I'll go his halves. The Devil was sick, Works. Book iv. Chap. xxiii. -the Devil a monk would be; the devil a monk was he. Chap. xxiv. Do not believe what I tell you here any more than if it were some tale of a tub. Chap. xxxviii. I would have you call to mind the strength of the ancient giants, that undertook to lay the high mountain Pelion on the top of Ossa, and set among those the shady Olympus.1 Which was performed to a T.2 Ibid. Chap. xli. He that has patience may compass anything. Chap. xlviii. We will take the good will for the deed.3 Chap. xlix. You are Christians of the best edition, all picked and He freshly and cheerfully asked him how at should kill time. Chap. lxii. The belly has no ears, nor is it to be filled with fair words.5 Ibid. Whose cockloft is unfurnished." The Author's Prologue to the Fifth Book. Speak the truth and shame the Devil." Plain as a nose in a man's face. 1 See Ovid, page 707. 8 See Swift, page 292. 5 See Plutarch, page 725. 7 See Shakespeare, page 85. 8 2 Sce Johnson, page 375. 6 See Bacon, page 170. Ibid. Ibid. 8 See Shakespeare, page 44. Like hearts of oak.1 Prologue to the Fifth Book. Ibid. You shall never want rope enough. Looking as like as one pea does like another.2 . Nothing is so dear and precious as time.3 And thereby hangs a tale.* Book v. Chap. ii. Chap. v. Chap. iv. It is meat, drink," and cloth to us. Chap. vii. And so on to the end of the chapter. Chap. x. What is got over the Devil's back is spent under the Thought I to myself, we shall never come off scot-free. Ibid. It is enough to fright you out of your seven senses.9 Ibid. Necessity has no law.10 Ibid. Panurge had no sooner heard this, but he was upon the high-rope. Chap. xviii. We saw a knot of others, about a baker's dozen. I believe he would make three bites of a cherry. 1 See Garrick, page 388. 2 See Lyly, page 33. 3 See Franklin, page 361. Also Diogenes Laertius, page 762. 4 See Shakespeare, page 68. 5 See Shakespeare, page 71. 6 Isocrates was in the right to insinuate that what is got over the Devil's back is spent under his belly. LE SAGE: Gil Blas, book viii. chap. ix. 7 I have other fish to fry. -CERVANTES: Don Quixote, part ii. chap. xxxv 8 See Burton, page 190. 9 See Scott, page 493. 11 See Chaucer, page 3. 12 See Plutarch, page 738. 10 See Shakespeare, page 115. MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE. 1533-1592. (Works. Cotton's translation, revised by Hazlitt and Wight.) Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject.2 Book i. Chap. i. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same End. All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate. Chap. ii. Of Sorrow. It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.' Chap. ix Of Liars. He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.5 Chap. xviii. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death. The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom. Chap. xxii. Of Custom. Accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man. Chap. xxv. Of the Education of Children. We were halves throughout, and to that degree that methinks by outliving him I defraud him of his part. Chap. xxvii. Of Friendship. There are some defeats more triumphant than victories." Chap. xxx. Of Cannibals. 1 This book of Montaigne the world has indorsed by translating it into all tongues, and printing seventy-five editions of it in Europe. - EMERSON: Representative Men. Montaigne. 2 See Plutarch, page 730. 3 See Raleigh, page 25. Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent (Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb). - SENECA: Hippolytus, ii. 3, 607. 4 See Sidney, page 264. Mendacem memorem esse oportere (To be a liar, memory is necessary). — QUINTILIAN: iv. 2, 91. 5 See Tickell, page 313. 7 See Bacon, page 171. 6 See Burton, page 187. Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. Book i. Chap. xxxi. Of Divine Ordinances. A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself. Chap. xxxviii. Of Solitude. Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life. Chap. xl. Of Good and Evil. Plato says, ""T is to no purpose for a sober man to knock at the door of the Muses;" and Aristotle says "that no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of folly." 1 Book ii. Chap. ii. Of Drunkenness. For a desperate disease a desperate cure.2 Chap. iii. The Custom of the Isle of Cea. And not to serve for a table-talk." Ibid. To which we may add this other Aristotelian consideration, that he who confers a benefit on any one loves him better than he is beloved by him again. Chap. viii. Of the Affection of Fathers. The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us. Chap. x. Of Books. The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write. Ibid. She [virtue] requires a rough and stormy passage; she will have either outward difficulties to wrestle with,5. or internal difficulties. Chap. xi. Of Cruelty. ... There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general. duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants. Ibid. 1 See Dryden, page 267. 2 See Shakespeare, page 141. 4 ARISTOTLE: Ethics, ix. 7. 5 See Milton, page 255. Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe. Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond. When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me? Ibid. "T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things might certainly conclude as to both the future and the past.1 Ibid. The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould. . . . The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes. Ibid. Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens. Ibid. Why may not a goose say thus: "All the parts of the universe I have an interest in: the earth serves me to walk upon, the sun to light me; the stars have their influence upon me; I have such an advantage by the winds and such by the waters; there is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon so favourably as me. I am the darling of Nature! Is it not man that keeps and serves me?" 2 Ibid. Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form. 8 Ibid. He that I am reading seems always to have the most force. 1 See Plutarch, page 726. 2 See Pope, page 318. Ibid. |