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Mens immota manet, lacrymæ volvuntur inanes

The Mind doth fix'd remain.

While Tears are fhed in vain.

The Peripatetick Philofopher is not exempt from the Perturbations of the Mind, but he keeps them within Bounds.

T

CHA P. XIII.

Of the Ceremony at the Interview of Princes.

The Refpect

which Gentlemen are obliged to pay to a great Man uho vifits

them.

HERE is no Subject fo frivolous, that does not merit a Place in this Rhapfody. According to our common Rules of Civility, it would be unpolite Behaviour to an Equal, and much more to a Superior, to fail of being at home, when he has given you Notice that he will come to pay you a Vifit. Nay, Queen Margaret of Navarre carried the Point farther, by faying, That it is uncivil in a Gentleman to go out of his House, as is a common Practice, to meet any one coming to fee him, be he ever fo great a Man; and that 'tis more respectful and civil to stay at home to receive him, were it only for Fear of miffing him by the Way; and that it is enough to accompany him to his Apartment. For my Part, who am for as little Ceremony as poffible, in my own House, I often forget both thefe vain Offices. If any one be offended, what would you have me do? It is better to of fend him once, than myfelf every Day; for it would be a perpetual Slavery. To what End do we avoid the fervile Attendance of Courts, if we bring the fame home to our own Cottages? It is alfo a common Rule in all Affemblies, that thofe of lefs Quality fhould be the first at the Place of Affignation, because to be waited on, is an Honour, to which thofe of the greatest Distinction have the best Title.

E 2

*Virg. lib. iv. v. 449.

Never

The ufual Ceremony at the Interview of

Princes.

Nevertheless, at the Interview betwixt Pope Clement VII. and King Francis, at Marseilles, in 1533, the King, after he had given Order for the neceffary Preparations, went out of Town, and gave the Pope two or three Days Refpite for his Entry and Refreshment, before he came to him. And in like Manner alfo, at the Interview betwixt the fame Pope and the Emperor Charles V. at Bologna, the latter End of the Year 1532, the Emperor gave Leave to the Pope to be there firft, and then went thither himself. It is, they fay, a common Ceremony at the Conferences of fuch Princes, that the greatest should be at the Place appointed before the others, nay before him in whofe Territories they are to meet; and the Reafon is, because it fhould feem proper for the Inferiors to feek out and apply to the greater, and not he to them.

blameable.

Too much Nice- Not every Country only, but every City, ty in Civility is and even every Profeffion has a particular Form of Civility. I was carefully enough educated when a Child, and have lived in too good Company to be ignorant of the ceremonial Laws of our French Nation, and am able to train up others in the fame Knowledge. I love alfo to follow them, but not fo fervilely as to be inflaved to them all my Life-time. They have fome painful Formalities, the Omiffion of which, provided it be difcretional, and not thro' Mistake, is no Breach of Decorum. I have often feen People rude by being over civil, and troublefome in their Courtesy.

The Advan

As for the reft, to know how to behave tages of a well well, is a very useful Science. Like Graceregulated Ci fulness and Beauty, it creates a Liking at the vility. very Beginning of an Acquaintance and Familiarity, and, by Confequence, opens a Door for our Inftruction, by the Example of others, and for difplaying and producing ourfelves for a Model, if it has any Thing in it that is inftructive, and fit to be communicated.

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CHA P. XIV.

That the obftinate Defence of a Place that is not in Reafon to be defended, deferves to be punished.

VAL

Valour and its

ALOUR has its Bounds, as well as
other Virtues, which once tranfgreffed, Limits.

the next Step is into the Territories of Vice;

Why too obfti

nate a Defence of a Place is punifhed.

