sible. table, for being a seat which had most scope, and most acces was of the easiest access to those who came to speak with him who was placed in it; which is a proof that though they were at table they did not abandon the concern for other affairs and incidents. But, when all is said that can be said, it is very difficult, in human actions, to prescribe so just a rule, by rational arguments, that fortune will not maintain her right in them. CHAPTER LXII. Of Conscience. power of As I was travelling one day, during the civil of the wars, with my brother the Sieur de la Brousse, we conscience. met a gentleman of good fashion, who was of the contrary party to us, though I knew nothing of it, for he pretended to be of ours: and the mischief of it is, that, in wars of this sort, the cards are so shuffled, your enemy not being distinguished from yourself, by any apparent mark, either of language, or carriage, being bred up under the same laws, air, and manners, that it is difficult to avoid disorder and confusion. This made me afraid myself of meeting with any of our troops in the place where I was not known, that I might not be forced to tell my name, and for fear of something worse, perhaps, as happened to me once, when, by such a mistake, I lost both men and horses; and, amongst others, an Italian, my page, whom I had bred up with care, was miserably killed; a fine lad, and one that was very promising. But the gentleman we met had so strong a terror upon him, and was so mortified at the meeting with any horsemen, and travelling through towns which held out for the king, that I, at length, guessed he was alarmed by his conscience. discovery eide. The poor man seemed to be in such a condition, that through his vizor and the crosses on his cassock, one might have penetrated into his bosom, and read his secret intentions. So wonderful is the force of conscience, that it makes us betray, accuse, and fight with ourselves; and, for want of other evidence, to give testimony against ourselves : Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum.* Tormenting conscience shakes the soul within. The tale that follows is in the mouths of children: Strange Bessus, a Pæonian, being reproached with having of a parri- wantonly pulled down a sparrow's nest,t and killed the young ones, said he had reason for it, because those little birds were continually chattering a falsehood, that he had murdered his father. This parricide had, till then, been undiscovered and unknown, but the revengeful furies of his conscience caused it to be discovered by himself, who was justly to suffer for it. Punish nate with sin. Hesiod corrects + Plato's assertion that "Punishment con- «ment follows close at the heels of sin;" for he says, it is born at the same instant with sin. Whosoever expects punishment, already suffers it; and whosoever has deserved it, expects it.§ Wickedness contrives tortures for itself: Malum consilium consultori pessimum :|| He that gives bad counsel suffers most by it. As the wasp stings and hurts another, but most of all itself: for it thereby loses its sting and its strength for ever: Vitasque in vulnere ponunt :¶ And in the wound which they inflict, expire. *Juv. sat. xiii. ver. 195. + See Plutarch's treatise, Why the divine justice sometimes defers the punishment of crimes, ch. 8. This reflection is taken from the same treatise, ch. 9. Senec. epist. 105. Virg. Georg. lib. iv. ver. 238. Aul. Gell. lib. iv. cap. 5. The Spanish fly,* or cantharides, has in itself some particle which, by the contrariety of its nature, serves as an antidote to its own poison. In like manner, at the same instant that a man feels a pleasure in vice, there is a sting at the tail of it in the conscience, which tortures us sleeping and waking with many racking thoughts: Quippe ubi se multi per somnia sæpe loquentes, The guilty seldom their own counsel keep, Crimes which they long had labour'd to conceal. Apollodorus dreamed that he saw himself flayed by the Scythians, and then boiled in a caldron; and that his heart muttered these words: "I am the "cause of all these evils." Epicurus said, "No lurking-hole could hide the wicked, because they "could not assure themselves of being concealed, "whilst their consciences discovered them to them"selves." Prima est hæc ultio, quod se 'Tis the first, constant punishment of sin, sulting As an evil conscience possesses us with fear, a good one gives us assurance and confidence. And The cout can truly say, I have faced several dangers with the dence remore boldness, in consideration of the secret know- from a good ledge I had of my own will, and of the innocency' of my intentions: * Montaigne asserts this more positively than Plutarch, the author from whom he took it, ch. 9, of Plutarch's treatise above-mentioned. Lucret. lib. v. ver. 1157, &c. This is also taken from Plutarch's before-mentioned treatise of the delay of the divine justice, ch. 9. This Apollodorus, who reigned like a true tyrant, was king of Cassandria, in Macedonia. Juv. sat. xiii. ver. 2, 3. conscience. Scipio. 66 Conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra Despotic conscience rules our hopes and fears. 66 to Of this there are a thousand examples, of which it may suffice to produce three of one and the same The confi- person. Scipio, having a heavy accusation laid dent inno- against him one day before the people of Rome, instead of excusing himself, or soothing his judges, "It will well become you," said he to them, "sit in judgment upon the man from whom you "derive the power you have to judge all the "world." And, another time, all the answers he gave to some impeachments brought against him by a tribune of the people, instead of pleading his cause: "Let us go," said he, " my fellow-citizens, "and give thanks to the gods for the victory which they granted me over the Carthaginians, as on this day." And, advancing first towards the temple himself, the whole assembly, not excepting his accuser, followed in his train. And, Petilius § having been instigated by Cato to demand an account of the money which had passed through his hands in the province of Antioch, Scipio, who came to the senate for this purpose, produced a book from under his robe, wherein, he told them, was an exact account of his receipts and disbursements; but being required to deliver it to the register, he refused it, saying, he would not so far disgrace himself; and tore the book to pieces with his own hands in the presence of the senate. I cannot suppose that the most seared conscience could have counterfeited such an assurance. "He had naturally too high a "spirit," says Livy," and was accustomed to too great fortune to know how to be criminal, and *Ovid. Fast. lib. i. ver. 25, 26. Plutarch, in his treatise, entitled, How far a man is allowed to praise himself, &c. ch. 5. Valer. Maxim. lib. iii. cap. 7, in Romanis. Tit. Liv. lib. xxxviii. cap. 54, 55. Lib. xxxvii. cap. 52 "to descend to the meanness of defending his own "innocence." veniences The rack is a pernicious invention, and seems to The inconbe rather a proof of a man's patience than of truth; of the rack. which indeed is concealed both by him who can bear it, and by him who cannot. For why should pain sooner make me confess what is the real truth, than force me to say what is not? And, on the contrary, if he who is not guilty of that whereof he is accused, has the patience to undergo those torments, why should not he who is guilty have as much, when so fair a reward as his life is set before him? I imagine that this invention owes its rise to the consideration of the power of conscience, which seems to be assisting to the rack to make the guilty person confess his fault, and to weaken his resolution; while, on the other hand, it fortifies the innocent against the torture. To say the truth, it is a remedy full of uncertainty and danger. What will not a man say, what will he not do, rather than suffer such a painful torture? Etiam innocentes cogit mentiri dolor.* Pain compels even the innocent to lie. From hence it comes to pass, that he whom the judge has put to the rack, with a view that he may not die innocent, makes him die both innocent and racked. Thousands have burdened their consciences by it with false confessions; in the number of whom I place Philotas, considering the circumstances of the process that Alexander commenced against him, and the progress of his torture. But so it is (say they), that it is the least evil human weakness could have invented; yet, in my opinion, the invention was very inhuman, and to very little purpose. Several nations, not so barbarous in this respect as The use of the Greeks and Romans, by whom they were called the rack * Ex Mimis Publianis. Q. Curtius, lib. vi. cap. 7, to the end of the book. condemned |