1

parentes major affectus. "A father's garment and ring are by so much dearer to his posterity, as they had the greater affection towards him." If my posterity, nevertheless, should be of another mind, I shall be revenged on them; for they cannot care less for me than I shall then do for them. All the traffic that I have in this with the public is, that I borrow those utensils of their writing which are more easy and most at hand; and in recompense shall, perhaps, keep a pound of butter in the market from melting in the sun :

Ne toga cordyllis, ne penula desit olivis; 2

Et laxas scombris sæpe dabo tunicas.8

"I'll furnish plaice and olives with a coat,

And cover mack'rel when the sun shines hot."

this so much of himself

that he might the

con- better know him

self, and give his

ter.

And though nobody should read me, have I lost my time in entertaining myself so many idle hours in pleas- Montaigne talks ing and useful thoughts? In moulding figure upon myself, I have been so oft strained to temper and comport myself in a own true characright posture, that the copy is truly taken, and has in some sort formed itself; painting myself for others, I have put myself on a better colouring than I had before. I have no more made my book than my book has made me; 'tis a book consubstantial with the author, of a peculiar design, a member of my life, and whose business is not designed for others, as that of all other books is. In giving myself so continual and so exact an account of myself, have I lost any time? For they who sometimes survey themselves only cursorily, do not so strictly examine themselves, nor penetrate so deep, as he who makes it his business, his study, and his whole employment, who intends a lasting record, with all his fidelity and with all his force; the most delicious pleasures do so digest themselves within that they avoid leaving any trace of themselves, and avoid the sight not only

1 S. Augustin, de Civit. Dei, i. 13.
2 Martial, xiii. 1, 1.

3 Catull. xciv. 8.

of the people, but of any particular man. How often has this meditation diverted me from troublesome thoughts? And all that are frivolous should be reputed so. Nature has presented us with a large faculty of entertaining ourselves alone, and often calls us to it, to teach us that we owe ourselves in part to society, but chiefly and mostly to ourselves. That I may habituate my fancy even to meditate in some method and to some end, and to keep it from losing itself and roving at random; 'tis but to give it a body, and to book all the thoughts that present themselves to it; I give ear to my whimsies, because I have to record them. It sometimes falls out that, being displeased at some action that civility and reason will not permit me openly to reprove, I here disgorge myself, not without design of public instruction; these poetical lashes,

Zon sur l'oeil, zon sur le groin,

Zon sur le dos du Sagoin,1

"A jerk over the eye, one the snout,
Let Sagoin be jerk'd throughout,"

imprint themselves better upon paper than upon the most sensible flesh. What if I listen to books a little more attentively than ordinary, since I watch if I can purloin any thing that may adorn or support my own? I have not at all studied to make a book; but I have in some sort studied because I had made it; if it be studying to pinch now one author and then another, either by the head or foot, not with any design to steal opinions from them, but to assist, second, and fortify those I already have embraced.

But who shall we believe in the report he makes of himself, in so corrupt an age? considering there are so few, if Montaigne's hor- any at all, whom we can believe when speaking of others, where there is less interest to lie. The first feature in the corruption of manners is the banishment of truth; for, as Pindar says,2 to be true is the begin

ror of lying.

1 Marot, in his epistle entitled Fripelippes, valet de Marot à Sagon.

2 See Clement of Alexandria, Strom. vi. 10. Stobus, Serm. xi.

ning of a great virtue, and the first article that Plato requires in the governor of his republic. The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades others; as we give the name of money, not only to good pieces, but even to the false also, if they are current and will pass. Our nation has long been reproached with this vice; for Salvianus Massiliensis, who lived in the time of the emperor Valentinian, says, "That lying and forswearing themselves is not a vice with the French, but a way of speaking." He that would enhance upon this testimony might say that it is now a virtue with them; men form and fashion themselves to it as to an exercise of honour; for dissimulation is one of the most notable qualities of this age.

