the Audience was deferred 'till the next Day, at which he was fo ravifhed with Joy, that he enfranchifed him for the good News. As to this Subject of Letters, I will add Montaigne's this to what has been already faid, that it is Genius for the a kind of Writing, wherein my Friends think epistolary Stile. I can do fomething*; and I fhould rather have chose to publish my Whimfies in that, than any other Form, had I had to whom to write; but I wanted fuch a fettled Correfpondency as I once had, to attract me to it, to raise my Fancy, and to fupport me. For to traffick with the Wind, as fome others have done, and to forge vain Names to correfpond with, on a ferious Subject, I could never do it but in a Dream, being a fworn Enemy to all Manner of Falfification: I should have been more diligent, and more confidently fecure, had I had a hearty Friend, to whom to address, than to confider the different Afpects of a whole People, and I am deceived if I had not fucceeded better: I have naturally a comick and familiar Stile; but it is a peculiar one, and not proper for publick Business, my Language being in all refpect, too compact, irregular, abrupt, and fingular; and as to Letters of Ceremony, that have no other Subftance, than a fine Chain of courteous Words, I am wholly to feek; I have neither Faculty, nor Relifh, for thofe tedious Offers of Service and Affection; I have not fo much Faith in them, and fhould not forgive myself, fhould I offer more than I intend, which is very different from the prefent Practice; for there never was fo abject and fervile Prostitutions of Tenders of Life, Soul, Devotion, Adoration, Vaffal, Slave, and I cannot tell what, as now; when fuch Expreffions are fo commonly, and fo indifferently pofted to and fro by every one, and to every one, that when they would profefs a ftronger and more respectful Inclination they have not wherewithal to exprefs it: I mortally hate all Air of Flattery, which is the Cause that I naturally fall into a dry, rough, and crude Way of Speaking, which to fuch as do not know me, may favour U 3 a little * I have met with eight Letters from Montaigne, wherewith I fhall enrich this Edition, that may give some Idea of what he here fays. Montaigne's Letters. Book I. a little of Difdain: I honour thofe moft to whom I pay the leaft; and where my Soul is Chearful, I forget all Ceremonies; I offer myself poorly but proudly, to them whofe I effectually am, and tender myself the least to him, to whom I am the most devoted: Methinks they fhould read it in my Heart, and that my Expreffion injures my Conception. To bid Welcome, take Leave, give Thanks, Salute, offer my Service, and fuch verbal Formalities, as the ceremonious Laws of our Civility enjoin, His Unfitness I know no Man fo ftupidly unprovided of to write Let- Language as myfelf: And have never been ters of Recom- employed in writing Letters of Favour, and mendation. Recommendation, but he for whom I wrote thought them cold and flat. The Italians are great Printers of Letters. I do believe I have a hundred feveral Volumes of them; of all which thofe of Hannibal Caro, feem to me to be the beft: If all the Paper I have formerly ftained to the Ladies, when my Hand was really prompted by my Paffion, was now in being, there might peradventure be found a Page worthy to be communicated to our young Enamoratos, that are befotted with that Fury. The Hurry in I always write my Letters in Post-haste and which Mon- fo precipitoufly, that tho' mine is an intoltaigne wrote. erable bad Hand, I rather chufe to write myfelf, than to employ another; for I can find none able to write faft enough for my dictatings and I never tranfcribe any. I have accustomed the great Ones that know me to put up with my Blots and Dashes, and upon Paper without Fold or Margent. Thofe Letters that coft me the most Pains, are the worft; when I drag the Matter in, it is a Sign that I am not there. I fall too without Premeditation or Defign, the firft Paragraph begets the fecond, and fo on. The Letters of this Age confift more in Margent, and Prefaces, than Matter; I had rather write two Letters, than clofe and fold up one, and always affign that Employment to fome other; fo alfo, when the Bufiness is difpatched, I would, with all my Heart, commiffion another Hand, to add thofe long Harangues, Offers, and Prayers that we place at the Bottom, and fhould fhould be glad that fome new Cuftom would difcharge us of that unneceffary Trouble; as alfo that of fuperfcribing them with a Train of Qualities, and Titles, which, for fear of Mistakes, I have often omitted Writing, and ef pecially to Men of the Law and the Revenue. So many are the Innovations of Offices, and fo hard it is to place fo many Titles of Honour in their proper and due Order, which being dearly bought, they cannot be changed, nor omitted without Offence. I find the fame Fault likewife in charging the Title Pages and Infcriptions, of the Books we commit to the Prefs, with fuch a Clutter of Titles. CHA P. XL. That the Relish of Good and Evil, does, in a great Meafure, depend upon the Opinion we have of either. M The Bafis of our Opinion of Good and