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39 - Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne · Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty nine of Selected Essays of Michel de Montaigne
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  Speaker 1: by Michel la cam de Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
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  Speaker 1: Pamel and Agami of Prophet and Honesty, Part three. Mohammed
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  Speaker 1: the second, having resolved to rid himself of his brother
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  Speaker 1: out of jealousy of state. According to the practice of
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  Speaker 1: the Ottoman family, he employed one of his officers in
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  Speaker 1: the execution, who, pouring a quantity of water too fast
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  Speaker 1: into him, choked him. This being done to expiate the murder.
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  Speaker 1: He delivered the murderer into the hands of the mother
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  Speaker 1: of him he had so cause to be put to death,
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  Speaker 1: for they were only brothers. By the father's side, she
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  Speaker 1: in his presence, ripped up the murderer's bosom, and with
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  Speaker 1: her own hands rifled his breast for his heart, tore
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  Speaker 1: it out, and through it to the dogs, and even
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  Speaker 1: to the worst people. It is the sweetest thing imaginable,
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  Speaker 1: having once gained their end by a vicious action, to
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  Speaker 1: foist in all security into it some show of virtue
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  Speaker 1: and justice, as by way of compensation and conscientious correction,
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  Speaker 1: to which may be added, did they look upon the
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  Speaker 1: ministers of such horrid crimes, as upon men who reproach
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  Speaker 1: them with them, and think, by their deaths, to erase
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  Speaker 1: the memory and testimony of such proceedings. Or if perhaps
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  Speaker 1: you are rewarded not to frustrate the public necessity for
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  Speaker 1: that extreme and desperate remedy, he who does it cannot
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  Speaker 1: for all that, if he be not such himself, but
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  Speaker 1: look upon you as an accursed and execrable fellow, and
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  Speaker 1: conclude you a greater traitor than he does against whom
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  Speaker 1: you are so, Or he tries the malignity of your
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  Speaker 1: disposition by your own hands, where he cannot possibly be
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  Speaker 1: deceived you, having no object of preceding hatred to move
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  Speaker 1: you to such an act. But he employs you as
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  Speaker 1: they do condemned malefactors in executions of justice and office,
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  Speaker 1: as necessary as dishonorable. Besides the baseness of such commissions,
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  Speaker 1: there is moreover a prostitution of conscience. Seeing that the
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  Speaker 1: daughter of Sejanus could not be put to death by
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  Speaker 1: the law of Rome because she was a virgin, she
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  Speaker 1: was to make it lawful, first ravished by the hangman,
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  Speaker 1: and then strangled not only his hand but his soul
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  Speaker 1: is slave to the public convenience. When Amereth the first,
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  Speaker 1: more grievously to punish his subjects who had taken part
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  Speaker 1: in the parricided rebellion of his son, ordained that their
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  Speaker 1: nearest kindred should assist in the execution. I find it
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  Speaker 1: very handsome in some of them to have rather chosen
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  Speaker 1: to be unjustly thought guilty of the parricide of another,
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  Speaker 1: than to serve justice by a parricide of their own.
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  Speaker 1: And where I have seen, at the taking of some
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  Speaker 1: little fort by assault in my time, some rascals, who,
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  Speaker 1: to save their own lives, would consent to hang their
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  Speaker 1: friends and companions, I have looked upon them to be
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  Speaker 1: of worse condition than those who were hanged. Tis said
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  Speaker 1: that Wittold, Prince of Lithuania, introduced into that nation the
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  Speaker 1: practice that the criminal condemned to death should with his
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  Speaker 1: own hand execute the sentence, thinking it strange that a
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  Speaker 1: third person innocent of the fault should be made guilty
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  Speaker 1: of homicide. A prince, when by some urgent circumstance or
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  Speaker 1: some impetuous and unforeseen accident that very much concerns his state,
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  Speaker 1: compelled to forfeit his word, break his faith or otherwise
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  Speaker 1: forced from his ordinary duty. Ought to attribute this necessity
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  Speaker 1: to a lash of the divine rod vice. It is not,
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  Speaker 1: for he has given up his own reason to a
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  Speaker 1: more universal and more powerful reason. But certainly tis a misfortune,
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  Speaker 1: so that if anyone should ask me what remedy, none
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  Speaker 1: says I. If he were really racked between these two extremes,
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  Speaker 1: said hidiot nay kwairatur la tebra poyurio, he must do it.
