ception. It were a folly to trust yourselves in your own hands, if you cannot govern yourselves :t a man may as well miscarry alone, as in company; till you have become such persons, before whom you dare not trip, and have conceived a respect for yourselves. Versentur species honestæ animo: "Let "just and honest things be still represented to the "mind." Present continually to your imagination, Cato, Phocion, and Aristides, in whose presence fools themselves would hide their faults; and make them controllers of all your intentions. Should they deviate any where, your respect to them will again set you right; they will keep you in this way of being contented with yourselves; to borrow nothing of any but from yourselves; to stop and fix your souls in certain limited thoughts, wherein they may please themselves, and having understood the true and real goods, which men the more enjoy the more they understand them, to rest satisfied, without desire for the enjoyment or prolongation of life or fame. This is the precept of genuine philosophy, not of a boasting and prating philosophy, such as that of the two first.§ CHAPTER XXXIX. An Observation concerning Cicero, &c. The ambi- ONE word more, by way of comparison between tion of Ci- this couple. cero and Pliny. * Seneca, ep. 68. There are to be gathered out of the "Prodest sine dubio custodem sibi imposuisse, et habere quem "respicias, quem interesse tuis cogitationibus judices. Omnia "nobis mala solitudo persuadet. Cum jam profeceris ut sit tibi "etiam tui reverentia, licebit dimittas pædagogum. Interim te "aliquorum auctoritate custodi. Aut Cato ille sit, aut Scipio, aut "Lælius, aut cujus interventa perditi quoque homines vitia supprime"rent, dum te efficis coram quo peccare non audit." Senec. ep. 25, Cicero, Tusc. Quæst. lib. ii. cap. 12. Pliny the younger, and Cicero. writings of Cicero, and this younger Pliny (who, in my opinion, little resembles his uncle in his humour), infinite testimonies of a nature beyond measure ambitious, and amongst others, this for one, that they both, in the face of all the world, solicited the historians of their time,* not to forget them in their memoirs; and fortune, as if in spite, has transmitted the vanity of those requests upon record down to the present age, and has long since damned the histories. end Cice lished. But this exceeds all meanness of spirit, in persons To what of such quality as they were, to think to derive any end great renown from babbling and prating; even by Pliny's Fathe publishing of their private letters to their friends, miliar so that as some of them were never sent, the oppor- were pub tunity being lost, they nevertheless exposed them to the light, with this worthy excuse, that they were unwilling their labours and lucubrations should be lost. Was it not very well becoming two consuls of Rome, sovereign magistrates of the republic that commanded the world, to spend their time in contriving quaint and elegant letters, thence to gain the reputation of being masters of their own mother tongue? What could a pitiful schoolmaster have done worse, who by such a knowledge gets his living? Cæsar If the acts of Xenophon and Cæsar, had not very Why Xefar transcended their eloquence, I scarce believe nophon and they would ever have taken the pains to have writ wrote their them. They made it their business to recommend own histonot their speeches, but their actions. *Cicero writing to Lucceius, ep. 12, lib. v. and Pliny to Tacitus, ep. 33, lib. vii. with this most remarkable difference, that the first earnestly desires his friend, not to attach himself scrupulously to the rules of, but boldly to leap the barriers of truth in his favour." Te planè etiam atque etiam rogo, ut et ornes ea vehementius etiam quam fortasse sentis et in ea leges historiæ negligas;" whereas Pliny declares expressly, that he does not desire Tacitus to give the least offence to the truth, " Quanquam non exigo ut excedas rei "actæ modum. Nam nec historia debet egredi veritatem, et "honeste factis veritas sufficit." One would have thought that Montaigne should, in justice to Pliny, have distinguished him from Cicero in this particular. ries. Terence's comedies pio and Lælius. And could the perfection of eloquence add any writ by Sci-fame suitable to the age of a great person, certainly Scipio and Lælius had never resigned the honour of their comedies, with all the luxuriance and delicacy of the Latin tongue, to an African slave; for that the work was theirs, its beauty and excellence sufficiently evince; besides, Terence himself confesses as much, and I should take it ill of any one that should dispossess me of that belief. Qualities not suitable It is a kind of mockery, and affront, to extol a which are man for qualities misbecoming his condition, though to a man's otherwise commendable in themselves; as if a man rank in the should commend a king, for being a good painter, a not do him good architect, a