E vil. EN (fays an ancient Greek Sentence) are tormented with the Opinions they have of Things, and not by the Things themselves. It were a great Point carried for the Relief of our miferable human Condition, could this Propofition be established for true throughout. For if Evils have no Admiffion into us but by the Judgment we ourfelves make of them, it fhould feem that it is in our own Power to defpife them, or to turn them to good. If Things furrender to our Mercy, why do we not manage and accommodate them to our Advantage? If what we call Evil and Torment, is neither Evil nor Torment of itself, but only our Fancy gives it that Quality, and makes it fo, it is in our Power to change it, and it being in our own Choice, if there be no Conftraint upon us, we are ftrange Fools, to take Part with that Side which is most difguitful to us, and to give Sickness, Want, and Contempt, a four naufeous Tafte, if it be in our Power to give them a more grateful Relish, and if Fortune fimply provide the Matter, it is for us to give it the Form. U 4 Now What Evil is, and how it concerns us. Now that what we call Evil, is not fo of itself, or at least, be it what it will, that it depends upon us, to give it another Taste or Complection, (for all comes to one) let us examine how this can be maintained. If the original Being of those Things we fear, had Credit to lodge himself in us, by his own Authority, he would lodge himfelf in like Manner in all; for Men are all of the fame Kind, and, faving in greater or lefs Proportions, are all provided with the fame Tools and Inftruments to conceive and to judge; but the diverfity of Opinions we have of thofe Things, does clearly evidence, that they only enter us by Compofition: One Perfon, peradventure, admits them in their true State; but a Thousand others give them a new, ard contrary Being in their Breaft. We hold Death, Poverty, and Pain, for our The different Ideas of Death. principal Enemies; but this Death which fome repute the most dreadful of all dreadful Things, who does not know that others call it the only fecure Harbour from the Tempests of Life? The fovereign Good of Nature? The fole Support of our Liberty, and the common and ready Remedy of all Evils? And as the one expect it with Fear and Trembling, the other fupport it with greater Eafe than Life. That Blade complains of its Facility, Mors utinam pavidos vitâ fubducere nolles, Sed Virtus te fola daret*! i. e. O Death! I wish thou wouldst the Coward fpare, But let us leave this boafted Courage. Theodorus answered Lyfimachus, who threatened to kill him, Thou wilt do a brave Feat, faid he, to shew thou haft the Force of a Cantharides. The greateft Part of Philofophers are obferved to have either purposely prevented, or haftened and affifted their own Death. How many common People do we fee led to Execution, and to a Death mixed alfo with Shame, and fometimes with grievous Torments, appear * Luc. lib, iv ver. 58, 531. + Cic. Tufc. Quæft. lib. v. ch. 40. appear with fuch Affurance, what through Obftinacy, or natural Simplicity, that a Man can difcover no Change from their ordinary State of Mind; fettling their domeftick Affairs, recommending themselves to their Friends, finging, preaching, and entertaining the People fo 'much, as fometimes to fally into Jefts, and to drink to their Companions, as did Socrates! One that they were leading to the Gallows, Merry Jokes of told them they must not carry him through fome Perfons led fuch'a Street, left a Merchant, that lived there, to Execution. should arreft him by the Way for an old Debt. Another faid to the Hangman, he muft not touch his Neck, for fear of making him laugh outright, he was fo ticklish. Another answered his Confeffor, who promised him that he should that Day fup with our Lord. Do you go then, faid he, in my Room; for 1, for my Part, keep Faft to Day. Another having called for Drink, and the Hangman having drank firft, faid he would not drink after him, for fear of catching the Pox. Every Body has heard the Tale of the Picard, to whom, being upon the Ladder, they prefented a Whore, telling him (as our Law does fometimes permit) that if he would marry her, they would fave his Life; he having a while viewed her, and perceiving that the halted, Come, tye up, tye up, said he, The limps. And they tell, alfo, of a Fellow in Denmark, who being condemned to lose his Head, and the like Condition being propofed to him upon the Scaffold, refused it, by reafon the Maid they offered him, had hollow Cheeks, and too fharp a Nofe. A Servant at Thouloufe, being accused of Herefy, faid only, that he believed as his Mafter did, who was a young Student Prifoner with him, and he chose rather to die, than fuffer himself to be perfuaded that his Mafter could err. We read, that when Lewis the Eleventh took Arras, a great many of the Inhabitants fuffered themselves to be hanged, rather than they would fay, God fave the King. And amongst that mean-foul'd Race of Men, the Buffoons, there have been fome, who would not leave their Fooling at the very Moment of Death. One that the Hangman Buffoons that died with a Joke in their Mouths. turned |