untruths they utter, or so alter and disguise a true story, that it always ends in a lye; and when they disguise and often alter the same story according to their own fancy, 'tis very hard for them at one time or another to escape being trap'd by reason that the real truth of the thing having first taken possession of the memory, and being there lodg'd, and imprinted by the way of knowledge and science, it will be ever ready to present it self to the imagination, and to shoulder out any falsehood of their own contriving, which cannot there have so sure and settled footing as the other; and the circumstances of the first true knowledge evermore running in their minds, will be apt to make them forget those that are illegitimate, and only forg'd by their own fancy. In what they wholly invent, forasmuch asthere is no contrary impression to justle their invention, there seems to be less danger of tripping; and yet even this also, by reason it is a vain body, and without any other foundation than fancy only, is very apt to escape the memory,, if they be not careful to make themselves very perfect in their tale. Of which I have had very pleasant experience, at the expence of such as profess only to form, and accommodate their speech to the affair they have in hand, or to the humour of the person with whom they have to do; for the circumstances to which these men stick not to enslave their consciences, and their faith being subject to several changes, their language must accordingly vary; from whence it happens, that of the same thing they tell one man, that it is this, and another that it is that, giving it several forms, and colours; which men, if they once come to conferr notes, and find out the cheat, what becomes of this fine art? To which may be added, that they must of necessity very often ridiculously trap themselves; for, what memory can be sufficient to retain so many different shapes as they have forg'd upon one and the same subject? I have known many in my time, very ambitious of the repute of this fine piece of discretion; but they do not see, that if there be a reputation of being wise, there is really no prudence in it. In plain truth, lying is a hateful and an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have other tye upon one another, but our word. If we did but discover the horror and ill consequences of it, we should pursue it with fire and sword, and more justly than other crimes. I see that parents commonly, and with indiscretion enough, correct their children for little innocent faults, and torment them for wanton childish tricks, that have neither impression, nor tend to any consequence: whereas, in my opinion, lying only, and (what is of something a lower form) stomach, are the faults which are to be severely whip'd out of them, both in the infancy and progress of the vices, which will otherwise grow up and increase with them; and after a tongue has once got the knack of lying, 'tis not to be imagined how impossible almost it is to reclaim it. Whence it comes to pass, that we see some, who are otherwise very honest men, so subject to this

42 HOW MUCH LESS SOCIABLE IS FALSE SPEAKING THAN SILENCE.

vice. I have an honest lad to my taylor, who I never knew guilty of one truth, no not when it had been to his advantage. If falshood had, like truth, but one face only, we should be upon better terms; for we should then take the contrary to what the lyar says for certain truth; but the reverse of truth has an hundred thousand figures, and a field indefinite without bound or limit. The Pythagoreans make good to be certain and finite, and evil, infinite and uncertain; there are a thousand ways to miss the white, there is only one to hit it. For my own part, I have this vice in so great horror, that I am not sure I could prevail with my conscience to secure my self from the most manifest and extream danger, by an impudent and solemn lye. An ancient father says, "that a dog we know is better company than a man whose language we do not understand.”—Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 7, cap. 1. “Ut externus non alieno sit hominis vice," As a foreigner, to one that understands not what he says, cannot be said to supply the place of a man, because he can be no company. And how much less sociable is false speaking than silence King Francis the First bragg'd, that he had, by this means, non-plus'd Francisco Taverna, the embassador of Francisco Sforza, duke of Milan, a man very famous for his eloquence in those days. This gentleman had been sent to excuse his master to his Majesty about a thing of very great consequence; which was this: king Francis, to maintain evermore some intelligence in Italy, out of which he had lately been driven, and particularly in the dutchy of Milan, had thought it (to that end) convenient to have evermore a gentleman on his behalf to lie leiger in the court of that Duke; an ambassador in effect, but in outward appearance no other than a private person who pretended to reside there upon the single account of his own particular affairs; which was so carried, by reason that the duke, much more depending upon the Emperour, especially at a time when he was in a treaty of a marriage with his neece, daughter to the king of Denmark, and since dowager of Lorrain, could not own any friendship or intelligence with us, but very much to his own prejudice. For this commission then one Merveille a Milanois gentlemen, and equerry to the king, being thought very fit, he was accordingly dispatch'd thither with private letters of credence, his instructions of ambassador, and other letters of recommendation to the duke about his own private concerns, the better to colour the business; and so long continued in that court, that the Emperour at last had some incling of his real employment there, and complain'd of it to the Duke, which was the occasion of what followed after, as we suppose; which was, that under pretence of a murther by him committed, his tryal was in two days dispatch'd, and his head in the night struck off in prison. Signior Francisco then being upon this account, come to the court of France, and prepared with a long counterfeit story to excuse a thing of so dangerous example, (for the King had apply'd himself to all the princes of Christendom, as

