PART II. CHAP. LXX.-Of Judging of THE DEATH OF ANOTHER. WHEN we judge of another's assurance in death, which without doubt is the most remarkable action of human life; we are to take notice of one thing, which is, that men very hardly believe themselves to be arriv'd to that period. Few men die in an opinion that it is their last hour, and there is nothing wherein the flattery of hope does more delude us. It never ceases to whisper in our ears, others have been much sicker without dying; my condition is not so desperate as 'tis thought, and at the worst, God has done other miracles. Which happens, by reason that we set too much value upon ourselves. It seems as if the universality of things were in some measure to suffer by our dissolution, and that it did commiserate our condition. For as much as our deprav'd sight represents things to itself after the same manner, and that we are of opinion they stand in as much need of us as we do of them; like people at sea, to whom mountains, fields, cities, heaven and earth are toss'd at the same rate they are : Provehimur portu, terræque, urbesque recedunt.-Æn. l. 3. Whoever saw old age that did not applaud the past, and condemn the present time, laying the fault of his misery and discontent upon the world, and the manners of men? Jamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator, Et cum tempora temporibus præsentia confert Et crepat antiquum genus ut pietate repletum.-Lucr. l. 1. We will make all things to go along with us; whence it follows, that we consider our death as a very great thing, and that does not so easily pass, nor without the solemn consultation of the stars: "tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos," and so much the more think it, as we more value our selves. What shall so much knowledge be lost, with so much damage to the world without a particular concern of the destinies? Does so rare and exemplary a soul cost no more the killing than one that is mean, and of no use to the publick? This life that protects so many others, upon which so many other lives depend, that employs so vast a number of men in his service, and that fills so many K K 514 ESSAYS OF MICHAEL SEIGNEUR DE MONTAIGNE. places, shall it drop off like one that hangs but by its own simple thread? None of us lays it enough to heart, that we are but one. Thence proceeded those words of Cæsar to his pilot, more tumid than the sea that threatened him. -Italiam si cœlo authore recusas Me pete: sola tibi causa hæc est justa timoris, And these, credit jam digna pericula Cæsar Fatis esse suis, tantusque evertere (dixit) Me superis labor est, parva quem puppe sedentem, And that idle fancy of the publick, that the sun carried in his face the mourning for his death a whole year. Ille etiam extincto miseratus Cæsare Romam, In mourning clouds Sol veil'd his shining head. and a thousand of the like; wherewith the world suffers itself to be so easily impos'd upon, believing that our interests alter the heavens, and that they are concern'd at our ordinary actions. "Non tanta Cœlo societas nobiscum est, ut nostro fart mortalis sit illi quoque siderum fulgor."-Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 2. cap. 8. "There is no such alliance betwixt us and heaven, that the brightness of the stars should be made mortal by our death." Now to judge of the constancy and resolution in a man that does not yet believe himself to be certainly in danger, though he really is, is no reason; and 'tis not enough that he dies in this posture, unless he did purposely put himself into it for this effect. It most commonly falls out in most men, that they set a good face upon the matter, and speak with great indifferency, to acquire reputation, which they hope afterward living to enjoy. Of all that I have seen die, fortune has dispos'd their countenances, and no design of theirs ; and even of those who in ancient times have made away themselves, there is much to be consider'd, whether it were a sudden, or a lingering death. That cruel Roman emperour would say of his prisoners, "that he would make them feel death," and if any one kill'd himself in prison, "that fellow has made an escape from me;" he would say he would spin out death, and make it felt by torments. Vidimus et toto quamvis in corpore cæso, Nil animæ lethale datum moremque nefandæ Durum sævitiæ, percunctis parcere morti.-Lucan. I. 2. And in tormented bodies we have seen, Amongst those wounds none that have mortal been, That means to kill; yet will not let men die. In plain truth, it is no such great matter for a man in health and in a temperate state of mind, to resolve to kill himself; it is very easie to give ill signs before one comes to the push: insomuch that Heliogabalus, the most effeminate man in the world, amongst his most sensual pleasures, could forecast to make himself die delicately, when he should be forc'd thereto. And that his death might not give the lye to the rest of his life, had purposely built a sumptuous tower, the front and the base whereof was cover'd and laid with planks enrich'd with gold and precious stones, thence to precipitate himself; and also caus'd cords twisted with gold and crimson silk to be made, wherewith to strangle himself; and a sword with the blade of gold to be hammer'd out to fall upon and kept poyson in vessels of emerald and topaze wherewith to poyson himself, according as he should like to choose one of these ways of dying. Impiger, et fortis virtute coacta.—Lucan. I. 4. By a forc'd valour resolute and brave. Yet, for so much as concerns this person, the effeminacy of his preparations makes it more likely that he would have thought better on't, had he been put to the test. But in those who with greater resolution have determin'd to dispatch themselves, we must examine, whether it were with one blow which took away the leisure of feeling the effect: for it is to be question'd, whether perceiving life by little and little to steal away, the sentiment of the body mixing it self with that of the soul, and the means of repenting being offer'd, whether, I say, constancy and obstinacy in so dangerous a will is to be found. In the civil wars of Cæsar, Lucius Domitius being taken in Prussia, and thereupon poysoning himself, afterward repented. It has hapned in our time, that a certain person being resolv'd to die, and not having gone deep enough at the first thrust, the sensibility of the flesh opposing his arm, gave himself three or four wounds more, but he could never prevail upon himself to thrust home. Whilst Plantius Sylvanus was upon his tryal, Virgulantia his grand-mother sent him a poniard, with which not being able to kill himself, he made his servants to cut his veins. Albucilla in Tiberius his time, having, to kill himself, struck with too much tenderness, gave his adversaries opportunity to imprison, and put him to death their own way: and that great leader Demosthenes, after his rout in Sicily did the same; and C. Fimbria, having struck himself too weakly, intreated his servant to dispatch him, and to kill him out. On the contrary, Ostorius, who could not make use of his own arm, disdain'd to employ that of his servant to any other use, but only to hold the poniard straight and firm; and 516 MEN PLUNGE INTO DANGERS WITH THEIR EYES SHUT. running his breast full drive against it, thrust himself through. 