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Book I. Earth, turned up the Demi-god Tages, who had the Vifage of a Child, but the Wisdom of an old Man. Every Body flocked to him; and his Sayings, and his System, containing the Principles of this Art, and the Means of attaining to it, was compiled, and preferved for many Ages. As its Rife was, fo was its Progrefs. I fhould chufe rather to regulate my Affairs by the Turn of a Dye, than by fuch Dreams; and, indeed, in all Republicks, a good Share of Authority has ever been left to Chance. Plato, in that Syftem of Government which he has formed out of his own Head, afcribes the Decifion of several important Things to Chance; and, amongst the reft, would have Marriages of the better † Sort of People be appointed by Lot: And to fuch Choice by Chance he gives fo great a Sanction, as to order the Children born of fuch Marriage to be brought up in the Country, and that thofe of mean Parentage fhould be turned out of it: Neverthelefs, that if any one, fo banished, fhould, as it grew up, happen to give any Hopes of being eminently good, it might be recalled, and those that were kept at home, who gave little Expectation of their Youth, were as liable to be banished. I fee fome that pore and comment on their Almanacks, producing their Authority for Occurrences, who after all muft needs ftumble upon fome Truth in a a Number of Lies. Quis eft enim qui totum diem jaculans non aliquando conlineet t? i. e. Who is there that fhoots at a Mark all Day will not hit it fometimes? I do not think the better of them for fome accidental Hits. There would be more Certainty in it, if it was fettled as a Rule

* Cic. de Divinatione, lib. ii. c. 23.

Indigence dixere Tagen, qui primus Etrufcam

Edocuit gentem cafus aperire futuros. Ovid. Metam lib xv.

of

i. e He that firft taught the Tuftans the Knowledge of Futurity was by the Natives called Tages.

↑ Viz. In his Republic. lib. v. where he requires, that the Chiefs of his Commonwealth fhould fo order it, that the Men of the greatest Excellence should be matched with the most excellent Women; and, on the contrary, that the most contemptible Men fhould be married to Women of their own low Character; but that the Thing should be decided by a Sort of Lottery, fo artfully managed (xango wor≤ xoμí) that the latter may blame Fortune for it, and not their Governors. But there is not one Inftance of a Choice made by Chance, and confequently Montaigne might as well have omitted to give us this Quotation.

↑ Cic. de Divinatione, li b. ii. c. 59.

of Truth always to lie. Befides, Nobody keeps a Regifter of their Mif-reckonings, becaufe they are common and endlefs; but, if they once guess right, their Divinations are cried up as rare, incredible, and prodigious. Diagoras, firnamed the Atheift, being in the Temple of Samothrace, where he faw the many Vows and Pictures of thofe that had escaped Shipwreck, the Perfon who fhewed them, faid to him, You who think that the Gods have no Concern for buman Things, what say you of fo many Perfons fav'd by their Favour? So it was, replied Diagoras; but here are not the Pictures of thofe that were drowned, who were much the greater Number. Cicero obferves *, that of all the Philofophers who acknowledged any Deities, Xenophanes of Colophon is the only one that endeavoured to eradicate all Manner of Divination. And 'tis not fo much to be wondered, if we have seen some of our Princes, to their own Coft, influenced by thefe Chimeras t. I wish I had with my own Eyes feen those two wonderful Books, viz. that of Joachim the Calabrian Abbot, which foretold all the future Popes their Names and Shapes; and that of the Emperor Leo, which prophecied of the Emperors and Patriarchs of Greece. This I have been an Eye-witnefs of, that in publick Confufions, Men aftonished at their Fortune, have abandoned their Reafon almoft totally to Superftition, by looking up to the ftarry Heaven for the ancient Caufes and Menaces of their Misfortune, and have therein been fo furprizingly fuccefsful in my Time, as to make me believe, that this Study, being an Amusement for Men of Penetration and Leifure, those who are inclined to this Subtilty of explaining and unriddling Myfteries, would be capable of finding out what they want to know in all Writings whatsoever. But above all, that which gives them the greateft Scope is, the obfcure, ambiguous, and fantastick Part of their prophetick Jargon, to which their Authors give no clear Interpretation, to the End that Pofterity may make what Application of it they please. The Damon of Socrates was, perhaps, a Montaigne's Opicertain Impulse of the Will, which obtruded nion of Socrates's itself on him without confulting his own

Dæmon.

Judgment,

Cicero de Nat. Deorum, lib. iii. c. 37. † Cic. de Divin, lib. i. c. 3.

Book I. Judgment. For in a Soul fo refined as his was, and prepared by the conftant Exercife of Wisdom and Virtue, it is probable, that thefe Inclinations of his, tho' rafk and indigefted, were always important, and worthy to be followed. Every one finds in himfelf fome Image of fuch Agitations of a prompt, vehement and fortuitous Opinion. It is my Duty to allow them fome Authority, who attribute fo little to our Prudence. And I myself have had fome Agitations, weak in Reafon, but violent in Perfuafion, or in Diffuafion, (which was the common Cafe with Socrates) by which I have fuffered my felf to be carried away fo much to my own Advantage, that they might well be supposed to have fomething in them of Divine Infpiration.

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CHA P. XII.