well as to the Duke himself, to demand satisfaction for this outrage upon the person of his minister) had his audience at the morning council; where, after he had for the support of his cause, in a long premeditated oration, laid open several plausible justifications of the fact, he concluded, that the Duke his master had never look'd upon this Merveille for other than a private gentleman, and his own subject, who was there only in order to his own business, neither had he ever liv'd after any other manner; absolutely disowning that he had ever heard he was one of the king's domestic servants, or that his majesty so much as knew him, so far was he from taking him for an ambassadour. When having made an end, and the king pressing him with several objections and demands, and sifting him on all hands, gravell'd him at last, by asking, why then the execution was perform'd by night, and as it were by stealth? At which the poor confounded ambassador, the more handsomly to disingage himself, made answer, that the Duke would have been very loath, out of respect to his majesty, that such an execution should have been perform'd in the face of the sun. Any one may guess if he was not well school'd when he came home, for having so grosly trip'd in the presence of a prince of so delicate a nostril as king Francis. Pope Julius the Second, having sent an ambassadour to the king of England, to animate him against king Francis, the ambassadour having had his audience, and the king, before he would give a positive answer, insisting upon the difficulties he found in setting on foot so great a preparation as would be necessary to attack so potent a king, and urging some reasons to that effect, the ambassadour very unseasonably reply'd, that he had also himself considered the same difficulties, and had represented as much to the Pope. From which saying of his, so directly opposite to the thing propounded, and the business he came about, which was immediately to incite him to war, the king first deriv'd argument (which also he afterwards found to be true) that this ambassadour, in his own private bosom, was a friend to the French; of which having advertis'd the Pope, his estate at his return home was confiscate, and himself very narrowly escap'd the losing of his head.

CHAP. X.-OF QUICK OR SLOW SPEECH.

Onc ne fut à tous toutes graces donnees.

All graces by all-liberal heaven Were never yet to all men given. As we see in the gift of eloquence, wherein some have such a facility and promptness, and that which we call a present wit, so easie, that they are ever ready upon all occasions, and never to be surpriz'd: and others more heavy and slow, never venture to utter any thing but what

