enough, unless by art and study he increases his own misery: Fortunæ miseras auximus arte vias.* We with misfortune 'gainst ourselves take part, Human wisdom makes a very foolish use of its ta lents, by exercising them in abating the number and relish of those pleasures which we have a right to; as, on the other hand, it acts favourably and industriously in employing its skill to put a gloss and disguise upon the misfortunes of life to alleviate the sense of them. Had I been the chief manager, I should have taken another more natural course, which, to say the truth, is convenient and sacred, and perhaps I should have been able to set limits to it; although our physicians, both spiritual and temporal, as if they had combined together, can find no other method of cure, or remedy for the diseases of the body and soul, than by torment, sorrow, and pain. To this end watchings, fastings, penances, far distant and solitary banishments, perpetual imprisonments, scourgings, and other afflictions, have been introduced into the world; yea, and on such a condition, that they should be real afflictions, and carry a sting in their tails; and that the consequence thereof should not be as happened to one Gallio,* who, having been banished to the isle of Lesbos, news was brought to Rome, that he lived as merry there as the day was long, and that his banishment did not prove his punishment but his pleasure; for this reason they thought fit to recall him to his wife and family, and confined him to his own house, to make him more sensible of their punishments. For to the person whom fasting would make more healthful and sprightly, and to * Propert. lib. iii. eleg. ii. ver. 32. + A Roman senator banished for having offended Tiberius, as may be seen in Tacit. Annals, lib. vi. cap. 2. According to Tacitus, he was recalled to Rome, to be kept there in the custody of the magistrates, ibid. whose palate fish would be more agreeable than flesh, the prescription of either, medicinally, would be of no salutary effect, no more than drugs in the other sort of physic, which have no effect with him who takes them with an appetite and pleasure. The bitterness of the potion, and the aversion of the patient to it, are circumstances that conduce to the operation. Rhubarb itself would be of no virtue to the constitution which is used to it. It must be something which offends the stomach that must cure it; and here the common rule, that things are cured by their contraries, fails; for in this, one evil is cured by another. fice of human flesh a practice almost all This notion has some resemblance with that which The sacri was anciently embraced by all religions and sects, that massacre and homicide were acceptable to the gods and to nature. Even in the time of our fore- formerly in fathers, Amurath sacrificed 600 young Greeks to the religions. manes of his father, with a view that their blood might serve as a propitiatory atonement for the sins of his deceased parent. new world. And in those new countries discovered in this age How pracof ours, which are pure as yet, and virgins, in com- tised in the parison of ours, this practice is in some degree universally received. All their idols reek with human blood, not without sundry examples of horrid cruelty. Some they put alive into a fire, and take them half roasted out of it, to tear out their hearts and bowels: others, even women, they flea alive, and put their bloody skins on the bodies of others. There are also Wonderful striking instances among them of constancy and reso-constancy lution. For these poor victims, old men, women, who are and children, go out some days before to beg alms sacrificed for the offering of their sacrifice, and present themselves to the slaughter, singing and dancing. of those there. ber sacri The king of Mexico's ambassador, representing the The prodigreat power of their master to Fernando Cortez, gious numafter having told him that he had 30 vassals, each officed by whom could assemble 100,000 fighting men, and that the king of he kept his court in the fairest and best fortified city VOL. I. R Mexico. by the under the sun, added that he had 50,000 men to spare, every year, for a sacrifice to the gods. They actually affirm, that he maintained a war with some great neighbouring nations, not only for the exercise of the youths of the country, but chiefly to have prisoners of war enough for his sacrifices. Compli- At a certain town, moreover, they sacrificed 50 ment paid men at one time for the welcome of Cortez, to which Americans I will add this story. Some of these nations, being to Fernan- defeated by him, sent to compliment him, and to do Cortez. court his friendship; and the messenger carried him three sorts of presents, which they delivered him in this manner: Behold, lord, here are five slaves; if thou art a fierce god whose diet is flesh and blood, eat these, and we will bring thee more. If thou art a gracious god, here are plumes of feathers, and incense; but if thou art a man, take these fowls and fruits that we have brought thee. CHAPTER XXX. Of Cannibals. WHEN king Pyrrhus, upon his entrance into Italy, saw the order of the Roman army, that was sent to meet him,* "I know not," said he, "what "kind of Barbarians (for so the Greeks call other "nations) these may be; but the disposition of the .. army, which I now see, has nothing of the Bar"barian in it." The same was said by the Greeks concerning the army which Flaminius sent into their country; and by Philip, when he discovered, from an eminence, the order and distribution of the Roman camp, in his kingdom, under Publius Sulpitius Galba. By this it appears how cautious men ought *Plutarch, in the Life of Pyrrhus. to be of taking things upon trust, from vulgar opinion, and that we are to judge by the eye of reason, and not from common report. on the dis world. I had a man with me a long time, who had lived Reflections ten or twelve years in the world lately discovered, covery of and that part of it surnamed Antarctic France. This the new discovery of so vast a country seems to be of very great importance; and we are not sure, that there may not be another discovered hereafter, so many greater men than we having been deceived in this. I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our bellies, and that our curiosity is greater than our capacity. We grasp at every thing, and catch nothing but air. * Plato introduces Solon telling a story which he the island had heard from the priests of Sais, in Egypt, that in of Atlantis. old times, even before the flood, there was a great island called Atlantis, directly at the mouth of the strait of Gibraltar, which was bigger than Africa and Asia both together; and that the kings of this same country, who not only possessed this island, but had stretched themselves so far into the continent, that it extended the breadth of Africa as far as Egypt, and the length of Europe as far as Tuscany, attempted to encroach even upon Asia, and to subdue all the nations bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, to the gulf of the Black Sea, and for this purpose traversed Spain, Gaul, and Italy, even to Greece, where they were checked by the Athenians: but that some time after, both the Athenians and they, with their island, were swallowed by the deluge. It is very probable that extraordinary inundations Deluges the have made great changes in the earth, as it is said cause of that Sicily was rent by the sea from the main land of rations iu Italy: (Hæc loca vi quondam, et vastâ convulsa ruina, Dissiluisse ferunt: cum protinus utraque tellus * In the Dialogue, entitled Timæus, p. 524, 525. great alte the habitable world. "Tis said that by an earthquake or a flood, Cyprus from Syria; the isle of Negropont from the Sterilesve diù palus, aptaque remis, Marshes long barren, where they boats did row, But it is not very probable that the new world, lately *Hor. de Art. Poet. ver. 65, 66. |