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  Speaker 1: But if he did it without regret, if it did
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  Speaker 1: not grieve him to do it, 'tis a sign his
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  Speaker 1: conscience is in a scurvy condition. If there be a
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  Speaker 1: person to be found of so tender a conscience as
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  Speaker 1: to think no cure whatever worth so important a remedy,
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  Speaker 1: I shall like him. Never the worse, he could not
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  Speaker 1: more excusably or more decently perish, not do all we would,
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  Speaker 1: so that we must, often, as the last anchorage, commit
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  Speaker 1: the protection of our vessels to the simple conduct of heaven.
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  Speaker 1: To what more just necessity does he reserve himself, What
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  Speaker 1: is less possible for him to do than what he
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  Speaker 1: cannot do, but at the expense of his faith and honor,
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  Speaker 1: things that perhaps ought to be dearer to him than
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  Speaker 1: his own safety, or even the safety of his people.
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  Speaker 1: Though he should, with folded arms only call God to
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  Speaker 1: his assistance, has he not reason to hope that the
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  Speaker 1: divine goodness will not refuse the favor of an extraordinary
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  Speaker 1: arm to just and pure hands. These are dangerous examples,
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  Speaker 1: rare and sickly exceptions to our natural rules. We must
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  Speaker 1: yield to them, but with great moderation and circumspection. No
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  Speaker 1: private utility is of such importance that we should, upon
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  Speaker 1: that account, strain our consciences to such a degree. The
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  Speaker 1: public may be when very manifest and of very great concern.
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  Speaker 1: Timoleon made a timely expiation for his strange exploit by
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  Speaker 1: the tears he shed, calling to mind that it was
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  Speaker 1: with a fraternal hand that he had slain the tyrant,
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  Speaker 1: and it justly pricked his conscience that he had been
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  Speaker 1: necessitated to purchase the public utility at so great a
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  Speaker 1: price as the violation of his private morality. Even the
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  Speaker 1: Senate itself, by his means delivered from slavery, dared not
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  Speaker 1: positively determine of so high a fact and divide it
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  Speaker 1: into two so important and contrary aspects. But the Syracusans
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  Speaker 1: sending at the same time to the Corinthians to solicit
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  Speaker 1: their protection and to require of them a captain fit
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  Speaker 1: to re establish their city in its former dignity, and
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  Speaker 1: to clear sicily of several little tyrants by whom it
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  Speaker 1: was oppressed. They deputed Timoleon for that service with this
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  Speaker 1: cunning declaration that, according as he should behave himself well
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  Speaker 1: or ill in his employment, their sentence should incline either
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  Speaker 1: to favor the deliverer of his country or to disfavor
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  Speaker 1: the murderer of his brother. This fantastic conclusion carries along
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  Speaker 1: with it some excuse by reason of the danger of
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  Speaker 1: the example and the importance of so strange an action,
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  Speaker 1: and they did well to discharge their own judgment of it,
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  Speaker 1: and to refer it to others who were not so
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  Speaker 1: much concerned. But Timoleon's comportment in this expedition soon made
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  Speaker 1: his cause more clear. So worthily and virtuously he demeaned
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  Speaker 1: himself upon all occasions, and the good fortune that accompanied him,
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  Speaker 1: and the difficulties he had to overcome in this noble employment,
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be strewed in his way by the gods
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  Speaker 1: favorably conspiring for his justification. The end of this matter
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  Speaker 1: is excusable, if any can be so. But the profit
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  Speaker 1: of the augmentation of the public revenue that served the
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  Speaker 1: Roman Senate for a pretense to the foul conclusion I
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  Speaker 1: am going to relate, is not sufficient to warrant any
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  Speaker 1: such injustice. Certain cities had redeemed themselves and their liberty
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  Speaker 1: by money, by the order and consent of the Senate,
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  Speaker 1: out of the hands of Lucius Sullah, the business coming
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  Speaker 1: again in question, the Senate condemned them to be taxable
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  Speaker 1: as they were before, and that the money they had
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  Speaker 1: dispersed for their redemption should be lost to them. Civil
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  Speaker 1: war often produces such villainous examples that we punish private
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  Speaker 1: men for confiding in us when we were public ministers,
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  Speaker 1: and the self same magistrate makes another man pay the
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  Speaker 1: penalty of his change that has nothing to do with it.
