200 THE GULLERY PREVALENT IN USE OF LOFTY SIR-NAMES. when I hear our architects thunder out their bombast words of pilasters, architraves and cornices, of the Corinthian and Dorick orders, and such like stuff, my imagination is presently possess'd with the palace of Apollidonius in Amadis de Gaule; when after all, I find them but the paltry pieces of my own kitchen door. And to hear men talk of Metonymies, Metaphors and Allegories, and other grammar words, would not a man think they signified some rare and exotick form of. speaking? And this other is a gullery of the same stamp, to call the offices of our kingdom by the lofty titles of the Romans, though they have no similitude of function, and yet less authority and power. And this also, which I doubt will one day turn to the reproach of this age of ours, unworthily and indifferently to confer upon any we think fit, the most glorious Sir-names with which antiquity honour'd but one or two persons in several ages. Plato carried away the Sir-name of Divine, by so universal a consent, that never any one repin'd at it, or attempted to take it from him and yet the Italians who pretend, and with good reason, to more sprightly wits, and sounder discourses, than the other nations of their times, have lately honour'd Aretine with the same title; in whose writings, save a tumid phrase, set out with smart periods, ingenious indeed, but far fetch'd, and fantastick, and the eloquence (be it what it will) I see nothing in him above the ordinary writers of his time, so far is he from approaching the ancient divinity. And we make nothing of giving the Sir-name of great to princes, that have nothing in them above a popular grandeur. CHAP. XLI.-OF VAIN SUBTILTIES. THERE are a sort of little knacks, and frivolous subtilties, from which men sometimes expect to derive reputation and applause: as the poets, who compose whole poems, with every line beginning with the same letter: we see the shapes of eggs, globes, wings and hatchets, cut out by the ancient Greeks, by the measure of their verses, making them longer or shorter, to represent such or such a figure. Of this nature was his employment, who made it his business, to compute into how many several orders the letters of the alphabet might be transpos'd, and found out that incredible number mention'd in Plutarch. I am mightily pleas'd with the humour of the gentleman, who, having a man brought before him, that had learn'd to throw a grain of millet with such dexterity and assurance, as never to miss the eye of a needle; and being afterwards entreated to give something for the reward of so rare a performance, he pleasantly, and in my opinion ingeniously, order'd a certain number of bushels of the same grain to be deliver'd to him, that he might not want wherewith to exercise so famous an art. 'Tis a strong evidence of a weak judgment, when men approve of things for their being rare and new, or yet for the difficulty; where vertue and usefulness are not conjoin'd to recommend them. I come just now from playing with my own family, at who could find out the most things, that had their principal force in their two extremities; as, Sire, which is a title given to the greatest person in the nation, the king, and also to the vulgar, as merchants and mechanicks, but never to any degree of men 66 between. The women of great quality are call'd Madams, inferiour gentlewomen, Mademoiselles, and the meanest sort of women, Madams, as the first. The canopy of state over tables are not permitted, but in the palaces of princes, and taverns. Democritus said, that Gods and beasts, had a more exact and perfect sense, than men, who are of a middle form. The Romans wore the same habit at funerals and feasts; and it is most certain, that an extream fear, and an extream ardour of courage, do equally trouble and lax the belly. The nickname of trembling, with which they sirnam'd Sancho the XII. king of Navarre, sufficiently informeth, that valour will cause a trembling in the limbs, as well as fear. The friends of that king, or of some other person, who upon the like occasion was wont to be in the same disorder, try'd to compose him, by representing the danger less, he was going to engage himself in : 'you understand me ill," said he, "for could my flesh know the danger my courage will presently carry it into, it would sink down to the ground." Extream coldness, and extream heat, boil and roast. Aristotle says, that sows of lead will melt, and run with cold, and the extremity of winter, as with a vehement heat." Desire and satiety fill all the gradations above and below pleasure with grief. Brutality and wisdom meet in the same center of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents; the wise controul and triumph over ill, the others know it not: these last are, as a man may say, on this side of accidents, the other are beyond them; who after having well weigh'd and consider'd their qualities, measur'd and judg'd them what they are, by vertue of a vigorous soul leap out of their reach. They disdain and trample them under foot, having a solid and well fortified soul; against which the darts of fortune coming to strike they must of necessity rebound, and blunt themselves, meeting with a body upon which they can fix no impression; the ordinary and middle condition of men, are lodg'd betwixt these two extremities, consisting of such, who perceive evils, feel them, and are not able to support them. Infancy and decrepitude meet in the imbecility of the brain; avarice and