I have often considered whence this custom, that we so religiously observe, should spring, of being more highly offended with the reproach of this vice so familiar to us, than any other; and that it should be the highest injury can in words be done us, to reproach us with a lie. Upon reflection, I find it is natural for us to defend that part that is most open, and to repudiate the vice that most stains us; it seems as if, by resenting and being moved at the accusation, we in some sort acquit ourselves of the fault; though we have it in effect, we condemn it in outward appearance. May it also not be, that this reproach seems to imply cowardice and meanness of spirit? Of which can there be a more manifest sign than to eat a man's own words? -What, to lie against a man's own knowledge? Lying is a base unworthy vice; a vice that one of the ancients 2 portrays in the most odious colours, when he Lying an argusays, "That it is to manifest a contempt of ment of the contempt of God. God, and withal a fear of men." It is not possible more excellently to represent the horror, baseness, and irregularity of it; for what can a man imagine more hateful and contemptible than to be a coward towards men and valiant against God? Our intelligence being by no other 1 De Gubernat. Dei, i. 14.

2 Plutarch, Life of Lysander, c. 4.

way to be conveyed to one another but by speaking, who falsifies that betrays public society; 'tis the only way by which we communicate our thoughts and wills; 'tis the interpreter of the soul; and if it deceives us, we no longer know, nor have any other tie upon one another. If that deceive us, it breaks all our correspondence, and dissolves all the ties of government. Certain nations of the new-discovered Indies (no matter for naming them, being they are no more; for, by a wonderful and unheard-of example, the desolation of that conquest has extended to the utter abolition of names and the ancient knowledge of places), offered their gods human blood, but only such as was drawn from the tongue and ears, to expiate for the sin of lying, as well heard as pronounced. The good fellow of Greece was wont to say that children were amused with toys and men with words.

As to the divers usage of our giving the lie, and the laws of honour in that case, and the alterations they have received, I shall refer saying what I know of them to another time; and shall learn, if I can, in the mean time, at what time the custom took beginning, of so exactly weighing and measuring words, and of making our honours so interested in them; for it is easy to judge that it was not anciently amongst the Greeks and Romans; and I have often thought it strange to see them rail at and give one another the lie without any further quarrel. Their laws of duty steered some other course than ours. Cæsar is sometimes called thief, and sometimes drunkard, to his teeth. We see the liberty of invectives they uttered against one another, among the greatest war chiefs of both nations, where words are only revenged with words, and never lead to any thing else.

The Greeks and
Romans not so

delicate in the ar-
ticle of lying as

we are.

1 Plutarch, Life of Lysander, c. 4.

2 Plutarch, Life of Pompey, c. 16. Life of Cato of Utica, c. 7.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE.

often extravagant, and consequently

'Tis usual to see good intentions, if carried on without moderation, push men on to very vicious effects. Religious zeal In this dispute, which at this time agitates France in civil war, the best and soundest unjust. cause, no doubt, is that which maintains the ancient religion and government of the kingdom; nevertheless, amongst the good men of that party (for I do not speak of those that only make it a pretext, either to execute their own particular revenges, or to gratify their avarice, or to pursue the favour of princes; but of those who engage in the quarrel out of true zeal to religion, and a holy affection to maintain the peace and government of their country), of these, I say, we see many whom passion transports beyond the bounds of reason, and sometimes inspires with counsels that are unjust and violent, and moreover inconsiderate and rash.

It is certain that in those first times, when our religion began to gain authority with the laws, zeal armed many against all sorts of Pagan books, by which the learned suffer an exceeding great loss; a disorder that I conceive did more prejudice to letters than all the flames of the barbarians; of this Cornelius Tacitus is a very good testimony; for though the emperor Tacitus, his kinsman, had by express order furnished all the libraries in the world with his work, nevertheless one entire copy could not escape the curious search of those who desired to abolish it, for only five or six idle clauses that were contrary to our belief.

They also had the trick, easily to lend undue praises to all the emperors who did any thing for us, and universally to

1 Vopiscus, in Tacit. Imp. c. 10.