44 CONTRAST BETWEEN SPEAKING AT THE BAR AND THE PULPIT.

they have long premeditated, and taken great care and pains to fit and prepare. Now, as we teach young ladies those sports and exercises which are most proper to set out the grace and beauty of those parts wherein their chiefest ornament and perfection lie; so in these two advantages of eloquence, to which the lawyers and preachers of our age seem principally to pretend. If I were worthy to advise, the slow speaker, methinks, should be more proper for the pulpit, and the other for the bar; and that because the employment of the first does naturally allow him all the leisure he can desire to prepare himself, and besides his career is perform'd in an even and unintermitted line, without stop or interruption; whereas, the pleader's business and interest compells him to enter the lists upon all occasions, and the unexpected objections and replies of his adverse party, justle him out of his course, and put him upon the instant, to pump for new and extempore answers and defences. Yet, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis at Marceilles, it happened quite contrary, that Monsieur Poyet, a man bred up all his life at the bar, and in the highest repute for eloquence, having the charge of making the harangue to the Pope committed to him, and having so long meditated on it before-hand, as (it was said) to have brought it ready made along with him from Paris; the very day it was to have been pronounc'd, the Pope, fearing some thing might be said that might give offence to the other princes ambassadors who were there attending on him, sent to acquaint the king with the argument which he conceiv'd most suiting to the time and place, but by chance quite another thing to that Monsieur de Poyet had taken so much pains about: so that the fine speech he had prepared, was of no use, and he was upon the instant to contrive another; which finding himself unable to do, Cardinal Bellay was constrain'd to perform that office. The pleader's part is, doubtless, much harder than that of the preacher; and yet in my opinion we see more passable lawyers than preachers. It should seem that the nature of wit is, to have its operation prompt and sudden, and that of judgment, to have it more deliberate, and more slow; but he who remains totally silent for want of leisure to prepare himself to speak well, and he also whom leisure does no ways benefit to better speaking, are equally unhappy. 'Tis said of Severus (Cassius) that he spoke best extempore, that he stood more oblig'd to fortune, than his own diligence, that it was an advantage to him to be interrupted in speaking, and that his adversaries were afraid to nettle him, lest his anger should redouble his eloquence. I know experimentally, a disposition so impatient of a tedious and elaborate premeditation, that if it do not go frankly and gayly to work, can perform nothing to purpose. We say of some compositions, that they stink of oyl, and smell of the lamp, by reason of a certain rough harshness that the laborious handling imprints upon those where great force has been employed: but besides this, the

solicitude of doing well, and a certain striving and contending of a mind too far strain'd, and over-bent upon its undertaking, breaks, and hinders it self, like water, that by force of its own pressing violence and abundance, cannot find a ready issue through the neck of a bottle, or a narrow sluce. In this condition of nature, of which I was now speaking, there is this also, that it would not be disorder'd, and stimulated with such a passion as the fury of Cassius; for such a motion would be too violent and rude: it would not be justled, but sollicited, and would be rouz'd and heated by unexpected, sudden, and accidental occasions. If it be left to it self, it flags and languishes, agitation only gives it grace and vigour. I am always worst in my own possession, and when wholly at my own disposal. Accident has more title to any thing that comes from me, than I; occasion, company, and even the very rising and falling of my own voice, extract more from my fancy, than I can find when I examine and employ it by myself; by which means, the things I say are better than those I write, if either were to be preferr❜d where neither are worth any thing. This also befalls me, that I am at a loss, when I seek, and light upon things more by chance, than by any inquisition of my own judgment. I perhaps sometimes hit upon something when I write that seems quaint and spritely to me, but will appear dull and heavy to another. But let us leave this subject. Every one talks thus of himself according to his talent. For my part, I am already so lost in it, that I know not what I was about to say, and in such cases, a stranger often finds it out before me. If I should always carry my razor about me, to use so oft as this inconvenience befalls me, I should make clean work : but some occurrence or other, may at some other time, lay it as visible to me as the light, and make me wonder what I should stick at.

CHAP. XI.-OF PROGNOSTICATIONS.

FOR what concerns oracles, it is certain, that a good while before the coming of our Saviour Christ, they began to lose their credit; for we see that Cicero is troubled to find out the cause of their decay, in these words; "Cur isto modo jam oracula Delphis eduntur, non modo nostra ætate, sed jam diu, ut nihil possit esse contemptius?"-Cic. de Divin.l. 2. "What should be the reason that the oracles at Delphos are so utter'd, not only in this age of ours, but moreover a great while ago, that nothing can be more contemptible ?" But as to the other prognosticks, calculated from the anatomy of beasts at sacrifices, (which Plato does in part attribute to the natural constitution of the intestines of the beasts themselves) the scraping of poultry, the flights of birds: "Aves quasdam rerum augurandarum causa natas esse putamus."-Cic. de