the soldiers for a sumpter; and what he fancied himself to be, he really proved. If sorcerers dream so materially; if dreams can sometimes so incorporate themselves with effects, still I cannot believe that therefore our will should be accountable to justice; which I say as one who am neither judge nor privy councillor, and who think myself by many degrees unworthy so to be, but a man of the common sort, born and vowed to the obedience of the public reason, both in its words and acts. He who should record 2 my idle talk as being to the prejudice of the pettiest law, opinion, or custom of his parish, would do himself a great deal of wrong, and me much more; for, in what I say, I warrant no other certainty, but that 'tis what I had then in my thought, a tumultuous and wavering thought. All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice: "Nec me pudet, ut istos, fateri nescire, quod nesciam; "" I should not speak so boldly, if it were my due to be believed; and so I told a great man, who complained of the tartness and contentiousness of my exhortations. Perceiving you to be ready and prepared on one part, I propose to you the other, with all the diligence and care I can, to clear your judgment, not to compel it. God has your hearts in his hands, and will furnish you with the means of choice. I am not so presumptuous even as to desire that my opinions should bias you in a thing of so great importance: my fortune has not trained them up to so potent and elevated conclusions. Truly, I have not only a great many humours, but also a great many opinions, that I would endeavour to make my son dislike, if I had one. What, if the truest are not always the most commodious to man, being of so wild a composition. Whether it be to the purpose or not, 'tis no great matter: 'tis a common proverb in Italy, that he knows not Venus in her perfect sweetness, who has never lain with a lame mistress. Fortune, or some particular incident, long ago put this saying into the mouths of the people; and the same is said of men as well as of women; for the queen of the Amazons answered the Scythian who courted her to 1 St. Augustine, De Civit. Dei, xviii. 18. 2 "Neither am I ashamed, as they are, to confess my ignorance of what I do not know."-CICERO, Tusc. Quæs., i 25. In this feminine love, "Lame men perform best."1 republic, to evade the dominion of the males, they lamed them in their infancy--arms, legs, and other members that gave them advantage over them, and only made use of them in that wherein we, in these parts of the world, make use of them. I should have been apt to think, that the shuffling pace of the lame mistress added some new pleasure to the work, and some extraordinary titillation to those who were at the sport; but I have lately learnt that ancient philosophy has itself determined it, which says that the legs and thighs of lame women, not receiving, by reason of their imperfection, their due aliment, it falls out that the genital parts above are fuller and better supplied and much more vigorous; or else, that this defect, hindering exercise, they who are troubled with it less dissipate their strength, and come more entire to the sports of Venus; which, also, is the reason why the Greeks decried the women weavers as being more hot than other women by reason of their sedentary trade, which they carry on without any great exercise of the body. What is it we may not reason of, at this rate? I might also say of these, that the joggling about whilst so sitting at work, rouses and provokes their desire, as the swinging and jolting of coaches does that of our ladies. Do not these examples serve to make good what I said at first: that our reasons often anticipate the effect, and have so infinite an extent of jurisdiction, that they judge and exercise themselves even on an inanity itself and nonexistency? Besides the flexibility of our invention to forge reasons of all sorts of dreams, our imagination is equally facile to receive impressions of falsity by very frivolous appearances; for, by the sole authority of the ancient and common use of this proverb, I have formerly made myself believe that I have had more pleasure in a woman, by reason she was not straight, and accordingly reckoned that deformity amongst her graces. Torquato Tasso, in the comparison he makes betwixt France and Italy," says he has observed that our legs are 1 Αριστα χωλος οιφεῖ. 2 Aristotle, Problema, sect. 10, prob. 26. 3 Paragone dell' Italia alla Francia, p. 11, ed. 1585. generally smaller than those of the Italian gentlemen, and attributes the cause of it to our being continually on horseback; which is the very same cause from which Suetonius draws a quite opposite conclusion, for he says,' on the contrary, that Germanicus had made his legs bigger by the continuation of the same exercise. Nothing is so supp e and erratic as our understanding; it is like the shoe of Theramenes, fit for all feet. It is double and diverse, and the matters are double and diverse too. Give me a drachm of silver," said a Cynic philosopher to Antigonus. "That is not a present befitting a king," replied he. "Give me then a talent," said the other. That is not a present befitting a Cynic.”2 66 66 "Seu plures calor ille vias et cæca relaxat Acrior, aut Boreæ penetrabile frigus adurat." 