The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 9

nd peradventure the Stoics understand them so; but although they are equally vices, yet the

raque nequit co

in which the rig

Sat., i

as advanced but ten, is not to be believed; or th

hoc, tantumdem u

aules alieni

rnus divum s

idle, lascivious, or not assiduous at his devotion. Every one overrates the offence of his companions, but extenuates his own. Our very instructors themselves rank them sometimes, in my opinion, very ill. As Socrates said that the principal office of wisdom was

o say, of generous in them; there are vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence, valour, prudence, dexterity, and address; this one is totally corporeal and earthl

vis penetr

vitas membrorum

i, tardescit li

or, singultus, j

e legs of the tottering person are impeded; the tongue grows torpid, the mind is

ongst other things upon this subject, that, as the must fermenting in a vessel, works up to the top whate

sapi

t arcan

m retegi

o the merry Lyacus

ise."-Horace, Od

name given

st inward secrets of his affairs to Lucius Piso, who conquered Thrace, never found him faulty in the least, no more than Tiberias did Cossus, with whom he intrus

atum venas ut

l, as usual, of y

, Egl.,

ommunicated to Cimber, though he would often be

s pleasantly said:

who cannot

he devil, know their post, remember

victoria de

que mero ti

asily obtained over

stand."-Juvena

ants of the basest office in the house. And I have been further told by a lady whom I highly honour and esteem, that near Bordeaux and about Castres where she lives, a country woman, a widow of chaste repute, perceiving in herself the first symptoms of breeding, innocently told her neighbours that if she had a husband she should think herself with child; but the causes of suspicion every day more and more increasing, and at last growing up to a manifest proof, the poor woman was reduced to the necessity of causing it to be

ophers speak very tenderly of it, and even amongst the Stoics there are some who advise folks

tutum quondam c

mam promerui

ower formerly they r

he palm."-Cornet. G

others, Cato, was reproached

et prisc

o caluiss

s said, that his coura

d., xxi. 3, 11.-

ned nations this trial of skill in drinking is very much in use. I have heard Silvius, an excellent physician of Paris, say that lest the digestive faculties of the stomach should grow idle, it were not amiss once a

he others, besides that it is of no difficult preparation, nor hard to be found, a consideration not altogether to be despised. A man well advanced both in dignity and age, amongst three principal commodities that he said remained to him of life, reckoned to me this for one, and where would a man more justly find it than amongst the natural conveniences? But he did not take it right, for delicacy and the curious choice of wines is therein to be

great lord of my time, a man of high enterprise and famous success, that without setting himself to't, and after his ordinary rate of drinking at meals, drank not much less than five quarts of wine, and at his going away appeared but too wise and discreet, to the detriment of our affairs. The pleasure we hold in esteem for the course of our lives ought to have a greater share

ers were. They are two exercises that thwart and hinder one another in their vigour. Lechery weakens our sto

rather towards superstition than otherwise. For a man of little stature, very strong, well proportioned, and well knit; of a pleasing countenance inclining to brown, and very adroit in all noble exercises. I have yet in the house to be seen canes poured full of lead, with which they say he exercised his arms for throwing the bar or the stone, or in fencing; and shoes with leaden soles to make him lighter for running or leaping. Of his vaulting he has left little miracles behind him: I have seen him when past three score laugh at our exercises, and throw himself in his furred gown into the saddle, make the tour of a table upon his thumbs and scarce ever mount the stairs into his chamber without taking three or four steps at a time.

like a vapour that still mounts upward, it arrives at the throat, where it makes its final residence, and concludes the progress. I do not, nevertheless, understand how a man can extend the pleasure of drinking beyond thirst, and forge in his imagination an appetite artificial and against nature; my stomach would not proceed so far; it has enough to do to deal with what it takes in for its necessity. My constitution is not to care for drink but as following eating and washing down my meat, and for

ed they have a discreet chief to govern and keep them in order, as good and of great utility; drunkenness being, he says, a true and certain trial of every one's nature, and, withal, fit to inspire old men with mettle to divert themselves in dancing and music; things of great use, and that they dare not attempt when sober. He, moreover, says that wine is able to supply the soul with temperance and the body with healt

rposely hastened his end by drinking pure wine. The same thing, bu

n, whether the soul of a wise man ca

adhibet vim

to her natural condition she ever can be; but to join constancy to it is her utmost perfection; I mean when nothing should jostle and discompose her, which a thousand accidents may do. 'Tis to much purpose that the great poet Lucretius keeps such a clatter with his philosophy, when, behold! he goes mad with a love philtre. Is it to be imagined that an apopl

e, et pallorem

ringi linguam,

, sonere aures,

e, ex animi ter

less, the voice dies away, the eyes are darkened, there is ringing in the e

erved these light marks of her authority, not to be forced by our reason and the stoic virtue, to teach man his mortality and our weakness

e nihil ali

mself exempt from that

"-Terence, Heau

s at pleasure, dare not acquit

mans, classique

eping, and then sets

id, v

sees Brutus and Torquatus kill their children, begins to doubt whether virtue could proceed so far, and to question whether these persons had not rather been stimulated by some other passion.-[Plut

ornful superiority-[The Stoics.]-: but when even in that sect, reputed

i: omnesque aditus tuos interclu

have made all the avenues so sure thou canst

ant and assured voice: "Tyrant, thou losest thy labour, I am still at ease; where is the pain, where are the torments with which thou didst so threaten me? Is this all thou canst do? My constancy torments thee more than thy cruelty does me. O pitiful coward, thou faintest, and I grow stronger; make me complain, make me bend, make me yield if thou canst; encourage thy guards, cheer up thy executioners; see, see they faint, and can do no more; arm them, flesh them anew, spur them up"; truly, a man must confess that there

ari, pecora int

fulvum descende

beasts, wishes the fo

the mountain."-A

themselves are the first to wonder at; as it also fares with the poets, who are often rapt with admiration of their own writings, and know not where again to find the track through which they performed so fine a Career; which also is in them called fury and rapture. And as Plato says, 'tis to no purpose for a sober-minded man to knock at the door of poesy: so Aristotle says, that no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness; and he has reason to call all transports