fo that, unless a Man be very perfect in its Limits, which are indeed not eafily to be diftinguished, fuch ill judged Valour leads to Rafhnefs, Obftinacy, and Folly. From this Confideration is derived the Cuftom, in Time of War, of punishing, even with Death, fuch as are obftinate in defending a Place which, by the Rules of War, is not tenable: Elfe Men would be fo confident, upon the Hopes of Impunity, that every Hen-rooft would stop an Army. The Conftable de Montmorency, at the Siege of Pavia, having Orders to pass the Tefin, and to take up his Quarters in the Suburb of St. Anthony, being hindered from doing fo by a Tower at the End of the Bridge, which was fo obftinate as to ftand a Battery, he hanged up every Man he found in it. And again, afterwards, when he accompanied the Dauphin in his Expedition beyond the Alps, and took the Castle of Villane by Storm, all within it were put to the Sword by the enraged Soldiers, except the Captain and the Enfign, whom he caused to be truffed up for the fame Reafon. In like Manner the Captain Martin du Bellay, then Governor of Turin, in the fame Country, treated the Captain de St. Bony, the rest of his Men being cut to Pieces at the taking of the Place. But forafmuch as the Strength or Weakness of a Place is always judged of by the Number and Weight of the Forces that attack it, (for a Man might reasonably enough defpife two Culverins, that would be mad if he stood the Battery of thirty Cannon) taking alfo into the Account the Power of the Prince who is Mafter of the Field, his Reputation, and the Refpect due to him, it is to be feared, the Balance will incline a little on that Side: And from

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Book I. hence it happens that fuch Princes have fo great an Opinion of themselves and their Measures, that thinking it unreasonable that any Place fhould prefume to make Head against them, they put all to the Sword that resist them, as long as their Fortune continues, as we fee by the proud and haughty Forms of fummoning Towns, and denouncing War, favouring fo much of Barbarian Infolence in Ufe among the oriental Princes, and their Succeffors, to this Day. And in that Corner which the Portuguese lopped off from the Indies, they found fome Dominions in which it was an univerfal and inviolable Law, that no Enemy who was defeated by the King in Perfon, or by his Lieutenant or Reprefentative, fhould be entitled either to a Ranfom or Mercy. So that, above all Things, it is abfolutely neceffary for every Man to take Care left he fall into the Hands of a Judge who is a victorious Enemy, and armed for Execution.

How Corwardice ought to be punished in a Soldier.

CHA P. XV.

Of the Punishment of Cowardice.

I

Once heard of a Prince, a very great Warrior, who afferted, that a Soldier ought not to be put to Death because he had a faint Heart; and that he said this at Table, upon being told the Story of the Proceedings againft Monfieur de Vervins, and of his being fentenced to Death for having given up Boulogne. Indeed, it is reasonable that a Man fhould make a great Difference betwixt Faults which proceed from our Weakness, and those that are abfolutely owing to our Malice; for in the latter we act wilfully against the Rules of that Reafon which Nature has planted in us; and in the former it seems that we may appeal for our Vindication to that fame Nature for having left us in fuch a State of Imperfection and Pufillanimity. Infomuch, that it has been thought by many, we are not blameable for any Thing but what we commit against the Light of our Confcience: And it is partly upon this Rule that those ground

I

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CHAP. XIV.

That the obftinate Defence of a Place that is not in Reafon to be defended, deferves to be punished.

Valour and its

ALOUR has its Bounds, as well as
other Virtues, which once tranfgreffed, Limits.

VAL

the next Step is into the Territories of Vice;

Why too obsti

nate a Defence of a Place is punifhed.

fo that, unless a Man be very perfect in its Limits, which are indeed not easily to be diftinguifhed, fuch ill judged Valour leads to Rashness, Obftinacy, and Folly. From this Confideration is derived the Cuftom, in Time of War, of punishing, even with Death, fuch as are obftinate in defending a Place which, by the Rules of War, is not tenable: Elfe Men would be fo confident, upon the Hopes of Impunity, that every Hen-rooft would stop an Army. The Conftable de Montmorency, at the Siege of Pavia, having Orders to pass the Tefin, and to take up his Quarters in the Suburb of St. Anthony, being hindered from doing fo by a Tower at the End of the Bridge, which was fo obftinate as to ftand a Battery, he hanged up every Man he found in it. And again, afterwards, when he accompanied the Dauphin in his Expedition beyond the Alps, and took the Caftle of Villane by Storm, all within it were put to the Sword by the enraged Soldiers, except the Captain and the Enfign, whom he caufed to be truffed up for the fame Reafon. In like Manner the Captain Martin du Bellay, then Governor of Turin, in the fame Country, treated the Captain de St. Bony, the rest of his Men being cut to Pieces at the taking of the Place. But forafmuch as the Strength or Weakness of a Place is always judged of by the Number and Weight of the Forces that attack it, (for a Man might reasonably enough defpife two Culverins, that would be mad if he stood the Battery of thirty Cannon) taking alfo into the Account the Power of the Prince who is Mafter of the Field, his Reputation, and the Refpect due to him, it is to be feared, the Balance will incline a little on that Side: And from

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