It is most certain, that extreme Fear, and The very fame extreme Ardour of Courage, do equally b.nd Effect produced and relax the Belly. The Nickname of by Fear and by Trembling, with which they firnamed Sancho, extraordinary Courage. the XIIth King of Navarre, fufficiently informeth, that Valour will caufe a trembling in the Limbs, as well as Fear. The Friends of that King, or of fome other Perfon, who, upon the like Occafion, was wont to be in the fame Disorder, tried to compofe him, by reprefenting the Danger he was going to run, lefs than it was: You don't know me, said he, for could my Flesh know the Danger my Courage will presently carry it into, it would actually creep upon my Bones.

The Faintnefs that furprizes us from Frigidity, or difgufts in the Exercises of Venus, is alfo occafioned by a too violent Defire, and an immoderate Heat.

Extreme Coldnefs, and extreme Heat, boil and roast. Ariftotle fays, that Sows of Lead will melt and run with Cold, and in the Extremity of Winter, as well as with a vehement Heat.

Defire and Satiety fill all the Gradations, above and below Pleasure, with Grief.

Ignorance and Wisdom meet in the fame Wisdom and Center of Sentiment and Refolution, as to Ignorance atthe fuffering of human Accidents; the Wife tain to the controul and triumph over Ill, the others fame Ends. know it not: Thefe laft are, as a Man may fay, on this Side of Accidents, the other are beyond them; who, after having well weighed and confidered their Qualities, and measured and judged them as they are, by virtue of a vigorous Soul they mount above their Reach. They difdain and trample them under Foot, having a solid and well fortified Soul, againft which the Darts of Fortune coming to ftrike, they muft of Neceffity rebound, and be blunted, after meeting with a Body upon which they can fix no Impreffion. The ordinary and middle Condition of Men, lies betwixt thefe two Extremities, confifting of fuch who perceive Evils, feel them, and are not able to fupport them.

Infancy

Book I. Infancy and extreme Old Age, meet in the Weakness of the Brain; Avarice and Profufion center in the like Defire of Gain.

A Man may fay, with fome Colour of Two Kinds of Truth, that there is an abecedarian Ignorance Ignorance. that precedes Knowledge, and a Doctoral Ignorance that comes after it; an ignorance that Knowledge does create and beget, juft as it difpatches and deftroys the former.

The fitness of plain Under Randings to Chriftianity.

Belief.

Mean Under

flandings liable

to err.

Perfons of mean Underftandings, not fo inquifitive, nor fo well inftructed, are made good Chriftians; and, by Reverence and Obedience, implicitly believe, and abide by their

In the moderate Understandings, and the middle Sort of Capacities, the Error of Opinions is begot, and they have fome Colour of Reason to impute our walking on in the old beaten Path, to Simplicity and Stupidity, meaning us who have not informed ourselves by Study.

Men of the greatest Under flanding, the completeft Chriftians.

The nobler Souls, more fettled and clear fighted, make up another Sort of true Believers; who, by a long and religious Investigation of Truth, penetrate into the deeper,

and more abftrufe Parts of the Scriptures, and discover the myfterious and divine Secret of our Ecclefiaftical Polity. And yet we fee fome, who, by this middle Step, are arrived to that fupreme Degree, with marvellous Fruit and Confirmation, as to the utmoft Limit of Chriftian Intelligence, and enjoying their Victory with Confolation, Thanksgiving, Reformation of Manners, and great Modefty. I do not intend with these to rank fome others, who, to clear themselves from all Sufpicion of their former Errors, and to fatisfy us that they are true Converts, render themselves extreme indiscreet and unjuft, in the carrying on our Caufe, and, by that Means, blemish it with infinite Reproaches of Violence. The meer Peafant The fimple Peafants are a good People, and and the Philofo- fo are the Philofophers: Men of ftrong and pher good Men. clear natural Parts, enriched with ample In

ftruction

ftruction in the ufeful Sciences. The Mongrels, who have difdained the first Form of the Ignorance of Letters, and have not been able to attain to the other, (fitting betwixt two Stools, as I, and many more do) are dangerous, foolish, and impertinent; thefe are they that trouble the World. And therefore it is that I, for my own Part, retreat as much as I can towards my first and natural Station, from whence I fo vainly attempted to ad

vance.

Popular Poetry comparable to the most perfect.