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  Speaker 1: The pedagogue whips his scholar for his docility, and the
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  Speaker 1: guide beats the blind man whom he leads by the
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  Speaker 1: hand a horrid image of justice. There are rules in
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  Speaker 1: philosophy that are both false and weak. The example that
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  Speaker 1: is proposed to us for preferring private utility before faith
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  Speaker 1: given has not weight enough by the circumstance they put
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  Speaker 1: to it. Robbers have seized you, and, after having made
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  Speaker 1: you swear to pay them a certain sum of money,
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  Speaker 1: dismiss you. Tis not well done to say that an
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  Speaker 1: honest man can be quit of his oath without payment
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  Speaker 1: being out of their hands. Tis no such thing. What
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  Speaker 1: fear has once made me willing to do, I am
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  Speaker 1: obliged to do it when I am no longer in fear.
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  Speaker 1: And though that fear only prevailed with my tongue without
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  Speaker 1: forcing my will, Yet am I bound to keep my
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  Speaker 1: word for my part? When my tongue has sometimes inconsiderately
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  Speaker 1: said something that I did not think, I have made
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  Speaker 1: a conscience of disowning it. Otherwise, by degrees we shall
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  Speaker 1: abolish all the right another derives from our promises and
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  Speaker 1: oaths quasi wero fortiwiro whisp posit adhibbri and tis only
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  Speaker 1: lawful upon the account of private interest to excuse breach
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  Speaker 1: of promise when we have promised something that is unlawful
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  Speaker 1: and wicked in itself. For the right of virtue ought
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  Speaker 1: to take place of the right of any obligation of ours.
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  Speaker 1: I have formerly placed Epamanandez in the first rank of
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  Speaker 1: excellent men, and do not repeat it? How high did
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  Speaker 1: he stretch the consideration of his own particular duty, He
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  Speaker 1: who never killed a man whom he had overcome, who
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  Speaker 1: for the inestimable benefit of restoring oring the liberty of
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  Speaker 1: his country, made conscience of killing a tyrant or his
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  Speaker 1: accomplices without due form of justice, and who concluded him
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  Speaker 1: to be a wicked man? How good a citizens soever? Otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: who among his enemies in battle spared not his friend
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  Speaker 1: and his guest. This was the soul of a rich composition.
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  Speaker 1: He married goodness and humanity, nay, even the tenderest and
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  Speaker 1: most delicate in the whole school of philosophy, to the
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  Speaker 1: roughest and most violent human actions. Was it nature or
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  Speaker 1: art that has intenerated that great courage of his, so full,
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  Speaker 1: so obstinate against pain and death and poverty, to such
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  Speaker 1: an extreme degree of sweetness and compassion. Dreadful in arms
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  Speaker 1: and blood, he overran and subdued a nation invincible by
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  Speaker 1: all others but by him alone, Yet, in the heat
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  Speaker 1: of an encounter, could turn aside from his friend and guest.
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  Speaker 1: Certainly he was fit to command in war. Who could
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  Speaker 1: so reign himself with the curb of good nature in
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  Speaker 1: the height and heat of his fury, a fury inflamed
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  Speaker 1: and foaming with blood and slaughter. Tis a miracle to
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  Speaker 1: be able to mix any image of justice with such
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  Speaker 1: violent actions. And it was only possible for such a
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  Speaker 1: steadfastness of mind as that of Epaminondas therein to mix
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  Speaker 1: sweetness and the facility of the greatest manners and purest innocence.
