40 MUCH OF GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN REFERRED TO CHANCE. Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosa nocte premit Deus : Th' eternal mover has in shades of night A mind that's cheerful in its present state, And those who take this sentence in a contrary sence, interpret it amiss. "Ista sic reciprocantur, ut si divinatio sit Dii sint, et si Dii sint, sit divinatio."-Cic. de Divin. l. 2. " these things have that mutual relation to one another, that if there be such a thing as divination, there must be Deities; and if Deities, divination." Much more wisely Pacuvius; Nam istis qui linguam avium intelligunt, Plusq; ex alieno jecore sapiunt, quam ex suo, Magis audiendum, quàm auscult andum censeo.-Hor. ex. Pacuvio. More from brutes' livers than their own do know, Are rather to be heard than hearkened to. The so celebrated art of divination amongst the Tuscans, took its beginning thus: A labourer striking deep with his coulter into the earth, saw the demy-god *Tages to ascend with an infantile aspect, but endued with a mature and senile wisdom. Upon the rumour of which all the people ran to see the sight, by whom his words and science, containing the principles and means to attain to this art, were recorded, and kept for many ages. A birth suitable to its progress! I for my part should sooner regulate my affairs by the chance of a dye, than by such idle and vain dreams. And indeed, in all republicks, a good share of the government has ever been referr'd to chance. Plato, in the civil regiment that he models according to his own fancy, leaves the decision of several things of very great importance wholly to it, and will, amongst other things, that such marriages as he reputes legitimate and good, be appointed by lot, and attributing so great vertue, and adding so great a privilege to this accidental choice, as to ordain the children begot in such wedlock to be brought up in the country, and those begot in any other to be thrust out as spurious and base; yet so, that if any of those exiles, notwithstanding, should peradventure in growing up give any early hopes of future vertue, they were in a capacity of being recall'd, as those also who had been retain'd, were of being exil'd in case they gave little expectation of themselves in their greener years. I see some who are mightily given to study, pore and comment upon their almanacks, and produce them for authority when any thing has fallen out patt: though it is hardly possible, but that these well-wishers to the mathematicks in saying so much, must sometimes stumble upon some truths amongst an infinite number of lyes. Quis est enim qui totum diem jaculans non aliquando conlineet ?"-Adagium Cic. de Divin. “for who shoots all day at buts that does not sometimes hit the white?" I *Indigniæ dixere Tagem, qui primus Hetruscam Edocuit gentem cafus aperire futuros.Ovid. Meta. l. 15. 66 think never the better of them for some accidental hits. There would be more certainty in it, if there were a rule and a truth of always lying. Besides, no body records their flimflams and false prognosticks, forasmuch as they are infinite and common; but if they chop upon one truth, that carries a mighty report, as being rare, incredible, and prodigious. So Diogenes, surnam'd the Atheist, answer'd him in Samothrace, who shewing him in the Temple the several offerings and stories, in painting, of those who had escap'd shipwrack, said to him, "look you (saith he) you who think the Gods have no care of human things, what do you say by so many person's preserv'd from death by their especial favour?" "Why, I say, (answer'd he) that their pictures are not here who were cast away, which were by much the greater number." Cicero observes, that of all the philosophers who have acknowledg'd a Deity, Xenophanes only has endeavour'd to eradicate all manner of divination which makes it the less a wonder, if we have sometimes seen some of our princes, to their own cost, relie too much upon these fopperies. I wish I had given any thing, that I had with my own eyes seen those two great rareties, the book of Joachim the Calabrian abbot, which foretold all the future Popes, their names and figures; and that of the Emperour Leo, which prophesied of all the Emperours and Patriarchs of Greece. This I have been an eye-witness of, that in publick confusions, men astonish'd at their fortune, have abandon'd their own reason superstitiously to seek out in the stars the ancient causes and menaces of their present mishaps, and in my time have been so strangely successful in it, as to make men believe, that this study, being proper to fix and settle piercing and volatile wits, those who have been any thing vers'd in this knack of unfolding and untying riddles, are capable in any sort of writing, to find out what they desire. But above all, that which gives them the greatest room to play in, is the obscure, ambiguous, and fantastick gibberish of their prophetick canting, where their authors deliver nothing of clear sence, but shroud all in riddle, to the end that posterity may interpret, and apply it according to their own fancy. Socrates his dæmon, or familiar, might perhaps be no other but a certain impulsion of the will, which obtruded it self upon him without the advice or consent of his judgment; and in a soul so enlightened as his was, and so prepar'd by a continual exercise of wisdom and virtue, 'tis to be suppos'd, those inclinations of his, though sudden and undigested, were ever very important, and worthy to be follow'd. Every one finds in himself some image of such agitations, of a prompt, vehement, and fortuitous opinion. 