pence to the market for one days provision, and that as to his country houses, he had not one that was rough cast on the outside. Scipio Emilianus, after two triumphs, and two consul-ships, went an embassy with no more than seven servants in his train. 'Tis said, that Homer had never more than one, Plato three, and Zeno, founder of the sect of stoicks, none at all. Tiberius Gracchus, was allow'd but five pence half-penny a day, when employ'd as publick minister about the publick affairs, and being at that time the greatest man of Rome. CHAP. LIII.-OF A SAYING OF CESAR. IF we would sometimes bestow a little consideration upon our selves, and employ the time we spend in prying into other mens actions, and discovering things without us, in examining our own abilities, we should soon perceive of how infirm and decaying materials this fabrick of ours is compos'd. Is it not a singular testimony of imperfection, that we cannot establish our satisfaction in any one thing, and that even our own fancy and desire, should deprive us of the power to choose what is most proper and useful for us? A very good proof of this, is the great dispute that has ever been amongst the philosophers, of finding out a man's principal and soveraign good, that continues yet, and will eternally continue, without resolution, or accord. Dum abest quod avemus, id exuperare videtur, The absent thing we covet best doth seem, The next that comes captivates our esteem Whatever it is that falls into our knowledge and possession, we find that it satisfies not, and still pant after things to come, and unknown: by reason the present do not satiate and glut us: not that, in my judgment, they have not in them wherewith to do it, but because we seize them with an unruly and immoderate haste. Nam cum vidit hic ad victum quæ flagitat usus, Et per quæ possent vitam consistere tutam, 268 THE UNSEEN, CONCEALED, UNKNOWN —DREADED. Omniaque illius vitio corrumpitur intus Quæ collata foris, et commoda quæque venirent.—Lucret, That thither from without him was convey'd, Our appetite is irresolute and fickle, it can neither keep nor enjoy any thing gracefully, and as it should: and man concluding it to be the fault of the things he is possess'd of, fills himself with, and feeds himself upon, the idea of things he neither knows, nor understands, to which he devotes his hopes, and his desires, paying them all reverence and honour, according to the saying of Cæsar, "Communi fit vitio naturæ, ut invisis latitantibus atque incognitis rebus magis confidamus, vehementiusque exterreamur." 'Tis the common vice of nature, that we repose most confidence, and receive the greatest apprehensions, from things unseen, conceal'd and unknown. CHAP. LIV.-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 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 270 INVENTION ONCE WARM, FINDS PARALLEL EXAMPLES. 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, 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. LV.-OF SMELLS. 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 Mr. Jonson, which, without offence to Monsieur 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, Still to be powder'd, still perfum'd: Lady, it is to be presum'd, Though arts hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.—Ben. Jonson. As may be judg'd by these following, Rides nos, Coracine, nil olentes: Malo quam bene olere, nil olere.—Mart. lib. 6. Epig. 55. Because thou Coracinus still dost go With musk and ambergrease perfumed so, And elsewhere, Posthume, non bene olet, qui bene semper olet.-Id. lib. 2. Ep. 12. He does not naturally smell well, Who always of perfumes does smell. I am nevertheless a strange lover of good smells, and as much abominate the ill ones, which also I reach at a greater distance. I think, than other men: |