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  Speaker 1: And whereas one told the Mamertines that statutes were of
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  Speaker 1: no resistance against armed men, and another told the tribune
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  Speaker 1: of the people that the time of justice and of
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  Speaker 1: war were distinct things, and a third said that the
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  Speaker 1: noise of arms deafened the voice of laws, this man,
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  Speaker 1: in all such rattle, was not deaf to that of
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  Speaker 1: civility and pure courtesy. Had he not borrowed from his
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  Speaker 1: enemies the custom of sacrificing to the muses when he
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  Speaker 1: went to war, that they might, by their sweetness and gaiety,
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  Speaker 1: soften his martial and rigorous fury. Let us not fear,
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  Speaker 1: by the example of so great a master, to believe
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  Speaker 1: that there is something unlawful, even against an enemy, and
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  Speaker 1: that the common concern ought not to require all things
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  Speaker 1: of all men against private interest. Livy says the memory
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  Speaker 1: of private rights still remains amid public dissensions and Avid
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  Speaker 1: No power on earth can sanction treachery against a friend.
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  Speaker 1: All things are not lawful to an honest man for
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  Speaker 1: the service of his prince, the laws, or the general quarrel.
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  Speaker 1: The duty to one's country does not supersede all other duties,
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  Speaker 1: says Cicicri. The country itself requires that its citizens should
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  Speaker 1: act piously toward their parents. 'tis an instruction proper for
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  Speaker 1: the time wherein we live. We need not harden our
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  Speaker 1: courage with these arms of steel. Tis enough that our
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  Speaker 1: shoulders are inured to them. Tis enough to dip our
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  Speaker 1: pens in ink without dipping them in blood. If it
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  Speaker 1: be grandeur of courage and the effect of a rare
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  Speaker 1: and singular virtue to condemn friendship, private obligation, a man's word,
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  Speaker 1: and relationship for the common good, and obedience to the magistrate,
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  Speaker 1: 'tis certainly sufficient to excuse us that 'tis a grandeur
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  Speaker 1: that could have no place in the grandeur of Epimanandas's courage.
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  Speaker 1: I abominate those mad exhortations of this other discomposed soul.
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  Speaker 1: Footnote Julius Caesar. When swords are drawn left no idea
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  Speaker 1: of love, nor the face even of a father presented
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  Speaker 1: to you, move you mutilate with your sword those venerable features, Lucan,
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  Speaker 1: Let us deprive wicked, bloody, and treacherous natures of such
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  Speaker 1: a pretense of reason. Let us set aside this guilty
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  Speaker 1: and extravagant justice and stick to more human imitations. How
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  Speaker 1: great things can time and example do. In an encounter
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  Speaker 1: of the civil war against Sinna, one of Pompey's soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: having unawares, killed his brother, who was of the contrary party.
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  Speaker 1: He immediately, for shame and sorrow, killed himself, And some
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  Speaker 1: years after, in another civil war of the same people,
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  Speaker 1: a soldier demanded a reward of his officer for having
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  Speaker 1: killed his brother. A man but ill proves the honor
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  Speaker 1: and beauty of an action by its utility, and very
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  Speaker 1: erroneously concludes that every one is obliged to it, and
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  Speaker 1: that it becomes every one to do it. If it
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  Speaker 1: be of utility. All things are not equally fit for
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  Speaker 1: all men, says Propertius. Let us take that which is
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  Speaker 1: most necessary and profitable for human society. It will be
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  Speaker 1: marriage and yet the Counsel of the Saints find the
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  Speaker 1: contrary much better, excluding from it the most venerable vocation
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  Speaker 1: of man, as we design those horses for stallions of
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  Speaker 1: which we have the least esteem. End of Section thirty nine.