'Tis I that am to allow them some authority, who attribute so little to our own prudence, and who also my self have had some, weak in reason, but violent in persuasion and dissuasion, (which were most frequent with Socrates) by which I have suffer'd my self to be carried away so fortunately, and so much to my own advantage, that they might have been judg'd to have had something in them of a divine inspiration. CHAP. XI. -OF CONSTANCY. THE law of resolution and constancy does not imply, that we ought not, as much as in us lies, to decline, and to secure our selves from the mischiefs and inconveniences that threaten us: nor consequently, that 42 THE BUSINESS OF CONSTANCY IS BRAVELY TO STAND TO. we shall not fear lest they should surprise us: on the contrary, all decent and honest ways and means of securing our selves from harms, are not only permitted, but moreover commendable, and the business of constancy chiefly is, bravely to stand to, and stoutly to suffer those inconveniences which are not otherwise possibly to be avoided. There is no motion of body, nor any guard in the handling of arms, how irregular or ungraceful soever, that we dislike or condemn, if they serve to deceive or to defend the blow that is made against us; insomuch, that several very warlike nations have made use of a retiring and flying way of fight, as a thing of singular advantage, and by so doing have made their backs more dangerous than their faces to their enemies. Of which kind of fighting, the Turks yet retain something in their practice of arms to this day; and Socrates in Plato, laughs at Laches, who had defin'd fortitude to be a standing firm in their ranks against the enemy: "What (says he) would it then be a reputed cowardice to overcome them by giving ground?" urging at the same time the authority of Homer, who commends Eneas for his skill in running away. And whereas Laches, considering better on't, justifies his first argument upon the practice of the Scythians, and in general all cavalry whatever. He again attacks him with the example of the Lacedæmonian foot, (a nation of all other the most obstinate in maintaining their ground) who in all the battel of Platea, not being able to break into the Persian phalanx, unbethought themselves to disperse and retire, that by the enemies supposing they fled, they might break, and disunite that vast body of men in the pursuit, and by that stratagem obtain'd the victory. As for the Scythians, 'tis said of them, that when Darius went his expedition to subdue them, he sent, by an herald, highly to reproach their king, that he always retired before him and declin'd a battel; to which Indathyrsez (for that was his name) returned answer, "that it was not for fear of him, or of any man living, that he did so, but that it was the way of marching in practice with his nation, who had neither till'd fields, cities, nor houses to defend, or to fear the enemy should make any advantage of: but that if he had such a stomach to fight, let him but come to view their ancient place of sepulture, and there he should have his fill." Nevertheless as to what concerns cannon shot, when a body of men are drawn up in the face of a train of artillery, as the occasion of war does often require, 'tis unhandsome to quit their post to avoid the danger, and a foolish thing to boot, forasmuch as by reason of its violence and swiftness we account it inevitable, and many a one, by ducking, steping aside, and such other motions of fear, has been sufficiently laughed at by his companions. And yet in the expedition that the Emperour Charles the Fifth made into Provence, the Marquis de Guast going to discover the city of Arles, and venturing to advance out of the blind of a wind-mill, under favour of which he had made his approach, was perceived by the Seigneurs de Bonneval and the seneschall of Agenois, who were walking upon the Theatre Aux Arenes; who having shew'd him to the Sieur de Villiers, commissary of the artillery, he traversed a culverine so admirable well, and levell❜d it so exactly right against him, that had not the Marquis, seeing fire given to it, slip'd aside, it was certainly concluded, the shot had taken him * A theatre where publick shews of riding, fencing, etc. were exhibited. full in the body. And in like manner, some years before, Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbin, and father to the Queen-Mother of France; laying seige to Mondolpho, a place in the territories of the Vicariat in Italy, seeing the cannoneer give fire to a piece that pointed directly against him, it was well for him that he duck'd, for otherwise, the shot, that only ras'd the top of his head, had doubtless hit him full in the breast. To say truth, I do not think that these evasions are perform'd upon the account of judgment; for how is any man living able to judge of high or low aim on so sudden an occasion? And it is much more easie to believe, that fortune favour'd their apprehension, and that it might be a means at another time, as well as to make them step into danger, as to teach them to avoid it. For my own part I confess, I cannot forbear starting when the rattle of a harquebuze thunders in my ears on a sudden, and in a place where I am not to expect it, which I have also observed in others, braver fellows than I; neither do the stoicks pretend, that the soul of their philosopher should be proof against the first visions and fantacies that surprize him; but as a natural subject, consent that he