profusion in the same thirst and desire of getting. A man may say with some colour of truth, that there is an Abecedarian ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a Doctoral ignorance that comes after it; an ignorance that knowledge does create and beget, at the same time that she destroys and despatches the first. Of mean understandings, little inquisitive, and little instructed, are made good Christians, who by reverence and obedience implicitely believe, and are constant in their belief. In the moderate understandings, and the middle sort of capacities, the error of opinions is begot, and they have some colour of reason on their side, to impute our walking on in the old beaten path to simplicity, and brutishness, I mean in us who have not inform'd our selves by study. The higher, and nobler souls, more solid and clear sighted, make up another sort of true believers who by a long and religious investigation of truth, have obtain'd a clearer, and more penetrating, light into the scriptures, and have discover'd the mysterious and divine secret of our ecclesiastical polity. And yet we see some, who by this middle step, are arriv'd to that supream degree with marvellous fruit, and confirmation; as to the utmost limit of Christian intelligence, and enjoying their victory with great spiritual consolation, 202 INVENTION ONCE WARM, EXAMPLES CROWD UPON YOU. humble acknowledgment of the divine favour, exemplary reformation of manners, and singular modesty. I do not intend with these to rank some others, who to clear themselves from all suspicion of their former errours, and to satisfie us, that they are sound and firm to us, render themselves extream indiscreet and unjust, in the carrying on our cause, and by that means blemish it with infinite reproaches of violence and oppression. The simple peasants are good people, and so are the philosophers: men of strong and clear reason, and whose souls are enrich'd with an ample instruction of profitable sciences. The Mongrets who have disdain'd the first form of ignorance of letters, and have not been able to attain to the other, (sitting betwixt two stools, as I, and a great many more of us do,) are dangerous, foolish and importunate; these 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 so vainly attempted to advance. The vulgar and purely natural poesie, has in it certain proprieties and graces, by which she may come into some comparison with the greatest beauty of a poesie perfected by art: as is evident in our Gascon villanels and songs, that are brought us from nations that have no knowledge of any manner of science, nor so much as the use of writing. The indifferent and middle sort of poesie between these two, is despis'd, of no value, honour or esteem. But seeing that the ice, being once broken, and a path laid open to the fancy, I have found, as it commonly falls out, that what we make choice of for a rare and difficult subject, proves to be nothing so, and that after the invention is once warm, it finds out an infinite number of parallel examples. I shall only add this one; that were these essays of mine considerable enough to deserve a censure, it might then I think fall out, that they would not much take with common and vulgar capacities, nor be very acceptable to the singular and excellent sort of men, for the first would not understand them enough, and the last too much, and so they might hover in the middle region. CHAP. XLII.-OF SMELlls. IT has been reported of others, as well as of Alexander the Great, that their sweat exhal'd an odoriferous smell, occasion'd by some rare and extraordinary constitution, of which Plutarch, and others, have been inquisitive into the cause. But the ordinary constitution of human bodies is quite otherwise, and their best and chiefest excellency, is to be exempt from smells: nay, the sweetness even of the purest breaths, has nothing in it of greater perfection, than to be without any offensive smell, like those of heathful children: which made Plautus say, Mulier tum bene olet, ubi nihil olet.—Plaut. Molest. Art. 1. Sce. 3. That woman we a sweet one call, Whose body breathes no scent at all. And such as make use of these exotick perfumes, are with good reason to be suspected of some natural imperfection, which they endeavour by these odours to conceal, according to that of Ben Jonson, which, without offence to M. de Montaigne, I will here presume to insert, it being at least as well said, as any of those he quotes out of the ancient poets, Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast, Though arts hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.—Ben. Jonson. I am nevertheless a strange lover of good smells, and as much abominate the ill ones, which also I reach at a greater distance. Of smells, the simple and natural seem to be most pleasing. Let the ladies look to that, for 'tis chiefly their concern. In the wildest parts of Barbary, the Scythian women, after bathing, were wont to powder and crust their faces, and whole bodies, with a certain odoriferous drug, growing in their own territories; which being cleans'd off, when they came to meet with their lovers they were found perfum'd and sleek: 'tis not to be be believ'd, how strangely 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 furnish'd mankind with a vehicle to convey smells to the nose, had no reason; for they will do it themselves; especially to me: my very mustachio's perform that office; for if I stroke them but with my gloves, or handkerchief, the smell