MONTAIGNE'S ESSAYS. THE SECOND BOOK. [CONTINUED.] CHAPTER III. THE CUSTOM OF THE ISLE OF CEA. IF, according to the common definition, to philosophize is to doubt, much more ought writing at random, To philosophize, and playing the fool, as I do, to be reputed what. doubting; for it is the business of novices and freshmen to inquire and dispute, and that of the chairman to determine. My moderator is the authority of the divine will, which governs us without contradiction, and which is seated above these vain and human contests. Philip1 having entered the Peloponnesus in arms, some one said to Damindas that the Lacedemonians were likely to be very great sufferers if they did not reconcile themselves to his favour. "Coward!" replied he, "what can they suffer that do not fear to die?" It was asked of Agis, which way a man might live free? "By despising death," said he. These, and a thousand other sayings, to the same purpose, evidently refer to something more than a patient waiting the 1 This and the four following instances are taken from Plutarch, Apothegms of the Lacedemonians. Many misfortunes worse to suffer than death. stroke of death when it shall come; for there are many misfortunes in life far worse to suffer than death itself. Witness the Lacedemonian boy, taken by Antigonus, and sold for a slave, who, being by his new master commanded to some base employment: "Thou shalt see," says the boy, "whom thou hast bought; it would be a shame for me to serve, being within reach of liberty;' and, having so said, threw himself from the top of the house. Antipater severely threatening the Lacedemonians, in order to make them acquiesce in a certain demand of his: "If thou threaten us with more than death," replied they, "we shall the more willingly die." And to Philip, having writ them word that he would frustrate all their enterprises: "What? wilt thou also hinder us from dying?" This is the meaning of the sentence, "That the wise man lives as long as he ought, not so long as he can ;" and that the most obliging present Nature has made us, and which takes from us all colour of complaint of our condition, is to have delivered into our own custody the keys of life. She has only ordered one door into life, but a hundred thousand out of it. We may be straightened for earth to live upon, but earth sufficient to die upon can never be wanting; as Bojocalus answered the Romans. Why dost thou complain of this world? it detains thee not. If thou livest in pain, thy own cowardice is the cause. There remains no more to Death depends upon the will. die, but to be willing to die : Ubique mors est; optime hoc cavit Deus. Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest; At nemo mortem; mille ad hanc aditus patent.3 "Tender of human woes, indulgent fate Has left to death an ever-open gate; There's not a person on the earth but may Make any fellow-creature's life away; There are a thousand ways that lead to death." Neither is it a recipe for one disease; death does not 1 Seneca, Epist. 70. Tacitus, Annal. xiii. 56. 3 Seneca, Thebaid, i. 1, 151. merely relieve us of one particular malady, 'tis the infallible cure of all, an assured port that is never to be feared, and very often to be sought; it comes all to one point, whether a man gives himself his end, or stays to receive it; whether he pays before his day, or stay till his day of payment comes. Whencesoever it comes, it is still his; in what part soever the thread breaks, there's the end of the clue; the most voluntary death is the finest. Life depends upon the will of others, death upon our own. There is nothing in which we ought not to accommodate ourselves to our own humour so much as in that. Reputation is not concerned in such an enterprise; and it's a folly to be diverted by any such apprehensions. Living is slavery, if the liberty of dying be away. The ordinary method of cure is carried on at the expense of life; they torment us with caustics, incisions, and amputations of limbs, interdicting aliments, and exhausting our blood; one step further, and we are cured indeed. Why is not the jugular vein as much at our disposal as the median?1 For a desperate disease, a desperate cure. Servius, the grammarian, having the gout, could advise of no better remedy than to apply poison to his legs to deprive them of their sense; 2 let them be gouty if they will, so they are but insensible of pain. God gives us leave enough, when he is pleased to reduce us to such a condition that to live is far worse than to die. 'Tis weakness to truckle under infirmities, but 'tis madness to cherish them. The Stoics say that it is living according to nature in a wise man to take his leave of life even in the height of prosperity, provided he does it opportunely; and in a fool to prolong it though he be miserable, if he is not indigent of those things which are reputed the necessaries of life. As I do not offend the law provided against thieves when I embezzle my own money and cut my own purse, nor that against incendiaries, when I burn my own wood; so am I not under the lash of 1 Seneca, Epist. 69 and 70; whence the greater part of these remarks are taken. 2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxv. 3. Suetonius, de Illust. Gramm. c. 2. 3 Cicero, de Finibus, iii. 18. those made against murderers, for having deprived myself of my own life. Hegesias said, that as the condition of life did, so the condition of death ought to depend upon our own choice.1 And Diogenes, meeting the philosopher Speusippus, so blown up with an inveterate dropsy that he was fain to be carried in a litter, and being by him saluted with "Health to thee, Diogenes;" "No health to thee," replied the other, "who consentest to live in such a condition." And in truth, not long after, Speusippus, weary of so languishing a state of life, killed himself.2 But this does not pass without admitting a dispute; for many are of opinion that we cannot quit this Suicide prohib ited by God, and the other world. to be punished in garrison of the world without express command of him who has placed us in it ; and that it belongs to God alone, who has placed us here, not for ourselves only, but for his glory and the service of others, to dismiss us when it shall best please him, and not for us to depart without his license; that we are not born for ourselves only, but for our country also, the laws of which require an account from us, upon the score of their own interest, and have an action of manslaughter good against us; or, if these fail to take cognizance of the fact, we are punished in the other world as deserters of our duty : : Proxima deinde tenent mæsti loca, qui sibi lethum "The next in place and punishment are they There is more constancy in suffering the chain we are tied in than in breaking it, and more evidence of fortitude in Regulus than in Cato. 'Tis indiscretion and impatience that pushes us on. No misfortunes can make true virtue turn her back; she seeks and requires pain and grief as her aliment. 1 Laertius, in Vità. 2 Id. ib. 3 Eneid, vi. 434. |