'Tis in truth a morsel that is to be swallow'd without chewing, unless a man be thoroughly resolv'd; and yet Adrian the emperour made his physician mark and encircle in his pap the mortal place wherein he was to stab, to him he had given order to kill him. For this reason it was, that Cæsar being ask'd what death he thought to be the most desir'd, made answer, "the least premeditated, and the shortest." If Cæsar dar'd to say it, it is no cowardize in me to believe it. "A short death,” says Pliny, "is the sovereign good hap of human life." They do not much care to discover it: no one can say that he is resolv'd for death, who fears to trifle with it, and that cannot undergoe it with his eyes open. They that we see in exemplary punishments run to their death, hasten and press their execution, do it not out of resolution, but they will not give themselves leisure to consider it; it does not trouble them to be dead, but to die. Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum, nihili æstimo.—Cicero Tusc. lib. 1. I would not die, but care not to be dead. 'Tis a degree of constancy, to which I have experimented, that I can arrive to do like those who plunge themselves into dangers, as into the sea; with their eyes shut. There is nothing, in my opinion, more illustrious in the life of Socrates, than that he had thirty whole days wherein to ruminate upon the sentence of his death; to have digested it all that time with a most assured hope, without care, and without alteration, and with words and actions rather careless and indifferent, than any way stirr'd or discompos'd by the weight of such a thought. That Pomponius Atticus, to whom Cicero writes so oft, being sick, caus'd Agrippa his son-in-law, and two or three more of his friends, to be call'd to him, and told them, that having found all means practis'd upon him for his recovery to be in vain, and that all he did to prolong his life, did also prolong and augment his pain; he was resolved to put an end both to the one and the other, desiring them to approve of his deliberation, or at least, not to lose their labour in endeavouring to disswade him. Now having chosen to destroy himself by abstinence, his disease was accidentally so cur'd, and the remedy that he had made use of wherewith to kill himself, restor❜d him to his perfect health. His physicians and friends rejoycing at so happy an event, and coming to congratulate him, found themselves very much deceiv'd, it being impossible for them to make him alter his purpose; he telling them, that he must one day die, and that now being so far on his way, he would şave himself the labour of beginning again another time. This man, having discover'd death at leisure, was not only not discourag'd at the approach of it, but provokes it: for being satisfied that he had engaged in the combat, he consider'd it as a piece of bravery, and that he was oblig'd in honour to see the end. 'Tis far beyond not fearing death, to tast and relish it. The story of the philosopher Cleanthes is very like this. He had his gums swell'd and rotten; his physicians advis'd him to great abstinence; having fasted two days, he was so much better, that they pronounc'd him cur'd, and permitted him to his ordinary course of diet: he, on the contrary, already tasting some sweetness in this faintness of his, would not be perswaded to go back, but resolv'd to proceed, and to finish what he had so far advanc'd. Tullius Marcellinus, a young man of Rome, having a mind to anticipate the hour of his destiny, to be rid of a disease that was more trouble to him, than he was willing to endure: though his physicians assur'd him of a certain, tho' not sudden cure, call'd a council of his friends, to consult about it: of which, some, says Seneca, gave him the counsel, that out of unmanliness they would have taken themselves, others, out of flattery, such as they thought he would best like: but a stoick thus said to him, "Do not concern thy self, Marcellinus, as if thou didst deliberate of a thing of importance; 'tis no great matter to live, thy servants and beasts live, but it is a great thing to die handsomly, wisely and constantly: Do but think how long thou hast done the same thing, eat, drink and sleep, drink, sleep and eat. We incessantly wheel in the same circle not only ill and insupportable accidents, but even the satiety of living, inclines a man to desire to die." Marcellinus did not stand in need of a man to advise, but of a man to assist him; his servants were afraid to meddle in the business: but this philosopher gave them to understand, that domesticks are suspected, even when it is in doubt, whether the death of the master were voluntary, or no; otherwise, that it would be of as ill example to hinder him, as to kill him, forasmuch as, Invitum qui servat, idem facit occidenti.-Horat. in Art. Poet. Who makes a man to live against his will, He afterwards told Marcellinus, that it would not be indecent, as the remainder of tables, when we have done, is given to the assistants; so life being ended, to distribute something to those who have been our servants. Now Marcellinus was of a free and liberal spirit; he therefore divided a certain sum of money amongst his attendants, and comforted them. As to the rest, he had no need of steel, nor of blood. He was resolv'd to go out of this life, and not to run out of it; not to escape from death, to essay it. And to give himself leisure to trifle with it, having forsaken all manner of nourishment, the third day following, after having caus'd himself to be sprinkled with warm water, he fainted by degrees, and not without some kind of pleasure, as he himself declar'd. In earnest, such as have been acquainted with these faintings, proceeding from weakness, do say that they are therein sensible of no manner |