. Deluges the It is very probable, that extraordinary rifCaufe of great ing Inundation made ftrange Alterations in Alterations in the Habitations of the Earth, as it is faid, that Sicily was rent by the Sea from the Mainland of Italy; the habitable World. (Hac loca vi quondam, & vaftâ convulsa ruina, Diffiluiffe ferunt: cum protinus utraque tellus, ('Tis faid that by an Earthquake or a rapid Flood, Thofe Places, were from one another rent, Which were before one folid Continent.) Cyprus from Syria; the Ifle of Negropont from the Mainland of Baotia; and in other Parts, joined Lands to In the Dialogue intitled Timæus, p. 524, 525. gether |