The vulgar, and purely natural Poetry, has certain Proprieties and Graces, by which it may compare with the most beautiful Poetry perfected by Art; as is evident in our Gafion Ballads, and in the Songs that are brought us from Nations which know no Science, nor fo much as Writing.

Middling Poe

try intolerable.

The middle Sort of Poetry, betwixt these two, is defpifed, and of no Value nor Honour. But forafmuch as after a Path is laid open to the Fancy, I have found, as it commonly falls. out, that what we took for a rare and difficult Subject and Exercise, is nothing fo; and that after the Invention is once warm, it finds out an infinite Number of parallel Examples, I fhall only add this one: That Montaigne's were these Effays of mine worthy of Criti- Opinion of his cifm, it might, I think, fall out, that they Elays.

would not much take with common and vulgar Capacities, nor be very acceptable to thofe that are fingular and excellent; for thofe that are the firft would not understand them enough, and the last too much, and fo they might hover in the middle Region.

CHAP.

Alexander's

Sweat had an agreeable Smell.

CHA P. LV.

Of Smells.

T has been reported of fome, particularly

I of

of Alexander the Great, that their Sweat diffufed an odoriferous Smell, occafioned by fome rare and extraordinary Conftitution, of which Plutarch, and others, have been inquifitive into the Caufe. But the ordinary Conftitution of human Bodies is quite otherwife, and their beft Quality is. to be exempt from Smells: Nay, that is the fweetest of all Breaths, which yields no offenfive Smell, like the Breaths of healthful Children: Which made Plautus say,

Mulier tùm benè olet, ubi nihil olet†. i. e.

That Woman we a fweet one call,
Whofe Body yields no Scent at all.

And as for thofe who Ufe exotick PerForeign Perfumes create a fumes, there is good Reafon to fufpect they Sufpicion. endeavour thereby to conceal fome difagreeable Effluvia from themselves, according to that of Mr. Johnson, which, without offence to Monfieur de Montaigne, I will here prefume to infert, it being at least as well said, as any of thofe he quotes out of the ancient Poets,

Still to be Neat, ftill to be Drest,
As you were going to a Feaft,
Still to be powder'd, ftill perfum'd:
Lady, it is to be prefum'd,

Though Arts hid caufes are not found,

All is not fweet, all is not found.

Some of the ancient Poets have even afferted that to Smell fweet, is to Stink: As may be judged by these following,

*Plutarch in the Life of Alexander, chap, 1. að. 1. fce. 3. v. ì17,

Rides

+ Plaut. Moftebl.

Ben. Jobnfou.

刻

Rides nos, Coracine, nil olentes :

Malo quam bene olere, nil olere *. i. e.

Because thou Coracinus ftill doft go

With Mufk and Ambergreafe perfumed fo,
We under thy Contempt, forfooth, must fall;
I'd rather than fmell fweet, not fmell at all;

And elsewhere,

Pofthume, non benè olet, qui bene femper olet †. i. e.

He does not naturally fmell well,

Who always of Perfumes does smell.

I am nevertheless a ftrange Lover of good Smells, and as much abominate the ill ones, which I reach at a greater Distance, I think, than other Men:

Namque fagaciùs unus odoror,

Polypus, an gravis hirfutis cubet hircus in alis,
Quam canis acer ubi lateat fus . i. e.

For I can smell a putrid Polypus,

Or the rank Arm-pits of a Red-hair'd Fufs,
As foon as beft nos'd Hound the ftinking Stie,
Where the Wild Boar does in the Forest lie.

Of Smells, the most fimple and natural feem to be most
pleafing, This is what the Ladies ought chiefly to regard.
In the wildeft Parts of Barbary, the Scythian Women,
after Bathing, were wont to powder and cruft their Faces,
and whole Bodies, with a certain odoriferous Drug, grow-
ing in their own Territories; which being cleansed off,
when they came near the Men, they were found Perfumed
and fleek: It is not to be believed, how ftrangely all
Sorts of Odours cleave to me, and how apt my Skin is to
imbibe them. He that complains of Nature, that she
has not furnished Mankind with a Vehicle to convey
Smells

Mart. lib. vi. epig. 55. v. 4, 5.
Hor. ep. lib. vi. Ode 12, v. 4.

† Id. lib. ii. ep. 12. v. 4.