should tremble at the terrible noise of thunder, or the sudden clatter of some falling ruine, and be affrighted even to paleness and convulsion. And so in other passions, provided a man's judgment remain sound and intire, and that the site of his reason suffers no concussion nor alteration, and that he yields no consent to his fright and discomposure. To him who is not a philosopher, a fright is the same in the first part of it, but quite another thing in the second; for the impression of passions does not remain only superficially in him, but penetrates further, even to the very seat of reason and so, as to infect and to corrupt it. He judges according to his ear, and conforms his behaviour to it. But in this verse you may see the true state of the wise stoick learnedly and plainly express'd : Mens immota manet; lacrymæ volvuntur inanes.-Virg. Æn. l. 2. The eye, perhaps, frail, fruitless showers rains, Whilst yet the mind firm and unshook remains. The wise peripatetick is not himself totally free from perturbations of mind, but he moderates them by his wisdom. CHAP. XII.—THE CEREMONY OF THE INTERVIEW OF PRINCES. THERE is no subject so frivolous, that does not merit a place in this rhapsody. According to the common rule of civility, it would be a kind of an affront to an equal, and much more to a superiour, to fail of being at home, when he has given you notice he will come to visit you. Nay, Queen Margaret of Navarre further adds, that it would be a rudeness in a gentleman to go out to meet any that is coming to see him, let him be of what condition soever; and that it is more respective, and more civil to stay at home to receive him, if only upon the account of missing of him by the way, and that it is enough to receive him at the door, and to wait upon him to his chamber. For my part, who as much as I can endeavour to reduce the ceremonies of my house, I very often forget both the one and the other of these vain offices, and peradventure some one may take offence at it; if he do, I am sorry, but I cannot find in my heart to help it; it is much better to offend him once, than my self 44 every day, for it would be a perpetual slavery; and to what end do we avoid the servile attendance of courts, if we bring the same, or a greater trouble, home to our own private houses? It is also a common rule in all assemblies, that those of less quality are to be first upon the place, by reason that it is a state more due to the better sort to make others wait and expect them. Nevertheless, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis at Marseilles, the king, after he had in his own person taken order in the necessary preparations for his reception and entertainment, withdrew out of the town, and gave the Pope two or three days respite for his entry, and wherein to repose and refresh himself before he came to him. And in like manner, at the assignation of the Pope and the Emperour at Bologna, the Emperour gave the Pope leave to come thither first, and came himself after; for which, the reason then given was this; that at all the interviews of such princes, the greater ought to be first at the appointed place, especially before the other, in whose territories the interview is appointed to be, intimating thereby a kind of deference to the other, it appearing proper for the less to seek out, and to apply themselves to the greater, and not the greater to them. Not every country only, but every city, and so much as every society, have their particular forms of civility. There was care enough taken in my education, and I have liv'd in good company enough to know the formalities of our own nation, and am able to give lesson in it; I love also to follow them, but not to be so servilely tyed to their observation, that my whole life should be enslav'd to ceremony; of which there are some, that provided a man omits them out of discretion, and not for want of breeding, it will be every whit as handsom. I have seen some people rude, by being over-civil, and troublesome in their courtesie: though, these excesses excepted, the knowledge of courtesie and good manners is a very necessary study. It is, like grace and beauty, that which begets liking and an inclination to love one another at the first sight, and in the beginning of an acquaintance and familiarity; and consequently, that which first opens the door, and intromits us to better our selves by the example of others, if there be any thing in the society worth taking notice of. EVERY CITY HAS ITS PARTICULAR FORMS OF CIVILITY. CHAP. XIII.--OF THE PUNISHMENT OF COWARDICE. I ONCE heard of a prince, and a great captain, having a narration given him as he sat at table of the proceeding against Monsieur de Vervins, who was sentenc'd to death for having surrendred Bullen to the English, openly maintain'd, that a souldier could not justly be put to death for his want of courage. And, in truth, a man should make a great difference betwixt faults that merely proceed from infirmity, and those that are visibly the effects of treachery and malice; for in the last they will fully act against the rules of reason that nature has imprinted in us; whereas in the former it seems as if we might produce the same nature, who left us in such a state of imperfection, and defect of courage for our justification. Insomuch, that many have thought we are not justly questionable for any thing, but what we commit against the light of our own conscience. And it is partly upon this rule, that those ground their opinion, who disapprove of capital and sanguinary punishments |