3 994 "Ogni medaglia ha il suo riverso." This is the reason why Clitomachus said of old that Carneades had outdone the labours of Hercules, in having eradicated consent from men, that is to say, opinion and the temerity of judging. This so vigorous fancy of Carneades sprung, in my opinion, anciently from the impudence of those who made profession of knowledge, and their immeasurable self-conceit. Esop was set to sale with two other slaves; the buyer asked the first of these what he could do; he, to enhance his own value, promised mountains and marvels, saying he could do this and that, and I know not what; the second said as much of himself, or more: when it came to Esop's turn, and that he was also asked what he could do; Nothing," said he, "for these two have taken up all before me; they can do everything." So has it happened in the school of philosophy: the pride of those who 66 1 Life of Caligula, s. 3. 2 Seneca, De Beneficiis, ii. 17. "Whether the heat opens more passages and secret pores through which the sap may be derived into the new born herbs; or whether it rather hardens and binds the gaping veins that the small showers and keen influence of the violent sun, or penetrating cold of Boreas, may not hurt them."-VIRG., Georg, i. 89. 4 66 Every medal has its reverse."-Italian Proverb. attributed the capacity of all things to the human mind, created in others, out of despite and emulation, this opinion, that it is capable of nothing: the one maintain the same extreme in ignorance that the others do in knowledge; to make it undeniably manifest that man is immoderate throughout, and can never stop but of necessity and the want of ability to proceed further. ALMOST all the opinions we have are taken on authority and trust; and 'tis not amiss; we could not choose worse than by ourselves, in so weak an age. That image of Socrates' discourses, which his friends have transmitted to us, we approve upon no other account than a reverence to public sanction: 'tis not according to our own knowledge; they are not after our way; if anything of the kind should spring up now, few men would value them. We discern no graces that are not pointed and puffed out and inflated by art; such as glide on in their own purity and simplicity easily escape so gross a sight as ours; they have a delicate and concealed beauty, such as requires a clear and purified sight to discover its secret light. Is not simplicity, as we take it, cousin-german to folly, and a quality of reproach? Socrates makes his soul move a natural and common motion: a peasant said this; a woman said that; he has never anybody in his mouth but carters, joiners, cobblers, and masons; his are inductions and similitudes drawn from the most common and known actions of men; every one understands him. We should never have recognized the nobility and splendour of his admirable conceptions under so mean a form; we, who think all things low and flat, that are not elevated by learned doctrine, and who discern no riches but in pomp and show. This world of ours is only formed for ostentation: men are only puffed up with wind, and are banded to and fro like tennis-balls. He proposed to himself no vain and idle fancies; his design was to furnish us with precepts and things that more really and fitly serve the use of life; "Servare modum, finemque tenere, Naturamque sequi." 1 He was also always one and the same,' and raised himself, not by starts but by complexion, to the highest pitch of vigour; or, to say better, mounted not at all, but rather brought down, reduced and subjected all asperities and difficulties to his original and natural condition; for, in Cato 'tis most manifest, that 'tis a procedure extended far beyond the common ways of men in the brave exploits of his life, and in his death, we find him always mounted upon the great horse; whereas the other ever creeps upon the ground, and with a gentle and ordinary pace, treats of the most useful matters, and bears himself, both at his death and in the rudest difficulties that could present themselves, in the ordinary way of human life. It has fallen out well, that the man most worthy to be known and to be presented to the world for example, should be he of whom we have the most certain knowledge; he has been pried into by the most clear-sighted men that ever were; the testimonies we have of him are admirable both in fidelity and fulness. 'Tis a great thing that he was able so to order the pure imaginations of a child, that, without altering or wresting them, he thereby produced the most beautiful effects of our soul: he presents it neither elevated nor rich; he only represents it sound, but assuredly with a brisk and full health. By these common and natural springs, by these ordinary and popular fancies, without being moved or put out, he set up not only the most regular, but the most high and vigorous beliefs, actions, and manners that ever were, 'Tis he who brought again from heaven, where she lost her time, human wisdom, to restore her to man, with whom her most just and greatest business lies. See him plead before his judges; observe by what reasons he rouses his courage to the hazards of war; with "To keep a just mean, to observe just limits, and to follow Nature."-LUCAN, ii. 381. 2 Cicero, De Offic., i. 26. |