will not out a whole day: they will reproach me where I have been. And yet I have ever found my self very little subject to epidemick diseases, that are caught, either by conversing with the sick, or bred by the contagion of the air; I have very well escap'd from those of my time, of which there has been several virulent sorts in our cities and armies. We read of Socrates, that though he never departed from Athens, during the frequent plagues that infested that city, he only was never infected. Physicians might (I believe,) if they would extract greater utility from odours, than they do; for I have often observ'd, that they cause an alteration in me, and work upon my spirits according to their several vertues; which makes me approve of what I said, namely, that the use of incense and perfumes in churches, so ancient and so universally receiv'd in all nations, and religions, was intended to chear us, and to rouse and purifie the senses, the better to fit us for contemplation. I could have been glad, the better to judge of it, to have tasted the culinary art of those cooks, who had so rare a way of seasoning exotick odours with the relish of of meats; as it was particularly observ'd in the service of the king of Tunis, who in our days landed at Naples, to have an interview with Charles the Emperour, where his dishes were forc'd with odoriferous drugs, to that degree of expence, that the cookery of one peacock, and two pheasants, amounted to a hundred ducats, to dress them after their fashion. And when the carver came to break them up, not only the dining-room, but all the apartments of his palace, and the adjoining streets were fill'd with an aromatick vapour, which did not presently vanish. My chiefest care in chusing my lodgings, is always to avoid a thick and foul air; and those beautiful cities of Venice and Paris, have very much lessen'd the kindness I had for them, the one by the offensive smell of her marshes, and the other of her dirt. 204 PLATO HELD THREE SORTS OF BELIEF, INJURIOUS TO THE GODS. CHAP. XLIII.-OF PRAYERS. I PROPOSE formless and undetermin'd fancies, like those who publish subtle questions, to be after disputed upon in the schools, not to establish truth, but to seek it: I submit them to the better judgments of those, whose office it is to regulate, not my writings and actions only, but moreover my very thoughts and opinions. Let what I here set down meet with correction or applause, it shall be of equal welcome and utility to me, my self before hand condemning it for absurd and impious, if any thing shall be found through ignorance or inadvertency, couch'd in this rhapsody contrary to the resolutions and prescriptions of the Roman Catholick Church, into which I was born, and in which I will die. And yet, always submitting to the authority of their censure, who have an absolute power over me, I thus temerariously venture at every thing, as upon this present subject. I know not, if, or no, I am deceiv'd; but since by a particular favour of the divine bounty, a certain form of prayer has been prescrib'd and dictated to us, word by word, from the mouth of God himself, I have ever been of opinion, that we ought to have it in more frequent_use, than we yet have, and if I were worthy to advise, at the sitting down to, and rising from our tables, at our rising, and going to bed, and in every particular action, wherein prayer is requir'd, I would that Christians always make use of the Lord's Prayer, if not alone, yet at least always. The church may lengthen, or alter prayers, according to the necessity of our instruction, for I know very well, that it is always the same in substance, and the same thing: but yet such a preference ought to be given to that prayer, that the people should have it continually in their mouths; for it is most certain, that all necessary petitions are comprehended in it, and that it is infinitely proper for all occasions. 'Tis the only prayer I use in all places and conditions, and what I still repeat instead of changing; whence it also happens, that I have no other by heart, but that only. It just now comes into my mind, from whence we should derive that errour of having recourse to God in all our designs and enterprises, to call him to our assistance in all sorts of affairs, and in all places where our weakness stands in need of support without considering whether the occasion be just, or otherwise, and to invoke his name and power, in what estate soever we are, or action we are engag'd in, how vicious soever: he is indeed our sole and only protector, and can do all things for us: but though he is pleas'd to honour us with his paternal care, he is notwithstanding, as just, as he is good and mighty, and does ofter exercise his justice, than his power, and favours us according to that, and not according to our petitions. Plato in his laws, makes three sorts of belief injurious to the Gods; that there is none; that they concern not themselves about human affairs; and that they never reject or deny any thing to our vows, offerings and sacrifices. The first of these errours (according to his opinion,) did never continue rooted in any man, from his infancy to his old age, the other two he confesses, men might be obstinate in. God's justice and his power are inseparable, and therefore in vain we invoke his power in an unjust cause: we are to have our souls pure and clean, at that moment at least, wherein we pray to him, and purified from all vicious passions, otherwise we our selves present him the |