Of Conftancy,

In what ConY Refolution and Conftancy it is not imfancy and Replied that we ought not, as much as in folution confifts. us lies, to fecure ourselves from the Mischiefs and Inconveniencies that threaten us; nor, confequently, that we should not be afraid of being furprized by them: On the contrary, all honeft Means of preferving ourselves from Harms are not only allowed of, but commendable. And the Bufinefs of Conftancy chiefly is, to fuffer, without flinching, thofe Inconveniencies against which there is no Remedy. At the fame Time, there is no Motion of the Body, nor any Guard in the handling of Arms, that we difapprove of, if it ferves to defend us from the Stroke that is aimed at us. Several very warlike Nations have, in their Battles, found their chief Advantage in a Retreat, and done the Enemy more Mischief by turning their Backs to them than their Faces. Of which Way of fighting the Turks retain fomething to this Day. Socrates, in Plato, rallies Laches, who had defined Fortitude to be nothing more nor lefs, than ftanding firm in Rank to face the Enemy: What, faid he, would it be Cowardice to beat them by giving Ground? At the fame Time he quoted Homer to

him, where he commends Eneas for his Skill in retreating. And because Laches, upon fresh Confideration, owned this was the Practice of the Scythians, and in general of all Cavalry, he urged another Proof from the Inftance of the Infantry of the Lacedæmonians, (a Nation of all others the most obftinate in maintaining their Ground) who, in the Battle of Platea, not being able to break into the Perfian Phalanx, thought fit to fall back, that the Enemy, fuppofing them flying, might break and difunite their firm Body in the Purfuit, by which Means the Lacedæmo nians obtained the Victory. As for the Scythians, it is faid of them, that when Darius fet out on his Expedition to fubdue them, he fent to reproach their King with Cowardice, for always retiring before him, and declining a Battle; to which Indathyrfis (for that was his Name) made Answer, That he did fo not for Fear of him, or of any Man living, but that it was the Way of marching in his Country, where there was neither tilled Fields, nor Town, nor House to defend, or to fear the Enemy could make any Advantage of: But that if he had fuch a voracious Appetite, let him only come and view their ancient Place of Sepulture, and there be should have his Bellyfull *.

Nevertheless, as to Cannon which is levelled for a Mark, as the Occafions of War often require, it is fhameful to quit a Poft to avoid the threatened Blow, forafmuch as, by Reafon of the Violence and Velocity of the Shot we account it inevitable; and many an one by ducking the Head, or holding up the Hand, has furnished Matter for his Comrades to laugh at. And yet, in the Expedition which the Emperor Charles V. made against us in Provence, the Marquis de Guaft going to reconnoitre the City of Arles, and venturing to advance out of the Shelter of a Windmill, by the Favour of which he made his Approach fo near the Town as he had done, he was fpied by the Seigneurs de Bonneval and the Seneschal d'Agenois as they were walking on the Theatre des Arenest, who having fhewed him to Monfieur de Villiers, Commiffary of the Artillery, he levelled a Culverin at him fo exactly right, that had not VOL. I. the

Herodotus, lib. iv. p. 300, 301.

E

The Theatre for the publick Shews of Riding, Fencing, &c.

Book I. the Marquis, upon feeing Fire given to it, inftantly popp'd to one Side, it was taken for granted he would have been fhot in the Body. And, in like Manner, fome Years before this, Lorenzo de Medicis, Duke of Urbino, Father to the Queen Mother of France, laying Siege to Mondolpho, in those Parts called the Vicariate of Italy, feeing the Gunner give Fire to a Piece that pointed directly at him, was fo fortunate as to duck down that Moment, or otherwise the Ball, that only grazed the Top of his Head, would doubtlefs have hit him on the Breaft. To fpeak Truth, I do not think that these Dodgings are made with Judgment; for how is any Man living able to judge of high or low Aim on fo fudden an Occafion? And it is much more natural to think, that Fortune favoured their Fear, and that the fame Motion, at another Time, might as well put a Perfon into Danger, as free him from it. For my own Part, I cannot forbear ftarting when the Noife of a Gun thunders in my. Ears on a fudden, and in a Place where I have no Reason to expect it, which I have also observed in other Men of ftouter Hearts than mine. Neither do the Stoicks mean that the Soul of their Philofoper fhould be Proof aPhilofophers not blameable for gainst the firft Surprize, by Vifions and Fanyielding to the cies; and they think that it is but natural for firft Attacks of him to be fhocked by the terrible Rattle of the Paffions. Thunder, or the Fall of fome Ruin, for Instance, even so as to turn pale, or be convulfed (as well as in the other Paffions.) And this the Stoicks, I fay, difpenfe with in their wife Man, provided his Judgment remains found and entire, and that the Seat of his Reafon fuffers no Concuffion nor Alteration whatsoever, and that he yields no Confent to his Fright and Disturbance. A Fright is the fame Thing to him who is not a Philofopher, in the first Part of it, but it is quite another Cafe with him in the fecond; for, in fuch a one, the Impreffion of the Paffions does not remain fuperficial only, but penetrates even to the Seat of his Reafon, fo as to infect and corrupt it. According to his Paffions he judges and conforms his Conduct. But in this Verse you may fee the State of the wife Stoick elegantly and plainly expreffed :

Mens

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