good marksman, or a good runner world, can honour. Great men are not to at the ring; commendations that add no honour, unless mentioned in the train of those that more properly become him, namely, his justice, and the science of governing and conducting his people both in peace and war. Thus agriculture did honour to Cyrus, and eloquence and learning to Charlemagne. I have, in my time, known some who, by a knack of writing, have got both their titles and livelihood, disown their apprentice-age, purposely corrupt their style, and affect the ignorance of so vulgar a quality (which our nation observes to be rarely seen in very learned hands) to seek a reputation by better qualities. Demosthenes's companions in the embassy to be praised Philip, extolling that prince for being handsome, for com- eloquent, and a hearty toper; Demosthenes replied, mon things. That those were commendations fitter for a "woman, an advocate, a lawyer, or a spunge, than " for a king:"* Imperet bellante prior, jacentem Lenis in hostem.+ First let his empire from his valour flow, * Plutarch, in the Life of Demosthenes, cap. 4.. It is not his profession to know either how to hunt or to dance well: Orabunt causas alii, cælique meatus Describent radio, et fulgentia sidera dicent ; Let others plead at the litigious bar, Describe the spheres, point out each twinkling star, excel in Plutarch says, that to appear so excellent in these Great men less necessary qualities, is to produce witness against should not a man's self, that he has spent his time and applied things not his study ill, which ought to have been employed in altogether things more necessary and useful. Philip, king of Macedon, therefore, having heard that Alexander, his son, sang once at a feast to the wonder and envy of the best musicians there: "Art not thou a"shamed," said he to him, "to sing so well ?”+ And to the same Philip, a musician said, with whom he was disputing about some things concerning his art: "Heaven forbid! Sir," said he, " that so great a "misfortune should ever befal you, as to understand "these things better than I!" A king should be able to answer, as Iphicrates did the orator, who pressed upon him, in his invective, after this manner, " And what art thou, that thou bravest at this "rate? Art thou a man at arms, art thou an archer? "art thou a pike-man? I am none of all this ;§ but "I know how to command all these." And Antisthenes took it for an argument, not much to the praise of Ismenias, that he was cried up for playing excellently upon the flute. necessary. I know, very well, that when I hear any one insist The merit of Mon upon the language of essays, I had rather a great taigne's Esdeal he would say nothing. It is not so much to says. elevate the style, as to depress the sense; and so * Virg. Æn. lib. vi. ver. 844. + Plutarch, in the Life of Pericles, cap. 1. In a tract of Plutarch, how to distinguish the flatterer from the friend, cap. 25. Plutarch, in his Treatise of Fortune. Epicurus and Seneca set in op Pliny and much the more offensively, as they do it more obliquely. Yet am I much deceived, if many other essayists enter farther into the matter, and how well or ill soever, if any other writer has scattered things more material, or at least bolder, upon paper than myself. To make them the more regular, I only muster up the heads; should I annex the sequel, I should strangely enlarge this volume: and how many stories have I scattered up and down in this book, that I only touch upon, which, should any one more curiously search into, they would find matter enough to produce infinite essays: neither those stories, nor my allegations always serve simply for example, authority, or ornament; I do not regard them only for the use I make of them: they often carry, besides what I apply them to, the seed of a more rich and a bolder matter, and sometimes contrarywise a more delicate sound both to myself, who will express no more of it in this place, and to others who shall happen to be of my taste. But to return to the talent of speaking; I find no great choice between not knowing to speak any thing but very ill, and not knowing any thing but speaking well. Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas.* "Neatness "of style is no manly ornament." The sages tell us, that as to what concerns knowledge, there is nothing but philosophy; and as to what concerns effects, nothing but virtue, that is generally proper to all degrees, and to all orders. There is something like this in these two other philosophers, for they also promise eternity to the letters which they write to their friends; but it is after another manner, and by accommodating themselves, for a good end, to the vanity of another; for they write to them, that if the concern of making themselves known to future ages, and the thirst of glory, yet detain them in the management of public affairs, and make them fear the solitude and retire * Sen. ep. 95. |